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Archive for March 2008
"I Support Terror" by George W. Bush
I support terror.
The use of fear, intimidation, the threat and the actual act of violence to further a political, ideological, or religious aim, message, or belief.
Hell yes!
Bring it.
5 years on, and Iraq is just getting warmed up.
So many bombings and beheadings and mass graves that if less than 60 people die, nobody notices.
Unless one of them is an American, or an English, Israeli, or Aussie,
etc. etc.
Saddam – an amateur.
Killed 5000 civillians and got hanged for it.
Used chemical weapons.
That he got.
From my daddy.
Hee hee hee.
I killed 3, 4, 5 hundred thousand civilians and got re-elected.
Not like my daddy.
Hee hee hee.
So let's look at what I've got.
Tax money for life? Yessirree.
Impeached? Not likely!
Gunned down? Not yet…
And I've sure got this military-industrial complex all up in this bee-yatch.
Machine Accomplished.
No American President can ever back down again.
I've killed too many parents and children.
Not for the House of Bush.
Not for my sidekicks – a Dick and a Con and a Robber(the 't' is silent).
But in the name of the US People.
Vengeance ain't mine 'cause I have nothing to avenge,
Nobody wronged me 'cept Barb when she gave birth,
But revenge will be my legacy.
Global hatred as intergenerational equity.
That ain't me talkin'.
That ain't even me writin'.
Have too much trouble with them words as big as Texas.
So Happy Birthday Iraq War.
We Won, but you – you're five!
Don't get lonely though, li'l camper.
I know our wonderful toys have killed your sons and daughters.
So we're going to get you a sister!
I think her name's Irene?
It's just spelt kinda different.
Crazy A-rabs…
This has been a preemptive strike in the name of the March 19 Iraq War Blogswarm…..
Last Train to Lhasa – [/sigh…]
Last train to Lhasa, originally a gorgeous piece of thoughtful music by Banco de Gaia, now a worthy way to reflect on yet another struggle for independence that has turned into bloodshed and brutality unleashed.
Mixed reports, almost impossible to confirm because of the Chinese regulation of Tibet, have emerged claiming anywhere from 10 to 67 protesters dead in the latest actions – the commemoration of the 49th anniversary of the events which forced the currently exiled Dalai Lama to flee Tibet. Probably a good time to brush up on the International Tibet Independence Movement if you're not familiar with the struggle.
While it would be great to see the world reject China's soft support for the slaughter in Burma and direct support for the slaughter in Tibet by boycotting the Olympics, it would suck for all the athletes, and it would be inordinately hypocritical. The US seems to export far more misery globally than China sews domestically, but where's the outrage against America's longstanding foreign policies which are responsible for the deaths of millions, even during the past couple of decades?
Grrrrrrrrrr. Enjoy the video played loud – the song is beautiful. The shorter version below has a collage of stunning and disturbing pieces of footage not included in the longer form above.
Dollar Implodes: Oh you crazy Carlyles, you've done it again!!
Go little squiggle! Go!!
It's all happening a bit fast now for anybody to garner an official 'WTF?', but how funny is it that the Carlyle Group – post-Presidency employers of George Bush sr., negotiation partners of Osama Bin Laden's family, and the American mass weapon exporter of choice – is this very moment the latest leading reason for the utter implosion of the US dollar and global share markets? Go team!!
That's too funny!!! See the dudes on the left – it's meant to look as though Carlyle Group is all about respecting and connecting with foreign cultures that encourage the accumulation of wealth, but it's actually two coked out merchant bankers watching their friend all the way from the top of their building to the pavement below.
Don't worry though, the US Federal Reserve will probably just cut their overnight rate a few more times so that by July they will actually be paying people to borrow American dollars. Then the whole thing might meet more than 87% of requirements necessary for the current clu$terfuc to be termed a "recession".
It's like when that prick with ears on the American Today show or Good Yawning America came out and announced that The Network had decided to call the war in Iraq a Civil War. I'm sure that semantic pedantry really made a difference to the bodies in mass graves who thought they had been put there as part of a regional conflict or neighbourhood dispute.
Further Bushes & the Carlyle Group info at
The Information Clearinghouse -> big assortment of interesting info-bytes, background, and collected links.
This one from Third World Traveller is awesome:
Dick Cheney and the Self-Licking Ice Cream Cone
The Carlyle Group: Crony Capitalism without Borders
excerpted from the book
How Much Are You Making On The War Daddy?
A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration
And there's a more recent one here at Culture Change which gives good background and I like simply because it quotes Tom Paine.
New climate group to drive Australian policy change
In early March Sydney University's Faculty of Law launched a new multidisciplinary initiative – the Climate Law & Policy Group.
In line with recent developments – the UK's Stern Report in 2006, reevaluation of the Kyoto Protocol during 2007 and Australia's current review process under Professor Ross Garnaut – the initiative aims to fill critical voids within current thinking and activity, both locally and internationally.
Key organisers Professor Gillian Triggs, Dean of Law at Sydney University, and Dr. Rosemary Lyster, an internationally respected teacher and practitioner of environmental law, spoke briefly of the new group's reason for existence.
They identified the need to transverse various branches of law – administrative, environmental, international, trade, migration, taxation, corporate, criminal and public health – in making way for the emerging field of climate law and preparing legal infrastructure for an all-embracing response to the growing challenge of climate change.
With Australia's emission trading scheme due to launch in 2010 and with Kyoto having so far failed to adequately engage developing countries, this first-of-its-kind initiative will work with individuals and governments to develop research projects and policy.
Keynote speaker John Connor, CEO of the Climate Institute, addressed the lawyers, academics, NGOs, Justices and students who came to hear his insider's account of last year's Bali negotiations and their implications for Australia. Though unsurprisingly absent, environmental barrister extraordinaire, Chris McGrath, did receive an honourable mention as the legal frontiersman keeping the Australian government falling over its legislative toes.
Connor signalled that there are powerful undercurrents building within global negotiations. Developed nations may yet group together to go beyond currently tentative Kyoto targets to cut their carbon emissions by between 25 and 40 per cent by 2020. He identified 2020 as the proving ground, the year by which bold initiatives must be taken and, if successful, replicated on a grand scale.
He said China and South Africa were leading the negotiations to build bridges with the developed world, while Australia is crossing a bridge of her own. The American position of controlled stalling has been rejected, traded for the quantum leap of the Garnaut Review and its broader consideration of the national interest in responding to climate change.
The way forward mapped out by these pragmatists seems to be a multi-layered paradigm shift already set in motion, from changes taking place in local planning laws and research financing to regional partnerships and global transparency and accountability.
The Climate Law & Policy Group's first conference will be held on August 8.
Garrett's Chile response to whaling claims by UK Independent
Following the welcome trend of reversing previous intransigence, the Australian Government has successfully floated a measure intended to heavily reduce, if not eliminate, Japan's exploitation of "scientific research" as a justification for trying to kill close to one thousand whales annually.
During an international meeting at Heathrow during the first week of March, Australia found "a strong chord of support" for new Australian proposals to eliminate lethal research, according to a spokesperson for Environment Minister, Peter Garrett.
She rejected claims by the UK's Independent that the meeting had somehow been secret, pointing out that it had received significant media coverage during the last week. She also flatly rejected the central claim of the article – that nations are moving to formalize approval of Japanese whaling – as selective quoting, misrepresentation, and a media beat-up.
Far from some sort of sinister new phase in negotiations, the central substance of the Independent's claims regarding the nature of the meeting come from mentions made at the recent Heathrow meeting of a paper by the Pew Environmental Consultancy first tabled at a Tokyo meeting of the IWC in January.
She characterized the support for Australian proposals, voiced both formally and "at the margins" during the meeting, as a very pleasing result for both the Australian delegation and ongoing efforts to protect whales. Australia's reforming proposals have now been accepted as formal items on the agenda of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) conference due to take place in Chile in June.
The measures would see concrete recovery plans established under the IWC. Supposedly scientific research would be subject to the IWC as a whole, rather than the standards determined appropriate by individual nations, as is currently the case with Japan's program, sanctioned under their self-regulated JARPA II regime.
Obama v. Clinton defined
I've resisted any temptation to post about the US primaries simply because when kids are screaming and whining it's not a situation that's going to benefit from more attention. But this line from an article by Jonathan Freedland following the Texas-Ohio-Mordor primaries just nails it:
Democrats could be facing a choice between a woman who can win the party nomination but not the presidency and a man who could win the presidency but not his party's nomination.
And this picture by Mr. Fish says as much:
I really think that American politics is way out in front in the global race to the bottom, Orwell-fantacizing irony-missing fart-sniffing bullshit-spouting sweepstakes, but Jeezus Effing Christ! After this week's tri-state clusterfukkk, Hillary emailed her supporters to say that
Together, we are making history and showing every little girl in America that she can be anything she wants to be.
Now I may be mistaken, but I think that if Barack Obama emailed his supporters to say
Together, we are making history and showing every little black in America that they can be anything they want to be.
then the response would be an almighty "WTF?". Which leaves me feeling pretty confident in my diagnosis of Billary as the all-time passive aggressive power-hungry hypocritical pantsuit motherfucker ever.
Your democracy is a joke America. I'm skipping the wait and printing up my Chelsea 2024 t-shirt now.
McCain may be a big White Elephant, but the Democrats are really a bunch of asses. It's increasingly obvious how their own system worked to deliver the astoundingly pointless John Kerry as some kind of wannabe answer to George Dumber-than-you Bush. Maybe Barack should angle to be dismissed as a lesbian by Bill Clinton, then he too could claim to have Hillary's level of leading edge experience in being close to the presidency.
Hi I'm Barack Obama. Bill Clinton wouldn't fuck me, so how about giving me a chance to not fuck you.
I mean, really, anybody using the fact that they served cucumber sandwiches to visiting dignitaries and went on tourist jaunst to '80 countries on the taxpayer-dime as a reason to vote for them really must just not have anything better to offer.
God knows Dennis Thatcher would do an awesome job of running Britain, eh what?
Monika's Doggie Rescue: Paws for Thought
After more than a decade as a self-financed band of gypsies practicing random acts of canine survival, Monika's Doggie Rescue became a fully registered charity in 2001. Now a network of over 300 volunteers, Doggie Rescue is reshaping its Sydney pawprint.
Speaking with Monika, she explained that their Drummoyne outlet, mainly used for weekend meetings between dogs and potential owners, has recently been dispensed with.
Increasingly, the refurbished Doggie Rescue website will play an important role for rescued dogs and their potential new families. People can look at online profiles of any of the hundred or more dogs housed at the Doggiewood compound at Ingleside. A half hour from the city, amidst scenic forests and the Northern Beaches, Doggiewood is already the main point of consolidation.
Fun, furry, pre-arranged happy petting sessions take place every Saturday at Pet Barn in Alexandria. This ongoing adoption program through Pet Barn provides an important physical gateway to potential inner city owners and foster homes.
Combined, these elements currently see Doggie Rescue place about a thousand dogs in new homes each year. But Monika's real hope is for a change in the culture that produces abandoned animals.
Just last year, a small amendment to NSW law introduced a compulsory reporting mechanism for councils. As reported in late January, for the first time official figures confirmed that of close to 50 000 cats and dogs taken in by NSW pounds alone, nearly half were killed.
The Department of Local Government's most recent figures also include the death rates from all other shelters, and indicate that over 60 000 cats and dogs were killed by the NSW system in 2007.
"We have an oversupply of animals because they get pumped out of impulse outlets," said Monika. "And until people start thinking more about what they adopt when they take an animal – that it's not just a disposable item – we're just going to continue all these problems."
In an effort to challenge this situation, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore has been working to put the Animals (Regulation of Sale) Bill through state parliament. If she can build the necessary support, what began as a bumper sticker – 'Say No to Animals in Pet Shops' – could become law.
"Clover's Bill," said Monika, "really is the most crucial thing in trying to stave this awful production line, this breeding without very much care or nurturing."
Monika described 'the rescue cycle'. Similar to the cycle of homelessness facing many street kids, abandoned animals get dumped and re-dumped, usually ill-treated by more than just one home.
The proposed law, currently sidelined following a motion by Joe Tripodi, would end the sale of companion animals in pet stores. Sale would instead be restricted to breeders, shelters, vets, and pounds with a proviso that potential buyers are screened, educated, and matched to the needs of their new pet.
Monika's Doggie Rescue already follows such a process. Perhaps uniquely, they also follow the progress of re-homed pets, requiring that mismatched pets be returned – an outcome that occurs in less than one per cent of cases according to Monika.
Doggie Rescue also provides a permanent backstop. In the event of an owner's death, departure, or if it is at all needed, they offer permanent right of return for all dogs that come through their doors.
She lists her husband as the group's biggest supporter who, along with Double Bay Vet Clinic and a number of private donors and supporters, makes it all possible. On the feeding, cleaning, caring, and financing rollercoaster, Monika's ride has elements of Zen, Old Yeller, and Superfriends.
It is this environment which seems to produce the many Monika's stories – one particularly sweet one being of a family that adopted a needy little dog with heart problems to keep their father company as he struggled with heart problems of his own.
Drop by www.doggierescue.com, Pet Barn Alexandria, or call Monika's on 02 9486 3133 to find out more, or even see how you can help.


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Ah, beauty products. Do you have any favourites?
I've found that as I've grown older, I've become more attracted to the natural and organic beauty products, especially when it comes to basic skin care. I think I'd like to branch out and try more natural products for my shower routine too, which leads me to my amazing finds below!
It all came about when I was scouting around Etsy today for something totally unrelated, and I came across this delicious sounding bath soak from Herbivore Botanicals, which then sent me on an hours-long adventure into the world of natural beauty products on Etsy. There are loads of great options, and these are just a few of the ones that stood out to me. Aren't they just lovely?
Any take your fancy too? :)
1. Coconut Milk Oatmeal Bath Soak from Herbivore Botanicals
2. Vegan Soap Set from Right Soap
3. Gentle Day Moisturizer from Conscious Skincare
4. Balancing Face Oil from Kadria Skincare
5. Lip Balms from Herbivore Botanicals
6. Grapefruit Musk Bath & Body Oil from LucaBello Skincare
7. Flower Power Bath Salts from Spa Goddess
8. Body and Hand Sugar Scrub from Lady Gatsby

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|Active suspension apparatus for a vehicle
|Tanaka et al.
|Suspension control system
|Tsutsumi et al.
|Suspension control system
|Tsutsumi et al.
|Shock absorber control system
|Yokoya et al.
|Method for controlling the front wheel steer angle
|Furukawa et al.
|Electronic controlled fluid suspension system with an advance control and a feedback control of a vehicle attitude
|Buma et al.
|Steering control system for wheeled vehicle
|Ito et al.
|Actively controlled suspension system with compensation of delay in phase in control system
|Hano et al.
|Electronic controlled fluid suspension system
|Yonekawa et al.
|Vehicular height control system for automotive suspension system with improved height control characteristics on undulated road and/or rough road
|Kawagoe et al.
|Actively controller suspension system for automotive vehicle for controlling suspension characteristics with vehicular speed dependent variable damping characteristics
|Fukunaga et al.
|Suspension control apparatus for an automotive vehicle
|Active suspension for a vehicle controlling body for combination of bounce and pitch based on height sensor signals
|Active suspension for a vehicle coordinately responsive to centrifugal force due to turning and side wind
|Electronic controlled fluid suspension system for controlling roll and pitch of a vehicle body
|Urababa et al.
|Vehicle motion estimating system of hybrid type
|Ito et al.
|Method and system for controlling automotive suspension system, particularly for controlling suspension characteristics in accordance with road surface conditions
|Kawagoe et al.
|Electronic controlled air suspension system
|Buma et al.
|Ikemoto et al.
a vehicle body,
a pneumatic tire,
a mechanical suspension system for mounting said tire for movement with respect to said body, said mechanical suspension system including an active suspension actuator coupled to a source of motive power for applying forces between said tire and said body in response to a control signal,
first sensing means for producing an input signal quantity A indicative of the acceleration being experienced by said vehicle body,
second sensing means for producing an input signal quantity D indicative of the deflection being experienced by the given tire moved in response to said control signal,
third sensing means for producing an input signal quantity S indicative of the displacement of said tire from an equilibrium position,
means coupled to said first, second and third sensing means for varying the magnitude of said control signal to vary said forces applied between said tire and said body to minimize the quantity A+(r1 D)+(r2 S) where the quantities r1 and r2 are parameters controlling the relative significance of A, D and S,
means for generating a road profile value indicative of the surface characteristics of the road over which said vehicle is traveling, and
means responsive to said road profile value for simultaneously altering the quantities r1 and r2 while keeping the ratio r1 /r2 substantially constant to vary the effective stiffness characteristics of said active suspension system.
means for computing a plurality of control gain values effective to substantially minimize said quantity A+(r1 D)+(r2 S)
for a plurality of index values of corresponding to different r1 and r2 values,
memory means for storing said computed control gain values, and
means for retrieving different ones of said control gain values in response to said road profile value.
a powered actuator for applying a force between said tire and said body, the magnitude of said force being determined by a control signal,
sensors for monitoring the motion of said vehicle body and said tire,
a processor connected to said sensors for delivering said control signal to said powered actuator to create a force having a magnitude which minimizes a performance index formed by the weighted combination of three values, the first value representing the acceleration of said vehicle body, the second value representing the deflection of the air cushion of said pneumatic tire, and the third value representing the displacement of said tire with respect to said vehicle body, means for forming a quantity indicative of the roughness of the road currently being traversed by said vehicle, and
means responsive to said quantity for adaptively altering the effective stiffness of said vehicle suspension system by altering said first value relative to said second and third values while maintaining a substantially constant ratio between said second and third values.
a memory connected to said processor for storing a plurality of sets of control gain values, said gain values being precomputed to minimize said performance index for different road roughness conditions, and
means responsive for supplying a selected one of said sets to said processor in response to said quantity.
This invention relates to vehicle suspension systems for movably mounting wheels on a vehicle body in optimum ways to enhance passenger comfort and improve the vehicle's handling characteristics.
The present invention takes the form of an adaptive, active suspension system in which powered actuators are used to apply forces between a vehicle's body and wheels, the magnitude of the forces being computed in accordance with optimization routines which are themselves altered to adapt to changing driving conditions.
In accordance with the invention, control variables which determine the dynamic characteristics of the suspension system are modified, either continuously or in discrete steps, in response to changing driving conditions to control the "stiffness" of the suspension system while maintaining a preferred relationship between the amount of tire deflection experienced by the vehicle's pneumatic tires and the displacement which occurs between the wheels and the vehicle body. The maintenance of this preferred relationship between the tire's deflection and the suspension stroke provides near optimum performance while greatly simplifying control system functions.
The adaptive suspension system contemplated by the present invention includes means for estimating the amount of tire deflection and/or stroke displacement which may be expected, and means for altering the effective stiffness and other dynamic characteristics of the suspension system in response to deviations in the estimate.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention to be described, the dynamic characteristics of the system are adaptively varied in response to changing road conditions in a manner that minimizes a performance index value equal to the weighted combination of three quantities:
(1) the acceleration of the vehicle body,
(2) the length of the suspension stroke, and
(3) the amount of tire deflection. The dynamic characteristics of the system are varied by altering the significance accorded to vehicle body acceleration relative to the significance accorded to the suspension stroke and tire deflection, while at the same time maintaining the significance of suspension stroke and tire deflection relative to one another at a predetermined preferred ratio.
The control gains which determine the dynamic characteristics of an adaptive, active suspension system, including its "stiffness," are advantageously calculated in advance, based on the characteristics of the physical system, and the resulting gain values are stored in a memory lookup table. The set of control gains which are appropriate for detected driving conditions are then retrieved and used to minimize vehicle body acceleration (for passenger comfort), tire deflection (for vehicle handling), and suspension stroke displacement (to remain within physical space limits).
In accordance with the invention, new control values are substituted to alter the characteristics of the suspension system to maintain the predicted tire defection and stroke displacement within predetermined desired limits. As a consequence, the suspension system is made effectively stiffer when rougher road conditions are predicted to avoid both excessive wheel-bounce and stroke displacement, and made effectively softer when good road conditions permit stroke displacement and tire deflection to be increased relative to sprung mass accelerations for greater passenger comfort.
In accordance with the invention, the control gains supplied to control the characteristics of the active suspension system may be advantageously altered in discrete steps, thereby reducing the computational burden on the adaptive control processor, or may be updated continuously for improved performance when computational capabilities permit.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention may be better understood by considering the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention. In the course of that description, reference will frequently be made to the attached drawings, in which:
FIGS. 1(a)-1(c) illustrate idealized models of physical vehicle suspension systems which are commonly used to represent the performance of such systems;
FIG. 2 is an illustration of an active suspension system contemplated by the invention;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the major components of an adaptive, gain scheduling suspension system according to the invention;
FIGS. 4(a)-4(d) show illustrative relationships between normalized tire deflection values and the gain constants;
FIGS. 5(a)-5(c) are flow charts illustrating the manner in which control gains may be adaptively varied in response to three detected ranges of driving conditions to provide soft, typical or stiffened suspension characteristics; and
FIGS. 6(a)-6(b) illustrate the manner in which, in the adaptive suspension system, passenger comfort (as indicated by sprung mass acceleration) varies in relation to changes in tire deflection and stroke displacement as the system operates in different ranges of dynamic characteristics.
The adaptive, active suspension system to be described makes use of analytical and computational methods which have been described in considerable detail in the published literature, including particularly the references cited in the listing which appears below. Where these publications are referred to in the text that follows, they are identified by their list numbers in brackets. Also, in the description to follow, numbered equations are presented, and these equations are referred to in the text by numbers enclosed in parentheses.
1. Morman, K. N., Jr., and Giannopoulos, F., "Recent Advances in the Analytical and Computational Aspects of Modeling Active and Passive Vehicle Suspensions", Computational Methods in Ground Transportation Vehicles, (M. M. Kamal and J. A. Wolf, Jr., eds.) ASME Publication AMD 50, pp. 75-115, December 1982.
2. Bryson, A. E., Jr. and Ho, Y. C., Applied Optimal Control, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1975.
3. Bender, E. K., "Optimization of the Random Vibration Characteristics of Vehicle Suspensions Using Random Process Theory" Sc. D. Thesis, M.I.T., 1967.
4. Karnopp, D. C. and Trikha, A. K., "Comparative Study of Optimization Techniques for Shock and Vibration Isolation", ASME Journal of Engineering for Industry, Vol. 91, No. 4, November 1969, pp. 1128-1132.
5. Sevin, E. and Pilkey, W. D., Optimum Shock and Vibration Isolation, Shock and Vibration Monograph 6, The Shock and Vibration Information Center, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., 1971.
6. Smith. C. C., McGehee, D. Y., and Healey, A. J., "The Prediction of Passenger Riding Comfort from Acceleration Data", Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, Series G, Vol. 100, March 1978.
7. Karnopp, D. C., Crosby, M. J., and Harwood, R. A., "Vibration Control Using Semi-Active Force Generators", ASME Paper No. 73-DET-122.
8. Margolis, D. L., Tylee, J. L. and Hrovat, D., "Heave Mode Dynamics of a Tracked Air Cushion Vehicle with Semiactive Airbag Secondary Suspension", Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement and Control, Transactions of the ASME, Series G, Vol. 97, No. 4, December 1975.
9. Roley, D. G., "Tractor Cab Suspension Performance Modeling", Ph. D Dissertation, Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of California-Davis, 1975.
10. Hrovat, D. and Margolis, D. L., "An Experimental Comparison Between Semi-Active and Passive Suspensions for Air-Cushion Vehicles", International Journal of Vehicle Design, Vol. 2, No. 3, August 1981, pp. 308-321.
11. Hullender, D. A., Wormley, D. N. and Richardson, H. H., "Active Control of Vehicle Air Cushion Suspensions", Journal of Dynamic Systems Measurement and Control, Transactions of the ASME, Series G, Vol. 94, No. 1, March 1972, pp. 41-49.
12. Matrixx User's Guide, Integrated Systems, Inc., Version 6, Palo Alto, Calif., May 1986.
13. Hrovat, D. and Margolis, D. L., "Realistic Road-Track Systems Simulation Using Digital Computers", Proceedings of the Winter Computer Simulation Conference, Sacramento, Calif., December 1975.
14. Hrovat, D. "Influence of Unsprung Weight on Vehicle Ride Quality", Journal of Sound and Vibration (1988) 124 (3), pp 497-516.
Optimal control theory has been used since at least the 1960's to investigate potential benefits of active suspension systems [1,2]. Early investigations [3,4] used the simplest possible, one degree-of-freedom, quarter-car vehicle model shown in FIG. 1(a), in which wheel dynamics are not been modeled. In FIG. 1(a), m represents the vehicle mass, S represents an active suspension actuator, such as an electro-hydraulic servo actuator, and w signifies the road roughness input velocity function.
As a standard practice for suspension system analysis, the ground roughness w is assumed to be a white-noise velocity input process. Since it is impossible to predict all possible ground inputs to be encountered during vehicle life, a random representation for the road input is the most logical, single-test road description. This simplification is supported, in addition, by experimental data [5].
Under this road description, the optimal vibration isolation problem was formulated in [2, 3] as the minimization of the following performance index: P.I.=x2rms +r u2rms (1)
where the quantity xrms is the rms suspension deflection from equilibrium (often termed "stroke" or "rattlespace"), Urms is the rms value of the acceleration experienced by the sprung mass (the vehicle body) and is hence proportional to the force exerted by the actuator S, and r is a "tuning parameter" chosen by the designer to determine the stiffness and other characteristics of the suspension; i.e., a larger r results in a softer suspension since the performance index is minimized at smaller acceleration and larger rattlespace values.
The rms acceleration Urms is probably the simplest measure representative of passengers comfort [6]. The rms suspension deflection Xrms is a measure of design constraint on available suspension stroke. Under the above-noted assumption of a Gaussian "white noise" velocity function w due to road roughness, the probability of maximum deflection being above a certain level is a simple function of rms deflection. For example, the deflection will in general be above three times the rms value only during 0.3% of ride time.
Thus the optimal control algorithm that results from the minimizing the performance index expressed in equation (1) will attempt to improve passengers comfort while satisfying the suspension stroke design constraint. The optimal control algorithm results in the optimal structure shown in FIG. 1(b). For comparison, the conventional passive suspension system using a spring and a shock absorber is shown in FIG. 1(c). Both passive and active suspensions have a support spring located between the vehicle and ground; however, the mounting points for the optimal damper (also known as "skyhook damper") are located between the vehicle and an inertial ground. Inertial ground is essentially the low-frequency "smooth" component of road inputs, and as such it is generally not available to a moving vehicle. Thus a practical implementation of the skyhook damper requires an active actuator where an external power source in the form of hydraulic pump or compressor, for example, is needed.
The one degree-of-freedom (DOF) vehicle models depicted in FIGS. 1(a) through 1(c) discussed above adequately represent the dominant dynamics of some advanced air cushion and magnetically levitated vehicles having only the primary suspension [10]. When the one DOF model is augmented by an additional spring and inertia to represent tire stiffness and the unsprung mass of the wheel assembly, the two-degree-of-freedom model shown in FIG. 1(d) results. The consequent addition of "wheel-hop" dynamics introduces the additional constraint of maximum allowable tire deflection. Reducing the tire deflection reduces the potential for wheel-hop and results in improved vehicle handling.
To optimize the performance of the 2 DOF model of FIG. 1(d), a further term which takes into account the tire deflection X1 is added to reflect vehicle handling in addition to ride comfort as indicated by the sprung mass acceleration U and the rattlespace stroke constraint X3, resulting in the following performance index expression: P.I.=urms2 +r1 x21,rms +r2 x3,rms2 (2)
The values r1 and r2 are the "tuning" parameters that control the optimal tradeoff between acceleration, suspension stroke, and tire deflection. Reducing r1 while keeping r2 constant results in increased tire deflection and decreased sprung mass acceleration. On the other hand, reduction of r2 while keeping r1 constant leads to increased suspension deflection and decreased accelerations[14]. Simultaneously increasing both r1 and r2 creates a stiffer or harsher suspension, but decreases both tire deflection and the suspension stroke.
In the extreme case of r2 =0, the problem becomes a degenerate one where extremely large suspension strokes are possible since the suspension force is not a function of suspension stroke and thus cannot give static support for the vehicle weight. Indeed, it has been shown that there is no incentive to increase r1 /r2 above 1000, since then the acceleration and tire deflection remain practically constant in that range, while the suspension deflection increases significantly [14]. Similar problems do not occur if only r1 =0, and this case can be used for preliminary suspension design, as was done for example in Reference [3].
Using computer-aided design software, such as Matrixx [12], optimum systems can be designed using the performance index equation (2) above, as described in [14]. A more realistic approach, which somewhat compromises the suspension and tire deflections, is to use a constant weighting ratio r1 /r2. In that case, since only one parameter needs to be tuned to obtain the optimal performance, the adaptive active suspension control algorithm can be greatly simplified. In accordance with an important underlying principle of the present invention, it has been found that, by maintaining the ratio r1 /r2 near the value 10, near optimal results are obtained over a wide range of conditions while significantly reducing the computational burden placed on the control processor.
The full advantage of active suspensions stems from possible adaptive tuning of controller parameters depending on driving conditions. For example, if the steering wheel sensor indicates operation on a straight section of the road, where handling is less critical, then it may be possible to increase the wheel-hop constraint. The exact amount of wheel-hop that can be tolerated for different driving conditions should be determined through vehicle tests. The important conclusion which may be drawn from the studies reported in [14] is that, with active suspensions, one can trade approximately each 1% increase in tire deflection with 1 to 1.4% decrease in rms acceleration, a result not possible with conventional, passive suspensions. In addition to different driving conditions, the active suspension can adapt to different road quality. The road roughness can be inferred through tire or suspension deflection measurements combined with digital signal processing, or simply by monitoring the wheel-hop level crossing possibly combined with well-known relations such as the above 99.7% time expression.
The major components of the preferred embodiment of the invention are illustrated in FIG. 2 of the drawings. Sensors provide information to a microcontroller 100 which is processed to generate control signals applied to an active actuator 105 which typically takes the form of one or more electric motors or hydraulic pistons which apply forces having a magnitude responsive to the control signal input between a wheel 110 and the sprung mass 115 of the vehicle body. An accelerometer or the like attached to the body mass 115 supplies a signal via control input 121 to the microcontroller 100 which indicates the instantaneous sprung mass acceleration (from which the sprung mass acceleration, as well as the sprung mass velocity) can be determined. A further sensor provides a control signal on input 122 indicating the stroke (wheel displacement with respect to the body), from which the stroke value can be determined. An accelerometer or the like mounted on the wheel 110 provides a signal on line 123 indicating the unsprung mass acceleration, from which the unsprung mass acceleration or velocity can be determined. The deflection exhibited by the pneumatic air cushion of tire 110 may be estimated in the manner to be described.
The desired suspension stiffness and other characteristics may be adaptively adjusted based on the estimated road roughness taken with vehicle speed as indicated by a signal source 125 and steering wheel angle as indicated by a signal source 127. As discussed in more detail below, this adjustment is accomplished by adaptively varying the suspension system's feedback control gain variables which are stored in the memory 130 seen in FIG. 2 (along with other control and configuration values). Based on the sensor inputs and the values of the adaptive parameters 130, the microcontroller 100 generates an actuator motion control signal which is applied to the actuator 105 via output line 140 seen in FIG. 2.
As discussed above, by employing a constant weighting ratio r1 /r2, the computational burden on the microcontroller is substantially reduced. The microcontroller 100 selects the optimum control gains in response to predicted tire deflection or suspension stroke displacement, either by continuously adjusting the control gains or by altering the gains whenever the predicted stroke or tire deflection values vary outside of preset limits. In this way, the stiffness and other dynamic characteristics of the suspension system are altered in response to driving conditions while preserving the desired relative relationship between tire deflection and stroke displacement while minimizing the computational burden on the microcontroller.
FIG. 3 of the drawings is a block diagram showing the four main components of an adaptive, gain-switching control system which implements the principles of the invention. The active suspension mechanism 301 behaves in accordance the two-degree-of-freedom model depicted in FIG. 1(d) in which the actuator force S minimizes the performance index given in equation (2) to minimize body acceleration, stroke and tire deflection in accordance with the desired relative significance set by r1 and r2. The operation of the active suspension system 301 is governed by feedback control gain values supplied by an adaptive gain scheduler 303 which, in turn, is controlled by an estimate of expected road roughness generated by a road profile estimator 305 based on the vehicle model. The gain filter 306 prevent jerky responses to instantaneous gain changes from the scheduler 303 when road condition range limits are crossed.
The system for adapting the control gains supplied to the active suspension system 301 is based on the recognition that the relative weight assigned to stroke and tire deflection should remain at a constant preferred value (e.g., r1 /r2 =10) as the characteristics of the suspension system are varied under changing road conditions to insure that both suspension stroke and tire deflection are maintained within specified limits. Although a number of measurable variables can be used alone or in combination to control the variation in the suspension system's control gains to vary stiffness and other characteristics, substantial improvement in suspension system's performance may be achieved by adaptively altering the control gains in response to changes in a single variable indicating the expected "road profile". However, given adequate computational capabilities, a more refined estimate of the expected demand to be placed on the suspension system can be derived by additionally accounting for variations in vehicle speed and steering wheel angle, as indicated at 125 and 127 in FIG. 2. In the arrangement shown in FIG. 3, control gains may be varied in discrete steps in response to a road profile estimate or, in the alternative, the control gains may be varied continuously in response to a repeatedly updated prediction of the input road velocity function.
The control gains are a set of parameters Ki supplied to the active suspension system 301 to control its stiffness and dynamic behavior. The control gain values may be advantageously stored in lookup tables from which they may be retrieved based on the value of the normalized rms tire deflection or the normalized stroke displacement, depending upon which one is closer to its corresponding limits. Typical lookup table values are shown in FIG. 4 which comprises four graphs illustrating the variation of the values of K1, K2, K3 and, K4 plotted with respect to normalized tire deflection. The values of the gain coefficients produced at the output of gain scheduler 303 for a given normalized tire deflection are pre-calculated using the method described in Appendix C of [14] which is summarized briefly below:
Using the model variable designations seen in FIG. 1(d), the equation describing the quarter-car, 2 degree-of-freedom active suspension is: x=Aa x+Bu+Γw (3)
where ##EQU1##
The optimal control (acceleration) minimizing the performance index P.I. (equation 1) is given in terms of the feedback law: μLQ =-Kx, K=R-1 Bt p (5)
where P is the symmetric positive definite solution of the algebraic Riccati equation: PAa +Aat P-PBR-1 Bt p+Q=0
The individual control gain values K which provide this optimal actuator force (sprung mass acceleration) μLQ are Q=diag[r1 0r2 0], R=1 (7)
preferably pre-calculated for the particular physical system, stored in a table in memory indexed by the corresponding expected tire deflection and stroke displacement values, and then retrieved for use as the expected tire deflection values are recalculated while the vehicle is in motion over changing road surfaces.
The gain scheduler 303 seen in FIG. 3 derives the expected normalized suspension stroke based on a road profile estimate supplied bey the estimator 305. Gain scheduler 303 may be advantageously adapted to adjust the control gains to predetermined discrete levels to increase or decrease suspension stiffness so that the stroke and tire deflection remain within desired constraints. By employing limited sets of predetermined discrete control gain values, the amount of computation required may be significantly reduced. The control gains are switched when the estimated stroke and deflection values (which are derived from the estimated road profile value provided by the estimator 305) depart from predetermined range limits, the control gains being switched only when these limits are crossed. In order to prevent jerky behavior when control gains are changed, the gain filter 306 operates as a low pass filter (having a bandpass of, say, 1 Hz.) which smoothes the control gain transitions.
Although several sophisticated road profile estimation techniques are disclosed in the literature, a preferred computational method employs one of the known transfer functions between ground velocity W(s) and some measurable variable, such as suspension stroke displacement or unsprung mass acceleration. By taking a series of samples of the measurable variable, an rms ground velocity value may be calculated based on these samples. The expected normalized tire deflection and normalized suspension stroke are then calculated by the gain scheduler 303 using the relations: ##EQU2## where ##EQU3## σN =estimated r.m.s. ground velocity based on N samples.
T=duration of the sampling interval.
In practice, it has been found that N=1000 samples, so that T=0.004 seconds, provides satisfactory results.
The flowchart shown in FIGS. 5(a)-(c), together with the graphs seen in FIGS. 6(a)-(b), illustrate a first preferred embodiment of the adaptive suspension system which employs a gain-switching (as opposed to continuous gain adjustment) mechanism. As seen in FIG. 5(a), the process for determining the suspension system control gains begins at the entry point labeled "START". Parameters in the form of configuration data which describes the particular vehicle suspension system are initialized and process variables are set to "typical" default values to provide initial conditions, as indicated at 503.
After the normalized tire deflection and normalized stroke are calculated using the method described above, the nature of the next processing steps depends on whether the suspension system is currently "soft", "typical" or "harsh" If "soft" decision block 507 seen in FIG. 5(a) is answered Yes, and processing continues as shown in FIG. 5(a). If the current setting is "typical", decision block 509 in FIG. 5(b) is answered Yes, and processing continues as shown in FIG. 5(b). Otherwise, processing continues at the entry point C seen in FIG. 5(c).
The processing seen shown in FIG. 5(a) illustrates the manner in which the expected normalized tire deflection and the expected normalized stroke displacement are compared with predefined range limits to determine whether a switch to "typical" or "harsh" control gain values is appropriate when current setting is "soft". A test is made at decision block 511 in FIG. 5(a) to determine if the normalized tire deflection is less than a predetermined lower bound established at initialization for the "typical" range, in which case the control gains are switched to their harsh settings as seen at block 513 in FIG. 5(a). If a harsh setting is not indicated, a test is made at 512 to determine if the expected normalized suspension stroke calculated at 505 is less than the lower boundary of the "soft" range for suspension stroke, in which case the control gains are set to pre-calculated values optimized for "typical" conditions. Otherwise, the existing "soft" control gains continue to govern the dynamic performance of the system.
The relationship between the overlapping ranges of values for estimated normalized stroke and tire deflection is illustrated in FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b) respectively. As long as these estimated values remain within the ranges which match the current settings established by the existing set of gain controls, no adaptive changes occur. However, if the estimated value of either normalized stroke or normalized tire deflection crosses an outer boundary of the current setting range, the control gains are switched to new values. Thus, for example, if the control gains have been set to values appropriate for "typical" road profile conditions, and rough road conditions are encountered so that the estimated rms ground velocity increases, a decrease in both the expected normalized stroke and normalized tire deflection is calculated. If this computed decrease in either normalized variable is sufficient to cross the lower boundary of the "typical" range seen in FIGS. 6(a) and 6(b), the control gains are switched to their "harsh" settings. Here, the difference between upper and lower boundary settings for adjacent ranges provides "hysteresis" is used to prevent the annoying hunting which can otherwise occur when the gains are continuously switched back and forth between two regions.
When adequate computational capacity is available, it is advantageous to continually update the control gains supplied to the suspension system. As discussed above and illustrated in FIG. 4, precalculated, stored control gains may be retrieved from a lookup table based on the current estimate of normalized tire deflection. To continually update the needed normalized tire deflection value, it is necessary to continuously form an accurate estimate of the rms ground velocity based on a sequence of estimated road velocity values. This may be accomplished by processing the suspension stroke variable by using the transfer function E(s) which expresses the relationship between input road velocity and stroke displacement: ##EQU4## where is the sprung to unsprung mass ration ms /mus, 1 is the tire natural frequency, and the ki values are the control gains currently in effect, and the Pi values are poles added to make the relationship proper. When the system is first placed in operation, "typical" default gain values are used in the calculation of sample data points. This group of data is then used to estimate a value for normalized rms ground velocity wrms, which is in turn used to estimate the normalized rms tire deflection value given by: ##EQU5## where x1,rms,max is the maximum allowable rms tire deflection.
The normalized tire deflection and stroke displacement values may then be used directly as index values for retrieving the corresponding control gain values from memory, thereby continuously adapting the dynamic behavior of the active suspension system to match changing driving conditions.
It is to be understood that the methods and apparatus which have been described are merely illustrative applications of the principles of the invention. Numerous modifications to the systems disclosed may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.


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Job Description
Lovely opportunity to join a new omni-channel team as a Senior eRetail Planning Manager within the European marketing team.
Senior eRetail Planning Manager - ongoing contract - £400-£450/day (Limited company) - Surrey
Fabulous, award winning, technology company. Based outside of London but with fabulous transport links and offering you a huge potential for career development.
As Senior eRetail Planning Manager you will be evolving the retail approach to become data led, with a focus on shopper dynamics.
You will be responsible for:
- identifying and developing the omni-channel category/shopper opportunities
- tracking category performance
-transforming etailer shopper experience
- producing wireframes and layout plans for etailer websites
- demonstrating excellent omni-channel experience and understanding of digital retail initiatives
To be successful in this Senior eRetail Planning Manager you MUST have:
- significant experience of working in high performing retail sales & marketing teams in an online/e-commerce category planning/shopper/merchandising role
-proven experience as a Category Manager or similar role
- experience of data analysis and forecasting
- experience of working in an online merchandising role or FMCG organisation in category management/shopper programmes
- solid knowledge of category management
- ability to work in Surrey
If you can tick these boxes we'd love to hear from you. Please apply online now!
Senior eRetail Planning Manager - ongoing contract - £400-£450/day (Limited company) - Surrey
If this role isn't what you're looking for, don't worry. At Stopgap we cover all permanent and freelance marketing positions, with specialist industry sector teams. You can check out all of our roles on our website and sign up for job alerts so you're the first to know about a new opportunity. Marketing Recruitment - The Stopgap Way.


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FORREST COUNTY — Camp Shelby is scheduled to unveil Thursday new high-tech trainings areas for urban combat maneuvers and operations. The $10.5-million Combined Arms Collective Training Facility features 35 buildings on 14 acres equipped with 193 cameras, 30 Human Urban Terrain targets, 15 Stationary Infantry Targets and On-Screen "After-Action Review" capabilities. The fully automated Live-Fire Shoot House is a $3 ...Read More »
Tag Archives: training
City, county to operate career training center
OLIVE BRANCH — The DeSoto County school system's new Career Technology Center in Olive Branch will be maintained with a big helping hand from the city of Olive Branch and DeSoto County. The Commercial Appeal reports the board unanimously approved an interlocal agreement with Olive Branch and the county to pay maintenance costs for the center. Under the agreement, each ...Read More »
Business group calls for new charter school law
JACKSON — A group of 22 business leaders is calling for a broadened charter school law, asking legislators on yesterday to enact a law that would allow the schools to set up in any district. The group calls itself Better Education for Mississippi and is led by Bomgar Corp. chairman Joel Bomgar, who leads a Ridgeland-based software company. He said ...Read More »
New career tech center prepares for first students
OLIVE BRANCH — DeSoto County School's new career technology center is almost finished. The career technology center, located in the Olive Branch Metro Industrial Park, is expected to be filled with students within a few days. DeSoto County Schools partnered financially with the City of Olive Branch and DeSoto County government to renovate the warehouse and create the new $709,400 ...Read More »
MSU professor lends expertise to Nigerian catfish farmers
STARKVILLE — Commercially grown catfish in North America or Africa face similar challenges, a fact that sent one Mississippi State University veterinarian on a training mission to Nigeria in June. Dr. Skip Jack, a professor of pathobiology and population medicine at MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine, spent almost three weeks teaching Nigerian catfish farmers, veterinarians and students about health issues ...Read More »
Woman accused of posing as OSHA trainer; bilked fisherman for $200K+
WIGGINS — A Mississippi woman is accused of posing as a federal worker to make nearly $216,000 giving fraudulent training classes to fishermen who hoped to get jobs cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010. A 22-count federal indictment unsealed yesterday alleges that Connie M. Knight, 46, used phony credentials, diplomas and certifications to con more than ...Read More »
Two-year schools want $101.7M budget increase for 2014
JACKSON — Mississippi's 15 community and junior colleges are seeking an additional $101.7 million in the 2014 budget year, again arguing that they've been particularly ill-treated in recent state spending plans. Eric Clark, executive director of the Community College Board, told lawmakers yesterday money would go to expand worker training, buy new equipment to train students in subjects including welding ...Read More »
Hinds CC's unmanned aerial vehicle training takes off
RAYMOND ‑ When news hit earlier this month that an American drone had killed at least 10 al-Qaida militants, instructors some 8,000 miles away at Hinds Community College were working on Mississippi's first program to train drone pilots. Currently the market on unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, also known as drones, is almost completely military. In February, President Barack Obama ...Read More »
Pentagon awards Camp Shelby project to DCD, Yates
FORREST COUNTY — The Pentagon says a joint venture between two Mississippi construction companies has won a $41.4 million contract to build an operational readiness training complex at Camp Shelby. The companies are DCD Construction Inc. of Ocean Springs and W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Inc. of Philadelphia. Glen Higgs of DCD says the contract calls for four four-story barracks ...Read More »
Commerce Department awards funding for workforce training center
BAY SPRINGS — Jasper County and Jones County Junior College have received $1.7 million to help construction a workforce training the center. The funds were announced by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Jones County Junior College Workforce Training Center would be located in Bay Springs. The 30,000-square-foot facility will be operated by the junior college and will offer a ...Read More »


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Knowing theory is one thing. Being able to apply that theory to Big Data is a different beast. As a developer thoroughly used to the von Neumann model of computing, moving over to Hadoop (or any mapreduce framework) can feel a bit like facing Leviathan. As with other big problems, however, Leviathan doesn't look so big and bad when he's been broken into pieces. This week's entry will be about one particular technique we have adapted to deal with the large amounts of data we see at Distil Networks, and how it breaks nicely into smaller pieces in the mapreduce framework.
Support vector machines (SVMs; see [2]) form a class of supervised learning models, an alternative to neural networks for pattern recognition. There are many reasons to prefer SVMs. I personally prefer them because they are conceptually easy to understand–solving an SVM is simply solving a convex optimization problem. A trained SVM is a set of vectors and much easier to eyeball and understand than a trained neural network, which is essentially a black box. SVMs can be applied to the same class of problems as neural networks including character and image recognition. At Distil Networks, we're starting to use an SVM as one tool among many to detect bots based on their behavior and other statistical features.
One big downside to SVMs is their computational complexity, which grows non-linearly with the size of the data set used for training. (Simply checking whether or not you have the solution to an SVM is O(n2) where n is the size of the training data set.) With a massive dataset like Distil Networks' web logs, it would take days (or worse) to train an SVM. Developing, testing, and deploying such a system would clearly be prohibitive.
There's a silver lining, however. Training an SVM can easily be broken into parts (for full details, see [1] and [3]), making it a class of problem well-suited to mapreduce. One can simply take the training data set and split it into subsets, training an SVM on each of these subsets. These trained SVMs yield "support vectors" (separating vectors used in the classification). Once these support vectors have been found, the entire set of support vectors (from each training subset) can be compiled into a global list of support vectors.
This initial global list is unlikely to be the optimal solution, however. Luckily, getting to the optimal solution is a matter of repetition. The original training set can be split into pieces again, this time the global list of support vectors being added into each training subset. A new set of support vectors will be derived from this process, as in the first pass, and the process can continue along indefinitely. Somewhere along the process, these support vectors provably converge to the global optimum, just as if you ran the entire process without splits and parallelism at all! So without sacrificing correctness, it's possible to adapt the SVM process to settings with Big Data, without prohibitive time costs, all by adapting the algorithm to exploit mapreduce.
This has two main advantages. First of all, we get the obvious improvements from parallelism–since more computers can work concurrently on the problem, we see a speedup. The algorithmic complexity of solving an SVM is non-linear, however, conferring even greater benefits. That is, dealing with subsets of the training data speeds up the problem out of proportion. Divide and conquer makes the problem less intimidating, to be sure, and much more manageable.
Links [1] and [3] below discuss this general scheme in full detail. [3] discusses a scheme in which the stages of splitting and recombining the training set appears as a binary tree (with each split being recombined with other splits one at a time). The entire process can be started over again many times (fed back into itself), until a convergent solution can be found. Luckily for those of us working in mapreduce, the binary structure of the tree does not matter. That is, the training data can be split, shuffled, and recombined with global support vectors in a variety of ways, including the somewhat uncontrolled default behavior of Hadoop, without having to work any black magic in particular to get certain outputs to arrive at certain machines.
The simplest solution to get working is to use Hadoop to split the problem into pieces, solving an SVM in each map phase. The reduce phase can be used to train a second SVM, using whatever support vectors it received from its parent map processes as training data. Hadoop's load balancer will not produce a binary tree as in [3], but this does not affect the correctness or convergence properties of the algorithm. On the contrary, it may change the observed rate of convergence (these sorts of numbers are being investigated as we continue to augment our behavioral analytic platform at Distil). Given that SVM has a global optimum, checking for this convergence is as simple as checking for when you've found a fixed point–training an SVM on the optimum set of support vectors should return that same set of support vectors.
When fighting a dragon, one needn't charge straight away like St. George. Unlike George, Hadoop programmers have the power to reduce the dragon into wings, scales, claws, and teeth first — none of which are quite so scary on their own. All it takes is some research and investigation into how statistical algorithms can be split into independent sub-parts, each of which can be solved on its own terms.
Interested in the insights applied big data can give you on your company's website? Sign up for a no obligation free trial of Distil Networks today.
[1] F. Ozgur Catak, M. Erdal Balaban. "CloudSVM : Training an SVM Classier in Cloud Computing Systems."
[2] Corinna Cortes, Vladimir Vapnik. "Support-Vector Networks."
[3] Zhanquan Sun, Geoffrey Fox. "Study on Parallel SVM Based on MapReduce."
About the AuthorMore Content by Mike Freenor


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When Oakville's Paul Benoit, a stay-at-home dad formerly of Toronto, donned a Mayor Rob Ford mask he bought at Malabar's costume store for $26, he dived straight into the deep end: the mayor's re-election campaign office in Scarborough.
Toronto Police say an altercation ensued, with the accused allegedly kicking a camera out of Benoit's hand, and escalated outside the office.
Some of this is shown in shaky YouTube footage.
The altercation continued beyond what the video shows, with police alleging Benoit was punched in the face.
The men continued to fight, "until they were stopped by people in the area," police said, adding Benoit's microphone was allegedly taken from him. Benoit was initially arrested in the incident, then released.
Ford campaign worker William Byers, 60, has been charged with assault, mischief and theft, police said. He is set to appear in court Oct. 7.
Wednesday night, before Byers was charged, Ford communications director, Jeff Silverstein, relayed his sense of the event.
"My understanding is that (Benoit) did get into the office on three occasions. He returned a third time, and at that point he was escorted out," Silverstein said. "On being escorted out, just outside of the office he assaulted a volunteer.
"He was punched, I believe, in the stomach. He fell to the ground and bumped his head. My understanding is he's OK."
On Thursday afternoon, Doug Ford told CP24 he and the mayor were "standing by" the campaign worker: "It was a gentleman who drove an hour and a half, premeditated, to come target our campaign office with a bunch of seniors and women in there. A 60-year-old man had to step up to the plate and I'm proud of him for doing it."
The Star spoke to Benoit, 43, about what followed his dramatic entrance and the resulting YouTube video that he says aided in his release from police custody. The following is his edited and condensed account of events, which have not been proved in court.
What were your intentions?
It was for humour. Jimmy Kimmel would probably think it's pretty funny.
What kind of response have you received from posting the video?
A lot of comments stating "Way to go, you did the right thing." And then a whole bunch of negative comments, almost menacing comments.
The video stops suddenly at 40 seconds. Can you explain what happened after the video cuts out?
Basically, the gentleman, the Ford campaigner, kicked my hands and kicked the camera out of my hands. The camera went flying 15 feet in the air and then it landed on the sidewalk behind four Rob Ford staffers. At which point, when I got hit, I was like, "OK I need to defend myself and I need to protect myself and I need to get my property." So that's when fists started flying.
What did you want to happen when you entered the office?
I was just looking for a funny reaction. I was not expecting any kind of violence. I was expecting somebody to come up to me and say, "Hey you can't be filming in here, you gotta go," at which point I would have been like, "OK, no problem, sorry about that."
I like to call the style of journalism that I do "Hunter S. Thompson style journalism." I want to tell a story in a funny way, in a clever way, and in an intelligent way. I don't want to be stupid, I don't want to be violent … I want to let the story tell itself, which it clearly did yesterday.
What kind of damage was there to your equipment?
My camera was smashed and damaged. My microphone was stolen, which is why he's being charged with theft as well. I have a 1200 HD camera which has been kicked and smashed into the cement.
Were you surprised by the response?
Oh yeah, I was not expecting any kind of violence. When I was hit, I went into defensive mode. I needed to get that camera back. The story would be totally different if my footage had not been released, and if the police had not seen my footage. If my camera was destroyed, I would be sitting in jail right now and I would be looking for a lawyer to defend myself against being assaulted.
You've been to Ford events before, stood outside his office with reporters — have you had confrontations before?
No, but I would like an apology from Rob and Doug Ford for their campaign workers' activities yesterday. I would like an apology in person and in writing. If Rob and Doug Ford want to sit down and have a conversation about this, I'd be more than happy to do that.
Some people might say you were irresponsible or "asking for it" — how would you respond to that?
A lot of people have said that online today, that "You got what you deserved." You know what, nobody deserves to be assaulted. Nobody deserves to be hit. I didn't want anything to escalate like it did, but it did, and now there are consequences. I think I've done more damage to Rob Ford's campaign than any single person. I think every single person in Toronto that wants Rob Ford to resign owes me a Heineken right now. So that's like 5 million beers.
How long have you been in Oakville?
I moved to Oakville one crack video ago, after the first crack video was released.
With files from Paul Moloney


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California gives green light to space-based solar power project
The concept is not new. Satellites orbiting far enough outside our atmosphere can capture solar energy around the clock, and without power-reducing cloud cover or atmospheric interference. The satellites use photovoltaic panels, much like those that are installed on ordinary buildings, to capture solar energy and convert it into electricity.
What happens next, though, is a bit different than what occurs on your average rooftop: The electricity is used to generate microwaves, which are beamed at large antennas on Earth. The antennas recapture the energy of the microwaves and convert it back into electricity. It all may sound like science fiction, but space-based power appears to be quickly moving towards reality.
And Solaren isn't the only one in the race: Other companies are also pursuing space-based solar power. A consortium of Japanese firms and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency unveiled plans in early September to build a 1-gigawatt solar power collector in space. That project, which would beam down enough power to supply hundreds of thousands of homes, will cost well north of $20 billion. They hope to start sending parts of the system skyward in 2015, with their eyes on a completion date in 2030.
Solaren has been working towards space-based power since 2001. Under the current plan, a constellation of four Solaren satellites would use a new type of concentrated photovoltaic cells to absorb the Sun's rays, convert them into electricity in space, convert that electricity into microwaves, and beam the power down to a remote location outside Fresno. There, sensors would collect the microwaves and convert them back into electricity. Before getting CPUC approval, Solaren secured a power producing agreement with PG&E in April 2009.
No Danger To People, Birds or Planes
PG&E hasn't put any money into the project and doesn't plan to. Needless to say, this is a risky venture. But according to Solaren, the primary risk at this point is really in the launch, not in the technology.
"The technology is fairly well developed. If you look at today's communications satellites, they have solar cells that generate the electricity they need. These satellites convert the electricity into radio waves, then signal to your home to your television. That's what DirecTV does. Except unlike them, we don't throw away the center part of the beam where all the energy is located," Solaren's Director of Energy Services Cal Boerman told me in an interview two months ago.
Solaren might face some questions from the folks in Fresno who will be on the receiving end of those microwave beams, but Boerman explains that the energy beam won't even register with birds, people or passing planes.
"The energy levels we'll be working with are a lot less than you might feel if you were sitting out in the midday sun, because the beam will be spread out over a very wide area. The receiving antenna on the ground will be a couple of square miles. It's a big area, but that means the beams are at lower concentration. As for airplanes, they would feel more heat coming out from under clouds than they would entering our beam. Remember, the satellites are 22,000 miles up, far above where planes or birds fly. We're so high up that even space junk is not an issue," says Boerman.
It's still very early days for this Star Trek-esque technology, and it remains to be seen whether Solaren or any other company can mount a space power effort that actually provides power at a competitive rate. Best case scenario, this is a slam dunk and we move large chunks of power generation into orbit and away from the Earth. But don't expect a scenario like that to play out for at least another 30 years.
Alex Salkever is Senior Writer at AOL Daily Finance covering technology and greentech. Follow him on twitter @alexsalkever, read his articles, or email him at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Watch The Haunt Live! [Streaming Video]
Fear starts here! Watch live as the ghouls and ghosts of The Haunt scare the crap out of patrons tonight Get down there and tell your friends to watch you live!
Click play on the video below to watch a live camera from inside The Haunt!


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Christmas is just around the corner, a time to spend quality time with friends and family and of course, to exchange gifts. The festive shopping spree is in full swing with plenty of people looking for that perfect something to buy their someone special. Whether it's something they've dreamed of owning or something they need, a Christmas gift should have some meaning behind it.
Of course just after Christmas comes New Year, a time where people reflect on their lives and vow to make changes for the better in the year to come. Each new year thousands of smokers make the decision to quit smoking for good. If someone close to you is planning to quit smoking for their new year's resolution why not give them a helping hand?
Here we've provided a Christmas gift guide for vapers, to give the vaper in your life a great Christmas present. Whether they're just about to quit smoking and begin their vaping journey, or if they've been a vaper for a while and are looking for that next step up, you'll find plenty of information to guide you in getting them a great gift.
Are they planning on quitting smoking?
Stopping smoking for good takes a lot of motivation and dedication and e-cigarettes are a stepping stone that can help them on their quest. There are numerous brands and styles of e-cigarettes out there, so we've offered up our favourite e-cigarettes for beginner and advanced vapers.
V2 offer a great range of Ex-Series starter kits that are perfect for helping beginners with the transition from smoking to vaping. They offer a number of starter kits, each with different components, that make a beginner's vaping gift affordable for whatever budget you might have.
The V2 Ex-Series are standard refillable e-cigarettes, meaning that a wide variety of e-liquids can be used with it. So whether your future vaping friend is looking to taste the traditional tobacco flavour, or if they have a sweet tooth, you know that they will be able to vape with an e-liquid that matches their own tastes.
This particular this e-cigarette has a sleek and modern design and comes in a number of colours too. From brushed steel to sparkling rose gold, matte black to white opal, there's an Ex-Series style for everyone.
Depending on your budget, you can add to your e-cigarette gift with the various starter kits that V2 offer with their Ex-Series range. The basic kit already provides plenty for the beginner vaper, with the e-cigarette kit itself along with 6 samples of various e-liquid flavours. Other kits come with smart chargers, a carry case and additional e-liquid cartridges, for example.
Another great option for beginner vapers is the V2 Vertx. It's considered one of the best micro pens available to vapers, not only for its technology, but for its design too.
V2 proudly promote the flat surfaced design of the Vertx for the stylish appearance it gives the pen. It also means that the pen won't roll off a table so it's difficult to lose and can be kept out of reach of children too. This is a great design for vapers who aren't used to owning an e-cigarette of any kind.
Another great feature of the Vertx that's perfect for beginners is the design of its cartridges. They are pre-filled with a magnetic fixture, which means all the vaper has to do is simply slot it into the e-cigarette and it's good to go! It also helps prevent any leakages that could happen with standard cartridges.
The technology of the Vertx means that a beginner vaper can continue to use the pen throughout their vaping journey. This is due to the adjustable settings that allow the user to pick and choose how much vapour is produced.
Similarly to the Ex-Series, the Vertx comes in a number of colours to suit various tastes, including black, white, yellow and rose gold.
This is an ideal choice for those who are looking for a quality vape product and looking to quit full-time smoking and start full-time vaping. Considered a "jack of all trades", the Pro Series 3 is adaptable, in that it can be used with both e-liquids and tobacco leaf too. If ever there's an off day there's always the option to use tobacco and then to switch back to e-liquids and continue the quest to stop smoking for good.
The cartomisers that hold the e-liquid, tobacco leaf and in some cases, oil – works with the pen to determine what temperature to heat up to, depending on the ingredient being used. This nifty trick provides users with an enjoyable vaping experience that they won't want to stray from.
Similarly to the Ex-Series, the Pro Series 3 also has magnetic cartridges as a feature making replacing cartridges easy and stress free. Simply pull apart firmly to charge or refill its cartridges, then push the two pieces back together to carry on vaping! This easy to use design also makes it as simple as possible to swap between e-liquids and tobacco leaf.
The Pro Series 3 has received many positive reviews not only for its features but for its battery life too. Described as having an "inexhaustible battery", you can be rest assured that you're getting someone a great gift with this fantastic e-cigarette.
The perfect gift for the extreme vaper
You might be looking to buy for someone who is already a big fan of vaping, so we thought we'd give you our top pick for this audience.
For the hardcore vapers in your life, "Mods" are the way to go. They provide their users with a wealth of vaping options due to their larger batteries as well as a stronger flavour too. The Kanger Topbox Mini is one of the best Mods available on the market and will make a great Christmas gift for an e-cigarette pro that you know!
For a vaping mod it comes at a decent price so if your budget is tight you know you're getting a decent product for your money. It is also relatively simple to use – especially for those who are well versed in the art of vaping – and has a sleek sophisticated design unlike many of the other larger mods.
Of course these are just a few of the many, many e-cigarettes on the market but at Ecig Review Site we only like to talk about the best. If you have any questions concerning e-cigarettes and the best buys for a Christmas gift feel free to get in touch!
Still need your mind making up? Check out our handy infographic which will help you make your mind up.


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Country: United Kingdom
City: norwich
Address: 30 cattle market street, norwich, norfolk nr1 3dy england
Phone: 00441603660838
Fax: 00441603633314
Approximate annual sales : USD$1,000,000
Website: www.olter.it
|Catagory:Agriculture Sub-categories: Flowers Horticulture Plant Seed
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from 23/03/2005 to today 10/12/2019 for a period of 14 years and 265 days.
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Abstract and Keywords
In this chapter, our objective is to review existing knowledge relating to the psychological impact of work design (task, job, and work role characteristics) on individuals, and to set a clear, specific agenda for future research. Our starting point is an analysis of emergent trends in the characteristic nature of tasks and work roles within major contemporary and developing forms of work and occupation. This is necessary, as recent decades have witnessed dramatic shifts in how work is typically organized and performed within most occupations and industries, reflecting broader societal, environmental, technological, and economic changes. Following this analysis, we review key historical perspectives on work design before presenting an integrative theoretical model for considering the effects of work design on people. The chapter then moves to a consideration of the primary psychological processes and states, linking three broad categories of work design characteristics (task-related, relational, and contextual characteristics) to individual effectiveness outcomes. Our concern here is to update and expand theory relating to the effects of work design, integrating major recent bodies of research and theory, such as those dealing with motivational states and goal striving, self-determination, regulatory focus, work engagement, and social identity. The chapter concludes with a comprehensive research agenda for the years to come.
Keywords: Job design, work design, effectiveness, organizational behavior, work roles, motivation, performance, well-being, work attitudes, work redesign
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Product Description
Waterproof fabrics are simply great for furnishings, accessories and even clothing. The variety of colours in our collection will help you get creative and sew something amazing just the way you had imagined. The fabric is 100% polyester treated with a special coating making it waterproof. It can be easily used on indoor and outdoor furniture making them easy to wipe clean with just a damp cloth. Use it for children's play rooms without fear, the cloth is machine washable at 30 degrees. The fabric is highly durable and you won't need to worry about the wear and tear until you get bored and decide to sew a new design. Get your creative juices flowing because you'll get all the fabric you need at Fabric-Land.co.uk
Our prices are competitive and we deliver free in UK. Our website currently caters all orders coming in from UK, we aren't shipping internationally.
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189 Lee Road, Shohola, PA 18458 / PO Box 255, Milford, PA 18337 (570) 296-7654
HOURS OF OPERATION: Monday - CLOSED Tuesday - Friday 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday & Sunday - 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
WE ARE FULL - All animal intakes are done by appointment only. Please call the shelter for an appointment.
Laundry is a constant at the shelter. Therefore washing machines unfortunately do not last long. We are asking for donations at this time of used washers in good working condition. A commercial washer would be ideal but at this time we cannot afford to purchase one. We have begun a fund to obtain one.
Our shelter goes through a lot of supplies daily. Supply donations are greatly appreciated!
We have tons of ongoing
projects and programs that volunteers can help with.
Here are two simple ways to help Pike County Humane Society!
Pike County
Humane Society
Use the link above to make a donation. To make monthly donations check the recurring box on the form.


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Research in interpersonal communication seeks understanding of the cognitive, affective, and interaction processes underlying dyadic and small-group human communication.
Interpersonal communication is not just limited to face-to-face interactions or intimate relationships. Rather, areas such as conflict, persuasion, self-disclosure, and social support, to list a few, can also fall under the realm of interpersonal communication research.
Consequently, the interpersonal communication faculty in CS are interested in uncovering a broad array of processes involved when people communicate with one another.
(Click on faculty below to send email)
• Jenny Crowley
• Michael Kotowski
• Laura Miller
• Courtney Wright


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Redneck Jokes are classics – as are religious, child, and senior citizen humor.
Humor must have some truth to it or it cannot be funny. We all know people who are innately funny. We also know people who do funny things. Rarely, are they the same person.
For humor to be truly funny, it requires a story that is really hilarious. The exception is a story delivered with impeccable timing and appropriateness.
Before attempting comedy when there is a crowd or an audience present, I recommend studying the delivery of several comedians. Learn their timing and their pauses. If they are good, they have mastered it. You can even steal their jokes as they have been tested and proven to be funny.
Good humor does not need to be explained. It is obvious. Not only should a joke not be explained (unless we "don't get it"), it should not be dissected. If a joke is dissected - it dies.
Priceless humor is a social event. It is fine to laugh at something when you are alone. In fact, I believe that is a healthy event. But, the really funny stuff requires another person to be present because the smiling and laughter are human interactive traits.
The governor's mansion in Alabama burned down!
How can you tell if a
Louisiana redneck is married?
There's dried tobacco juice on both sides of his pickup truck.
Did you hear that they
have raised the minimum drinking age
in Oklahoma to 32?
It seems they want to keep alcohol out of the high schools.
A guy from Alabama passed away and left his entire estate to his beloved widow, but she can't touch it 'til she's 14.
How do you know when you're staying in a Arkansas
When you call the front desk and say, "I gotta leak in my sink,"
and the clerk replies, "Go ahead."
What do they call reruns of "Hee Haw" in
Did you hear about the $3 million Arkansas State
The winner gets $3.00 a year for a million years.
Back in the woods, a redneck's wife went into labor in the middle of the night, and the doctor was called out to assist in the delivery. Since there was no electricity, the doctor handed the father-to-be a lantern and said, "Here, you hold this high so I can see what I'm doing." Soon a baby boy was brought into the world.
"Whoa there," said the doctor. "Don't be in
a rush to put the lantern down... I think there's Yet another one to
Sure enough, within minutes he had delivered a baby girl.
"No, no, don't be in a great hurry to be putting down that lantern... It seems there's yet another one in there!" cried the doctor.
The redneck scratched his head in
bewilderment, and asked the doctor,
"Do you think it's the light that's attractin' 'em?"
Return to the top of Redneck Jokes.


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What does fact checked mean?
At SportsRec, we strive to deliver objective content that is accurate and up-to-date. Our team periodically reviews articles in order to ensure content quality. The sources cited below consist of evidence from peer-reviewed journals, prominent medical organizations, academic associations, and government data.
The information contained on this site is for informational purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for the advice of a professional health care provider. Please check with the appropriate physician regarding health questions and concerns. Although we strive to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, no guarantee to that effect is made.
Exercises to Run a 16-Minute 5K
A 5k race is an ideal option for runners looking to improve their fitness level and finishing time. At 3.1 miles, the 5k is challenging without being overwhelming for experienced runners, but a certain amount of training is still necessary to prepare for the race and especially to finish it within 16 minutes. There are several exercises that should be used as part of a well-rounded training plan, and alternating these activities over the course of several weeks will help condition you for the big event.
Speed Training
A speed workout should be done once a week to help increase your pace and endurance as you prepare for the 5k. These workouts are based on repeated short distance runs, with recovery periods between runs. Depending on your current level of fitness, you can try jogging, running or sprints, or a combination of speeds. For instance, you could start with a half-mile walk to warm up, then increase your pace for a quarter- or half-mile. Slow back to a walk to recover, then repeat for a total distance of two miles. Each time you hit a timed goal, shed 30 seconds off of your goal for the next time, until you have reached the 16-minute marker.
Distance Training
Distance training involves running at a continuous, moderate pace for a longer period of time, thus covering a farther distance. This will increase your endurance and condition your body for the longer distance of the 5k. Like speed training, keep your distance runs to once or twice per week to avoid fatigue and monotony. At the beginning of your training plan, aim for one-half or one mile of jogging or running at a continuous pace, gradually increasing the distance as you get closer to race day.
Cross Train
Cross training, or performing other types of activity, is another important part of a well-rounded plan. Choose low or no impact cardio activities, such as cycling, swimming or using an elliptical machine, that use different muscle groups than what is used during your runs. Once a week, spend 25 to 35 minutes cross training to boost strength and endurance.
Strength Train
Building and toning muscle is another prep tool for 5k conditioning. While running and other cardio activities you're doing will help strengthen your muscles, performing anaerobic exercises – or exercises that don't increase your oxygen intake – focuses specifically on increasing muscle mass. Twice per week on nonconsecutive days, strength train all of your major muscle groups with exercises like pushups, crunches, squats and lunges. If you have free weights or weight machines available, you can also use these to strength train.
Training Tips
Training for a 5k cannot be done overnight or even in a week or two. The most important aspect of your training plan is to allow yourself adequate time to gradually increase your strength, endurance, overall fitness level and to cut your time down to 16 minutes. Five weeks is a rough minimum, but allotting seven or even 12 weeks will prepare you even more, especially for a very quick time on your 5K. Set realistic weekly goals for yourself, making each workout challenging without overdoing it. While training, it is also important that you plan in one or two rest days per week, where you simply relax, allowing your body to recover and replenish.
- warrengoldswain/iStock/Getty Images


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James Bond - film shooting on the glacier in Sölden
007 was a guest in Sölden
The year started extremely action-packed in the World Cup town Sölden: scenes for the new Bond film "Spectre" were filmed here as well as in Obertilliach in the Gail Valley in January and February 2015. The film crew transformed the glacier skiing area into a trailer park in no time at all – an unusual spectacle!
007 at 3,000 metres
Daniel Craig and the 500-person crew of the new James Bond film, which shall start in American cinemas in the autumn, spent a few weeks on the glacier in Sölden in order to film exciting and breath-taking scenes for the new film.
The mission of the Bond makers was to top "Skyfall" – the breath-taking scenery of the Ötztal glacier was perfect for them! It was even "the first time on a mountain" for some of the cast.
Exploding cars, burnt-out helicopters, spectacular gondola cable car trips, car races in the snow and thrilling fight scenes against the backdrop of the Ötztal Alps await cinema audiences starting in the autumn of 2015.
Star-studded cast
In addition to Craig as well-liked 007, Hollywood celebrities such as Christoph Waltz and Léa Seydoux as well as Monica Bellucci are also featured stars in "Spectre".
In the shooting breaks, the arriving film crew ate at the Rettenbach Glacier Restaurant among other locations.
Take a glimpse behind the scenes of "Spectre":
Would you like to see the magnificent glacial backdrop of "Spectre" with your own eyes? Welcome to Rettenbach Glacier Restaurant! Book your holiday in Sölden now and stay overnight in one of the hotels and inns of Riml partner establishments!


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- About UNK
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Click here for a detailed packet of information that includes sample résumés, a list of action verbs, and information about cover letters and references.
Résumés for America is an online résumé builder that helps you to create an effective and professional resume by providing expert tips, writing examples, and helpful suggestions. The software also comes with a cover letter builder, thank you letter builder, and more.
Students who are registering for the first time or returning students who are logging in, visit the free resume builder now and sign in with your UNK email address.
Upon completing your résumé, email it to email@example.com or drop it off at our office so we can provide feedback.


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New Video: The Modern Ascent to Jerusalem
Bill Schlegel, author of the Satellite Bible Atlas, has just posted a video showing the ascent to Jerusalem from the Shephelah. The 6-minute video uses drone footage to show the modern highway's route and the new construction. In antiquity, travelers followed the natural routes along the ridges. Today when we deviate from those ridges, we spend billions to destroy the landscape in the construction of passes, bridges, and tunnels.
For best viewing, change the settings to HD, Full Screen.
Labels: Historical Geography, Jerusalem, Judah


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Commentary by Greg Stier at The Christian Post:
The best leader of all time, Jesus Christ himself, led from the front. He boldly took on the religious establishment of his day without flinching. He stood up for the poor and oppressed when nobody else would. He challenged the stone-throwing hypocrites by protecting a scarlet-lettered woman, putting himself in harm's way so that she could be saved. He wrapped himself in a towel and washed the dirty feet of his disciples to show them how to lead from the front. He got mud on his 'uniform' and then he got blood on it."And he [Jesus Christ] said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23).
Leading from the front is the most effective way to lead a family, a ministry or a company. Let's not be afraid of heavy lifting. Let's not delegate the calluses or splinters. Instead let us, like Jesus, fill our hands with both as we pick up our crosses and die to ourselves so that others can be victorious.
"For God sent not his Son [Jesus Christ] into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:17).
Paul The Apostle encourages us: "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1).