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There are few more annoying home repairs that demand your immediate attention like clogged drains. Regardless of what you're doing, you generally have to stop everything to fix it, else you inadvertently flood your floor, or you lose the use of your sink, tub, or toilet. Here's how to keep the water flowing.
Unclogging a drain isn't always a simple matter. Before you call the plumber, try these tips: Photo by Will Powell.
Flush with Boiling Water
One of the first and easiest things you can do is simply flush your drain with a tea kettle of boiling water. It's not guaranteed to unclog physical or grease blockages, but if you have a slow drain that you think is due to a light or small blockage, a good boiling water flush can clear it out with minimal effort. Wait until the sink or tub has finally drained, and then flush with water.
A note of caution though: the boiling water trick works best on metal pipes. If you have PVC pipes, water over 175 degrees can soften or melt the joints in your pipes. If you don't know, don't use boiling water – just use hot water, or water as hot as your tap normally makes it.
Make Your Own Drain Cleaner
Some drain cleaners are only effective on certain kinds of clogs. You could run out and buy a bottle of commercial drain cleaner, but even many plumbers will tell you that it should be a last resort. If you know your clog is because of grease, try making your own drain cleaner from vinegar and baking soda.
The blog Bonzai Aphrodite has a great guide to making baking soda drain cleaner, but it's pretty simple: a half-cup of baking soda and siphon it directly into the drain, as far down as you can get. Then add half of the vinegar. Be careful, it will fizz and bubble, so pop the drain closed or cover it so you get as much of that fizzing action down the drain instead of up towards you. For toilets, just skip this step and flush immediately when you add the vinegar. Once it subsides a bit, add the rest of the vinegar. Let the whole thing sit for a half hour (or longer, if you have it) and then flush the drain with hot water.
You can also use a few tablets of Alka-Seltzer to get a similar effect, albeit not quite as powerful. Photo by [F]oxymoron.
Plunge It
No one likes having to handle a household plunger, but when the drain is clogged, you need to know how to wield one. Most households have cup plungers, which you can on top of a sink or bathtub drain and start plunging away. For the best results, put a strip of duct tape on top of the overflow drain at the top of the sink or bathtub. Doing this will force the air or water down the drain and into the clog, without it escaping through the overflow drain instead.
Alternatively, if you don't have a cup plunger handy, you can get a similar effect with an empty juice or milk carton – just put it upside down over the drain and squeeze it to send a jet of air from the carton right down the drain. If something's just lodged in the way, it can do the trick.
For toilets however, you'll want a different tool. Cup plungers just aren't the best shape to get down into the narrow drain of a toilet, so you'll want a flange or toilet plunger, available at any hardware store. You won't have to worry about an overflow drain in a toilet, but since the flange plunger is shaped specifically for toilets, you'll have much better luck getting a clogged toilet to drain with a flange plunger than anything else. Just make sure you have a good seal between the plunger and the drain opening before you go to work.
Build or Buy a Drain Snake
For small clogs and light household duty, you can take your drain cleaning game by heading to your department store and picking up a small drain snake or long pipe cleaner to see if you can break through or pull out whatever it is that's clogging your drain. This is especially useful if you think the drain is clogged with hair.
Alternatively, you can make your own mini-snake or use a wire coat hanger with a small bend at the end to snake your drain. Just be very careful when doing this, because you don't want the tool you make or use to inadvertently damage the pipes or drain that you're trying to clear. If you're feeling really crafty, try making your own drain de-clogger from a plastic bottle, or using air pressure to blow your drain clear with a plastic bottle or an empty milk carton.
Again, it's worth noting that homemade snakes and most easily available household snakes are made for small clogs and light duty, not deep in-the-wall grease clogs from your kitchen sink. They're worth a try for hair clogs or lost bits of soap in the shower or bathroom sink, though. Photo by stu_spivack.
If you really like to get hands on, you can buy a handheld Drain Auger, which is essentially a light duty, hand-operated version of the power snake that plumbers use. Thankfully, they're inexpensive, many around $20, and handy to have around the house if you deal with slow or stopped drains often.
When All Else Fails
Yes, you can use chemical drain cleaners, but as we said earlier they can do more harm than good in some cases, and if you're trying to be environmentally friendly they're certainly not green. The bigger problem with chemical drain cleaners is that they're just not very effective at the type of clogs that you would need a snake or plunger for anyway, and if they don't work you wind up with a sink or toilet that's backed up, clogged, and now full of drain cleaner. Only use them as a last resort, if at all.
If none of the above methods work, it's definitely time to call a plumber. You may have a deep clog somewhere in your walls, or a backup beyond the reach of most household tools.
Crash Course is a twice-weekly series of guides to life skills everyone should know but you may have been afraid to ask. Do you have an everyday problem you wish someone had taught you to solve? Let us know at firstname.lastname@example.com.
You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at email@example.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter.


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Kor wrote:The romance genre isn't something I've ever actively sought, and I don't/didn't read many manga (would rather watch that stuff animated, though nowadays I don't watch much anime as well), so I can't really give any names here.
Anyone else wanna name other mangakas who are good romance writers?
Kor wrote:...romantic subplot in which it was clear from very early on that the de-facto couple will end up together so quite clearly there are zero stakes with this love rivalry.
Yeah, there's basically a .00001 chance that Heiji will end up with Momiji—not exactly compelling, right?
I just wonder how many more years Gosho will put off resolution(s) to this subplot. It's now been 4 years since we started the "what's going to stop Heiji from confessing" guessing game, and it's been a year and a half since Momiji came into the picture. Now that she's actually interacted with Heiji (who basically ignores her—in the movie, he basically looks at her advances and goes, "wut.") and Kazuha (a couple lines over the phone), what's next? I guess she'll have Muga stalk him and just barge in when she thinks the time is right, and he'll just ignore her or be incredulous, and there'll be a misunderstanding on Kazuha's part.
Kor wrote:I don't know about the 2nd point, cause if these subplots didn't exist, there'd probably be other distractions.
That is, non-romantic subplots?
Kor wrote:As for the rest, yeah, I guess that's one way to put it. Thing is, it's not the end of the world that some of these characters aren't complex and developed. It's a shonen manga and (despite what may be implied at times from some of my criticism) I don't expect it to be some high art literary fiction. It's okay if minor recurring character that doesn't amount to anything remains minor recurring character that doesn't amount to anything.
Ah, gotcha. But there is a basic level of quality that needs to be met, right?
Kor wrote:When a lot of us in the forum collectively facepalmed once we learned that Chiba's getting a love interest, it's not because Chiba was some character with potential to be anything more than... Chiba. Chiba could have remained childhood-friend-less and just continue to do... whatever Chiba was doing before Naeko was brought in. There was never any real need to give this character a subplot, but okay, Gosho decided to give this character a subplot and do something with him. And what did Gosho decide to do with this character? Add him to the list of characters a childhood love interest. Same thing applies to Heiji/Kazuha/Momiji. Gosho didn't have to introduce a "love rival" that isn't going to affect anything (who also happens to be a character Heiji met as a kid once), but he did.
So it came off as Gosho was doing it just because he could—it's just there... and the execution doesn't help, either.
Serinox wrote:Though for now at least the met-in-childhood part is movie only. In the manga, Momiji just wants to marry Heiji, but no reference whatsoever have been made to their promise or anything else. Considering that misunderstanding they had as children was resolved within the movie, I don't know if it will ever be imported into the manga at all.
I doubt Gosho's going to create a different backstory for the manga—why would he change the met-in-childhood part?
As far as I'm concerned, Heiji's and Momiji's backstory in Movie 21 is also their manga backstory. That's how sure I am that he's not going to change it.

subset: commoncrawl


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Im quite new to the no God agenda, but I finally made the switch. I have been looking around this site as along with the rest of the web and I found many Atheists put down holidays as strictly religious. As coming from Catholicism, I will be celebrating Christmas in a few days. This celebration will not be fore Jesus but more or less a bond with my family to show we care and love for one another. My questions are: 1.)Can religious holidays be celebrated and not practiced without offending people and 2.) Would this a good time period to "come out" of the Atheist closet?
Views: 202
Coming out is so personal, I wouldn't want to tell you when or where to do it. It all depends on your relationship with your family, and how you feel about it. My relationship with my dad was tight enough that I could say over the phone, "I don't believe in God anymore," and I suspect my father has been skeptical for quite some time. Loose Catholic is a loose term. Your family's faith maybe different than mine. I don't know, and think you should follow your own reasoning on that one.
As for number two, we should absolutely have holidays. I honestly think that the Winter Solstice deserves celebrating. The days get longer, the weather becomes warmer (generally), we have a New Year coming around the corner. I'd replace Christmas with a three day holiday for the Solstice. Solstice Eve, Solstice, Day After Solstice. Of course, most department stores would have you work Day After Solstice. However, until that happens, celebrating holidays you grew up with can be done so for nostalgia. Just my opinion.
1. The people who are offended by atheists continuing to celebrate holidays like Christmas aren't worth worrying about. Some people are going to be offended no matter what you do. I think you should do whatever you want to do. I continue to celebrate Christmas because it's fun and because my family (even when we were still Catholic-ish) never focused on the religious aspects. We always focused on family, fun, food, booze and presents.
2. Personally I wouldn't choose Christmas as the time to come out. People's nerves are already on end with family being in town, traveling, gifts, food and so on. I'd rather come out to people on an individual basis when I can sit and have a conversation and address their questions and concerns if they have any.
As Ryan said, every family dynamic is so specific that it should really be a personal decision. However, if you do decide to do so, I'm sure I and others would be willing to give you ideas and tips on doing so.
I see nothing wrong with still celebrating holidays. Whether you call it something else, or still celebrate Christmas, but do it for the food, family, and gifts is just fine. I'm from a Catholic family as well, and while I do recognize the Winter Solstice, we do kind of celebrate Christmas as well. But I do tend to use Christmas/Solstice/Yule/Holidays/Saturnali pretty much interchangeably. Remember that Christmas really is just the newest version of the Pagan Solstice festival. If you want to call is something else so people won't misunderstand your godlessness, then feel free. But if you like Christmas/or the habit of the name is too hard to break and a Christian calls you out on it, you can always remind them of the following:
Tuesday = Named for the god Tyr
Wednesday = Named for the god Woden
Thursday = Named for the god Thor
Friday = Named for the goddess Frige
Saturday = Named for the god Saturn
January = Named for the god Janus
February = Named for the Roman purification festival Februa
March = Named for the god Mars
May = Named for the goddess Maia
June = Named for the goddess Juno
July & August = Julius & Augustus Caesar
Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec = Named for when they were the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th month of the year.
So if your friends and family have no problem saying Thursday yet deny Thor, then what's wrong with you saying Christmas but denying the Christ character? Ask them, what really is in a name, and aren't holidays like this really whatever we make of them? I enjoy the gifts, gatherings and grub no matter what you want to call it.
I don't think of the holidays as religious. I look at them as a way to embrace the beauty of earth and the beauty of each season. I love the Solstices! A higher being has no part in this for me. Holidays for me are a great way to gather and celebrate life with good friends. I am not sure why some atheists are so bitter about holidays. The beauty of being an atheist is that you can celebrate (or not) however you choose.
The only time i get bitter over the Holidays is when the Christians says.. "Always Remember The REAL reason for the season?"
To which i always respond.. "Oh you mean the how we should be celebrating the rebirth of the sun and welcoming springs return, or were you wanting me to celebrate how your religious cult came along and mass murdered tens of millions of innocent people and twisted the event to be the celebration of the birth of your imaginary son of god rather than the rebirth of the sun?"
and remember.. no Atheist should be without pepper spray, stun guns, and or fully automatic weapons when engaged in debate with the religious.. for your own safety of course.
*smiles sweet and innocently*
Thanks everyone for the help. Ive got a better understanding now and a better idea on how to handle the situations. Thanks again!
I still do Christmas and in fact we normally have the most Christmas Lights in the area up ... like at Clark Griswald levels. You won't find any baby Jesus's or wise men though in our displays. We treat it as a secular holiday at this point because we love the holiday which as mentioned often on here has non Christian origins anyways. Santa is a good way to move focus away from Jesus on Christmas and provides a good life lesson for kid about finding out that even the people who care about you will mislead you about belief. Jesus and Santa can not co-exist because I can assure you little kids love Santa way more then Jesus which is a not okay according to the bible.
I don't much worry about if people are offended that I'm not praising Jesus on Christmas. I do have a hard time understanding some people I know who are in a rough spot and post things on Facebook about not being able to afford much for their kids etc for Christmas and not being able to pay bills and then move on to thank Jesus for all they have or have someone comment about god's love being all they need. I don't normally bring up god etc around some in the family but I don't shy away from saying something if they say something totally insane or attack someone. Of course since my dad, grandfather and I don't believe and my mom doesn't really care either way I'm not alone in calling people out for things. Its more a pick your battle thing.
1. Can religious holidays be celebrated and not practiced without offending people
I know I've said this before, and I run the risk of sounding like a broken record, but my feelings remain the same: No matter what, remain true to yourself. Do not put yourself in a situation where you're wind up being hypocritical; and if you do find yourself at that "fork in the road", maintain who you are and be strong. Wear your atheism with pride - you have nothing of which to be ashamed. Remain tactful and non-confrontational, and also make sure you're respectful of others and their beliefs just as you want them to be of yours.
As far as the holdiays themselves go, don't forget that pretty much all religious holidays have pagan beginnings. Xmas? Xmas trees and "Yule logs" are all based on pagan traditions; in fact, the date itself was originally a celebration of the Winter Solstice, which celebrates that you've "turned the corner" and the days will begin to get longer and longer towards spring.
Easter? Celebration of the Spring Equinox, a time of rebirth, fertility, and growth - hence the inclusion of eggs and rabbits (two strong signs of fertility).
My family and I love celebrating the giving and loving nature of the xmas holiday tradition without the need for the Jewish Zombie - and I'm sure you'll find this is comfortable for you as well.
2. Would this a good time period to "come out" of the Atheist closet?
I would recommend to do this either awhile before or after the holiday itself. Why? Because this time of year is stressful enough for everyone without adding this extra stressor to the mix. I believe that if you were to try this in the midst of the holiday season your relatives will feel that you're being selfish and they may view it as an attack on their "holy day" itself - and could even view it as a personal attack on their Sky Daddy and his split personality/son. Not a good way to broach this type of conversation.
If you choose to wait until after the xmas holiday season, then I guess you'll have to "go through the motions" for one more xmas season. Once things settle down you'll have an entire year to get them used to the idea, and you won't have to be a hypocrite any more. Besides, one more season of biting your tongue isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things - but I wouldn't continue this "double life" for much longer after this holiday season because this is the type of thing that will become more and more uncomfortable, and could even foster resentment of your own if it drags out for too long.
Hope this helps. Best of luck!
ATWAS911 I enjoyed your post! Especially the pepper spray! Everyone has made such good points. It's fun to be on the same page with people (pun intended) for a change


text: When I start installing ISPConfig 2 to my server Centos 5.8 it says incorrect server version, it also says the same on Centos 6.0. It Should work. Server I'm using is running OpenVZ is that the problem? At least I cannot do quota part of ISPConfig installation guide. Should it work better with Zen? - JR


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very NICE. LOVE THE LONG HAIR AND PRETTY FACE WITH A BRIGHT SMILE.
As close to perfect (IMHO) as you can get! What an attractive, interesting and gorgeous face.... I'm surprised she doesn't have her own website... and/or have a "studio" on clips4sale. Beautiful smile, beautiful eyes.
F-a-b-u-l-o-u-s and then M-o-r-e!!!!!
F-a-b-u-l-o-u-s !!!
I know.... what if we shoot a set of photographs of a naked woman in a bedroom? That would be novel!
One of the best!
My wish is to help prepare chicken, then explore after the meal, what happens next....
In my opinion, these galleries of Tracy are among the best Koenart has ever done. This proves that even the worst player can hit a homerun sometimes. There may be hope for this photographer after all!
Specularly hot.....in all respects....body, smile, eyes
Oddly enough, she reminds me of a girl named Sandy I knew many, many years ago. Fascinating. ;)
Tracy, if I may say, you're 10/10 in looks, personality and professionalism. It's a pity you have stuck with a couple of guys with cameras, just wanting to get you naked and spreading your legs.
Both Majoly and Koenart have succeeded in your sets here, but didn't have a clue how to shoot you, once you had presented yourself. You are NOT just a department store dummy to be draped in pretty clothes as shown in these sets.
Just a tip, Alex Sironi, Alex Iskan, Rylsky or Leonardo are far better photographers and will treat you as the Angelic Princess that you are.
I had totally underestimated Tracy, 'til I saw her movie "Typika" by Koenart.
Damn, if that ain't the perfect MetArt movie.
Outta the damn park!
I totally reevaluated Tracy...
She is a truely beautiful model always bubblie and smiling with her series wether they are indoors or outdoors a movie of her would be nice too in the future with either Leonardo or Rylski :) :)
She's a real lovely woman that I'd love to have living much closer than next door.
Very real. Not a professional model.
Special girl.
She's a real lovely young thing I'd love to have living next door.


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Earlier today, in a speech to a Muslim conference in Malaysia, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the solution to problems in the Middle East is the destruction of Israel:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel. In a speech during an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders, Ahmadinejad also called for an immediate halt to fighting in Lebanon between Israel and the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah.
Ahmadinejad, who has drawn international condemnation with previous calls for Israel to be wiped off the map, said the Middle East would be better off "without the existence of the Zionist regime." Israel "is an illegitimate regime, there is no legal basis for its existence," he said.
Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of Israel was coupled with a demand for a cease-fire in Lebanon:
"Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented," he said.
Ahmadinejad obviously wants a cease-fire not in the interest of peace in the region, but as a tactical move that will contribute to the ultimate destructon of Israel. Which illustrates why neither the government of Israel nor the Bush administration wants a cease-fire. One has to wonder: do other leaders who urge an immediate cessation of fighting, like Kofi Annan and various European heads of state, have motives that are purer than Ahmadinejad's? Or do they share his view as to how peace should ultimately come to the Middle East?


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Yampa River, Elkhead Reservoir ready for outdoor fun
Craig — The weather has taken a turn for summer in the past week, and outdoor recreation is on the rise.
The biggest local outdoors attraction for summer activities is the Yampa River, where residents can boat, float and fish for much of the year. According to Yampa River State Park Manager Ron Dellacroce, the river is looking much more recreation-friendly in 2013.
"The river stuff has opened up and the river is running really good, so all our sites are open," Dellacroce said. "You can go all the way to the headwaters of the Yampa, and it's looking good. We went out and did a float the other day just for a check, and it's just a beautiful time to be out."
Compared to last year, when flows were extremely low, Dellacroce said this year's flows appear to be at least average. According to U.S. Geological Survey data, in the past week the Yampa's flow rates near Craig jumped up nearly 2,000 cubic feet per second and were more than 6,000 cfs as of Thursday, higher than the river ever got last year.
As a result, all 13 of the ramps the state park operates from east of Hayden to Cross Mountain are open, and Dellacroce said they are starting to see more activity on the river. He hopes to have a full season's worth of activity this year.
"The fishing really isn't there yet because the river is so muddy," he said. "But the rest is great. We built a brand new boat ramp at our Duffy Mountain site. That's one of our main take-outs of the Yampa, and the ramp had washed out years ago. I think people are really going to appreciate that being there."
Craig Chamber of Commerce and Moffat County Visitor Center Executive Director Chris Oxley said the Chamber has heard from and seen more people than in the past couple of years as the weather has warmed up.
The season is "starting out the way we expected," she said. "We've had a lot more visitors than in the past couple years. You can tell the economy is a bit better and people are traveling more. It's looking like a great season for anyone who wants to play on the river."
At Elkhead Reservoir east of Craig, the campgrounds, trails and beaches are open, and the water is available to hand-launch boats. Dellacroce said the boat ramp at Elkhead will open to the public May 25.
Elkhead's water level is in good shape, as well, Dellacroce said, with the operators of the reservoir having the luxury of letting some water run out this year because of a more plentiful supply.
The area at Elkhead has been made more recreation-friendly since last summer, with more plans in place. The trails from the campground to the east beach have been improved and expanded upon and now boast 3 miles' worth of trails open to any sort of activity. Dellacroce said the goal is to double that number by the end of June and to continue improving that resource in the future.
"The boat ramp opening is always an event in its own right, but we've already got people out camping and out fishing," Dellacroce said. "We'll have a great season out there, as long as we don't have any unforeseen circumstances. Now is really the time for the local folks who like to boat, they need to take advantage of this time. There aren't a lot of people out, and everything is so beautiful and green."
Nate Waggenspack can be reached at 970-875-1795 or email@example.com
New school record, outdone expectations at state mark bright future for Moffat County track and field
With Saturday bringing with it a new team record, a competition that nearly didn't happen, and a bet with some slippery stakes, never let it be said that Moffat County High School track and field athletes don't make their season exciting right up until the very end.


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Finding Your Database Admin URL
You can use the Admin URL in the Control Panel of your hosting account to directly access your MySQL database.
To Find Your Database Admin URL
- Log in to your GoDaddy account.
- Click Web Hosting.
- Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
- From the Databases menu, click MySQL.
- Next to the database you want to access, click Actions.
- Click Details.
- The Admin URL is the URL you can use to directly access your database.


text:
Communication error message on Epson printer
Episodic1 18:37 12 Dec 2018
What is Markdown?
Markdown lets you add more formatting to your post. Simply type in your post and it will display as written.
If you wish to add bold or italic characters, add a hyperlink to another website, a heading or a horizontal line, simply use the relevent icons above the text input field.
A preview of your post will appear in the grey box below. If you make a change and you're not happy, simply press the back arrow icon to undo.


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Ricklinger Straße (Apartment 11)
4 rooms 8 beds 1 bathroom, 1 additional shower kitchen 110 m2
Traffic connections Ricklinger Straße
The apartment is conveniently located to downtown and exhibition grounds in Hanover.
From metro station "Hannover Stadionbrücke", which is located 300 meters away from the apartment, you can reach downtown with lines 3 and 7 in four minutes. Heading forward to the fairground, change at metro station "Kröpcke" to the lines 8 (Messe Nord, 16 minutes) or 6 (Messe Ost, about 20 minutes).
By car you reach both destinations within a few minutes (downtown: 3.5 km, fairground: 10 km via expressway). Free public parking is available at the apartment.


text:
Search WeAreHairy.com:
Kaysy is wearing her floral dress in her beautiful bedroom. The dress and panties that cover her hairy pussy come off. She bends over, stands up, and lays back showing the camera her hairy bush.
Home |
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© 2009—2019 WeAreHairy.com All Rights Reserved. …


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[CLJ-1517] Unrolled small vectors Created: 01/Sep/14 Updated: 18/May/16
|Affects Version/s:
|Release 1.7
|Fix Version/s:
|Zach Tellman
|collections, performance
|unrolled-collections-2.diff unrolled-collections.diff unrolled-vector-2.patch unrolled-vector.patch
As discussed on the mailing list [1], this patch has two unrolled variants of vectors and maps, with special inner classes for each cardinality. Currently both grow to six elements before spilling over into the general versions of the data structures, which is based on rough testing but can be easily changed. At Rich's request, I haven't included any integration into the rest of the code, and there are top-level static create() methods for each.
The sole reason for this patch is performance, both in terms of creating data structures and performing operations on them. This can be seen as a more verbose version of the trick currently played with PersistentArrayMap spilling over into PersistentHashMap. Based on the benchmarks, which can be run by cloning cambrian-collections [2] and running 'lein test :benchmark', this should supplant PersistentArrayMap. Performance is at least on par with PAM, and often much faster. Especially noteworthy is the creation time, which is 5x faster for maps of all sizes (lein test :only cambrian-collections.map-test/benchmark-construction), and on par for 3-vectors, but 20x faster for 5-vectors. There are similar benefits for hash and equality calculations, as well as calls to reduce().
This is a big patch (over 5k lines), and will be kind of a pain to review. My assumption of correctness is based on the use of collection-check, and the fact that the underlying approach is very simple. I'm happy to provide a high-level description of the approach taken, though, if that will help the review process.
I'm hoping to get this into 1.7, so please let me know if there's anything I can do to help accomplish that.
[1] https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/clojure-dev/pDhYoELjrcs
Patch: unrolled-vector-2.patch
Screener Notes: The approach is clear and understandable. Given the volume of generated code, I believe that best way to improve confidence in this code is to get people using it asap, and add collection-test [3] to the Clojure test suite. I would also like to get the generator [4] included in the Clojure repo. We don't need to necessarily automate running it, but would be nice to have it nearby if we want to tweak something later.
[3] https://github.com/ztellman/collection-check/blob/master/src/collection_check.clj
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 01/Sep/14 10:13 PM ]
Oh, I forgot to mention that I didn't make a PersistentUnrolledSet, since the existing wrappers can use the unrolled map implementation. However, it would be moderately faster and more memory efficient to have one, so let me know if it seems worthwhile.
|Comment by Nicola Mometto [ 02/Sep/14 5:23 AM ]
Zach, the patch you added isn't in the correct format, they need to be created using `git format-patch`
|Comment by Nicola Mometto [ 02/Sep/14 5:31 AM ]
Also, I'm not sure if this is on-scope with the ticket but those patches break with *print-dup*, as it expects a static create(x) method for each inner class.
I'd suggest adding a create(Map x) static method for the inner PersistentUnrolledMap classes and a create(ISeq x) one for the inner PersistentUnrolledVector classes
|Comment by Alex Miller [ 02/Sep/14 8:14 AM ]
Re making patches, see: http://dev.clojure.org/display/community/Developing+Patches
|Comment by Jozef Wagner [ 02/Sep/14 9:16 AM ]
I wonder what is the overhead of having meta and 2 hash fields in the class. Have you considered a version where the hash is computed on the fly and where you have two sets of collections, one with meta field and one without, using former when the actual metadata is attached to the collection?
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 02/Sep/14 12:13 PM ]
I've attached a patch using the proper method. Somehow I missed the detailed explanation for how to do this, sorry. I know the guidelines say not to delete previous patches, but since the first one isn't useful I've deleted it to minimize confusion.
I did the print-dup friendly create methods, and then realized that once these are properly integrated, 'pr' will just emit these as vectors. I'm fairly sure the create methods aren't necessary, so I've commented them out, but I'm happy to add them back in if they're useful for some reason I can't see.
I haven't given a lot of thought to memory efficiency, but I think caching the hashes are worthwhile. I can see an argument for creating a "with-meta" version of each collection, but since that would double the size of an already enormous patch, I think that should probably wait.
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 03/Sep/14 4:31 PM ]
I found a bug! Like PersistentArrayMap, I have a special code path for comparing keywords, but my generators for collection-check were previously using only integer keys. There was an off-by-one error in the transient map implementation [1], which was not present for non-keyword lookups.
I've taken a close look for other gaps in my test coverage, and can't find any. I don't think this substantively changes the risk of this patch (an updated version of which has been uploaded as 'unrolled-collections-2.diff'), but obviously where there's one bug, there may be others.
[1] https://github.com/ztellman/cambrian-collections/commit/eb7dfe6d12e6774512dbab22a148202052442c6d#diff-4bf78dbf5b453f84ed59795a3bffe5fcR559
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 03/Oct/14 2:34 PM ]
As an additional data point, I swapped out the data structures in the Cheshire JSON library. On the "no keyword-fn decode" benchmark, the current implementation takes 6us, with the unrolled data structures takes 4us, and with no data structures (just lexing the JSON via Jackson) takes 2us. Other benchmarks had similar results. So at least in this scenario, it halves the overhead.
Benchmarks can be run by cloning https://github.com/dakrone/cheshire, unrolled collections can be tested by using the 'unrolled-collections' branch. The pure lexing benchmark can be reproduced by messing around with the cheshire.parse namespace a bit.
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 06/Oct/14 1:31 PM ]
Is there no way to get this into 1.7? It's an awfully big win to push off for another year.
|Comment by Alex Miller [ 07/Oct/14 2:08 PM ]
Hey Zach, it's definitely considered important but we have decided to drop almost everything not fully done for 1.7. Timeframe for following release is unknown, but certainly expected to be significantly less than a year.
|Comment by John Szakmeister [ 30/Oct/14 2:53 PM ]
You are all free to determine the time table, but I thought I'd point out that Zach is not entirely off-base. Clojure 1.4.0 was released April 5th, 2012. Clojure 1.5.0 was released March 1st, 2013 with 1.6.0 showing up March 25th, 2014. So it appears that the current cadence is around a year.
|Comment by Alex Miller [ 30/Oct/14 3:40 PM ]
John, there is no point to comments like this. Let's please keep issue comments focused on the issue.
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 13/Nov/14 12:23 PM ]
I did a small write-up on this patch which should help in the eventual code review: http://blog.factual.com/using-clojure-to-generate-java-to-reimplement-clojure
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 07/Dec/14 10:34 PM ]
Per my conversation with Alex at the Conj, here's a patch that only contains the unrolled vectors, and uses the more efficient constructor for PersistentVector when spilling over.
|Comment by Alex Miller [ 08/Dec/14 1:10 PM ]
Zach, I created a new placeholder for the map work at http://dev.clojure.org/jira/browse/CLJ-1610.
|Comment by Jean Niklas L'orange [ 09/Dec/14 1:52 PM ]
It should probably be noted that core.rrb-vector will break for small vectors by this patch, as it peeks into the underlying structure. This will also break other libraries which peeks into the vector implementation internals, although I'm not aware of any other – certainly not any other contrib library.
Also, two comments on unrolled-vector.patch:
private transient boolean edit = true;
conj in the Transient implementation could invalidate itself without any problems (edit = false;) if it is converted into a TransientVector (i.e. spills over) – unless it has a notable overhead. The invalidation can prevent some subtle bugs related to erroneous transient usage.
|Comment by Alex Miller [ 09/Dec/14 1:58 PM ]
Jean - understanding the scope of the impact will certainly be part of the integration process for this patch. I appreciate the heads-up. While we try to minimize breakage for things like this, it may be unavoidable for libraries that rely on implementation internals.
|Comment by Michał Marczyk [ 09/Dec/14 2:03 PM ]
I'll add support for unrolled vectors to core.rrb-vector the moment they land on master. (Probably with some conditional compilation so as not to break compatibility with earlier versions of Clojure – we'll see when the time comes.)
|Comment by Michał Marczyk [ 09/Dec/14 2:06 PM ]
I should say that it'd be possible to add generic support for any "vector lookalikes" by pouring them into regular vectors in linear time. At first glance it seems to me that that'd be out of line with the basic promise of the library, but I'll give it some more thought before the changes actually land.
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 09/Dec/14 5:43 PM ]
Somewhat predictably, the day after I cut the previous patch, someone found an issue [1]. In short, my use of the ArrayChunk wrapper applied the offset twice.
This was not caught by collection-check, which has been updated to catch this particular failure. It was, however, uncovered by Michael Blume's attempts to merge the change into Clojure, which tripped a bunch of alarms in Clojure's test suite. My own attempt to do the same to "prove" that it worked was before I added in the chunked seq functionality, hence this issue persisting until now.
As always, there may be more issues lurking. I hope we can get as many eyeballs on the code between now and 1.8 as possible.
[1] https://github.com/ztellman/cambrian-collections/commit/2e70bbd14640b312db77590d8224e6ed0f535b43
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 10/Jul/15 1:54 PM ]
As a companion to the performance analysis in the unrolled map issue, I've run the benchmarks and posted the results at https://gist.github.com/ztellman/10e8959501fb666dc35e. Some notable results:
|Comment by Alex Miller [ 13/Jul/15 9:02 AM ]
Stu: I do not think this patch should be marked "screened" until the actual integration and build work (if the generator is integrated) has been completed.
|Comment by Alex Miller [ 14/Jul/15 4:33 PM ]
FYI, we have "reset" all big features for 1.8 for the moment (except the socket repl work). We may still include it - that determination will be made later.
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 14/Jul/15 4:43 PM ]
Okay, any idea when the determination will be made? I was excited that we seemed to be finally moving forward on this.
|Comment by Alex Miller [ 14/Jul/15 4:51 PM ]
No, but it is now on my work list.
|Comment by Rich Hickey [ 15/Jul/15 8:17 AM ]
I wonder if all of the overriding of APersistentVector yields important benefits - e.g. iterator, hashcode etc.
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 15/Jul/15 11:51 AM ]
In the case of hashcode, definitely: https://gist.github.com/ztellman/10e8959501fb666dc35e#file-gistfile1-txt-L1013-L1076. This was actually one of the original things I wanted to speed up.
In the case of the iterator, probably not. I'd be fine removing that.
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 16/Jul/15 5:17 PM ]
So am I to infer from https://github.com/clojure/clojure/commit/36d665793b43f62cfd22354aced4c6892088abd6 that this issue is defunct? If so, I think there's a lot of improvements being left on the table for no particular reason.
|Comment by Rich Hickey [ 16/Jul/15 6:34 PM ]
Yes, that commit covers this functionality. It takes a different approach from the patch in building up from a small core, and maximizing improvements to the bases rather than having a lot of redundant definitions per class. That also allowed for immediate integration without as much concern for correctness, as there is little new code. It also emphasizes the use case for tuples, e.g. small vectors used as values that won't be changed, thus de-emphasizing the 'mutable' functions. I disagree that many necessary improvements are being left out. The patch 'optimized' many things that don't matter. Further, there are not big improvements to the pervasive inlining. In addition, the commit includes the integration work at a fraction of the size of the patch. In all, it would have taken much more back and forth to get the patch to conform with this approach than to just get it all done, but I appreciate the inspiration and instigation - thanks!
|Comment by Rich Hickey [ 16/Jul/15 6:46 PM ]
That said, this commit need not be the last word - it can serve as a baseline for further optimization. But I'd rather that be driven by need. Clojure could become 10x as large optimizing things that don't matter.
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 19/Jul/15 1:36 PM ]
What is our reference for "relevant" performance? I (or anyone else) can provide microbenchmarks for calculating hashes or whatever else, but that doesn't prove that it's an important improvement. I previously provided benchmarks for JSON decoding in Cheshire, but that's just one of many possible real-world benchmarks. It might be useful to have an agreed-upon list of benchmarks that we can use when debating what is and isn't useful.
|Comment by Mike Anderson [ 19/Jul/15 11:14 PM ]
I was interested in this implementation so created a branch that integrates Zach's unrolled vectors on top of clojure 1.8.0-alpha2. I also simplified some of the code (I don't think the metadata handling or unrolled seqs are worthwhile, for example)
Github branch: https://github.com/mikera/clojure/tree/clj-1517
Then I ran a set of micro-benchmarks created by Peter Taoussanis
Results: https://gist.github.com/mikera/72a739c84dd52fa3b6d6
My findings from this testing:
My view is that these additional optimisations are worthwhile. In particular, I think that reduce and into are very important operations. I also care about mapv quite a lot for core.matrix (It's fundamental to many numerical operations on arrays implemented using Clojure vectors).
Happy to create a patch along these lines if it would be acceptable.
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 19/Jul/15 11:45 PM ]
The `reduce` improvements are likely due to the unrolled reduce and kvreduce impls, but the others are probably because of the unrolled transient implementation. The extra code required to add these would be pretty modest.
|Comment by Mike Anderson [ 20/Jul/15 9:20 PM ]
I actually condensed the code down to a single implementation for `Transient` and `TupleSeq`. I don't think these really need to be fully unrolled for each Tuple type. That helps by making the code even smaller (and probably also helps performance, given JVM inline caching etc.)
|Comment by Peter Taoussanis [ 21/Jul/15 11:46 AM ]
Hey folks,
Silly question: is there actually a particular set of reference benchmarks that everyone's currently using to test the work on tuples? It took me a while to notice how bad the variance was with my own set of micro benchmarks.
Bumping all the run counts up till the noise starts ~dying down, I'm actually seeing numbers now that don't seem to agree with others here .
Google Docs link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QHY3lehVF-aKrlOwDQfyDO5SLkGeb_uaj85NZ7tnuL0/edit?usp=sharing
Thanks, cheers!
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 21/Jul/15 6:52 PM ]
Hey Peter, I can't reproduce your results, and some of them are so far off what I'd expect that I have to think there was some data gathering error. For instance, the assoc operation being slower is kind of inexplicable, considering the unrolled version doesn't do any copying, etc. Also, all of your numbers are significantly slower than the ones on my 4 year old laptop, which is also a bit strange.
Just to make sure that we're comparing apples to apples, I've adapted your benchmarks into something that pretty-prints the mean runtime and variance for 1.7, 1.8-alpha2, and Mike's 1517 fork. It can be found at https://github.com/ztellman/tuple-benchmark, and the results of a run at https://gist.github.com/ztellman/3701d965228fb9eda084.
|Comment by Mike Anderson [ 22/Jul/15 2:24 AM ]
Hey Zach just looked at your benchmarks and they are definitely more consistent with what I am seeing. The overall nanosecond timings look about right from my experience with similar code (e.g. working with small vectors in vectorz-clj).
|Comment by Peter Taoussanis [ 22/Jul/15 2:41 AM ]
Hi Zach, thanks for that!
Have updated the results -
Note that I've added an extra sheet/tab to the Google doc for your own numbers at https://gist.github.com/ztellman/3701d965228fb9eda084.
Am still struggling to produce results that show any consistent+significant post-JIT benefit to either of the tuple implementations against the micro benchmarks and one larger small-vec-heavy system I had handy.
It's looking to me like it's maybe possible that the JIT's actually optimising away most of the non-tuple inefficiencies in practice?
Of course it's very possible that my results are off, or my expectations wrong. The numbers have been difficult to pin down.
It definitely helped to have a standardised reference micro benchmark to work against (https://github.com/ztellman/tuple-benchmark). Could I perhaps suggest a similar reference macro benchmark (maybe something from core.matrix, Mike?)
Might also be a good idea to define a worthwhile target performance delta for ops like these that run in the nanosecond range (or for the larger reference macro benchmark)?
Just some thoughts from someone passing through in case they're at all useful; know many of you have been deeply involved in this for some time so please feel free to ignore any input that's not helpful
Appreciate all the efforts, cheers!
|Comment by Rich Hickey [ 22/Jul/15 9:24 AM ]
I think everyone should back off on their enthusiasm for this approach. After much analysis, I am seeing definite negative impacts to tuples, especially the multiple class approach proposed by Zach. What happens in real code is that the many tuple classes cause call sites that see different sized vectors to become megamorphic, and nothing gets adequately optimized. In particular, call sites that will see tuple-sized and large vectors (i.e. a lot of library code) will optimize differently depending upon which they see often first. So, if you run your first tight loop on vector code that sees tuples, that code could later do much worse (50-100%) on large vectors than before the tuples patch was in place. Being much slower on large collections is a poor tradeoff for being slightly faster on small ones.
Certainly different tuple classes for arity 0-6 is a dead idea. You get as good or better optimization (at some cost in size) from a single class e.g. one with four fields, covering sizes 0-4. I have a working version of this in a local branch. It is better in that sites that include pvectors are only bi-morphic, but I am still somewhat skittish given what I've seen.
The other takeaway is that the micro benchmarks are nearly worthless for detecting these issues.
|Comment by Zach Tellman [ 22/Jul/15 11:07 AM ]
I'm pretty sure that all of my real-world applications of the tuples (via clj-tuple) have been fixed cardinality, and wouldn't have surfaced any such issue. Thanks for putting the idea through its paces.
|Comment by Mike Anderson [ 22/Jul/15 10:37 PM ]
Rich these are good insights - do you have a benchmark that you are using as representative of real world code?
I agree that it is great if we can avoid call sites becoming megamorphic, though I also believe the ship has sailed on that one already when you consider the multiple types of IPersistentVector that already exist (MapEntry, PersistentVector, SubVector plus any library-defined IPersistentVector instances such as clojure.core.rrb-vector). As a consequence, the JVM is usually not going to be able to prove that a specific IPersistentVector interface invocation is monomorphic, which is when the really big optimisations happen.
In most of the real world code that I've been working with, the same size/type of vector gets used repeatedly (Examples: iterating over map entries, working with a sequence of size-N vectors), so in such cases we should be able to rely on the polymorphic inline cache doing the right thing.
The idea of a single Tuple class for sizes 0-4 is interesting, though I can't help thinking that a lot of the performance gain from this may stem from the fact that a lot of code does stuff like (reduce conj [] .....) or the transient equivalent which is a particularly bad use case for Tuples, at least from the call site caching perspective. There may be a better way to optimise such cases rather than simply trying to make Tuples faster.... e.g. calling asTransient() on a Tuple0 could perhaps switch straight into the PersistentVector implementation.
|Comment by Colin Fleming [ 18/May/16 8:32 PM ]
Here's a relevant issue from Google's Guava project, where they also found serious performance degradation with fixed-size collections: https://github.com/google/guava/issues/1268. It has a lot of interesting detail about how the performance breaks down.


text:
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (AP) — A series of unorthodox decisions by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie points to a simple political calculation for a potential presidential campaign: long-term gain beats short-term pain.
Christie last week refused to appoint a fellow Republican to complete the full 17 months of the late Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg's term. Instead the governor scheduled a special election for October and named the state's attorney general, Republican Jeff Chiesa, to serve in the interim.
A week earlier, he made his second post-Superstorm Sandy appearance with President Barack Obama along the Jersey shore. Last summer, Christie's keynote address at the Republican National Convention focused heavily on his own record instead of the party's nominee, Mitt Romney.
In each case, the Republican reaction has ranged from sharp criticism in public to muted carping in private, with insiders suggesting that Christie is proving himself to be a shrewd politician who puts his own political career first over his party's needs.
Republican Dick Armey, a former U.S. House majority leader from Texas, said Christie's Senate race decision was "debilitating stupidity."
The complaints are remarkably reminiscent of Democrats' concerns with Obama over the years.
Not that Christie seems to care about the gripes.
"There's no political purpose. The political purpose is to give the people a voice," he said last week, shrugging off GOP criticism from Capitol Hill over the Senate election schedule.
All this came just a few months after Christie disclosed that he had undergone secret weight-loss surgery, which addressing both a political and health vulnerability, just days after lashing out against critics of his weight.
Christie has shown he's willing to take some heat from fellow Republicans now for actions that could benefit him in the future, perhaps for a 2016 presidential campaign. Outside of Obama, few other political leaders can command attention like Christie, and he has used it forge a bipartisan, tell-it-like-it-is reputation that has helped him generate high approval ratings during his first term and bolster his re-election chances.
Christie's approach, however, carries some risk.
He could alienate the very Republicans he would need to win a presidential primary campaign, when the electorate is filled with conservative stalwarts who don't look kindly on working across the aisle. These high-profile moments create the impression among Republican donors and insiders that Christie's own political self-interest trumps the needs of the party.
"He's playing the long game," said Hank Sheinkopf, a New York-based Democratic strategist. He suggested that Christie's crossover appeal could make him a formidable figure but Republicans might not be as forgiving if the governor's re-election campaign fails to produce a sweeping victory.
"He has to hope that his numbers are so high in the fall that it offsets anger from national Republicans," Sheinkopf said. "It doesn't injure him if he wins very big and wins big with Democrats. If not, then his brand is tarnished."
Christie's defenders say he was a loyal soldier to Romney during the campaign and simply put his state first after Sandy struck. They say that a quick Senate special election was in the state's best interests and that he's focused on his re-election race, not 2016.
Even so, Christie seems to be betting that a landslide victory against state Sen. Barbara Buono, a relatively unknown opponent in Democratic-tilting New Jersey, will help him make the case that if Christie does run for the White House, he has the ability to reach a diverse set of voters.
A big victory in New Jersey could help him argue that he could reach women, Latinos and black voters, who have flocked to Obama, and untangle Washington's gridlock after Obama's two terms.
"What we want to do is to create a whole new coalition, not just of Republicans but of independents and of right-thinking Democrats," Christie said Tuesday during a GOP primary night party in Bridgewater. "Not just of people in the suburbs but of people in the cities. Not just of people of wealth but of people who aspire to wealth. We can do it together and we will do it together."
In the week ahead, Christie is scheduled to hold events that underscore his ability to reach voters outside the typical Republican electorate, unlike Romney, who struggled to win over non-white voters.
Friday will offer a telling contrast.
While a group of potential GOP presidential contenders court evangelicals at Ralph Reed's Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, Christie will attend the Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in Chicago with former President Bill Clinton, creating images that can only enhance his standing with moderate voters and Democrats back home.
That appearance is all but certain to further irk Republicans.
Many were annoyed by Christie's decision to call for a special election in October to fill Lautenberg's Senate seat, even though the governor goes before voters three weeks later. The move helped Christie avoid being on the same ballot as Newark Mayor Cory Booker, the likely Democratic Senate nominee who could compel his party to turn out and weaken Christie's vote totals, and it could help Republicans campaigning for seats in the Legislature.
Republicans had hoped to have another vote in the Senate until November 2014 but Christie's decision left Republicans scrambling to find a candidate in a compressed time period. Chiesa will be a placeholder until October.
When asked about the special election's $24 million cost, Christie said he didn't know the cost "and I quite frankly, don't care."
Kentucky's Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the U.S. Senate, begged off pointed criticism, saying he wouldn't "question the path that he has chosen." But some conservatives teed off more directly on Christie, with Rush Limbaugh suggesting the governor might seek the Democratic nomination for president. "You talk about slap in the face," Limbaugh said.
Christie defended his decision, saying holding the election at a later date would have generated lawsuits from Democrats and voters should have a "voice and choice" on their next senator. "I will not permit the insiders and a few party elites to determine who the nominee of the Republican party and the Democratic party will be," he said.
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Before the American Revolution, the state church of Georgia was the Church of England (the Anglican Church, or Protestant Episcopal Church). Besides keeping parish registers, the church kept many records of a civil nature in their vestry books. The Vestry was as much a political body as a religious one. The wardens and commissioners were responsible for the roads, education, the poor and orphans, voting and collecting taxes in addition to their church duties.
St. Philip Parish (location, GA) was officially created in 1758 as an original colonial parish.
Borders: Christ Church, St. George, St. John, and St. Matthew parishes. For a map, see: Map of Georgia's Colonial Parishes (courtesy: GeorgiaInfo).
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DALLAS (AP) Dirk Nowitzki was hoping to be back on the court sooner, even when the Dallas Mavericks were saying after his surgery that it could be at least six weeks before any basketball activity.
The perennial All-Star forward instead is finding out just how difficult and frustrating it can be recovering from surgery.
Nowitzki said Tuesday that he's still about two weeks away from getting back on the court to start running and shooting. That would put him at just more than six weeks since arthroscopic surgery on his right knee Oct. 19 - and he still isn't sure when he will start playing again after that.
``Unfortunately, I tried, but I couldn't cut the time down,'' Nowitzki said. ``I was obviously hoping to cut that time a lot shorter. It's been a frustrating time for me, especially watching and nothing I can really do. So there have been some hard days, some frustrating days. ... But I think now it's gotten better this last week or so and now I guess I'm seeing the end of the tunnel.''
Nowitzki, who never had surgery in his first 14 NBA seasons, said the goal has always been for the swelling to be gone and he has to be 100 percent strength-wise before he will play again. There are still good days and bad days with the swelling.
``Once that goal is reached, then I can obviously think about playing again,'' he said. ``But I think we're still far away from that.''
He was able this week to increase his off-court workload, including leg presses and getting back on an elliptical machine.
The 34-year-old, 7-foot German decided to have surgery after problems with swelling early in training camp. Nowitzki had issues with the same knee two seasons ago when he missed time before the Mavs won their only NBA title, then skipped a week last January to strengthen and condition that knee.
The Mavericks (6-6) are trying to get by with eight new players. They could go 20 games or more before getting a chance to play with Nowitzki.
``Dirk will get there. And we know he'll be back at some point. But nobody knows exactly when that's going to be,'' coach Rick Carlisle said. ``For right now, we've got to press forward with the guys we have and we've got to take up the slack in some of these areas where we're having some slippage and where we're losing ground.''
Nowitzki said it's been tough to sit and watch knowing there are ways he could help if he was playing.
But he has no plans to rush himself back, like he had to do after the NBA lockout following the championship season.
``I need to make sure everything's right before I come back. I can't rush. I'm hoping maybe after these two years to play a couple more years,'' he said. ``So it would be the wrong thing now to push it and come back too early and maybe make something worse for the long term. So it's been learning to be patient the last couple weeks. It's not my favorite thing to do.''
When asked if there had been any setbacks in his rehabilitation, Nowitzki said it's just been a slow process that he didn't expect since he had never had surgery before.
Nowitzki said doctors didn't find anything ``that was crazy or anything unexpected'' during the surgery. He figures 14 NBA seasons, and playing on the German national team during the summers, just took its toll on his knee.
``I'm always a fast healer, so when I heard I'm doing this rehab, in my head I'm thinking I'm playing in 2, 3 weeks. But it just didn't work out that way,'' he said. ``It's a piece of work, but it's getting better from here.''


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Her eyes opened with the sound of the crickets. She loved their song. The clock said 4:40. "No point in sleeping any longer, five will be here in no time may as well just get up and go for a walk!" she thought.
It was a clear ...
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Food for Thought
Juice May Slow Prostate Cancer Growth (with recipe)
Prostate cancer will claim the lives of an estimated 30,000 men in the United States this year. The second leading cause of cancer death in men, its incidence climbs with age. In Western countries, the disease is reaching nearly epidemic proportions among the elderly. However, the cancer can grow so slowly that many men with prostate cancer will die of something else first....


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Welcome, and thanks for dropping by to visit the Duff Mandolins website. I hope you enjoy taking a look around the workshop and seeing what I am up to. I run a one man workshop and I like to take a hands-on approach to building my instruments. I mean 'hands-on' both figuratively and literally here. I do like to keep my hands on the instrument throughout the entire building process; it helps me get a feel for the progress of each particular instrument.
I like the process of developing each of the varied skill sets involved in luthierie. Consequently, I don't use a CNC router. By spending so many years hand carving, hand colouring and French polishing, I feel as though I've had the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of how to get the most out of each set of materials.
From time to time I'll be sharing my thoughts and some images on instruments from the latest batch on the 'What's On The Bench' page.
Please feel free to contribute your comments. You can email me directly through the 'Contact' page.
Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.


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The weekend of June 4 dawned rainy. It rained atop the tents, rained across the lawns, and poured mercilessly into those few passageways we had left uncovered. Yet the nearly 1,300 indomitable women—strong, beautiful, and apparently waterproof Barnard women—didn't seem to care. For two and a half days, they trooped to lectures, gathered to converse on couches, and reveled in being on campus and together again. According to Barnard College security, they were even, umm, a little rowdy.
For me, Barnard's 112th Reunion was a wonderful way to close a jam-packed year. From the extraordinary women of the Class of 1933 who sipped sherry with me on Friday to the inspiring Joya Banerjee '04, who received the Young Alumna Award on Saturday night, our alumnae were spirited and thoughtful, devoted and wise. It was a pleasure to meet so many new faces and reconnect with a growing number of friends.
After a tumultuous 12 months, the College is ending this fiscal and academic year in strong shape. We graduated 632 amazing young women in the Class of 2009 and enrolled 595 equally exciting women into the Class of 2013. We celebrated Hillary Clinton, Indra Nooyi, Irene Winter '60, and Kay Murray at commencement and are eagerly awaiting the opening of the newly named Diana Center in February. In the coming year, we will launch the Athena Center for Leadership Studies, an innovative program to explore the question of women's leadership in a liberal-arts context, and we will welcome more than two dozen visiting students from partner schools in China, Denmark, Italy, and Korea.
Financially, like other colleges and universities, we continue to face turbulent times. Although the massive instability of last autumn seems, we hope, now behind us, credit markets remain strained, our endowment funds have suffered major losses, and many of our students' families have been hit hard. To deal with these pressures, we implemented a series of tough measures this past year, including a freeze on faculty and staff salaries, a significant reduction in our non-personnel spending, and zero-based budgeting reviews of several administrative areas. Because the College has long been vigilant in monitoring expenses, we were fortunate to have excellent systems already in place for scrutinizing our spending and further reducing our costs. Because we have been frugal for so long, however, we also had less waste in our existing budget than many of our peers and fewer easy cuts to make. Our spending reductions have therefore been painful, and we have tried to make them as carefully as possible, preserving or even enhancing those functions that are critical to our mission: educating women who aspire to excellence.
In these tough times, we are particularly grateful to those who have stepped forward to support the College. Over the past year, our annual fund and scholarship dinner together raised $5.9 million, a remarkable commitment by past generations of alumnae to our current generation of students. Many alumnae, from those in the earliest classes to those who graduated last year, dramatically increased their gifts, eager to ensure that the economic downturn did not fall too heavily on the College or on the nearly 1,000 students currently receiving financial aid.
Personally, I want to thank you all for the warmth and excitement with which you have welcomed me to Barnard. It's been an inspiring first year, and I look forward to many great reunions to come.
-Photograph by Margaret Lambert


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Everywhere I look lately, I feel as though I can not escape negative press and stories about the second largest religion in the world. This sort of rhetoric is distressing and a little scary, especially in such a tolerant nation. What I don't see in the presses is the positive impact Islam has on individuals and communities. Often the mainstream media picks up the sensational story and shies away from the positive, "boring" stories. However, aside from all the rhetoric and negative focus in the media, Islam, like any religion, has a positive impact.
One exciting new trend we have heard about in the Islam world is the focus on Green. More and more followers of this religion are focusing on the Quran's lessons on the environment. Although unreported in the mainstream media, the Huffington Post recently published a fantastic article entitled "Muslims Go Green For Ramadan," about one Israeli man who began an environmental movement within his religion. Mohammad Rabah created a national conference to educate imams on the greener side to the Quran, creating videos and other educational materials. Rabah aims to show imams as well as the world that the Quran teaches the "importance of moderation, conservation and environmentalism."
This idea especially becomes important during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, which already inspires conservation. Rabah's message has been picked up by many in the Islamic community around the world, encouraging them to conserve everything from gas to water. The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago organized a "Green Ramadan" and even handed out "Green Ramadan Resource Packs," which provided information on recycling and sustainable paper products. Zaher Sahloul, a chairperson on the council, relates his insight: "Our lives are becoming full of excesses and indulgences. We use fasting in Ramadan to cap our eating, our drinking and our impulses, so why do we not use it to protect our planet?"
Beyond the month of Ramadan, the Green Islamic Movement is spreading throughout the world. In the UK a group called Inspired by Muhammed focuses on the socially progressive teachings of Islam such as animal welfare, environmentalism, and human rights. Here in the States, there are several environmental Muslim groups such as the grassroots Muslim Green Team and the US capital city's DC Green Muslims. Another exciting development in the Green Islam world is the construction of the now hotly-contested Park 51 in New York City, which will be the country's first LEED-certified Islamic community center, a fact also ignored by many in the media.
It is interesting how religion, faith, and spirituality can tie into one's commitment to the environment, but I think it is an important development. Our Earth is something we all have in common, no matter what creed or lack there-of we subscribe to. I think it is essential that we highlight the reasons people care about the environment, all groups that are involved in the movement, and make new, exciting developments known. I find it inspirational that so many Islamic groups and devotees are drawing from the teachings of this religion to better our environment. However, I do wish mainstream media and the public at large would pay closer attention to the positive side of religion and let go of their negative emotions, preconceived notions and stereotypes, so together we can focus on making our world a better place.
-Gina Williams


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Visitors to Medical/Surgical and Special Care Units must be at least 14 years old.
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Epic 6
Also See: → Epic 6/Character Creation
What is E6?
E6 Stands for Epic 6.
Earlier this year Ryan Dancey suggested that D&D has four distinct quartiles of play:
Levels 1-5: Gritty fantasy
Levels 6-10: Heroic fantasy
Levels 11-15: Wuxia
Levels 16-20: Superheroes
There's been some great discussion about how to define those quartiles, and how each different quartile suited some groups better than others.
E6 is a game about those first 2 quartiles, and as a result, it has fewer rules, a low-magic flavor, and it is quick and easy to prepare. I have playtested the system extensively with my crew, and it works as intended. There seems to be a lot of lively debate about E6, and some real interest in how it works, so I've revised it here.
How E6 works
Like D&D, E6 is a game of enigmatic wizards, canny rogues, and mighty warriors who rise against terrible dangers and overcome powerful foes. But instead of using D&D's 20 levels to translate characters into the rules, E6 uses only the first 6. E6 is about changing one of D&D's essential assumptions, but despite that it doesn't need a lot of rules to do so.
In E6, the stats of an average person are the stats of a 1st-level commoner. Like their medieval counterparts, this person has never travelled more than a mile from their home. Imagine a 6th-level Wizard or 6th-level Fighter from the commoner's perspective. The wizard could kill everyone in your village with a few words. The fighter could duel with ten armed guards in a row and kill every one of them. If you spot a manticore, everyone you know is in terrible, terrible danger. Against such a creature, the wizard or fighter may be your only hope. E6 recognizes that 6th level characters are mortal, while providing a context where they are epic heroes.
Levels 1 to 6 was the period where a character comes into his own, where a crash course in action and danger transforms them from 1st-level commoners into capable fighting men (or corpses). Once transformed by their experiences, a character's growth is no longer a continuous, linear progression. There are still major differences between the master warriors and the veteran mercenaries, but it's not a change of scale.
Character progression from level 1 to level 6 is as per D&D. Upon attaining 6th level, for each 5000 experience a character gains, they earn a new feat. A diverse selection of feats should be made available in any E6 campaign, however, feats with unattainable prerequisites under this system remain unattainable.
For the purpose of experience awards, treat each 5 feats as +1 CR (or level), to an upper limit of 20 feats. After this, a ratio of 10 feats to 1 CR can be used, as it becomes more and more difficult to bring all a character's feats to bear in a given situation. Alternatively, and at the GM's option, player-characters with more than 20 feats can simply be always treated as if they were level 10 for experience and challenge purposes.
For the GM
E6 isn't just a change for the players: Monsters are presented differently than in d20. Just as level 6 parties in D&D aren't expected to tangle with monsters higher than CR 10, the mighty monsters of E6 require special consideration for presentation in-game. E6 characters aren't intended to go up against high-level D&D threats under the same circumstances as high-level D&D characters; those creatures, if they are defeatable at all, require the kind of resources and planning far beyond the typical D&D encounter.
In terms of raw rules, CR 7-10 monsters are an excellent guide for what E6 characters can handle. As they rise to around the 20-feat range, the range is more like 7-12. Beyond that, a DM should take monsters in the CR 7-12 range and use feats (and to a lesser extent templates) to advance them. Hit die or class-based advancement beyond CR 12, or base monsters above CR 12 should generally be avoided as straight-up fights.
Of course, not every monstrous encounter is a straight-up fight. For example, insane horrors from another age might be a reason to run, and there is little a character could do in the face of an angry Titan. But these situations don't call for direct confrontation, except with some special resource or amazing circumstance. Perhaps, in a special ritual with the presence of 20 mages, a Titan can be bound to the mortal realm (lowering its stats to an Aspect of Kord), with whom the players can do battle. Again, that's far from a straight-up fight with a CR 20 creature, but we can console ourselves with the fact that it's probably a very memorable encounter.
If, as a result of the restrictions on items, an item cannot be created, then it should not be distributed as normal treasure. Like high-level monsters, such items should be placed carefully and built to make sense in the context of your game. For example, a +4 sword can't be made by a human wizard, but it could be crafted by a Titan (which makes for great god-stats). That's a sword that no mortal can make.
E6 will always inherit D&D's balance issues at the same level, especially issues that result from scenarios where those characters D&D characters have long periods of downtime. The best approach is to be cognizant of these issues when considering what feats to allow in your E6 game.
On Allowing Feats
There are 3 philosophies on what feats to allow in an E6 game, each more generous than the last: 1) The Cautious Approach 2) The Gestalt Approach 3) The Lean Upward Approach
The Cautious Approach is exactly what it sounds like – a GM chooses what feats to allow in his E6 game very, very carefully. This GM does not make exceptions or new feats to accommodate players chaacter concepts - he chooses what feats to allow and the players agree to work within that framework.
The Gestalt Approach dictates that if an ability can be learned under 6th level, then it's learnable via some chain of feats. The Gestalt Approach usually means all WotC sources are available, as well as a few extra feats to provide ways to learn class features. These can be done on an ad-hoc basis for a given player or they can be gathered from sources like the Book of Unusual Feats. The Gestalt theory is the one used in playtesting.
The Lean Upward Approach looks at the Gestalt Approach and says "6th level plus many feats is clearly more powerful than 6th level. Thus, it won't be game-breaking to allow feat chains that bring characters from 6th level to 8th level, although this progression should be quite slow." GMs who like the Lean Upward approach might have feats to bring BAB to +8, or to gain 4th level spells, or 8th level class features, additional hit dice, and so on.
Key Points of Epic 6
1. Very fast play at every level of the campaign.
2. Focus on planning, not levelling. To defeat the black dragon Zolanderos, the CR 10 terror of Staunwark Island, the heroes will need help, special resources, and information. I want to further encourage party-directed adventuring, and if the heroes want to take on something 4 to 6 CR above them, then that's what they will require.
3. A low magic game that everyone knows how to play.
4. Never a need for meaningless encounters. The players can be involved in a dozen or so major combat scenarios (perhaps more than one encounter each) and have proven themselves and made a major accomplishment. See Lord of the Rings movies, or most fantasy novels.
5. Classic monsters stay classic throughout the campaign; Chimeras and Aboleths start scary, and stay scary. Dragons are always exciting encounters.
6. Even legendary heroes remain mortal; while a 6th level fighter who has taken toughness several times can take on a good mob, he isn't invulnerable. The sorcerer's 6d6 fireballs are phenomenal, but not so powerful that he can destroy a village and not fear retaliation.
7. Quicker prep. Make a 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 6th version of a sorcerer, and now you have a whole sorcerous dragon-cult that can last you through your whole campaign.
8. You can put what you've learned of the rules to good use. It's hard to know every 4th through 9th level spell out there; they're the ones we see the least. But we've seen 0th through 3rd level spells many, many times, and mastery over them is relatively simple.
9. E6 is a great system for on the fly GMing. If you're reasonably familiar with what a 2nd level threat looks like, power-wise, you can probably get away with running it without stats handy.
Extra Feats
Extra feats are shown on the Epic 6/Character Creation subpage. There are a wide variety of extra feats, including emulation of some prestige classes, and higher abilities. As a DM you should look through these and decide which ones you want to use.
The E6 FAQ
Using E6
Q: So characters just stop levelling at 6?
A: That's right. Characters who have reached level 6 have proven themselves, but this extremely rapid growth does not go on forever. Instead, they master specialized techniques, or become more versatile. This stage of a character's development is represented by gaining new feats.
Q: Does E6 change the stacking rules? For example, can I take Weapon Focus twice and have it stack? Can I take Skill Focus twice and have it stack?
A: The stacking rules remain the same as in standard D&D.
Q: What if I want there to be a higher level magical effect, but still use E6?
A:The rules for rituals in Unearthed Arcana are an excellent fit for E6, to support things like opening portals to another dimension, higher-level divinations, and so on. When a spell is a 3-day event requiring 20 mages, it's more of a plot point than a spell itself, and that makes it a great a springboard for challenging the players.
Q: As a DM, I like running things on the fly. Can E6 support that kind of play?
A: Absolutely. A DM that knows how to estimate the abilities of enemies in the low-level range can use that knowledge throughout the campaign. Likewise, familiarity breeds mastery – and for feats, spells, and monsters, there is more chance for a DM to become familiar with abilities in an appropriate range to the PCs, even if he is using a diverse selection of monsters. Furthermore, Dungeon Masters can get much more mileage out of their previous work: The stats of a 5th-level sorcerer written for 4th level PCs is still a useful tool months of gametime later against characters who are 6th level +10 feats.
Q: Can you make high-level items as a low-level caster in E6?
A: No, caster level requirements for magic items are treated as hard requirements.
Q: If a character took multiple classes, or Prestige Classes, suddenly you've got a guy with saves that are seriously out of whack. Is this a game-breaking issue?
A: If you multiclass that much, you're probably doing it to get the saves. In that situation, your saves are your special ability. Moreover, saves are passive abilities; the player doesn't control when their character uses a save, which gives them limited appeal compared to stuff the player can control. So if a player goes after them like crazy, and succeeds in having really exceptional saves – let them have their fun.
Q: I prefer stopping at around 8th level, does that work for this system?
A: The system will probably work about as well at 8th level, but note that "Epic 6th" characters do end up being more powerful than regular 6th level characters. Epic 6th may be what you want for a game that sits at the power level for Level 8, and Epic 8th may cater more closely to Level 10 style play.
Q: Does E6 work with a slower progression to level 6? Does it work when characters are created at 2nd level?
Yes and yes. I've tried both during my playtesting period. I'll be starting my new game at 3rd level.
Q: I'm not a big fan of experience points. Do you need a strict XP system to make E6 work?
A: An ad-hoc "gain a feat" approach would work absolutely 100% with this system. I used to do that with other systems (power up when the story makes it appropriate) and given the fact that the upper end of the power curve flattens off, that method should go very smoothly with E6.
Q: Can you use Prestige Classes with E6?
A: I'd recommend taking the same approach you take in your regular D&D game. If you allow Prestige Classes there, feel free to allow them here. Of course, characters capped at 6th level can usually take at most 1 level of a Prestige Class.
Q: With only 6 levels, how do races with a level adjustment work?
A:If you use races with a level adjustment, the 6th level cap is a big issue. Use the point buy rules in the DMG as follows:
LA Point buy
- +0 32
- +1 25
- +2 18
- +3 10
- +4 00
Thus, +LA races should start with zero LA, but use the point buy listed here. Keep in mind the difference between LA and racial hit dice (the two combine to give starting ECL).
Why is E6 Designed this way?
Q: Where did E6 come from? A: E6 was inspired by the article Gandalf was a Fifth-Level Magic User by Bill Seligman. The article was published in The Dragon (which became Dragon magazine) in issue #5, March 1977. When I first had the concept of E6, where we used the first six levels for the whole game, my very first step was pitching it to my players. Some thought it was a great idea, and the rest were willing to give it a try, so I gave it a shot. E6 worked really well for our tastes, and we've done lots of playing inside E6 since then. Back then E6 was a lot more convoluted than it is now: there were intricate quasi-gestalt rules and several other little things that weren't so much about the cap as they were about my group's thoughts on D&D class balance. Over time, we found that the only rules we were really using (on both sides of the screen) were the feat rules, and that was producing a great play experience. So when I returned to E6 just recently, that's how I wrote it up: As it was actually played.
Q: Why 6th level for the cap? Why not 12th, or 20th? A: My experience in D&D is that at around 6th level the characters are really nicely balanced, both in terms of balance against other classes, and against the CR system. Also, there was an element of setting assumptions; each class is strong enough that they're well defined in their role, but not so strong that lower-level characters don't matter to them any more.
Q: How did you arrive at the cost of 5000 xp per feat post 6th level? A: Originally, I considered that if I wasn't giving level 7, maybe 2 feats for the same price would be a good comprimise (3000xp / feat). That way they would have this great feeling of advancement without popping the top off the power level." But in play, the players found it was so fast that they did not have time to enjoy their new abilities. There just wasn't time in-game for their characters to grow, so I upped the cost to 5000 xp, and it works like a charm.
Q: Why not use [system of character points / experience purchases / incremental gestalt rules] instead of E6? A: Feats, if they don't work out in a particular case, are less controversial to tweak than, say, the XP table. If you find out that the XP table, or stats, or whatever else you've changed doesn't work for some players, it's a big deal to change it because it then affects everyone - and sometimes has effects that cascade through the system.
I have found that if a feat is too good, it's not that big a deal to say "Hey Ned, I think the feat I made for you is too good, but I don't want to take it away from you. I think it should have a prerequisite, like Skill Focus (Knowledge - nature) instead of being straight-up available. I'd like to leave you with it but say that your next feat needs to be that knowledge thing, rather than take it away now. We could do that, or if you want you could swap it out for something else. What do you think?"
It's important to me to keep the rule changes minimal, because players really don't want to read a lot outside of the game and they get frustrated if there's too many house rules.
2 years ago (before E6 was called E6) I worked up these complex gestalt XP-buy rules, but eventually my players and I realized that with all the options available all that was really getting used were feat purchasing, because they were so easy to approach.
Q: Why not just stop advancement at 6th, and have characters just not advance after that, or slow experience down so much that you can game for years and never get higher than 6th level? A: In my experience, players prefer to have characters that can grow – and have that growth reflected in the mechanics of the game.
Q: I like high-magic, high-powered campaigns. Is E6 for me? A: Probably not. Just as D&D can't be all things to all groups, E6 caters to a specific set of tastes.


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Yesterday morning a swarm of identical bright red bikes flew through the streets of Washington DC on their inaugural ride. Marking the start of the Capital Bikeshare program the cycles are part of a new program in the Nation's capital that hopes to encourage bike transport. The fleet is currently at 400 bikes but is expected to grow to 1,100 bikes by the end of October, making it the largest bikeshare in the country.
Using the bikes in the Capital Bikeshare program is as easy as pie. Anyone with a credit card can be a member and it costs $5 for one day, $25 for 30 days and $75 per year. The per use charge is free for the first half hour, $1.50 for the second 30 minutes, $3 for the third 30 minutes and $6 for every 30 minutes after that. The pricing is meant to encourage quick trips across town and to dissuade riders from taking long leisurely bike rides throughout the city. There are already more than 50 stations.
"What we have been able to accomplish and launch here today will be a legacy for a healthier, more vibrant city providing options for travelers looking for an alternate way to travel throughout the region now and for future generations," said D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty during the launch of the program yesterday. Fenty's bikeshare celebration comes on the heels of the partially popular D.C. mayor's loss of the democratic primary. Supporters of Fenty note his wild exuberance for biking as one of his positive qualities — he's more than doubled the amount of bike lanes since 2008. The bikeshare program in D.C. has come to fruition in just 12 months and hopefully will be a shining light for other US countries to jump on the bike transportation boat.


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Glory Versus the Cross
Mother Teresa was a living saint, according to the popular mind, compassionately caring for the sick and dying and projecting a love that brought cynical secularists to their knees. After her death, the Vatican put her on a fast track …Read More
The Blessed Rich in Spirit
There is real poverty in the world, more than we would care to admit. Jesus, after all, told us that the poor would always be with us. But just as all Israel are not Israel, so all the poor are …Read More
A Light in Dark Places
"The Holy Spirit has exhorted the faithful to continue clapping their hands for joy until the advent of the promised Redeemer," wrote John Calvin in a comment on Psalm 47:12. Paul would heartily concur! Writing from a prison cell …Read More
The Gospel Cure
Upon brief reflection it's easy to see that the remedy du jour for treating depression solely with medication is based upon very specific assumptions: that its genesis is always within the body (primarily the brain) and that we do not …Read More
The Heart of Depression
The causes of spiritual depression depend on how you define it. If spiritual is narrowly defined to mean depression that is caused by sin, the quest for a cause is over. But let's assume that all depression is spiritual depression …Read More
Regarding Depravity
I have a high regard for the depravity of man. Without contest, the supreme sinfulness of sinners is the most disregarded reality — the world over. The fall of man is quite possibly the most forgotten, under appreciated, and misunderstood event …Read More
The Dark Night of the Soul
The dark night of the soul. This phenomenon describes a malady that the greatest of Christians have suffered from time to time. It was the malady that provoked David to soak his pillow with tears. It was the malady that …Read More


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'Slender' is the Scariest Game You've Ever Played – Download For Free
I've played my fair share of scary video games, many of which aren't scary what-so-ever. Sure, I jumped when the zombie dogs crashed through the window on Resident Evil. Okay, fine, I wet myself a little when I played Silent Hill, but no game may be scarier than a simple game which you can play for free called 'Slender'
The premise seems simple enough. You're in the woods and you have to find pages that probably solve a mystery, I'm not exactly sure, I didn't play it long enough. The problem is the mythical Slender Man is watching your every move and he likes to pop into your flashlight vision every once in a while. When he does, it makes a thrilling sound that is sure to startle you and have you run in any other direction.
Some of the reaction videos are even better than the game itself.
Wanna give it a shot? Keep your money in your pocket. This game is free. You may need to use that money to buy a new pair of underwear.
You can also search the app store and Google Play for free, mobile versions of this. It's not exactly the same, but has the same feel.