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Systems Research Group – NetOS
ACS Projects (2011—2012)
This page collects together various ACS project suggestions from the Network and Operating Systems part of the Systems Research Group. In all cases there is a contact e-mail address given; please get in touch if you want more information about the project.
Under construction: please keep checking back, as more ideas will hopefully be added to this page during the coming weeks.
- The Language of Power and Influence on Twitter (with Diarmuid Ó Séaghdha)
Contact: Daniele Quercia
While macro-level studies of Twitter have concluded that "Twitter is
not a social network but a news media" (Kwak et al., 2010),
micro-level analyses of users and user-user interactions suggest that
the Twittersphere functions as a set of real communities according to
well-established sociological definitions of community (Cheng et al.,
2011, Quercia et al., 2011). This project would study social power
relationships on Twitter, with a focus on linguistic indicators.
Notions of influence on Twitter have been studied before (Liu et al,
2010) but there are still many potential aspects to investigate.
Recently, Bramsen et al. (2011) looked at identifying power
hierarchies as manifested in email data; here the sociolinguistic
motivation would be similar but the problem would be quite different
(and novel!). The NLP techniques involved would start with basic
lexical and topic-model analysis, but could extend to sophisticated
dialogue modelling (Ritter et al., 2010).
Philip Bramsen, Martha Escobar-Molano, Ami Patel and Rafael Alonso.
2011. Extracting Social Power Relationships from Natural Language. In
Proceedings of ACL 2011.
Justin Cheng, Daniel Romero, Brendan Meeder and Jon Kleinberg. 2011.
Predicting Reciprocity in Social Networks. In Proceedings of SocialCom
Haewoon Kwak, Changhyun Lee, Hosung Park and Sue Moon. 2010. What is
Twitter, a Social Network or a News Media?. In Proceedings of WWW
Lu Liu, Jie Tang, Jiawei Han, Meng, Jiang and Shiqiang Yang. 2010.
Mining Topic-level Influence in Heterogeneous Networks. In Proceedings
of CIKM 2010.
Daniele Quercia, Jonathan Ellis, Licia Capra and Jon Crowcroft. 2011.
In the Mood for Being Influential on Twitter. In Proceedings of
SocialCom 2011.
Alan Ritter, Colin Cherry and Bill Dolan. 2010. Unsupervised Modeling
of Twitter Conversations. In Proceedings of NAACL 2010.
- Well-being in Cities
Contact: Daniele Quercia
The legibility of a city is "the ease with which [a city's] parts can be recognised and can be organised into a coherent pattern"â and it is associated with the emotional and physical well-being of city dwellers [1,2]. This project is about building a free and open-source web tool that measures the legibility of a city, similar to [3]. Users will be presented with scenes of their city (geo-tagged pictures on Flickr) and will asked whether they could recognise each scene. Based on their answers, legibility measures of different parts of the city will be computed and will be shown on a geographical map. These measures will be then compared to those obtained from already available data (from, e.g., underground trips, census well-being scores) and from to-be-crawled Foursquare data.
[1] http://tinyurl.com/42howyn
[2] http://www.somervillema.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Somerville_Well_Being_Report.pdf
[3] http://pulse.media.mit.edu/
- Linguistic Analysis for Computational Social Science
Contact: Daniele Quercia
"Computational social science" [1] is a new discipline that aims at using large archives of naturalistically-created behavioural data (of, for example, emails, tweets, Facebook contacts) to answer social science questions. Collecting data on actual behaviour is seen by many as the gold standard of social science, and digital archives offer the possibility of doing so. Emails have been used to understand how corporations work [2,3], and online dating sites to understand racial preferences in dating [4]. However, in using web services, one faces few challenges, and this project is about one specific challenge: how to use Twitter to understand people beliefs about a variety of societal issues. These issues include privacy[5], serendipity [6], gender issues, and nationalism. One way of interpreting what people say on Twitter is to analyse the use of language on tweets. The approach taken in this project will be to perform automatic analysis of issue-specific Twitter text using NLP and machine learning techniques including topic modelling [7], statistical association measures [8] and supervised prediction. The results of this analysis will be compared to those obtained by previous social science studies using a grounded theory approach [9].
[1] Lazer et al. Computational Social Science. Science, February 2009.
[2] Tyler et al. Email as Spectroscopy: Automated Discovery of Community Structure within Organizations
[3] Kleinbaum et al. Communication (and Coordination?) in a Modern, Complex Organization.
[4] Feliciano et al. Gendered Racial Exclusion among White Internet Daters
[5] Nippert-Eng. Islands of Privacy. University of Chicago Press. September 2010
[6] Pariser. The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You. Penguin, May 2011.
[7] Blei et al. Latent Dirichlet allocation. Journal of Machine Learning Research, 2003.
[8] Evert. The Statistics of Word Co-occurrences: Word Pairs and Collocations. PhD thesis, University of Stuttgart, 2005.
[9] Rubin et al. Facets of serendipity in everyday chance encounters: a grounded theory approach to blog analysis. September 2011
- How Leaders Use Social Media
Contact: Daniele Quercia
Studies of how company leaders use social media sites have been recently proposed and have been mostly qualitative [1]. This project would extend previous work by studying how different types of leaders (e.g., company, political, and community leaders) use social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. We will study the communication networks formed by these leaders using social networks metrics, and the content of their communication using topical analysis algorithms. This project will be carried upon Facebook data (CEOs around the world) and Twitter data (UK CEOs, leaders of nationalist groups, and London community leaders).
[1] Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom: How Online Social Networking Will Transform Your Life, Work and World
- Early Adopters of Social Media Applications: An exploratory study
Contact: Daniele Quercia
Little is known about who the early adopters of social media applications are [1]. This project would characterise adopters of a real social networking application. We will consider a large number of users who adopted an application and study the relationship between their temporal adoption and their characteristics (based on, e.g., demographic data, geographic data, online behaviours/activities data). We will also test the extent to which traditional models of technology adoption can explain the adoption of this application.
[1] Distinguishing influence-based contagion from homophily-driven diffusion in dynamic networks. PNAS 2009.
- Nudging Music Serendipity
Contact: Daniele Quercia
We have recently proposed a recommendation framework named Auralist that produces recommendations that are not only reasonably accurate, but are also diverse, novel and serendipitous [1]. We run a user study and found that Auralist improves overall recommendation satisfaction, but serendipitous recommendations are not always found to be 'very useful', at least at first sight. It would be thus useful to nudge people in clicking on serendipitous recommendations. This project is about designing a new music recommender system that is based on new 'nudging' ideas in behavioural economics [2].
[1] Auralist: Introducing Serendipity into Music Recommendation
[2] Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
- Blackboard implementation for Blackadder
Supervisor: Jon Crowcroft
Day-to-day supervisor George Parisis
Information-centric networking has been touted by several research efforts as an alternative to the current Internet architecture [1]. We recently designed and implemented Blackadder [2], a network node that could be part of such architecture. Blackadder is based on the Click router [3] and currently runs in Linux user and kernel space.
This project should extend Blackadder's functionality so that when information is published from somewhere in the network or locally by other applications or kernel modules, Blackadder stores the respective data in a local blackboard. In the current implementation Blackadder notifies application for such items and forwards (by copying) the data to each application separately. A blackboard approach would allow for optimizing memory management. With such an approach, applications should only be notified about the existence of data in a shared and accessible memory region and, therefore, no copying or forwarding would be required. Special attention should be paid whenever vast amounts of published data are published by not following this strategy or by swapping data to the disk.
Ideally, at the end of the project we expect the working code to be integrated in the current prototype, for both supported modes of operation (user and kernel), as well as some initial evaluation of the approach. The results would be publishable in a system's workshop or conference.
Strong programming skills in C/C++ as well as some experience in Linux kernel are required. Some familiarity with the Click router would also be good.
[1] PURSUIT project at http://www.fp7-pursuit.eu, 2010.
[2] Blackadder, https://github.com/georgeparisis/blackadder, 2011.
[3] Kohler, E., Morris, R., Chen, B., Jannoti, J., and Kaashoek, M. F. The Click modular router. ACM Trans. Comput. Syst. 18 (August 2000).
- Blackadder for Android
Supervisor: Jon Crowcroft
Day-to-day supervisor George Parisis
Information-centric networking has been touted by several research efforts as an alternative to the current Internet architecture [1]. We recently designed and implemented Blackadder [2], a network node that could be part of such architecture. Blackadder is based on the Click router [3] and currently runs in Linux user and kernel space.
This project is about porting Blackadder to Android. As a first step Click router (or part of the necessary Click Elements) must be ported to Android. Then, some operating-system specific functionality must be added so that applications can access Blackadder and Blackadder can acces the network (possibly using different radio devices). Apart from that the library for communicating with the networking subsystem (a native c library in Android) has to be re-written. Finally, A Java wrapper for that library must be implemented.
At the end of the project a sample application (e.g. a video receiver, a chat client or twitter-like client) must be implemented in a way that utilizes the provided functionality. A nice workshop could be a venue for presenting this thesis.
Strong programming skills in C/C++ and Java as well as some experience in Android are essential. Some familiarity with the Click router would also be good.
[1] PURSUIT project at http://www.fp7-pursuit.eu, 2010.
[2] Blackadder, https://github.com/georgeparisis/blackadder, 2011.
[3] Kohler, E., Morris, R., Chen, B., Jannoti, J., and Kaashoek, M. F. The Click modular router. ACM Trans. Comput. Syst. 18 (August 2000).
- Forwarding in Information-centric Networking
Contact: Dirk Trossen
Supervisor: Jon Crowcroft
Day-to-day supervisor: Dirk Trossen
Information or content-centric networking has been attracting increasing attention in the network community. More efficient dissemination of information at large scale, while utilising almost ubiquitous storage and computing resources more efficiently, is the core promise of the proposals. Forwarding information items within a transient communication relation is a core function that any solution in this area needs to implement at ever-increasing speed. Supporting multicast delivery to a (possibly) large number of receivers is a key requirement for any solution.
Forwarding solutions based on Bloom filters [1] have been proposed to support native multicast with minimal forwarding processing requirement [2]. However, the size of achievable multicast trees still remains at the lower end of the spectrum, albeit sufficient for many (in particular localised) communication scenarios. The central trade-off in designing such solutions lies in the amount of state that is kept in network elements compared to the achievable size of multicast groups.
This project should extend on the basic Bloom filter based mechanism towards an extensible header solution that utilises Bloom filters at several stages. Such multi-staged approach enables a configurable tradeoff between tree size and header size, while not requiring any network state. For this, the project will design a solution (based on existing work), implement the mechanism in an information-centric node prototype under Linux and perform a tradeoff analysis within an international test bed as well as within Planetlab. We expect the results to be publishable in a decent international conference.
[1] B. H. Bloom, "Space/time trade-offs in hash coding with allowable errors", Communications of the ACM 13 (7): 422–426, 1970
[2] P. Jokela, A. Zahemszky, S. Arianfar, P. Nikander, C. Esteve, "LIPSIN: Line speed Publish/Subscribe Inter-Networking", ACM SIGCOMM, August 2009
- Robust messaging in a mobile environment
Contact: Jon Crowcroft and Toby Moncaster
Smart phones such as the iPhone or Android devices allow developers the
opportunity to offer users extremely powerful new applications. Often these
apps rely extensively on network connectivity, not a problem when the user
has connected to a WiFi network, or HSDPA. However problems do start to
arise once you start creating applications designed for professional
drivers such as couriers or taxi drivers. The biggest family of apps for
such drivers are productivity apps which usually do two tasks, finding work
for the driver and passing traffic information to and from the driver. They
may also include social networking elements, allowing drivers to chat to
each other or see where their friends are within the city.
These drivers operate in an extremely hostile network environment. As they
drive they may change network every few seconds, often briefly picking up
WiFi hotspots as they pass since their phones are designed to favour those.
At other times they will lose connectivity completely, for instance if they
go through an underpass or tunnel. Even when they have good connectivity to
3G or HSDPA, the design of those networks can add enormous delays to the
RTT. Worse still, many mobile networks use transparent (or not so
transparent) caching which can wreak havoc on any API messages between the
app and the server.
What is needed is a network protocol that can handle the three very
different types of traffic generated by such apps. These are:
* Synchronous messages relating to offering new work and responding to the
offers. There may also be a synchronous payment system. * Asynchronous
calls to the API (and their responses) allowing the server to monitor the
state of the app (location, whether the driver is on break, etc). *
Asynchronous social networking messages that might even utilise PubSub.
- A real-time allocation engine for taxi despatch.
Contact: Jon Crowcroft and Toby Moncaster
Typically taxis come in two forms. Licensed taxis are allowed to pick
people up from taxi ranks and (in London and some other cities) can be
hailed on the street. Minicabs are only allowed to take advance bookings
from people (so they can't solicit for work directly). These advance
bookings come in two forms. ASAP bookings are for despatch as soon as
possible. Advance bookings may be made as much as a couple of days in
advance. For small taxi firms, scheduling such work is a relatively simple
matter that can be done on a whiteboard in the office. But when you have a
fleet of several hundred taxis covering a city as large as London things
become much harder.
One approach is to flood the city with the number of taxis equal to the
greatest expected peak demand at any location in the city, however this is
hugely inefficient. A better method would be to advance schedule bookings
over the 5-10 minute timescale, trying to predict when a currently busy
resource (taxi) will become free and feeding a new job to it at that time.
But what if the taxis are also able to take fares that hail them on the
streets? How can you deal with that added uncertainty over advance
- Building Naming Scheme in NDN over V2V Communication
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki/Lixia Zhang (with Karthik Nilakant)
Keywords: Named Data Networking, Content Centric Networking, Naming
This project explores an emerging new Internet architecture called "Named Data Networking" (NDN) originated by the project Content Centric Networking (CCN) by Van Jacobson in PARC. NDN provides network storage, mobility, and multi-path forwarding. In NDN, communication is driven by the data consumer who initiates sending out a packet, which contains the interest of the consumer by a hierarchically-structured name. It is similar to a URL in an HTTP GET request: the name in an Interest does not indicate the data itself, but may contain information that a receiving node interprets to dynamically generate a appropriate response. The response to an Interest is called a Data packet, which carries both the complete name and the data itself together with a digital signature created using a key of the data publisher. Interests are routed based on prefixes of their names, like routing IP packets on prefixes of their destination IP address. Data packet takes the reverse path of the Interest to be delivered to the consumers. One Interest retrieves one Data Packet, and a sequence of Interests is sent to retrieve the sequence of individually-named Data packets that make up a large piece of content such as a video.
The naming in the NDN architecture is not mature. In this project, you will explore naming schemes in NDN. The semantics of names is opaque to the network but depends on the application. The structure of names (e.g. hierarchically structured with an arbitrary number of components), discovery, and namespace navigation should be investigated and the vehicle-to-vehicle communication environment is targeted.
You can exploit location information (e.g. latitude and longitude by GPS or any geographical information that can be obtained from the map) to navigate the data flow depending on the consumers' interests. The meaning of names can be determined by local and global distribution requirements, and the content producer and consumer application conventions, as embodied in individual router's routing tables and application-level transport libraries.
You will use CCNx open source environment http://www.ccnx.org/software-download-information-request/download-releases/. If time allows, you can add a comparison study with another content centric networking paradigm Haggle from naming aspects.
-Named Data Networking: http://www.named-data.org/ndn-proj.pdf
-CCNx: http://www.ccnx.org/
-NDN: http://www.named-data.org/
-Haggle: http://code.google.com/p/haggle/
- Building Graph Query Function using Functional Programming (***** highly recommended)
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki
Keywords: Graph, Functional programming, NONSQL database
Demand to store and search of online data with graph structure is emerging. Such data range from online social networks to web links and it requires efficient query processing in scalable manner. In this project, you will build a graph query function (layer) to achieve efficient graph data processing. The graph query function builds on a lazy graph loaded from multiple sources and performs queries at the same speed or faster than a relational database. The function should be written in Clojure or another functional language to support practical lazy loading from data source to an in-memory graph database. Efficient representations for graph queries should be also investigated. The evaluation includes comparisons with existing Graph database (e.g. Redis, Neo4j) and the query capability comparing with SQL. You can start the project by using our prototype Crackle. You can also expand the applicability of Crackle, which in turn should improve the expressivity of queries in Clojure. Crackle has already additional data source connectors to connect to Facebook and Twitter, thereby forming the substrate to support Crackle into these two social networks. Another interesting extension could be online graph construction. To this end Crackle has adapted it to explore a game tree for the tic-tac-toe game, effectively expanding Crackle's reach to memorisation of games trees for games such as chess.
-Microsoft Research, "Trinity project: Distributed graph database," http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/trinity/
-Neo Technology, "Java graph database," http://neo4j.org/
- Integration of Data-flow programming with Overlay/Crowd through Task Farming
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki (with Karthik Nilakant)
Keywords: Data flow programming, Crowd, Haggle
MapReduce [5] and Dryad/LINQ [6] have facilitated the exploitation of multiple machines in a computer cloud. In order to provide more expressive coordination language for different classes of computation, including iterative and recursive algorithms, a project called Ciel [7],Skywriting [1] has been developed in our systems research group, applying a purely-functional script language for describing distributed computations.
This project investigates extending Ciel/Skywriting including an overlay or crowd that represents a series of distributed or mobile nodes. Thus, a worker invoked by Ciel could be a crowd of mobile phones that form opportunistic networks, i.e. a Haggle opportunistic network platform. This requires an extension to the current task spawning architecture in Ciel to add capability to create a new master task for the crowd. In an opportunistic network environment, tasks will be executed in a delay-tolerant manner, and this aspect should be integrated in the design of Ciel engine for crowd.
As an option if time allows, you could exploit the social structure to execute tasks in the crowd. In general, mobile networks formed by smart phones are time dependent and dynamic with high node mobility. Skywriting programming can be exploited in such dynamic network environments, which is powerful for cooperative task farming. For example, the map function could be exploited based on time-space graph of a social network to achieve an efficient distributed computing. The logical network topology could be obtained from various sources such as online social networks (e.g. Facebook, Orkut), and a social graph could be transformed to a task graph, indicating the order of operations. Efficient task graph generation based on a given distributed computation is powerful. Mobile networks offer substantial aggregate bandwidth and processing power. The intersection between networking and programming languages is becoming popular.
The proposed project aims at building a new paradigm, where networking and programming are well integrated, with special emphasis on mobile networks.The prototype of Ciel engine has been implemented in Haggle opportunistic platform [3], and you can start building your project on top of the prototype. The evaluation can be done in both using Android devices and Xen-based Haggle simulator.
[1] D. Murray and S. Hand, Scripting the cloud with Skywriting, USENIX HotCloud, 2010.
[2] D. Murray, E. Yoneki, J. Crowcroft and S. Hand, The Case for Crowd Computing. ACM MOBIHELD, 2010.
[3] EU FP6 Haggle platform http://code.google.com/p/haggle/
[4] J. Crowcroft, E. Yoneki, et al. Promoting Tolerance for Delay Tolerant Network Research. ACM CCR, 38(5):63-68, 2008.
[5] J. Dean and S. Ghemawat, MapReduce: simplified data processing on large clusters. USENIX OSDI, 2004.
[6] Y. Yu, M. Isard, D. Fetterly, M. Budiu, U. Erlingsson, P. K.Gunda, and J. Currey. DryadLINQ: A System for General-Purpose Distributed Data-Parallel Computing Using a High-Level Language. OSDI, 2008.
[7] D. Murray, M. Schwarzkopf, C. Smowton, S. Smith, A. Madhavapeddy and S. Hand.
Ciel: a universal execution engine for distributed data-flow computing, NSDI, 2011.
- Opportunistic Dropbox
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki (with Karthik Nilakant)
Keywords: Opportunistic Networks, Dropbox, Haggle, P2P
Dropbox [1] is a Web-based file hosting service that uses cloud computing to enable users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization. The Dropbox client enables users to drop any file into a designated folder that is then synced with Dropbox's servers. The other user's devices that run the Dropbox client will be automatically synchronised when they connect to the Internet. Dropbox uses a typical client/server model and also assumes that an Internet connection exists. What if we want to set up Dropbox in a decentralised way? And can we also have Dropbox if we do not have an Internet connection?
This project aims at designing and implementing Dropbox in opportunistic networks that will provide the function of Dropbox in a delay tolerant manner. An opportunistic network is a type of delay tolerant network [2], where the latency of the communications is highly variable, due to the mobility of the nodes or the variation in connectivity between the nodes. Contact opportunities are unpredictable and make communication inherently asynchronous, rather than synchronous as is the case with the Internet architecture. However, if low-latency is not necessary, some applications may take advantage from opportunistic networks. Haggle [3-5] is an example of such an opportunistic network which adopts an approach similar to the publish/subscribe systems [6][7]. Haggle allows mobile devices to exchange content directly among themselves whenever they happen to come in close range. The content to exchange is based on the interests that users declare. Haggle supports both Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity.
The project involves designing Dropbox over the Haggle environment, including naming and security aspects on sharing files among participants.
[1] http://www.dropbox.com/
[2] Fall, K. A delay-tolerant network architecture for challenged internets. In ACM SIGCOMM'03 (August 2003).
[3] http://www.haggleproject.org/
[4] http://code.google.com/p/haggle/
[5] E. Nordström, P. Gunningberg, C. Rohner, "A Search-based Network Architecture for Mobile Devices", Uppsala University Technical Report 2009-003, 2009.
[6] Eugster, P. T., Felber, P. A., Guerraoui, R., and Kermarrec, A.-M. The many faces of publish/subscribe. ACM Computing Surveys 35, 2 (June 2003)
[7] V Jacobson, D.K. Smetters, J.D. Thornton, M.F. Plass, N.H. Briggs, R.L. Braynard: Networking Named Content, CoNEXT, 2009.
- Sync-Ball
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki
Keywords: Mobile Agent, Opportunistic networks, Haggle
In this project, you will build function/mechanism for migrating data objects over the Haggle platform [1]. Haggle is built over a "layerless" networking architecture that incorporates event-driven and asynchronous operations, which reside in the device as a kernel component. Functional components implement the functional logic and interact only directly with the kernel (see [2] for further details about the Haggle implementation). A data object is an object defined in Haggle as an entity which can move between Haggle equipped devices. Each data object contains metadata, consisting of name and attribute pairs. Metadata operations like search or forwarding depend on the size and complexity of the network.
Individual nodes in Haggle (e.g. smart phones) are powerful enough to perform substantial amounts of computing. An example of computation would be to pass around a "Sync-Ball" from node to node as they meet, and into which any node may stick the result of some computation. The main task of the "Sync Ball" project is to design a data object which is able to operate at a Haggle node, collect/append data, and then migrate to other devices. Haggle already has an Android platform implementation, and Sync-Ball can be developed over it. A challenge is that the data object should be designed for multiple purposes and simple programming languages for such data object is desired or design the function as part of database like operation. For example, you can design a migrating (distributed) Excel, where computations are a set of formulae each computed over a column, and each node may append zero or more rows when it has the ball.
If time allows, you can add parallel operation of data objects and writing also runtime to support it. It might also be interesting to consider issues of data integrity and availability (through redundancy). Potential applications for Sync-Ball:
- Synchronisation among devices: information to be synchronised is in the data object, devices receives/updates the data then sent out to the other devices.
- Twitter entries, which are accumulated through the migration within Haggle name space until the data object is sent out to the Internet based twitter.
- Environmental monitoring object: dispatch sync-ball gathering Co_2 values from various sensor devices in the area.
[1] EU FP6 Haggle Project
[2] Erik Nordstrom, Per Gunningberg, and Christian Rohner. A Search-based Network Architecture for Mobile Devices. Tech Report Uppsala University, 2009-003.
[3] E. Yoneki, I. Baltopoulos and J. Crowcroft " D^3N: Programming Distributed Computation in Pocket Switched Networks", ACM MOBIHELD at SIGCOMM, 2009.
[4] Xerox PARC's Bayou Project
- Decentralised Community Detection and Deployment of Forwarding Algorithms over Haggle
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki
Keywords: Community Detection, Haggle
BUBBLE RAP introduced in [3] is a forwarding algorithm for Delay tolerant networks, which uses information of community and graph centrality. It consists of RANK and LABEL strategies. RANK delegates messages to high centrality nodes, while LABEL selects a next hop from any member of the destination community as a relay. The BUBBLE algorithm showed a significant improvement in forwarding efficiency over oblivious forwarding, and the other algorithm, which uses patterns of movement rather than the longer term social relationships that our scheme infers. BUBBLE works in a decentralised world without access to infrastructure. Therefore the distributed detection and dissemination of node popularity and node communities, and the use of these for forwarding decisions are crucial. This project aims at implementing distributed community detection in Haggle framework [1] and deploying BUBBLE forwarding algorithm. Integration work will be carried out using Xen based Haggle simulator including generation of a few different types of networks (e.g. small world, and emulation of real world trace). Performance testing in terms of packet delivery compared to prior schemes should be demonstrated, which is expected to show the strength of social based forwarding algorithms in certain types of networks.
A brief description of the work items is listed below.
- Implement distributed community detection (i) Using "SIMPLE" algorithm described in [2]; (ii) Using algorithm described in [4] with an extension of decentralised approach
- Implement BUBBLE forwarding algorithm [3] in Haggle
- Implement network generator (e.g. small world, inter-contact power-law etc.) within Xen Haggle simulator
- Integrate all above
- Performance testing in different network setting
[1] EU FP6 Haggle Project http://code.google.com/p/haggle/
[2] P. Hui, E.Yoneki, S. Chan, and J. Crowcroft. Distributed community detection in delay tolerant networks. Proc. MobiArch, 2007.
[3] P. Hui, J. Crowcroft, and E. Yoneki. BUBBLE Rap: Social Based Forwarding in Delay Tolerant Networks. MobiHoc, 2008
[4] I. Leung, P. Hui, P. Lio, and J. Crowcroft. Towards real time community detection in large networks. Phys. Rev. E, 79(6), 2009.
- Modularity Preserved Synthetic Dynamic Network Generator
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki
Keywords: Clustering, Network Topology Generation
Random networks, scale-free networks, or small-world networks have been used for simulation of epidemic spread and social network analysis, among other applications. Such networks represent human contact networks or social networks, and in most cases a single network view is used in an aggregated form. Real human contact networks are dynamic, and such a single network topology may not present the dynamic feature of networks. We have used time series of network traces from the real world to simulate the dynamic contact networks in our previous research on routing in delay-tolerant networks. However, those network traces are an instance in a specific environment. Ideally creating synthetic network topology in time series will help to evaluate a large-scale and complex network structure. Although several attempts have been made to achieve building synthetic networks, it is still a challenge to generate the topology of a real dynamic network. In this project, you would focus on generating a dynamic network topology that preserves modularity. Thus, you will pursue a rewiring strategy without losing the module/cluster architecture of the network. You can start your investigation using our prototype Randomise-Matrix algorithm, which preserves the single level of modules and may be extended to a more hierarchical structure. Using online social networks such as Twitter data for validating the algorithm is desirable.
- R. Milo, S. Shen-Orr, S. Itzkovitz, N. Kashtan, D. Chklovskii, and U. Alon, Network motifs: simple building blocks of complex networks, Science. 2002 25;298(5594):824-7.
- Modelling Spread of Rumours between Communities
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki
Keywords: Opinion Dynamics, Community
Our previous work [1] reported a preliminary investigation on interactions between networked social communities using the Ising model to analyse the spread of rumours. The inner opinion of a given community is forced to change through the introduction of a unique external source, and we analyse how the other communities react to this change. We model two conceptual external sources: namely, Strong-belief and Propaganda, by an infinitely strong inhomogeneous external field and a finite uniform external field, respectively. In the former case, the community changes independently from other communities, while in the latter case also according to interactions with other communities. We applied our model to synthetic networks as well as various real world data ranging from human physical contact networks to online social networks. The experimental results of applying the Ising model using real world data clearly demonstrate two distinct scenarios of phase transitions.
This project aims at validation of the above model to examine if such Strong-belief and Propaganda will be exhibited in real situations. Thus, the project work requires deploying a series of the experiments, e.g. an online and mobile phone based software to share opinions on specific topics within the given time, and monitor the change of individual opinion in time series by controlling information available to the individual. This will capture the dynamics of opinion change and investigate validation of our Ising model. The experiments can start off with the simplest condition and along our development of extending work such as coexisting two opinions (i.e. different opinions coexisting in the society), the software should be also extending for appropriate validation. The Ising model for understanding interactions of communities and subsequently modelling rumour propagation is a unique approach that will give significant input for modelling information propagation in social networks. The result of validation can be compared with voting model.
[1] M. Ostillia, E. Yoneki, I. Leung, J. Mendes, P. Lio, and J. Crowcroft: "Statistical mechanics of rumour spreading in network communities", International Conference on Computational Science, ICCS, 2010.
[2] M. Ostilli, J. F. F. Mendes, "Communication and correlation among communities". Phys. Rev. E 80 (011142); and M. Ostilli, J. F. F. Mendes, "Small-world of communities: communication and correlation of the meta-network". J. Stat. Mech. L08004 (2009).
- Opinion and Behaviour Dynamics in Social Networks
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki (with Fehmi Ben Abdesslem)
Keywords: Information Cascade, Opinion Dynamics, Twitter
Large-scale social network communities, where millions of users form a dynamic infrastructure to share multimedia content have brought new entertainment experiences. Such Network-shared User Generated Content (UGC) is becoming increasingly popular due to the emergence of Web 2.0. YouTube is one of many UGC websites, where the popularity of content is driven by viewers and varies dynamically. This project investigates understanding information flow, decision making process, and behavioural dynamics based on rumour, social topology, and given information in such environments and modelling how people react with limited/unlimited information surroundings. Thus, the investigation covers behaviour modelling and analysis from an opinion dynamics perspective and can provide an answer to questions such as "do people change their opinion based on similar to page-ranking algorithm?" or "what factors have the largest influence?".
The project can be tackled in the following ways:
1. Crawling Twitter.
By crawling followers in Twitter, you can build a directional graph as social networks. You can also extract information about the interaction graph by looking at individual tweets that contain "@
- Sampling Strategies for Measuring Epidemic Spread
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki
Keywords: Sampling
The epidemic spread of infectious disease requires quantifying and modelling disease development in time and space and quantifying patterns of disease and sampling for disease in populations is challenging. The recent emergence of wireless technology provides a unique opportunity to collect precise human connectivity data. For example, people can carry tiny wireless sensors (less than 1 square centimeter) that record dynamic information about other devices nearby. A post-facto analysis of this data will yield valuable insight into complex human interactions, which in turn will support meaningful modelling of understanding networks.
Interestingly infectious disease epidemiology and proximity-based communication in wireless networks share common research issues [3].
However, it is challenging to deploy an experiment to collect such human connectivity data considering not everybody can be equipped the device, which is capable to collect the information. Conducting such experiments is expensive, as each participant must be given a device (typically a mobile phone, or Bluetooth sensor), and it may also be difficult to find willing participants. How many devices (e.g. mobile phones) are necessary to operate an epidemic spread simulation in the city of Cambridge, where the population is 130,000. The problem can be interpreted as how to find giant component (i.e. connected sub-graph in human contact networks) from a given population. A challenge is that a human contact network is not a random network
There is a series of human contact data including CRAWDAD [2] and project Haggle [1], which is available for this project. If a specific data collection can provide significant information, such experiment can be carried out within the project. The following two strategies can be investigated:
1. Investigate different methods of sampling a population so that the resulting sub-graph exhibits the same macroscopic properties. Methods may include randomly discarding nodes from a graph to discover the critical point at which these properties change.
2. Investigate whether static social networks (such as the friendship graph from an online social network) can serve as a useful predictor of which subset of nodes would be representative.
Note that the general notion of "sampling strategy" is similar to that discussed in papers Milan Vojnovic (MSR Cambridge) [5][6].
[1] EU FP6 Haggle Project
[2] CRAWDAD: A Community Resource for Archiving Wireless Data
[3] Eubank, S., Kumar, V., and Marathe, M.: Epidemiology and wireless Communication: Tight Analogy or Loose Metaphor? LNCS 5151, 91-104, 2007.
[4] Kleinberg, J.: The wireless epidemic, Nature 449, 287-288, 2007.
[5] Dinkar Vasudevan and Milan Vojnovic, Ranking through Random Sampling, MSR-TR-2009-2015, January 2009.
[6] Varun Gupta and Milan Vojnovic, Supplement to "Sampling Strategies for Epidemic-Style Information Dissemination", MSR-TR-2009-70, 2009.
- Delay-Tolerant NDN
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki (with Karthik Nilakant)
Keywords: Named Data Networking (NDN), Content Centric Networking (CCN)
The CCNx project is currently under active development. It implements the content-centric networking framework presented in [1,2,3]. One of the observations of the original paper was that the underlying store-and-forward methodology lends itself particularly well to delay or disruption-prone networks. However, CCNx does not currently perform routing for such a network (relying instead on network broadcast, or static user-defined routes). In contrast, the Haggle project provides PROPHET-based probabilistic routing.
To provide this type of functionality for CCNx, a new "control" model would need to be written. In this project, desirable attributes of such a module would be the ability to switch between multiple protocols, and the ability to tune the module programmatically will be investigated. Once the module has been completed, it can be put to the test by performing performance evaluations against Haggle or other frameworks.
1. Named Data Networking: http://www.named-data.org/ndn-proj.pdf
2. CCNx: http://www.ccnx.org/
3. NDN: http://www.named-data.org/
4. Haggle: http://code.google.com/p/haggle/
- Hybrid Dropbox
Contact: Eiko Yoneki
Originator/Supervisor: Eiko Yoneki (with Karthik Nilakant)
Keywords: Cloud Service, Opportunistic Networks, Dropbox
A variety of personal storage/backup applications have surfaced over recent years, providing a cloud-based synchronisation capability between multiple devices. In certain settings, access to the cloud may be restricted or not possible, which in turn restricts the availability of these services. We have developed an application called "Mistify", which allows personal files to be replicated amongst local devices (such as other people's smartphones). Typically, such devices are temporarily networked by local wireless connections, forming a "mist". The Haggle framework can be used to publish and search for content in a mist, in a similar manner to interacting with the cloud. When the cloud becomes unavailable, the mist provides a secondary storage tier that can be used to keep data safe until cloud connectivity is restored. While much prior research has been focused on purely centralised or purely decentralised storage, hybrid approaches represent an area of interest.
The present prototype would need to be extended in a variety of ways to allow comparison with similar research projects. Some focus areas include:
-Joining or splitting files into manageable chunks for storage in the mist.
-Erasure coding.
-Using infrastructure for community detection and key distribution.
-Adapting the replication strategy to changing climactic conditions (sic).
-Making use of version vectors, and implementing an "eventual consistency" model.
-(Most importantly,) evaluating these new and existing features, making use of a Xen-based network simulator and/or a controlled user trial.
[1] http://www.dropbox.com/
[2] http://code.google.com/p/haggle/
- NetFPGA 10G Xen interface
Contact: Andrew W. Moore
Originator/Supervisor: Andrew W. Moore
Keywords: NetFPGA, Virtual Machines, Xen,
The NetFPGA 10G project is an exciting upgrade for the NetFPGA platform providing an interface card that is enabled with 4 x 10Gbps interfaces. Xen is the Cambridge-grown super success story of Virtualization. This project will be to deliver a NetFPGA10G Xen device driver and while on that 'journey' explore how rudimentary decisions in design and function-placement affect the ability of the driver providing optimal performance once integrated into Xen. While a clear pathway has been considered candidates are encouraged to explore the solution space independently where plausible.
1. Xen: http://xen.org/
2. NetFPGA: http: //www.netfpga.org/
- Activity-based segmentation of urban environments in Location-based Social Networks
Contact: Cecilia Mascolo
Supervisor: Cecilia Mascolo
Day to day supervisor: Anastasios Noulas
Keywords: Geo-Social Networks, Mobility, Data Mining, Clustering
A major problem rising in various Location-based services, including recommender systems, is the lack of well-defined areas/neighborhoods that could be used as geographical proxies to suggest activities or provide other sources of geo-tagged information. Usually, the segmentation of a city to areas takes place in two ways: either through a definition of areas using arbitrary geometrical shapes and sizes or through information provided by governmental organizations such as city councils. Both methods however are not sufficient for services provided by mobile and online applications. In this project, we seek the division of a data-centric methodology to cluster the areas of a city in order to allow the emergence of organic neighborhood shapes, based on the activity of mobile users. As a first step a city may be split to geographical micro-areas of a few decades of square meters. Those micro-areas will then be subsequently represented by various layers of data. Afterwards a spatial clustering technique will be implemented that will allow the mapping of micro-areas to city neighborhoods. A primary idea of the project will be to allow a degree of fluidity at the emerging area shapes and clustering memberships: as different features of representation will be used, different areas are expected to emerge. The aim will be to experimentally evaluate the work on a variety of data types, including user mobility patterns, types of and activity at places and textual data generated by users.
- The Mobility of Personality
Contact: Cecilia Mascolo
Supervisors: Cecilia Mascolo (Computer Lab), Jason Rentfrow (Department of Psychology)
Day to day supervisor: Anastasios Noulas
Keywords: Mobility, Personality, Geography
The continuous development of pervasive technologies and the rise of location-based social networks offer the opportunity to study at new scales and dimensions human urban movements. Besides the knowledge of the whereabouts of millions of individuals in cities however, other layers of information, such as the personality traits of habitants at urban neighbourhoods have become known in the past. The so-called study of the Geography of Personality has been brought forward by social scientists with the goal of characterizing geographical areas with dominant spectrums of local personalities. Theories suggest that the emergence of those geographical pools of personality types, is due to past migration patterns of individuals. For instance, states or neighbourhoods with predominantly extravert populations were more likely to attract similar-minded individuals. In this project we aim to empirically investigate whether there exists a relationship between the mobility patterns of individuals and personality. On the urban scale we would also like to explore whether pairs of neighbourhoods in a city that feature similar personality traits are more likely to conduct higher mobility flows of individuals between them. An end-goal would be to devise a personality-based mobility model of individuals that would allow social scientists, or even urban planners, to gain deeper insights on the currently observed personality clusters in cities, but also to make future predictions on the occurrence of new ones. The analysis described will be carried upon a mobility dataset collected from public Foursquare checkins observed in a number of cities around the globe. Moreover, census and personality data will be used to achieve the project's goals.
Then you have the spread of things like retweets and hashtags. For example, you could analyse the data to see whether certain users (or users with a certain characteristic in the social graph) are successful at spreading hashtags through the social graph. You could also see what about the graph causes a user's tweets to be retweeted (my speculation: people with a large number of followers and who follow a small number of people will have a high probability of retweeting, but there may be other interesting cases). Correlation between hashtags or degree of people or position of people in the graph could be interesting to explore. You could also look at the spread of links to YouTube videos.
You can also write a Facebook application and investigate similar ideas described above.
2. Writing a role-playing game
Millions of people worldwide play interactive online role-playing games, forming complex and rich networks among their virtual characters. Such games could project the real world and predict what might occur. For example, an unexpected outbreak of an infective communicable disease (unplanned by the game creators) occurred when a role-playing game was played in the virtual world. This outbreak holds surprising similarities to real world epidemics [3].
You can write role-playing game application over mobile devices and web and obtain the information of behaviour of the players under the different conditions (e.g. provide other players activities or characteristics of the other players). The game could be "what's the most popular music?" or "what's the best mobile phone to buy?" or similar to any popular game in the market.
Reading Vinayak Dalmia's masters thesis on 'Investigating Herding Behaviour in an Experimental Setup' (Judge Business School) will be a good starting point; and papers [1][2] and [4] will be good general background reading.
[1] Boyd, Golder, and Lotan, Tweet, Tweet, Retweet: Conversational Aspects of Retweeting on Twitter, HICSS-43, 2010.
[2] Christo Wilson, Bryce Boe, Alessandra Sala, Krishna P. N. Puttaswamy and Ben Y. Zhao, User Interactions in Social Networks and their Implications, ACM EuroSys 2009.
[3] Balicer, R.:Modeling Infectious Diseases Dissemination Through Online Role-Playing Games. Epidemiology, 18(2), 2007.
[4] Sastry, Yoneki and Crowcroft " Buzztraq: Predicting geographical access patterns of social cascades using social networks". EuroSys workshop on Social Network Systems, 2009.


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Join us for a meal with Santa on the farm! Children can tell Santa their Christmas wishes. Santa has a special gift for each child. We will capture the moment in a photo of your child with Santa. Each child will get their face painted and be able to decorate a sugar cookie with frosting and sprinkles. Reservations are suggested. Breakfast will be provided from 8 am until noon. The meal includes: scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, biscuits and homemade sausage gravy. $15/child; $12/adult. For more information or reservations, call Eckert's Restaurant at (618) 233-0513 x 3.
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Earlier Event: December 11Gingerbread House Workshop
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CAD models
From Openmoko
Openmoko has released the CAD files for the Neo 1973 and Neo FreeRunner under Creative Commons BY-SA license. These are available in the original Pro/ENGINEER (.asm and.prt) format and have also been converted to IGES (.igs) and STEP (.stp) formats.
We welcome your assistance in providing other formats. If you are able to convert CAD files from Pro/E format to other formats, please contact [1]. We are especially interested in the DXF format and in images rendered from these files.
The following software is able to deal with these files containing the CAD models.
Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3.0 has been used originally to design the models. Note that this is proprietary software. See also official site
gCAD3D is able to import the STEP files. This is free and open source software. See also Ubuntu package request.


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This is the second request that I am going to fill and this time it's going to be on the evil character Dorkus. As you know every awesome animated series needs to have a really creepy, crude, and devilish character to play the bad guy. For Planet Sheen this figure happens to be Dorkus, the green colored alien with plots to kill. Before Sheen arrived, Dorkus used to be the right hand man to the Emperor which gave Dorkus an advantage because being a wing man is almost like being in charge. Nowadays Sheen Estevez has taken Dorkus' spot next to the Emperor and because of this, all Dorkus wants to do is wreak havoc for Sheen and all of his buddies. Sheen must constantly keep his head up where ever he goes because Dorkus is always throwing fast balls at Sheen's head. He must find a way to elude terrible monsters as he tries to go about his business to help his friends, and himself. Dorkus kind of looks like a monk because he wears a hooded cloak tied with a yellow string belt. His green well defined face almost reminds me of a grim reaper. The only difference between the two is Dorkus has facial tissue and a reaper does not. Anyways, this is sure to be great fun as you tackle your way through this tutorial on "how to draw Dorkus", step by step. If there is other Planet Sheen characters you would like to see as a tutorial, just let me know and I will jump on the request as fast as I can. In the mean time have fun, and enjoy the rest of your drawing day.
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When choosing earrings, the shape of your face and the length of your hair have a huge impact on deciding what shape and style of earrings is best for you. They will draw immediate attention to your face and will either enhance or minimize your features. So what will it be?How to Choose Earrings for Round Shaped Faces The round shape is wide and long, with greatest width at the check. Wear earrings that will add some angle to your face. Shapes to choose from: oblong, oval or rectangle drops like this pair of Amber Tear-Drop Clip-On... Read More


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Well, this is quite a little thing — what begins as a sort of "making of" video of a new Broken Sword game transitions into a pitch from Charles Cecil, the man who created the much-loved adventure game series, on why you should help them make a fifth game, Broken Sword: The Serpent's Curse.
I have a real soft spot for Broken Sword games, and just seeing the bright colours of Paris again makes me want to play The Shadow Of The Templars next time I'm on the bus. If you'd like to support Cecil and his team, you can back their Kickstarter campaign here.


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Bruce Wayne is about to get a new leading lady… or two – the only question is: who will it be?
Reports have been swirling over which Hollywood beauty (or beauties) would join Christopher Nolan's upcoming Batman installment, "The Dark Knight Rises," with a slew of names being bandied about.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Blake Lively: From Hollywood To The Upper East Side!
In fact, Nolan is indeed reportedly looking for two actresses to join the franchise – one as Batman/Bruce Wayne's ladylove and one as a potential villain.
According to Deadline, the short list is now down to six – Keira Knightley, Blake Lively, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, Natalie Portman and Anne Hathaway.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: V For… Vegan! Sexy Shots Of Green Star Natalie Portman
As previously reported by Deadline, "Inception" star Tom Hardy will also join the project, and while details of his role remain under wraps, it's rumored he will step in as the caped crusader's new evil foe.
"The Dark Knight Rises," with Christian Bale reprising his role as the title character, will hit theaters on July 20, 2012.
Copyright 2010 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: She'll Always Be A 'Princess' To Us! The Lovely Anne Hathaway!
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Access' Top 10 Movies We Can't Wait For In 2011!
PLAY IT NOW: Access Extended: Christopher Nolan Talks 'The Dark Knight'
PLAY IT NOW: Jake Gyllenhaal & Anne Hathaway Address 'Love' Rumors
More from Access: [ BatmanChristopher NolanBlake Lively ]


text: Setup Vend for Mac or PC Vend on iPad Answer No, there is no character limit for this field. Still can't find what you're after? Contact us so that we can help you out. This guide is for information purposes only. While every attempt is made to ensure that information is accurate and up-to-date, some information is subject to change. We encourage you to work with tax, legal and other professional advisers (as applicable) to determine your requirements. Vend will not be held liable for information in this document and reserves the right to alter the content at any time.


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Hamamatsu, Japan, October 30, 2010 – Puerto Rico cruised past Kenya in straight sets (25-20, 25-23, 25-19) to win their first match in Pool B at the 2010 FIVB Women's World Championship at Hamamatsu Arena in Japan on Saturday.With both teams hungry for their first wins of the opening round, there was a lively opening with plenty of chatter on court in Swahili and Spanish. Kenya came close to winning their first set of the tournament, leading late in the second set before luck turned against them. The awesome top-spin serving of Aurea Cruz and the strength of Karina Ocasio 'Malpica' and others powered Puerto Rico to their first win of Pool B and raised their hopes of advancing to the next round. FIVB Women's World Championship Japan 2010 official page
There was little to separate the teams in the first set until the skilful serving and spiking of Cruz put Puerto Rico ahead at 16-14 and then 18-16. Kenya came back but, at 23-20 down, saw the set slip away as a wide spike by Asha Makuto eventually sealed it at 25-20.Kenya mounted an enthusiastic comeback in the second set. From trailing 10-4 they narrowed the deficit to 16-13. Two net serves by Puerto Rico gave Kenya a couple of free points and they added to their tally with some ferocious spiking and a service ace by Jackline Barasa, which had coach Hidehiro Irisawa jumping for joy. With Kenya moving 21-19 in front, their hopes of an historic first win on the world stage appeared to rise but they were quickly dashed as two blocks were deflected out to give Puerto Rico the set 25-23.Kenya'a fortunes slumped further in the third set as they fell behind 8-5 and 16-9, unable to match Puerto Rico's front-court brawn of Malpica and Sarai Alvarez. Mercy Moim's dipping service ace narrowed the deficit to 16-13 and sent Kenya celebrating in a circle dance, a crowd-pleasing performance which continued after their attack made it 17-15. The Africans got another break when Cruz missed a blistering serve wide. Jane Wairimu 'Wachu' then made a stunning save off her head, and then a diving dig, but her efforts did not yield a point and it was Puerto Rico who won out 25-19. Kenya's determined showing earned them admirers among the Japanese spectators and they will be grateful for all the support they can get in their next match against Italy – a contest they enter as heavy underdogs. As for Puerto Rico, next in action against the Czech Republic, they showed they have the power to challenge for a spot in the next round.


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Touring comedy troupe takes funny jabs at La Jolla and Santee and everything in between — even Filner isn't safe
If you're wondering how Bob Filner fares in the new San Diego-centric comedy show at La Jolla Playhouse, you don't have to wait very long.
The embattled mayor — now in therapy for a string of alleged sexual advances against women — is skewered in the first seconds of Second City Theatricals' "The Good, the Bad and the I-5," the often-hilarious two-hour show that opened Thursday.
It's clear the talented six-member Chicago troupe did their homework in developing skits that mock San Diego's laid-back bike cops, pot shops, neighborhoods, fish tacos, theme parks, weather, seals, sports teams, Comic-Con and even U-T San Diego. But nowhere is their satire sharper than in their pointed parodies of Filner.
Played as a lech by the diminutive Mitchell J. Fain, Filner dances a soft-shoe while singing "I Can't Quit You, San Diego," manhandles a few women in the audience, puts a man in a headlock, and finds Scrooge-like redemption in a "Christmas Carol" sendup. Even funnier is an overwhelmed Filner harassment hotline for callers dialing in with mayoral complaints.
The Second City company spreads its net wide in the show, which mixes pre-written skits with audience improv, and brief vignettes with longer scenes. Not every punchline is a zinger, and some bits feel overworked, but there's clearly plenty to laugh about in America's Finest City.
Every cast member has their moment to shine in the fast-moving show directed by Billy Bungeroth with musical direction by Lisa McQueen and sound design by Julie Nichols.
Kevin Sciretta is spot on as the nerdy, gluten-intolerant Comic-Con conventioneer dressed as Thor in one of the Gaslamp Quarter's ubiquitous craft beer bars, and he's also terrific as Bodie, the mellow, yoga-loving Mission Beach bike cop who would rather sip Starbucks' pumpkin "cheenatinos" than chase criminals.
His perfect foil is the endearing Frank Caeti, as a wannabe "Hulk" in the bar scene, the not-quite-so-fit bike cop Topher, and also as a sax-playing Bill Clinton.
Andel Sudik is electric as the whale-song lounge singer "Soy" at SeaWorld, and a petulant teen at the San Diego Zoo (home, apparently, to twerking flamingos and oversexed pandas).
The versatile Travis Turner plays Obama, LeVar Burton and a gay wedding officiant who looks an awful lot like Prince. And Marla Caceres shines as a hardworking Mexican immigrant mom ridiculed by her spoiled U.S.-born, UCLA-bound son, and an Iraqi immigrant in Santee who opines that El Cajon sounds an awful lot like the Spanish singular of testicles.
The on-the-spot interactions with audiences are inspired, and there is some very funny stuff about La Jolla elitism (watch out, Mitt Romney), the Padres (they couldn't win, even in 1808) and Little Italy's proximity to Lindbergh Field.
Audience members on the aisle and in the front rows may be pulled into the show and everyone's encouraged to fill in the blanks for one improv piece. San Diegans should be prepared to laugh at themselves, but the affectionate show isn't mean-spirited ... that is, unless your last name is Filner.
The Second City's "The Good, the Bad and the I-5"
When: 7 p.m. Sundays. 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays. 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Through Sept. 1.
Where: Mandell Weiss Forum Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla
Tickets: $15-$50
Phone: (858) 550-1010


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Alabama Crimson Tide rolls past Notre Dame to win third BCS title in four years
It was supposed to be a colossal clash between two of college football's giants, a slugfest between the nation's two stingiest defenses.
Monday night's BCS National Championship Game — played in front of 80,120, the largest crowd in Sun Life Stadium history — turned out to be just another coronation for Nick Saban, Alabama and the Southeastern Conference.
Behind Eddie Lacy's legs, the Crimson Tide (13-1) pounded and pummeled Notre Dame from start to finish, smacking the previously unbeaten Irish from its No. 1 perch 42-14 to become the first program since Nebraska (1994 to 1997) to win three national titles in four years.
Alabama, which wouldn't talk about repeating all season as per Saban's orders, also became the first school to win back-to-back titles since the Huskers did it 18 years ago.
"They repeated so they can talk about it all they want now," said Saban, now among a handful of coaching greats to win four national championships in his career (Alabama's Bear Bryant won six; Minnesota's Bernie Bierman five; and Notre Dame's Frank Leahy and Tennessee's Robert Neyland each won four).
"Whether I look it or not, I'm happy as hell."
Saban, who once dreamed of taking the Dolphins to such heights in this same building before bolting for Tuscaloosa six years ago, lifted the prized national championship trophy amid a Crimson Tide celebration when it was finally over. Alabama fans capped it by swaying and singing Sweet Home Alabama as the team trotted off the field.
Saban's team played as complete a game as it had all season.
T.J. Yeldon and Lacy, the freshman-junior duo who became the first pair of 1,000-yard running backs in Alabama history, took turns shredding the Irish while quarterback AJ McCarron, the most efficient passer in the NCAA this season, worked like a surgeon.
In an example of perfect balance, Alabama rolled up 529 yards of offense (265 rushing, 264 passing) against Notre Dame, which came in ranked No. 1 in the nation in scoring defense, fourth against the run and having allowed just two rushing touchdowns all season.
Tide All-American linemen Barrett Jones and guard Chance Warmack dominated their head-to-head battles with Irish defensive tackle Louis Nix and linebacker Manti Te'o.
"They're big, strong and athletic," Te'o said afterward of Bama's line. "They just did what Alabama does."
The Tide led 14-0 after the first quarter, 28-0 at halftime and was up 35-0 when Notre Dame quarterback Everett Golson finally dove into the end zone on a 2-yard with 4:08 to play in the third quarter. The touchdown ended a run of 69 unanswered points in BCS title games dating to Alabama's win over Texas in 2010.
McCarron finished 20 of 28 for 264 yards and four touchdowns. Lacy, named the Offensive Player of the Game, ran for 140 yards and scored twice — on a 20-yard dash through the heart of the Irish defense on the game's opening drive and on an 11-yard pass with 31 seconds left in the half. Yeldon finished with 108 yards on 20 attempts and a touchdown.
"For one of the first times this season we came out and played a complete game," Lacy said.
Former Miami Northwestern High standout Amari Cooper, who led Alabama in receiving this season as a freshman, caught two touchdown passes from McCarron in the second half.
The first was a 34-yarder with 7:34 to go in the third quarter that made it 35-0. The other was a 19-yarder with 11:27 remaining, a diving catch in the end zone down the middle of the Irish defense. Cooper finished with six catches for 105 yards in front of his family and friends.
"It was everything we practiced," Cooper said. "They didn't change anything about their defense, in my opinion."
Notre Dame, hoping to win its first title since 1988 and become the first team since BYU (1984) to win the AP national title after being unranked in the preseason poll, never got its dangerous rushing attack going.
Led by linebackers C.J. Moseley and safeties Robert Lester and Ha'Sean "HaHa" Clinton-Dix, Alabama's defense stuffed Theo Riddick and Cierre Wood and forced Golson to go to the air early. That plan didn't work for the Irish.
After falling behind 7-0 almost instantly and surrendering just the third rushing touchdown it had all season, the Irish appeared to catch a break when Christion Jones fumbled a punt and Notre Dame recovered at the Bama 24. But referees ruled Irish safety Matthias Farley had interfered with Jones, who had called for a fair catch, and Alabama retained possession.
Irish fans were angry. The rest of the night didn't go any better.
Monday night's title game, the 20th college football championship game decided in South Florida, began with the usual festivities.
Before the Zac Brown Band sang the national anthem, paratroopers from Wings of Blue flew into the stadium carrying the game ball and team flags. The trooper carrying the Crimson Tide's flag slipped to his backside, while the one carrying Notre Dame's flag landed perfectly in stride at the 50.
An electric sellout crowd — one decidedly louder for Notre Dame at the start — stood on its feet for nearly all of the pregame festivities. But by the time Yeldon had barreled his way into the end zone on the first play of the second quarter to make it 21-0, much of the fight in the Irish had dissipated.
Alabama, which claims 15 national titles overall, has now won 10 national championships since the poll era began in 1936. Notre Dame, which claims 11, remains second all-time with eight.
"It's disappointing, we lost the football game," Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said. "But it's going to make my job very easy when it comes to talking about what we need to do to win a national championship next year."


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Milpitas, Calif., Sept 8, 2014 – SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a global leader in flash storage solutions, today announced that SanDisk DAS Cache software will be offered by Dell for use in its next generation Dell PowerEdge servers with direct-attached storage (DAS). This all-software solution will allow customers to benefit from the high performance of solid state drives (SSDs), while maintaining data on direct-attached, disk-based storage. SanDisk DAS Cache software works with SSDs from any manufacturer, empowering customers to select the SSD capacity and performance that is appropriate to their data center needs.
"We have been working very closely with Dell to provide a complete solution for their customers that provides the performance and cost benefits of solid-state storage technology," said John Scaramuzzo, senior vice president and general manager, Enterprise Storage Solutions, SanDisk. "Combining innovations in both hardware and software enables customers to realize the full potential of enterprise storage solutions. We are excited that Dell is able to offer the benefits of our SanDisk DAS Cache software to customers with its new PowerEdge servers."
The SanDisk DAS Cache software uses server-attached SSDs as an intermediate cache for an application's most frequently accessed data, or "hot data," which reduces input-output (I/O) latency and enables data to be read and written more efficiently. The software assigns the hot data to the solid-state cache, with minimal overhead on server CPU and memory resources.
The SanDisk DAS Cache software works with the wide range of solid state storage devices attached via SATA, SAS and PCIe interfaces, and is available with next generation Dell PowerEdge servers. Additionally, SanDisk DAS Cache software helps to make the most actively used data accessible in faster responding media for applications, and reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO).
"SanDisk's support for solid state technology in our new PowerEdge servers will further differentiate our offerings in the marketplace, as well as address our customers' needs for high-performing, efficient, low-maintenance storage solutions," said Ravi Pendekanti, vice president of product marketing and management, Dell PowerEdge Servers. "Dell and SanDisk worked closely together to make SanDisk DAS Cache work seamlessly with Dell PowerEdge servers for an incredible combination of price, performance and enterprise features."
The key capabilities and benefits of the SanDisk DAS Cache software include:
"As servers have grown ever more powerful, the difference between compute power and data access performance has become a critical challenge for vendors seeking to improve application performance," said Eric Burgener, Research Director for IDC's Storage practice. "Solid-state caching directly in the server delivers a lower latency option than network-based storage can provide, providing additional options for customers to meet extremely high performance requirements."
SanDisk DAS Cache software is fully supported by Dell Services and available with the purchase of a next-generation Dell PowerEdge server. For more information about the new SanDisk DAS Cache software offered by Dell, visit www.Dell.com/dascache or contact your Dell sales representative.
SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ: SNDK), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company, is a global leader in flash storage solutions. For more than 25 years, SanDisk has expanded the possibilities of storage, providing trusted and innovative products that have transformed the electronics industry. Today, SanDisk's quality, state-of-the-art solutions are at the heart of many of the world's largest data centers, and embedded in advanced smart phones, tablets and PCs. SanDisk's consumer products are available at hundreds of thousands of retail stores worldwide. For more information, visit www.sandisk.com.
© 2014 SanDisk Corporation. All rights reserved. SanDisk is a trademark of SanDisk Corporation, registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s). Other brand names mentioned herein are for identification purposes only and may be the trademarks of their respective holder(s).
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including expectations for markets, products and customers that are based on our current expectations and involve numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate. Risks that may cause these forward-looking statements to be inaccurate include among others: the market demand for our products may grow more slowly than our expectations or our products may not be available in the capacities that we expect or perform as expected, or the other risks detailed from time-to-time in our Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including, but not limited to, our most recent quarterly report on Form 10-Q and our annual report on Form 10-K. We do not intend to update the information contained in this news release.


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Canberra bushfires remembered 10 years on
Canberra is today marking the 10th anniversary of one of its darkest days.
On January 18, 2003, fires burning in the Brindabella Ranges south-west of Canberra combined to form a raging firestorm which swept into the city.
Suburbs like Duffy, Chapman, Rivett and Kambah were in the firing line and residents were given little or no warning of the danger.
Four people were killed and about 500 homes were destroyed.
The 10th anniversary of the disaster has been marked with a low-key service at the ACT Bushfire Memorial in Stromlo Forest Park.
More than 300 residents, officials, firefighters and many involved in the bushfire recovery effort gathered for the commemorative ceremony.
"All of us has a story from that day etched into our memories forever," ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher told the crowd.
"One of those moments in life when we will always remember what we were doing, how we were feeling, how normal, almost surreal, the day was.
"Many remember the smell in the air, the darkness that descended on our city, the sounds that came with the fire and then the silence that followed.
"But that same day, whilst we recall easily those frightening memories, we also remember the incredible stories of courage, extraordinary acts of kindness, and the genuine coming together of a community that cared deeply about each other."
Ms Gallagher acknowledged the journey of recovery continues for some people.
"For some, 10 years is a long time from the fires, for others the recovery continues and the memories remain raw. Everyone has a different way of coping and learning to live with the loss they suffered that day," she said.
A decade on, Ms Gallagher says Canberra has come a long way, with houses rebuilt and nature parks regenerated.
"Our responses to emergencies have been overhauled, lessons learnt in the harshest possible way," she said.
"We have learnt much from lessons learnt much from the experiences of that year, and as our city is a safer place as a result we are now better prepared for an emergency than ever before."
Former Chapman resident Jane Smyth lost her home. She told the service the trauma has strengthened the Canberra community.
"We'll always remember the great losses but we also remember that time of strength following the fires when the people of Canberra and district, friends, neighbours, strangers, reached out in new ways to each other and in our time of recovery, Canberra worked as a community," she said.
Moving on
The anniversary is stirring up emotions for both residents and authorities.
Some residents are still angry about the lack of warnings and they have boycotted the official service.
Former ACT Emergency Services commissioner Mark Crosweller, has told 7.30 ACT, it is time to let go of the anger.
"Simply to blame people in that circumstance ... robs us of the opportunity to forgive and move on and we really need to do that," he said.
"If people are still grieving 10 years later or if they're still angry 10 years later then we do have a problem in society."
Mr Crosweller says firefighters did all they could but it was not enough.
Topics: bushfire, chapman-2611, duffy-2611, rivett-2611, canberra-2600, act
First posted


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Mark Zuckerberg.
As of July 4 -- six days after Google+ launched -- the Facebook founder has more than 21,000 followers -- which is almost one and a half times as many as Google CEO Larry Page.
The rest of the top 10 is filled out with other prominent Googlers and bloggers, including Robert Scoble and MG Siegler.
Here's the list of the top 100.
See also: Everything You Need To Know About Google+.
Get the latest Google stock price here.


text: Connect with YHC on social media. Find out where to find the College and its organizations on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. Get involved, join the conversation and connect with fellow Mountain Lions across campus and around the world. To follow, "friend" or become a fan, click on the social network icon of your choice below.


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This almost never happens. Revivals, remakes and sequels are, by common consent, inferior products.
Every once in a while, though, something comes along — the recent staging of "South Pacific," or "Over the Rainbow" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole — that feels perfectly contemporary, and honors the original and the memories people have for it. It's a matter of tone.
The list of successful revivals is short, but you can add the comeback of a downtown Baltimore dining institution to it. The beloved old lunchroom in the Woman's Industrial Exchange, famed for its tomato aspic, chicken salad and blue-uniformed waitresses, has been reopened by the owner of the popular Souper Freak food truck, Irene Smith, who has renamed it the Woman's Industrial Kitchen.
As an act of civic kindness, the return of the historic and beloved lunchroom would be enough. The great news is that the new lunchroom is also serving one of the best lunches in Baltimore. This is simply wonderful comfort food, inspired not by restaurant fare but by generations of home cooks. Everything from the sublimely rich vegetable casseroles to the shimmering charlotte russe cake is executed and presented not only with affection but with a great deal of culinary skill.
The iconic black-and-white tile floor remains, and the old cashier's booth has been reclaimed and re-purposed. But the new room is brighter, more cheerful and much more comfortable than the old one. Wisely, Smith has not attempted a faithful reconstruction of the old lunchroom, which, for the last few decades of its run, was charming because it was dated.
Smith has found better ways to bring the past — especially the lives of women — into the present. She has filled the walls of the lunchroom with photographs of women, some famous and some not. Each of the dining tables is decorated with photographs, too. Some are devoted to groups of singers, athletes, teachers, comedians; others to a single famous Marylander, like Billie Holiday, Gertrude Stein, Emily Post or ichthyologist Eugenie Clark.
The old blue uniforms have not returned. Smith's wait staff — recruited, she says, for their motherliness and sass — are dressed in black jeans, black T-shirts and pink-and-black aprons made by the Exchange's consigners.
Still, Smith knew that patrons of the Woman's Industrial Kitchen would come looking for that tomato aspic. She's given it pride of place, along with deviled eggs and homemade pickles, on her streamlined menu, as part of a Consigner's Sampler.
The tomato aspic is a must, not only for what it signifies but for how good it is. Yes, aspic is old-fashioned, but it was popular for a reason. Not only does a properly prepared vegetable aspic make a lovely appearance, it delivers intense flavor. The aspic here tastes like the essence of a tomato. The eggs and pickles are ideal homespun accompaniments.
The aspic returns, once more, as a side dish for Marguerite's Chicken Salad, which has been renamed in memory of Marguerite Schertle, the best-known of the legendary staff of waitresses. Schertle worked the lunchroom well into her 90s. Mixed with celery and dusted with paprika, the chicken salad tastes and looks like it was prepared in the morning from freshly roasted chicken. It's good enough to order every time you come here for lunch. But then you'd be missing out on so much else, like the tender pork loin sandwich topped with apple compote, or the tuna melt, covered in bubbly cheddar, that might persuade you it was prepared by the classic method: in a toaster oven.
The executive chef at Woman's Industrial Kitchen is Tina Perry, who gets to show off her charcuterie skills in her robust terrine-style, bacon-wrapped meatloaf, which is laid out on your plate in slices and topped with a homemade tomato-flavored gravy. Keep an eye on her blue-plate specials. Perry recently served up homemade sauerkraut with roasted root vegetables.
You will flip for side dishes like Grandma Linda's macaroni and cheese, Aunt Mildred's broccoli and cheese casserole, and Grandma Adelaide's sweet potato casserole, which can be ordered as side dishes or together as an appetizer called the Bridge Club Sampler. They're so satisfying because, it stands to reason, Linda, Mildred and Adelaide likely never made anything in their lives with skim milk or margarine.
Not everything on the menu is so rich and heavy — there's an asparagus and goat cheese salad and a few other dainty options — but at least during the winter months, the lunchroom's menu is hearty. I wouldn't recommend having lunch here if you have big dinner plans later. If you can, you'll want to devote a good old-fashioned lunch hour to the Woman's Industrial Kitchen. A chicken pot pie, for instance, is going to take some time, and the table service, while generally on the mark, can become overwhelmed by a sudden rush of incoming diners.
But consider the joys of a big, satisfying lunch finished off with a slice of bone-white charlotte russe, its crust formed by airy ladyfingers, and a nice hot cup of Zeke's coffee.
Reviving the lunchroom at the Woman's Industrial Exchange sounded like the kind of impossible task issued to heroines in fairy tales, like picking lentils out of the ashes. But Smith, who gained an ardent local following with her Souper Freak food truck, has pulled off a happy ending.
Woman's Industrial Kitchen
Where: 333 N. Charles St., in the Woman's Industrial Exchange
Contact: 410-244-6450, womansindustrialkitchen.com
Hours: Lunch Monday through Friday
Prices: Appetizers, $5.50-$8; entrees, $6.50-$11
Food: ✭✭✭1/2
Service: ✭✭✭
Atmosphere: ✭✭✭✭
[Key: Outstanding: ✭✭✭✭; Good: ✭✭✭; Fair or Uneven:✭✭; Poor:✭]


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Thanks Sweet Tea for the party shots! Lots of friends there. And tasty looking food, too!I hope y'all can make it up to TARcon in NYC.
TARCon is usually held on the day/night of the finale. It's a great time. Peach and Chateau are the veterans of TARCon from here. They can fill you in on everything. I went for the first time earlier this year. Here's a report from the last TARCon that I posted on my blog.
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MJ10 necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 43 diseños de 8 diseñadores freelance.
Mijn Geschenken (MG)
"Mijn Geschenken" (Dutch for "MyGifts") is te name of my new online gift basket business, and i want you to create the main logo that will distinguish me from the competition.
women/mothers between the age of 30-55 year that are interested in giftbackets of all sort for every occasion.
As well as being suitable for the website, the logo must also be suitable for future printing, print ( bus cards, flyers, postcards, packaging, etc).
I am are looking for a Clean, elegant, classic timeless logo, I want the letters MG to be the main focus for the logo and also they are going to be used as a watermark for my pictures.
But the logo also has to say what it stands for, by using the full name Mijn Geschenken.
I also would like to see some logo`s made with the handwritten look.
Initualy i did not want a picture of a present incorporated in my logo, but please feel free to show me otherwise.
Need versions for both light and dark backgrounds, i like grays, browns,and pastel colours.
Here are some links for inspiration
(Take out the cupcake and i love the style, but not the bleu color.)
( This style i like very much)
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


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It's a trend we like and would tend to encourage; passive-aggressive insults by European soccer fans. Bradford City, a League One soccer club, recently published a book about rival club Leeds United, entitled Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Not So Massive Club That Was Super L666ds, which consists of 36 blank pages. (Funny, but we still suspect that some English soccer fans will employ a bookmark while reading it).
Not that we don't have our own versions of that book over here. At Oprah's Blank-Book-Of-The-Month Club, you can pick up exciting titles such as these, which include not a single word or picture:
• The Story Of My Life, by Barbaro.
• The Wit and Wisdom of Michael Strahan, by Michael Strahan, with Mike Freeman.
• How To Watch Football Smarter, by the USC Song Girls.
• The David Wells Diet, by David Wells.
• Dignity, Always Dignity, by Bally.
Bradford's Dig At Not-So-Super Rivals [Ananova]


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Dumela and welcome to the InterNations Community of expats in Gaborone, your first point of call for all the essential information you need to relocate to this Botswanan city. Your InterNations account enables you to easily get in touch with fellow expatriates in Gaborone and across the world and there are numerous opportunities to meet fellow expats in person, too. Look to our forum to find answers to questions, such as "are there areas expats should avoid in Gaborone?", as well as insider tips from experienced expats. If you have particular concerns and can't find the answer, simply open a new thread in the forum where our open and helpful members share the benefit of their experience in Gaborone. Navigating the process of an international relocation can be difficult, but with InterNations, you have support and first-hand guidance to smooth your path.
With InterNations, you never stand alone. Whether you move to another city or go on a business trip somewhere — our communities are there to make you feel at home wherever you are in the world. Feel free to also check out our other vibrant InterNations Communities like the ones in Seoul or Athens.
Attend our monthly events and activities for Gaborone expatriates to get to know like-minded expatriates in real life.
Get trustworthy advice and local insights from fellow members in our Gaborone expat forums.
The great outdoors of Gaborone are hard to resist and provide many opportunities to seize the sunshine. Active expats can climb the 1,287 meters to the summit of Kgale Hill or "sleeping giant", while the 12 square miles of Mokolodi Nature Reserve has steenbok, giraffes and hippos, among other interesting wildlife. Much of the activity is found by the Gaborone Dam, where residents and tourists alike sail, go fishing, bird-watch, and windsurf. As the center of Botswana's national economy, much of Gaborone's workforce is employed in the services sector in general and financial services in particular. A number of national financial institutions have headquarters in the city, as well as several other important companies in sectors such as air travel, telecommunications, and diamond mining.
InterNations is the largest global network for expatriates, with communities in 420 cities across the globe. Get to know fellow internationals in your city, before you're moving, or when traveling somewhere and never feel like a stranger. InterNations makes it easy for you to stay in touch with your expat friends, both online and offline, so you can grow your network of friends and contacts from all over the world. Whether they live in Kuala Lumpur or Madrid, InterNations allows you to be close to them even if they are miles away.
With InterNations, you are supported right from the beginning of this adventure and you'll continue to benefit from all that your community has to offer once you land with our exclusive social opportunities. Start by meeting fellow expats in person at our fun and relaxed InterNations Official Events, then join one of our InterNations Groups to find like-minded travelers to socialize and share your hobbies with. You'll soon find that you are making plans to fill your social calendar and have a network of supportive friends ready to welcome you to Gaborone.


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Light Reflectance
Ceiling systems are a key element of energy conservation. A well designed ceiling with high light reflectance improves space illumination, allowing for fewer light fixtures, a reduced electrical light output, lower maintenance costs and a reduced cooling load.
Daylight and electrical lighting represent the two primary sources of lighting in the workplace. The light reflectance of the ceiling, floor and wall surfaces play the second most important role for overall illumination of the room, directly affecting working comfort and productivity.
Benefits of High Light Reflectance Ceilings
- Light Reflectance ≥ 90% ⇒ 20% cost saving with indirect lighting
- Total building energy savings up to 11%
- 7% savings in cooling system energy
- High light reflectance ceilings contribute to LEED®, BREEAM, HQE, DGNB and Ska credits by improving visual comfort.
Download Armstrong Green Building Rating Tool Performance Tables.
Thermal Mass
The thermal mass of the buildings structure absorbs daytime thermal gains. During the night time, the heat stored in the thermal mass of the building is released back to the room. Contact between the air within the room and the buildings thermal mass is needed in order for thermal transfer to occur.
Island ceilings provide an ideal solution in these instances. How? By adding design elements to a space and helping to maintain acoustical and visual comfort.
Armstrong's Canopy range:
- Offers a choice of material: mineral, wood and metal
- Available in a large range of shapes and sizes
- Are very easy to install and dismantle, enabling easy re-location and reuse.
The Armstrong Axiom Canopy range:
- Manufactured to pre-designed sizes and packaged with all the necessary components in our factory
- Easy on-site installation along with no wasted materials or components.


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What if I pee a little when I workout or laugh?
Have you ever peed yourself while working out or laughing? Don't be embarrassed! It turns out, it's much more common than you may think. USA TODAY
Do you pee a little bit when you workout or laugh?
It's an embarrassing question and women may not feel comfortable asking, but it happens much more often than you'd think, according to Emanuel Trabuco, urogynecologist at the Mayo Clinic.
"It's super common, but for a lot of patients it's not something that becomes bothersome until it progresses and begins to impact their quality of life," he said.
Stress incontinence or light bladder leakage is caused when muscles and connective tissue surrounding the bladder and pelvic area become lax or weakened. The condition can be triggered by certain diet choices, childbirth, obesity and menopause, when women's bodies are not producing as much estrogen, according to Jessica Shepherd, a women's health expert and OBGYN.
Women may have a little urine leak during activities where they are straining, such as jumping, high-intensity workouts, laughing, and even coughing, according to Shepherd.
"I think for years women have had this stigma on urine incontinence and they feel shame or guilt associated with the actual diagnosis, but it really can affect women from a young age to older," Shepherd said.
While it may be inconvenient for women, it's treatable through medication, pelvic physical therapy, surgery or even through a tampon-like device that can stop the urethra from allowing urine to escape during strenuous activity.
"Poise has one that's similar to a tampon, but it's not a tampon and doesn't have absorbent qualities, it's just pushing in the right direction to help stop leakage," she said.
More coverage:
For those who are not interested in surgery, physical pelvic therapy may help.
And while you may automatically think about kegels, that's just a small part of pelvic physical therapy, Trabuco said.
"Kegels is an expression that gets knocked around a lot, but when you actually examine patients and have them try to identify their pelvic floor muscles, they often aren't identifying their pelvic floor muscles," Trabuco said. "Therapy can strengthen the pelvic floor, so when you feel a sneeze or a cough coming you can engage those muscles and reduce leakage."
Shepherd encourages women who are dealing with the issue to push past any embarrassment and reach out to their doctor or specialists, who can work with them to identify a treatment route that works for them.
The beauty of science is we have so many things to help, but can't help if we don't know," she said. "It's really engaging in that conversation with healthcare providers to give you tools to be at your best."
Follow Mary Bowerman on Twitter: @MaryBowerman


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Jalopnik ReviewsAll of our test drives in one convenient place.
Quite possibly the most fantastically invisible car on sale today, the Toyota Avalon, is in my hands. What do you want to know about it?
Toyota has apparently made the most hilariously comfortable car on the market even more comfortable for 2016, so I felt it was necessary to give the thing I try. I drove the '15 car and fell in love, so I figure the '16 will be even better.
Now, does anyone know how to get traction control fully disabled in this thing?
Photo Credit: Raphael Orlove/Jalopnik
Contact the author at firstname.lastname@example.com.