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Q: Will a HashMap> potentially cause a memory leak if not explicitly cleaned up? I've run across a piece of code that I am convinced will cause an inadvertent memory leak:
Object user = getUser("Bob");

Map<String, WeakReference<Object>> map = new HashMap<>();
map.put("Bob", new WeakReference( user ) );

The purpose of this map is to cache the Objects and to have them automatically cleared from the map by the GC when they are no longer strongly referenced.
However, the way I see it is if the key isn't a weak reference as well, then once the Object is GC'ed, there will still be an entry in the hash map with the key pointing to null.  Hence the map will still contain the same number of rows, just all pointing to null values.
So in the above example, once all strong references to user are released, and the GC destroys the Object, the entry in the map will be equiv to :
map.put("Bob", null );

So unless there is a cleanup routine that flushes all keys with null values, my map will continue to grow.
So then the question becomes how to fix this?  Is there a map construct that I can use which will automatically flush my entry if the value is destroyed?
I contemplated doing something like:
Object user = getUser("Bob");

Map<String, WeakReference<Object>> map = new WeakHashMap<>();
map.put(user.getUsername(), new WeakReference( user ) );

But that seems like a very limited use case where my key has to be an object retrieved from my value.  With the WeakHashMap my key cannot be a String constant (ie: "Bob") or there won't be any other references to it, and the GC will clear the object from my map.
Is there some other cache construct that provides all this functionality instead?

A: You are right in that the collection of the referent does not remove the mapping, however, the result is not equivalent to
map.put("Bob", null );

it will be equivalent to
map.put("Bob", new WeakReference<>(null) );

so you're not only having a dangling entry instance, but also a dangling cleared WeakReference instance.
When you use
Map<String, WeakReference<User>> map = new WeakHashMap<>();
User user = getUser("Bob");
map.put(user.getUsername(), new WeakReference( user ) );

you get the desired semantics, assuming that user.getUsername() returns a reference to the string instance stored in the User object, to ensure that it stays strongly reachable as long as the User is strongly reachable.
I don't see any limitation here. Since the string instance stored within the User does exist, there is no overhead in referencing exactly the same string instance as map key as long as the User instance exist. You can still use string constants as lookup key ala User u = map.get("Bob");, as their equality still is determined in terms of String.hashCode() and String.equals(). If you put the mapping using the string constant "Bob" the mapping will usually persist at least as long as the code containing the constant is alive (and each other code that used the same literal during this lifetime), likely the entire application. But where's the sense in using a different string instance as key than stored in the referent?
Note that WeakHashMap has to deal with the same issue, entries are not removed automatically. It has to use a ReferenceQueue to discover when a referent has been collected to remove its associated entry from the table. This cleanup happens whenever you invoke a method on it, so when you don't invoke methods on it, the table won't get cleanup, but since this cleanup happens for every insertion, you are protected against the ever-growing scenario.

A: *

*
if the key isn't a weak reference as well, then once the Object is GC'ed, there will still be an entry in the hash map with the key pointing to null.

With the key pointing to a non-null WeakReference which points to a null referent.

Hence the map will still contain the same number of rows, just all pointing to null values.

No, see above.
The solution is to use a WeakHashMap<String, WeakReference<Object>>, which has a background activity that spots the weak keys being collected, via a ReferenceQueue, and removes the corresponding mappings. Better still, a WeakHashMap<String, WeakReference<User>>. However:

*If the keys are string literals they aren't collectable anyway.

It's a bit rich to describe this as a memory leak. The Map itself is a memory leak. If you don't want references to your objects, don't store them in a Map.

A: Your reasoning is correct.

*

*Map<String,WeakReference<Object>> is used in situations when "lingering" keys do not present a problem, because they are a lot smaller than the objects stored in the map. In situations like that having lots of keys mapped to emptied weak references does not strain the memory resources of the system enough for you to notice.

*You can use WeakHashMap<K,V> for situations when you would rather have keys garbage collected, but you are absolutely right about using String constants with it: this would indeed defeat the purpose. Typically, you use a custom key type that overrides equals with reference equality.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
package io.apiman.gateway.engine.policies.config.rates;

/**
 * The granularity to use when limiting rates.
 *
 * @author eric.wittmann@redhat.com
 */
public enum RateLimitingGranularity {

    User, Service, Application;

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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· Support the Director of Promotions in development of marketing material, brand kits, and core material deliverables.
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This is the twenty-sixth in a series of posts about war tax resistance as it was reported in back issues of Gospel Herald , journal of the (Old) Mennonite Church.
The debate about whether or not to pay war taxes, and about whether Mennonite institutions should be more accommodating of the requests of their employees not to have war taxes deducted from their salaries, continued in 1985 , and edged ever closer to the Mennonite Church itself.
For over ten years I have openly withheld a portion of my federal income taxes because I'm a conscientious objector to participation in war. This action has sometimes resulted in face-to-face conversations with Internal Revenue Service representatives. I have on several occasions written to legislators on issues of peace and justice or facilitated similar communication by our congregation.
As I see that Christians have contributed to the injustices, my faith compels me to speak. There are many professing Christians who are in public office who make government policy. There are many professing Christians whose votes helped to put them into office and whose tax dollars by the millions pay for the administration of their policies. Because of this I want to invite my Christian brothers and sisters to let the Prince of Peace train their consciences and to take these trained consciences to work whether in the private or public sector.
The board discussed a request by several staff members that MCC not withhold their income taxes, to allow them to withhold a portion of their taxes as a protest of the dollars used for military purposes.
They agreed that the executive committee should appoint a task group to consult broadly within the MCC constituency to review historical positions on this matter, to examine alternative responses, and to bring a recommendation to the executive committee and annual meeting on alternative courses of action.
This approach "moves from a simple decision of whether MCC should withhold taxes to stepping back and reflecting on the overall situation before recommending any one solution for the MCC board to accept or reject," it was said.
Members noted that the Mennonite Church and the Conference of Mennonites in Canada are studying this issue, that the General Conference Mennonite Church has completed such a study, and that efforts will be made to learn from those studies.
Friday evening —  Case Study 3: Conscientious objection to military taxes — a case presentation, by John and Sandra Drescher Lehman and Paul Gingrich.
— A panel— James R. Hess, Stephen Dintaman, and Bob Detweiler.
The other case was conscientious objection to military taxes. John and Sandy Drescher Lehman of Richmond, Va., told how they followed their conscience and decided a few years ago to withhold the part of their income taxes that they figure goes for the military.
The complication now, though, is that they have become employees of Mennonite Board of Missions in their role as codirectors of the Richmond Discipleship Voluntary Service program. "What should an institution do when its employees ask that we stop withholding taxes from their paychecks?" asked MBM president Paul Gingrich.
A panel of four attempted to answer the question, including Robert Hull, a soldier-turned-tax-resister who is peace and justice secretary of the General Conference Mennonite Church. He explained how his denomination, with the instruction of its members, is now breaking the law by not withholding taxes from the paychecks of seven of its employees who have requested that.
The tensest moment of the conference came when James Hess, a Lancaster Conference bishop who served on the war taxes panel, was asked whether he would have paid all his taxes in Nazi Germany even though some of it went to kill six million Jews. He hinted that the Jews may have brought judgment on themselves for their crucifixion of Jesus. This caused a minor uproar and led to a public apology the next morning by Hess. He said that his statement was speculative, trying to defend the sovereignty of God, and quoted from Jacques Ellul that everything man does is within the global plan of God.
I would not in any way seek to defend the position reportedly taken by James Hess during the recent Conversations on Faith Ⅱ linking the Jewish Holocaust with Christ's crucifixion… Such notions are the misguided, though not necessarily unnatural, projections of his fundamentalism.
It is hardly fair, however, that the person who posed what seems the quite irresponsible as well as irrelevant question which provoked Hess's intemperate response is not also identified in the report. For this questioner should be asked whether he/she paid (or would have paid) taxes to the United States or Canada during World War Ⅱ.
If the questioner would not have paid, given the assumptions of tax resistance theory, would not he/she also have been guilty of contributing to the prolongation of Nazi atrocities against the Jews and others, just as he/she charges a taxpaying German citizen Hess would have been?
If, on the other hand, the questioner would have paid his/her federal taxes, again given the assumptions of tax resistant theory, wouldn't that be embracing the "just" war position? For how else is the "financing" of one set of military activity, but refusing to "finance" another, to be interpreted?
That we are acting out of our religious convictions fostered in the tradition of the historic peace witness of the Mennonite Church.
You are asking us to do what in good faith we cannot do — to violate our consciences and our understanding of obedience to Jesus Christ by paying for murder.
I, Wilma, am a nurse dedicated to making lives whole, not to destroying them. I find preparation to kill and destroy abhorrent and inconsistent with what my whole life as a mother, as a nurse, as a human being, as a follower of Jesus Christ is about.
I, Ray, am a professor of church history and ethics. In my teaching and in everyday life I seek to underscore that if we are to become persons and create communities of noble character and life-giving quality, we must live lives consistent with our beliefs.
To you as a law-enforcer, and to our congressmen and senators as law-makers, we ask: What is being done to our people and to our nation by enforcing the practice of violence upon those whose conscience and religious convictions are opposed to violence? Why do you insist that pacifist citizens act contrary to their conscience by coercing them to pay for weapons of death? Would it not be a healthier, stronger nation if these people were granted freedom of religion and allowed to practice economic nonviolence by channeling their funds into constructive, nonviolent, humanitarian aid?
To Mennonites war is murder. For Mennonites, and for all Christians who take seriously the lordship of Jesus in their daily living, there is no government that can override the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. For Mennonites, therefore, and for all pacifist Christians, the payment of military taxes has always posed a dilemma. Some, psychically numbed by continued rationalization, comply with the state's demands for death money. Others choose the way of noncompliance, following the example of Jesus Christ that leads to persecution — military tax penalties, confiscation of property, and imprisonment.
Finally, Mr. Smith, allow us to address you personally. What role will you have in all of this? All of us are in the system. And all of us are morally obligated to say "no" to death and "yes" to life. You undoubtedly have thought about these questions many times. We would count it a privilege to meet with you to discuss these grave matters in a more personal way.
There were some letters to the editor in response to this wave of articles on the topic. Joe Cross wrote that he was generally against war tax resistance, but didn't say anything particularly notable. Curt Ashburn didn't care for the put-down of taxpayers in the Gingeriches' letter ("psychically numbed by continued rationalization") and felt that they should keep such "witness" in the family rather than dragging IRS agents into it. He also asked if the Gingeriches refused to pay taxes to support state-funded abortion, police violence, capital punishment, and so forth or if they thought war was somehow special?
Exploring new territory in religious opposition to nuclear arms, a number of major religious denominations have begun to contemplate whether they should throw their support behind the growing movement to resist payment of taxes in protest of the arms race. While increasing numbers of individuals within the churches have joined the ranks of "war tax" resisters, only a handful of denominations have encouraged or lent support to such resistance. However, as peace activists within the churches have demanded tougher antiwar stands at the highest church levels, denominations have begun to wrestle with the biblical, theological, and historical questions raised by war tax resistance. The churches are using the examination as a basis for deciding whether to take, as corporate bodies, any of a variety of actions — both legal and illegal — in support of the movement. What is moving churches is the growing realization that they have been "praying for peace while paying for war," said Marian Franz, a Mennonite who is executive director of the Washington-based National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund. "For many people, the arms race has just gone too far. And they're saying, 'Oh my God, I'm involved in it.'" While several mainline denominations have begun to study the issue, the strongest support for war tax resistance has come from the historic peace churches, particularly Quaker and Mennonite bodies. In an unprecedented move, the 60,000-member General Conference Mennonite Church voted, in August 1983 , not to withhold federal taxes from the paychecks of employees who are tax refusers. This is punishable by fines and imprisonment.
Seminars on singleness and sexuality, marriage and sexuality, and silent devotions were also well attended, indicating a rising concern among Mennonites for personal growth and self-understanding. On the other hand, seminars on such topics as war taxes, Central America, and church-state relations received relatively less attention.
I heard that the conference moderator gave only six minutes of floor time to deal with the question of the church withholding federal income tax from the paychecks of church workers who conscientiously resist war taxes.
Perhaps to some, war tax resistance is more personally uncomfortable than homosexuality! Remember that for any government to exploit and massacre, two things are required from the majority of its citizens — silence and paying taxes.
The Rhodes family (left to right): Carmen, Leanna, Rebekah, Philip, James, Anita, Candice, and Martin.
Praying for peace while paying for war? It's an irony that Ray and Wilma Gingerich and James and Leanna Rhodes of the Harrisonburg, Virginia, area refuse to accept.
Ray and Wilma are in their early 50s. He teaches theology and ethics at Eastern Mennonite College; she is completing a master's degree in community health nursing at the University of Virginia and works part time at Virginia Mennonite Home. Their four sons of college age or older no longer live at home. One might think it's time to slow down, settle in, go with the flow.
Not so. The Gingerichs are wrestling with an issue they believe is increasingly urgent for Christians — how to respond to the fact that over 50 percent of all income tax monies go to pay for past and present wars and to prepare for future wars. As one response, they began in 1977 to withhold the portion of their federal income tax that pays for war.
For the past three years, the couple has also withheld the federal excise tax from their monthly telephone statement. This tax began during the Vietnam War as a "quick source of revenue" for that conflict, Ray pointed out.
Several miles southwest of Gingerich's Harrisonburg home, in the rolling countryside of western Rockingham County near Dayton, James and Leanna Rhodes are taking a slightly different tack to the military tax issue.
The couple, in their mid-30s, is making a conscious effort to live at a nontaxable income level. For them, it means trying to raise their family of six children on $12,000–$13,000 a year.
It's easier said than done, the couple admitted, but several things are in their favor.
The family rents the large frame house where they're living. They care for dairy heifers and beef cattle for their landlord. The old station wagon they drive is registered in Leanna's mother's name so the IRS can't put a lien on it.
James works for his brother in a new and used farm machinery business. Leanna, a nurse, works on and off for Homecall, a local home health care agency.
The family has no accessible bank account or other personal property that the government could claim to satisfy unpaid military taxes. This leaves the IRS only one option — to go after Rhodeses themselves.
Rhodeses have refused to pay the portion of their federal income tax for military purposes for three years in which they earned slightly over their nontaxable limit. They have been audited and warned of collection procedures, but nothing has come of it.
Like Gingerichs, Rhodeses refuse to pay the federal excise tax portion of their monthly phone bill.
The families didn't acquire their peace convictions overnight or in isolation. Gingerichs point to a stint of mission work in Luxembourg, 1961–1968 , as a time when they were confronted with the realities of war.
In 1968 Gingerich enrolled at Goshen Biblical Seminary, where he was challenged by the teachings of John Howard Yoder, a tax resister himself. When the family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, for Ray to pursue a doctorate at Vanderbilt University, the couple began attending a United Methodist church that was deeply involved in urban ministry.
Family peace initiatives have not been restricted to Ray and Wilma. When President Jimmy Carter reinstated the military draft in 1980 , sons Andre and Pierre both decided not to register.
"Here's a case of children and parents teaching each other," Wilma said. "We had been through a lot of painful and joyful growth experiences together. To them, not to register was the logical way to live out the convictions we shared.
Although James and Leanna had long felt a commitment to blend personal faith and active social concern, their awareness of the need to give more than lip service to their beliefs was heightened during 1975–1979 when they helped to start a Mennonite church in San Francisco.
In that setting James got involved with a number of peace causes and groups, including counseling military personnel who wanted to claim conscientious objector status.
Both couples are quick to draw on their understanding of Jesus' teachings and example to support their actions.
"Our church has failed to see the logical progression from the conscientious objector stance and Mennonites' refusal to buy war bonds in the 1940s to the war tax resistance stance of the 1980s ," Ray stated.
Both Gingerichs and Rhodeses have paid a price for their stance.
For the Gingerich family, it has included repeated threats from the Selective Service System and a lien placed on all their personal property.
James Rhodes earned tuition money to attend Eastern Mennonite College and Seminary by working as an artificial inseminator for dairy farms up and down the Shenandoah Valley. He later lost that job as a result of local pressure, but he "feels no animosity" toward those who called for his ouster.
James noted that the harshest criticism has come from other Mennonites at a time when interest in Christian peacemaking and nonresistance is gaining momentum in a number of mainline denominations.
The two families commend each other's positions, but cited the need for other people who are involved in varied forms of tax resistance to "become more visible." They are active in a local "Christians for Peace" group that has about a dozen members.
The couples emphasized that their methods of war tax resistance are not the only valid approaches, and both expressed a desire for more dialogue and sense of solidarity with the larger Mennonite Church.
Witness will continue. Ray and Wilma expect to continue withholding that percentage of their federal income taxes that goes for direct military purposes and to continue talking and working with individuals and within their professions to keep the issue alive.
James and Leanna, meanwhile, "feel comfortable" with their simple living approach, recognizing that it doesn't allow them to confront government officials and others as directly as Gingerichs have.
"When our children get older, we'll need to adjust our strategy," James said. "For now, our fear of what could happen to us has gone from near paranoia to a real sense of peace and freedom.
"Paying a Price for Peace"… is one of the most encouraging articles you've published recently. It is encouraging to see two families who take their faith in Jesus Christ very seriously. In my mind, they are acting out the very core of the gospel message to love, to be peacemakers, and — above all — to be obedient.
On the other hand the article can cause one to be depressed because of the lack of support and criticisms Rhodeses and Gingerichs have received from fellow Mennonites. Mennonites, of all people, should be cheering these families on, even if they are not in complete agreement with their tax witness.
Joyce and I have also withheld portions of our federal income tax payment, making it necessary for the Internal Revenue Service to put liens on our checking account. It is a lonely feeling. To me, any action that lessens another human being, lessens me. It is sin for me to sit in the safety of a protected home and claim no responsibility for what my money buys. To tell someone we love them and apologize for the fact that nearly half our tax dollar is being spent in preparation to kill them, is the ultimate lie and irony. I cannot love you if I am preparing to kill you.
Jesus never challenged the state on these practices, nor did he indicate that paying taxes implied responsibility for these heinous crimes.
I don't think Jesus paid any war tax. I think he probably lived below a taxable level, and I affirm anyone who chooses this path. I also pay no war tax. Our tax checks are not divided into portions by the Internal Revenue Service, but are thrown together into a central fund, against which huge government checks are drawn. I simply decide in my heart which huge government check I want my money to be a part of. For me, it's food stamps and interstate highways.
The former moderator of the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian), Lord MacLeod of Fuinary, has called for the creation of a peace army committed to withholding the 13 percent of income taxes which the British government spends on defense.
MacLeod hopes such an army will be able to persuade the government to allow people to give an equivalent amount of their taxes to starving countries instead. Even if the government refuses to go along with the idea, he said, taxpayers should still withhold the money and spend it on famine relief.
The committee also heard a report from a task force established after several staff members asked MCC not to withhold their federal income taxes. This was to allow them to keep a portion of their taxes as a protest of taxes used for military purposes.
Committee member Phil Rich reported that the task force had met with leaders from eight Mennonite denominations over the past year to seek counsel on how to respond to the tax-withholding issue. None of the denominations counseled MCC to honor the staff members' request.
The Executive Committee voted 7-1, with three abstentions, to accept the task force's recommendation that the staff members' request be denied. The recommendation will go to the MCC annual meeting for final action.
At the Church of the Brethren Christian Citizenship Seminar, speakers remind people that conscientious objection is for everyone.
Don Schrader lives simply (and strangely) in pursuit of ethical living (and generates plenty of interest); war tax resisters in Colorado Springs make the news; the I.R.S. refuses to cough up its audit statistics despite a court order; expatriate tax resister Jeff Knaebel speaks at the Gandhi Sixtieth Memorial in Pune; and Larry Rosenwald wonders if the emphasis on voluntary simplicity means that tax resisters with voluntarily complex lifestyles aren't welcome in the clubhouse.
In 1963 the I.R.S. froze the bank account of a pacifist group because two of its employees would not pay war taxes. Also: modern American war tax resisters Don Schrader and Michael McCarthy speak out. And: war tax resisters in Ciudad Real, Spain, hold a rally.


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Southport-Westport Sails Away with Antique Treasures - Antiques And The Arts Weekly
Southport-Westport Sails Away with Antique Treasures
Thomas & Julia Barringer, Stockton, N.J.
Quester Gallery, Stonington and Greenwich, Conn.
Cecelia B. Williams, New Market, Md.
Story W.A. Demers, photos by R. Scudder Smith and W.A. Demers
WESTPORT, CONN. – The 39th annual Southport-Westport Antiques Show, presented by the Near & Far Aid Association, Inc, and the Antiques Council sailed into the 2003 season with a well-attended preview party (750-800) at the Fairfield County Hunt Club on April 24. The show closed on Sunday, April 27, with the show committee reporting substantial gates on Friday and Sunday, and disappointing crowd numbers on Saturday due to rainy weather.
The Southport-Westport show remains a first-class event – one dealer places it in the top three shows north of New York City in terms of quality – and for many in this well-to-do part of Fairfield County, the show is the true harbinger of spring, full of inspiration for home decorative arts enthusiasts. The question raised by some is whether serious antiques selling goes on and, of course, there is a range of opinions among the 67 dealers who participated — about a dozen of them new to the event or returning after a hiatus.
One dealer said the gate was so bad that "one could roller skate down the aisles most of the time," another dealer characterized the crowd numbers as "soft at best," and yet another said, "I think, generally, that the gate was off, and no, people weren't buying freely. On the other hand, there were new faces at the preview party, especially decorators from New York who haven't been there for years, and who were seriously buying."
The show's 2003 theme — "From Far to Near via Wind and Sail" — with its image of sails furled toward a new destination was indeed apt, for in 2004 the show will be moving to Greens Farms Academy in Westport and changing its date to the third week in June. As with any change, the news caused some grumbling in the "ship's" hold by some dealers but no mutiny.
It is not just that the venue and show dates are changing, but next year's show will also be going head-to-head with the Wilton Outdoor Antiques Marketplace, a June staple that draws many of the same dealers and buyers.
Southport-Westport show organizers said that the conflict with Wilton was inevitable since that was the only date they could get the academy. The reason for moving from the Hunt Club is primarily financial, organizers said, adding that they are rising to the challenge of maximizing the charity's financial contri-butions. A benefit for the Near & Far Aid Association, a community-based charitable organization that has been active since 1946, the show is a key fundraiser. Near & Far distributed more than $840,000 to 70 agencies last year, more than $600,000 of which went to accredited Fairfield County organizations.
"Because we're a charity, 100 percent of our proceeds go to the charity," said Caren Hart Nelson, co-chair of the show. "Our costs for using the Hunt Club have gone up, and although we've a great relationship with them over the years, we've had to move on. Change is never easy."
One dealer who specializes in American furniture said that while Greens Farms Academy may be an excellent venue for an antiques show, the fact that the date will be pushed beyond the traditional show season — September to May for the brown furniture trade – is a concern. "Typically, the industry standard is that fine furniture does not sell at shows in the summer months since people are often preoccupied with second homes, children out of school, family vacations, summer weddings and outdoor activities," said the dealer.
Nelson countered, "For this area, after May 31, it's a summer community, and we will attract that crowd and capture a new audience."
The Southport-Westport Antiques Show liaison, Karen DiSaia of Oriental Rugs, Ltd, Old Lyme, Conn., was very upbeat about the changes in store for the three-day show. She said she understands other dealers' concerns that this is the final year of holding the show at the Hunt Club and in the last week of April.
"Though there is concern about the change of date to the third weekend in June, the Antiques Council has embraced the challenge of creating the best early summer show in years," she said. "It will be in a wonderful new location, which is only about a mile from the Hunt Club. It will be a smaller show and we feel that the new energy will only serve to enhance the 40th year of the show."
Echoing this thought was Marybeth Keene of Wayne Pratt, Inc, Woodbury, Conn., who said that while she may have been wavering before, Saturday's torrential rain quickly pushed her into the camp eager to leave the muddy paddocks, ever-roost-ing birds and Port-o-lets of the Hunt Club behind. "We'll have to wait and see what next year will bring, but I have faith in the committee and Near & Far to organize a destination show that will draw people," she said.
Jeffrey Cooley of Old Lyme, Conn., agreed that change of venue will be a challenge. "But clearly it is the right financial move, and perhaps a little 'reinvention' will be good for the show," he said. "The date is the greatest problem, as it conflicts with Wilton, Father's Day and, in general, people's minds are far from home decorating or collecting in June when golf courses and summer homes and kids call."
In addition to the preview party, special programs for this year's show included a Designers' Choice House Tour on Friday featuring five homes and a Saturday Night Spaces, a cocktail event on April 26, that pitted four architect/designers and their creative skills against one another under a 90-minute time constraint to transform an empty space on the show floor into unique vignettes using selected antiques and accessories from the dealers' booths. "This was a terrific idea," said Keene of Wayne Pratt. "It was very clever and drew a lot of young people."
"We were trying to show that antiques are fun, and that you can use them in your home," said show co-chair Nelson.
Some dealers were less sanguine about events that seem tangential to actually selling antiques. Said one: "I think the future of the show will be based on the participation of decorators and their interests, not as a show of antiquarians."
The quality of the show itself, however, was summed up by Jeff Bridgman of Historic York County, Penn., as offering "much that appeals to the discriminating high-country collector."
"It was a stunning and interesting show," agreed Cooley. "The new layout was a great success and the innovative programs worthwhile." Cooley said that he sold a "lovely watercolor by Fidelia Bridges [1834-1923] to a delightful, thoughtful collector."
Among the show's new dealers, Rhonda Eleish and Edie Van Breems, Woodbury, Conn., who specialize in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Scandinavian and northern European antiques, brought a Nineteenth Century Finnish step back cupboard dated 1844, in original paint and with a replacement lock on the door. They also showed a Nineteenth Century Finnish Rocco rust painted two-door armoire and a Nineteenth Century Finnish painted document box circa 1837. Smalls included copper molds and wooden cheese molds, baskets and bowls.
Also at the Southport-Westport show for the first time were Melinda and Lazlo Zongor, Bedford, Penn., who deal primarily in coverlets and other early American textiles. Highlights of the Zongors' offerings included a coverlet by the New York weaver James Cunningham featuring George Washington on horseback and the New York state seal in the corner block. The rare red and white version on display was perhaps one of only two others that are known to exist.
"Among other things, I was pleased to sell several copies of my book, Coverlets and the Spirit of America," said Melinda Zongor. "Since this was our first time at this show, our material, coverlets, is new to this audience. We were gratified by the genuine and strong interest in them."
Their first time exhibiting at Southport-Westport, Stuart and Audrey Peckner of N.P. Trent, West Palm Beach, Fla., deemed it a "successful show," considering the economy and the fact that they were exhibiting continental furniture. "We sold on opening an important Charles X formal étagère as well as a Directoire dining table," said Stuart Peckner. "I was impressed with how hard the council and committee worked to try and create a selling atmosphere."
"Considering the markets over the past 24 months, the gate was not thrilling but was on par with many other antiques shows," said Charles and Rebekah Clark, Woodbury, Conn. "People seem to be taking their time considering purchases. We anticipate follow-up sales in the coming weeks." The Clarks believe that price points seem to be the current preoccupation.
"People expect prices to be lower in the current economic condition even though costs — inventory, booth rent, fuel, labor, materials, etc — have risen," they said. Bringing a Regency sinumbra to the show along with a classical bookcase secretary and other American furniture and accessories of the classical period, the Clarks sold lighting to a customer who had purchased lighting from them last year.
Bridgman observed that even if the gates seemed smaller, "I find that the people who come are serious – both last year and this year." What differed this year, added Bridgman, was that last year he sold almost entirely flags. "This year I sold across the board," he said. "I sold many flags, but folk art, furniture and a great Amish quilt contributed to half or more of my sales. I was extremely pleased, and I definitely topped last year's sales."
Bridgman sold a very unusual, late Nineteenth Century, cast-iron caribou head with an ornate oval back plate that was decorated with grape vines. "It had white paint with an exceptional surface," said Bridgman. "I also sold a wonderful, yellow paint decorated flour chest with a lift-top lid over two doors. I am particularly fond of this form, which is uniquely Pennsylvania."
A large green majolica lizard coolly eyed visitors at the booth of Charles L. Washburne, Chappaqua, N.Y., and a larger-than-life grasshopper poised for a leap beyond the glass case that contained him and hundreds of other colorful majolica pieces. The lizard was later to be seen basking in the spotlight of the Saturday Night Spaces designed competition as evidenced by the tag affixed to his tail.
Like the lizard, a graceful Chinese Tan dynasty horse from the Eighth Century was marked with a tag at Vallin Galleries, Wilton, Conn., during the preview party, indicating that it would figure into the Saturday Night Spaces design-off. Peter Rosenburg, owner, said he has been bringing his Chinese and Asian art and antiques to the Southport-Westport show for eight to ten years.
Other highlights in his booth were a Japanese painting on paper of China geese done in the Nineteenth Century, a Chinese lady's Ming dragon court robe of the late Fourteenth Century embroidered with fanciful golden dragons against a bright red cloth, and an extremely rare Chinese export bureau in elm burl with rosewood and ivory inlay, circa 1820. A globelike Chinese perfumer with internal gimbal crafted of pure silver in the Eighth Century was so delicate that it had to be opened carefully lest it became deformed.
Anyone wanting to conduct some quick research on just about anything displayed at the show could duck into F. Russack Books, Inc, Danville, N.H. Owner Rick Russack, who said it was his fifth year at the show, pointed out an interesting find, a book published in 1955 titled Susan's Teeth And Much About Scrimshaw. "This is a very rare book," said Russack, "I've only seen one other." The book, privately published by Everett Crosby, provides details about and depicts the whale's teeth carved by sailors.
Furniture, ceramics, Chinese export, folk art, Eskimo and Indian art were also among the many categories covered at Russack's booth.
DiSaia of Oriental Rugs Ltd, brought a large selection of antique oriental carpets, among them a 3-foot 5-inch by 2-foot 2-inch antique Daghestan prayer rug, circa 1880, that had been beautifully preserved and a 7-foot by 12-foot Sennehkurd/Malayer, circa 1930, that was woven with a rare combination of colors – shades of coral, green, yellow and light blue.
She sold an antique Gendge Kazak, which was "perhaps one of the most interesting I have ever had. It had brilliant color in diagonal stripes and was in fabulous condition. It sold to someone who just loved it and found a spot for it." DiSaia also sold a very small, but interesting Anatolian Yastic, "again to someone who just loved it and bought it. No taking it home to try it. That is a rare thing in this market."
At Southport-Westport for her fourth year, Norma Chick of Autumn Pond Antiques, Woodbury, Conn., filled her booth with furniture, delftware, paintings and folk art. A "Portrait of a Young Girl with Her Doll," American, circa 1930, gazed wistfully amid an exuberant collection of vanes, including a J. Fiske trotting horse from the last quarter of the Nineteenth Century, an American scroll and arrow, circa 1860, a copper rooster, a gamecock and an Ethan Allen horse vane.
While pundits have labeled the ostrich as the "national bird" of France following the cross-Atlantic chill between the United States and its gallic ally, a more heroic French Nineteenth Century cast-iron eagle stretched its wings on a rocky outcrop at The Finnegan Gallery, Chicago. Chockfull of American, French and English garden furniture, architectural rdf_Descriptions and accessories, Finnegan also displayed a pair of turn-of-the-century French wrought iron tables with marble tops and an unusual pair of French faux bois "standing mushrooms" fashioned in the 1920s in the rustic style of the late Nineteenth Century.
Fine early silver and period furniture were represented at Anthony Scornavacco, Gem Lake, Minn., including a French step back cupboard, circa 1790, an English three-part dining table, circa 1800, shown with a set of ten English Regency chairs, and an old Sheffield plated candelabra suite comprising four candlesticks and a pair of candelabra arms, circ 1820. A large Belgian tapestry, circa 1700, hung on the booth's center wall.
There was much to meet the discerning eye at Wayne Pratt, Inc, Woodbury, Conn., including a Boston block front kneehole bureau table, circa 1760-80, that, according to Pratt, exhibited a wonderful surface and original brasses. A rare Chippendale carved cherry bonnet-top desk and bookcase, attributed to Benjamin Buckham (1737-1773) or Samuel Loomis (1784-1814) was also on display. "We sold a couple of tall pieces and chest of drawers," reported Keene. "A lot of our clients were there, and we met new people at the show and preview."
American furniture and accessories up to circa 1820 is the focus of Janice F. Strauss American Antiques, South Salem, N.Y., and that was evident by the American tall chest in ruddy maple and Boston Queen Anne desk on display. The tall chest, probably South Shore, Mass., circa 1770, featured six graduated drawers, the top one simulating three. Its center carved fan disguised a secret wooden lock. The desk, circa 1735-50, made of mahogany and the interior featuring the protruding and stepped ends typical of the William and Mary period, exhibited serpentine shaping incorporated into both the vertical and horizontal dividers along with blocked drawers. A seven-year Southport-Westport show veteran, Strauss also brought an American teakettle with the maker's name on the handle — John W. Schlosser, a coppersmith born in 1785.
Attending the show for their second year, Kathleen and Roger Haller of Silver Plus, New York City, specialize in English Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century silver. Among the wide array of rdf_Descriptions on display were several silver antique pieces by Hester Bateman, whose hallmark was simple but elegant bright cut decoration. The display case showed a Bateman goblet made in 1779, a cream boat fashioned in 1785, a cream jug crafted in 1786 and a caster created in 1787.
Steve Shapiro of SAJE Americana, Short Hills, N.J., said he has been a Southport-Westport show dealer for the past seven years and is very sorry that the show is moving to a new venue and will take place in June next year. "It forces us to choose," he said, referring to the conflicting Wilton outdoor show. Shapiro was showing a bird's-eye maple and mahogany four-drawer Hepplewhite chest with an inlaid top edge and inlaid band above the high flared French feet.
Above a Maine dressing table, circa 1820, in original paint and stencil was an oil on canvas likeness of little Mary Barker from Portland, Maine, who, 8 years old when her portrait was painted in 1844, posed with an accordion and flowers. Shapiro quipped that the girl's nose was turned up from the smell of the cheeses wafting from a luxuriously provisioned hors d'oeuvres table next to his booth during the preview party.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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text:
Study to look at impact of COVID-19 on nutrition in Atlantic Canada
Dalhousie researcher Catherine Mah is leading a study to look at the impact of COVID-19 on nutrition in Atlantic Canada- Tim Arsenault - File
Researchers at Dalhousie University are starting a study on the nutritional impacts of how people eat in Atlantic Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study is being led by Catherine Mah of the school of health administration, who is the Canada Research Chair in healthy population.
"I think the most important thing that we're approaching in this research is that nutrition is already a concern in the Atlantic provinces. (They) have one the of the highest levels of diet-related risk in Canada," Mah said.
She said the region already has economic factors impacting food access and nutrition such as poverty, child poverty and household food insecurity.
"The other key piece of it is geography. We have one of the highest proportions of rural residents, and looking at all four Atlantic provinces we're talking about rural and remote communities."
She said the two biggest effects of public health restrictions because of the pandemic are on physical movement and economics.
"The economics and geography work together," Mah said. "If you don't have a dollar in your pocket, you could live right on top of the best grocery store in the world and you won't be able to access it."
On the other hand, she said, someone could live in a remote community and have money, "but if you don't have good infrastructure and transportation and geographic access, or if you're restricted because of other obvious reasons during a pandemic like you're isolated or you're residing in an institutional setting, you won't be able to access food."
The study, called CELLAR for COVID-related Eating Limitations and Latent dietary effects in the Atlantic Region, will follow about 1,000 people across the region for 12 weeks.
Researchers started calling households Monday to get participants for the study. The call will show up with a 902 area code on caller ID.
There will be a phone survey and online diet survey, and over the course of the12 weeks participants will be asked to save all food and grocery receipts.
"We need a representative proportion of rural residents and urban residents," Mah said.
"We know very well from past research in the Atlantic that one in five households with children are food insecure, without adequate economic access to food," she said. "That's a huge proportion of of the population."
She said she expects that proportion could be higher in the study because of COVID-19.
The hope is that the results of the study will provide data for social and economic policy changes.
"This is specifically intended to mitigate some of those higher-risk populations as well as deal with some of the long-term response to the pandemic in terms of the recovery," she said.
She said poor diet and nutrition have short- and long-term effects on health, and by looking in-depth at nutrition researchers hope to be able to see how social policy can be tweaked or altered to reduce the risks for Atlantic Canadians.
More information on the study can be found on the web at cellarstudy.ca
More provincial stories
Jan. 17 update: Four new COVID-19 cases reported in Nova Scotia
Chief William Saulis scallop dragger found after month-long search
Body of missing Morris Island boater found
Published a day ago
Jan. 16 update: 4 new COVID-19 cases reported in Nova Scotia
Scammers target family of missing Yarmouth County man Zack Lefave
Cape Breton court report for Jan. 15, 2021
Published Jan 15, 2021 at 6:52 p.m.
Death rates at Cape Breton hospitals under scrutiny
P.E.I.'s Confederation Trail reserved for snowmobilers when the snow is here


text:
Q: R-How to count the number of non-zero value in a column by year? My table has four columns, 'year', 'doy', 'rain', and 'crain'. The column 'year' ranges from 1957-2007 and the column 'doy' ranges from 1-365(or366).
What I'm trying to know is:
For each year (1957-2007), how many rows has non-zero value in the column 'rain'?
For example, in 1957, I would like to know how many rows has non-zero value in the column 'rain'?
Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thank you.
Gloria

A: Here is a reproducible example. Try to ask your questions like this in the future.
data <- data.frame(sample(1957:2007, 1000, T),
                   sample(1:365, 1000, T),
                   round(rnorm(1000, 0, 10)))
names(data) <- c('year', 'day', 'rain')

# there are many ways to do this
# credit to thelatemail - This uses ?aggregate
aggregate(rain ~ year, data=data, FUN=function(x) sum(x != 0))

# This approach uses split and sapply functions
sapply(split(data$rain, data$year), function(x) sum(x != 0))

# Using data.table package
library(data.table)
setDT(data)[, list(rain=sum(rain != 0)), by=year]


Dietitians and other healthcare providers appreciate the variety of information covered in this high-impact tool for nutrition education. Includes stories on the food pyramid; reading product labels; and healthy ways to cook with grains, eggs, beef and beans.
Carbohydrates: How Much Is Enough?
Fat: How Much Is Enough?
Calcium: How Much Is Enough?
Should You Feed Your Kids Cartoon Foods?


text:
<!DOCTYPE html>

  <meta charset="utf-8"/>
  <title>spin.js</title>
  <meta name="title" content="Animated activity indicator">
  <meta name="description" content="A highly configurable JavaScript spinner that can be used as a resolution-independent replacement for loading GIFs.">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=1024, maximum-scale=1">
  <meta property="og:image" content="http://spin.js.org/assets/preview.jpg?v=1" />
  <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico">
  <link href="spin.css" rel="stylesheet">
  <link href="assets/main.css?v=6" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
  <link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Amaranth:400,700' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
  <link href="assets/prettify.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">

spin.js

  spin.js
  spin.css

Example

  <form id="opts">
    Lines:<input type="range" name="lines" min="5" max="20" step="1" value="13">

    Length:<input type="range" name="length" min="0" max="80" value="38">

    Width:<input type="range" name="width" min="2" max="52" value="17">

    Radius:<input type="range" name="radius" min="0" max="84" value="45">

    Scale:<input type="range" name="scale" min="0.05" max="4.0" step="0.05" value="1.0">

    Corners:<input type="range" name="corners" min="0" max="1" step="0.1" value="1">

    Speed:<input type="range" name="speed" min="0.5" max="2.2" step="0.1" value="1">

    Rotate:<input type="range" name="rotate" min="0" max="90" value="0">

    Animation:
    <select class="string" name="animation">
      <option value="spinner-line-fade-default">spinner-line-fade-default</option>
      <option value="spinner-line-fade-quick" selected>spinner-line-fade-quick</option>
      <option value="spinner-line-fade-more">spinner-line-fade-more</option>
    </select>

    Direction:
    <select name="direction">
      <option value="1">Clockwise</option>
      <option value="-1">Counterclockwise</option>
    </select>

    Color:<input class="string" type="color" name="color" value="#ffffff">

    Fade color:<input class="string" type="text" name="fadeColor" value="transparent">

    ↕:<input class="percent" type="range" name="top" min="0" max="100" value="50">

    ↔:<input class="percent" type="range" name="left" min="0" max="100" value="50">

    Shadow:<input class="string" type="text" name="shadow" value="0 0 1px transparent">

  </form>

  <input type="checkbox" id="share">

    Share it! If checked, the option values will be stored in the URL so that you can easily share your settings.

Features

No images

No dependencies

Highly configurable

Resolution independent

Uses CSS keyframe animations

Works in all major browsers

Includes TypeScript definitions

Distributed as a native ES6 module

MIT License

  Spin.js dynamically creates spinning activity indicators that can be used as
  a resolution-independent replacement for AJAX loading GIFs.

Installation

  Run npm install spin.js (recommended), or save the spin.js file in your repo.

  Unless you plan to replace the preset opacity animations, load the spin.css file.

  Note: do not use <script> or <link> tags directly referencing the files on this website.
  Doing this is likely to break your app whenever a major new version is released.

Usage

import {Spinner} from 'spin.js';

var opts = {
  lines: 12, // The number of lines to draw
  length: 7, // The length of each line
  width: 5, // The line thickness
  radius: 10, // The radius of the inner circle
  scale: 1.0, // Scales overall size of the spinner
  corners: 1, // Corner roundness (0..1)
  color: '#000', // CSS color or array of colors
  fadeColor: 'transparent', // CSS color or array of colors
  speed: 1, // Rounds per second
  rotate: 0, // The rotation offset
  animation: 'spinner-line-fade-default', // The CSS animation name for the lines
  direction: 1, // 1: clockwise, -1: counterclockwise
  zIndex: 2e9, // The z-index (defaults to 2000000000)
  className: 'spinner', // The CSS class to assign to the spinner
  top: '50%', // Top position relative to parent
  left: '50%', // Left position relative to parent
  shadow: 'none', // Box-shadow for the lines
  position: 'absolute' // Element positioning
};

var target = document.getElementById('foo');
var spinner = new Spinner(opts).spin(target);

  The spin() method creates the necessary HTML elements and starts the animation. If a target
  element is passed as argument, the spinner is added as first child and horizontally and vertically centered.

Bundling

  Not all browsers support native ES6 module imports yet, so it is recommended to use a module bundler such as
  Webpack or
  Rollup to create a production-ready code bundle.

Manual insertion

  In order to manually insert the spinner into the DOM you can invoke the spin() method
  without any arguments and use the el property to access the HTML element:

var spinner = new Spinner().spin();
target.appendChild(spinner.el);

Hiding the spinner

  To hide the spinner, invoke the
  stop() method, which removes the UI elements from the DOM and stops the animation.
  Stopped spinners may be reused by calling spin() again.

Positioning

  The spinner is absolutely positioned at 50% of its offset parent.
  You may specify a top and left option to position the spinner manually.

  Note: The spinner element is a 0×0 pixel DIV that represents the center of the spinner.
  Hence, if you passed {top:0, left:0} only the lower right quarter of the spinner would
  be inside the target's bounding box.

  The spinner element must be surrounded by an element using relative positioning, or the spinner will be
  outside of the parent element.

Supported browsers

  Spin.js has been successfully tested in the following browsers:

Firefox

Chrome

Safari

Microsoft Edge

Internet Explorer 10+

Changes

   See https://github.com/fgnass/spin.js/releases

Contact

  If you encounter any problems, please use the GitHub issue tracker.

  For updates follow me on Twitter.

  If you like spin.js and use it in the wild, let me know.

  Hosted on GitHub


Should development and foreign policies be integrated for better achieving their goals?
New Tax Haven in Nairobi?
Will the establishment of the new International Financial Centre in Nairobi (NIFC) be the key to the development of Kenya's economy, or will it turn out to be just another tax haven?
Developing countries have effectively served as net-creditors to the rest of the world with tax havens playing a major role in the flight of unrecorded capital, according to a new report from research project in the SkattJakt -network.
How do we secure a fragile peace?
Give peace a chance. The role of the UN Peacebuilding Architecture in strengthening the nexus between security and development.
Senior Research Fellow Randi Solhjell (NUPI) examined waste management, water and electricity in DR Congo to investigate statehood in her PhD thesis.
What are the West's greatest security threats now ?
Professor at LSE Christopher Coker is sharing his views in a video interview at NUPI.
Peacekeeping is difficult, and being a peacekeeper is not easy either. But for the local people living in the midst of a large-scale peacekeeping mission, life is even more precarious.


Information about service and recovery efforts flowed from mobile provider.
Organizations whose leaders wonder about the value of establishing a strong social media presence should look to the T-Mobile executive team, especially outspoken CEO John Legere. By amassing a following, Legere—along with T-Mobile's CTO and Retail EVP—were able to get the word out quickly as hurricanes struck Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico. Their success during this challenging time has earned first place in the "Crisis Communication" category of Ragan's 2017 PR Daily Awards.
Using their channels to provide updates and answer questions was just one tactic employed to address multiple audiences with vital information. Legere and his colleagues used social media to post photos of flooded streets, damaged cell towers and the recovery facility for volunteers onsite. CTO Neville Ray delivered an unfiltered look at the work being done on the ground from the perspective of his engineering team. T-Mobile's online newsroom was updated with news and images as often as twice daily, while news media outlets were contacted regularly with reports on the organization's recovery efforts as well as its charitable activities focused on individuals and communities affected by the storms.
The T-Mobile team monitored media and fact-checked inaccurate reports. Internally, Legere distributed several email updates explaining how employees could help and sharing T-Mobile's recovery efforts; Legere's fellow executives similarly addressed their reports. The intranet featured photos from volunteers as well as posts inviting employees to help.
Ultimately, T-Mobile executives posted more than 100 times on Twitter alone, yielding some 200,000 engagements. Some media outlets even credited the organization's social media posts as sources for their coverage. More than 250 stories (resulting in some 400 million impressions) were published as a result of media outreach efforts. Internally, a livestream Q&A was viewed by more than 2,000 employees. Employees donated 30 tons of supplies for Houston alone, and $705,000 was donated through the T-Mobile Foundation's match program.
Congratulations to the team at T-Mobile for its response to these natural disasters.


December 4, 2018 Onsite Safety Management Inc.
In the case of construction work, it is worthwhile to use your toolbox meetings as a place to remind all employees of the risks and hazards associated with cold weather work. Remind them what type of equipment they will be expected to bring and what will be provided.
If you're working outdoors everyday you're going to want multiples of most of these items.
While it is the employers responsibility to ensure the safety and proper conditions for employees, it never hurts to be sure everything has been taken care of and bring up any concerns you might have. REMEMBER: you have the right to refuse work you feel is unsafe.


text:
in my years of living at home with my parents, i recall my father having the sunday times delivered, something of an onerous read at the time, and probably no less the case nowadays. of course, in those days, we lived in mainland scotland, meaning that the newspapers were available pretty much first thing in the morning, allowing for a leisurely afternoon, after he'd been to church, to calmly obscure most of the living room carpet with the various sections that comprise this substantially sized newspaper.
i have no doubt there are avaricious readers who can demolish the entire edifice in the very day on which it is published, but despite my father also taking a daily newspaper, he would continue to read bits of the sunday times up until wednesday of the same week. this propensity to read the so-called broadsheets as opposed to the tabloids, is undoubtledly one that influenced my own reading habits. throughout my years at college, i purchased the observer, though i cannot deny that the habit was as much to do with the magazine publishing charles schultz's peanuts cartoons as for any perceived intellectual content.
in my years of employment at an airport dealing with transatlantic flights, i was fortunate enough to garner copies of the new york times and frequently, the boston globe, the sunday editions of which almost required a larger aircraft and made their uk peers appear like mere leaflets.
however, island life, while offering a myriad of opportunities conspicuous by their absence on mainland scotland, does not offer a sunday paper first thing in the morning, for like most of the island's visitors, they have need of arriving by ferry, stretching their delivery to anytime between mid-morning and lunchtime. this is a distinct improvement on my early years in the hebrides when, in winter months, the newspapers arrived by fishing boat, more usually around 4pm in the afternoon.
thus, less than convinced i could scrabble my way through an entire sunday edition of the observer, i confined myself to saturday's edition of the guardian, and lowered my reading expectations to encompass both days of the weekend. even then, i do not hold sufficient interest in all aspects of this still sizeable publication, to read each and every section. money, travel and sport are either headed straight for the recycle bin, or more often than not, stuffed into a pair of very wet cycling shoes.
my favoured section, other than the colour magazine, is that of the review, a compendium of book reviews encompassing non-fiction, fiction, poetry and the arts. it allows me, if only for a brief period of time, to harbour ideals of intellectuality, vainly hoping that i may be able to introduce the gist of that which i have read into everyday conversation. up until now, that has remained something of an unfulfilled pipedream.
in this week's issue, however, a peter forbes review of a book entitled the switch: how solar, storage and new tech means cheap power for all written by chris goodall, provided much food for thought. according to mr goodall, the sun supplies sufficient power in 90 minutes to meet the world's total energy needs for an entire year. the problem, it seems, relates specifically to that of storage. currently it's still impossible to put sunshine in a bottle. i do not propose to relate the entire content of either the book or the review, but in the light of our new prime minister's delayed consideration of the hinkley point nuclear power station, all may not be as doom and gloom as is being suggested.
there is a distinct possibility that i am alone in making what some may call spurious connections between seemingly unrelated subjects, but on the inside cover of the colour magazine accompanying this past saturday's guardian is a particularly notable advertisement for the hyundai santa fe, a vehicle that i shall classify as an suv for want of a better description (hyundai's marketing department offers no particular definition of their own). from the illustration in the advert it appears to be a vehicle midway between one of those big chunky range rover wannabes and an estate car.
what makes it relevant not only to my discussion on renewable energies and the purported velocipedinal bent of the post, is this particular model's designation as the team wiggins edition. for while ford have all but swamped team sky's pinarellos, it seems that prince bradley is being favoured with one or two hyundais carrying his directeurs sportifs, mechanics and sticky bottles.
i have no precise idea of the cost of a full-page colour advertisement in the guardian magazine, but i tend to think it's maybe a tad more than a few pence. this makes it all the more notable that a company intent on selling a vehicle that still relies heavily on fossil fuels has made such strenuous moves to associate itself with cycling. i assume the perception that they are hoping to imply is one at odds with the reality of vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine. in truth, i can see little wrong with this approach; i'd imagine that the majority of cyclists are also motorists. and if advertisements such as this and the association of hyundai with team wiggins results in the selling of their vehicles to cyclists as opposed to models from competing manufacturers, then more power to their corporate elbow.
but is it not interesting that as cycling's profile on the world's stage increases, the word bandwagon becomes one that lingers at the back of the mind? only this past week, mrs washingmachinepost brought home a bottle of shampoo with a cyclist on the label. and it wasn't alpecin. it is encouraging that renewable energy currently garners investment more than double that of fossil fuels and economically converting the sun's energy into storables such as liquid fuels and methane is but a few years in the future. but it's similarly encouraging that the world's car manufacturers feel they have something to gain by a visible association with cycling.
it may not simply be energy that is experiencing a switch.
hyundai santa fe team wiggins edition
monday 1 august 2016
unior tyre levers
the vicissitudes of the touring cyclist will eventually come home to roost, though every now and again i am impressed with the ingenuity of those who suffer the occasional adversity while riding hither and thither. many a long year ago when i worked for the self-styled number one car hire company, two americans returned a vehicle with lengths of string tied to each windscreen wiper. when i enquired as to the purpose of these accessories, they admitted that the wipers had broken while driving in skye, so they'd attached the string to each wiper, threaded it through both front door windows and taken turns at pulling in sequence to keep the windscreen clear of precipitation.
an excellent example of lateral thinking, despite the fact that their rental breakdown cover would have had them a replacement car delivered to their accommodation.
so when a gent called me yesterday morning, professing to have suffered a broken spoke, i naively stated that a replacement would not be a problem. unfortunately, the wheel turned out to feature a deeper rim than i'd expected, one that proved of a different diameter than would accept any of the spokes i had on file. meantime, the gent had got hold of a spare spoke, bent one end into a hook to fit the hub flange and screwed the other end into the spoke nipple. this rudimentary fix was actually quite clever and seemed sturdier than it had any right to be, which is just as well, because i'd to re-fit it after messing about with various other non-fitting spokes.
however, one of the necessary steps to replacing a spoke is removal of the tyre, tube and rim tape, not always a simple a procedure as you'd think. it's the fact that the tyre has probably suffered a substantial number of kilometres and weight, all conditions that serve to firmly affix the tyre to the rim and make removal harder than it ought to be. couple this with the propensity of the inner tube to stick to the tyre's inside surface, often due to a build-up of static and the struggle to insert a tyre lever under the tyre bead can often be one of the most frustrating pastimes the intrepid fettler may come across.
this is the point at which one discovers there are tyre levers and there are tyre levers. those with a simple flat edge work well when finally inserted uder the bead, but what you really want is a lever with a curved or hooked end. this style, once under the tyre, is less likely to flip out as removal commences. and if they can't be pink, then a stylish shade of blue is perfectly acceptable. any mechanic worth his or her salt knows of the importance implied by the colour of certain tools. my industrial old-style bottom bracket fixed cup removal tool was red; of course it is; what other colour would it be?
though i had eventually to apologise to the gent with the broken spoke (well, the gent with the wheel with a broken spoke) for being unable to carry out the promised repair, my efforts on his behalf were greatly eased by a pair of blue unior tyre levers. constructed of sturdy plastic, these are easily clipped together for storage and almost as versatile as the unior multi-tool reviewed only a matter of days ago. though tyre removal is scarcely unknown to me, my frequent clumsiness has resulted in more than just a single broken lever. those under consideration are of a more sturdy and rustic constitution.
as if the above were scarcely enough to contend with before popping down to the village for my weekend newspaper and a carton of orange juice (with bits), i decided additionally to swap the 33mm 'cross tyres fitted to my specialized review model (patience, patience) for a pair of challenge strada bianche 33mm road tyres. should you be wondering why, i have plans to ride this excellent bike in next sunday's ride of the falling rain and smooth tyres seem a tad more appropriate.
guess which tyre levers eased the process?
unior blue tyre levers
on reflection...
by my standards, i'm not one who goes to bed particularly early, at least not as early as i think it behoves a honed athlete so to do. by the time i drag myself up the stairs, i have usually to switch on the light on my ipod, courteously not wishing to switch on the stair light, lest it awaken mrs washingmachinepost. since she has need of arising each morning almost an hour before yours truly, you can imagine the telling-off i'd receive if a sound sleep were interrupted, simply because the nonsense i watch on telly finishes at an inordinate time of day.
though 'tis allegedly still british summertime (something heralded by a chorus of car alarms in bowmore main street and trouble with the ferries), since midsummer's day has now passed us by, to put not too fine a point on it, it's downhill to winter from here on in. locally, the annual statement being trotted out at the beginning of august is that winter begins the day after the annual agricultural show. that takes place on thursday 11th, so there's really not that much of summer left. i should point out that the hebrides have a distinct propensity to by-pass autumn entirely, heading straight to winter.
all the foregoing, as is the case on an annual basis, means that the encroaching onset of darkness means a concomitant lessening of visibility for the hapless cyclist. actually, the word 'hapless' is perhaps a tad incorrect in this instance, for i would vehemently contend that it is an adjective that ought not to apply in these circumstances. there are probably more companies offering bicycle illumination nowadays that at any time in the past, so really, there's no excuse for being 'hapless'. i currently have under review a particularly excellent backpack from showers pass that features four flashing lights about its person and there are any number of jackets on the market specifically concerned with lightening the cyclist's load, so to speak, after the hours of darkness.
so far, however, there's only one that i've come across which offers quite literally 360 degrees of reflectivity, meaning that no matter from which angle a vehicle's headlights bounce off the jacket, you're guaranteed to light up the neighbourhood. the example of which i speak comes from the proviz wardrobe and is rather aptly named the reflect360 jacket. if it were merely a reflective jacket, praise would still be due, but in point of fact, a decent level of waterproofing only adds to its allure. however, in daylight, the reflect360 appears to the naked eye as a less than startlingly attractive neutral grey. when wet, it looks rather odd; not unattractively so, but odd nonetheless.
this is obviously a state of affairs about which the clever folks at proviz have remained slightly uneasy, for they have now released the very same jacket harbouring identical reflective properties but now constituted in blue, red, yellow, black or green, providing a flash of daylight colour and bringing the thus dressed cyclist to the attention of motorists during the day too.
to give some indication of the popularity of such a move, the kickstarter campaign launched by proviz to bring reflective colour to the masses sooner rather than later, is currently oversubscribed by more than twice the amount of their original goal with yet 25 days to go. pledging £65 or more will get you the colour and size of your choice at half the eventual retail price of £129.99. with the dark-side not that far away, it does one no dishonour to steadfastly remain a jedi and acquire chromatic reflectivity, particularly at such an advantageous price.
let sense and safety prevail.
proviz reflect 360 crs
thirty one seconds to spare
though i realise this may be of little interest to the majority of you, i'm sure you won't mind too much if i appraise you of the current situation afflicting the hallowed isle. due to the constant influx of summer visitors, drawn to the southernmost of the inner hebrides by a plethora of distilleries, relatively unspoilt beaches and a bucketload of wide-open spaces, the island is regularly served by two ferries. currently those are the mv finlaggan and the mv hebridean isles. or at least that was the case until last sunday when the latter boat gave the pier at kennacraig a sound thrashing.
that boat is now entering dry-dock in greenock, leaving the island to be served by a single ferry.
so far, so bad, but it should also be pointed out that the mezzanine deck on the mv finlaggan, which would normally carry around twenty cars, broke right at the start of the season, meaning the boat is running at roughly half capacity. while this may be causing untold convenience for visitors wishing to travel over here, it's doing much the same for those who'd like to get away. many of the latter are having to drive to the ferry terminal on the evening previous to intended travel and leave their vehicle in the standby lane, hopeful that they might get on the following morning's sailing.
in case you wonder why i'm telling you all this, it is as a result of continual observation while sat on the bench outside port askaig ferry terminal yesterday lunchtime. i had been invited to join mr mark beaumont to cycle from port askaig to port ellen on islay as part of his week long wild about argyll extravaganza. in this case, our cycle was preceded by his running over the paps of jura, an exploit that should have seen him arrive on a calmac ferry complete with an appropriately bedecked mercedes support van. if you've paid attention to the above, you will scarcely be surprised to learn that the van remained on the mainland while mr beaumont and attendant film crew had need of arriving on jura via the jura fast ferry from tayvallich, a rigid inflatable boat that does not have the capacity to carry vehicles.
a representative from the islay and jura tourism and marketing group did say that he'd figured the projected timescale for mark's run across the paps was just a smidgeon optimistic, a remark that proved to be correct. he should have arrived off the 12:30pm ferry from jura, but in point of fact, arrived on the 14:30, thus explaining why i was sat outside port askaig ferry terminal for nigh on two hours.
regular readers will be under no misapprehension that i am in the flush of youth, given to ambling easily up 14% gradients without feeling the need to get out of the big ring. it is more likely that i will already have selected the largest rear sprocket i own, marrying it with a 34 tooth inner chainring before puffing and panting my way up the steep brae at port askaig. i had imagined at this point that all i'd be looking at would be the rear triangle of mark beaumont's carbon koga disappearing several metres ahead. as it turned out, running over hills had tempered his considerable potential speed; thus graeme, mark and myself had a superb, wind assisted bike ride over the 35 kilometres it takes to get to port ellen.
mr beaumont was nearing the end of a week of bike-riding, mountain biking, running and kayaking all in the name of bringing to the attention of the great british public, the joys of the great outdoors to be enjoyed in argyll and bute, hence the reason he was followed by a film crew. all this activity has provided a certain acuity as to the time required to complete each individual stage of the adventure. informed that we would be riding approximately 35km, without having visited islay on a previous occasion, he ventured that the bike ride would take us around one and a half hours. despite having to stop briefly in bowmore for a spot of filming and at islay airport to meet the fire crew, we arrived at the islay hotel in port ellen in one hour, twenty-nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds.
it was a grand day out.
special thanks to endura for additional support in advance of this bike ride.
we are now
if you managed to catch any of itv4's tour de france coverage, more specifically, the final result in paris, you may have seen a brief interview with a very busy and in-demand dave brailsford. the gist of the interview consisted of hearty congratulations on having chris froome (now totally homogenised as a british cyclist) win the tour for the third time. when added to prince bradley's victory, this amplifies sir brailsford's originally stark claim that he would put a brit on the podium within five years, one at which we all laughed when first stated.
guess who's laughing now.
however, midst the hasty platitudes proffered by a man who probably had more enjoyable items on his champs elysees checklist to take care of than speaking to television reporters, he offered the now famous soundbite: "We weren't a cycling nation a few years ago. We are now!". however you may wish to look at it, sir brailsford is not wrong. previous successes have only hinted that, midst the run of the mill, were individuals with the tenacity to win stuff by dint of their own bootstraps. brian robinson, tommy simpson, robert millar and sean yates all spring to mind, making considerable headway despite having to swim upstream.
but meanwhile, in the real world, where people ride their bikes for entirely different reasons, rarely connected with speed, this increased popularity has led to blame being apportioned to altogether innocent third parties. in the case in question, that third party is yours truly. though i can't say i'd be less than welcoming of a smattering of sympathy, in truth, my shoulders are well-versed in shuffling off the barbs and arrows of discontent. for in truth, this is not a new situation in which i find myself, simply one that recurs more frequently than was once the case.
though i have no intention of regaling you with each and every pointed criticism that demands my attention, the gist of most of them goes something like this: "i was driving through the village/along a singletrack country road and there were two/three/four cyclists ahead of me, riding two/three/four abreast. despite passing several passing places, none of them moved aside to let me pass, etc., etc., etc.". many of you will be more than familiar with variations on the above scenario, but despite my agreeing with every adverse point headed in my direction, i have seemingly become a spokesperson for what are now apparently 'my people.'
oddly enough, and i hope you'll forgive the pun, this seems something of a one-way street. though i am confounded by the iniquities of errant driving each and every weekend throughout the summer months, i have never felt it necessary to hold my motorist friends and colleagues responsible for the acts of others. i am quite firmly of the notion that there are idiots: some ride bicycles and some drive cars.
and though i cannot deny that my admittedly constant proselytising on behalf of the inanimate bicycle has made me something of an easy target, i do still wonder why i have become the repository for cycling complaints from the civilian population of islay. this despite my strenuous efforts to be courteous to other road users to the point of obsequiousness. for in the majority of cases, i'm really only playing, going nowhere in particular at a speed that i narcissistically like to refer to as fast.
the part that makes many of the accusations verge on the indefensible, is the knowledge that those miscreants about whom most complaints are being made are possibly in even less of a hurry than am i. for why would you find it appropriate to holiday on a west of scotland isle where the word 'manana' is sacrosanct, yet be so intent on arriving at your destination that you've scarcely time to move aside for a vehicle going about its daily business? they've been making whisky here for over 500 years and it takes an average of ten years to mature in its wooden casks.
where's the rush? and whatever happened to good manners?
thursday 28 july 2016
a change is as good as rest to a blind norse
one of my most recent layout jobs on the computer thingy was to re-do the scorecard for the local golf club. unlike previous years, however, this was not a case of looking up the file and reprinting the desired amount. in the interim, the new owners of machrie hotel and golf links have completely redesigned and reconstructed the course, to the extent of removing all those sandpits, referred to in golfing terms as bunkers. or so i'm told.
as one who has only once visited the golf course to take photos for a long-forgotten website, i'd be hard pushed to recollect just what the course looked like in the first place, but i imagine it must have come as something of a culture shock to the club members who have now lost the links course they have known and loved since the 19th century. or perhaps they have come to terms with the modern world and the financial whims of the comfortably well-off? i have enquired of one or two as to whether they view the changes as good or bad, but up till now, most have been diplomatically non-committal.
this uniformity of reply is something of a mystery. not to put too fine a point on it, up till now i have not known golfers to blithely accept factors that might unravel all those years of trying manfully and womanfully to achieve some sort of consistency in their drive and putt. yet here we are with an eighteen-hole golf course utterly devoid of bunkers (of which i was under the obviously mistaken impression were an intrinsic part of any course) and nobody seems to mind too much. or perhaps they simply don't want to upset their new benefactor.
for well i can sympathise with unheralded change and its unexpected effect on a cutlivated pedal stroke. i currently have an eye-wateringly bright cyclocross bicycle in for review (about which more will be said in due course), one that has swept away all notions of following the fame and fortunes to be garnered while riding a three-week grand tour. for in a smattering of weeks, the 2016 cyclocross season will be once more upon us and i have taken it upon myself to get in some secret training while no-one else is looking.
as those with the unrelenting tenacity to read these black and yellow pixels on a regular basis will be well aware, the little corner of the hallowed isle that affords hours of inept scrabbling in the undergrowth is sited nearby in bridgend woods. and having conscientiously and laboriously assembled, fettled and adjusted the newbie from the bikeshed on saturday morning, i paid my first visit for many a long month to the tracks and bushes that i know so well. only to discover that, presumably in the interests of perambulatory uniformity, the estate have indiscriminately peppered the once rocky and muddy surface with tightly packed gravel.
i cannot disagree that the foregoing has evened out a formerly tactile surface, allowing a more consistent pedal stroke and an allegedly higher speed, factors that you would be almost correct in surmising constituted a more agreeable ride. except you'd be only partly right; that formerly rocky pathway was ideal for testing the mettle of any cyclocross bicycle, wheels or tyres that happened my way, both uphill and downhill. it could almost have been described as character building were it not for the fact that a winter of rain and galeforce winds had already saturated that particular ideal.
i'm sure that the elements will not be long in returning the route to its formerly ruinous state of affairs and i will once more glory in the excesses of my incompetence. by that time, there will be wall to wall cyclocross all across the world and i will once more be one of the cool kids.
as if that's ever likely to happen.
wd40 bicycle products
the bicycle chain, in the case of a new one, presents the intent observer with something of a dichotomy, not to say divided opinion. for those who actually remember and hand the bike over to their local bike shop to have the chain replaced, this might fit into the realm of "i didn't know that." the manufacturers of nice new chains very kindly cover them with a thin coating of grease, mostly to keep them in pristine condition until one of us hands over our hard-earned.
however, this thin coating of grease is easily sufficient to provide at least a minimal level of immediate lubrication for those without the patience to look at alternatives. in fact, there are many amongst us who would contend that the true reason for this film of grease is precisely that, to save scrounging about in the bikeshed for that little bottle of lube that was definitely there on saturday morning.
for those deep of pocket, or with a professional contract in their pocket, the chaps and chapesses at muc-off are more than happy to offer, at considerable expense, a fully pre-lubricated bicycle chain, something that, if nothing else, simply muddies the waters even further. however, what is less open to debate is quite how to deal with the situation in hand whatever your point of view on the subject.
in either case, it would take a true quantity of naiveté not to remove the factory applied coating, prior to lubricating the chain with your oil/synthetic lubricant of choice. grease, in case the effect had passed you by, has a tendency to attract grit, dirt and several other unsavoury elements; if you left the chain in its delivered condition, it would be foolish, would it not, to simply attempt to drip some lubricant on top of all that? yes, the chain will work, but its lifecycle will be a tad less than the purchase price might have suggested.
thus, as technology has improved and tolerances have become ever more precise, that can of three-in-one oil on the shelf at the back of the garage has become less relevant to the bicycle and more confined to the lawnmower. nowadays, a lubricant is simply the final stage in the process, being effectively preceded by a liberal coating of degreaser (and if we're really going to be thorough, a scrubbing with a purple harry pipecleaner). either allow that to dry of its own accord, or wipe the chain and cassette with a cloth or towel, before dripping a spot of lube on each chain roller.
it has been pointed out to me on several occasions over the years, that one of the worst things i could use to 'oil' my chain was a liberal dousing of wd40. that, i am happy to inform, is decidedly no longer the case. for in the past month or so, wd40 have introduced a range of bicycle-related products consisting of an aerosol degreaser, an aerosol lubricant matched with small bottles of dry lube and wet lube, the appropriateness of which is engendered by the name.
as one firmly of the 'remove all grease from a new chain' school of thought, the arrival of a brand new review bike from the specialized stable offered the ideal opporchancity to spray it with the wd40 degreaser then apply some lubricant. though i had already carried out a similar process on the considerably less than new chain on the colnago master, on that occasion i opted to lube with the wet lube, a product that proved every bit the equal of the conditions for which it was designed. and not only that, but it was simplicity itself to indulge my occd (obsessive compulsive chain disorder) by placing only a single drop on each chain roller.
in the case of the specialized's eleven-speed sram chain, i opted for the dry lube; in one aspect at least, this was a bit of a disappointment. wd40's yellow topped grey bottles do not require the tops to be removed completely, but simply to twist them open sufficiently to allow the lubricant to flow. while the wet lube is agreeably viscous, the dry lube has the consistency of water. thus, instead of a single drip on each roller, there was a mini-shower; highly effective, but a tad messy and ultimately wasteful. and my wheel rim did not thank me afterwards.
however, in mitigation, the dry lube did work remarkably well under the circumstances, though lack of a thorough dousing with precipitation has yet to offer a clue as to its longevity in the face of adversity. time will tell.
the spray lube has proved its effectiveness on the likes of sticky front mechs, squeaky gateposts and a recalcitrant back door hinge, though i should issue a disclaimer that the latter two are not actually bicycle-related. aside from the less than satisfactory application of the dry lube, these are more than welcome products from a company that surely has to be far better versed in the art of bicycle lubrication than are most of us. more than worth a portion of space on the bikeshed shelf.
500ml of wd40 bicycle degreaser retails at £8.99, the two 100ml bottles of lube cost £6.99 each and the 250ml can of all conditions spray lube can be had for £6.59.


text:
May 31, 2007 - by Seminoles.com
Seminole Volleyball Player Brianna Barry Just Misses Out On USA Junior National Squad
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. –
Last season freshman middle blocker Brianna Barry made an immediate impact for the Florida State volleyball team by earning ACC All-Freshman Team honors. This summer she took another step towards becoming one of the premier players not only in the conference, but in the country by being invited to the USA Junior National Team tryouts.
For three days in Austin, Texas, Barry (Winter Springs, Fla.) played with some of the best up-and-coming players in the country. She made it to the doorstep of joining the Junior National Team as one of the final 24 players, but did not survive the final cut. This was her second stint with USA Volleyball. She attended the Girls Youth National A-2 Training Camp in the summer of 2004.
"Being chosen as one of the 24 players for the training camp gave me a boost of confidence because it showed me that I can play at a very high level," Barry said. "It also gave me motivation to work hard next year so that I can try to make the final 12. I played with a lot of high-caliber players and I learned a lot from them that will help me be better in the fall and hopefully help get the team to the NCAA Tournament."
The invitation to Austin guaranteed Barry a spot on the A2 Junior National Team, but she turned down the chance to play with the team in Europe at the Global Challenge so that she could return to Tallahassee to train with the Seminoles in their off season workouts and attend summer school. Last year she was a member of the All-ACC Academic Volleyball Team.
"If anything it provided a confidence boost for Brianna," FSU head coach Todd Kress said. "Sometimes Brie is her toughest critic and by realizing that she was in the top 24 of her age level in the country, and at her position one of the top five or six, and had a legitimate to make that top 12 really gave her a boost of confidence to where I think she can compete with anybody right now. That is only going to help her sophomore year."
On April 20 Barry attended a qualifier in Dallas where Junior National head coach Andy Banachowski and his staff saw her play. From the hundreds of players in attendance, Barry was one of 24 selected for the three-day training camp in Austin. The two dozen players went through four sessions which consisted on individual skill work and team matches. On the final day, the team was whittled down to 12 players.
Florida State is coming off one of its best season under Kress as it won a school-record 13 victories to go along with a 19-12 record. Along with Barry, returning for the Seminoles is AVCA Honorable Mention All-American Makini Thompson (Quincy, Mass.).
Florida State Volleyball Adds Pac-10 Standout Mira Djuric To Roster
Six NCAA Tournament Teams Highlight Florida State Volleyball's 2007 Schedule


This new title in the BIS series of memory games celebrates the heroes of Dutch Design. Your task, as ever, is to find the matching cards of two objects by the same Dutch Designer. The objects are very distinguishable in form and the designer's signature. Hours of fun guaranteed and you will gain more knowledge of the international beloved projects of famous Dutch designers.


At Redding Eyecare Center—serving Siskyou, Shasta County, Tehema and Trinity CA—our Redding optometrist has helped people of all ages find lasting relief from their eye allergies. Knowledge is power, so understanding more about your unique eye allergy presentation (in addition to seeking care with our team) can help you stay symptom-free.
Clinically known as allergic conjunctivitis, an eye allergy happens when an otherwise non-harmful substance causes an excessive and inflammatory immune system reaction. In other words, the body recognizes this substance (also known as an allergen) as noxious or harmful, and launches a protective response against it, leading to the hallmark eye allergy symptoms (see the next section).
It's not entirely why some people get certain allergies, including those that affect the eyes, and others don't. It's believed that genetics and even a widespread emphasis on ultra-hygiene may play a role.
These symptoms can vary in intensity and duration and will tend to worsen when you come in direct contact with whatever trigger causes your allergic reaction.
Dr. Young is proud to be an area leader in vision and eye care. As a Redding optometrist, he relies on his 30 years of experience plus extensive clinical training to help him provide effective, affordable, customized, and evidence-based care for his patients. If you're suffering from eye allergies or any other ailment affecting your vision, then contact the Redding Eyecare Center today.
We'd be happy to get you in to see the eye doctor as soon as possible! Call us now at 530-222-1233.
"I'm from out of town; stopped by this office to have glasses adjusted. Beth assisted me with this. As I waited, I checked out their large selection of eyeglasses trying on pretty much everything they had in Fendi, Gucci, Caviar etc. I had gone for an eye exam last June but did not get prescription filled as I was not comfortable with the diagnosis or the service provided by LensCrafters. Beth gave me exceptional customer service! Because of this, her experience and professionalism I went ahead and had another eye exam, bought new eyeglasses and I'm very pleased and happy with the diagnosis and my new eyewear. Thank you to Dr Michael Young, Beth and the rest of his staff. Everyone extremely friendly and helpful. Great experience!!!"


text:
A JEDI Uses the Force for Knowledge and Defense: The Pentagon awards US$10billion JEDI cloud deal to Microsoft
Browse archives for December 02, 2019
Managing Threats & Attacks, New Developments, Privacy, Data Protection & Information Management
Tagged with cloud, data protection, technology
By Cameron Abbott and Tan Xin Ya
In October, the US Department of Defence (DoD) awarded the Joint Enterprise Defence Infrastructure (JEDI) contract to Microsoft to overhaul its IT infrastructure – a huge show of confidence in infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
The DoD's award of the 10-year, $10 billion JEDI contract to Microsoft is an endorsement of the secure nature of Azure, Microsoft's cloud computing service. Under this deal, Microsoft's task is to create a globally responsive network and monitor ongoing issues such as bugs and breaches. Part of the deal involves moving sensitive data, including classified mission operations, to Microsoft Azure. The system must be fortified with robust cyber security and encryption as Microsoft bears the important responsibility for the defence of the US.
The DoD's decision to move to the cloud is a clear signal that IaaS has come of age, considering when such a security sensitive operation is able to use the service.
California's answer to the GDPR – the California Consumer Privacy Act kicks in on 1 Jan 2020
You Can't Throw the (Face)Book at Them: Affected Users Unable to Pursue Damages Claim against Facebook