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I join so many in experiencing horror shaped by the series of macabre events that have unfolded the past eight days or so. Last Saturday, as Matthew and I enjoyed a sublime salad of heirloom tomatoes and golden cornbread at the bar of Poole's Diner in Raleigh, we received an email from my sister alerting us as to an explosion that had taken just place one block from my folks apartment. From her flat only six blocks north, they heard the bomb detonate. She informed us that evening as well as the day following not to worry. That New Yorkers are resilient, standing united and this is now the world in which we live. Fast forward a pair of days to Charlotte. Overnight, our little world transformed into Gotham City. I have never seen so many helicopters in all my life. Our apartment building was on lockdown and our doorman advised us, at 5.30 p.m. one evening, not to leave. Like most, I am now glued to the television, utterly shocked by footage captured on cell phones, body-cams and dash-cams. These major scenarios are juxtaposed by added madness in the world; Minnesota, Washington mall shoots. I hate to say it, as I think myself an optimistic person, but who knows what will transpire this week. I regularly ask Matthew, and we want to bring a baby into this? And yes, of course, we do. I am however justly frightened by the world in which we now live.
I know I have been away for a while. I apologized the last go around and to no avail. I constantly think with the mind of a blogger. Anything I hear or think, I commit to speaking to and then in one ear it goes and directly out the other. I am trying to keep up via Instagram and Facebook (the latter of which I find myself using less and less). I dare not complain about time, or lack thereof, as I am certainly not alone. I do think I have gotten better about being more deliberate about maximizing the time that I do have. Instead of beating myself up about not working out as long as I should, owing to a helpful article from the New York Times (that basically underscores, do what you can), I am running five days a week, and capping myself at 30 minutes a session. If I can do more, wonderful. If I cannot; something is better than nothing. I have wholly fallen in love with podcasts and the Audible app. Each morning and evening, I catch up on life via a myriad of sources. This past week, I learned of an interesting food pairing: peanut butter and kimchi. Thank you Burnt Toast. My lovely guinea pig confirmed that the duo are an outstanding match. I learned how to make duck confit and pickled raisins. Danke Bon Appetit. I discovered that a favorite Brooklyn restaurant of mine is a husband / wife duo, and they even own the spot next door. I am learning about executive leadership, effective coaching and a myriad of dynamic topics via the Harvard Business Review. Never a dull moment to and fro Salisbury these days.
Our mother was a social worker, and since we were young, has been a tremendous proponent of continuous self-improvement. In turn, I am listening to The Happiness Project (both the book and the weekly podcasts) and implementing cool techniques that make my husband roll his eyes in a comical yet endearing kind of way. In fact, I even ordered a hard copy; talk about cross-pollinating. The one minute rule, whereby anything that can be done within a minute, you do immediately. Putting away dishes, clothes, hanging up towels and the likes. Stopping to smell the, whatever. In acknowledging smell, we are being mindful, and present. Roses, incense, a lovely candle, vanilla extract? Carry on. Journaling. Matthew and I both have one. For the sake of our old friend time again, at least one sentence a day highlighting something experienced. I try to keep it positive. Breathing. Ujjayi style, in and out. Namaste. There are other lessons I am trying to slowly absorb and implement. On my lethargic run this morning, I listened to her mantra of acting the way one wants to feel. And being cognizant of the fact that the woman of the house (and sometimes the man) sets the temperature of and for the day. Of course, it is a great deal to digest, and the thought of incorporating it all is a great deal to digest but for now, baby steps. And the lessons are happily unfolding, begging to be incorporated. Similar to my running. In being "out of commission" for some time now, I have added almost two minutes to my mile time, which is downright pathetic but I am working on not beating myself up over it, as I would have done some time ago. Slow and steady wins the race. So they say.
The maddening world in which we live aside, Matthew and I are doing marvelously just the two of us. Wednesday week marks a year ago that we got engaged. November, which is just around the corner, is our wedding anniversary. Time indeed flies when halcyon times are being had. I have fallen in love with pork rinds. A colleague remarked, how very trailer park chic of me. A few weeks back, I cut my hair short, and then to Matthew's chagrin, went shorter. I love it and can dry it in 46 seconds flat. Back to time, I am all about saving it. We are on a high protein diet during the week and continue to have a high-ho time on weekends. We are very on-the-move these days too so it seems. This past June, we celebrated a belated honeymoon in Iceland. It was a spectacular adventure and if you're looking for an off-the-beaten-path destination, we both highly recommend it. A pair of weeks ago, after a summer in Charlotte, we went to the beach. No low country boil this go around. Last week I went to Maine for a New York minute. Business aside, together with a companion, I enjoyed a progressive dinner, which was nothing short of sublime. I am officially a chicken liver stuffed ravioli with lobster mushroom convert. Oh, and did you know that turnips pair marvelously with pea shoots, rock salt and creamy goat cheese? I experienced raw clams on the half shell; a first for me and a date I intend to make again when I return in November.
We are headed to New York City on Wednesday of this week. As per usual, we have prepared a comprehensive epistle outlining all the gastronomic haunts and watering holes we aim to visit. We have learned that five of our South African cousins will be in town, so we are having a dinner party with them one night. On the Sunday, we are celebrating my birthday with a roof deck fete and 15 of my nearest and dearest. Save the best for last, we are so looking forward to spending quality time with my family and our little 'Uptown Bratwurst' Trey, who it appears via social media, has grown into an animated, lively nine month old little boy before our eyes. I am secretly wondering my brother will make an appearance from Los Angeles. He has a delightful habit of showing up. No judgement if you don't KEB. We are making plans to come to you. In a few weeks, we are headed to our nation's capital. We will be there the weekend following elections. I suppose not a great deal of thought went into that decision but c'est la vie. We are booked and ready to roll. Thanks to Zika, the Breyer's will spend both sets of holidays back in the Big Apple. I figure this will give us more opportunities to put a dent on our restaurant list. And so, the Fall is nearing upon us and we march on.
The below is a recipe first enjoyed at the home of my two Dads, Nathan and Keith. Keith, a CIA trained chef, is masterful and creative in every way of the words. He introduced the Breyer's to the joys of smoked trout. This recipe is a riff of what he prepared, and can be morphed any which way. You can add diced boiled potatoes. Chopped steamed broccoli sprouts. Cauliflower rice. My Matthew loves all things Korean and is besotted with sriracha, so we employ it often. In short, there are no two right ways to enjoy the below. Serve as an appetizer or enjoy on its own for a protein packed, no carb delight. I declined Panthers tickets today to sit down and right this. And regardless of how regularly I visit, I am thoroughly delighted to be back. I think of this space and all of you often. Much love for this world of ours and bon appetit.
Smoked Trout Salad stuffed Endive
1 package of smoked Trout
2 scallions (finely chopped)
Bunch of dill (finely chopped)
1 clove of garlic (smashed into a paste)
1 TBS sriracha
4 TBS extra virgin olive oil (please buy the best quality you can)
Juice of 2 lemons
Fresh cracked pepper (go to town)
Generous pinch of salt
Three little heads of endive
To Do
1. Remove the smoked trout from the skin, and discard skin. In a large blow, mix everything save for the endive. Season to taste.
2. Stuff the smoked trout mixture into the endive leaves.


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So I have been less than thrilled lately with my desire to scrap...it has decreased with all the commotion of the move. I know it will come back! Especially when I have this to look forward to.
There is an amazing deal right now...these kits are just fabulous so you should jump on it!
Also, did you see the Pink Paislee sneaks. I am giddy...really giddy. I still consider it a dream come true to work with them and look at what is coming our way soon...
that is just one of the four amazing collections...see the other sneaks here!
these things should do the trick!
Friday, June 25, 2010
This Should Cause Some Excitement
Posted by Stacey Michaud at 8:44 AM
5 comments:
Wow wow wow.....I am loving the colors in this one!!! I sooooooooooooooooo need to get hooked up with them!!! LOVE IT!! Have a GREAT Friday Stacey! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)ReplyDelete
What a fun kit! And I totally know what you mean about moving and loss of mojo. My move wasn't as big as yours but I'm still lacking in wanting to create. Soon... soon...ReplyDelete
And I'm drooooooling over the Pink Paislee sneaks!
I can't wait to see the full reveals of the PP stuff, it all loves so lovely.ReplyDelete
Oh I love these!! I sure could use something to inspire me to create...cause it's just not there!!!ReplyDelete
Wishing you a great one sweet friend!!!
I'm also eagerly awaiting that "Sweetness line from Pink Paislee!"ReplyDelete
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subset: commoncrawl


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Loading your kid up on cupcakes is most definitely not conducive to healthy sleep habits. Trust me on this.
So..... Arun's 2nd Halloween party was a smashing success. Again, I kept it simple - a few snacks, cupcakes and an easy balloon decorating activity. Everyone had fun wearing their costumes, including Yours Truly in my Professor McGonagall costume. It seems appropriate for me to dress as a witch and as I do not see any drastic changes in my personality traits forthcoming, I suspect I will always be a witch.
So....I am still torn about having to limit the numbers of the party and only inviting kids that Arun plays with on a regular basis. Nearly every single friend I have has kids and it seemed weird to have a party yet not invite all of my friends as well.
So....Only one friend broke the strict No Gifts Mandate and since she brought
A rare, elusive beast with menacing eyes. Native to the plains region. Known for its maniacal laughter and its penchant for stealing your heart. Diet consists of pizza, fries, cupcakes, yogurt and rice.
Crazy Eyes


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Product information
|Dimensions (approx)
|A Height
|47.0 cm
|18.5 inch
|B Width
|77.0 cm
|30.3 inch
|C Depth
|58.0 cm
|22.8 inch
Part of the exclusive SiSi Italia range, the Stefano leather sofa collection combines contemporary designs and genuine Italian leather to add a stylish touch to any living room.
With a selection of modern colour options to choose from, each piece is complete with foam seat interiors as standard offering high levels of comfort and support, as well as four wood foot options. Available in the Stefano collection are three sofa sizes, standard chair and coordinating footstool to complement your new sofa.
Make the SiSi Italia Stefano leather sofa collection even more affordable and take advantage of our 4 years interest free credit offer, 0% APR representative.
- SiSi Italia famous sofa brand
- Luxurious foam seat interiors come as standard
- Four wood foot options available
- 10-year frame warranty
- Sofas manufactured exclusively for ScS


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Meet Baptista - she and here sister (as yet unnamed) are the newest additions to the menagerie at Eco-Gites of Lenault. She has come from a friend whose bantam hen had sneaked off under a hedge somewhere and successfully evaded M. Renard to hatch a brood of chicks. Gwenaël asked if I would like a couple of females and of course I said yes! They make great broodies if you want to hatch some-one else's eggs and just look how pretty she is with her gorgeous feathers and fluffy hairstyle!
The biggest problem has been where to put them as they are, at the moment, small enough to get through the fencing in the main chicken run. However the run with the young birds has smaller fencing so we thought that would be all right. These young birds are destined for eating so they are quite big and we were rather worried they would attack the new arrivals. Ha!! We could not have been more wrong. We put Baptista and her sister in the run and immediately the bigger girls took fright (and flight), dashing into the corner and 2 of them managed to flutter over the fence! In the meantime the newbies had settled themselves in the shed and were as happy as anything, oblivious to the mayhem they were the cause of.
Plan B was brought into action - an old hen ark was made secure with odd bits of wood and the little girls were placed in there, well away from where they could scare the others. They can stay there until they are big enough not to get through the gaps in the main hen run.
"Ah", I hear you asking (perhaps?), "but why the name Baptista?"
Well, Gwenaël's oldest son is called Baptiste. Like the chicken above with her fluffy hairstyle, Baptiste also sports a somewhat fluffy crop of hair so it seemed appropriate that we should name her after him!
|Baptiste and his hair!
Baptista's sister (right) is, however, still without a name. Maybe you could come up with one for her.
|Baptista (left) and Friend


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Friday, 7 September 2012
Moments of Gratitude (10 Years of Marraige)
Yesterday was our 10 year Wedding Anniversary!!
I came home to 10 stunning red roses... one for each year. How romantic!
I am very grateful for my husband, our love and our partnership in life.
"A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year."
~ Paul Sweeney
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text:
Recent article in Bloomberg,
Obama Moves to Counter China With Pentagon-NASA Link suggests that because of China's space ambition they are catching up to the U.S. and the military needs to be involved with NASA to speed development of space vehicles.
Check this line:
"If China puts a man on the moon, that in itself isn't necessarily a threat to the U.S.," said Dean Cheng, a senior Asia analyst with CNA Corp., an Alexandria, Virginia-based national-security research firm. "But it would suggest that China had reached a level of proficiency in space comparable to that of the United States."
Hmmm. So if China sends a man to the moon (matching an achievement NASA managed in 1969) then they "reached a level of proficiency in space comparable to that of the United States?" Seriously? Are they suggesting that NASA has not advanced the science and technology of space exploration and travel in the last 40 years? Appalling.
I have to agree with Obama on this one. NASA needs a kick in the ass even more than it needs funding. Hopefully they are paired with the U.S. Marines. Maybe that would get them motivated to aggressively move ahead.


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When is the NFL Draft again?
This happens without fail every March. I'm not sure why I get surprised anymore. In the weeks before The Tournament I get Kid on Christmas Eve excited. Then two days after it starts, my bracket lies in smouldering ruins and I lose interest faster than the calculus student with Attention Deficit Disorder.
Last year I got a slight reprieve from the usual self-loathing as I picked 30 of 32 first-round games correctly. My jubilation was short-lived however, and the customary tailspin followed soon after. But what a couple of days it was.
For some reason I thought last year's savant-esqe start would carry over to this year. Boy was I wrong.
Oh sure, I made a couple of nice picks this year - Siena over Vanderbilt and Kansas State over USC. But man does it get ugly after that:
Gonzaga to make the Final Four... they lost their opening game.
Clemson to make the Elite Eight... first-round choke job.
Pitt to make the Elite Eight... they're done.
And Drake to make the Sweet Sixteen... first round loss.
Hate the Drake!!
I know, I know - listening to a person talk about their March Madness bracket is about as appeal ling (appalling?) as someone talking about their Fantasy Football Team or their hockey playoff pool (which we will be doing as well - coming soon, brought to you by Sports As Life) - but I thought I'd try to impart what I've been going through in the last few days.
Even though I have 9 of 16 teams still playing - I don't believe I will be winning the Sports As Life March Madness Pool Party Grand Prize (which is a T-Shirt, by the way). And now I seem to have lost all interest in watching Tournament games, although I'm sure I can talk myself into watching the Final Four games. And yes I know, I've missed some exciting games in the last couple of days.
Major League Baseball's Opening Day can't come soon enough.
Hate the Drake!!


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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
208 W. Franklin St.
UNC Development CB# 6100
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Phone: (919) 259-9389
Early morning --
Geez! It seems to get harder and harder to get up every day, though actually
sleeping in seems darned near impossible! I find it harder and harder to
sleep in as I get older but at least our 10-year old son is letting us sleep in
sometimes -- all the way to 7:00 AM.
I work for the Development Office at the the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as the Applications Development Manager, leading a team of software developers and a DBA in support of the university's Development Office and the UNC General Alumni Association. We are still looking for a replacement for our aging mainframe data entry system though it now looks like we will probably opt for a vendor supplied solution rather than developing our own . I am a native of North Carolina and a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA, MA).
My areas of expertise include (but are not necessarily limited to):
Mid-day break -- A chance to relax and
contemplate the morning's achievements while talking things over with a
colleague. I work at home nearly full time these days so my work schedule
can be a little un conventional. Talking with a colleague these days
usually means email, telephone or some other electronic device.
Telecommuting is great but you have to make and effort to get out of the house
and actually talk to a real person once in a while.
Some of my hobbies and interest include:
Some of my favorite Web sites:
Day's end, time to go home -- The moon is rising and the day is nearly done. I'll probably start howling if I don't get out of here soon. Just a little longer and I can turn off this machine and go down stairs to my wife and son.
Last modified: 16 March 2009 • Suggestions to: Ray


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Japanese Government Finally Gives Go Ahead For PSN Restoration
Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) have just announced that they will begin a phased restoration of PlayStation Network and Qriocity Services in Japan and Asian countries and regions including Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand on May 28. A new identity protection program will also be offered in conjunction with the phased restoration for PlayStation Network and Qriocity customers in Japan. PSN has been restored for a few weeks almost every other place in the world but Japan refused to allow Sony to bring PSN back online there until they were convinced that the new security measures were solid.
The first phase of restored services for Japan and Asian countries and regions will include:
- Sign-in for PlayStation Network and Qriocity services, including the resetting of passwords
- Restoration of online game-play across PS3 and PSP
- 'Friends' category on PS3, including Friends List, Chat Functionality, Trophy Comparison, etc
- PlayStation Home
- Access to other network features on services such as torne*
(Customers will not be able to download movies rented through PlayStation Network video download service because movies have expired as a result of PlayStation Network service being turned off since April 21 (JST).)
* torne is a service available only in Japan.


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- 1 cup red enchilada sauce (homemade or canned)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 2 1/2 cups peeled sweet potato, cut 1/2-inch-dice
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 small onion, diced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
- 10 oz can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies
- 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 cup water
- 8 medium-sized flour tortillas
- 1 cup Daiya Pepper Jack shredded cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped scallions, for garnish
- Toffuti sour cream, for serving (optional)
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cover bottom of a large baking dish with a thin layer of enchilada sauce (about 1/3 cup).
Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in large skillet. Add onions, garlic, and jalapeno and cook 2-3 minutes until onions become translucent and garlic is fragrant.
Add cubed sweet potato, Rotel tomatoes, black beans, water, cilantro, cumin and chili powder and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Cover and cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the squash is tender, about 30 to 35 minutes.
Place about a 1/2 cup filling in the center of each tortilla and roll, place on the baking dish seam side down. Repeat with the remaining filling.
Top with remaining enchilada sauce and cheese (and any leftover filling).
Bake, covered with foil until hot and the cheese is melted, about 15 minutes.
Top with scallions and eat with sour cream if desired.


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|Nato missile system in Turkey.
Current affairs, Northern Ireland, Russia, Eastern Europe, football, culture.
Tuesday, 24 November 2015
Warplane incident shows Syria has become potential tinderbox
3 comments:
- yourcousin said...
Isn't the fact that in your own words Syria has become "a living hell" kind of undermine your title about a "potential tinderbox"?
- 24 November 2015 at 22:06
- Owen Polley said...
A 'living hell' for people inside the conflict zone. A tinderbox for the wider region and the outside powers involved in the war.
- 25 November 2015 at 10:40
- yourcousin said...
I guess I was being too coy. I was trying to nudge the point that your post is fairly Orientalist. While I understand the geo political nature of what is happening, this is not the 19th century where only (to rework an American slogan) "European lives matter". This is the 21st century where a tragedy has been unfolding in Syria for years sparked by a dictator who started to massacre those who dared protest his rule. This current conflagration has dove tailed with the results of Bush's follies and handed the entire world a less than desirable outcome. But no where has that outcome been more real than Syria.
And to chalk up the "hell" of the Syrian war to Islamic groups seems wide of the mark. Assad has used chemical weapons against his own people, regularly uses barrel bombs in built up civilian areas, uses food as a weapon, and has used the issuing or lack thereof of travel documents to create the worst population exodus since WWII. The decision by Iran and Russia early on in the conflict to prop up the Assad regime is what lit the fuse for a proxy war. But to downplay the very real suffering of the Syrian seems...callous.
And if the only thing that Russia learned from Bush's follies was to recycle failed talking points from the Iraq war then they have even less sense then I gave them previously.
- 25 November 2015 at 14:26


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RPD Review Questions
Incorrect. Lingual I-bars can ONLY be used on lower molars.
Incorrect. A Roach clasp is an infrabulge clasp that generally utilizes a facial undercut---like an I-bar or modified T-bar. This type of clasp cannot be used here because there are no facial undercuts---infrabulge clasps cannot be used on the lingual surfaces of premolars.
Incorrect. An "Akers" clasp is a circumferential clasp. A conventional circumferential clasp cannot be used because there are no facial undercuts.
Correct. The half and half clasp is appropriate for the circumstances described in the stem of the question. Because this type of clasp neither totally releases during function nor exhibits great flexibility, its use is reserved for those rare cases where almost no other options remain.


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driven by the PitchBook Platform
Mikey Tom
April 22, 2016
There was a period of time in the not-so-distant past when cleantech appeared to be the next great frontier for technological advancement. From 2010 through 2012, investment numbers for the industry were strong and consistent, with an average of $4.58 billion disbursed each year through VC-backed investments, reaching highs for deal count (355) and capital invested ($4.69B) in 2011.
Since the beginning of 2010, 1,139 different VC investors have participated in at least one deal backing a cleantech company, according to the PitchBook Platform. But as projects failed and others saw slower-than-expected growth, VC activity in the vertical has decreased from its 2011 highs to a much more tepid pace. Capital invested has hovered around $2.25 billion for the past three years, and deal count slipped to just 234 in 2015. Although those are sizeable numbers, they are a long way off from what previous years garnered, representing waning investor interest in the space. It looks as if investment will continue its fall this year, as only 31 deals have been completed to date, representing $372 million of invested capital.
1. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (39)
2. Khosla Ventures (29)
3. Draper Fisher Jurvetson (23)
4. GE Ventures (22)
T-5. New Enterprise Associates (21)
T-5. High-Tech Gründerfonds (21)
7. Enterprise Ireland (20)
8. TriplePoint Capital (18)
9. Braemar Energy Ventures (17)
T-10. Mitsui Global Investment (16)
T-10. Adapt Low Carbon Group (16)
PitchBook Platform subscribers can click here to dig into more data around VC investment in cleantech. Interested in getting access to this information? Contact us today and get started with your free trial.
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text:
You've heard me sing Jennifer Murphy's praises before--she and her work are wonderful. I'm so excited to share that we've been talking about creating a custom made bear for our baby....
Once upon a time, when I met S, he had just returned home from a 6-month stay in a backcountry Oregon ranch, an hour and a half from the nearest town, writing in solitude, where there were--being a city girl this always gets me!--black bears. Wild black bears roaming around, eating blackberries, scratching up wasp nests, doing all the things very real bears do. It was a special time for him to say the least--out there roughing it in the wild. And now, here we are, six years later, with his memoir about that time due out next spring a new little bear on the way even sooner. I'm so thrilled Jennifer is going to help us celebrate and commemorate with a another bear friend to be dragged around with love.
If you missed out on the JM spring sale yesterday, definitely sign up for her newsletter to get the latest on the up-and-coming and read up on her sweet blog. Oh, and wish her congrats as well! She's also due this summer with her first--hooray! hooray!
Tuesday, April 7
Heirloom Nursery: Jennifer Murphy Bears
2 comments:
- christina said...
so cute...i love all the baby posts that are seeping into your blog...cute. cute. cute.
also just wanted to say thanks for the sweet note about our oona...it means a lot!
- April 16, 2009 at 5:49 PM
I read an old Nancy Drew book when I was 13 about antique teddy bears and the mystery behind a collector and her bear. It was very interesting and has always made me curious about old stuffed bears. The look of them...you just know they have stories to tell.
- April 16, 2009 at 6:52 PM
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At the beginning of my career, I wrote an article for small business magazine about self-publishing as a marketing tool for businesses. Because I specialize in helping businesses get into print, the article only took a few hours to write. Several months later it was published. Almost immediately, my phone rang and my email box is full of inquires.As result of "Be An Expert, Get More Business" I landed two clients, submitted several proposals, and added dozens of names on my mailing list. Then I used the article to my email newsletter, make reprints shiny for my marketing materials, and carry to reprint articles in other magazines targeted at potential clients.
Years then, benefits keep rolling in as a prospect to read my articles on the Internet, recommend it to colleagues, and the company hired me because I was an expert in marketing Slightly Famous strategies.In example, one reader a client even though its almost over the decision to hire a competitor. "We came across your article, and it makes a all the difference," he said. "We know from your article that you can help us." Can you imagine that success is easy for me because I'm a writer. But you do not have to be a skilled professional writer or journalist to get your name in print. Are you a management consultant or a masseuse, you can learn how to pursue a successful print and media exposure. And with more than 10,000 publishers in print media these days, it's likely that almost unlimited.Visibility + craft + Word of Mouth = REPUTATIONGetting Little-known in the printed media means to reach a larger audience, Instead of relying on the whole of human contact. After all, there is only a physical need. No matter how much your network, get around, or attend a meeting, YOU can only go so far in the media is the equivalent far.Appearing extended network. Reach a targeted audience of people who might buy from you, and you build a relationship with your target market that can lead to sales.
Even if you have a small local business, media coverage will help you build a regional or national presence without leaving your exposure desk.Media working as associate your name with the power of the media. When you read about the business newspaper or hear about it on the radio, you immediately increase the likelihood that business over its competitors. It has hardness and credibility.Appearing media to reach your target market establish a bond of trust possible future sale. Finally, Slightly Famous media strategy to build your reputation as a business option in your niche market. As more prospects run across your name in publications targeted to it, you get the aura of expertise to win more business with fewer Articles & effort.Publishing ColumnsBylined, contributed articles are a mainstay in many trade and special interest publications because most can not afford full-time writer. From the charger to the features, this magazine relies on freelance writers and contributors like you to at least some of their content. Often written for a small fee - or freely given in exchange for bio-authors are designed to get business - this article dealer or consultant expertise showcased it.
Besides writing expose your business to thousands of prospects, possible to get a feature article devoted entirely to business You. As a bonus, make a good article reprints, selling cheap literature.The key experts to publish articles to pack your ideas in a way that profit-oriented. Tell prospects how to think about your business or implement solutions. Give your readers real information they can use, regardless of whether they buy from you. If you do not, and using veiled sales pitch instead, editor see through it and reject article.Articles usually one-shot deals. Column, on the other hand, is a regular interaction that allows the author to develop a relationship with the reader. Column appears weekly or monthly basis in newspapers, magazines, and Web sites. They can brand a writer not only as an expert, but also as a friend, trust, and mentor.You nothing to reach the "Dear Abby" column status became a successful writer. As with any marketing strategy Slightly Famous, the column you just need to reach the right people in your target market to your position as resource.Be An article ResourceBylined Media is not the only way to see your name in the print. Read a newspaper or magazine article. You can find some of the quoted experts in the stories as diverse as international business, forecasting stock market or the latest fashion trends.Reporters not an expert. That is why they need experts from the business world to make their stories. The secret is to position itself as a media resource.The depends on your media, industry experts, to give substance and credibility to their stories. Experts to book author, speaker, consultant, manager and professional. If you have knowledge about a particular subject - and your business as usual topic - qualify too.People be able to quote the media pursued a strategy to be the reporter radar screen when the reporter wrote a story about their industry.
They make themselves available as a source of expert interviews that journalists will think of it when you write it stories.When relevant to know how the media works, and establish your expertise in engaging media-crafted approach , you really helped the media do their important work in exchange for exposure for company.With a little effort, you can be the first person on the list of reporters when the story about your business area appears. But that happens if you let the media know you're there! Time, commitment, and ConsistencyYou not expect a huge return on monetary investment overnight. The same goes with taking Slightly Famous in print, where huge dividends come to those who persist.Like all marketing activities, exposure to printed media is a long-term commitment that will trigger long-term benefits. Is it worth the time? Yes. Landing only a few clients can pay all of your marketing expenses for the next year.If you do not give the printed media exposure opportunities, you never know what it can do for you. Build your reputation in the printing takes time. But if you are committed, the inevitable "snowball effect" will occur and be able to bring you all the business you can handle!


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A couple weeks ago I saw a DIY project that was inspired by the below Pottery Barn chandelier. Amazing and right up by style alley! I love anything rustic so this made me drool.
So Daniel and I made our own! Here are pictures of a few stages:
Daniel did all the electrical work himself. We just bought 18/2 black cable, he cut it to size, ran it through the mason jar lid, & attached a lamp socket to the end.
He also built the box it hung from out of an old palette from his work's warehouse. It was perfect. (Sorry didn't get a good picture of that before he hung it)
It looks so much better in person! These were taken with my phone...sorry for the poor quality. We find ourselves just sitting at the dining room table just to enjoy the chandelier (lame, I know)...


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Friday, 5 February 2010
Project - intermission
Meanwhile of course the place is still a tip, and still freezing. Good job the weather has been mild.
7 comments:
- Molly Potter said...
Mild? Mild? Must be a continental thing.
- 5 February 2010 at 12:32
- @eloh said...
Oh my, this is the kind of stuff that happens to me.
What is the circular structure doing? Are you planning a platform of some kind?
- 5 February 2010 at 18:22
- Cogitator said...
Well I figure that cold is below freezing. At the moment we have 6 or 7 degrees - that's mild.
Eloh - the structure is to hold in place the curved plywood that you can see. The plywood defines the edge of a step, and is there to stop the liquid concrete running over the edge.
- 5 February 2010 at 23:42
- Jonathan said...
You have my deepest sympathy. (I'd post about my gradually emerging studio but it's too depressing to contemplate.) It will be so much teh better in the end and well worth getting right.
- 6 February 2010 at 02:10
Poor you, building projects never seem to run smoothly. I hope they get their act together soon!
- 6 February 2010 at 05:07
- the fly in the web said...
Yes, I see what you mean about mild....any improvement on what this winter has thrown at France is welcome.
Good luck with getting the whole thing redone....you have the sympathy of one whose builders stripped out the insulation before christmas one year, leaving only the slates between us and minus 11.
- 6 February 2010 at 16:28
- Cogitator said...
Hello fly, yes, when they installed my boiler some years ago, it operated for the first winter without any insulation around the miles of pipes in the boiler room. I think I was personally responsible for all the global warming that year. But at least it wasn't my house....
- 7 February 2010 at 00:08


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Sports Sound-Off is revamping! We're going to podcasts now! Kyle Nishida & Matthew Zimmer will discuss all the major components of today's sport topics! Coming soon to ZimCasting.com.
Previously, SSO was a radio show on KUGR.org on Saturdays from 8-10pm, starring Kyle Nishida, Justin Rice, Matthew Segal, and Matthew Zimmer.
Friday, August 30, 2013
They're Back!
After seven months, college football fans can come out of their respective holes and ruts. It's time to proclaim your team number one in the country again, even if they have no business up there. Time to show your pride, time to let it all hang out. Painted faces and chests will once again flood the stadiums. The gladiators will don their respective colors and enter the arena to wage war on their opponents. With the first night in the books, it's time to take a look at what we can expect out of this college football season. I know what you're thinking, "One night? How can we know?" Well, we can't. But it's always fun to try and predict the future. Looking at the three games played last night it is evident that this season will be no different than years past. No one is safe, all games are up for grabs. Players and fans throughout the country have been waiting to see what can happen this year. Will Alabama win a third straight BCS Championship? Will Ohio State return to prominence after their one year bowl ban? Will Oregon be able to "survive" without Chip Kelly? Can USC figure out how to win a dang game?
Friday, August 23, 2013
CFB Northwest 2013-14 Preview: Washington State Cougars
Last year, the Washington State Cougars finished with a 3-9 record and a shocking upset win over the hated rival Washington Huskies. The Cougars came into the 2012-13 with high and probably unrealistic expectations. The Cougars lacked strong veteran and senior leadership and the quarterback position was constantly in flux. This year, the Cougars look to get to a bowl game. This is a good goal to set but it is all dependent on the quarterback position. Leach has said Connor Halliday will be the starter but do not be surprised if backup Austin Apodaca plays if Halliday struggles early.
Posted by Kyle Nishida at 2:18 PM No comments:
Saturday, August 17, 2013
CFB Northwest 2013-14 Predictions: Washington Huskies
Sunday, August 4, 2013
CFB Northwest 2013-14 Predictions: Oregon Ducks
The difference between Stanford and Oregon came down to two missed Field Goals in their matchup in Eugene last year. If Oregon bothered to kick a field goal once in a while or actually recruit a top notch high school kicker, they would have won the north title and the Pac-12 all together. The Ducks finished with a 12-1 record and a Fiesta Bowl victory. However, this year is a different story. Chip Kelly is gone; Mark Helfrich is in. The Ducks have to replace a few playmakers on offense and defense such as outside linebacker Dion Jordan and runningback Kenjon Barner. The Duck still have Marcus Mariota and DeAnthony Thomas. Contrary to popular belief, I do not believe the Ducks should increase the workload of Thomas. He is much more effective with less touches and it will prevent him from burning out or getting to many hits.
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I just finished Evolutionary Analysis (2004) by Scott Freeman and Jon Herron, which is a college textbook on evolutionary biology. As I mentioned in How to Think Like a Softwarephysicist, I like to periodically read college textbooks cover-to-cover and skip all of the problem sets, quizzes, papers, and tests that college students are subject to, and instead, just concentrate on the essence of the material. Since my intention is to really understand the material, and not simply to pass tests, I think that I get much more long-term benefit out of these textbooks now than I did in my long-gone student days. I am now 60 years old, and when I read these very thick college textbooks, I now marvel at the huge amounts of time that the authors must have invested in creating them, something I certainly took for granted in my unappreciative college years. Anyway, after reading Evolutionary Analysis, I realized that in all of my previous posts on softwarephysics, which dealt with the evolution of software over the past 2.2 billion seconds, ever since Konrad Zuse cranked up his Z3 computer in May of 1941, I had described the evolutionary history of software, but I had not really explained the how and why of software evolution. So the subject of this posting will be a discussion of the evolutionary mechanisms involved that caused software to evolve.
In the SoftwarePaleontology section of SoftwareBiology, I provided a brief evolutionary history of the evolution of software on Earth. In that posting, I also explained that because both living things and software had to struggle with the second law of thermodynamics in a nonlinear Universe, that both had converged upon very similar design solutions over time. So much can be learned about the evolution of software by examining the evolution of life on Earth over the past 4.0 billion years, and in order to do that, let us briefly explore some of the concepts of modern evolutionary theory. Modern evolutionary theory is based upon the Modern Synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s, which brought together concepts from Mendelian genetics, Darwinian natural selection, population genetics, ecology and paleontology into a single theory that explained both microevolutionary and macroevolutionary observations. The Modern Synthesis is based upon four component processes – genetic mutation, genetic migration, genetic drift and natural selection, and how the interactions of these component processes change the frequencies of genes within a population. The first two processes, genetic mutation and genetic migration, introduce new genes into a population, while the second two processes, genetic drift and natural selection, tend to reduce the number of genes within a population. The net effect of these processes is to change the statistical frequencies of genes within a population, and that is really what evolution is all about because the genes within the population of a species determine what kinds of proteins a species can generate, and the kinds of proteins that are generated determine how the members of a species look and behave.
Genetic Mutation - A genetic mutation results when genetic DNA is copied and errors occur in the copying process, or a gene gets zapped by something like a cosmic ray and gets repaired incorrectly. Recall that genes are segments of DNA that are many thousands of nucleotides long, containing the A, C, G, and T nucleotides that encode the sequence of amino acids necessary to create a protein molecule. Protein molecules form the structural components within a living cell, or more frequently, protein molecules act as catalytic agents to speed up biochemical reactions in a biochemical pathway. For example, we Homo sapiens have about 25,000 genes that encode for the proteins necessary to build and operate a body, but only a few percent of the 3 billion DNA nucleotides found in our chromosomes are actually used to encode proteins. The vast majority of our DNA nucleotides are just along for the ride and get replicated along with the necessary protein-encoding segments of DNA. This supports Richard Dawkins' contention that living things are really DNA survival machines, which evolved to protect and replicate DNA using temporary and disposable bodies that persist for a very brief time, as they store and then pass on copies of DNA that are hundreds of millions or even billions of years old. Now thanks to the second law of thermodynamics, most mutations are deleterious because they usually produce a protein that is no longer functional (see The Demon of Software for details on the second law). It's like having a poker hand with a full house of K-K-K-9-9 and trying to draw another K by discarding the two 9s. The odds are that you will destroy your beautiful full house instead of coming up with a four of a kind like K-K-K-K-2. However, very infrequently, a mutation can lead to a protein that does an even better job than the original protein, or it can even lead to a protein that does something completely different that just happens to be quite useful. In keeping with our poker analogy, a beneficial mutation would be like drawing a K-K-K-K-2 by discarding your 9s in a full house of K-K-K-9-9.
Genetic Migration - Genetic migration occurs when a new version of a gene moves into a population from an outside location. For example, the population of a species on an island is relatively isolated from the population of the same species back on the mainland. But every so often, members of the mainland population might raft themselves to the island on board uprooted trees that were blown down in a hurricane. If these foreign, mainland members of the species also happen to be bearing mutated versions of genes, these mainland mutations can then migrate to the island population.
Genetic Drift - The more complex forms of life have at least two copies of each gene. For example, one copy of each of your genes came from the chromosome that you inherited from your father, while the other copy came from the chromosome that you inherited from your mother. If you have at least one functional version of a gene, you generally are okay, but if you happen to have drawn two non-functional versions of a gene, then you generally are in a great deal of trouble because you cannot make one of the proteins that are necessary for good health, or perhaps, even necessary for life itself. In fact, most genetic diseases result from having two malformed versions of a gene. However, because the odds of having two bad copies of a given gene are quite small, since there are not that many bad copies floating around in a population, we all generally can make the proteins that are necessary for life because we have at least one good copy. However, in large populations, there will always be a small number of fathers and mothers running around with one bad copy of a gene. The odds of a male with one bad copy hooking up with a female who also has one bad copy of the same gene will be quite small, and even if they do manage to have offspring, only about ¼ of their offspring will have the bad luck of ending up with two bad copies of the gene and suffer ill effects. So bad copies of a gene can persist in a large population because the bad copy of the gene can easily hide in bodies that also have a good copy of the gene. So in large populations, deleterious genes tend to persist. However, in small populations mutant genes tend to be weeded out by sheer chance. Because there are just a few of the mutant genes floating about in a small population, there is a good chance that none of them will survive to the next generation because of sheer bad luck. On the other hand, if a mutant gene happens to produce a protein that works nearly as well as the original version of the gene, or perhaps even slightly better, there is also the chance that the original version of the gene might go extinct by sheer bad luck as well. Thus, in small isolated populations, the frequency of various versions of genes can slowly drift away from the original frequency that the population had, as certain versions of the genes go extinct, and this is called genetic drift. Genetic drift is very important for the evolution of new species. If a small population gets isolated on an island, the frequencies of its genes can slowly drift away from the frequencies found back on the mainland, allowing a new species to arise on the island that can no longer mate with the original species back on the mainland and produce fertile offspring with it.
Natural Selection - Natural selection is the famous "survival of the fittest". When a favorable genetic mutation occurs, or when a favorable genetic mutation migrates into a population, the statistical frequency of the favorable mutation tends to increase within the population because members of the population that have the favorable mutation tend to have a better chance of surviving and passing the favorable mutation on to their offspring. Natural selection is also very important for the evolution of new species, especially in small isolated populations under environmental stress, because natural selection can then strongly select for beneficial mutations, and these beneficial mutations do not get diluted by a large population.
The Evolutionary Processes at Work in IT
We see these same processes at work in IT when software is developed and maintained, and that is why software evolves over time. Since modern evolutionary biology is based upon the changing statistics of genes within a given population, we first need to determine what is the software equivalent of genetic material. For living things, of course, it is the genes composed of stretches of DNA, but for software, it is source code. In order to do something useful, the information in a gene, or stretch of DNA, has to be first transcribed into a protein. This transcription process is accomplished by a number of enzymes, proteins that have a catalytic ability to speed up biochemical reactions. The sequence of operations aided by enzymes goes like this:
DNA → mRNA → tRNA → Amino Acid chain → Protein
Like DNA, the source code for a program has to be first compiled into an executable file, containing the primitive machine instructions for a computer to execute, before it can be run by a computer to do useful things. When you double-click on an icon on your desktop, like Microsoft Word, you are loading the Microsoft Word WINWORD.exe executable file into the memory of your computer where it begins to execute under a PID (process ID). After you double-click the Microsoft Word icon on your desktop, you can use CTRL-ALT-DEL to launch the Windows Task Manager, and then click on the Processes tab to find the WINWORD.exe running. This compilation process is very similar to the transcription process used to form proteins by stringing together amino acids in the proper sequence that is shown above. The output of the DNA transcription process is an executable protein that can begin processing organic molecules the moment it folds up into its usable form and is similar to the executable file that results from compiling the source code of a program. Program source code is indeed much like DNA, but there is one subtle difference. Transcribed proteins do not have any built-in logic of their own, while executable files do. When a living cell produces a large number of protein molecules within its confines and combines them with a large number of smaller molecules called monomers that are the building blocks of living things, wondrous things begin to happen. Biological pathways form, all on their own, from the interactions between the monomers and the enzyme proteins to form step-by-step programs to build up and process the very large molecules required by living things, and which are the basis for the large-scale biological structures found within a living cell. It's like mixing a bunch of LEGO blocks together with many inquisitive toddlers and allowing the toddlers to form complex LEGO structures all on their own. On the other hand, some biological pathways do just the opposite. They take complex organic molecules, like houses formed from large numbers of LEGO blocks, and break them down into their constituent LEGO block parts or monomers. So the logic in protein enzymes is an emergent quality that arises when enzymes and other organic molecules are mixed together in a cell. This emergent logic is not self-evident when just looking at the enzyme proteins on their own, but when you look at their resulting interactions with other organic molecules, one finds that the logic is indeed there, hiding in the structures of the individual enzyme proteins. The same is not true of software source code. The source code of a program has its logic built-in and in plain sight, and we can easily see the logic at work. I like to consider each variable and symbol in a line of source code to effectively be an enzyme protein or monomer molecule in a softwarechemical pathway reaction. In Quantum Software and SoftwareChemistry, I explained that just as protein molecules are composed of many kinds of atoms, in differing quantum states, all bound together into molecules, we can think of lines of source code in a similar manner.
For example consider the line of code:
discountedTotalCost = (totalHours * ratePerHour) - costOfNormalOffset;
We can consider each character in the line of code to be in one of 256 quantum ASCII states defined by 8 quantized bits, with each bit in one of two quantum states "1" or "0", which can also be characterized as ↑ or ↓ and can be thought of as 8 electrons in 8 electron shells of an atom, with each electron in a spin up ↑ or spin down ↓ state:
Figure 1 – The electron configuration of a carbon atom is similar to the ASCII code for the letter C in the source code of a program (click to enlarge)
Thus each variable in a line of code can be considered to be a complex molecule interacting with other complex molecules.
Now let's look at some source code. Below are three examples of the source code to compute the average of some numbers that you enter from your keyboard when prompted. The programs are written in the C, C++, and Java programming languages. Please note that modern applications now consist of many thousands to many millions of lines of code. The simple examples below are just for the benefit of our non-IT readers to give them a sense of what is being discussed when I describe the software development life cycle below from the perspective of the Modern Synthesis.
Figure 2– Source code for a C program that calculates an average of several numbers entered at the keyboard.
Figure 3 – Source code for a C++ program that calculates an average of several numbers entered at the keyboard.
Figure 4 – Source code for a Java program that calculates an average of several numbers entered at the keyboard.
In the SoftwarePaleontology section of SoftwareBiology, we saw that software has indeed evolved over time mainly in response to the environmental changes in the hardware environment in which it exists, in a similar fashion to the way that living things evolved on Earth in response to the environmental changes of a changing planet. Over the past 70 years, there has been an explosive positive feedback loop going on between the evolution of hardware and software. As more complex software evolved and demanded more memory and faster processing speeds, hardware had to keep up by providing ever-increasing amounts of memory and processing speed, which allowed software to demand even more. The result has been that, over the past 70 years, the amount of memory and processing speed available has exploded. It is now possible to buy a $500 PC that has a billion times the memory and runs a billion times faster than Konrad Zuse's original Z3 computer, and today's fastest supercomputers run about 1016 times faster than a Z3, or 10 million billion times faster. In Is Self-Replicating Information Inherently Self-Destructive?, we also saw that there have been some positive feedback loops going on between living things and the surface of the Earth as well over the past 4.0 billion years. The arrival of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria about 2.8 billion years ago allowed large amounts of oxygen to eventually appear in the Earth's atmosphere, which later proved necessary to sustain the complex life forms that arose during the Cambrian Explosion 541 million years ago. Similarly, over the past 500 million years, these complex life forms were able to remove large amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere. The complex life forms found after the Cambrian did so by producing carbonate deposits formed from shells and reefs, that were later subducted into the Earth by plate tectonics, as the Sun increased in brightness by about 5%. The removal of this vast quantity of the carbon dioxide greenhouse gas prevented the Earth's temperature from rising to a level that could no longer support complex life forms. Note that in both cases, these feedback loops allowing for more complex software and more complex life forms were not planned. They both just happened on their own in a fortuitous manner, as software and hardware and living things and the Earth interacted with each other.
Now that we know that program source code is the equivalent of genes in an IT setting, we need to see how program source code changes over time in response to the evolutionary processes of genetic mutation, genetic migration, genetic drift and natural selection, and how these processes allow software to adapt to its changing hardware environment. In order to understand this, we need to explore how software is currently developed and maintained in an IT department. Programmers are now called developers so I will use that terminology going forward. Developers are broken up in IT departments into tribes of 5 – 30 developers working under a single chief, or IT application development manager. Each application development tribe of 5 – 30 developers is a semi-isolated population of developers, dedicated to supporting a number of applications, or possibly, a small segment of a very large application like Microsoft Word. In softwarephysics we consider developers to essentially be the equivalent of software enzymes, like the enzymes that copy DNA and fix DNA errors.
Mutation of Source Code
Just as changing the DNA sequence in a gene will likely produce a mutant version of a protein that is non-functional, changing just one character in the source code of a program will likely produce a mutant version of the program that will probably make the program non-functional. Most likely, the mutant source code for the program will not even successfully compile, but if it should compile, the resulting executable file will have a bug in it that will make the program do strange and undesirable things. In both cases, this is the result of the second law of thermodynamics at work in a nonlinear Universe. The second law of thermodynamics simply states that the number of ways of coding up a buggy program or gene is much larger than the number of ways of coding up a useful program or gene, so whenever you change a program or gene, the odds are that you are going to make it buggy or non-functional. See Entropy - the Bane of Programmers and The Demon of Software for more on the second law of thermodynamics. Nonlinear systems are systems that are very sensitive to small changes. A very small change to a nonlinear system, like changing just one character in a gene or the source code for a program, can lead to very dramatic effects. See Software Chaos for more on nonlinear systems. This makes it very difficult to write source code that works, or to produce genes that yield useful proteins. The trick when writing source code is to only make small changes to the source code that make the resulting executable file to more closely do what the program is intended to do, without introducing bugs at the same time that make the executable file do strange and undesirable things that are not intended.
Genetic Migration of Source Code
Over time, every developer acquires his or her own coding style and coding techniques. These accumulate over time, as the developer learns through trial and error, what works well and what does not. However, every so often a developer will get stumped by a particular problem and will frequently turn to other members within the development tribe of 5 – 30 developers for advice. Frequently, another member within the tribe will have some source code that can be modified slightly to solve the problem at hand, so the developer will paste this borrowed code into the source code for the program under development. Consequently, lots of old source code gets exchanged within a development tribe, just as lots of DNA tends to get exchanged within a tribe of people living on a tropical island. And like on a tropical island, every so often a new member to the development tribe will wash up onshore, bearing a new coding style and coding techniques, and lots of new source code that can also be borrowed. So just as genes tend to migrate between populations of living things, the source code for programs can migrate between development tribes. The advent of the Internet has greatly increased this migration of program source code. Thanks to Google, it is now possible to find lots of program source code on the Internet that can be modified to solve any given problem.
Genetic Drift of Source Code
As we saw with genes, many mutations to source code have no effect upon how the resulting executable files behave when they run in a computer. Indeed, it is possible to code up any given program in nearly an infinite number of ways, even using many different programming languages. For example, the three programs above, written in C, C++, and Java, all behave exactly the same when run. So over time, source code coding styles and coding techniques, and even the choice of programming languages tends to drift for a developer and a development tribe. For example, the unstructured code of the 1950s and 1960s was replaced by the structured code of the 1970s and 1980s, which was later replaced by the object-oriented code of the 1990s. However, all of these coding techniques and their associated programming languages could still be used today to produce an executable file that performs the desired functions of a program. See the SoftwarePaleontology section of SoftwareBiology for details on the evolution of coding techniques.
Natural Selection of Source Code
Thanks to the second law of thermodynamics, most random changes to the sequence of nucleotides in a DNA gene will not generate a functional protein. In a similar fashion, most changes to the source code file for a currently functional program will not generate an executable file that still performs the desired functions, and because the Universe is nonlinear, such small coding errors in either DNA or source code files will likely produce disastrous results. For both living things and software, there seems to be only one way around these two major obstacles of the second law of thermodynamics and nonlinearity. This mechanism was first brought to light by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in 1859. In the Modern Synthesis, it goes like this. Within any given population of a species, there will always be genetic variation amongst its members caused by genetic mutations, genetic migration and genetic drift of its genes. Thanks to Mendelian genetics, the genes responsible for these genetic variations are also inheritable and can be passed down to subsequent generations. Most of these variations are neutral or detrimental in nature when it comes to the survival of the individuals possessing them, but once in a great while, a genetic variation will be found to be beneficial, and give individuals carrying such genes a better chance at surviving and passing these new beneficial genes on to their offspring. Darwin called this process natural selection because it reminded him of the artificial selection process used by breeders of domesticated animals. Darwin noted that by allowing domesticated animals with certain desirable traits to only breed with other domesticated animals with similar desirable traits, breeders were able to produce domesticated animals with far superior traits compared to their wild ancestors. For example, by only allowing turkeys and pigs with desirable traits to breed with other turkeys and pigs with desirable traits, breeders over the centuries managed to produce the modern turkeys and pigs of today, which are capable of producing far more meat than their distant ancestors. In a similar manner, Nature automatically selects for members of a species that are better at surviving and allows them to pass on their desirable genetic traits to their offspring. As these small changes to traits accumulate within a population, eventually a new species will arise, especially in small isolated populations. This is the famous "survival of the fittest" concept of Darwin's natural selection, first coined by the British philosopher Herbert Spencer.
The Software Development Life Cycle From the Perspective of the Modern Synthesis
With all of this background information at hand, let us now see how a developer goes about producing a new piece of software, in a manner similar to how Nature goes about producing a new species. Developers never code up the source code for new software from scratch. Instead, developers take old existing code from previous applications, or from the applications of others in their development tribe, or perhaps even from the Internet itself as a starting point and then use the Darwinian processes of innovation and natural selection to evolve the software into the final product. So most new applications inherit lots of old code from ancestral applications that were successful and survived the development process to ultimately end up in production. The source code for applications that died before reaching production usually ends up getting deleted, so the source code for new applications generally comes from the surviving "winners" of a population. The developer then begins a tedious life cycle process consisting of evolving the new software over many thousands of generations:
borrow some old code → modify code → test → fix code → test → borrow some more old code → modify code → test → fix code → test ....
During this very long evolutionary development process, frequently more old code from other existing applications is also introduced, as the new software slowly progresses towards completion. In this development process, we see all of the elements of the Modern Synthesis. The source code for new software inherits source code from the successful software of the past, which might come from the native stock found within a development tribe, or from source code that has recently migrated into the development tribe from outside. As the source code is developed by mutating the code in small incremental steps, natural selection determines which version of the source code ultimately passes on to the next step or generation in the development process at each point that the new source code is tested. Source code is even subject to genetic drift within a development tribe, as coding styles arbitrarily change with time and new computer languages are adopted by the development group. Once an application is in production, the development life cycle continues on as the application enters into a maintenance mode. Bugs constantly need to be corrected and additional features need to be added, and this is accomplished using the same process outlined above of introducing and modifying existing code from other applications, mutating the original source code of the application with small changes, and constantly using natural selection to test how closely the application has come to correcting a bug or adding a new feature every time the code is changed. Thus, the software continues to evolve through small incremental changes over many thousands of testing generations, until the desired result is achieved. Because all of the software throughout the world is currently being worked upon by millions of developers, all at the same time, and the time interval between generational tests during the development and maintenance cycles might be only a matter of a few minutes or seconds, software has tended to evolve over the past 70 years about 60 million times faster than life on Earth.
In addition to application code, the code for the software infrastructure has also evolved over time in a similar manner. Infrastructure developers work on the source code for things like operating systems like Windows and Unix, compilers for new computer languages like the compilers for C, C++, Java and other languages, J2EE appservers like Websphere, webservers like Apache, database management systems like Oracle and DB2, transaction monitors like CICS, and security software like LDAP. And these software infrastructure elements also evolve over time because of the same evolutionary processes outlined above. Notice that all three programs in the figures above that compute the average of a series of numbers entered via a keyboard are very similar. That is because the Java programming language (1995) evolved from the C++ programming language (1983), which evolved from the C programming language (1973).
Thus, because all of the same evolutionary processes are at work for both living things and software, there should be no surprise that both have evolved in a similar manner and that both have converged upon very similar solutions to overcome both the second law of thermodynamics and nonlinearity.
Comments are welcome at firstname.lastname@example.com
To see all posts on softwarephysics in reverse order go to:
Steve Johnston


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If you've known me or my creations for a while, you know that I started off on my own many years ago when I left my textile design job to make handmade jewelry. It was a lot of fun, but a little hard on my hands to be wrapping wire for 8 hours a day. I still have all my supplies, though, and lots of jewelry that I keep finding stashed places that I simply stopped putting out at sales, etc.
Today I've listed a few pairs of earrings on my etsy store - I used to sell these for $22-$30 each, but now I just want them out of the boxes and onto people.... So they are all less than $20. Depending on how these sell, I might be coaxed to put some of my clearance necklaces onto etsy as well. We shall see.
And I also have a sale on my profile charms, too... They're only $10 (because I am crazy like that) just for a week. snatch them up.... supplies are limited.


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Thursday, September 23, 2010
The LEGO KidsFest, Part 1: The Excitement
11 comments:
We are going to the LegoFest on Sunday morning -- my 5 year old son has developed a love for LEGOs this year as well!! And my feet love stepping on them!! :)ReplyDelete
Thanks for your post!
- AnonymousSeptember 24, 2010 at 9:41 PM
Do you know if we can bring our own food into this event?ReplyDelete
Great question. I am also wondering about food. I will try to Tweet a response once I find out.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 25, 2010 at 9:12 PM
We Just got back from session 2 (saturday) of the so called Legofest. We too like lego for our kids but this format in the Hynes left usReplyDelete
very disappointed. It was too crowded, badly organized and was greatly overpriced for the opportunity for our children to(fight for space)to play with some very basic lego...we could have done this in our basement for free.
- AnonymousSeptember 26, 2010 at 7:20 PM
What did everyone think? I was SO DISAPPOINTED!!!!!! Chaos and more people and companies trying to sell stuff. Expected more from a company like Lego.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 27, 2010 at 7:05 AM
Our son who has loved Legos since I can remember was so excited to go as were my husband and I. We went on Sunday - 1st session and left after 25 minutes. It was extremely disappointing!! I could not believe this was an event put on by a company like LEGO. We were bombarded with numerous companies and people trying to push and sell things -- all having absolutely NOTHING to do with LEGO. Don't waste your time or money!!!!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 27, 2010 at 2:18 PM
This event was terrible. It was like a big scam. The lego "master builders"didn't know anything about legos and gave no hints,tips,advice or even say anything worthwhile. My kid got a Blue man group sticker for completing the passport. This thing should be investigated by the state attorney general...it is a huge fraud...ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 27, 2010 at 2:33 PM
This event was terrible. It was like a big scam. The lego "master builders"didn't know anything about legos and gave no hints,tips,advice or even say anything worthwhile. My kid got a Blue man group sticker for completing the passport. This thing should be investigated by the state attorney general...it is a huge fraud...ReplyDelete
I was extremely saddened and very dissapointed! This was a big ripoff! Long lines for everything, parents were all stressed out, kids crying, lost kids, no giveaways, nothing but a huge ripoff!!! I will never take my kids to this again!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousSeptember 27, 2010 at 11:52 PM
We also went and were disappointed. I encourge everyone who was disappointed to contact the Lego Group and voice their opinions. I will be contacting both the organizers of the event and Lego in CT directly. Let them know about our disappointment so they can stop disappointing kids!ReplyDelete
I found these on the Legofest website:
Michael J. Guinan
President & National Sales Manager
860.953.0444, ext. 145
Betty Waypa
Event Manager
860.953.0444, ext. 101
Elizabeth Levander
Event & Sales Coordinator
860.953.0444, ext. 146
Michelle DiLuzio
Event Coordinator
860.953.0444, ext. 144
- AnonymousSeptember 28, 2010 at 5:28 PM
By the way, the four people above probably work for the 3rd party that organized the event, copy your letter to Lego in CT (from the Lego website):ReplyDelete
LEGO Systems, Inc.
555 Taylor Road
P.O. Box 1138
Enfield, CT 06083-1138


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http://wwwcartermuseum.org in Fort Worth. The museum director, Andrew J.Walker, gave opening remarks. The curator, Katherine Siegwarth, explained her motivation and the "what to look fors" in the show. Very informative.
Onward to a very tasty reception - lots of yummy finger foods. My friend, Rebecca Thorne, and I talked with our mouths full and caught up on respective life news. After wiping crumbs from our faces, we trodded up the steps to the exhibit all. Wow - this exhibit of approximately forty photographs is stunning.
One photo called Landscape reveals the back of a boxer. The muscles, shadows, and sinewy back offer a terrain. Another photo of a huge tree in Brooklyn allows one to feel as if you are standing underneath the branches.
I shall visit the Amon Carter again before the Big Pictures show closes. It is worth a second look.
Educational Book Journey (part 5) ...
3 hours ago


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I have considered Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding my favorite book for around a decade now. I can't remember the last time I read it and it is holiday themed so I thought it would be perfect for The Christmas Spirit Reading Challenge. (Unfortunately I finished it around 1 am January 1, 2014 so can't count it for my yearly challenges. Yeah I was reading New Year's Eve. I party hard! lol)
I understand why it was my favorite book in my twenties. I was a socially awkward woman who was obsessed with my weight obsessed, with finding the perfect husband, and the genre of chick lit was all the rage. This is the book that launched the chick lit genre.
Bridget is the most realistic character I have ever read about in a novel. She screws up over and over but she's got a good heart. She was my kind of heroine. I remember thinking in my 20's that I wanted to be like Bridget Jones when I was in my 30's.
Well now I'm in my 30's and while I still believe she is the most realistic character I have ever read about in a novel, most of the time I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake some sense into her. She's not the sharpest crayon in the box. Most of all I wanted her to punch Daniel in the face. He treated Bridget like utter crap. He was rude, verbally abusive, and I don't know why Bridget put up with it. Daniel was the kind of guy I dated in my 20's. By my 30's I knew better! It's almost a warning to women about the kind of guy they shouldn't date.
Yet there were things that still resonated with me: the obsession with food and losing weight, trying to find inner poise, and being respected in my career. And of course....finding the perfect husband. I'm a widowed single woman in my late 30's and like Bridget, I worry about my sell by date. The difference is that I've had two husbands, have five kids ranging in ages 11 months to 20 yrs old so I just can't relate to Bridget's single lifestyle. Why was a thirtysomething year old drinking soooo much? Seriously?
The book was still laugh out loud funny in places. I also could relate to her relationship with her parents on a different level now that I'm older. And like always, the book makes me want to run to the store, buy a diary, and write in it every single day.
While no longer my absolute favorite book of all time (which is now The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern) it is still one of my favorites. My rating:
The Movie
This is one of the few instances where I love the movie more than I love the book. The book and movie are pretty similar except for the hilarious beginning of Bridget singing All By Myself by Celine Dion and that epic fight between Daniel and Mark. That makes the movie far better in my opinion. There's nothing sexier than two men fist fighting over you. (I suppose the fact that I think that is proof I have not matured in all areas.)
Oh yeah, and the ending of the movie which actually is about her diary. That wasn't in the book. Another thing that is cool and funny about the movie and book is that in the novel there are places where Hugh Grant and Colin Firth are talked about. Hugh is even insulted in the book which makes it even funnier that he starred in the movie. And not to mention Colin Firth played the part of Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. I suppose this may be why he was cast for the part. I'e often heard that Bridget Jones's Diary is a modern day Pride and Prejudice.


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Category Archives: terministic screens
Letter of Reflection
Dear Students of University of Michigan,
My name is Alexandria Spicer-McQueen and I am a fellow student here at the university. During Fall 2011 semester I enrolled in English 416: topics in disability cultures autism, culture, & representation, and in this class I learned so much about Autism Spectrum Disorder to say the least. We learned many different things from terministic screens to "curing" autism. Through this class I learned more about how everyone in this world is different, whether white or black "normal" or not "normal," whether you are able-bodied or not, whatever the case is people are different and that shouldn't be an excuse to ridicule, dislike someone or even treat them different.
The different things I learned about this disorder were fascinating. A lot of people are misinformed about autism and this class opened my eyes and see that I was one of those people that knew nothing about autism besides that it was a disorder that affected the brains of children and prevented them from learning and communicating. Boy was I wrong. I've learned that even if a child has autism doesn't mean they're mute to the world, and it doesn't mean that they will never learn or communicate. I didn't know this at all. Another thing I learned to pay attention to during this class was that children grow up. I never thought about adults with autism and now I do because my friend's little brother has PDD-NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder—Not Otherwise Specified), and I've always been curious about his disorder and how it will affect him when he grows older. The questions I have no answer to many people don't as well and this class made me want to know more because I don't think a lot of people like the unknown.
The final project for this class was to make a PSA and I chose to focus my PSA towards the student body because as college students there is so much that we do everyday we don't really get to do anything outside of class work in the context of learning about new things own our own leisure. So I made up a student group named after my business and WordPress blog Black Circus, and made some events up to inform and educate students on Autism Spectrum Disorder. My goals for this sort of PSA is to get students to become involved in the cause and be aware of the things in this world because no one knows if their future child or children will have autism, so this is a way to become prepared to face that chance.
The one thing I learned about autism while doing my PSA was how easy it is to put together something like this and share it. All one has to do is put it out there and be committed and with my PSA I bring different options of learning about autism that I feel is very affective. I bring forth two informationals and movie nights and an interactive learning trip with a school for autistic students. All these events bring forth something different so my audience can participate and stay active and smile the whole way through these events.
Thank you for listening to what I had to say and I encourage you to come to these events and become aware of autism.


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Em Bailey
Release date: May 22nd, 2012
by Egmont USA
Goodreads / Purchase
Olive Corbett is not crazy. Not anymore.
She obediently takes her meds and stays under the radar at school. After "the incident," Olive just wants to avoid any more trouble, so she knows the smartest thing is to stay clear of the new girl who is rumored to have quite the creepy past.
But there's no avoiding Miranda Vaile. As mousy Miranda edges her way into the popular group, right up to the side of queen bee Katie – and pushes the others right out – only Olive seems to notice that something strange is going on. Something almost . . . parasitic. Either Olive is losing her grip on reality, or Miranda Vaile is stealing Katie's life.
But who would ever believe crazy Olive, the girl who has a habit of letting her imagination run away with her? And what if Olive is the next target?
Shift book trailer:
Other releases this week (click on cover for Goodreads):
*In no particular order* *Purchase links are for Book Depository*
Bryn knows first-hand that being the alpha of a werewolf pack means making hard decisions, and that being human makes things a thousand times worse. She's prepared to give up her humanity, but the wolf who promised to Change her is waiting - though for what, Bryn doesn't know.Purchase
Amid the tangle of lies, an unexpected thread of truth connecting Ian and Kori comes to light. But with opposing goals, they'll have to choose between love and liberty...
One Planet.Two Worlds.
Population: Human ... 7 billion. Others ... unknown.
Sophomore year broke Clementine Williams' heart. She fell for her best friend's boyfriend and long story short: he's excused, but Clem is vilified and she heads into summer with zero social life.
Sixteen-year-old Finley Jayne and her "straynge band of mysfits" have journeyed from London to America to rescue their friend Jasper, hauled off by bounty hunters. But Jasper is in the clutches of a devious former friend demanding a trade-the dangerous device Jasper stole from him...for the life of the girl Jasper loves.Purchase
Italy, 1453. Seventeen-year-old Luca Vero is brilliant, gorgeous—and accused of heresy. Cast out of his religious order for using the new science to question old superstitious beliefs, Luca is recruited into a secret sect to investigate evil and danger in its many forms, and strange occurrences across Europe, in this year—the end of days.
Chantal is a planner, and her summer-before-senior-year plan requires best friend Jillian, resumé updating, and studying for AP classes. Jillian wants something different and is afraid to leave introverted Chantal in the dust. All that changes, though, when popular classmates Parker and Will suspiciously start hanging out with the girls.Purchase
PurchaseNursing school prepared Edie Spence for a lot of things. Burn victims? No problem. Severed limbs? Piece of cake. Vampires? No way in hell. But as the newest nurse on Y4, the secret ward hidden in the bowels of County Hospital, Edie has her hands full with every paranormal patient you can imagine
Mistress of death Francesca Giordano—court poisoner to the House of Borgia—returns to confront an ancient atrocity that threatens to extinguish the light of the Renaissance and plunge the world into eternal darkness.Puchase
The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between.
The drama and romance continue in this 144-page full-color graphic novel adaptation of the second Vampire Academy novel, Frostbite, which was overseen by Richelle Mead and features beautiful art by acclaimed British illustrator Emma Vieceli.Purchase
Jeane Smith is seventeen and has turned her self-styled dorkiness into an art form, a lifestyle choice and a profitable website and consultancy business.
When Jacqueline follows her longtime boyfriend to the college of his choice, the last thing she expects is a breakup.
Simmi's loyalty is on the line. Who will she choose—the blind seer who loves her, or the charming telekinetic with "bad idea" written all over him? Emotions run high as the tension mounts in book two of the Farsighted series.
Kate has no time for meaningless romantic charades, and definitely no time for hot college professors who are full of themselves and smitten with her. Constantly battling eviction notices, tuition she can't afford, and a sick, dependent mother, the last thing she needs is to be distracted with someone else's complicated baggage.Purchase
Peter Warlock is a magician with a dark secret. Every night, he amazes audiences at his private theater in New York, where he performs feats that boggle the imagination. But his day job is just a cover for his otherworldly pursuits
I don't do dangerous. Smart, über-careful, ordinary Samantha-that's me. But I just couldn't pass up a surprise kiss from my number-one unattainable crush. A kiss that did something to me...something strange.Purchase
Lately strange things have been happening to Daire Santos. Animals follow her, crows mock her, and glowing people appear out of nowhere. Worried that Daire is having a nervous breakdown, her mother packs her off to stay in the dusty plains of Enchantment, New Mexico with a grandmother she's never met.
Today the battle for Danu Talis will be won or lost.Purchase
But will the twins of legend stand together?
Or will they stand apart—
one to save the world and one to destroy it?
If Owen can unlock the lost code in his very genes, he may rediscover the forgotten knowledge of his ancestry…and that less-than-ordinary can evolve into extraordinary.
Emma is on vacation at the beach. When she runs into Galen—literally, ouch!—both teens sense a connection. But it will take several encounters, including a deadly one with a shark, for Galen to be convinced of Emma's gifts. Now, if he can only convince Emma that she holds the key to his kingdom...
Ellis only has four days of her sophomore year left, and summer is so close that she can almost taste it. But even with vacation just within reach, Ellis isn't exactly relaxed. Her father has been in a coma for years
When Rose was twelve, her mother and stepfather went out for dinner and never came back. Now seventeen, she lives with her grandmother and goes to school in London. She's always wondered about her stepbrother, Joshua, whom she only lived with briefly and who was also relocated after their parents' disappearance.Purchase
The year was 2014. The year we cured cancer. The year we cured the common cold. And the year the dead started to walk. The year of the Rising.


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IntroductionKIG has been established to act as the commercial and investment arm for the King Abdullah II Design and Development Bureau (KADDB) and its affiliates.
The Group aims at establishing new and growing businesses in the defence and security industries along with various services that would complement these industries.The scope of work covered by the Group's affiliates is represented in business clusters; Automotive and Industrial Cluster, Troops Products Cluster, Electronics and
Electro-Optics Cluster, Arms and Ammunition Cluster, as well as a Supplementary Cluster.
Why KIGKIG's competences have gained the Group a proven track record and high profile worldwide as a reliable and credible partner.Investors would enjoy a high level of marketing exposure, accessibility to a wide range of research and industrial capabilities, provision of land and facilities through a purpose-built free industrial zone, as well as contribution to working capital and facilitating all logistics and procedures.
In a short period of time, KIG managed to place itself on the world map, not only being active in the Middle East and North Africa, but by reaching Europe, the Americas, Southeast and Central Asia and the rest of Africa.
KIG coordinates all business-related activities by having its qualified team evaluate an opportunity all the way to realising its full potential, as well as develop the current businesses through effective implementation of business development, marketing, communications and operational excellence activities, in addition to enhancing the Group's corporate image.
The Group focuses on its market outreach through implementing effective strategies to satisfy the client and investor needs and enhance the performance of the Group.
To advance defence and security industries in Jordan, through:
To be the partner of choice in the Middle East and Africa, offering a growing, strategic portfolio of defence and security businesses.
KADDB Investment Group (KIG) is to be the partner of choice in the Middle East and Africa, offering a growing, strategic portfolio of defence and security businesses ranging from military defense to civil security that fulfill Jordan's defense needs as well as those of other countries.
This can be achieved by establishing and reviewing our strategic quality objectives, which include:
KADDB Investment Group (KIG) is committed to comply with requirements of the Quality Management System according to the ISO 9001:2008 International Standard and continually improve its effectiveness.
KIG's Management System is applicable to; performance monitoring and control of KIG Affiliates in addition to setting policies and procedures guided by the group standard manual for KIG and affiliates.
Driven by the common goal of Community Service, and the effective role organizations can play in encouraging Jordanian youth to capture opportunities and enhance economic conditions of certain communities, KADDB Investment Group (KIG) and INJAZ organization partnered up in the Duleil-Khaldiyya Community Adoption Programme.
The KIG will contribute to the development of Khaldiyya and Duleil community through INJAZ's Community Adoption Programme and will effectively develop Living situation and enhance Economic services in the area. The mentorship by KIG, KADDB and Affiliates trained volunteers reflects a significant requirement for the community to be developed.
As an integral part of its mission, KADDB Investment Group aims at serving the local community that it operates in. Therefore, it has partnered up with INJAZ for their significant reputation in sustainable CSR, to achieve the Group's strategic objective within a comprehensive and methodical plan.
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Vice Chairman
Nashat is a Founder and Partner of Foursan Group. He joined Foursan from J.P. Morgan, where he was a Vice President in the Investment Banking Group, with a focus on financial institutions. His experience includes mergers, acquisitions and advisory assignments in the US, Europe and Latin America.
Nashat is a Director of Foursan Capital Partners I, Al Qaser for Touristic Investments, the Royal Jordanian Air Academy, Arab Palestine Investment Company, and Nafith Logistics. He is Vice Chairman of Siniora Food Industries and Shamsuna Power. He also serves as a Trustee of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation.
Nashat received a Masters of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Bachelors of Arts in Economics from Harvard University.
Khaled is a Partner and the Head of the Jordan and Iraq offices of Al Tamimi & Company. A highly experienced banking & finance lawyer, Khaled regularly advises a multitude of local and international banks, financial institutions and institutional investors on banking incorporation and regulation, the underwriting and syndication of loans, restructuring of conventional and Islamic debt, debt recovery, equipment leasing and secured commercial lending.
Khaled's specific experience further extends to corporate/commercial matters where he practices in capital markets, M&A and due diligence transactions, drafting and reviewing all types of commercial contracts, including agency, franchising and distributorship agreements, structuring and restructuring of businesses, as well as advising on regulatory, labour, e-commerce and IT related issues.
Accomplished top executive management professional with over 25 years' experience across strategic planning, development programs, revenue growth, sales and marketing, business transformation, and leadership within the highly competitive telecommunication industry.
Master of Business Administration with proven skills in defining appropriate vision, strategy, and goals for organizational development and operations functionalities in adherence to overall direction of the organization. Transformational specialist skilled in developing appropriate strategy and strategic direction for transformation projects while specifying role and responsibilities of relevant business units.
Instrumental in establishing an expert team of highly motivated individuals working within the most effective organizational structure. Hands-on experience of working in the most competitive markets in the region while managing a P&L of over $6B.
Mr. Fattaleh holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from West Virginia University and furthered his executive education at Wharton School of Business. He currently holds a position of CEO of JorAMCo (Jordan Aircraft Maintenance Company) ; a Jordan based leading MRO (aircraft Maintenance and Repair Organization), offering a wide range of airframe maintenance services for many aircraft types with over $60M in revenues.
Mr. Fattaleh's career started in 1987 at Aramex, one of the leading global logistics and transportation solutions providers. During his twenty-three years career at Aramex, Mr. Fattaleh played a key role in building Aramex's global network, building and strengthening its operational capabilities and played a strategic role in its geographic expansion. He held varies executive positions at Aramex including Regional Manager, Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy Office, and Chef Operation Officer.
Mr. Fattaleh also held the position of CEO of Kingdom Electricity and Enara holdings, two companies established by private equity firms that acquire assets in electricity distribution and generation companies.
Mr. Fattaleh was instrumental in upgrading the operational capabilities of the operating companies which led to a successful result. Mr. Fattaleh is an active member of the community, he is the chairman of Sana an NGO that aims at improving the quality of life for individuals with special needs and their families; serves on the board member for EDAMA, an Association formed as a private sector partnership that seeks innovative solutions for energy and water independence, and their positive reflection on the environment. He also volunteers as an advisory board member with Endeavor Jordan to support and mentor entrepreneurs.
Coming Soon


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For the past few weeks Pizza Hut has been running tons of commercials for their Stuffed Crust Pizza. And Scott has been watching and drooling.
"I've never had a stuffed crust pizza before." He said sadly the other night.
Well for the love of all things stuffed I thought we'd better change that!
So last night we made our very own stuffed crust pizza. And it turned out pretty darn good.
I used our bread maker's recipe for pizza dough and then patted the dough out into a larger pizza than usual. I cut sticks of mozzarella and placed them all around the edge of the crust.
I rolled the dough over the cheese twice to (hopefully) keep all the melty cheese on the inside. Then we plopped it in the pan.
We covered the dough with deliciously garlicky pizza sauce, ham, pineapple, tomatos and mushrooms, some more mozza, and then into the oven it went at 425' for 25 minutes. And when it came out?
It was very tasty. One section of the crust un-rolled during cooking and let some cheese out, but for the most part it worked very well. The picture's not the greatest, but if you squint, you can see the cheese in the crust.
I'm sure we'll be having this again and again if Scott gets his way, and really it wasn't much more work than making a regular pizza. I wonder how different cheeses would be in the crust? Maybe some Gouda, or Goats cheese? Yum.