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Too bad Hallmark doesn't make an apology card for this occasion.
A new Keepsake Christmas ornament from the Kansas City-based company looks like your favorite tacky-but-festive holiday sweater, only this one is decorated with the words "Don we now our FUN apparel!"
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That, of course, is not quite the line you remember from the carol "Deck the Halls," which dates to the 16th century.
Hallmark had defended its word switcheroo on the 2013 holiday sweater ornament, saying "gay" is "open to misinterpretation." But Thursday afternoon, after a day of hullabaloo, the company apologized.
"We've been surprised at the wide range of reactions expressed about the change of lyrics on this ornament, and we're sorry to have caused so much concern," Hallmark said in a statement.
"We never intend to offend or make political statements with our products, and in hindsight, we realize we shouldn't have changed the lyrics on the ornament."
That range of reactions included outrage, although some was probably of the faux variety.
CNN anchor Carol Costello waded into the controversy on her Facebook page. "Oh Hallmark. You didn't. Oh wait, you did," Costello began a post.
She ended with: "Homophobic? I say, yes you are."
Mason Hakes, former chairman of the Kansas City Diversity Coalition, said he wasn't bothered by the word change, although he could see why some might be.
But he points to "Hallmark's proven track record" of being a gay-friendly workplace and contributing to gay-related charities.
"I personally know about a dozen individuals who are openly LGBT and thriving at Hallmark," Hakes said.
He just thinks the creative people behind the ornament were making a play on words. Hallmark certainly wouldn't do anything "explicitly anti-gay, at least not intentionally."
Among other viewpoints:
• "Do they support fun marriage?" went one tweet.
• And this one: "If they don't like gay apparel they'll be shocked to see what the elves wear!"
• "As (a) supporter of gay rights, this sort of ridiculous action is what gives 'political correctness' a bad name," someone commented on The Star's website, KansasCity.com.
In an earlier statement, Hallmark said in part: "When the lyrics to 'Deck the Halls' were translated from Gaelic and published in English back in the 1800s, the word 'gay' meant festive or merry. Today it has multiple meanings, which we thought could leave our intent open to misinterpretation."
That statement went on to add that the ornament was created in the spirit of fun. "That's the spirit we intended and the spirit in which we hope ornament buyers will take it."
The ornament sells for $12.95. Hallmark has no plans to pull the ornament, a spokeswoman said.
The item's description on the company's website: "When it comes to Christmas sweaters, gaudy can be good! Hang up this flashy sweater to make your tree's outfit complete. With its catchy phrase,
Don we now our FUN apparel!
everyone will be in on the joke."
Or maybe not.


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On the surface, fishing appears to be a lazy man's past time, but ask a true fisherman about it, and you'll find out that fishing is more complicated than you think. A fisherman's lure has to match the conditions (water temperature, air temperature and approaching weather fronts). Those conditions affect the type (live vs. artificial), size and color of bait used. They also affect how fast or slowly the fisherman reels in the bait. Most importantly, a fisherman has to know where to fish, since the old adage says that 80 percent of the fish are in 20 percent of the water.
On the surface, the fitness industry appears to some to be an easy way to make a buck. Open a building with cardio and strength equipment, a spin room and locker rooms and you're set, right? However, just like in fishing, this industry is not for novices, especially these days as competition increases and membership numbers remain stagnant. The success of fitness facilities lies in the "bait" used to attract members and their ability to retain them based on the results they achieve. Programming, customer service and facility presentation are the bait, and that bait must match the market conditions and the demographics' needs. Unfortunately for the industry, too many clubs may be fishing in too small of a pond.
The state of the industry in 2007 is one of growing competition made more difficult by the possibility of another year of stagnation in membership numbers. Low-priced clubs and express clubs are flooding the market. Many of the big clubs are getting bigger through private equity investment and expansion. A growing number of seniors are joining facilities for health reasons rather than reasons of beauty — and that senior market will continue to expand as more Baby Boomers reach 60 years old.
Ten years ago, the U.S. surgeon general released the Physical Activity and Health Report of the Surgeon General, and yet today, 64 percent of American adults are overweight or obese, and 70 percent of Americans don't get enough exercise, says Anthony Scaglione, COO of Quick Fit Products LLC, which is a partnership between Richard Bradley, the creator of the Quick Fit program, and L&T Health and Fitness, a fitness management and health promotion company.
"Sadly, the health and fitness industry has had no impact on improving the health of physically inactive Americans," Scaglione says. "This might be a bold statement, but the truth in the statistics exposes that we have only found creative ways to impact the already physically active, not the sedentary, at-risk population."
To prevent the health of Americans from worsening, the fitness industry must change its philosophy, Scaglione says.
"Every commercial club, work-site wellness program and community outreach center needs to preach 'health fitness' rather than 'athletic fitness' to their members, both active and inactive," Scaglione says.
Fitness facilities also must implement programs that target the sedentary and deconditioned population. Rather than spending money on the latest industry fad or piece of equipment, fitness facility owners should invest money in figuring out what motivates the physically inactive and developing programs that incorporate life-time physical fitness, he says.
"We must unite and pledge to address the greater majority of Americans who are not physically active and really need our help," Scaglione says. "We must stop making exercise too complicated with its many types of equipment and activity formats. We must create programs that people can finally see themselves doing on a regular basis. We must dedicate our efforts to reversing the deadly trend of physical inactivity and obesity in adults and children. After all, we are role models for everyone, not just those who are already physically active."
Club owners and staff members must let go of the fear that members will discontinue their membership if they teach them fitness skills that they can use away from the club, says Allison Flatley, COO of L&T Health and Fitness in Falls Church, VA.
"I believe the opposite will happen — clients will become more reliant on the club," she says. "The industry will not grow if we continue to focus on the highly motivated and ignore the majority of the population — the deconditioned and sedentary."
Casting a Larger Net
Although member numbers were stagnant in 2004 and 2005 (2006 numbers had not been released as of press time), the industry hasn't had trouble growing its club numbers. Almost 30,000 fitness facilities — both for- profit and nonprofit — are operating today, according to American Sports Data. The industry should expect more new clubs in every category this year but particularly in franchise and express clubs, says Rick Caro, president of consulting company Management Vision, which is based in New York. The most popular franchise facilities will be women-only facilities, led by Curves, Waco, TX, he says, but he also expects Planet Fitness, Dover, NH, and Anytime Fitness, Hastings, MN, to continue in popularity. Curves recently celebrated its 10,000th club opening. Planet Fitness grew to 140 clubs in about three years and now has 300 more clubs with last October's announcement that the company is purchasing World Gym. Mike Grondahl, CEO of Planet Fitness, has said the company is looking at additional purchases.
Anytime Fitness, which began franchising in mid-2002 and ended 2003 with $52,000 in corporate revenue, earned $3 million in revenue in 2005 and had 320 franchised clubs in 46 states at the end of November 2006. Jeff Klinger and Chuck Runyon, Anytime co-owners, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune recently that they have sold franchises for 600 more clubs that are expected to open this year, a pace that could put the franchise second only to Curves International in terms of the number of franchises opened. The two also estimate that 2006 revenue will top $10 million.
This year, 24 Hour Fitness is expected to open clubs in states it hasn't entered before and to do so in the mid-range price, which will put pressure on other mid-range clubs, says Caro.
Despite projected club openings, some in the industry see the beginning of the end for a large number of clubs this year. Jim Booker, a former club owner and industry veteran who lives in Atlanta, noticed several club closings in 2006 and expects that trend to continue this year.
"I think that will be the story of 2007 — the clubs that close," says Booker, who has been in the industry for 35 years. "You will see a big shakeout in 2007. There are too many clubs in the market."
The number of clubs is expanding faster than the membership base or the members, he says, adding that many Americans now have home equipment, and competition is popping up even in apartment complexes and churches.
"The biggest threat to these businesses is there is a club on every street corner," Booker says. "They're six blocks or a mile apart. If you draw a circle around them, they're not all making money."
Profit Trolling
Because of economic concerns, more competition and a lower membership increase overall, Caro estimates that revenue will be flat in 2007, especially for independent clubs. Respondents to Club Industry's Fitness Business Pro's (CIFBP) annual State of the Industry report are generally optimistic about their own revenue outlook for the year. The survey of 199 for-profit, nonprofit, university and government/military fitness owners or managers found that 73 percent of respondents expect their 2007 revenue to increase from 2006. The expected increase is an average of 24 percent. Respondents projected that their 2006 revenue would be an average of $819,000. Single-location club owners estimated average revenue of $595,000 while clubs with two or more locations expected average 2006 revenue to be $1.8 million.
However, if Caro's prediction of flat revenue occurs, it could lead facility owners and managers to control expenses. Expense control could be especially important because Caro foresees increased costs — payroll (especially if minimum wage increases on a federal level as Democrats have promised), real estate taxes, insurance increases on health and business insurance categories — and capital expenditure pressure, meaning cost of renovations will be higher than in the past. That leads to one key financial conclusion — greater pressure on EBITDA (earnings before income taxes, debt and amortization), Caro says.
"It will be harder to make the same profits as in the past," Caro says. "It doesn't mean clubs won't do better, but they will have to control costs and do a better job of increasing revenue from new members, getting more revenue per member and holding onto existing members longer."
Caro also anticipates that fitness facility owners will have more difficulty negotiating favorable leases.
"More landlords believe the cycle has changed, and they are more in the driver's seat," Caro says. That change in perception may mean that landlords who make improvements to spaces will want that investment back in rent. Rent may also increase because landlords will face higher real estate taxes, insurance costs and other costs.
"It will be more difficult for clubs without substantial resources and for independent clubs to get the leases that they like so they may not be able to add new clubs," says Caro, adding that startups might need to raise more money to get launched.
However, not all facility owners are pessimistic about expansion in the new year. Forty-six percent of CIFBP survey respondents plan to physically expand their facility in the next 12 months, which is an increase from last year when 37 percent planned an expansion. Fifty-one percent of facility owners planning an expansion this year will expand the existing building while 43 percent will open a new location, and 7 percent will acquire another club (some will do a combination). Last year's survey showed that 57 percent of club owners who planned to expand in 2006 would do so by expanding their existing buildings, and 48 percent planned to open a new location while 13 percent planned to acquire another club (again, some planned a combination of these methods of expansion).
Nonprofits aren't staying away from expansion. The YMCA of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, is just one of the Y groups that is opening another branch this year. The Bill and Lillie Heinrich YMCA is spreading its budget a little thinner by investing in a new facility, says Brandon Schroeder, health and fitness director at the Y, which is also undergoing a remodel.
The Air Force also is adding to its fitness center numbers. Next month, the Air Force will open the first of four fitness centers this year. The Navy will do some minor renovations to some of its fitness centers. The Army and Marines did not respond to requests for fitness center information.
Financial Fishing
Despite any pessimism about expansion and revenue, for- profit clubs may see more private equity investment this year, but government funding for military fitness is mixed, and universities continue to rely on student fees.
Current private equity firms will invest more in the industry this year, Caro says. New private equity firms will enter the industry now that so much private equity exists, and the industry has demonstrated some attractive exit calculations for private equity firms, which should mean more growth for players such as LA Fitness, 24 Hour Fitness, Crunch, Spectrum Clubs and Gold's Gym Corporate, he says.
Private equity firms often search for an ideal platform, which would be one of significant size, one that is in more than one region, one that offers financial results that indicate a club model that works, and one with proper documentation so they can understand how to grow the company to its next plateau, Caro says.
"Unfortunately, the ideal is larger than many of the companies that we have in this industry," he says. "So that means [private equity firms] might want to buy several regional companies and put them together. So in some ways more private equity is coming in but not nearly as great as if there were perfect platform companies for the private equity firms."
In the Navy where funding is strictly government-dependent, funding is not a major concern, says Kelly Powell, head of Navy Mission Essential Branch, Commander Navy Installations Command.
"The [Bush] administration is attuned to what is going on. We're going to have sufficient funds to have everything we need," Powell says.
However, funding for most Air Force fitness centers was cut for this year, says Major Danielle Taylor, fitness and sports branch chief of the Air Force Services Agency. The cuts will affect intramural sports programs and fitness classes. In addition, some bases cut the cleaning contracts for their fitness centers.
"These cuts caused a decrease in the quantity/quality of our programs," Taylor says.
The Air Force is undergoing a transformation to prepare for the future, Taylor says. The program budget directive and the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century (an overarching program guiding continuous process improvement) have changed the climate of the Air Force to include fitness and sports. This year and for the next few years, bases will take a hit in quality-of-life programs, which will mean a sacrifice in convenience rather than a wholesale reduction in quality of life, Taylor says. For example, most fitness centers will no longer have towel service, and intramural sports officials may be mostly volunteers. However, some base fitness centers will decrease the amount of group exercise classes and intramural sports to the minimum required.
In the university fitness setting, the funding is a much different game than in the commercial or military sectors because student fees fund most recreation centers.
"There doesn't seem to be any movement away from the student-fee model, but there has been a clear trend towards requiring recreation departments to generate funds to supplement student fees and/or university support," says Maureen McGonagle, director of Chicago-based DePaul University Campus Recreation and board member of the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA). "This has resulted in activity fees, membership fees for non-students, rentals, sponsorships and even a focus on development activities."
The national YMCA and Jewish Community Center Association were both contacted for this story but declined to comment about funding.
Shallow Waters
No matter how fitness facilities pay the bills, some economists predict a short recession starting as early as late 2007, which would most likely affect all fitness operations. If that happens, companies might implement layoffs, which could affect corporate and individual memberships. Fitness facilities may not raise rates as much as usual because of concerns that members and potential members will be concerned about job security or salary increases, says Caro.
"A lot of clubs will be shy about normal increases," he says. "Rather than going up $3, they'll go up $1, which means they'll have to find additional members to offset the lack of increase or [they'll have to] push ancillary revenue more."
Of the club owners surveyed, the average monthly membership in 2006 was $46.50. That compares to an average monthly membership fee of $42 in 2005.
However, any concerns about the economy and expenses aren't stopping club owners from spending this year. The surveyed facility owners expect to spend an average of $40,000 this year on equipment. Club owners with more than one location will spend on average $51,000 during the year.
Fishing Holes
In addition to new equipment, many fitness facility owners and managers plan to add or increase programming at their facilities. In fact, 72 percent of survey respondents say they plan to add or increase programming this year. Sixty-two percent of those will add or increase group training, 44 percent will add or increase personal training, 39 percent will add or increase senior programs, and 33 percent will add or increase children's programming. Twenty-five percent will add or increase traditional aerobics.
"We're seeing more niche programs (for the elderly, women, teens, etc.), mind/body exercising and outcome measurement," says Miriam Rinn, communications manager for the Jewish Community Center Association, New York.
The Bill and Lillie Heinrich YMCA is launching the Total Athlete program aimed at teenage athletes. In the program, the teens will do plyometrics, strength training, speed drills and other athletic drills, says Schroeder.
The Air Force is starting a new training/certification class that emphasizes group training, says Taylor. The class will teach fitness personnel how to work better with unit physical training leaders, design group exercise sessions and emphasize circuit training among other items.
The Navy has plans for the senior market using an over-50 initiative that includes strength training for active duty and retired staff, Powell says.
Universities are keeping up with commercial clubs in the variety of their offerings and services, says Chris Arterberry, associate director, fitness and wellness at DePaul University Campus Recreation.
"As for programming trends, collegiate recreation has been mirroring the fitness industry's shift toward a holistic approach to health and wellness, reflected through massage therapy, mind/body classes and increased collaboration with other campus departments to create an all-around well environment for students," Arterberry says.
One of the staple programs at most fitness facilities has been group exercise. Club owners surveyed say an average of 16.6 percent of their membership participates in group exercise, a large decrease from last year's respondents, who said that 28 percent of their members participated in group exercise. In addition, a recent IDEA survey found that traditional aerobics classes continued to decline in popularity, with all types combined (high-, low- and mixed-impact) being offered by roughly half of the respondents.
However, Sara Kooperman, CEO of SCW Fitness Education, predicts a resurgence in group exercise during the next few years and a decline in personal training, in large part because a group fitness instructor can train 20 to 100 members at a time while a personal trainer can train only one member at a time.
"Further, our population is more and more obese and requires motivation and education, and not everyone can afford personal training," Kooperman says. "It makes economical, financial and humanitarian sense for club owners and facility managers to encourage group exercise."
A possible resurgance in group exercise will come from choreographed group exercise programs because fewer people are becoming instructors and those who do don't stay in the field for as long as they used to, Kooperman says.
"Time constraints, a lack of financial remuneration and rising credential requirements make it virtually impossible for fitness instructors to maintain their education, find music, choreograph routines and sustain high-quality instruction while even hoping to show a profit at the end of the year," Kooperman says.
Choreographed programs offer affordable instructor training, convenient continuing education, high-quality DVD support materials and music CDs that make choreographed systems a valuable option for club owners, she says.
Don Jones, executive director of Fitness Centre & Day Spa, Orlando, FL, also praises the pre-choreographed group exercise programs. His hospital-owned facility uses them because the programs have changed to meet the times, he says.
"We literally pack our studio whenever we have new program launches at our club," Jones says. "Everyone is excited about it — whether it means new music or a new routine, and they all come to socialize as well as exercise."
Fitness facilities can have all the latest equipment and still be behind the curve if they aren't offering quality group exercise programs, Jones says.
McGonagle says that participation has been strong in group exercise classes at university rec facilities because group exercise routines continually change and adapt to keep participants interested. More recently, specialized or instructional programs have also been successful.
A resurgence in group exercise or not, personal training should stick around for quite some time if survey numbers are correct. An IDEA survey found that personal training remains the most frequently offered program at clubs. Eighty-four percent of the respondents offer personal training services in which one trainer works with one client. Sixty-four percent of the surveyed fitness professionals said that personal training would continue to grow.
In addition, CIFBP survey respondents say that an average of 15 percent of members at the clubs surveyed participate in personal training. More importantly for club owners, non-dues revenue most often comes from personal training, according to the survey results. Sixty-nine percent of clubs surveyed say that personal training accounts for at least part of their non-dues revenue while 53 percent say that class fees account for at least part of non-dues revenue.
"Personal training has come a long way since its infancy," says Jones. "Core training and functional fitness programs cannot be readily taught by just anyone, and we are seeing more and more people who want to improve their lifestyle by acquiring training skills to improve their flexibility — hence, their golf swing, etc. It's no longer just about looking good."
Jones also points to the growing trend of online personal training, which he says has created better opportunities for access than ever before.
In addition, he sees more health coaching occurring in his facility.
"More and more clients view their relationships with their personal trainer as just that — personal," Jones says. "Hence, they look to their trainers for guidance on more things than just how to improve their flexibility and muscle tone."
Of course, scopes of practice must be considered so that trainers don't overstep boundaries, but the reality is that clients are going to ask trainers questions, so trainers must be better trained to answer properly, even if it means taking a health coach training program, Jones says.
As personal training grows and the number of senior members grow, it's no wonder that some fitness facilities are seeing a growth in seniors participating in personal training. Valentin, owner of Pilates Body by Valentin, San Francisco, has seen growth in seniors signing up for personal training at his studio, growing from one senior client to 20 today.
"The main goal is to get them 'functional' and maintain a level of quality of life where they continue to be independent and still enjoy the activities of a social and energetic lifestyle," Valentin says of his 65- to 70-year-old clients, some of whom suffer from conditions such as emphysema, Parkinson's and lower back pain.
Seniors aren't the only market the clubs are focusing on. Valentin sees more focus on programs to help alleviate youth obesity. He will be teaching a Pilates class to eighth graders at a local school this year with hopes of eventually initiating an after-school program.
The Navy also is focusing on youth fitness.
"We're partnering with youth professionals (within the military service) to promote more youth and family fitness," Powell says, noting that family fitness pilots at two bases were successful and will be moved into other bases soon. "Most of the installations now are undertaking in some form or fashion family fitness programming."
While many fitness facilities are initiating new programs and implementing expansion plans, most will face several challenges in 2007, namely more competition and possibly flat membership numbers. It's become more challenging for clubs to simply cast their line and reel in members. Fitness facility owners now need to troll for profits and create new ways to attract and retain members as they wait to see whether their optimism about revenue comes true. A possible recession late this year, coupled with waves of clubs flooding the marketplace, will make it more difficult for fitness facilities to land that big catch in 2007.
Trends in 2006
What trends did the industry see in 2006?
Marketing leads for clubs at all price points and all locations were harder to get and were fewer in numbers, says Rick Caro, president of New York-based consulting company Management Vision. The no-call list and spamming regulations dealing with e-mail play a part in the difficulty, but other hurdles also exist. The industry has a lack of marketing expertise, Caro says. Often, general managers serve as marketing managers, and many general managers aren't skilled or trained as marketers.
Some of the tried-and-true direct-mail campaigns aren't pulling as well as they used to, Caro says. The industry hasn't been good about creating meaningful campaigns that are significant to people or about marketing to the right people at corporations about the health cost benefits of exercise.
Negative word of mouth is catching up with the industry. Thirty-five percent to 40 percent of members leave each year, some because of negative experiences. "Eventually, some of that negative word of mouth stops people from coming in who might have been considering it," says Caro.
Group exercise increased in volume and importance. Caro has seen numbers from clubs who are requiring group exercise instructors to keep better track of participants in the classes. The facility owners are then charting their group exercise participants and comparing the numbers to previous years. Many of the clubs also contact members who discontinued their memberships to do an exit interview. They are finding that a high number of those who left did not participate in group exercise and were only equipment users.
The clubs that did better during the year were those who got people into more group exercise, says Caro. "I assume that's because of more connectivity with people," he says.
Mind/body classes continued to be popular and became more diverse as facility owners offered more introductory and advanced classes rather than just one level of classes. Instructors also did a better job of creating the right environment for the mind/body classes (i.e., dimming lights, turning up the heat).
Personal training participation and revenue continued to rise. Some clubs are doing a better job of keeping personal training clients in the mix for longer, says Caro, but facilities also are doing a better job of introducing people to personal training by offering options like a three-pack personal training session.
Group training became more popular at many clubs even though it can require greater trainer skill to work with two-three people at one time, Caro says.
Some of the club companies grew and some of the big club companies grew even larger. For example, Life Time Fitness grew by (??) clubs in 2006 while it grew by (??) in 2005 and some of their clubs' sizes are getting larger. XSport moved from opening Chicago-area clubs to opening them in New York and Washington, DC, in 2006. TSI, which was not growing for a period of time, has stated plans to grow by 10 clubs per year.
"So big club stories continue to grow and grow fast despite any other negatives in the industry," says Caro.
A Glance Back at the Biggest Stories in 2006
Before anyone can look ahead, they must look behind to see where they've been. Below are the biggest fitness industry stories of last year (in no particular order) and a comment on each from Rick Caro, president of consulting company Management Vision, New York.
- Member numbers in United States showed no growth for the second year in a row.
No growth in membership is a concern to many in the industry, but the reason for this lack of growth is unknown, says Caro. It could be a blip in the industry's growth, or it could signal a decline. How clubs respond to this lack of growth interests Caro.
"Is it a case where clubs will do a better job of retaining members and grow it there?" he says. "All of that will not be known for another year, but it will be interesting to see where the flattening out of members will take us and whether it's temporary or whether it will now rise up again or whether it is a decline."
- Town Sports International launched its initial public offering.
"That public play was exciting because it was a pure club story that went public that wasn't a big-box story like Life Time," says Caro. Town Sports International (TSI) also differs from Life Time because TSI is more regional (their clubs reach from Boston to Washington, DC) and their model is one of convenience because in many cases they have many clubs within a metropolitan area to allow people to use their clubs where they live and work. "So it's a very different story from the Life Time or Bally stories," says Caro.
- Bally Total Fitness finalized its sale of Crunch Fitness, New York, to Angelo, Gordon & Co. and Marc Tascher.
In January 2006, Chicago-based Bally Total Fitness finalized the sale of 21 Crunch clubs, two Gorilla Sports Clubs and two Pinnacle Fitness Clubs to Angelo, Gordon & Co. and Marc Tascher for $45 million.
"The Crunch sale was an opportunity for another private equity or hedge fund to enter the industry for a brand that needed reinvigoration," says Caro.
- Planet Fitness purchased Dover, NH-based World Gym.
The industry waits to see what Planet Fitness' purchase of World Gym will mean, says Caro.
"It's not clear whether current World Gym franchisees will stay or leave entirely or become a Planet Fitness franchisee," says Caro. "It's also not clear how the benefits of having one corporation run two organizations will take place…and whether this becomes a platform for faster growth for one or both companies as far as franchisees go."
- Club Corp was sold to KSL Capital Partners LLC in October.
KSLCapital Partners LLC, which purchased 170 clubs and two resorts from Dallas-based Club Corp, is a private equity firm that invests in travel and leisure businesses. KSL management hasn't made it known whether they will keep all the properties and manage them, spin off some properties or do a joint venture.
"If they keep them, it will be interesting to see how they use their expertise in running resorts to run them differently or better," says Caro. However, they have stated they will commit $150 million in the facilities.
- Bally Total Fitness struggled throughout the year.
Chicago-based Bally dealt with the departure of Paul Toback, former CEO; shareholder disputes; and overtime pay issues. Despite these issues, the fitness chain still garners interest from the financial industry even though their model is different from many clubs in the industry, Caro says.
- Curves reached 10,000 clubs worldwide (8,000 in United States).
"The Curves story is a wonderful story," says Caro. "It continues to be one of the fastest growing companies in the country." Most of its growth is overseas now, which will show how other countries respond to the Curves model and formula.


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Nigel Slater's Chorizo and Bean soup stew
SNOW! Proper. Snow. It has settled and everything! I love snow. It takes me back to of winters of yore (ok, the mid to late eighties) when we lived on a remote farm and got snowed in every winter. Back then every single Christmas was white, godammit, and my parents used to strap Viktor, the piebald Shetland pony impulse-bought by my dad from a circus, to a small sled for Santa to use on his rounds before coming to us with presents. Incidentally, given that he is covered from top to toe in bad tattoos, it's a testament to my dad's amazing ability for disguises that it took me until I was nine years old to figure out it was him behind the beard. It was a soul destroying discovery.
Snow is also one of the main reasons behind my relentless Let's Move Back to Sweden! campaign (besides, you know, the schnapps, the strong economy, the virtually free childcare, the exceedingly generous maternity leave and the schnapps). "Goblin and Troll the Foetus ought to experience proper seasons and white Christmases just like I did!" I wail forlornly. My other half, having grown up in the damp West Country and being equipped with the view that snow is merely an obstacle to overcome during his Very Important Commute, just shrugs cruelly.
ANYWAY, the point that I wanted to make is that the thing with snow and cold weather in general is that it provides an excellent excuse - should you need one - for warming, comforting one pot meals with lots of flavour. Such as this Spanish inspired chorizo and bean stew, by Nigel Slater. It really is lovely, and it's everything I want out of a dinner when it's delightfully cold outside. It's also, once you are done arsing about with all the chopping, very easy to make. If I say one thing it's don't leave out the orange peel or the fennel seeds (unless you absolutely can't stand fennel, you weird, weird person) as it marries beautifully with the smoked paprika flavour of the chorizo and in my frankly grossly unprofessional opinion makes the dish. Do as I say!
Oh, and Nigel refers to this as a "soup". Hey Nige? It's a stew, man. It's a stew.
For about four people you will need:
2 onions - chopped.
3 or so garlic cloves – thinly sliced or just squeezed through a garlic press. Why faff?
2 carrots – chopped.
A rib of celery (that's a stick of celery to you and me) – chopped.
A tablespoon fresh oregano though I used dry, as I don't habitually have fresh oregano knocking about in winter
Chorizo – about 400g or however much or little you want, cut into bite sized chunks. I use Unearthed's cooking chorizo, but this will work well with whatever chorizo you have to hand.
Fennel seeds – Nigel says a pinch but I use a lot more because I love fennel, and I really think it adds to the dish.
3-4 strips of orange zest.
A glass of dry sherry (or white wine, which I used, though I prefer sherry for sherry is the nectar of the gods – I just didn't have any at home).
5-6 tomatoes – chopped. I (along with Nigel in this instance) don't bother with the whole peel 'n' deseed business, but if you're feeling less barbaric go ahead and do it.
2 tins of cannellini beans – drained.
Do like so:
1 Heat some oil in a deep pan. Moderate heat. Cook the onion until it starts to soften. Add garlic, carrot and celery, then leave to cook until the onion is golden and soft. Stir in the oregano.
2. Add the chorizo along with the crushed chillies, fennel seeds and strips of orange zest. Cook until the chorizo starts to release its juices to coat the veg. This is delicious and a Very Good Thing. Throw in your glass of sherry/white wine/vermouth and reduce down a bit.
3. Once reduced add your chopped tomatoes, beans and some fresh water – about a canful. Season well with salt and pepper, bring to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and leave to slowly cook half covered by a lid, for about 45 minutes.
4. Before serving sprinkle with some chopped parsley and maybe some grated orange zest.
We had this with warm sundried tomato rolls which I made by mixing some sundried tomatoes with the ingredients for a basic white dough and then employing my trusty old bread maker. Bread makers are magic! Eat this while looking out the window at all that pretty, PRETTY snow, feeling warm and cosy and smug that you're not actually outside in it. Because it's cold. And wet. And the little shits from next door will chuck snowballs mixed with pebbles right at your neck the second you step outside. You know they will.


text:
It's still dark when Joe Gallucci pulls up to the drive-thru of the Apponaug Honey Dew for his first cup of coffee of the day. He coasts across the still quiet Post Road and parks in his regular space at City Hall. It's not even 6 a.m. when he unlocks the building, and it will be another two hours before the rest of the city employees arrive, another start to another day.
Starting Feb. 1, someone new will have to take the keys and take over as the city's Director of Elections, but his absence will leave a void. After 16 years of working for the city of Warwick, the towering Gallucci, who will turn 77 next month, is a fixture at City Hall.
"He brings a personality that I think many, many officials, either elected or appointed, would love to have. He listens to everybody and he'll go out of his way to help anyone," said Edward Murphy, chairman of the Warwick Board of Canvassers, where Gallucci serves as clerk. "He's just a kind, decent, compassionate man and it extends to everybody. He's an amazing man."
A man known for personally delivering Hershey kisses to the women in the City Clerk's office, buying coffee for his colleagues and regaling City Hall staff with tales of political lore.
"When you know Joe Gallucci, you know a true friend. He comes from a family steeped in history of dedication to public service and it's going to leave a hole. It's a big loss," said Donna McDonald, who has worked alongside him in the Board of Canvassers for 14 years.
A graduate of the University of Rhode Island, Gallucci started his career in the private sector. He worked in sales for ITT General Controls, traveling often as the administrator of national and regional marketing.
While there, former Councilman Gerry Gibbons approached him about running for office. Gallucci says he knew nothing about politics at the time, but Gibbons insisted that his reputation in the community would propel his campaign.
Gallucci grew up in Warwick. He had been a coach and former president with Warwick Continental Little League for 15 years, and his late father was a former chief of police in the city.
"I didn't know anything, politically. I was totally green back then," he said, describing himself as a "conservative Democrat, if there is such a thing. I wasn't way right and I wasn't way left."
Gallucci would go on to serve as a city councilman from 1977 to 1984 and again from 1990 to 1994.
"It was a learning experience for me, those first eight years. I learned quickly; I had good teachers," he said.
During his first term on the council, the city was faced with an $8.6 million deficit. He helped get that budget balanced but faced other difficult decisions, like raising taxes.
"For me, it was always foremost in my mind when we adopted a budget and we increased taxes, was it hitting people who could least afford it?" he recalled.
During his tenure, he would develop a close friendship with the late Walter Santos. Gallucci was also president of the council for much of his public service, and he ran a tight ship. He recalls threatening to kick people out of meetings when things got rowdy, including his colleagues on the council, but the threat was all that was needed. More often than not, council business ran smoothly.
"Would I want to do anything differently? No. Whenever I leave something, I like to leave it better than when I came," he said.
Back then, there were no cell phones, and Gallucci would have to check messages from payphones on the road, while traveling for his job. He says that respecting constituents and being there for them, even if it's just returning a phone call, is the key to being a good councilperson.
The approach is the same today, even though the city looked quite different during Gallucci's early days on the council.
"I can remember when the city was probably half the population it is now. There used to be one-lane roads; there was no Route 37 and Artic was the center of retail," he recalled.
Warwick has changed, but it's still home.
"I was born here, grew up here, went to school here, played sports here … I really don't have a desire to live anyplace else," Gallucci said.
Mayor Scott Avedisian is glad Gallucci has stuck around all these years. The two met on the city council, and Avedisian continues to count Gallucci as a friend and advisor.
"Joe has been a fixture in city government since the 1970s. Joe and I served on the City Council together and I have nothing but fond memories of our time together. We also had a lot of laughs," he said.
Avedisian said Gallucci, a Democrat, was usually on the prevailing side of issues, except in one instance when he sided with the young councilman and sacrificed his winning record. Avedisian remembers that vote of confidence, and says he still values Gallucci's wisdom – even when it's unsolicited.
"He always has advice, even when I do not ask for it. But his advice is always good. He always tells me that my gut instincts are good and that I should follow them. He also reminds me to stick to my values and stay true to my beliefs," he said.
With the history they share, though, it is not surprising that Mayor Avedisian enjoys teasing his longtime colleague. He said he would miss having Gallucci around, especially since he can no longer "point out that he is the oldest active city employee."
The respect, and teasing, is mutual. Gallucci has enjoyed working under multiple administrations and has always revered the office of mayor. In 1984, he made his own bid for the position.
"It wasn't meant to be; I accepted that," he said.
He was unsuccessful in his campaign, but has always toyed with the idea of running for mayor again.
After his mayoral campaign, Gallucci decided he was doing too much traveling for ITT. In 1993, he was appointed liquor control administrator for the state.
"It was a big change for me, going from the private sector to the public sector, but it was something I enjoyed," he said.
The job was short-lived, however, and in three years, Gallucci was ready for a new challenge. He took on a dual role as the director of human services for the city and clerk for the Warwick Board of Canvassers, overseeing a combined budget of more than $1.5 million and a staff of 27.
In particular, Gallucci enjoyed learning about the intricacies of elections.
"I knew the other side of the counter because I was a candidate. I was halfway there," he said.
In 1996, Gallucci's job description changed slightly, and he dropped the human service end of his responsibilities to focus solely on his role as the city's director of elections.
"He's knowledgeable in many areas and, as far as the electoral process, he's been around it for so many years himself, I don't know of anyone who has more hands-on knowledge of the electoral process," Murphy said. "He's a tremendous, tremendous advocate for the voter."
Gallucci has been through a lot of elections, and worked with countless candidates, but he's ready to retire just shy of another election year. Who will take his place remains unclear. Gallucci already made a recommendation to the board, and will soon sit down with the mayor's office to ensure a replacement is found quickly. McDonald is currently his second in command as the deputy clerk of the department.
"It is essential that we fill his job quickly. My chief of staff, Mark Carruolo, will be in charge of filling his seat very quickly," Avedisian said.
Gallucci is unsure of what retirement will bring for him, though he will continue to serve as a member of the Kent County Water Authority and hopes to spend more time with his two sons, Joe and Frank, and his four grandchildren.
Looking back on his career, and on decades of service to his hometown, he wouldn't change a thing.
"I work well with people; I get along with everyone. If I didn't work well with people, I don't think I would have been as successful," he said.
Murphy, who has been with Gallucci from the beginning, says it's a well-deserved break.
"He has dedicated so much of his life to this community, so I think he deserves some time to himself," Murphy said. "Still, I'm going to miss him terribly."
Gallucci feels the same.
"Will I miss it? Oh, sure," he says, leaning back in his chair. "Most of all, I will miss the people I work with."
And they'll certainly miss him.
Congratulations, Joe, on a long career in Warwick. Barbara Atkins Clark
Conrratulations Joe,it was a pleasure working with a real gentleman. Art Lowe ret. WFD
Say it so, Joe. You have been a true community leader in Warwick for many years. We owe you a debt of gratutude. Welcome to retirement
Tom Celona


text:
Now that your kernel is configured and compiled and the necessary system
configuration files are filled in correctly, it is time to install a
program that will fire up your kernel when you start the system. Such a
program is called a
For x86, Gentoo Linux provides
But before we install the bootloader, we inform you how to configure framebuffer (assuming you want it of course). With framebuffer you can run the Linux command line with (limited) graphical features (such as using the nice bootsplash image Gentoo provides).
First of all, you need to know what type of framebuffer device you're using. If
you use a Gentoo patched kernel tree (such as
64-bit systems must use the the
The following table lists the available resolutions and color depths and
matches those against the value that you need to pass on to the
The result of those two statements could be something like
While LILO does work on AMD64, Gentoo only supports using GRUB. Now continue by
The result of those two statements could be something like
Now continue by installing
The most critical part of understanding GRUB is getting comfortable with how
GRUB refers to hard drives and partitions. Your Linux partition
Hard drives count from zero rather than "a" and partitions start at zero
rather than one. Be aware too that with the hd devices, only hard drives are
counted, not atapi-ide devices such as cdrom players and burners. Also, the
same construct is used with SCSI drives. (Normally they get higher numbers
than IDE drives except when the BIOS is configured to boot from SCSI devices.)
When you ask the BIOS to boot from a different hard disk (for instance your
primary slave),
Assuming you have a hard drive on
Having gotten the feel for that, it is time to install GRUB.
To install GRUB, let's first emerge it:
# emerge grub
Although GRUB is now installed, we still need to write up a
configuration file for it and place GRUB in our MBR so that GRUB automatically
boots your newly created kernel. Create
# nano -w /boot/grub/grub.conf
Now we are going to write up a
# Which listing to boot as default. 0 is the first, 1 the second etc.default 0 # How many seconds to wait before the default listing is booted.timeout 30 # Nice, fat splash-image to spice things up :) # Comment out if you don't have a graphics card installedsplashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz title=Gentoo Linux # Partition where the kernel image (or operating system) is locatedroot (hd0,0) kernel /boot/ root=/dev/hda3 # The next four lines are only if you dualboot with a Windows system. # In this case, Windows is hosted on /dev/hda6.title=Windows XP rootnoverify (hd0,5) makeactive chainloader +1
default 0 timeout 30 splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz title=Gentoo Linux
root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/ root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hda3 udev initrd /boot/ # Only in case you want to dual-boottitle=Windows XP rootnoverify (hd0,5) makeactive chainloader +1
If you used a different partitioning scheme and/or kernel image, adjust
accordingly. However, make sure that anything that follows a GRUB-device (such
Besides, if you chose to use a different partitioning scheme and did not put
If you need to pass any additional options to the kernel, simply add
them to the end of the kernel command. We're already passing one option
If you're using a 2.6.7 or higher kernel and you jumpered your harddrive
because the BIOS can't handle large harddrives you'll need to append
Now save the
The GRUB developers recommend the use of
Continue with
To install GRUB you will need to issue the
# grep -v rootfs /proc/mounts > /etc/mtab
Now we can install GRUB using
# grub-install /dev/hda
If you have more questions regarding GRUB, please consult the
Continue with
To start configuring GRUB, you type in
# grub
In the example configuration we want to install GRUB so that it reads its
information from the boot partition
The tab completion mechanism of GRUB can be used from within GRUB.
For instance, if you type in "
By using the tab completion, setting up GRUB should be not that hard. Now go on, configure GRUB, shall we? :-)
grub> root (hd0,0)
(Specify where your /boot partition resides)grub> setup (hd0) (Install GRUB in the MBR)grub> quit (Exit the GRUB shell)
If you have more questions regarding GRUB, please consult the
Continue with
LILO, the LInuxLOader, is the tried and true workhorse of Linux bootloaders. However, it lacks some features that GRUB has (which is also the reason why GRUB is currently gaining popularity). The reason why LILO is still used is that, on some systems, GRUB doesn't work and LILO does. Of course, it is also used because some people know LILO and want to stick with it. Either way, Gentoo supports both, and apparently you have chosen to use LILO.
Installing LILO is a breeze; just use
# emerge lilo
To configure LILO, you must create
# nano -w /etc/lilo.conf
Some sections ago we have asked you to remember the kernel-image name
you have created. In the next example
Make sure you use
# Install LILO in the MBRprompt # Give the user the chance to select another sectiontimeout=50 # Wait 5 (five) seconds before booting the default sectiondefault=gentoo # When the timeout has passed, boot the "gentoo" section # For non-genkernel usersimage=/boot/ label=gentoo # Name we give to this sectionread-only # Start with a read-only root. Do not alter!root=/dev/hda3 # Location of the root filesystem # For genkernel usersimage=/boot/ label=gentoo read-only root=/dev/ram0 append="init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hda3 udev" initrd=/boot/ # The next two lines are only if you dualboot with a Windows system. # In this case, Windows is hosted on /dev/hda6.other=/dev/hda6 label=windows
If you need to pass any additional options to the kernel, add an
label=gentoo read-only root=/dev/hda3 append="video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1024x768-32@85"
If you're using a 2.6.7 or higher kernel and you jumpered your harddrive
because the BIOS can't handle large harddrives you'll need to append
Now save the file and exit. To finish up, you have to run
# /sbin/lilo
If you have more questions regarding LILO, please consult its
You can now continue with
Exit the chrooted environment and unmount all mounted partitions. Then type in
that one magical command you have been waiting for:
# exit cdimage ~# cd cdimage ~# umount /mnt/gentoo/boot /mnt/gentoo/dev /mnt/gentoo/proc /mnt/gentoo cdimage ~# reboot
Of course, don't forget to remove the bootable CD, otherwise the CD will be booted again instead of your new Gentoo system.
Once rebooted in your Gentoo installation, finish up with


text:
|Einstein for Everyone
|Fall 2008
Back to main course page
For submission: Mon. Dec. 1, Tues. Dec. 2, Wed. Dec. 3.
1. Consider a wave packet used in de Broglie's theory to represent a particle. How is the particle's momentum affected if we make the spatial extent of the wave packet bigger or smaller? How does this difference relate to the "Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle"?
2. What is the difference between interpreting the uncertainty of Heisenberg's principle as ignorance as opposed to indeterminateness?
3. What is the "Schroedinger evolution" of a matter wave? What is "the collapse of the wavepacket"?
4. In the standard analysis of the Schroedinger cat thought experiment, what leads to the definite survival or definite death of the cat?
For discussion in the recitation.
A. Quantum theory is an indeterministic theory. That means that a complete specification of the present state of some atomic system does not fix its future. Here's how we apply this idea to radioactive decay. If you have a single atom of Neptunium NP 231 93, there is a one in two chance that it will decay over the next 53 minutes. According to standard quantum theory, that is all you can know. There is no way to know ahead of time whether the atom will decay. Do you really believe that? Might it be if we had a more complete picture of the compicated, hidden recesses of this atom that we'd see some tiny difference between those atoms that end up decaying and those that do not? Ought we expect some future theory of the insides of atoms to tell us about these sorts of hidden properties? Ought we to demand such a theory before we can say we really understand radioactive decay? Or should we comfortable with the idea that some processes just are indeterministic?
|B. To get a sense of how the Heisenberg uncertainty principle applies, consider the problem of balancing a pencil perfectly on its tip. Here is what is needed for success in the balancing operation: you have to align the center of mass of the pencil exactly over the pencil's tip; and, as you take your fingers off the pencil after doing this, you need to leave the pencil perfectly at rest. What does Heisenberg's uncertainty principle tell you about your chances of success?
C. The "measurement problem" remains a lingering difficulty for quantum theory. Yet modern quantum theory remains an extremely successful theory of matter that has given us many fascinating insights into the nature of matter and makes many quantitative predictions that have been borne out by experience. How is this possible?
D. Consdier the Schroedinger cat thought experiment. According to the text book account of quantum measurement, immediately prior to our opening the box, the cat is in a 50-50 superposition of alive and dead states; when we open the box and look at the cat, we trigger a collapse into just one of those states. Most people find that instinctively implausible. However our instincts have mislead us often enough. We all felt instinctively that there is a universal fact over whether two events are simultaneous; or that the sum of the angles of a right angle has to be 180 degrees. Both proved to be false. Should we believe our instincts in this case? If so, why? If not, why not?


text:
Faculty Handbook
Procedure for Modification of a Dual Label Course in the Undergraduate or Graduate Curriculum
a. Departmental approval of the proposed change(s).
b. Transmission of the proposal to the appropriate school review committee in electronic form.
c. Each school review committee chair will electronically post the proposals and notify all University department chairs that they should check the proposals. (the place where this should be posted and the manner should be determined by the deans and the appropriate technical staff.)
d. Department chairs will decide whether they think their departments are affected and if so, go to the complete proposal. When a department chair thinks the change has an effect on the department, she or he will provide input to the review committee before or during the approval process
e. After the approval by the school committee, the proposal proceeds to the next step of the process as before (CUCAS or Graduate Council) where departments who consider themselves affected may also provide input.
Form: Procedure for Modification of a Dual Label Course in the Undergraduate or Graduate Curriculum
October 20, 1982
Rev. Senate Approval: R-06-02-03
Admin. Approval: 6/9/06
Rev. Senate Approval: R-06-04--04
Admin. Approval: 9/6/06


text:
We'll take a good look at disk-oriented aspects of Gentoo Linux and Linux in general, including Linux filesystems, partitions and block devices. Then, once you're familiar with the ins and outs of disks and filesystems, you'll be guided through the process of setting up partitions and filesystems for your Gentoo Linux installation.
To begin, we'll introduce
The block devices above represent an abstract interface to the disk. User programs can use these block devices to interact with your disk without worrying about whether your drives are IDE, SCSI or something else. The program can simply address the storage on the disk as a bunch of contiguous, randomly-accessible 512-byte blocks.
Although it is theoretically possible to use a full disk to house your Linux
system, this is almost never done in practice. Instead, full disk block devices
are split up in smaller, more manageable block devices. On Alpha systems,
these are called
As an example we use the following slice layout:
If you are interested in knowing how big a partition should be, or even how
many partitions (or volumes) you need, read on. Otherwise continue now with
The number of partitions is highly dependent on your environment. For instance,
if you have lots of users, you will most likely want to have your
As you can see, it very much depends on what you want to achieve. Separate partitions or volumes have the following advantages:
However, multiple partitions have one big disadvantage: if not configured properly, you might result in having a system with lots of free space on one partition and none on another.
The following parts explain how to create the example slice layout described previously, namely:
Change your slice layout according to your own preference.
To figure out what disks you have running, use the following commands:
# dmesg | grep 'drive$'
(For IDE disks)# dmesg | grep 'scsi' (For SCSI disks)
From this output you should be able to see what disks were detected and their
Now fire up
# fdisk /dev/sda
If your hard drive is completely blank, then you'll have to first create a BSD disklabel.
Command (m for help): b /dev/sda contains no disklabel. Do you want to create a disklabel? (y/n) y
A bunch of drive-specific info will show here3 partitions: # start end size fstype [fsize bsize cpg] c: 1 5290* 5289* unused 0 0
We start with deleting all slices
BSD disklabel command (m for help): p 8 partitions: # start end size fstype [fsize bsize cpg] a: 1 235* 234* 4.2BSD 1024 8192 16 b: 235* 469* 234* swap c: 1 5290* 5289* unused 0 0 d: 469* 2076* 1607* unused 0 0 e: 2076* 3683* 1607* unused 0 0 f: 3683* 5290* 1607* unused 0 0 g: 469* 1749* 1280 4.2BSD 1024 8192 16 h: 1749* 5290* 3541* unused 0 0 BSD disklabel command (m for help): d Partition (a-h): a
After repeating this process for all slices, a listing should show you something similar to this:
BSD disklabel command (m for help): p 3 partitions: # start end size fstype [fsize bsize cpg] c: 1 5290* 5289* unused 0 0
On Alpha based systems you don't need a separate boot partition. However, the
first cylinder cannot be used as the
We will create a swap slice starting at the third cylinder, with a total
size of 1 Gbyte. Use
BSD disklabel command (m for help): n Partition (a-p): a First cylinder (1-5290, default 1): 3 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (3-5290, default 5290): +1024M BSD disklabel command (m for help): t Partition (a-c): a Hex code (type L to list codes): 1
After these steps you should see a layout similar to the following:
BSD disklabel command (m for help): p 3 partitions: # start end size fstype [fsize bsize cpg] a: 3 1003 1001 swap c: 1 5290* 5289* unused 0 0
We will now create the root slice, starting from the first cylinder
Another problem is that there is currently a bug in
When the partition is created, we change the type to
D disklabel command (m for help): n Partition (a-p): b First cylinder (1-5290, default 1): 1004 Last cylinder or +size or +sizeM or +sizeK (1004-5290, default 5290): 5289 BSD disklabel command (m for help): t Partition (a-c): b Hex code (type L to list codes): 8
Your slice layout should now be similar to this:
BSD disklabel command (m for help): p 3 partitions: # start end size fstype [fsize bsize cpg] a: 3 1003 1001 swap b: 1004 5289 4286 ext2 c: 1 5290* 5289* unused 0 0
Command (m for help): w
Now that your slices are created, you can now continue with
Now that your partitions are created, it is time to place a filesystem on them.
If you don't care about what filesystem to choose and are happy with what we use
as default in this handbook, continue with
Several filesystems are available. Most of them are found stable on the Alpha architecture.
ext2 is the tried and true Linux filesystem but doesn't have metadata journaling, which means that routine ext2 filesystem checks at startup time can be quite time-consuming. There is now quite a selection of newer-generation journaled filesystems that can be checked for consistency very quickly and are thus generally preferred over their non-journaled counterparts. Journaled filesystems prevent long delays when you boot your system and your filesystem happens to be in an inconsistent state.
ext3 is the journaled version of the ext2 filesystem, providing metadata journaling for fast recovery in addition to other enhanced journaling modes like full data and ordered data journaling. ext3 is a very good and reliable filesystem. It has an additional hashed b-tree indexing option that enables high performance in almost all situations. In short, ext3 is an excellent filesystem.
ReiserFS is a B*-tree based filesystem that has very good overall performance and greatly outperforms both ext2 and ext3 when dealing with small files (files less than 4k), often by a factor of 10x-15x. ReiserFS also scales extremely well and has metadata journaling. As of kernel 2.4.18+, ReiserFS is solid and usable as both general-purpose filesystem and for extreme cases such as the creation of large filesystems, the use of many small files, very large files and directories containing tens of thousands of files.
XFS is a filesystem with metadata journaling which comes with a robust feature-set and is optimized for scalability. We only recommend using this filesystem on Linux systems with high-end SCSI and/or fibre channel storage and an uninterruptible power supply. Because XFS aggressively caches in-transit data in RAM, improperly designed programs (those that don't take proper precautions when writing files to disk and there are quite a few of them) can lose a good deal of data if the system goes down unexpectedly.
JFS is IBM's high-performance journaling filesystem. It has recently become production-ready and there hasn't been a sufficient track record to comment positively nor negatively on its general stability at this point.
To create a filesystem on a partition or volume, there are tools available for each possible filesystem:
|Creation Command
For instance, to have the root partition (
# mke2fs -j /dev/sda2
Now create the filesystems on your newly created partitions (or logical volumes).
# mkswap /dev/sda1
To activate the swap partition, use
# swapon /dev/sda1
Create and activate the swap now.
Now that your partitions are initialized and are housing a filesystem, it is
time to mount those partitions. Use the
# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/gentoo
We will also have to mount the proc filesystem (a virtual interface with the
kernel) on
Continue with


text:
Assassin's Creed II - PS3
Release Date:November 17, 2009
Also on:PlayStation 3 PC Xbox 360
Viewing USA:Also on UK.
Assassin's Creed II is the follow-up to the best-selling blockbuster on PlayStation 3, as the deftly crafted story by Ubisoft Montreal picks up right where the first one left off. In 2012, you met Desmond, the central character from the first game who was kidnapped by Abstergo Industries and subjected to gruelling sessions in the Animus, a machine with the ability to search through the genetic memories of anyone placed in it. The reasons for this are twofold: to train Desmond in assassin skills that he can apply in the present day, and to uncover the whereabouts of the remaining Pieces of Eden, the objects that Abstergo Industries originally kidnapped Desmond for in the original Assassin's Creed.
Super Gamer Dude
PlayStation 3
After the initial confusion at the end of the first game this one sets off where the last one left off throwing you straight into battles and getting used to the controls. For the first part of the game you will have to follow the story instead of having the option of free roaming and this lasts for around 30 minutes.
The story in this game revolves around the "Animus", a powerful machine which makes it possible to view genetic memories of the protagonist Desmond Miles' ancestors, a long line of assassins which stems back to the original game. This time you enter late fifteenth century Italy during the Renaissance era and take control of a young nobleman-turned-assassin named Ezio Auditore Da Firenze who, after witnessing his family being murdered, sets off on a journey to uncover a hidden conspiracy relating to that murder.
The graphics are good and much the same as the first game with a few jitters in frame rate from time to time. Not much has changed in the way of controls either, a few more moves have been added and the free running seems to work well. That is, until you are in a rush and little things like jumping away from a wall you are climbing, or diving off buildings when you didn't want to jump off, can be frustrating and time consuming especially when you are against the clock. This however is a small glitch and, once I learned to let go of "X" at places which I deemed to be dodgy areas, I found this problem happening less often. When climbing specific areas and scaling to reach certain levels you often need to be more accurate with the left analog stick or you may sometimes miss your intended landing point and will then have to scale the building again.
The battle mode and combat system is pretty much the same, you can now take weapons from your enemies and vice versa, you can visit shops and purchase weapons with money obtained within the game along with various upgrades. For instance, you can upgrade your pouch to hold more weapons, buy health packs, upgrade armor, upgrade clothing, even owning some of the shops that sell such items and so earning money from them.
Assassination jobs are much easier to achieve than in the first game, you also have more of them which is a good thing but I would have liked them to be more of a challenge overall. The problem, perhaps the only problem with Assassins Creed is the fact that, once mastered, it is easy to takedown even the biggest of enemies.
Evading enemies is also much easier in this game, you can in most cases outrun the guards and head for deep water, or pay prostitutes who will distract the guards, this is useful in stealth style killing. You also have the advantage of having a double blade which means that you can kill two guards at once.
Overall Assassin's Creed II is a masterpiece of gaming. The developers, Ubisoft, did an outstanding job with the first release, and this is simply an extension of what is considered by many to be the greatest game ever made.


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Get Ready to Soil Your Plants
Owning a small pond is not just about pumps, filters, and fish. Pond guys and gals everywhere are exercising their green thumbs by implementing aquatic plants into their water feature.
Go Green or Go Home
Aquatic plants are an excellent addition to your pond as they add life to your water garden with their diverse shapes and colors. In addition to their obvious visual appeal, plants also feed off of available nutrients in your water garden which decreases the amount of food available for potential algae blooms. Furthermore, aquatic plants provide food for your fish population as well as places to spawn and hide.
Plethora of Plants
You may love the idea of incorporating plants into your water garden, but there are so many types to choose from it may feel a bit overwhelming. If you are still a bit fresh in the water gardening scene, or you just don't know that much about aquatic plants, you can find solace in an Aquatic Plant Package. Getting great plants for your water garden is as simple as choosing a plant package that fits the square footage of your pond. Packages also include Black Japanese Trapdoor Snails, which are great for eating algae without taking over your entire water garden. More adventurous water garden owners can purchase aquatic plants à la carte to add even more diversity to their pond. Mixing a variety of plants will make for a more interesting landscape and will help promote a balanced ecosystem as each plant has its own unique attributes.
Click over to our Planting Aquatic Plants article to read more about aquatic plant selections and how to plant them.
POND TALK: What type of plant selection can be found in your water garden? Which plant is a MUST have?
Filed under: Aquatic Plants, Water Gardens & Features | Tagged: Aquatic Plant Packages, aquatic plants, Black Japanese Trapdoor Snails, Planting, Planting Aquatic Plants, Snails |


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General Map
The Slovak Republic was formerly part of Czechoslovakia and hence some older maps still refer to the now disbanded country. Slovakia is bordered by Poland to the North, Ukraine to the East, Hungary to the West and the Czech Republic to the North West.
As of December 21, 2007 Slovakia becomes part of the Schengen area. This means that there will be no more border controls on European Union member state borders. The only remaining controlled border will be with the Ukraine.


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SOURCE: Apigee
January 23, 2014 09:00 ET
Apigee Appoints Stacey Giamalis as Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel and Denise Persson as Chief Marketing Officer
Apigee Appoints Stacey Giamalis as Senior Vice President and Chief Counsel and Denise Persson as Chief Marketing Officer
SAN JOSE, CA--(Marketwired - Jan 23, 2014) - Apigee today announced that two new executives have recently joined its management team to support the company's global expansion and rapid growth. Stacey Giamalis has joined Apigee as senior vice president and chief counsel, and Denise Persson has been appointed the company's chief marketing officer (CMO). Both industry veterans have specific experience with high growth companies in emerging markets and were selected to guide Apigee through its next phase.
"As more and more organizations embrace the power and agility provided by APIs and big data to become truly digital businesses, our market opportunity will continue to expand," said Chet Kapoor, Apigee CEO. "At this point in Apigee's evolution, it's crucial that we have the experience, wisdom and counsel of a highly seasoned leadership team. Denise and Stacey are both well known and highly respected in their respective fields of marketing and law, and they bring the insight and drive that we need to take Apigee to the next level."
Persson joins Apigee from ON24, a SaaS webcasting and virtual communications company, where she served as CMO for the past five years. Previously she was the EVP of global marketing at Genesys, a publicly traded company and leading SaaS provider of unified conferencing and collaboration services, where she managed marketing teams in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Throughout her career she built and led global marketing teams for high-growth, category-creating companies and helped take companies through multiple phases, including mergers and acquisitions and public offerings.
"Apigee is at the center of an exciting new movement as more companies truly engage in digital transformation and utilize data to accelerate their business and deepen customer engagement," said Persson. "Apigee represents an incredible opportunity to shape the digital landscape of the future, and I look forward to joining the leadership team at such a pivotal time in the company's growth."
Giamalis also brings extensive experience in high tech and business law, having advised technology companies in the SaaS, data management, online advertising and online media sectors for over 22 years. She joins Apigee from Adchemy, Inc., a SaaS advertising technology company. There, Giamalis guided the company on all legal, compliance and privacy matters as vice president, general counsel and chief privacy officer. She previously served as the chief counsel of several publicly traded technology companies, including CrossWorlds Software, QRS Corporation and LookSmart, where she amassed a wealth of experience in corporate and strategic transactions, intellectual property and corporate governance.
"Apigee has assembled one of the highest-caliber leadership teams I've ever witnessed, and I look forward to helping drive the company's strategic growth alongside such an dynamic and esteemed group," said Giamalis.
The Apigee digital business platform is designed to help companies of all sizes succeed in today's mobile world by combining big data analytics with API technology infrastructure for unmatched agility. Today, hundreds of enterprises use Apigee, including 20 percent of the Fortune 100 and nearly half of the top 100 global brands.
About Apigee
Apigee provides a digital business platform that helps companies of all sizes become leaders in the mobile-first digital world. Through big data analytics and API infrastructure, the Apigee platform gives enterprises unmatched business insights and the decision-making speed required to compete in today's digital world. Apigee customers include global enterprises such as Walgreens, eBay, Shell, Live Nation, Kaiser Permanente and Marks & Spencer. The company's headquarters are in San Jose, California. To learn more, go to www.apigee.com.
Apigee is a registered trademark in the U.S. Other product or company names mentioned may be trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.
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Phone: 303.945.2490 Fax: 866.592.6911 Email: [email protected]
3001 Brighton Blvd Suite 623 Denver, CO 80216
Tae Kim's Guide to Learning Japanese
Contents [ hide ]
In Japanese, the ability to do a certain action is expressed by conjugating the verb rather than adding a word such as the words "can" or "able to" in the case of English. All verbs conjugated into the potential form become a ru-verb.
Once again, the conjugation rules can be split into three major groups: ru-verbs, u-verbs, and exception verbs. However, the potential form of the verb 「 する 」 (meaning "to do") is a special exception because it becomes a completely different verb: 「 できる 」 ( 出来る )
※Remember that all potential verbs become ru-verbs.
It is also possible to just add 「れる」 instead of the full 「られる」 for ru-verbs. For example, 「 食べる 」 becomes 「 食べれる 」 instead of 「 食べられる 」. I suggest learning the official 「られる」 conjugation first because laziness can be a hard habit to break and the shorter version, though common, is considered to be slang.
The potential form indicates that something is possible but no actual action is actually taken. While the potential form is still a verb, because it is describing the state of feasibility, in general, you don't want to use the direct object 「を」 as you would with the non-potential form of the verb. For example the following sentences sound unnatural.
Here are the versions using either 「が」 or 「は」 instead:
There are two verbs 「 見える 」 and 「 聞こえる 」 that mean that something is visible and audible, respectively. When you want to say that you can see or hear something, you'll want to use these verbs. If however, you wanted to say that you were given the opportunity to see or hear something, you would use the regular potential form. However, in this case, it is more common to use the type of expression as seen in example 3.
You can see that example 3 uses the generic noun for an event to say literally, "The event of seeing movie was able to be done." which essentially means the same thing as 「 見られる 」. You can also just use generic noun substitution to substitute for 「 こと 」.
Here's some more examples using 「 聞く 」, can you tell the difference? Notice that 「 聞こえる 」 always means "audible" and never "able to ask".
You can say that something has a possibility of existing by combining 「 ある 」 and the verb 「 得る 」 to produce 「 あり得る 」. This essentially means 「 ある こと が できる 」 except that nobody actually says that, they just use 「 あり得る 」. This verb is very curious in that it can be read as either 「 ありうる 」 or 「 ありえる 」, however ; all the other conjugations such as 「 ありえない 」、「 ありえた 」、and 「 ありえなかった 」 only have one possible reading using 「え」.
" INTTRA, the e-commerce organization for global shipping industry, has provided us not only with a data exchange platform but also created a new operation module. This module standardizes electronic data conversion and transmission; it is faster and more accurate. We have greatly improved our efficiency and reduced labor costs. "
" With so many different vendors moving a diverse mix of cargo simultaneously, we wanted the efficiency and accuracy of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), and the visibility that it provides. The consolidation platform has led to saving on Bill of Lading fees of $25-$75 per shipment. "
" Intercomex has reduced costs by 25 to 30 percent since using INTTRA Desktop for the past 10 years. We went from having six employees manage every 100 shipments, to having only two employees managing the same shipment frequency, delivering the same level of customer service. "
" Now we have set standards for electronic entry with a number of carriers and other users participating in the INTTRA network. And our data quality is growing, which is a major competitive benefit for us. Quality and communication is always a challenge when managing with 24,000 employees and thousands of customers. "
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text:
7:00 pm
As Time Goes By "What Now?" With Judith and Alistair away on their honeymoon, the house seems empty. Jean considers asking Sandy to take over as office manager when Harry reappears.G
7:30 pm
Ladies of Letters Vera battles with builders. Irene is being romanced. Feeling neglected and a tad jealous, Vera nonetheless agrees to invite Irene and her friend to lunch.G
8:00 pm
The Red Green Show "The Fishing Derby" When nobody catches any fish during the contest, the men have Possum Lake tested for contaminants with a surprising result. Red visits Harold at his new job in the city.G
8:30 pm
Keeping Up Appearances - The Memoirs of Hyacinth Bucket "The Fancy Dressball" Hyacinth is concerned that she has not yet received an invitation to the mayor's fancy dress ball. Richard is more concerned about what he might have to wear.G
9:00 pm
The Thin Blue Line "Court in the Act" Grim and Foyle frame a drug dealer by planting evidence at the scene and Goody, having found the "evidence," is trained by Fowler to handle the pressure of testifying.G
9:30 pm
Outnumbered The Brockman Family must face some tough decisions about work, video games, and who to take to a family funeral. The vicar probably wishes they would all stay away.G
10:00 pm
My Family "The Heart of Christmas - Part 1" Susan announces there will be no tree, no decorations and no family at the Harper House for Christmas, and she whisks Ben to a relaxing retreat in the country. But surprises and Harper family mishaps stir up Susan's quiet family Christmas. Part 1 of 2G
10:30 pm
My Hero "Nothing to Hide" When the Mona Lisa is discovered in the Sundays' flat, George is arrested. A plan is hatched to steal the painting back and replace it with a fake.G
10:59 pm
Are You Being Served? "Is It Catching" Mr. Humphries falls victim to an obscure tropical disease, leading to the enforced isolation of the entire department.G
11:30 pm
As Time Goes By "What Now?" With Judith and Alistair away on their honeymoon, the house seems empty. Jean considers asking Sandy to take over as office manager when Harry reappears.G


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The right enterprise content management solution will help you stay competitive in your industry and, sometimes, help you outpace your peers. Here's how:
For many companies, investing in an ECM solution means a significant capital investment. So you want to know what you're purchasing is going to pay for itself.
Discover how a strategic enterprise content management solution can help you empower your employees by eliminating the low-value tasks they conduct every day.
Discover the Top 5 ways an effective enterprise content management (ECM) solution can help you beat the competition.


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Search our database of handpicked sites
Looking for a great physics site? We've tracked down the very best and checked them for accuracy. Just fill out the fields below and we'll do the rest.
You searched for "sport", type: Website
We found 7 results on physics.org and 18 results in our database of sites
(of which 18 are Websites, 0 are Videos, and 0 are Experiments)
Search results on physics.org
Sport Science
The science behind a selection of sports from surfing to cycling - the physics behind their operation and the equipment they use.
The science of Baseball
From sports Science to history of the sport. Science is only a small part of this site from the Exploratotrium.
Experiments on the physics of many popular sports, including cycling and automobile aerodynamics, frisbees and sailing.
Popular Mechanics - Sport
Excited about the Olympics? This site tells you the latest news about the science in sport, from the perfect pole-vault to the latest gadgets.
Physics of Luge
Imagine that you are travelling 65 miles an hour but only three inches above solid ice - lying feet first on a tiny sled. This is the sport of luge! Work through the physics of this sport.
Science and Technology in Sport
A BBC mini site examining the role science and technology play in sport, from treating athletes' injuries and building Olympic stadiums to drug testing.
Extreme Challenge
A great Shockwave game that is fun to play but also illustrates the science behind a wide range of sports.
SportScience and Engineering in Education
This site highlights the science in sport particularly Formula 1, shoe design and various types of balls.
Olympic Science 101
How fast can a table tennis ball fly? Which sportsmen sweat the most?The physics & physiology behind olympic sports.
Physics, technology and the Olympics
Physicsworld article on the role of physics in Olympic sports. You need to register (free) to read it.