text:
Mining The Social Web 2nd
By Matthew A. Russell
Data Mining FACEBOOK, TWITTER, LINKEDIN, GOOGLE+, GITHUB, AND MORE
Mining the Social Web, Second Edition
If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed,
but skill will bring success.
The Web is more a social creation
than a technical one.
I designed it for a social effect—to
help people work together—and not as a
technical toy. The ultimate goal of the Web
is to support and improve our weblike existence
in the world. We clump into families, associations,
and companies. We develop trust across the miles
and distrust around the corner.
—Tim Berners-Lee, Weaving the Web (Harper)
README.1st
This book has been carefully designed to provide an incredible learning experience for
a particular target audience, and in order to avoid any unnecessary confusion about its
scope or purpose by way of disgruntled emails, bad book reviews, or other misunderstandings
that can come up, the remainder of this preface tries to help you determine
whether you are part of that target audience. As a very busy professional, I consider my
time my most valuable asset, and I want you to know right from the beginning that I
believe that the same is true of you. Although I often fail, I really do try to honor my
neighbor above myself as I walk out this life, and this preface is my attempt to honor
you, the reader, by making it clear whether or not this book can meet your expectations
Managing Your Expectations
Some of the most basic assumptions this book makes about you as a reader is that you
want to learn how to mine data from popular social web properties, avoid technology
hassles when running sample code, and have lots of fun along the way. Although you
could read this book solely for the purpose of learning what is possible, you should know
up front that it has been written in such a way that you really could follow along with
the many exercises and become a data miner once you've completed the few simple steps
to set up a development environment. If you've done some programming before, you
should find that it's relatively painless to get up and running with the code examples.
Even if you've never programmed before but consider yourself the least bit tech-savvy,
I daresay that you could use this book as a starting point to a remarkable journey that
will stretch your mind in ways that you probably haven't even imagined yet.
To fully enjoy this book and all that it has to offer, you need to be interested in the vast
possibilities for mining the rich data tucked away in popular social websites such as
Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+, and you need to be motivated enough to
download a virtual machine and follow along with the book's example code in IPython
Notebook, a fantastic web-based tool that features all of the examples for every chapter.
Executing the examples is usually as easy as pressing a few keys, since all of the code is
presented to you in a friendly user interface. This book will teach you a few things that
you'll be thankful to learn and will add a few indispensable tools to your toolbox, but
perhaps even more importantly, it will tell you a story and entertain you along the way.
It's a story about data science involving social websites, the data that's tucked away inside
of them, and some of the intriguing possibilities of what you (or anyone else) could do
with this data.
If you were to read this book from cover to cover, you'd notice that this story unfolds
on a chapter-by-chapter basis. While each chapter roughly follows a predictable template
that introduces a social website, teaches you how to use its API to fetch data, and
introduces some techniques for data analysis, the broader story the book tells crescendos
in complexity. Earlier chapters in the book take a little more time to introduce fundamental
concepts, while later chapters systematically build upon the foundation from
earlier chapters and gradually introduce a broad array of tools and techniques for mining
the social web that you can take with you into other aspects of your life as a data scientist,
analyst, visionary thinker, or curious reader.
Some of the most popular social websites have transitioned from fad to mainstream to
household names over recent years, changing the way we live our lives on and off the
Web and enabling technology to bring out the best (and sometimes the worst) in us.
Generally speaking, each chapter of this book interlaces slivers of the social web along
with data mining, analysis, and visualization techniques to explore data and answer the
following representative questions:
• Who knows whom, and which people are common to their social networks?
• How frequently are particular people communicating with one another?
• Which social network connections generate the most value for a particular niche?
• How does geography affect your social connections in an online world?
• Who are the most influential/popular people in a social network?
• What are people chatting about (and is it valuable)?
• What are people interested in based upon the human language that they use in a
digital world?
The answers to these basic kinds of questions often yield valuable insight and present
lucrative opportunities for entrepreneurs, social scientists, and other curious practitioners
who are trying to understand a problem space and find solutions. Activities such
as building a turnkey killer app from scratch to answer these questions, venturing far
beyond the typical usage of visualization libraries, and constructing just about anything
state-of-the-art are not within the scope of this book. You'll be really disappointed if
you purchase this book because you want to do one of those things. However, this book
does provide the fundamental building blocks to answer these questions and provide a
springboard that might be exactly what you need to build that killer app or conduct that
research study. Skim a few chapters and see for yourself. This book covers a lot of ground.
Improvements Specific to the Second Edition
When I began working on this second edition of Mining the Social Web, I don't think I
quite realized what I was getting myself into. What started out as a "substantial update"
is now what I'd consider almost a rewrite of the first edition. I've extensively updated
each chapter, I've strategically added new content, and I really do believe that this second
edition is superior to the first in almost every way. My earnest hope is that it's going to
be able to reach a much wider audience than the first edition and invigorate a broad
community of interest with tools, techniques, and practical advice to implement ideas
that depend on munging and analyzing data from social websites. If I am successful in
this endeavor, we'll see a broader awareness of what it is possible to do with data from
social websites and more budding entrepreneurs and enthusiastic hobbyists putting
social web data to work.
A book is a product, and first editions of any product can be vastly improved upon,
aren't always what customers ideally would have wanted, and can have great potential
if appropriate feedback is humbly accepted and adjustments are made. This book is no
exception, and the feedback and learning experience from interacting with readers and
consumers of this book's sample code over the past few years have been incredibly
important in shaping this book to be far beyond anything I could have designed if left
to my own devices. I've incorporated as much of that feedback as possible, and it mostly
boils down to the theme of simplifying the learning experience for readers.
Simplification presents itself in this second edition in a variety of ways. Perhaps most
notably, one of the biggest differences between this book and the previous edition is
that the technology toolchain is vastly simplified, and I've employed configuration
management by way of an amazing virtualization technology called Vagrant. The previous
edition involved a variety of databases for storage, various visualization toolkits,
and assumed that readers could just figure out most of the installation and configuration
by reading the online instructions.
This edition, on the other hand, goes to great lengths to introduce as few disparate
technology dependencies as possible and presents them all with a virtual machine experience
that abstracts away the complexities of software installation and configuration,
which are sometimes considerably more challenging than they might initially seem.
From a certain vantage point, the core toolbox is just IPython Notebook and some thirdparty
package dependencies (all of which are versioned so that updates to open source
software don't cause code breakage) that come preinstalled on a virtual machine. Inline
visualizations are even baked into the IPython Notebooks, rendering from within IPython
Notebook itself, and are consolidated down to a single JavaScript toolkit (D3.js)
that maintains visually consistent aesthetics across the chapters.
technology in the book affords the opportunity to spend more time engaging in fundamental
exercises in analysis. One of the recurring critiques from readers of the first
edition's content was that more time should have been spent analyzing and discussing
the implications of the exercises (a fair criticism indeed). My hope is that this second
edition delivers on that wonderful suggestion by augmenting existing content with additional
explanations in some of the void that was left behind. In a sense, this second
edition does "more with less," and it delivers significantly more value to you as the reader
because of it.
In terms of structural reorganization, you may notice that a chapter on GitHub has been
added to this second edition. GitHub is interesting for a variety of reasons, and as you'll
observe from reviewing the chapter, it's not all just about "social coding" (although that's
a big part of it). GitHub is a very social website that spans international boundaries, is
rapidly becoming a general purpose collaboration hub that extends beyond coding, and
can fairly be interpreted as an interest graph—a graph that connects people and the
things that interest them. Interest graphs, whether derived from GitHub or elsewhere,
are a very important concept in the unfolding saga that is the Web, and as someone
interested in the social web, you won't want to overlook them.
In addition to a new chapter on GitHub, the two "advanced" chapters on Twitter from
the first edition have been refactored and expanded into a collection of more easily
adaptable Twitter recipes that are organized into Chapter 9. Whereas the opening chapter
of the book starts off slowly and warms you up to the notion of social web APIs and
data mining, the final chapter of the book comes back full circle with a battery of diverse
building blocks that you can adapt and assemble in various ways to achieve a truly
enormous set of possibilities. Finally, the chapter that was previously dedicated to microformats
has been folded into what is now Chapter 8, which is designed to be more
of a forward-looking kind of cocktail discussion about the "semantically marked-up
web" than an extensive collection of programming exercises, like the chapters before it.
Preface. . . . . .
Part I. A Guided Tour of the Social Web Prelude
1. Mining Twitter: Exploring Trending Topics, Discovering What People Are Talking About, and More
1.1. Overview 6
1.2. Why Is Twitter All the Rage? 6
1.3. Exploring Twitter's API 9
1.3.1. Fundamental Twitter Terminology 9
1.3.2. Creating a Twitter API Connection 12
1.3.3. Exploring Trending Topics 15
1.3.4. Searching for Tweets 20
1.4. Analyzing the 140 Characters 26
1.4.1. Extracting Tweet Entities 28
1.4.2. Analyzing Tweets and Tweet Entities with Frequency Analysis 29
1.4.3. Computing the Lexical Diversity of Tweets 32
1.4.4. Examining Patterns in Retweets 34
1.4.5. Visualizing Frequency Data with Histograms 36
1.5. Closing Remarks 41
1.6. Recommended Exercises 42
1.7. Online Resources 43
2. Mining Facebook: Analyzing Fan Pages, Examining Friendships, and More
2.1. Overview 46
2.2. Exploring Facebook's Social Graph API 46
2.2.1. Understanding the Social Graph API 48
2.2.2. Understanding the Open Graph Protocol 54
2.3. Analyzing Social Graph Connections 59
2.3.1. Analyzing Facebook Pages 63
2.3.2. Examining Friendships 70
3. Mining LinkedIn: Faceting Job Titles, Clustering Colleagues, and More
3.2. Exploring the LinkedIn API 90
3.2.1. Making LinkedIn API Requests 91
3.2.2. Downloading LinkedIn Connections as a CSV File 96
3.3. Crash Course on Clustering Data 97
3.3.1. Clustering Enhances User Experiences 100
3.3.2. Normalizing Data to Enable Analysis 101
3.3.3. Measuring Similarity 112
3.3.4. Clustering Algorithms 115
3.4. Closing Remarks 131
3.5. Recommended Exercises 132
3.6. Online Resources 133
4. Mining Google+: Computing Document Similarity, Extracting Collocations, and More
4.1. Overview 136
4.2. Exploring the Google+ API 136
4.2.1. Making Google+ API Requests 138
4.3. A Whiz-Bang Introduction to TF-IDF 147
4.3.1. Term Frequency 148
4.3.2. Inverse Document Frequency 150
4.3.3. TF-IDF 151
4.4. Querying Human Language Data with TF-IDF 155
4.4.1. Introducing the Natural Language Toolkit 155
4.4.2. Applying TF-IDF to Human Language 158
4.4.3. Finding Similar Documents 160
4.4.4. Analyzing Bigrams in Human Language 167
4.4.5. Reflections on Analyzing Human Language Data 177
5. Mining Web Pages: Using Natural Language Processing to Understand Human
Language, Summarize Blog Posts, and More
5.2. Scraping, Parsing, and Crawling the Web 183
5.2.1. Breadth-First Search in Web Crawling 186
5.3. Discovering Semantics by Decoding Syntax 190
5.3.1. Natural Language Processing Illustrated Step-by-Step 192
5.3.2. Sentence Detection in Human Language Data 196
5.3.3. Document Summarization 200
5.4. Entity-Centric Analysis: A Paradigm Shift 209
5.4.1. Gisting Human Language Data 213
5.5. Quality of Analytics for Processing Human Language Data 219
6. Mining Mailboxes: Analyzing Who's Talking to Whom About What, How Often, and More
6.2. Obtaining and Processing a Mail Corpus 227
6.2.1. A Primer on Unix Mailboxes 227
6.2.2. Getting the Enron Data 232
6.2.3. Converting a Mail Corpus to a Unix Mailbox 235
6.2.4. Converting Unix Mailboxes to JSON 236
6.2.5. Importing a JSONified Mail Corpus into MongoDB 240
6.2.6. Programmatically Accessing MongoDB with Python 244
6.3. Analyzing the Enron Corpus 246
6.3.1. Querying by Date/Time Range 247
6.3.2. Analyzing Patterns in Sender/Recipient Communications 250
6.3.3. Writing Advanced Queries 255
6.3.4. Searching Emails by Keywords 259
6.4. Discovering and Visualizing Time-Series Trends 264
6.5. Analyzing Your Own Mail Data 268
6.5.1. Accessing Your Gmail with OAuth 269
6.5.2. Fetching and Parsing Email Messages with IMAP 271
6.5.3. Visualizing Patterns in GMail with the "Graph Your Inbox" Chrome
Extension 273
7. Mining GitHub: Inspecting Software Collaboration Habits, Building Interest Graphs, and More
7.2. Exploring GitHub's API 281
7.2.1. Creating a GitHub API Connection 282
7.2.2. Making GitHub API Requests 286
7.3. Modeling Data with Property Graphs 288
7.4. Analyzing GitHub Interest Graphs 292
7.4.1. Seeding an Interest Graph 292
7.4.2. Computing Graph Centrality Measures 296
7.4.3. Extending the Interest Graph with "Follows" Edges for Users 299
7.4.4. Using Nodes as Pivots for More Efficient Queries 311
7.4.5. Visualizing Interest Graphs 316
8. Mining the Semantically Marked-Up Web: Extracting Microformats, Inferencing over
RDF, and More
8.2. Microformats: Easy-to-Implement Metadata 322
8.2.1. Geocoordinates: A Common Thread for Just About Anything 325
8.2.2. Using Recipe Data to Improve Online Matchmaking 331
8.2.3. Accessing LinkedIn's 200 Million Online Résumés 336
8.3. From Semantic Markup to Semantic Web: A Brief Interlude 338
8.4. The Semantic Web: An Evolutionary Revolution 339
8.4.1. Man Cannot Live on Facts Alone 340
8.4.2. Inferencing About an Open World 342
Part II. Twitter Cookbook
9. Twitter Cookbook
9.1. Accessing Twitter's API for Development Purposes 352
9.2. Doing the OAuth Dance to Access Twitter's API for Production Purposes 353
9.3. Discovering the Trending Topics 358
9.4. Searching for Tweets 359
9.5. Constructing Convenient Function Calls 361
9.6. Saving and Restoring JSON Data with Text Files 362
9.7. Saving and Accessing JSON Data with MongoDB 363
9.8. Sampling the Twitter Firehose with the Streaming API 365
9.9. Collecting Time-Series Data 366
9.10. Extracting Tweet Entities 368
9.11. Finding the Most Popular Tweets in a Collection of Tweets 370
9.12. Finding the Most Popular Tweet Entities in a Collection of Tweets 371
9.13. Tabulating Frequency Analysis 373
9.14. Finding Users Who Have Retweeted a Status 374
9.15. Extracting a Retweet's Attribution 376
9.16. Making Robust Twitter Requests 377
9.17. Resolving User Profile Information 380
9.18. Extracting Tweet Entities from Arbitrary Text 381
9.19. Getting All Friends or Followers for a User 382
9.20. Analyzing a User's Friends and Followers 384
9.21. Harvesting a User's Tweets 386
9.22. Crawling a Friendship Graph 388
9.23. Analyzing Tweet Content 389
9.24. Summarizing Link Targets 391
9.25. Analyzing a User's Favorite Tweets 394
9.26. Closing Remarks 396
9.27. Recommended Exercises 396
9.28. Online Resources 397
Part III. Appendixes
A. Information About This Book's Virtual Machine Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
B. OAuth Primer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
C. Python and IPython Notebook Tips & Tricks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
2014 Matthew A. Russell
Tags: O'Reilly Web Books


text:
Canaries' Offense Struggles in 3-1 Loss
Photo Courtesy: Dan LeMoal
LINCOLN, NE – Joe Bircher again had a good outing for the Canaries, but the Birds' bats couldn't help out their starter, as Sioux Falls fell to the Lincoln Saltdogs on Tuesday night 3-1.
Bircher, who's from Omaha and had plenty of family and friends in the stands, gave up a first inning solo home run to Curt Smith, a no-doubter moonshot to put the Dogs up 1-0 early. Bircher settled into a groove, though, and pitched six effective innings, giving up three runs on eight hits, walking two and striking out six. It was his eighteenth quality start in two-plus years that he hasn't been rewarded with a win due to a lack of run support.
The Birds manufactured their lone run in the second inning. Taylor Zeutenhorst singled to start the second, then stole second. Jake Taylor singled, sending Zeutenhorst to third. Blake Schmit then hit a long fly ball to center, deep enough for Zeutenhorst to tag up from third and score on a sacrifice fly.
The Dogs took the lead in the fourth after Brandon Jacobs tripled on a long fly ball to the right field corner. Pat McKenna then drove Jacobs in with a RBI single. They pushed their lead to two with a towering homer from Christian Ibarra to lead off the fifth.
The Birds threatened multiple times to tie the game or even take the lead, routinely getting players into scoring position and putting seven hits on the board. However, on par with the season, they couldn't seem to string the hits together to do any damage.
Lincoln starter Lindsey Caughel looked good all night long, scattering six hits over seven innings and allowing one run while striking out seven. His ERA on the season is now sub-2 at 1.86.
The Birds look to take the rubber match tomorrow night at 6:35 before returning to The Birdcage this weekend. Matt Bywater will make his second start for the Canaries on Wednesday night and will be facing right-hander Shairon Martis. The Birds will return to The Birdcage on Thursday night to play a four-game set against North Division rival St. Paul. Contact the Canaries ticket office for information regarding single game or season ticket options by calling 605-336-6060 or visit the website at www.sfcanaries.com for more information.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Java Daemons and connecting to already running instances I'm looking to see if anyone on here has any experience with Java Daemons / Services and connecting to instances of them. Android has a mechanism for handling Services and I was wondering if anyone has used the Apache Commons Daemon code to do something similar on Windows or Unix/Linux.
All I want to do is have an already running daemon and be able to bind to it and once bound, run methods through it.

*

*Start service if not already running

*Get instance of service & bind to it

*Call methods using the service

A: Solaris has the Service Manager Facility to run programs as service: http://www.fujitsu.com/global/services/computing/server/sparcenterprise/products/software/solaris10/self-healing/ssm/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


In the Animal Science pathway, students study large, small, and specialty animals. Students explore the necessary elements, such as diet, genetics, habitat, and behavior, to create humane, ecologically, and economically sustainable animal production systems. The pathway includes the study of animal anatomy and physiology, nutrition, reproduction, genetics, health and welfare, animal production, technology, and the management and processing of animal products and by-products.
The Agricultural Mechanics pathway prepares students for careers related to the construction, operation, and maintenance of equipment used by the agriculture industry. Basic agricultural mechanics skills and safety, cover woodworking, electrical systems, plumbing, cold metal work, concrete, and welding technology. Advanced topics, deal with metal fabrication, small engines, agriculture power and technology, and agriculture construction.
The Ornamental Horticulture pathway prepares students for careers in the nursery, landscaping, and floral industries. Topics include plant identification, plant physiology, soil science, plant reproduction, nursery production, and floriculture, as well as landscaping design, installation, and maintenance.


text:
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Medical students celebrate Match Day in Rockford
Positive Local News, Top Stories
ROCKFORD (WREX) — Friday marked a big day for medical students in the area. It was Match Day.
"I'm absolutely ecstatic. I'm from Rockford, Illinois originally and coming back here for medical school was kind of unexpected and now I'm going into Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor," said U of I College of Medicine graduate, Erin Braun.
The University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford hosted its annual Match Day ceremony. It is where students find out where they will spend at least the next three years of their medical training in residency programs across the country. More than 40 students involved in different areas like family medicine, orthopedic surgery and pediatrics, learned where they will be going.
"What makes it so special is that these individuals have devoted their lives to the field of medicine. And they now know what area of medicine they're going to be in," said Alex Stagnaro-Green, Regional Dean at the U of I College of Medicine in Rockford.
Some of the places students will go to include the University of Chicago Medical Center, the Mayo Clinical School of Graduate Medical Education in Rochester and The University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.
Kristin Crowley
Evening News Anchor
Edwards Apple Orchard will open for the season Aug. 23
13 Weather Authority
Scattered showers develop ahead of late week heat
A few stronger storms are possible by midweek.
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text:
import thread
import boto
import Settings
import boto.sqs
from boto.sqs.message import Message
import threading
import traceback
import json
import ParkingDYDBLoader as DBloader
import JSONManager as jm
from boto.sqs.message import Message
import time as tm

#backend server of a quadrant, makes an endless cycle: fetch request, select the right method for the kind of
#request and send back an answer on a queue

class QuadrantHandler(threading.Thread):
	quadrants	=	0
	__mySettings	=	0
	__myLoader		=	0
	threadID		=	-1
	def __init__(self,myQuadrantManager,mySettingsArg,aLoader,thId):
		threading.Thread.__init__(self)
		self.quadrants	=	myQuadrantManager
		self.mySettings	=	mySettingsArg
		self.myLoader	=	aLoader
		self.threadID	=	thId

	def splittedResponse(self,requestID,aParkList,quadrantID):
		athreshold	=	int(self.mySettings.settings['split'])
		aList		=	list()
		rList		=	list()
		counter		=	0
		rest 		= 	(len(aParkList))%(athreshold)
		total		=	((len(aParkList))/(athreshold))+1
		rcounter	=	1
		for pitem in aParkList:
			aList.append(pitem)
			counter	=	counter+1
			if(counter%athreshold)==0:
				rList.append(jm.createListResponse(requestID,aList,quadrantID,totseq=total,numberofsequence=rcounter))
				rcounter	=	rcounter+1
				aList		=	list()
		if rest>0:
			rList.append(jm.createListResponse(requestID,aList,quadrantID,totseq=total,numberofsequence=rcounter))
			rcounter	=	rcounter+1
		return rList

	def run(self):
		conn = boto.sqs.connect_to_region(self.mySettings.settings['SQSzone'][:-1])
		queueName	=	"_APPosto_requests_queue"
		my_queue = conn.get_queue(queueName)
		while my_queue == None:
			my_queue = conn.create_queue(str(queueName))
			if my_queue==None:
				print "queue creation failed"
		while 1:
			requests	=	my_queue.get_messages(wait_time_seconds=20)#tanto di default ne preleva solo 1
			myResponse 	=	""
			for item in requests:
				try:
					startTime	=	int(tm.time())
					text	=	item.get_body()
					myrequest =	json.loads(text)
					aQuadrantID		=	myrequest[0]["quadrant"]
					requestID		=	myrequest[0]["r_id"]
					responseQueue	=	myrequest[0]["resp_queue"]
					currentQuadrant	=	self.quadrants.getQuadrantInstance(int(aQuadrantID))
					if currentQuadrant==-1:
						print "wrong quadrant request "+str(aQuadrantID)+" quadrant not in list"
					else:
						my_queue.delete_message(item)
						rtype	=	myrequest[0]["type"]
						if str(rtype)=="overview":
							step1	=	tm.time()
							freePercentage	=	int(currentQuadrant.getPercentageFreeParkings())
							delta	=	tm.time()-step1
							myResponse	=	list()
							myResponse.append(jm.createOverviewResponse(requestID,freePercentage,currentQuadrant.getID()))
						elif str(rtype)=="full_list":
							tempList	=	list()
							myParkList	=	currentQuadrant.getParkList()
							print "full list request"
							myResponse	=	self.splittedResponse(requestID,myParkList,currentQuadrant.getID())
							print "full list JSON response"+str(myResponse)
						elif str(rtype)=="bounded_list":
							tempList	=	list()
							maxlat		=	float(myrequest[0]["NWlat"])
							minlon		=	float(myrequest[0]["NWlon"])
							minlat		=	float(myrequest[0]["SElat"])
							maxlon		=	float(myrequest[0]["SElon"])
							myParkList	=	currentQuadrant.getParkList()
							for item in myParkList:
								itemLat	=	float(item.getLatitude())
								itemLon	=	float(item.getLongitude())
								if((itemLat<=maxlat)and(itemLat>=minlat)and(itemLon>=minlon)and(itemLon<=maxlon)):
									tempList.append(item)
							print "bounded list request"
							myResponse	=	self.splittedResponse(requestID,myParkList)
							print "bounded list JSON response"+str(myResponse)
						else:
							raise Exception("Unknown type request")
						if myResponse:
							my_resp_queue = conn.get_queue(str(responseQueue))
							while not my_resp_queue:
								my_resp_queue = conn.create_queue(str(responseQueue))
							if my_resp_queue==None:
								print "queue creation failed"
							for anitem in myResponse:
								print str("QuadrantHandlerN:"+anitem)
								m = Message()
								m.set_body(str(anitem))
								my_resp_queue.write(m)
							startTime	=	int(tm.time()) - int(startTime)
							print "QuadrantHandler.py: "+str(self.threadID)+" request served in "+str(startTime)+" seconds"
						else:
							print "QuadrantHandler.py: error on request processing"
				except:
					print "QuadrantHandler.py problem while processing a request"
					print traceback.format_exc()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The Carolingian Empire
The History and Legacy of the Frankish Rulers Who Unified Most of Europe and Established the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages
Categories: History, European
Or, Buy for £6.39
The Carolingian Dynasty, which carved out a major empire in Europe from 750-887, ushered in an important period in the Early Middle Ages. The Carolingians were in their time seen as the successors of Ancient Rome in the West, and while they sought to reestablish the glory of antiquity, they're remembered today for effectively founding the states that would become France and Germany.
The Carolingians are also credited with creating the first Renaissance, the Carolingian Renaissance, centuries before the Italian Renaissance. Many of the great Latin classics survive today because of copies made during this period. In addition, the revisions made to written script at this time made texts easier to read, so much so that most of those changes remain in the modern system of writing.
The Carolingians lived at a moment in time where they saw that antiquity was seen as worth preserving, but they also sought to adapt it to the times, setting the groundwork for many aspects of what would become the modern world. Nobody was more important in bringing this about than Charlemagne, the most famous man of the Middle Ages, and likely the most influential. Upon the death of his father, Pepin the Short, in 768, Charlemagne became King of the Franks, and he proceeded to create one of the largest European empires since the collapse of Rome. Through his conquests across Western Europe and Italy, Charlemagne became the first Holy Roman Emperor after a famous imperial coronation by Pope Leo III.
In becoming the first Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne essentially established the new order on the European continent, thereby directly influencing how European politics and royalty proceeded in the coming centuries. As if to demonstrate how large he loomed in life, Charlemagne was numbered Charles I in Germany, France, and the Holy Roman Empire.
Charlemagne is also viewed as having brought about the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture through the Catholic Church. This helped establish a uniform European culture, helping Charlemagne earn the title "Father of Europe." After World War II, when France and Germany were looking for common ground, Charlemagne would often be held up as a unifying force between peoples who had so often been enemies.
The Carolingian Empire: The History and Legacy of the Frankish Rulers Who Unified Most of Europe and Established the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages profiles the rulers who helped bring about modern Europe, and the history of their empire. You will learn about the Carolingians like never before.
The Partition of Ireland and the Troubles: The History of Northern Ireland from the Irish Civil War to the Good Friday Agreement
The Scramble for Africa: The History and Legacy of the Colonization of Africa by European Nations During the New Imperialism Era
The Greatest Civil War Battles: The Battle of Chancellorsville
FCD117
Excellent For What It Is - A Very Concise And Brief Overview
As I am embarking on two very lengthy studies of both Germany and France, I found this to be a great starting point. I was surprised how much I learned in such a brief work. Of course, that may be the effect of my own ignorance. But, nonetheless, for me the product was excellent. I do do some brief parallel reading along with this fine study. Everything seemed accurate. Thank You...
High level overview
Very little about Charlemagne.
Not sure what was going on with the narrator. He growled his words a couple of times.
Interesting bit about various early European tribes.


Délphine Chanéac, having travelled from Paris to the event.
Metropol-cinema was fully booked and over 200 people watched the German premiere. After the film, they met with the filmmakers at "Speakeasy" for Meet & Greet.
KLICK HERE for picture footage on FACEBOOK.


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Ou Sont Les Chevaliers?
by Reid Collins
September 6, 2005, 4:05 AM
When Hurricane Andrew ripped through Dade County, Florida, in August, 1992 it took three days for county officials to ascertain the extent of the damage but it took the Dade County Emergency Manager only seconds to utter a phrase that more than any other assured Bill Clinton of the Presidency: "Where in the hell is the cavalry on this one?"
She was the Democrat Kate Hale taking out after FEMA, the federal emergency management agency, whose response to the problems of destruction was found to be slow. Hale's question was seized upon by the media at a moment when President Bush could ill afford such accusations of unresponsiveness and it is being voiced again in the wake of the New Orleans catastrophe.
The Hale rhetoric spurred immediate federal action. President Bush pledged 100 percent of the Andrew cleanup costs instead of the usual 75 percent. The feds decided to make this retroactive to the damages inflicted by Hurricane Hugo in other parts of the South in 1989. The federal bill for Florida's cleanup alone finally totaled $8 billion — a large fraction of the estimates for Hurricane Katrina. Where was the 8 billion to come from in 1992? Louisiana's Democratic Senator Bennett Johnston had a famous answer: "It will be paid for out of the deficit."
Money, of course, is not the measure of misery. Texas is now overflowing with refugees from its neighbor state and gently asks, "no more, please." As one Janice Singleton, who worked at New Orleans' "Superdome" and was robbed of everything, including her shoes, says, "They tore the dome apart. I don't want to go to no Astrodome. I've been domed almost to death." The plight of the refugees and the sight of their aimless wandering has a steady, nearly audible sub-theme. It is not the cavalry of Washington that can ride to the rescue. It is another outfit, fallen largely into disrepair and even disrepute. It is the family. It doesn't heed calls from afar because it is near, very near.
Whether FEMA has been subsumed by Homeland Security or not, there is one saving entity which every American should look to anew. It is the family, which forms community, which is the bulwark and the levee that will not break. The "single parent" as the media euphemistically refers to the umarried mother trekking toward San Antonio with a newborn in her arms has no such bulwark. Society has insisted that there is a federal cavalry out there someplace, an omnipotent, omniscient force that will arrive and save the day, well, someday. And society has come to believe in that force as a substitute for the unit that built the nation — the family.
As the toll and the recriminations grow in Louisiana it behooves the nation to repair to the family, to revivify this unit. No matter where Americans may live there lurks always the possibility of calamity, natural or manmade. No family should be without the means to communicate with certainty, to defend with force if need be, to subsist on nutrients put by, to move to plateaus of safety. To have a plan.
Sure, FEMA has a job. Police have a job. The National Guard has a job. Active duty troops have a job. The Red Cross, Salvation Army, and two dozen other charitable outfits have a job. May they all perform their works well.
But the family. It is not a job to the family. It is an act of love. And the greatest of these is — well, you know very well.


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Border Report: Border Wall Funding Still Uncertain as Plans Move Forward
by Brooke Binkowski May 1, 2017 March 15, 2022
Though details about President Donald Trump's plans for a U.S.-Mexico border wall keep tricking out, the budget deal nearing approval in Congress doesn't appear to include any new money for the project, the Guardian reports.
Still, San Diego has played a starring role in the administration's plans for a wall.
VOSD's Sara Libby broke down San Diego's involvement, and explained state efforts to interfere with Trump's plan. Though Chula Vista and Imperial Beach were singled out by federal officials as cities that would be a high priority for the first sections of the wall, officials in those cities told VOSD they hadn't heard anything about those plans.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly visited San Diego on April 21, and referred to the region during the visit as a "war zone," a "beachhead" and "ground zero." (Per the FBI, border communities in the United States boast crime rates well below the national average.)
Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz introduced the EL CHAPO Act, a delightful acronymic feat that stands for "Ensuring Lawful Collection of Hidden Assets to Provide Order" and would essentially use billions of dollars in resources seized from the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Lorea (colloquially known as El Chapo, or "Shorty") to pay for the border wall.
Among its many issues with a potential wall, Mexico frets that it could worsen cross-border sewage spills.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials aren't supposed to enter sensitive locations like schools or churches without a warrant. But we know that they do detain people near schools, including parents dropping off their kids.
VOSD's Mario Koran detailed the policies outlining what ICE officers can do in and around schools, as well as what happens to children whose parents are deported.
More and more, parents are making plans in advance and often designate a caretaker. But if there's no one available to look after a child, the foster care system takes over.
Julie Kirchner, former executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a hardline anti-immigration group that has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has been quietly named Citizenship and Immigration Services ombudsman at the Department of Homeland Security.
It's the latest in a series of appointments from what some call the Tanton Network, groups started by retired ophthalmologist John Tanton in the 1960s and 1970s because he was alarmed by the prospect of global overpopulation. Later, he became convinced that some cultures were more equal than others, turning his energies and interests to eugenics and immigration control due to, in his words, high birth rates and corrupt cultures in Latin American countries. The Tanton Network has flirted with white nationalism for decades, even openly embracing it; after a 2011 New York Times article revealed the many links between hardline immigration opponents and white supremacist groups, however, it has scrubbed its online presence and downplayed its many existing connections.
On April 20, religious leaders pledged to protect immigrants, documented and undocumented, at the "Faith Not Fear" summit in Barrio Logan. About 30 different religious and political leaders showed up and promised to resist inhumane measures against refugees, undocumented people, homeless people and victims of racial profiling.
"When we deal with people, we deal with them as human beings created by the only one God," Imam Taha Hassane, head of the Islamic Center of San Diego, told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "That's it."
Protesters outside called the summit "Marxist."
The Viacrucis del Refugiados, the Refugee Caravan, is making its way north through Mexico to Tijuana, where Honduran, Salvadoran, Guatemalan and Nicaraguan asylum-seekers plan to turn themselves in at the border at San Ysidro en masse on Sunday, May 7. Other activities and demonstrations are planned for both sides of the border that weekend, including a cross-border swim on May 5. The Pan-American Colibrí Swim is planned by the Colibrí Center, which helps track and find the remains of migrants who have died during their trek through the desert.
Hugo Castro, the American activist who went missing for several days in Mexico, has been found and is recovering from his injuries in a San Diego-area hospital — but uncertainty about exactly what happened to him during his disappearance lingers.
A Baja California judge has ordered the release of a former U.S. Marine from a Tijuana prison. Tyler James Yeager was at one point stationed at Camp Pendleton, but had been living in Tijuana in recent months. He was arrested on April 23 after police caught him in a neighbor's home with a shotgun, according to Zeta Tijuana. Members of the San Antonio del Mar community said Yeager had committed a long string of robberies.
Yeager's release was ordered, his attorney said, because there was no record that anyone who arrested him was proficient in English, meaning that he hadn't been given all his entitlements under the Mexican constitution. He will likely be turned over to Border Patrol.
Cross-Border Connections
The "Door of Hope," a gate built into the border wall at Friendship Park, opened again on Sunday, April 30, Mexico's Día del Niño, or Day of the Child. During the event, a handful of families that are separated by immigration status have an opportunity to embrace for a few minutes before they are separated once again. It is not clear when, or if, the "Opening the Door of Hope" event will happen again.
KPBS will be hosting NPR's cross-border discussion Tuesday at 7 p.m. The discussion can be joined on Twitter with the hashtag #NPRBeyondBorders.
From Dresden, with love: The Sinfoniker Dresdner is planning a binational concert featuring performers from the Tijuana-San Diego region as well as from Germany, Guatemala and Argentina. Founder Markus Rindt told the Union-Tribune he hopes to send a message promoting unity instead of more walls, a subject about which he is passionate: The symphony director is originally from East Germany. Coral MacFarland Thuet, a singer from San Diego and Tijuana and instructor at San Diego State University, will be among those performing at the June 3 concert.
Rancho Ontiveros, a planned live-work community that sits directly on the international border, will be designed as a hub for people whose lives and activities cross borders on a regular basis. The community will serve people in both San Diego and Tijuana.
Crossing the border for sports may become a little more commonplace. The National Collegiate Athletic Association is making inroads into Mexico; the organization just made permanent a pilot program allowing each division to invite Mexican and Canadian institutions to participate.
The New York Times is the latest publication to discover the vineyards of the Valle de Guadalupe (one of the oldest wine-producing regions in North America), but at least its story doesn't describe Baja California's wine industry as "burgeoning."
Tagged: border, border wall, Immigration, U.S.-Mexico border
Brooke Binkowski
Brooke Binkowski is a backpack reporter who has been covering the U.S.-Mexico border for many years. Find her on Twitter at @brooklynmarie. More by Brooke Binkowski


Her name really needs no introduction.
Whether you only just spend a few moments flipping through a fashion magazine at the grocery checkout or you are a faithful follower of celebrity looks, you have seen her work. Not to mention her striking red hair is as iconic as the supermodels she works with.
Yes beauty lovers of the world, Charlotte Tilbury has launched her own makeup line.
Containing a very carefully curated selection of products, the website is intuitive, easy to navigate and artfully designed to make sure you know exactly what you're getting. Quite frankly, I wished all beauty shops would be so easy to browse!
You can shop by product type, looks or find a solution to common beauty dilemmas. In fact, Tilbury has arranged her products into distinctive full faced beauty looks so that you can shop directly from the visuals whether you are seeking a perfect lip combo or an entire party ready face package.
The ten signature looks she has created let's you find the combination that speaks to your style or even inspire you to try a completely new one. I love how she used the same model for all the looks as this allows you to focus on the makeup and it's beautiful transformative qualities.
All dressed in their vintage inspired luxe packaging, a few key items in her range include The Luxury Palette, K.I.S.S.I.N.G Lipsticks, Lip Luster Gloss and Cheek to Chic blush duos. Each item can be clicked on to show colours, textures, swatches and even the ingredients list (I am thrilled about this part).
And just in case you need some help applying your new Tilbury products, her website and Youtube channel has full tutorials showcasing step-by-step each one of her signatures looks from start to finish using exactly the products you're holding in your hands.
I've picked out a few items that caught my eye (above) but until it becomes a little more accessible I'll have to look out for dupes instead. I am absolutely in love with The Rock Chic, The Uptown Girl and The Bombshell.
Which looks are you craving?


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Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/2011/10/italys-sex-scandals-jar-view-womens-success/)
Italy's Sex Scandals Jar View of Women's Success
By: Valeria Marchetti | October 26, 2011
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ROME (WOMENSENEWS)–When Terry De Nicolo, a 38-year-old escort and regular visitor of Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, was interviewed by a public television program last June she defended a woman's right to see her body as a marketable asset.
"Beauty is an economic value and must be sold like any other skill. If you are a beautiful woman you must be able to sell your body in order to achieve your goal. If you are ugly you need to stay at home and live a mean life with only 2,000 euro (around 2,700 U.S. dollars) a month," she said.
De Nicolo went on to say that every Italian woman would jump at an invitation to one of Berlusconi's parties and the chance of making connections to become rich and powerful.
"If you want to be rich and powerful, you must be a lion and not a sheep. You must be ready to sell even your mother to get what you desire," said De Nicolo, who resides in an expensive penthouse in Milan and is known for her high-fashion wardrobe.
Some aspects of De Nicolo's attitudes were echoed a few months later in an online survey of university students released Aug. 24, by unversinet, an Italian social network. The survey posed this question: In your opinion, is it more important to study or get a recommendation to become enrolled at your university?
A small portion–16,218 out the 450,000 students who replied–expressed shock at the premise. But the vast majority, 86 percent, said the second option of getting a good recommendation–and essentially using your connections–was more important.
The percentage of female students who said they would not mind having sex with a professor in order to gain university entrance was 57 percent, sharply higher than the already strong response of 45 percent in 2010.
Gifts and Employment Offers
During investigations spanning from 2007 to 2011, the Italian Public Prosecutor Office found escorts who frequented Berlusconi's parties received expensive gifts and employment offers, even if they weren't qualified for them, in return for their "performances."
In 2007 Berlusconi–currently facing charges including corruption, tax fraud and paying for sex with a minor–and Agostino Saccà, the director of Rai Movie, a cinema section of Italian Public Television, became embroiled in scandal when the prime minister was discovered using his influence with Saccà to get acting parts for his female friends.
Two years later, the daily La Repubblica reported that former showgirls and actresses who socialized with Berlusconi were on the list of European parliament candidates for Berlusconi's right-wing People of Freedom (PDL) party. Not long after, Veronica Lario, Berlusconi's former wife, sought a divorce and described her husband as a sex addict in a letter published in La Repubblica.
Some members of the left-opposition, Italy of Value party (IDV), contend that Berlusconi's behavior is influencing the attitudes and workplace conditions of young Italian women.
Giulia Rodano, a member of parliament responsible for equal opportunity for IDV, was in Rome in September for IDV's annual meeting, where she spoke with Women's eNews.
"When meritocracy really works, Italian women get high-level positions and do their jobs remarkably," said Rodano. "They are a minority now but we are protesting in all Italian squares to obtain equal opportunity."
Countrywide Protests
In February the women's rights group "Se non ora quando?" ("If not now, when?") staged protests in 60 Italian towns and cities, with smaller support demonstrations scattered across Europe and one in Tokyo. "Italy is not a brothel" was a popular sign in the Rome protest and many demonstrators said Berlusconi's sex scandals were degrading to Italian women.
Berlusconi pushed back in a televised press conference, denying that he ever attended sex parties or consorted with prostitutes, calling the claims politically motivated.
Vincenzo Maruccio, another member of the IDV, also addressed the issue. "A country that allows escorts to overtake skilled women who studied and get work experiences is an immoral country," he said at the September gathering.
Maruccio, a councilor of Lazio, a region that includes Rome, proposed creating job-evaluation criteria based only on skills and job experience and not connections. He emphasized that Berlusconi's sex-scandal-plagued leadership has done a disservice to women's employment opportunities.
Beatrice Lorenzin is the member of parliament responsible for equal opportunity for Berlusconi's PDL. In a recent phone interview, she said the women's rights movement has suffered a historic reversal.
"Sexual freedom has changed," she said. "In 1968 it represented freedom of choice. But today's women turn their body into a power tool."
She deflected any ideas that her party leader has encouraged women to use their sexuality to gain financial power. She argued that during the 20 years that leftists dominated the country's politics they created a discouraging atmosphere. Now, she said, they don't see any other way to move ahead aside from exploiting personal connections and their own sexuality.
http://www.womensenews.org/story/prostitution-and-trafficking/111025/italys-sex-scandals-jar-view-womens-success
Valeria Marchetti is an Italian journalist with a background in broadcasting. She is based in Rome.
Veline in lista, l'ira di Berlusconi "Veronica ha creduto alla sinistra," La Repubblica (in Italian):
http://www.repubblica.it/2009/04/sezioni/politica/elezioni-2009-1/reazioni-veline/reazioni-veline.html
No Matter What It's Called, These Indian Teens Want Sex Ed
By: Veda M. | August 10, 2016
In a country where censors omit kissing scenes in movies, young people have a tough time getting information. My friend Rashi, 18, who got married last month, confesses that as a "good girl," she knew nothing about sex before marriage.
Pregnancy 'Out of the Closet,' But Now Sexualized
By: Kelly Oliver | September 7, 2013
Images of pregnant women have become eroticized as they have become more mainstream, says Kelly Oliver in this excerpt from "Knock Me Up, Knock Me Down." Media attention to pregnant celebrities has also created a new cult of motherhood.
2 thoughts on "Italy's Sex Scandals Jar View of Women's Success"
Janet on October 26, 2011 at 5:09 pm said:
This is not unlike to "Stockholm Syndrome", where kidnapped people begin to empathize with their captors. I recently read Kathy Bolcovac's "The Whistleblower", and watched the movie only a few days ago. Both are heartwrenching, as they make known the fact that girls are kidnapped into prostitution. The Sarajevo example is among the worst in the world, because these poor young women only become ill and die from their situation. In Italy, the high class prostitute who admitted that this was her only way to success, by this exclamation of it as an expectation for women, is really showing that once in there is often no way out. Women's groups need to focus upon how girls are moved into prostitution in jr high/middle school and high school, then are there for life, usually as permanent slaves, whether high paid or not, who can be sold around at the will of those who 'keep' them. Later, they are so incorporated into this life, they have buried in their minds, the realities of what they have lost and what they are too frightened to change. Many would not be accepted back into their families, and that is an unspoken reality in many places, though we only recognize this as a problem in Muslim culture – why do we not see this reality as it exists here in North America as well as in Europe and other places?
This issue is so angering to me that once I begin speaking of it, it is difficult to stop!
e.may on October 26, 2011 at 7:56 pm said:
As I am reading this article and being appalled by the callous attitude exhibited by the escort woman, my eye was drawn to the upper right corner of the web page to the ad from bare minerals. It asked me, "are you a force of beauty? enter and find out" then a large button tells me to "rollover". This, in my opinion, sends conflicting messages to the readers of your important and timely publication.


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当前位置:能飞英语网 > 找资料 > 英语新闻 > Expats get wide range of services at new Pudong center
Expats get wide range of services at new Pudong center
Expats get wide range of services at new Pudong center:A service center catering to foreign residents has officially opened in Shanghai's Pudong New Area following a two-month trial period.
A service center catering to foreign residents has officially opened in Shanghai's Pudong New Area following a two-month trial period.
The Foreign Affairs Service Station, set up by Pudong district police and Lianyang community at No 3 Building, on Yaogao Middle Road, provides temporary residence permits and guidance on daily life and work. Eight staff workers offer assistance in English, Japanese and Korean.
"The station is equipped with personal data systems, so expats can complete temporary residence registration here in a short time, rather than having to go to the local police department and wait a long time," said Sun Qianyi, a Pudong district police officer.
The station also offers assistance to expats on more day-to-day aspects of life.
"Many expats come to ask how to send their children to school, how to seek medical service and how to apply for a Chinese driving license. So we tell them how to do it," said Chen Lingyan, a staff member at the center.
Chen said about 700 expats in the community had received help from the service during its trial run.
As one of the city's largest international communities, Lianyang has more than 5,300 expats from 78 countries, accounting for 10 percent of all residents.
"As more foreigners come to Shanghai to live and work in the city, they may find things strange and feel lost at first. So we hope we can provide some necessary assistance to them," Chen said. "We have received a lot of positive feedback."
The service center also organizes community activities during Chinese and Western festivals, inviting Chinese and foreign residents to take part as a way to better integrate expats.
"Things have become much easier now. Previously, we had to line up for a long time to get the temporary residence permit, but now we can get it straightaway," said Carl Hinze in an interview with Shanghai Television over the weekend.
"This is a very fantastic idea to have such service. Many expats need help when they first arrive in the city because they don't understand Chinese," said Jacqueline Dawn Faulkner from the UK, who has been in Shanghai for more than three years.
She said language is a big hurdle for expats in the city. "Life in Shanghai is quite good. But sometimes I still feel some inconvenience, even though I have been here for years and I can speak a little bit of Chinese," she said. "And it will be more beneficial if such service stations opened in more communities."
There are more than 200,000 foreign residents in Shanghai.
1. What opened in Shanghai's Pudong New Area?
2. What will the Foreign Affairs Service Station do for expats?
3. What area of Shanghai is it in?
1.A service center catering to foreign residents in the city.
2.Provide temporary residence permits and guidance on daily life and work.
3.Lianyang, one of the city's largest international communities, which has more than 5,300 expats from 78 countries.
[ 发布:能飞英语网 编辑:能飞英语网 ]
1 美电影公司邀哈里王子拍成人片
2 Expats get wide range of services at new Pudong center
3 初恋情人分离54年重新牵手
4 巴里拉集团"盯上"中国人胃口
5 英大学生一夜情网站走红,牛津女生最多
6 救欧元就是救德国


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Urbanise rasterise
Jun 20 2020 June 27, 2020
"Raster" is a suitably old fashioned term suggesting the scan lines of a cathode ray television screen. "Pixel" is more up to date. Pixel images have a privileged relationship with architecture. Much architecture is about the grid.
Pixel images provide one means of depicting space, i.e. plans and elevations of buildings, zones, regions, city blocks. Floor plans that don't easily match regularly sized pixels can be stretched, twisted and simplified to conform. Here's the outline of the Helsinki railway station by Eliel Saarinen adjusted to fit a regular pixel grid.
This crude outline can be stored efficiently as two blocks of information: data about the grid line spacings and the pixel values of the grid cells. Here are the pixel values in binary.
Pixelopolis
At much higher resolution, arrays of pixels are the dominant means of depicting space in the digital age. A cluster of pixels can stand in for a building in plan, a city block, region, a landform, landmark, field, forest or country. Aerial and satellite photography delivers pixel images at various resolutions, scales and values: within and beyond the visible colour spectrum.
Display screens are ubiquitous in cities. From giant billboards to digital watches, display screens present arrays of luminous cellular pixel units.
Algorithms make inferences from pixel values. Through stereopsis, successive image frames from aerial cameras reveal elevation data for cityscapes and landforms. Algorithms derive three dimensional terrain models from elevation data to provide perspective views, or derive slope, exposure to sun, view sheds, heat maps, and contours.
Averaging colour values blurs images. The reverse process sharpens an image. Image editors provide graphic filters: Photoshop, smartphone photo editors, Instagram, etc. Here's a blurry image on the left undergoing a couple of mathematical transformations to produce the sharper image on the right.
In this case the sharpening is achieved by an algorithm that inspects each pixel in turn and calculates the difference between its value and the average of the 8 pixels that surround it to provide a new value. That process effectively exaggerates the colour value of a pixel in the context of its surrounding pixels — and produces a few artefacts along the way, especially at this resolution and at the edge of the frame.
The blurry image on the left is of the Helsinki station shown above, generated by a simple averaging algorithm. The attempt to sharpen it fragments the original. This demonstration proves that successive manipulation of a pixel image reduces the image's information content, and it's hard to get back to the original.
Encryptopolis
As I'm researching the ubiquity of cryptography in architecture, I'm bound to focus on the pixel image. It's one way of accessing the spatial aspects of encryption. Pixel images can be scaled, compressed and hashed. They can also contain water marks and secret codes — to be explored later. In the meantime, here are some basic pixel image manipulations, constructed on an Excel spreadsheet. Once the algorithm is set up it's so easy to generate more patterns. So here are some more.
Barthes, Roland. 1977. The photographic message. Image, Music, Text: 15-31. London: Fontana.
Foley, James D., Andries Van Dam, Steven K. Feiner, and John F. Hughes. 1997. Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice. Boston, MA: Addison Wesley
Krawetz, Neal. 2011. Looks like it. The Hacker Factor Blog, 26 May. Available online: http://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/432-Looks-Like-It.html (accessed 13 June 2020).
Lansdown, John. 1987. Computer Graphics. London: Hodder and Stoughton
Madeira, Antonio. 2019. How does a hashing algorithm work? CryptoCompare, 13 March. Available online: https://www.cryptocompare.com/coins/guides/how-does-a-hashing-algorithm-work/ (accessed 13 June 2020).
March, Lionel, and Philip Steadman. 1971. The Geometry of Environment: An Introduction to Spatial Organization in Design. London: RIBA Publications
Mitchell, William, J. 2001. The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era. Ambridge, MA: MIT Press
Norman, Richard B. 1990. Electronic Color: The Art of Color Applied to Graphic Computing. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley
Ratti, Carlo, and Paul Richens. 2004. Raster analysis of urban form. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, (31)297-309.
Tufte, Edward R. 1990. Envisioning Information. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics Press


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Discovered in our galaxy a black hole that should not exist
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the opening of the "impossible" of a black hole is not consistent with Einstein's General relativity
conceals many mysteries. Recently their was one more. The fact that the Chinese astronomers have discovered in our galaxy, which, according to current scientific theory, should not exist because of its incredible size. This space monster 70 times the mass of the Sun and was named LB-1. As researchers, after the discovery of the object could not believe it. The authors of the study, which was published in the journal , consulted with astronomers from around the world and check the facts for three years.
What do we know about the evolution of stars?
To answer this question, it is enough to recall that stars are composed of different elements, from light gases to heavy metals. Lighter elements become heavier as the result of thermonuclear reactions in the cores of stars, in the process releasing huge amounts of energy. However, according to the famous Einstein equation E = mc2, the mass of the star should decrease as it is converted into energy. Some particles can also escape as the solar wind, so over time, the star fades and collapses into a neutron star or a black hole. According to this theory, our Sun can't create . Moreover, we reported recently that in the future our native star will expand into a red dwarf.
more news about the latest discoveries in astronomy are looking for on our
According to researchers from NASA so it looks like the black hole
In 2015, after the detection of gravitational waves, scientists first suggested the existence of an overly massive black hole. Gravitational waves traveling through the Universe suggest the existence of a black hole, 60 times more massive than the Sun but a black hole GW150914, as it was called, was located in a remote part of the , stars which differ from our home star. Most scientists believed that the object of similar dimensions was formed through the merger of two black holes clash which, as we now know, generates gravitational waves. However, the opening of the LB-1 once again forced astronomers to think about. As the researchers write in their work, the incredible size of the LB-1 cannot be explained by the initial mass of the star, stellar wind or nuclear fusion reactions. The existence of this black hole disproves our perception of the evolution of stars and formation of black holes.
Denies if the opening of the LB-1 of Einstein's General relativity?
Researchers have discovered a black hole with a telescope Large Sky Area — the world's largest scanner of galaxies, located near Beijing in Hebei province in Northern China. It consists of 4000 small lenses, each of which can be focused on a single target. However, in the scientific community, the opening of the LB-1 is considered as a success. Dr. David Reitze, Executive Director of the LIGO laboratory at the California Institute, compared this discovery with the detection of gravitational waves. However, between the discovery and the opening of the LB-1 there is a significant difference — the mere existence of so massive a black hole is not consistent with General relativity (GR) Einstein. Although it is unlikely that General relativity is incorrect, the opening of the LB-1 suggests that it can be .
it looks like the collision of two black holes, which appear due to gravitational waves
The Astronomers believe that the discovery of a black hole with a mass of 70 times the mass of our Sun in the milky Way galaxy forces us to reconsider models of formation of black holes and overall understanding of the astrophysics of these cosmic monsters. By the way, recently we told you that the expansion of the Universe is not consistent with General relativity, and scientists are in search of alternative theories.
SpaceGalaxymysteries of the cosmosthe milky Waythe Black holes
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"This was my First ever Incident, and I have been absolutely hooked since. I had gone to see Robert Randolph and the Family Band, who tore the place down with their set. The Cheese were on fire right from the gate. The `Round the Wheel was incredible, followed by a One Step Closer (the better bluegrass version) > Eye Know Why. The higlight however had to be the duel between Robert Randolph on pedal steel and Billy and his Tele during Outside and Inside. The 2nd set was not disapointing. Paul Simon`s Under African Skies was great with a wonderful violin solo. Sand Dollar > Sirens > Miss Brown`s Teahouse brought the funk to a maximum. Encore was amazing. On the Road was great, but Billy rapping some Chili Peppers is perhaps the ultimate moment in my concert going lifetime. Wonderful show, highly recommend downloading this show, if not the entire weekend. "
"Jason Hann adds so much to the band -- enthusiasm, good beats. Wish I could say the same for the rest of the guys. Round the Wheel started off nice, but went down from there. Hard to really say that any "jam" was really a jam; merely rehashes of jams of days gone-by which makes it orchestrated to me. Maybe I`ve seen a few too many shows...I don`t mean to be a downer, and I`m glad that the people who posted earlier reviews had such fantastic times."
"Wow! Fresh and exhilarating is the best way to describe the show. I`m a 35 year old deadhead experiencing Cheese for the first time. Great Jams more upbeat than the Dead with a mix between Caribbean/Country/Progressive feel at times. Robert Randolph and Family rocked. Gotta admit I felt like an old man amongst the crowd but there was alot of energy. ALOT!!! Left with a big smile. And a severe case of the munchies!!! Nothing like a breath of fresh air!! "
"First CHEESE show and i just cant get over how wonderful it was!! THe jams were awesome i have to put it to ya. hope you come around PA agian. ~PEACE~"
"WOW! I`m just now getting over my thanksgiving stuffing of turkey and CHEESE!! Awesome little Camden run. Friday and Saturday in Jersey will not be forgotten anytime soon. this show has so many highlights I don`t even know where to start. All I can say is, What I`ve got you`ve gotta get it put it in you! Peace"


Zach Zeiler, 20, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma at age 15. His weight dropped all the way down to 100 lbs and he decided that he just didn't want to go out like that. He started dedicating two hours a day to bodybuilding and now he has quite the impressive physique.
Yeah! Way to go dude!
Also to his GF. She stayed with him.


I'm proud to have been an extension specialist for the past 30 years -- mostly because I believe that extension's primary role is to serve as a change agent.
Unfortunately, even successful individuals and organizations have a natural tendency to fall into the trap of focusing on what has worked well in the past, what they feel comfortable doing, and what is politically correct or politically expedient. The result is that we often stifle our potential.
Exacerbating the problem is whenever there is a state budget shortfall, extension budgets get axed. For example, when the Great Recession hit in 2008, Clemson's Extension took a 30% budget cut, losing 50 county agents and extension specialists.
When the situation improves, extension feels it's a victory if they just get level funding. Slowly but surely, budgets are shrinking and that's affected extension's ability nationwide to assess farm finances, farm economics, ag law and farm estate and succession planning. Big voids exist outside the top farm states.
To remain effective and relevant, however, even change agents must make changes -- in themselves. If universities and extension are to continue to serve as change agents in society today, we ourselves must embrace changes in many levels: a greater emphasis on alternative delivery and funding mechanisms; the development of new sources of funding for extension programming; an increased commitment to the economic principle of equal marginal returns; a shift in extension's management focus to become more strategic and entrepreneurial and less operational; and increased sharing of resources across state lines.
My first concern is that if extension becomes more dependent on state and local funding sources, programming will become more parochial and myopic as the funding sources demand that time and resources be devoted or restricted to local issues and problems.
If extension economists believe that part of their mission includes programs that focus on strategic management, innovation, and policy analysis, we must place greater emphasis on alternative delivery and funding mechanisms. Managing strategically means anticipating, adapting to, driving and capitalizing on change. It isn't just long-term planning and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. If we don't do this, extension will increasingly be limited to awareness and social service programs, while the most progressive and change-oriented clientele will continue the trend to look elsewhere to meet their needs.
-- Webinar technology can take live and archived programming as well as in-depth modular courses directly into individual homes and offices, to be reviewed or viewed as the most convenient time for the user, as well as cutting the time on cost of travel.
-- Fee-based programs could be set up more for cost recovery or even revenue generation rather than the token pricing that typically occurs. If what we do truly has value to end users with the ability to pay, we need to recognize the possibilities by looking at in-depth, hands on private seminars, engineering extension programs, and business school management development programs.
-- Grants, contracts, corporate sponsorships, and alliances with trade associations or government agencies are also possibilities.
-- The marketing club concept and needs-based training could also be extended by peer advisory groups. These are already widely used by business entrepreneurs and closely held businesses outside of agriculture.
The second change needed is for universities and extension to further embrace the economic principle of equal marginal returns. We have often ignored this principle because it requires that we be proactive and continuously reallocate resources to their highest and best use. This principle also can conflict with tenure-based faculty, whether tenure is defined in academic or longevity terms, as well as political bodies which are almost always more reactive than proactive.
Conflicting priorities can arise from differing definitions of our market. If we view our primary market as the public sector -- which is a fact of life for many administrators -- we become political economists. If we view our market as the end user, we look at the world more as market economists. Extension needs to be managed and structured to encourage and reward both. As one who is more market driven, I believe it is clear that we need to develop new delivery methods, alternative funding sources, and programs that develop strong private sector advocates and alliances.
This in no way implies that extension should abandon its traditional clientele. However, as the economy, the industry, consumer preferences, and the world continue to change, we need to capitalize on the opportunities in continuing education and training using approaches employed by the more progressive business schools and engineering extension programs, which agricultural extension has often ignored or treated as some form of heresy. The issue is whether extension administrators can or will support bifurcated delivery and funding structure.
The third change that I recommend is in extension's management focus. In many states, budget and staff cutbacks have severely restricted extension's ability to provide traditional programs and services. However, these same pressures also created opportunities for innovation and alternative approaches. I believe that extension needs to become more strategic and entrepreneurial and less like a government entity in its management focus. Many businesses and organizations have failed because they were doing something very well but were no longer relevant or what the market was rewarding.
Because most extension programming falls under the umbrella of a public good, our programs must be accessible to and reach as many people as possible. But if we are really interested in changing behavior and having an economic impact, it is equally important that we recognize the reality of the old 80:20 rule. In the past, we said ag consolidation had left just 20% of the nation's farms producing 80% of the nation's food output. The latest USDA statistics now report just 7.5% of farms produce 80% of output and within 10 years that could be a mere 5%.
Every person is just as important as another, but people's needs often differ. Businesses and politicians both learned long ago that, however politically incorrect it may sound, it is as important to teach those who count as it is to count those they reach.
Translated into extension terms, economic impact should be as important as head counts. My experience has shown that changing the knowledge and behavior of the innovators and the leaders is often a more effective and faster way to have an impact than trying to affect change among those who are followers. There are more people who change only when they feel the heat, than there are those who change because they see the light.
In this same vein, extension could benefit from broadening the way it has traditionally originated and marketed its programs and services. Although the county agents have been and will continue to be the grassroots of the organization, there is an increasing need to market through multiple channels. Using the business analogy, the county agents are the local retail dealer network; but, extension also needs to significantly expand its efforts in direct and wholesale marketing. Direct marketing includes more effective use of the internet, demographically sorted and targeted mailings, more effective use of the trade press, along with corporate, trade organization and government agency partnerships and sponsorships.
Fourth, unless extension can find ways to link more effectively with objective, unbiased, applied research, it will have failed in one of its primary missions.
If I had one wish, it would be that the academic incentive system placed equal weight on journal articles and publishing the results of research in laymen's terms in the trade press. Since much of the research conducted in agricultural economics has little application to commercial agriculture, this might encourage research faculty to seek out more applied topic opportunities and to work closer with their extension cohorts.
Finally, I believe it is critical to extension's future that more programming be conducted on a multi-county, statewide, multi-state, national, and international level. For certain market segments, programming opportunities at the county level are limited. Political and commodity boundaries are often a limiting factor in reaching a sustainable critical mass and in stimulating new ideas. There is a tremendous need to develop ways to share resources across state lines, develop multi-state or regional centers for excellence, and to spend less time and resources reinventing the wheel.


The Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe) is frequently mistaken for a hummingbird or bee based on the moth's appearance and behavior. Adult coloration is variable, but a "furry" olive green and burgundy back is common. Its underside is light yellow or white on the thorax, and burgundy on abdomen. The wingspan is 1.6 to 2.2 inches, and the wings always have a dark reddish border with a transparent center. These moths have fast wingbeats, and hovers while collecting nectar with a long feeding tube from flowers.
During its four weeks as a caterpillar, it feeds mostly on honeysuckle, cherry trees, and hawthorns. As a moth, it feeds on a variety of flowers. These moths feed during the day, which is another factor to their mistaken identity. In the southeast, there are two broods with most activity during the summer months. The largest population of Hummingbird Clearwing Moths is along the east coast ranging from Florida to Maine. A west coast population ranges from Alaska to Oregon.
The White Peacock (Anartia jatrophae) is a tropical butterfly that can be spotted in southern Florida and southern Texas year-round and along the Georgia and South Carolina coast as a stray. However, we have been spotting several on Little St. Simons Island this fall.
This butterfly prefers open habitats like roadsides, gardens and fields. On Little St. Simons, we have been spotting them along Beach Road, near the gazebo, and in the inter-dune meadows. The adults will nectar on many of the flowers in fall bloom, and lay their eggs on Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) and water hyssop (Bacopa monieri).
When butterflies lay eggs in late summer or fall, sometimes the eggs will overwinter on the plant, and hatch in the spring with the new foliage growth. Since butterfly eggs usually only take 3-10 days to hatch, eggs laid here in October probably have time to hatch and feed before temperatures drop too low. Another adaptation for fall caterpillars is to form a chrysalis, but not emerge until spring.
The White Peacock has a wingspan of about two to three inches, and can be recognized by silvery white wings with an orange-brown border. Each forewing has a single round black spot, in addition to two black round spots on each hind wing.
The Southern Flannel Moth (Megalopyge opercularis) is named for the texture of its wings, and is found commonly in woodlands and forests in the Southeast. The adult moth emerges in the spring, after having overwintered in its cocoon. The moth will only live about 5-7 days in which time the female deposits her eggs one of a variety of woody plants.
p of its body and extend in a tail-like tuft from the back. Younger caterpillars' hairs are white and wispier.
Although this caterpillar may look soft, it is armed with an intense defense strategy. Venemous spines are hidden beneath the tuft of hairs, and when agitated, this caterpillar can administer one of the most painful stings of any caterpillar found in the United States. The puss caterpillar feeds on woody plants, and it is not a stranger to the Live Oak dominated forests of Little St. Simons Island. If you come across this little creature, marvel at its peculiarity, but don't pet it!
The redbay ambrosia beetle is an invasive pest first detected in 2002 near Savannah's Port Wentworth. Originating in Asia, this tiny beetle (2 mm) is thought to have been introduced via infested wooden packing materials at the port. Like several other invasive species, this ambrosia beetle has spread quickly and its effects can now be seen on redbay trees throughout the Georgia Coast and into Florida and South Carolina.
Fungus introduced to redbay trees by the invasive ambrosia beetle causes laurel wilt in the tree.
Unlike native ambrosia beetles, this beetle attacks healthy redbay trees by boring into the wood just under the bark, creating galleries in the sapwood where it will lay its eggs. However, it is not the boring, or even the beetles themselves that will kill the tree. The female carries spores of a fungus (Raffaelea lauricola) in a pouch in her mouth which she inoculates into the sapwood as she bores. The developing and adult beetles feed on the fungus while the fungus grows within the tree. As the fungus grows, it blocks water and nutrient movement within the tree, causing laurel wilt and eventually, the death of the redbay tree.
As you explore the maritime forest here on Little St. Simons Island, you will see sapling redbay trees, with the majority of their leaves brown with wilt. Currently, scientists have not found a method of fighting back against the redbay ambrosia beetle. As the beetle and fungus spread, the redbay could be affected across its entire range. An important host plant to three species of swallowtail butterflies, a decline in the redbay could also mean hardships for palamedes, Schaus, and spicebush swallowtails in the coming years.
For more on the palamedes swallowtail, read our previous Naturalist Fact of the Week.
The Palamedes Swallowtail belongs to the Swallowtail butterfly family (Papilionadae) of which several members are common in the Southeast. The Palamedes Swallowtail is restricted to the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and adults can be found nectaring in suburban gardens, along roadsides, and in moist wooded areas.
It is one of the larger butterflies in the area with a wingspan of 3.5 to 5.5 inches. Its black wings are decorated with a yellow band running across the wing and yellow spots along the margin of the wing. It also has two blue hindwing eyespots ringed with black and a splash of orange, which distinguishes it from the similar Black Swallowtail.
Unlike most other swallowtails, the Palamedes Swallowtail is restricted to a single host plant—the Red Bay tree (Persea borbonia). The female is known to lay eggs only on this tree, usually a single egg is laid upon a new-growth leaf.
Unfortunately, the Red Bay populations along the South Carolina coast, Georgia coast, and into Florida are in serious decline due to an invasive ambrosia beetle (Xyleborus glabratus) that is believed to have been introduced via the port at Savannah in 2002.
For more info on the Red Bay and the red bay ambrosia beetle, stay tuned for the next Naturalist Fact of the Week!
The "cow killer," also known as a red velvet ant, is a wasp that has earned its name from its extremely painful sting. This wasp has probably not been responsible for the death of many livestock, but the family to which it belongs (Mutilladea) are said to have the most painful sting of any insect in North America!
The female cow killer is wingless making it resemble an ant. However, its large size (3/4 inch -1 inch), hairy body, and bright red color help distinguish from ants found in our area. The males look similar to the female with the exception of two pairs of black wings. If you look closely, the hair-like protrusions covering its body looks similar to the texture of velvet.
Cow killers are solitary wasps and can often be seen crawling along the ground in sandy places along roadsides, forest edges, and meadows during the warmer summer months. They range from the Atlantic coastal regions of New York to Florida, and along the Gulf coastal regions to Texas. The female will lay a single egg in another ground-nesting insect's nest like bumble bees. Once the cow killer larva hatch, they consume the eggs or larvae in the nest where they have been laid.
So, if you see one of these brightly colored insects crawling around admire its beauty, but don't try to catch it!
Here at Little St. Simons Island, we take pride in all the organics that our on-site garden produces. Sometimes, we even get excited about the pests!
This Black Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio polyxenes) hatched out of a chrysalis found in our garden. The pale green chrysalis hung by a thread on a stem. We relocated it to a mesh enclosure in the lodge to wait for the adult to emerge. Sure enough, a few days later, the black butterfly clung to the mesh with wet folded wings. Within a few hours, the wings had dried out and were fully extended to about 3 inches across, and he flew freely back out into the wild.
The Black Swallowtail has black wings parallel bands of yellow spots along the margins on its wings. In between the bands of yellow are shorter bands of blue that end at a red eyespot on each wing.
The females will lay their eggs on members of the parsley family (carrots, fennel, dill) and the caterpillars will hatch out, munch on their host plant while they grow and molt. When they are ready to form their chrysalis, they usually wander a bit from their feeding grounds.
We have an abundance of Black Swallowtail larvae, sometimes called parsley worms, on the parsley in our garden right now. As you might imagine, Black Swallowtails are fairly easy to attract by planting some parsley in your garden. And of course, it is always a beautiful surprise to see the adult butterfly emerge from the lifeless-looking chrysalis!
Some other butterflies that have been spotted this spring include the Cabbage Whites, Red Admirals, Monarchs, and many more that are soon to follow!