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From PostgreSQL wiki
Information about the SSI implementation for the SERIALIZABLE transaction isolation level in PostgreSQL, new in release 9.1.
With true serializable transactions, if you can show that your transaction will do the right thing if there are no concurrent transactions, it will do the right thing in any mix of serializable transactions or be rolled back with a serialization failure.
This document is oriented toward the techniques used to implement the feature in PostgreSQL. For information oriented toward application programmers and database administrators, see the SSI Wiki page. Another description of SSI and how PostgreSQL's implementation differs from previous work is available in our paper Serializable Snapshot Isolation in PostgreSQL from VLDB 2012[5].
Serializable and Snapshot Transaction Isolation Levels
Serializable transaction isolation is attractive for shops with active development by many programmers against a complex schema because it guarantees data integrity with very little staff time -- if a transaction can be shown to always do the right thing when it is run alone (before or after any other transaction), it will always do the right thing in any mix of concurrent serializable transactions. Where conflicts with other transactions would result in an inconsistent state within the database or an inconsistent view of the data, a serializable transaction will block or roll back to prevent the anomaly. The SQL standard provides a specific SQLSTATE for errors generated when a transaction rolls back for this reason, so that transactions can be retried automatically.
Before version 9.1, PostgreSQL did not support a full serializable isolation level. A request for serializable transaction isolation actually provided snapshot isolation. This has well known anomalies which can allow data corruption or inconsistent views of the data during concurrent transactions; although these anomalies only occur when certain patterns of read-write dependencies exist within a set of concurrent transactions. Where these patterns exist, the anomalies can be prevented by introducing conflicts through explicitly programmed locks or otherwise unnecessary writes to the database. Snapshot isolation is popular because performance is better than serializable isolation and the integrity guarantees which it does provide allow anomalies to be avoided or managed with reasonable effort in many environments.
Serializable Isolation Implementation Strategies
Techniques for implementing full serializable isolation have been published and in use in many database products for decades. The primary technique which has been used is Strict Two-Phase Locking (S2PL), which operates by blocking writes against data which has been read by concurrent transactions and blocking any access (read or write) against data which has been written by concurrent transactions. A cycle in a graph of blocking indicates a deadlock, requiring a rollback. Blocking and deadlocks under S2PL in high contention workloads can be debilitating, crippling throughput and response time.
A new technique for implementing full serializable isolation in an MVCC database appears in the literature beginning in 2008[1][2]. This technique, known as Serializable Snapshot Isolation (SSI) has many of the advantages of snapshot isolation. In particular, reads don't block anything and writes don't block reads. Essentially, it runs snapshot isolation but monitors the read-write conflicts between transactions to identify dangerous structures in the transaction graph which indicate that a set of concurrent transactions might produce an anomaly, and rolls back transactions to ensure that no anomalies occur. It will produce some false positives (where a transaction is rolled back even though there would not have been an anomaly), but will never let an anomaly occur. In the two known prototype implementations, performance for many workloads (even with the need to restart transactions which are rolled back) is very close to snapshot isolation and generally far better than an S2PL implementation.
Apparent Serial Order of Execution
One way to understand when snapshot anomalies can occur, and to visualize the difference between the serializable implementations described above, is to consider that among transactions executing at the serializable transaction isolation level, the results are required to be consistent with some serial (one-at-a-time) execution of the transactions[4]. How is that order determined in each?
In S2PL, each transaction locks any data it accesses. It holds the locks until committing, preventing other transactions from making conflicting accesses to the same data in the interim. Some transactions may have to be rolled back to prevent deadlock. But successful transactions can always be viewed as having occurred sequentially, in the order they committed.
With snapshot isolation, reads never block writes, nor vice versa, so more concurrency is possible. The order in which transactions appear to have executed is determined by something more subtle than in S2PL: read/write dependencies. If a transaction reads data, it appears to execute after the transaction that wrote the data it is reading. Similarly, if it updates data, it appears to execute after the transaction that wrote the previous version. These dependencies, which we call "wr-dependencies" and "ww-dependencies", are consistent with the commit order, because the first transaction must have committed before the second starts. However, there can also be dependencies between two *concurrent* transactions, i.e. where one was running when the other acquired its snapshot. These "rw-conflicts" occur when one transaction attempts to read data which is not visible to it because the transaction which wrote it (or will later write it) is concurrent. The reading transaction appears to have executed first, regardless of the actual sequence of transaction starts or commits, because it sees a database state prior to that in which the other transaction leaves it.
Anomalies occur when a cycle is created in the graph of dependencies: when a dependency or series of dependencies causes transaction A to appear to have executed before transaction B, but another series of dependencies causes B to appear before A. If that's the case, then the results can't be consistent with any serial execution of the transactions.
SSI Algorithm
Serializable transaction in PostgreSQL are implemented using Serializable Snapshot Isolation (SSI), based on the work of Cahill, et al. Fundamentally, this allows snapshot isolation to run as it has, while monitoring for conditions which could create a serialization anomaly.
SSI is based on the observation[2] that each snapshot isolation anomaly corresponds to a cycle that contains a "dangerous structure" of two adjacent rw-conflict edges:
- Tin ----rw---> Tpivot ----rw---> Tout
SSI works by watching for this dangerous structure, and rolling back a transaction when needed to prevent any anomaly. This means it only needs to track rw-conflicts between concurrent transactions, not wr- and ww-dependencies. It also means there is a risk of false positives, because not every dangerous structure corresponds to an actual serialization failure.
The PostgreSQL implementation uses two additional optimizations:
- Tout must commit before any other transaction in the cycle (see proof of Theorem 2.1 of [2]). We only roll back a transaction if Tout commits before Tpivot and Tin.
- if Tin is read-only, there can only be an anomaly if Tout committed before Tin takes its snapshot. This optimization is an original one. Proof:
- Because there is a cycle, there must be some transaction T0 that precedes Tin in the serial order. (T0 might be the same as Tout).
- The dependency between T0 and Tin can't be a rw-conflict, because Tin was read-only, so it must be a ww- or wr-dependency. Those can only occur if T0 committed before Tin started.
- Because Tout must commit before any other transaction in the cycle, it must commit before T0 commits -- and thus before Tin starts.
PostgreSQL Implementation
Notable aspects of the PostgreSQL implementation of SSI include:
- Since this technique is based on Snapshot Isolation (SI), those areas in PostgreSQL which don't use SI can't be brought under SSI. This includes system tables, temporary tables, sequences, hint bit rewrites, etc. SSI can not eliminate existing anomalies in these areas.
- Any transaction which is run at a transaction isolation level other than SERIALIZABLE will not be affected by SSI. If you want to enforce business rules through SSI, all transactions should be run at the SERIALIZABLE transaction isolation level, and that should probably be set as the default.
- If all transactions are run at the SERIALIZABLE transaction isolation level, business rules can be enforced in triggers or application code without ever having a need to acquire an explicit lock or to use SELECT FOR SHARE or SELECT FOR UPDATE.
- Those who want to continue to use snapshot isolation without the additional protections of SSI (and the associated costs of enforcing those protections), can use the REPEATABLE READ transaction isolation level. This level retains its legacy behavior, which is identical to the old SERIALIZABLE implementation and fully consistent with the standard's requirements for the REPEATABLE READ transaction isolation level.
- Performance under this SSI implementation will be significantly improved if transactions which don't modify permanent tables are declared to be READ ONLY before they begin reading data.
- Performance under SSI will tend to degrade more rapidly with a large number of active database transactions than under less strict isolation levels. Limiting the number of active transactions through use of a connection pool or similar techniques may be necessary to maintain good performance.
- Any transaction which must be rolled back to prevent serialization anomalies will fail with SQLSTATE 40001, which has a standard meaning of "serialization failure".
- This SSI implementation makes an effort to choose the transaction to be cancelled such that an immediate retry of the transaction can not fail due to conflicts with exactly the same transactions. Pursuant to this goal, no transaction is cancelled until one of the other transactions in the set of conflicts which could generate an anomaly has successfully committed. This is conceptually similar to how write conflicts are handled.
- Modifying a heap tuple creates a rw-conflict with any transaction that holds a SIREAD lock on that tuple, or on the page or relation that contains it.
- Inserting a new tuple creates a rw-conflict with any transaction holding a SIREAD lock on the entire relation. It doesn't conflict with page-level locks, because page-level locks are only used to aggregate tuple locks. Unlike index page locks, they don't lock "gaps" on the page.
Current Status
Accepted as a feature for PostgreSQL 9.1!
Many thanks to Joe, Heikki, Jeff, and Anssi for posing questions and making suggestions which have led to improvements in the patch! Thanks to Markus for providing dtester at a critical juncture, which allowed progress to continue, and Heikki for developing the src/test/isolation code to move the dcheck tests into the main PostgreSQL testing framework. Also, thanks to the many who have participated in discussions along the way.
There are some features which should be considered for 9.2 once 9.1 is settled down; most notably integration with hot standby and fine-grained support for index AMs other than btree. Most other proposed work is related to possible performance improvements, which should each be carefully benchmarked before being accepted. At the top of that list is better optimization of de facto read only transactions -- those which aren't flagged as read only, but which don't actually do any writes to permanent database tables.
Development Path
In general, the approach taken was to try for the fastest possible implementation of a serializable isolation level which allowed no anomalies, even though it had many false positives and very poor performance, and then optimize until the rollback rate and overall performance were within a range which allows practical application. No existing isolation level was removed, since not everyone will want to pay the performance price for true serializable behavior. An important goal was that for those not using serializable transaction isolation, the patch doesn't cause performance regression.
Feature Authors: Kevin Grittner and Dan R. K. Ports.
Testing Support Authors: Markus Wanner (dtester used during most of development) and Heikki Linnakangas (testing support consistent with other PostgreSQL regression testing, so that we had a testing suite suitable for commit).
Reviewers: Joe Conway (warning elimination, bug chasing, and style comments), Jeff Davis (general review and found problems with GiST support and lack of 2PC support), Anssi Kääriäinen (found problems with conditional indexes and performance issue with sequential scans during testing with production data), YAMAMOTO Takashi (found numerous bugs during long and heavy testing), and Heikki Linnakangas (general review and many useful observations and suggestions, plus general improvements during commit process).
Committers: Joe Conway (initial comment and name changes), Heikki Linnakangas (the bulk of the patch and most follow-up fixes), and Robert Haas (some follow-up fixes).
Thanks to all those who participated in the on-list discussions and offered advice and support off-list. There were so many who contributed in this way it would be practically impossible to generate an accurate list, but Robert Haas stands out for offering great advice on an overall development strategy.
Special thanks to Emmanuel Cecchet for pointing out the ACM SIGMOD paper in which this technique was originally published[1], and to all those at the University of Sidney who contributed to the development of this innovative technique. This is what turned the discussion from wrangling over how best to document existing behavior toward changing it.
Source Code Management
A "serializable" git branch has been set up at this location:
Predicate Locking
Both S2PL and SSI require some form of predicate locking to handle situations where reads conflict with later inserts or with later updates which move data into the selected range. PostgreSQL didn't have predicate locking, so it needed to be added. Practical implementations of predicate locking generally involve acquiring locks against data as it is accessed, using multiple granularities (tuple, page, table, etc.) with escalation as needed to keep the lock count to a number which can be tracked within RAM structures. Coarse granularities can cause some false positive indications of conflict. The number of false positives can be influenced by plan choice.
Implementation overview
New RAM structures, inspired by those used to track traditional locks in PostgreSQL, but tailored to the needs of SIREAD predicate locking, will be used. These will refer to physical objects actually accessed in the course of executing the query, to model the predicates through inference. Anyone interested in this subject should review the Hellerstein, Stonebraker and Hamilton paper[3], along with the locking papers referenced from that and the Cahill papers[1][2].
Because the SIREAD locks don't block, traditional locking techniques must be modified. Intent locking (locking higher level objects before locking lower level objects) doesn't work with non-blocking "locks" (which are, in some respects, more like flags than locks).
A configurable amount of shared memory is reserved at postmaster start-up to track predicate locks. This size cannot be changed without a restart.
- To prevent resource exhaustion, multiple fine-grained locks may be promoted to a single coarser-grained lock as needed.
- An attempt to acquire an SIREAD lock on a tuple when the same transaction already holds an SIREAD lock on the page or the relation will be ignored. Likewise, an attempt to lock a page when the relation is locked will be ignored, and the acquisition of a coarser lock will result in the automatic release of all finer-grained locks it covers.
Heap locking
Predicate locks will be acquired for the heap based on the following:
- For a table scan, the entire relation will be locked.
- Each tuple read which is visible to the reading transaction will be locked, whether or not it meets selection criteria; except that there is no need to acquire an SIREAD lock on a tuple when the transaction already holds a write lock on any tuple representing the row, since a rw-dependency would also create a ww-dependency which has more aggressive enforcement and will thus prevent any anomaly.
Default index locking
There is a new ampredlocks flag in pg_am which should be set to false for any index which doesn't handle the predicate locking internally; indexes flagged this way will be predicate locked at the index relation level. Such a lock will conflict with any insert into the index, but will not conflict, for example, with deletes, HOT updates, or inserts which don't match the WHERE clause on an index (if present). This will allow correct behavior at the serializable transaction isolation level for new index types with minimal initial effort; but adding the predicate locking calls and changing the flag will improve performance in high contention workloads involving serializable transactions.
Index AM implementations
Since predicate locks only exist to detect writes which conflict with earlier reads, and heap tuple locks are acquired to cover all heap tuples actually read, including those read through indexes, the index tuples which were actually scanned are not of interest in themselves; we only care about their "new neighbors" -- later inserts into the index which would have been included in the scan had they existed at the time. Conceptually, we want to lock the gaps between and surrounding index entries within the scanned range.
Correctness requires that any insert into an index generate a rw-conflict with a concurrent serializable transaction if, after that insert, re-execution of any index scan of the other transaction would access the heap for a row not accessed during the previous execution. Note that a non-HOT update which expires an old index entry covered by the scan and adds a new entry for the modified row's new tuple need not generate a conflict, although an update which "moves" a row into the scan must generate a conflict. While correctness allows false positives, they should be minimized for performance reasons.
Several optimizations are possible:
- An index scan which is just finding the right position for an index insertion or deletion need not acquire a predicate lock.
- An index scan which is comparing for equality on the entire key for a unique index need not acquire a predicate lock as long as a key is found corresponding to a visible tuple which has not been modified by another transaction -- there are no "between or around" gaps to cover.
- As long as built-in foreign key enforcement continues to use its current "special tricks" to deal with MVCC issues, predicate locks should not be needed for scans done by enforcement code.
- If a search determines that no rows can be found regardless of index contents because the search conditions are contradictory (e.g., x = 1 AND x = 2), then no predicate lock is needed.
Other index AM implementation considerations:
- If a btree search discovers that no root page has yet been created, a predicate lock on the index relation is required; otherwise btree searches must get to the leaf level to determine which tuples match, so predicate locks go there.
- GiST searches can determine that there are no matches at any level of the index, so there must be a predicate lock at each index level during a GiST search. An index insert at the leaf level can then be trusted to ripple up to all levels and locations where conflicting predicate locks may exist.
- The effects of page splits, overflows, consolidations, and removals must be carefully reviewed to ensure that predicate locks aren't "lost" during those operations, or kept with pages which could get re-used for different parts of the index.
For this development effort to succeed, it was absolutely necessary to have some client application which allowed execution of test scripts with specific interleaving of statements run against multiple backends. The dtester module from Markus Wanner was used for this during most of development. It requires python and several python packages (including twisted). Due to package dependencies and licensing issues the dtester module was not appropriate for commit to the PostgreSQL code base.
Heikki Linnakangas developed a testing framework based on existing regression test code which has been committed to src/test/isolation. Besides being compatible with other PostgreSQL testing, it runs faster than dtester. It doesn't provide a nice display of the results by statement ordering permutation, but that can be added if needed by filtering the current output.
Like many other proposed features and optimizations, this area could benefit from a "performance test farm" so that serializable performance can be better compared to other isolation levels, and so the performance impact of future enhancements can be determined.
A README-SSI file was created, largely drawn from this Wiki page.
Someone with update rights to Wikipedia should probably update references there which will be outdated with this feature:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapshot_isolation
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isolation_%28database_systems%29
The PostgreSQL implementation of Serializable Snapshot Isolation differs from what is described in the cited papers for several reasons:
- PostgreSQL didn't have any existing predicate locking. It had to be added from scratch.
- The existing in-memory lock structures were not suitable for tracking SIREAD locks.
- The database products used for the prototype implementations for the papers used update-in-place with a rollback log for their MVCC implementations, while PostgreSQL leaves the old version of a row in place and adds a new tuple to represent the row at a new location.
- In PostgreSQL, tuple level locks are not held in RAM for any length of time; lock information is written to the tuples involved in the transactions.
- In PostgreSQL, existing lock structures have pointers to memory which is related to a connection. SIREAD locks need to persist past the end of the originating transaction and even the connection which ran it.
- PostgreSQL needs to be able to tolerate a large number of transactions executing while one long-running transaction stays open -- the in-RAM techniques discussed in the papers wouldn't support that.
- Unlike the database products used for the prototypes described in the papers, PostgreSQL didn't already have a true serializable isolation level distinct from snapshot isolation.
- PostgreSQL supports subtransactions -- an issue not mentioned in the papers.
- PostgreSQL doesn't assign a transaction number to a database transaction until and unless necessary.
- PostgreSQL has pluggable data types with user-definable operators, as well as pluggable index types, not all of which are based around data types which support ordering.
- Some possible optimizations became apparent during development and testing.
Differences from the implementation described in the papers are listed below.
- New structures needed to be created in shared memory to track the proper information for serializable transactions and their SIREAD locks.
- Because PostgreSQL does not have the same concept of an "oldest transaction ID" for all serializable transactions as assumed in the Cahill these, we track the oldest snapshot xmin among serializable transactions, and a count of how many active transactions use that xmin. When the count hits zero we find the new oldest xmin and run a clean-up based on that.
- Predicate locking in PostgreSQL will start at the tuple level when possible, with automatic conversion of multiple fine-grained locks to coarser granularity as need to avoid resource exhaustion. The amount of memory used for these structures will be configurable, to balance RAM usage against SIREAD lock granularity.
- A process-local copy of locks held by a process and the coarser covering locks with counts, are kept to support granularity promotion decisions with low CPU and locking overhead.
- Conflicts are identified by looking for predicate locks when tuples are written and looking at the MVCC information when tuples are read. There is no matching between two RAM-based locks.
- Because write locks are stored in the heap tuples rather than a RAM-based lock table, the optimization described in the Cahill thesis which eliminates an SIREAD lock where there is a write lock is implemented by the following:
- When checking a heap write for conflicts against existing predicate locks, a tuple lock on the tuple being written is removed.
- When acquiring a predicate lock on a heap tuple, we return quickly without doing anything if it is a tuple written by the reading transaction.
- Rather than using conflictIn and conflictOut pointers which use NULL to indicate no conflict and a self-reference to indicate multiple conflicts or conflicts with committed transactions, we use a list of rw-conflicts. With the more complete information, false positives are reduced and we have sufficient data for more aggressive clean-up and other optimizations.
- We can avoid ever rolling back a transaction until and unless there is a pivot where a transaction on the conflict *out* side of the pivot committed before either of the other transactions.
- We can avoid ever rolling back a transaction when the transaction on the conflict *in* side of the pivot is explicitly or implicitly READ ONLY unless the transaction on the conflict *out* side of the pivot committed before the READ ONLY transaction acquired its snapshot. (An implicit READ ONLY transaction is one which committed without writing, even though it was not explicitly declared to be READ ONLY.)
- We can more aggressively clean up conflicts, predicate locks, and SSI transaction information.
- Allow a READ ONLY transaction to "opt out" of SSI if there are no READ WRITE transactions which could cause the READ ONLY transaction to ever become part of a "dangerous structure" of overlapping transaction dependencies.
- Allow the user to request that a READ ONLY transaction wait until the conditions are right for it to start in the "opt out" state described above. We add a DEFERRABLE state to transactions, which is specified and maintained in a way similar to to READ ONLY. It is ignored for transactions which are not SERIALIZABLE and READ ONLY.
- When a transaction must be rolled back, we pick among the active transactions such that an immediate retry will not fail again on conflicts with the same transactions.
- We use the PostgreSQL SLRU system to hold summarized information about older committed transactions to put an upper bound on RAM used. Beyond that limit, information spills to disk. Performance can degrade in a pessimal situation, but it should be tolerable, and transactions won't need to be cancelled or blocked from starting.
R&D Issues
This is intended to be the place to record specific issues which need more detailed review or analysis.
- WAL file replay. While serializable implementations using S2PL can guarantee that the write-ahead log contains commits in a sequence consistent with some serial execution of serializable transactions, SSI cannot make that guarantee. While the WAL replay is no less consistent than under snapshot isolation, it is possible that under PITR recovery or hot standby a database could reach a readable state where some transactions appear before other transactions which would have had to precede them to maintain serializable consistency. In essence, if we do nothing, WAL replay will be at snapshot isolation even for serializable transactions. Is this OK? If not, how do we address it?
- External replication. Look at how this impacts external replication solutions, like Postgres-R, Slony, pgpool, HS/SR, etc. This is related to the "WAL file replay" issue.
- UNIQUE btree search for equality on all columns. Since a search of a UNIQUE index using equality tests on all columns will lock the heap tuple if an entry is found, it appears that there is no need to get a predicate lock on the index in that case. A predicate lock is still needed for such a search if a matching index entry which points to a visible tuple is not found.
- Minimize touching of shared memory. Should lists in shared memory push entries which have just been returned to the front of the available list, so they will be popped back off soon and some memory might never be touched, or should we keep adding returned items to the end of the available list?
"Serializable Isolation without blocking" - discusses paper in ACM SIGMOD on SSI
"Update on true serializable techniques in MVCC" - discusses Cahill Doctoral Thesis on SSI
"Serializable implementation" - discusses Wisconsin Court System plans
"A third lock method" - discusses development path: rough prototype to refine toward production
"true serializability and predicate locking" - discusses GiST and GIN issues
WIP patch for serializable transactions with predicate locking
"serializable" in comments and names
Serializable Snapshot Isolation
serializable read only deferrable
SSI memory mitigation & false positive degradation
From PostgreSQL Conference U.S. East 2010: Current Transaction Isolation in PostgreSQL and future directions
From PGCon 2011: Serializable Snapshot Isolation: Making ISOLATION LEVEL SERIALIZABLE Provide Serializable Isolation
From VLDB 2012: Serializable Snapshot Isolation in PostgreSQL
[1] Michael J. Cahill, Uwe Röhm, and Alan D. Fekete. 2008. Serializable isolation for snapshot databases. In SIGMOD '08: Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGMOD international conference on Management of data, pages 729–738, New York, NY, USA. ACM. (This paper is listed mostly for context; the subsequent paper covers the same ground and more.)
[2] Michael James Cahill. 2009. Serializable Isolation for Snapshot Databases. Sydney Digital Theses. University of Sydney, School of Information Technologies.
[3] Joseph M. Hellerstein, Michael Stonebraker and James Hamilton. 2007. Architecture of a Database System. Foundations and Trends(R) in Databases Vol. 1, No. 2 (2007) 141–259. Of particular interest:
- 6.1 A Note on ACID
- 6.2 A Brief Review of Serializability
- 6.3 Locking and Latching
- 6.3.1 Transaction Isolation Levels
- 6.5.3 Next-Key Locking: Physical Surrogates for Logical Properties
[4] SQL-92 Search for serial execution to find the relevant section.
[5] Dan R. K. Ports and Kevin Grittner. 2012. Serializable Snapshot Isolation in PostgreSQL. Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment vol. 5 (12) , August 2012 (pp. 1850--1861)


text:
- Letto da: Keith Szarabajka
- Durata: 7 ore e 14 min
- Versione integrale
- Data di pubblicazione: 01 12 2012
- Lingua: Inglese
- Editore: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Sintesi dell'editore
Some days it just doesn't pay to be a soldier.
Captain Rick Galloway and his men had been talked into volunteering for a dangerous mission, only to be ruthlessly abandoned when faceless CIA higher-ups pulled the plug on the operation. They were cut off in hostile territory, with local troops and their Cuban "advisors" rapidly closing in—and then the alien spaceship landed.
Rescued from certain death, they now must fight another world's war.
Altri titoli dello stesso
Cosa ne pensano gli iscritti
- Joseph
- 07 12 2012
Superb book now with superb presentation.
If you could sum up Janissaries in three words, what would they be?
Thanks much to Jerry and his Janissaries series. It has been a favorite of mine for decades. I was stunned to see it available on Audible, as Jerry was normally a 'non ebook' hold out. Very few of his works went to ebook format and abook format. So I snapped it up immediately when I saw it available on Audible. Keith Szarabajka's could NOT be topped. He rules in his presentation and reading. Not just a reader, he emotes (I mean that in a good way!) the characters in the book with great skill. I hope Keith will be able to keep on this series, along with the mysterious 4th sequel Mamelukes (Janissaries IV: Mamelukes (work in progress for fifteen years as of 2012).
Who was your favorite character and why?
Reluctant Captain Rick Galloway reminds me of our founding father George Washington. Recognizing the truth in developing a society with a know world shattering threat building at the border.
What about Keith Szarabajka's performance did you like?
7 su 8 utenti hanno ritenuto utile questa recensione
- Thomas
- 09 01 2015
relatively straight forward, entertaining
Well, this was for me an easy-to-listen-to, entertaining story, with a reader who did a proper job without causing any irritations. The story is straightforward: mercenaries are sort of abducted/hired from earth to do a job for aliens. Main part of the story then plays on a planet (at the time of the story not too different from earth) with a society at the development stage of the early Roman empire. There is bit on the military side of things, there is romance+castles, horses+battles, there is some looming dark galactic background story.
What I really liked about all of this, was that it was what I was looking for: an easy going entertaining reasonably quick read/listen with a potential series continuation. There was no great depth to the story, there was no repetitious dwelling in people's motivations or thoughts, no endless descriptions of non relevant details, neither the romance nor military nor any other specific aspect was over-emphasized.
So if you like something light and fluffy for in-between & if you don't worry too much about plausibility just give it a try.
2 su 2 utenti hanno ritenuto utile questa recensione
- Burton
- 20 08 2014
This genre but especially its sub genre
Sci-Fi has become divided into a dozen categories and more. This is a variation of "lost" and washed up on a "deserted island". Whether one or more individuals, they set out to explore, learn, build and survive and then build a small but viable society. This is different in that they don't wash up on the planet, but are dropped off by a species?, to fend for themselves although there are Homo Sapiens already present. The story is simple and relatively believable. Could you survive, build up the essentials, and continue on as most likely is begun in book 2. It satisfies the desire of many of us to see if we "have it".
If you require an easy read that is not 100+ hours to complete, then this will fit your requirements. I especially enjoy non fiction, but not if it could have been written in <20% of the size with it meeting my criteria that many times less is more. I would recommend the first book and I will go on and queue up the 2nd book for an in between listen.
In either case, I would recommend the book as an enjoyable listen, not in the same category as the "Lucky Jack" series by Jack Campbell, but still well worth the credit and then some.
3 su 4 utenti hanno ritenuto utile questa recensione
- Paul McMahon
- 05 01 2014
Pournelle is Pournelle ... OK
Jerry Pournelle struck me when I first encountered his SF writings in the 70s as an author with ideas who didn't quite know how to flesh them out. Jannissaries is a good example of this. I had hoped the listening, rather than reading, would give the narrative some extra quality that the printed word couldn't … but it didn't.
As well as being a bit lite, the story doesn't compare well with others in weathering the tides of time; "A Canticle for Leibowitz" (also read by Tom Weiner) for example. I realize there are many Pournelle acolytes, but I always thought more is read into his works than is there.
For me Pournelle's writing has always seemed a bit padded and this story is no exception. It's a shame as the premise has potential and could have been fleshed out to be a much more entertaining, and interesting SF outing. This book is actually the first of the Janissaries series … and I think it shows. Its good point is that it is complete in itself … the bad point, "who cares?"
Not withstanding all the above … if you wish a lite listen where nothing intellectually demanding is required, this will pass the time sufficiently well
3 su 4 utenti hanno ritenuto utile questa recensione
- Kindle Customer
- 24 12 2012
Not bad, just not me
I found the storyline in Janissaries to be a bit confusing. The janissary of the title is not the main character (a janissary is a child raised by a conqueror to be a soldier against his own people) and is not really a janissary anyway since he's not a soldier. I think Pournelle probably just thought it was a cool word. Anyway, while the plotline holds together it was just a little to convoluted unrealistic for my taste. It was roughly the same plot as H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (guy with knowledge of history of firearms and warfare dumped into medieval, pre-firearm culture). Piper did a better job. Maybe future books in series will be more engaging. I'll take a look.
3 su 4 utenti hanno ritenuto utile questa recensione
- Roger
- 02 01 2013
Still just as good as ever
Where does Janissaries rank among all the audiobooks you've listened to so far?
The story is a bit dated but still holds up well, good strong characters in a good story line are hard to beat
What other book might you compare Janissaries to and why?
This work stands alone
What about Keith Szarabajka's performance did you like?
Well read with good inflection and voice change
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
This book makes you think, is it possible? could this have happened?
2 su 3 utenti hanno ritenuto utile questa recensione
- Kindle Customer
- 03 05 2018
Great Author
Finally! A good sci-fi book with no sicko language. Written in 1979. this is a story with lots of different angles than one would expect. Great authors do that, so why am I surprised? I don't like spoilers, so let's just say this is really five star and leave it at that. Enjoy!
- Mike
- 06 08 2015
Almost a classic
I first read this novel when it came out, decades ago, and I found it fascinating and well written. Now to be able to listen to a great narration of it, well done!
- John L. Mahan
- 08 05 2015
As good as I remembered.
I read this book in 1986 and enjoyed it. It was good to see that it has held up. The unfortunate thing is that the series was never finished. Maybe with Baen reprinting this someone will finish the series.
- Connor
- 30 08 2014
Not a Tropical Paradise
Like "Gilligan's Island", this book follows the adventures of a group of people stranded on a planet billions of miles from Earth. Unlike "Gilligan's Island", there are no laughs, and they are not the only ones stranded on the planet. A group of aliens have been snatching humans from Earth every 600 years and leaving them on this uncharted planet. A place where civilization is similar to the Roman Empire circa 400 AD.
The best part of this book is the battle between the Barbarians and the Romans. War is the author's passion and he has written military strategy and war gaming articles and books.
"Janissaries" was published in 1979 and I believe would most likely appeal to fans of the previous generation of Sci Fi books.
3 su 8 utenti hanno ritenuto utile questa recensione

subset: commoncrawl


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Update on teen shot by sheriff
Update on teen shot by sheriff
DES MOINES, Iowa —
A teenager shot by an Iowa sheriff after authorities say he refused to drop a weapon remains in a Des Moines hospital.
The 17-year-old was shot on Friday after Hardin County Sheriff Timothy Smith responded to a report of someone shooting at a vehicle along a road north of Hubbard.
Smith told investigators when he confronted the teenager, the teen raised a gun toward him. The sheriff fired when the boy refused to drop the weapon.
The boy was flown to Mercy Medical Center. The hospital said the teen is in serious condition Monday.
Jessica Lown of the Iowa Department of Public Safety says the investigation is ongoing, but agents won't be able to complete their report until they can talk to the teenager.


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Well Sirius had his first blood workup since he's gone raw. We have been feeding it for 5.5 months, so any imbalances should show up by now. Whether the imbalance is from my feeding incorrectly or just from the dog not handling it well we would probably know at this point.
Bloodwork was done at Pet Emergency as part of his screening for the blood bank, and then sent on to Sirius' regular vet. I called the vet and her exact words were, "His blood work looks stellar!" Yaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!! Good thing too, cause this was his last hope at being a normal weight.


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Brand Label: Converse
ITEM MOVED TO ARCHIVE: On April 30, 2018 5:55 pm, Fashion Stylist Online noted this item may be out of stock at Pacific Sunwear of California Inc because it was not referenced in their latest online catalog. If this item is out of stock at Pacific Sunwear of California Inc, you may be able to find similar fashions sold there or elsewhere on our Converse Designer Brand Directory.
Available for Purchase Online at Pacific Sunwear of California Inc for $85.00Pin It
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text:
Maison Nightclub is located 5 minutes from downtown Ottawa.
Maison Nightclub is a fun, easy going party atmosphere where you can let loose from the stress of school, get wild, be yourself and dance the night away. With our massive bars, tons of big screens, amazing light show, the city's best DJ's, dance risers, vip bottle service, booth seating, friendly staff, and weekly special's, Maison Nightclub is your #1 18+ Party Destination in Ottawa/Gatineau.
Maison Nightclub is open Fri & Sat from 10pm-2:30am


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Ian Somerhalder & Nina Dobrev: Paris Lovers
Ian Somerhalder takes a romantic stroll with his Vampire Diaries co-star and real-life girlfriend Nina Dobrev while out and about on Friday (May 25) in Paris, France.
"Good morning Paris-I've missed you," the 33-year-old actor tweeted.
PHOTOS: Check out the latest pics of Ian Somerhalder
Ian later wished the executive producer of The Vampire Diaries a happy birthday, saying, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY @julieplec!!!!!! I love & appreciate you like I'll NEVER be able to describe in 140 characters. Can't wait to see you tonight!"
He also added, "Amazing day here in Paris… Wow.Can't wait to see @julieplec and party down in the City of Lights."
FYI: Nina is wearing a Show Me Your Mumu "Baxter" blouse.


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It's not uncommon for judges outside of the Kansas Supreme Court to be called in from time to time to sit with the justices and hear cases, an official with the state's Office of Judicial Administration said.
So it will be next week in Topeka for David J. King, Leavenworth County District Court chief judge since 1991.
It's not uncommon for judges outside of the Kansas Supreme Court to be called in from time to time to sit with the justices and hear cases, an official with the state's Office of Judicial Administration said.
So it will be next week in Topeka for David J. King, Leavenworth County District Court chief judge since 1991.
"It's still a highlight of a judge's career to sit with the Supreme Court," said Lisa Taylor, Judicial Administration public information director.
King, a Leavenworth County District Court judge since 1986 and a former Leavenworth County assistant attorney, is slated to sit with justices Thursday and hear oral arguments in six cases.
Following arguments, King and the justices will deliberate and draft opinions.
Supreme Court arguments are webcast live through the "Watch Supreme Court Live" link in the right-hand column of the Kansas Judicial Branch website, www.kscourt.org.
Four of the six cases are criminal, and stem from Sedgwick and Rice counties. The fifth and sixth involve the temporary suspension of an attorney's law license.
A summary of the cases:
• State v. Quartez Brown, Sedgwick County: Brown was convicted of felony murder, second-degree murder, aggravated burglary, and aggravated assault, and was sentenced to a "hard-20 term."
Brown is appealing whether there was sufficient evidence to find him guilty of the charges.
• State v. Kevin L. Brown, Jr., Sedgwick County: Brown was convicted of felony murder, aggravated burglary, and aggravated assault. He was also sentenced to a "hard-20 term," with a consecutive 120-month term.
He is appealing whether the district court had jurisdiction to convict for felony murder and aggravated battery because he was not bound over for aggravated assault as the underlying element of aggravated burglary.
• State v. Kiara M. Williams, Sedgwick County: Williams was convicted of felony murder, aggravated burglary and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. She was sentenced to a "hard-20 term."
She is appealing whether the trial court erred giving an instruction of sympathy and prejudice, whether the trial court abused its discretion, and whether defense counsel imposed a guilt-based defense by telling the jury Williams was morally and ethically wrong.
• State v. Allen R. Julian, Rice County: Julian was arrested for possession of marijuana, possession of a handgun, and no proof of insurance following a traffic stop. He moved to suppress all evidence seized as a result of the stop. The state appealed, and the Court of Appeals reversed and remanded the decision.
Issues the Supreme Court will consider are whether Julian's vehicle was in violation of his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and whether the search was lawful.
• The matter of Miriam Rittmaster, attorney discipline: Actions in this case were consolidated by the Supreme Court. The case involves the attorney accepting a retainer in a domestic matter, but repeatedly failing to respond to her client's request for information, and her attempt to set aside a divorce decree.
The Kansas Rules of Professional Conduct recommended a six-month suspension from practicing law, with a reinstatement hearing at a later date.


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on this forum who can help out and since it is a question that appears in NT grammars
I will post it hear even though the it was not specifically a question about Biblical texts.
A very simple example from PaulA.T. Robertson p497
... predicate genitive while having the copula ... in reality it is to be explained as a genitive with substantives. It is not the copula that affects the case of the genitive at all. It is just the possessive genitive in the predicate instead of being an attribute. Often the substantive or pronoun is repeated in sense before the predicate genitive.
Guy Cooper 1:47.6.1 p172
The genitive in the predicate is never strictly a mere equivalent of an adjective. The genitive is a substantive and its use adds an incidental assertion by virtue of the introduction of the new, distinct entity.
D.B. Wallace Exegetical Syntax p. 201
The genitive substantive makes an assertion about another genitive substantive, much like a predicate nominative does.
1Cor. 3:4 ὅταν γὰρ λέγῃ τις· ἐγὼ μέν εἰμι Παύλου, ἕτερος δέ· ἐγὼ Ἀπολλῶ, οὐκ ἄνθρωποί ἐστε;
with the copula
μέν εἰμι Παύλου,
without the copula
ἕτερος δέ· ἐγὼ Ἀπολλῶ
now what I can't answer is how this applies to a quote from Thucydides quoted in H.W. Smyth 1320:
Thucy. 3.70-71Smyth 1320:
The genitive to denote quality occurs chiefly as a predicate.
ἐὼν τρόπου ἡσυχίου being of a peaceful disposition Hdt. 1.107,
οἱ δέ τινες τῆς αὐτῆς γνώμης ὀλίγοι κατέφυγον
but some few of the same opinion fled T. 3.70....
οἱ δέ τινες τῆς αὐτῆς γνώμης τῷ Πειθίᾳ ὀλίγοι ἐς
τὴν Ἀττικὴν τριήρη κατέφυγον ἔτι παροῦσα
It looks like Smyth is suggesting that τῆς αὐτῆς γνώμης is functioning as a deep structure[1] predicate for τινες ... ὀλίγοι. I am not certain that is what he is suggesting and my track record in trying to read the minds grammarians before 1950 isn't very good. Another alternative is that Smyth is suggesting a predicate relationship within the genitive constituent itself τῆς αὐτῆς γνώμης. In other words αὐτῆς is being predicated about γνώμης.
Would appreciate hearing from some of you who are more comfortable with Smyth, ATR, Blass etc.
EDIT: Looking at Wallace, Cooper and ATR I am not at all certain they are talking about the same thing. Wallace seems to be addressing a restricted case where the predicate genitive must be construed with another genitive. Cooper and ATR don't restrict it in that manner, so perhaps I don't have the right quote from Wallace. I don't generally read him and don't have a copy of his Grammar on hand.
[1]Smyth wouldn't have known about deep structure.


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Jan. 10, 2009
By ALEX PAVLOVIC,
January 8, 2009 7:50 AM
At Big West media day in October, nearly every coach in the conference made note of the fact that the rich would get even richer when Jenna Green returned to the court for defending league champion UCSB.
Green's addition has been huge, but lost in the shuffle was a transfer who may end up being the wild card in Santa Barbara's quest for a repeat. Noone outside of the program really knew what to expect from Christine Spencer, but after just six games in the blue and gold, it's clear that the former Wisconsin Badger will play a huge role in any success the Gauchos achieve this season.
Standing over six feet tall, Spencer has the length and versatility to play a crucial role for the Gauchos off the bench. Her shooting helps stretch the floor, but more importantly she gives UCSB a mismatch in a conference that doesn't have a lot of big perimeter players.
Spencer has taken advantage of the size disparity to score 18 points and pull down 16 boards over the last three games.
"[The Big West] is a lot different because you don't have those huge Big 10 post players," Spencer said of the transition. "I get my hands on a lot more balls, but I need to work on just ripping the ball. I just try to crash every time and use my height advantage on the perimeter."
Spencer had to sit out until a mid-December game against Pepperdine in accordance with NCAA transfer rules, but she has quickly become a valued member of the rotation, breaking the 20-minute mark in each of UCSB's victories last weekend.
"It's such a luxary to have people come off the bench that have that type of effort level and attention to detail," head coach Lindsay Gottlieb. "When you add that into the mix, everyone else raises their effort level too."
The junior viewed the year off as a chance to develop different parts of her game, especially on the defensive end.
"I don't like watching games, but at the same time it made me get better on things that I needed to improve on while still being in a competitive practice setting," Spencer said. "I think really focusing on [defense] made me ready in all aspects of the game when I was eligible."
The Michigan native fits into UCSB's on-court plans perfectly, but there was a time when a move to Santa Barbara didn't appear to be part of her future. After leaving the Badgers, Spencer was looking for her next location when Wisconsin guard coach Tasha McDowell, a former UCSB assistant, suggested she check out the Gauchos. The rest, as they say, is history.
"Someone else asked me 'how did you choose UCSB,' and what I said was that it's easy to choose UCSB, it was finding it that was hard," Spencer said. "I visited a lot of places but as soon as I got here and met the team and saw the program, I knew that this was where I wanted to be."
Tonight's Opponent
The Gauchos (6-6, 2-0) take on UC Irvine (3-11, 0-1), a team that hasn't beaten them in almost three years. Junior guard Rebecca Maessen is the Anteater to watch, as she averages a team-high 12.8 points per game, and shoots a league-best 50 percent from beyond the arc. UCI is coming off a blowout in the Big West opener, where it lost to Cal State Fullerton 76-43.
Stat of the Week
If you want a good barometer for UCSB's success, keep an eye on the other team's 3-point shooting percentage. The Gauchos are 5-1 this season when they hold their opponent under 25 percent from beyond the arc, and they've allowed only eight makes in 49 opponent 3-point attempts during their current three-game winning streak.
Milestone Watch
After scoring 37 points over the weekend, Lauren Pedersen sits just 23 points away from 500 for her career. The senior averages 12.8 points per game so she should reach the mark this weekend, although with the way she's been shooting the ball recently, don't be surprised if she scores number 500 tonight.
Around the Big West
2007 Big West champ UC Riverside and 2008 runner-up UC Davis face off tonight in Riverside in the big matchup of the weekend. Paige Minton leads the Aggies in points, rebounds and assists, and she's coming off a 25-point outburst in Davis' win last week over Cal State Northridge.


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|System: X360, PS3, Wii, PS2
|Review Rating Legend
|Dev: Electronic Arts
|1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid
|4.0 - 4.4 = Great
|Pub: Electronic Arts
|2.0 - 2.4 = Poor
|4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
|Release: March 10, 2009
|2.5 - 2.9 = Average
|5.0 = The Best
|Players: 1-4
|3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
|ESRB Rating: Everyone
|3.5 - 3.9 = Good
Clear the Board mode is just for those who are lonely and feel like playing Trivial Pursuit on their own. It's still pretty fun to play though. The goal is to clear the board by answering questions correctly. Each time you do, the space you were at will be blocked. Also, you get multipliers by answering multiple questions correctly in a consecutive fashion. At the end, your score will be sent to the leaderboards so you can compare your brains with those of other players.
No matter what mode you play, the game generates stats under your profile, and these can be compared with other gamers' profiles. This is a cool way to find out what subjects you excel at and which ones you need to cram for. Downloadable content will also expand the value, but it comes at a price. However, I was surprised the game doesn't offer online play against other Trivial Pursuit aficionados. I played Buzz! Quiz TV in the past and it offered a very competitive online mode, so I thought that would be a must from now on. It's definitely something this title is missing, even if everything else is good.
The conclusion is simple. If you enjoy Trivial Pursuit, this title is a must-have in your collection. Everyone, gamers and non-gamers, know how to play it and will be entertained with it. In addition, it comes packed with several language options. However, if you're considering other trivia titles, this is still a good option, but the Buzz! series is really fun too.
Maria Montoro
CCC Site Director
Game Features:


text:
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Found 92 resultsTitle
Filters: Keyword is Humans and Author is Flaura K Winston [Clear All Filters]
Trends in booster seat use among young children in crashes." Pediatrics. 2001;108(6):E109."
Actions without consequences: injury-related messages in children's programs." Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2000;154(4):366-9."
Assessing child restraint misuse by parental survey." Inj. Prev.. 2000;6(2):145-7."
The danger of premature graduation to seat belts for young children." Pediatrics. 2000;105(6):1179-83."
Discovery of predictive models in an injury surveillance database: an application of data mining in clinical research." Proc AMIA Symp. 2000:359-63."
Factors influencing pediatric injury in side impact collisions." Annu Proc Assoc Adv Automot Med. 2000;44:407-28."
The learning classifier system: an evolutionary computation approach to knowledge discovery in epidemiologic surveillance." Artif Intell Med. 2000;19(1):53-74."
When "buckle up" is not enough: enhancing the safety of children in motor vehicles." LDI Issue Brief. 2000;5(9):1-4."
Who can give a pediatric trauma history for children injured in bicycle crashes?" Annu Proc Assoc Adv Automot Med. 2000;44:459-69."
Buckle up! Is not enough: enhancing protection of the restrained child." JAMA. 1999;281(22):2070-2."
The carnage wrought by major economic change: ecological study of traffic related mortality and the reunification of Germany." BMJ. 1999;318(7199):1647-50."
Development and validation of the injury severity assessment survey/parent report: a new injury severity assessment survey." Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1999;153(4):404-8."
Looking beyond the physical injury: posttraumatic stress disorder in children and parents after pediatric traffic injury." Pediatrics. 1999;104(6):1293-9."
Hidden spears: handlebars as injury hazards to children." Pediatrics. 1998;102(3 Pt 1):596-601."
Clothing drawstring entrapment in playground slides and school buses. Contributing factors and potential interventions." Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 1997;151(1):72-7."
President Clinton's radio address on child passenger safety." Inj. Prev.. 1997;3(2):85-6."
Biomechanical epidemiology: a new approach to injury control research." J Trauma. 1996;40(5):820-4."


text:
By Jamie Barrand
BATTLE CREEK � A Branch County resident was one of two dozen student artists recognized with awards for their�entries in the recent Kellogg Community College Student Art Show.
Dia Massey of Quincy received a Best of Media award in the 2D mixed media category. Massey, who is the night desk editor at The Daily Reporter, will graduate from KCC on May 15 with a degree in photography and multi-media.
The show, which was judged by Battle Creek artist and retired art instructor Craig Bishop, featured 151�works of art created by 92 students artists. The show also serves as a competition for Kimiko Petersen Fine Art Awards totaling $1,000, in addition to scholarships and other awards.
Other award winners were:
� Best of Show, Joan Wetherill for an untitled pigmented inkjet print (a digital photograph)
� Instructor Recognition Award, Elizabeth Stafford for �Untitled #3,� a pigmented inkjet print (digital photograph)
� Best of Media, Nathan Vaccaro (ceramics), Thomas Graham (drawing), Paul Edwards (sculpture and 3D mixed media), Taylor McCoy (black and white photography), Pam Sikora (digital media), Elizabeth Cook(printmaking/alternative photography print processes) and Stephen Richmond (animation/video
� Honorable Mention, Sheila Virgil (ceramics); Morgan Paul and Kathy Seifert (drawing); Kelly McNees and Megan Ward (2D mixed media); Joseph McIntosh (sculpture and 3D mixed media); Paul Edwards (black and white
photography); Renee Elkins, Linda Helton and James Schoder (digital media); Kenzi Rombaugh (printmaking/alternative photography print processes); Brittany Kellogg (graphic design); and Matthew Dillinger (animation/video)
Additionally, Elizabeth Cook was awarded the $1,000 Bryan R. Thomas Memorial Scholarship, Paul Edwards was awarded the $1,000 Battle Creek Society of Artists Scholarship and Taylor Yost was awarded the $250 Graphic Design Department Scholarship. The scholarship recipients were selected by committees comprised of KCC faculty and staff.
Other awards included the Art League Award of Excellence, awarded to Taylor Yost; the Arts and Communication Outstanding Achievement in Arts Award, awarded to Chelsea Staines; and the Binda Excellence in Art Award, awarded to Craig Noaeill.
Mosaic Entry Recognition Awards�� recognizing outstanding art submitted to the Mosaic, KCC�s literary journal�� were awarded to Tabatha McLendon and Dave Zender.
Massey takes top honors at student art show
By Jamie Barrand


text:
Twitter goes literary!
Twitter, the social networking site favoured by some celebrities, has gone high-brow with a performance from James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses.tech reviews Updated: Jun 22, 2009 13:56 IST
Twitter, the social networking site favoured by some celebrities, has gone high-brow with a performance from James Joyce's 1922 novel Ulysses.
Two Ulysses enthusiasts, videogame designer Ian Bogost from the Georgia Institute of Technology and colleague Ian McCarthy, wanted to try to use the site in a culturally interesting way rather than just as a service that let users send 140-character messages, known as tweets.
They came up with idea of recreating a chapter from Ulysses on Twitter.
They chose chapter 10, Wandering Rock, which is famous for showing the interlocking events of 19 characters walking through central Dublin doing their daily business.
Bogost and McCarthy registered 54 of the novel's characters as Twitter users and adapted the chapter in a large series of 140-character or less first-person statements, using a specially created software to automate a performance.
On June 16 or Bloomsday, the day the action in the novel takes place in 1904, these characters all sent tweets about what they were doing at the correct fictional times.
Bogost said the performance went smoothly although a few technical hiccups meant some characters were unable to take part.
"I think the project sheds a new light on Twitter by intermixing usual fare with these century-old characters," said Bogost on his blog www.bogost.com.
"As for long-term literary uses of Twitter, it's certainly a viable and interesting option."
Every year "Bloomsday" is celebrated in Joyce's home country of Ireland and in other English-speaking parts of the world with Joyce fans and scholars often retracing the characters' steps.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Miral Fahmy)
First Published: Jun 22, 2009 13:12 IST


text:
Moderators: Zahru II, Natalya, RedRover
Natalya wrote:I think your spring design would have worked if you had like two more suspension set ups on each side -- 5 of them per side not 3. 6 per side would be even better.
Also, look at incorporating more hollow areas to save weight. Your walls, especially up front, are hecka thick. The walls supporting the turret are good for being thick, but the other ones could probably be done with plates or hollowed out areas.
Warhead wrote:my head burns with War.
IVhorseman wrote:WOW, those treads are absolutely full of win. If you had enough to fully coat it with OTCs, would it still roll?
Robot Monkey wrote:Things to do with your surplus OTCs:
6. OTC people mower.
7. OTC launcher(s).
8. OTC wielding monkeys climbing around on the HatredTank.
9. Giant OTC made out of OTCs. (possibly loaded into a giant launcher)
10. OTC ICBM. That's right, a missile covered in OTCs.
Natalya wrote:If you manage to make the outside look half-way neat and clean and not a rainbow super-stud mess, this could end up being one of the coolest things on the forum. You might look into plating made out of walls of bricks on their sides or slightly angled.
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 4 guests


text: No shortage of contenders for best five conventions in the state What are the best five conventions in the state? There is no shortage of possible contenders. Walter Tipton, director, Natchez Convention Center, likes the Harley Davidson convention. "Obviously, this attracts people who like to travel," Tipton said. "Because of the nature of their conference, they also like to tour ...Read More »


text:
Race talk over. Problem solved
We can stop talking about race now, and I, for one, am relieved.
It was an exhausting, draining, demanding experience. And it lasted for more than a week.
Story Continued Below
In the 10 days or so since George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin, all we have heard about is race, race, race.
Which happens to be America's favorite subject not to talk about.
We talk about race only at moments of crisis, when it cannot be avoided. Otherwise, race is something that, as a nation, we wish we didn't have to discuss at all. Sort of like the Vietnam War, only more so.
I am talking about white America, of course. For black people and other minorities, race is something they have to confront on a daily basis. But even though we have a black president, that doesn't mean he wants to lead a national conversation about race. Far from it.
As David Maraniss, The Washington Post associate editor and brilliant biographer, wrote a few days ago, Barack Obama, once having been intensely interested in race, changed after his election to the presidency in 2008.
"Race seemingly became unimportant, if not irrelevant, to the first black president of the United States," Maraniss wrote. "He rarely spoke about it, only when circumstances pressed him — once when a notable African-American Harvard professor was detained by a cop for forcibly entering his own home after being locked out, and again when a jury found the man who shot Martin not guilty."
Yet the president spoke movingly and personally about race in an unexpected appearance in the White House briefing room on Friday. In some ways, I liked this talk more than the famous "A More Perfect Union" speech that he delivered in Philadelphia on March 8, 2008, in order to confront and distance himself from the racial comments made by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
( WATCH: Obama's full remarks on Zimmerman verdict)
That speech came at a time of political crisis. The Zimmerman acquittal was a different kind of crisis. There had been demonstrations, and President Obama could not afford to have them grow into riots. But he also wanted white America to understand what black America was going through post-verdict.


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Take a close look at your fingernails. Do they look strong and healthy?
Take a close look at your fingernails. Do they look strong and healthy? Or do you see ridges, dents, or areas of unusual color or shape? If your fingernails look less than desirable, proper nail care will help avoid these unhealthy conditions.
Your fingernails are made up of laminated layers of a protein called keratin which grow from the area at the base of the nail under your cuticle. As new cells grow, older cells become hard and compacted and are eventually pushed out toward your fingertips.
Healthy fingernails are smooth, without pits or grooves. They're even in color, texture and free of spots or discoloration. Sometimes fingernails develop harmless vertical ridges that run from the cuticle to the tip of the nail, unfortunately, these vertical ridges tend to become more prominent with age. Fingernails may also develop white lines or spots due to an injury, but these will eventually grow out as the nail grows.
However, not all nail conditions are normal. Talk to your doctor or dermatologist if you notice
Changes in nail color, such as discoloration of the nail or a dark streak under the nailChanges in nail shape, such as curled nailsThinning or thickening of the nailsSeparation of the nail from the surrounding skinBleeding around the nailsRedness, swelling or pain around the nailsDon't we all want beautiful healthy nails? I know I do, but it's not always that easy!
However, here are some simple rules you can follow, to help you keep your fingernails looking their best!
DO - Keep your nails dry and clean. This prevents bacteria, fungi and other organisms from growing under your nails. Wear cotton-lined gloves when washing dishes, cleaning or using harsh chemicals, also avoid long soaks in the tub.DO -Trim and file your nails regularly. Use a sharp manicure scissors or clippers. Trim your nails straight across, then round the tips in a gentle curve. It's easiest to trim and file your nails when they're soft, such as after bathing.DO - Use a moisturizer. When you use hand lotion, rub the lotion into your fingernails and cuticles too.DON'T – Abuse your nails. To prevent nail damage, don't use your fingernails as tools to pick, poke or pry at things.DON'T – Bite your nails or pick your cuticles. These habits can damage the nail bed. Even a minor cut alongside your fingernail can let bacteria or fungi enter and cause and infection.DON'T – Pull off hangnails. You might rip live tissue along the hangnail. Instead, carefully clip off the hangnail.DON'T – Ignore problems. If you have a nail problem that doesn't seem to go away on its own or there are unusual signs and symptoms, consult your doctor or dermatologist.Weak or brittle fingernails can be a challenge to toughen up. To reduce the splitting and breaking of brittle nails here are a few other tips.
Keep your nails short. Long nails are more likely to split or break.Use moisturizer. Apply moisturizer to nails and cuticles several times throughout the day and before bed. Consider wearing cotton gloves while sleeping to help seal in the moisture.Apply nail polish. A thin coat of clear nail polish can help keep moisture in your nails.Limit use of nail polish remover. Don't use nail polish remover more than once a week. Choose the acetone-free variety. Acetone dries nails.Ask your doctor about biotin supplements. Research suggests that the nutritional supplement biotin might help strengthen week or brittle fingernails.Let's talk about another idea for strong healthy nails!
Some people believe ingesting gelatin improves nail health and hardens the finger and toenails. Gelatin is made of collagen, a protein found in the skin and bones of pigs and cattle. Those who use gelatin say the collagen in gelatin teams with keratin in the fingernails to strengthen weak, brittle nails and promote healthy growth. The Knox drink for nails has Vitamin C to aid in collagen formation; biotin, which helps promote healthy nail growth; and gelatin for strong, healthy nails.
So, what will you need?
Knox gelatinGlassWater or juiceManicure tools, nail polish and nail hardener, rubber gloves or work glovesNow here are your instructions!
Mix one package of Knox Orange Flavored Gelatin in an 8-oz. glass of water or juice. Stir until the powder has completely dissolved. Drink one packet of gelatin mixed with water or juice daily.Depending on the health of your nails, new growth may not be measurably visible for approximately three months. Although, begin watching for signs of new growth in about 30 days. Healthy fingernails grow at a rate of about 1 to 2 inches a year. The middle fingernail grows fastest. The growth rate decreases on the fourth, second, fifth fingers and finally the thumb. Nails grow faster in the summer months than in the winter months. Overall, the nails on the hand used the most grow fastest. Wow… now that's something I never knew!Help protect the health of your nails, speed growth, along with taking the Knox gelatin, by wearing rubber gloves while doing dishes or other household chores. Wear regular gloves during cold weather or when doing chores that might break the nail tips, such as working in the yard. Interesting tip: Prevent dirt from getting under your nails by digging them into a bar of soap before gardening.Nail polish, strengtheners, and hardeners help protect the nail surface, particularly those containing nylon fibers. The fibers add strength and protection to the nails. When applying a new coat of nail protectors, apply t over the previous coats rather than using remover to take off the earlier coat. Applying a new coat over the older coats adds another layer of protectionJust think… regular manicures, the use of daily nail and cuticle moisturizers, along with the Knox gelatin routine, may yield healthy long-growing nails that you'll be proud to show off!


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- Description
DetailsScroll Compressors
When Emerson first pioneered the use of scroll technology in compressors, it changed the industry forever. Since then, Copeland Scroll technology remains at the forefront for HVACR applications, impressing contractors and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) with its superior efficiency, proven reliability and ease of installation.
Approximately 35 percent of the electrical energy consumed each year in the United States is used by HVACR systems. Compressors make up a vast majority of the energy used in air conditioning and refrigeration systems. That means compressor selection is key to improving the overall efficiency of HVACR systems. The inherent design of Copeland Scroll compressors makes them a preferred choice for more energy-efficient systems. In fact, Copeland Scroll compressors play a key role in helping the industry throught major transitions like the 1992 move to a 10 SEER standard and the industry's shift in 2006 to a 13 SEER minimum. As the industry prepares for another regulatory change - this time the phaseout of R-22 refrigerants in favor of the more environmentally friendly R-410A - it will benefit from the versatility and efficiency of scroll compressor technology.
As the industry transitions from R-22 refrigerants to the more environmentally friendly R-410A, a surprising event has occured. Adoption is taking place faster than anticipated. In fact, the market is already 50 percent higher in R-410A than expected. With nearly 10 million Copeland Scroll R-410A compressors installed worldwide, we have the industry's broadest line of environmentally friendly R-410A compressors.
Copeland Scroll compressors are known for their reliability because of theirPatented design features including:
- 70 percent fewer moving parts
- Ability to start under any system load, without start components
- Compact, light-weight design
- No complex internal suction and discharge valves for quieter operation and higher reliability
With the broadest product line in the industry, Copeland Scroll compressors range from1-60 HP and are installed in more than100 million installations around the world. They have become the compressor of choice to lead the industry through major transitions, including the13 SEER minimum-efficiency requirement and R-22 phaseout. Copeland Scroll compressors can be used in single or tandem configurations and can also be modulated for increased efficiency and homeowner comfort.
Design Benefits
Better Liquid Handling
Axial and radial compliance allow the scroll members to separate in the presence of liquid refrigerant, thus, providing protection against liquid damage
Greater Efficiency
More efficient over their entire operating range
Improved Sound
Operate at lower sound and vibration levels than traditional compressors
Unmatched Reliability
- Easy to service and maintain due to their compact size and lightweight, simple design
- Engineered for optimum performance with today's chlorine-free refrigerants
California residents: see Proposition 65 Warning
- Specifications
Weight 84.75 Pounds (Lb) Width 15.1 Inches (In) Height 19.9 Inches (In) Country of Origin USA Length 13.6 Inches (In) Brand Copeland Refrigerant Various; see specifications for proper application BTU Output 30900 Voltage 460 VAC Voltage 380-420 VAC High Locked Rotor Amps 63 Maximum Voltage 460 VAC Amps 8.3 Amps 9.1 Phase Three Cycle/Hertz 60 Minimum Circuit Amps 8.9 Maximum Fuse Size 0 Maximum Amps 12.8 Rated Load Amps 9.6 Locked Rotor Amps 63 Suction Line Fitting Stub Suction Line Size 7/8" Application High/Medium Temp Refrigeration Base 7.50" x 7.50" x 17.98" Color Black Discharge Connection Stub Evaporating Temperature 20°F (-6.6°C) Evaporating Temperature 45°F Features Displacement (in^3/Rev): 5.04; Displacement (ft^3/hr): 612.50 Mass Flow 1300 lbs./hr. Mass Flow 780 lbs./hr. Maximum Operating Current 12.8 Mounting Dimensions 7.5" x 7.5" x 17.98" Oil Charge Initial 64 Oil Charge Recharge 60 Oil Type Polyolester (POE) Protection Internal Inherent Protection - One Protector Use with Contactor (Single or Three Phase) Return Gas Temperature 65°F (18.3°C) Type Scroll Warranty Offered Yes
- Documentation


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The American Board of Sleep Medicine (ABSM) is an independent, nonprofit organization whose certificates are recognized throughout the world as a credential signifying a high level of competence for sleep medicine physicians, PhDs, behavioral sleep medicine specialists and sleep technologists.
Certification by the ABSM has one objective -- to promote excellence in medical care for patients with sleep disorders. Certification represents dedication to the highest level of professionalism in patient care. ABSM certification is an added measure of expertise that provides a standard of excellence by which the public and members of government and regulatory bodies can identify skill, experience and competence.
Board of Directors


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Did you read today's front page stories & breaking news?
From the Wires
New Website -- LocationOC.com -- Highlights the Benefits of Doing Business in Orange County, California
By: Marketwired .
Feb. 27, 2013 07:28 PM
IRVINE, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/27/13 -- Orange County Business Council (OCBC), the leading voice of business in Orange County, launched a new website -- www.LocationOC.com -- to highlight the numerous advantages of doing business in Orange County, California. LocationOC.com provides information on the county's strong economic climate, business incentives and resources, transportation network, diverse and educated workforce, world-class education system, growing industry clusters, and much more. The website was designed to assist businesses interested in expanding their Orange County operations, and to attract new businesses to the county.
With the lowest unemployment rate of any major metropolitan area in the state at 6.8%, a diverse and well-educated workforce supported by leading universities and community colleges, a well-funded transportation system that moves people and goods efficiently, and an economy leading the state's recovery, Orange County is an ideal place to do business.
"LocationOC.com is a platform designed to tell the story of why Orange County is a great place to do business," said Matt Petteruto, Vice President of Economic Development at OCBC. "Orange County is home to many of the world's leading companies and fastest growing industries, who recognize the benefits of doing business in Orange County. LocationOC.com looks in-depth at how each of these factors creates a business-friendly climate where companies can grow and thrive."
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Wow, talk about a great ride: be sure you do the Guadalupe River Trail from San Jose to Alviso now that it's paved the entire way.
I've been waiting years to see it happen and today was my chance to do the ride. I started using the river's unpaved levee in 2006, and watched as short sections were paved, anticipating the big day when it was paved beginning to end — downtown San Jose to Alviso.
The paved path runs on the river's east/north bank starting at the San Jose Airport. I've always ridden the path's western/southern side, which is still open and still dirt.
Lots of people already use the path, which runs under just about every road along the way, the one exception being Airport Parkway where you ride over the bridge to stay on the path.
The only negative that will take some time to fix is that there's flooding at low spots during heavy rain: Hwy 101, Trimble Road, Montague Expressway, Tasman Drive, Hwy 237.
Signs of the times
You'll enjoy the interpretive signs as you ride past interesting landmarks. There's Lupe the Columbian mammoth at Trimble Road. In 2005, Roger Castillo found the juvenile's bones sticking out of the riverbank. Its remains were exhumed and given to the San Jose Discovery Museum a couple miles away. Also, a ramp was cut at Trimble Road for easy access. It was probably in the plan all along, but when I saw it the ramp hadn't been added.
I learned a lot at the interpretive sign in front of the airport. Did you know the first flight took place in 1949? Pacific Southwest Airlines carried seven passengers and 2,550 chickens. How times have changed.
I'll be riding this trail often in the years ahead. Now on to Coyote Creek Trail. Once that's complete to the Bay, we'll have a top-notch creek-trail network.
Progress is being made on the San Tomas Aqunio Creek path extension from Cabrillo Avenue to El Camino Real. The concrete barrier is done and the sound walls are about halfway complete. The sign says mid-July for completion.


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Red Meat and Energy Drinks Spark New Health Worries
Health reporter Melinda Beck points out a compound found in red meat, energy drinks and several other foods has been found to raise the risk of heart disease. Photo: Getty Images.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... the the ... welcome back to the new sub I'm Kelsey Havre ... more bad news from red meat lovers is in the same breath he raises the risk of heart disease but a recent study in the journal nature Medicine points to another culprit found in red meat currency will in the back is here ... with more Melinda good morning thanks for joining us I'm Kelsey ... so I'm concerned I've read me Evelyn M thought Yellen was not exactly heart healthy but it may not be the only call for party planning the feeling that in a note that in a exactly it's it's an ounce ... and ... anyhow as a nation and some kind of ... I've compound ... this one in red meat but also in a lot of energy drinks and dietary supplements ... because when he actually doesn't somehow transport fatty acid into cells weren't confirmed for fuel ... but with the study found was that ... some bacteria and human intestine can also turn it into yet another compound ... I lined mine in attempting a myth that the abbreviation is tea and a no ... that somehow promotes atherosclerosis hardening of the arteries that is really ... the precursor and that's the real copper in into my heart disease okay so what is the the foods and things that set it with its founder ... I made mean is is it is the main culprit in that would be that these ... lands some deals Suncorp also have ... taken on a trade is is a big one ... he tells you in any dairy products and in Atlanta for Sentosa and lesser announcing the news out of the goons ... of fruits vegetables ... I'm that that the highest quantities million with me and that is at the end of this bacteria in their voices to some people and seven of the area to have ... a very interesting finding in the study that ... the more you eat red meat ... on corporate team in any form the more you develop this bacteria ... which tend to balance this harmful ... satellite so it really is some of the snow falling back and ... in part of this study they had ... Omnova worst ... compared to the gains in vegetarians ... I each state in a supplement for this and ... he found that even vegetarians really had very little of this bacteria Suby and very little and the fact that they're ... on their boards have been consuming at all on ... had quite a large effect allow somewhat asserted that the takeaway from this study in terms of how ... much people should be cutting back or succumbing to be aware that it didn't look exactly what quantity we do this but the overriding message twice it's really your long-term dietary ... patterns that affect this as well as how much you ate just today ... and that ... the more you eat red meat over the ... course of your lifetime ... I hope that the more you can add to ration risk ... and you can also diminish take any really takes a ... lot of doing a lot of ... conscience after all over the long haul ... and so I also made a lot of people come ... takeaway from this that if you're a meat lovers ... also not meeting held by the strength that Republican even know this is this in mind as and in energy drinks and ... seventies energy drinks ... are ... infused with as much current TV as an eight ounce sirloin steak and ... I'm a researcher who ... led the study was ... very concerned that kids especially ... who might be having these for ... ten twenty thirty years would be really ... unknowingly racing or the risk of supply no apparent when a thank you so much caring and Stephen Green is the scoring on a lot people ... paying attention to read we have another reason to thank so much


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The most delightful thing happened recently: I received a personal request to write an article on French Country design. Ooh la la! A friend has French roots and needed a little guidance with this wonderful lifestyle. But before I get started, let me set the mood for this French Saturday with something a bit fun! Simply log on to: www.putumayo.com HYPERLINK "http://www.putumayo.com/content/french_café_0"French Café - Putumayo World Music to listen to a wonderful piece or two that will put you in a jaunty French mood.
So here we are on a fabulous Saturday with a petit amount of French café music in the background and perhaps a beret you have popped on your head and a warm croissant at your fingertips and coffee. And we are off to France, gorgeous! I believe a respectable share of people join me in favoring the Provence region of France for its brilliantly bright, cheery and casual interiors. We will leave the Paris design and its more refined interiors for another Saturday! Agreed? So, back to Provence with the extraordinarily vivid color palette that many of us have grown to be passionate about over the past several decades. One of the most recognizable aspects of this design is, of course, the rooster!
Why Roosters Roost in France
There is reason for the significance of this fabulous fowl in French design! I know, I know, but I love a bit of history! Indulge me and let me tell you the history of this unofficial symbol of France, the rooster. The rooster has both Christian and patriotic meaning for the French. First, consider that Jesus predicted Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed. At the rooster's crowing, Peter remembered Jesus' words. After Peter's denial of Christ, the rooster stood for his remorse and repentance. With this solid theological reasoning, roosters were used to embellish church bells and towers.
In other cultures, the rooster's crowing at the dawn of a new day made it a daily victory of light over darkness and the triumph of good over evil. Therefore, a rooster adorned the people's flag during the French Revolution and symbolized the resilience and bravery of the French Resistance in World War II. Understanding why the rooster is significant to French Country design makes you appreciate it as more than just a design accessory.
Now, let's focus on what is classic French Country design and how to achieve this appealing look in your home.
The Colors of the Mediterranean
The colors used in French Country design reflect the hues present in Provence, the southeast region near the Mediterranean Sea. These colors are derived from native items such as lavender, sunflowers, wheat, lemons, poppies, olives and cicadas (which are similar to locust). It is easy to see the source of the brilliant colors in this appealing way of designing. Cheerful and delightfully happy!
Fabulous Fabrics
French Country fabrics feature rich, saturated colors captured from the countryside, maybe the splendid sundrenched yellow of a field of sunflowers or the blazing red of a poppy. Fashioned from Provencal cotton, the patterns include sunflowers, olives, stripes, vintage Provence prints, big bold checks and petit checks. Toile, meaning linen cloth or canvas, is a fabric that lays out a story in great detail within its print. Toile a Matelas, a mattress cloth we know as ticking. Natural linens and cottons are a perfect balance for this casual yet brilliantly hued design direction. The layering and combinations of patterns and colors are immense! For this way of life, disregard the silks, damasks and anything that shouts formal and instead navigate to nonchalant, fun fabrics.
As for the furniture, French Country does not refer to a period, but a lifestyle. It is actually a combination of many periods of French furniture, including Louis XV and XVI, Regency, Directoir and Louis Phillip. Skilled craftsmen in Paris and other significant European cities built the furniture during these periods for royality as well as the wealthy city residents. For residents of the countryside, these pieces were styled in a friendlier fashion that we typically think of as French Country. The pieces are not as refined as those crafted by the famous cabinetmakers, such as Jean-François Oeben, and there were no highly polished finishes, ormolus (ornate gold detailing) or gilding. The pieces are void of marquetry (elaborate wood inlays) and feature very little ornamentation. What you have instead is still beautiful, expertly crafted furniture from the woods available in the region (oak, walnut, fruit wood and, some mahogany).
While French Country furniture does not have the same level of refinement as that made by notable European craftsmen, it still remained very livable. This time-tested furniture often features boards left long, giving you planked tabletops, painted pieces and pieces simply left as raw wood. Aspects of rural life blended with the lavish city lifestyle to create softer, more relaxed, rustic pieces void of stuffiness. French Country furniture might mingle with pieces that have some age and have maybe even met a paintbrush once or twice, perhaps in a cerulean blue like the sky or the soft mellow green of the lavender plant leaves. Farm tables surrounded by ladder-back chairs with rush seats are common. Furniture will have graceful curves to the chair backs and legs (cabriole leg). You might see carvings of flowers, wheat or even cicadas on armoires, sideboards, chair backs, table aprons and legs as well as hutches. Plus, look for cara marble tops and iron bases used in tables and console pieces. Modern reproductions, often stained a deep tone of a well-aged cognac as well as other versions of rich dark wood, may or may not have a distressed appearance that ranges from slight to heavy, giving the piece instant age. As you can see, there is quite a diversity of pieces that come together to create the fondness for the French County way of life.
Accessories with Flair
To accessorize a French Country décor, start with, of course, the grand rooster. Bring one home to roost on your kitchen island or dining room table in all its ceramic glory, look for lamps with perhaps a bronze or pewter rooster on a base, black wrought iron door stop or any variety of rooster interpretations. Or, look into typical French Country potteries such as Quimper (pronounced kem-pair). Quimper features vibrantly hand painted figures of people, chickens and flowers deliciously crafted into absolutely everything from canisters to clocks. You'll find terracotta glazed in splendid colors molded into Anduze urns (wonderful pots with swags and medallion relief detailing at the top lip) that make wonderful containers for plants, indoors or out. Look for French flower buckets for a sunflower bouquet on the kitchen table (just be sure to give them some weight with rocks at the bottom as they tend to be top heavy). Any interpretation of a hot-air balloon says ooh la la, as do metal pieces designed into clocks, plant stands and let's not forget an iron Eiffel Tower! Find baskets in beautiful natural fibers or lacquered painted finishes! And, of course, there's the whimsical cicadas in ceramic with a glazed finish as wall ornaments. So many many items can give your home that bit of French authenticity! Plus, they're a joy to search for!
When developing a French Country home, the thing to keep in mind is that you need to live and feel the design. French country homes are easy, festive and uncomplicated. There is really no right or wrong way to develop this style as the goal is to finish with a warm and comfortable home. It is a lifestyle that has stood the test of time and I don't see any end to its marvelous charm.
As my brillant and beloved professor Ardon used say to our class, "My friends the French do everything better!" Whether or not my mentor of design was correct, it is a wonderful rich way to live!
Au revoir!
For my Florence Nightingale friend with rich French roots!
The most delightful thing happened recently: I received a personal request to write an article on French Country design. Ooh la la! A friend has French roots and needed a little guidance with this wonderful lifestyle. But before I get started, let me set the mood for this French Saturday with something a bit fun! Simply log on to: www.putumayo.com HYPERLINK "http://www.putumayo.com/content/french_café_0"French Café - Putumayo World Music to listen to a wonderful piece or two that will put you in a jaunty French mood.


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It's important to specify your measures of success for each new piece of development. These targets should be realistic and achievable.
We have outlined how typical KPI's might be achieved for our clients. These are broad suggestions indicative gof the type of things we have encountered in the past. We are not attempting to second guess your own KPI's.
Time savings in the management of the website
- Simple but powerful CMS - no technical skills needed
- We would look for ways to automate tasks
- Allow members/partners/supporters to manage their own profiles
Cost saving
- Less administrative cost
- Reduce print and postage costs by doing things online
- Resource distribution (including online sales if appropriate)
Increase in audience
- Attract more visitors
- Increase engagement
- Turn casual visitors in to supporters
- Turn supporters into contributors and advocates
- Increase influence
- Raise awareness (in all channels)
- Stimulate debate
- Contribute to debate
- Influence policy
- Raise your profile
Measuring results
A website is never "finished". To be successful it must respond to changing circumstances.
This means it is essential that KPI is measured, and that the website and CMS are flexible and responsive enough to change whenever change is required.
This is why the choice of CMS is important. Good code and practices should encourage good SEO and high visibility of the redeveloped site.
We would measure the site through these specific tools.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a free service which provides statistics in superb detail. By default, Google provides the following data in numerous formats, including tabular data, bar-charts and more.
- Unique visitors
- New visitors
- Average time spent on site (and on any page)
- Popularity of pages and documents
- Popularity of paths through the site
- Sites visited before arriving on your site
- Site visited after leaving your site
- Number of pages visited
- Location of user
- Browser used
- And much more
In addition, Analytics allows you to create custom statistics, measuring against criteria you can define. So if you wish to know details of a particular set of pages, or perform a like-for-like comparison of the performance of content, you can do so.
Google provides live statistics, so you can see activity as it is happening (note that it usually takes Analytics a couple of days before the first statistics are measured).
Analytics can be configured to automatically create and send to you a PDF document of your statistics. This can be sent daily, weekly, monthly, or by any other criteria you wish for as long as the site is live at no additional cost.
Treeline offers an additional service to clients. We benchmark all our sites during the first three months of launch to analyse performance in key areas including:
- Traffic to the site
- How well the site is being marketed
- Social media impact (how well the site is being shared socially)
- Technical issues (code issues that need to be optimised)
- Content review
- Accessibility compliance
- How well the site and content is optimised for search engines
- Identifies broken links
The combination of analytics and benchmarking means you can access detailed statistics about the performance of every part of your website and online marketing communications.
Analytics is free and can be plugged in to any CMS. However, benchmarking is free for the first three months then provided to clients who take advantage of a service level agreement or wish to commission paid reports on an ad-hoc basis.
A free, no obligation report of your current site is available on request. Just send us your name and a link to the site you want analysed. We guarantee no follow up from us.
Email email@example.com