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General Turf CareLawn CareMaintenancePlantsServices
One-Stop Shopping
Nancy Riggs — November 1, 2010
Manuel Johnson provides whatever service his clients need
Manuel Johnson prefers knobby tread tires over smooth turf-type tires due to the steep inclines throughout the Crowley's Ridge area he services..
Photos courtesy of Johnson's Lawn Care
Manuel Johnson has built his business, Johnson's Lawn Service, in Paragould, Ark., by focusing on dependability and providing the equivalent of one-stop shopping. Johnson assures that dependability in several ways, including meticulous attention to detail in the lawns he cares for and in his equipment. "I learned early that when I pulled into a job, I had to be prepared to do everything that was needed. My clients like to deal with just one person. My equipment just wouldn't let me do that. I talked to the bank and got a loan," he said. "I invested about $110,000 to get started with equipment that let me do what I needed to do."
Johnson establishes new lawns, mows grass, manages flower beds and trims trees and shrubs. He also cleans out gutters, clears leaves and does just about anything else that comes along related to lawn care. His success is closely tied to his willingness to make the initial investment in appropriate equipment and his willingness to work the long hours required to build a solid client base.
The yards in Johnson's client base range from under an acre to more than 11 acres, and are located throughout Greene County. He maintains about a half-dozen business lawns with the remainder residential. Greene County is divided by Crowley's Ridge, with a mix of flat-land gumbo soil supporting major cotton and soybean production to the east, and extremely rocky, clay soil featuring hills and gullies to the west. Named for an early settler to the region, Crowley's Ridge itself contains a windblown soil called loess. Lawn soils vary greatly among Johnson's clients, but warm-season bermuda, tall fescue and zoysia grasses generally do well in all the local soils. The greater significance of Crowley's Ridge is the terrain of lawns to the west, which have steep banks and gullies.
Most of the lawns Johnson mows have a mix of large expanses and tight turns with extensive tree mulching.
Johnson used to work with his father in car sales. "My dad owned a late-model used car lot," he said. "As my dad was getting older, I knew I didn't want to take it over, so I started looking around at different work. I had always been an outdoorsman, enjoying hunting, fishing and doing most anything outdoors. In 1998, I was clearing out 22 acres that a woman had just purchased. It was in tall timber, and I took out all the scrub brush and left the timber. She asked me if I would put in a yard for her, too. I put in a 1-acre yard of rye and fescue. Other people learned I was doing yard work, and it just went from there."
Johnson emphasized that his early years were a trial and error learning process. "The first year, you almost sink, the second year you just float and you get more customers," he said. "By the third year, you've got to turn a profit."
Caring for lawns
Johnson has learned the ins and outs of manicuring lawns and scheduling the 46 lawns he cares for. "The only thing we don't do is apply chemicals," he said. Even that task, though, is coordinated by Johnson. He schedules the fertilizer and weed control applications through Adams Nursery and Northeast Arkansas Turf Care, both in Paragould, and Sartin's in Jonesboro.
While manicuring lawns is a primary focus, Johnson completes the high number of other tasks associated with lawns. "We have one lawn with a concrete driveway .25 mile long, so that's .5 mile of edging," he said. "We planted petunias in the spring and took them all out replacing them with pansies this fall. We'll plant from around 800 plants up to around 1,400."
While fescue and zoysia grasses are used in the area, most of Johnson's clients prefer the plush look of bermudagrass despite it's early fall dormancy. "We're changing some of the fescue yards over to bermuda just because our clients want that plush green bermuda," he said.
Johnson said that just learning how to cut grass properly was a major undertaking. "I knew how to cut grass, of course, but cutting it so it looks perfect required some trial and error." He started mowing with an inexpensive, walk-behind mower. "That lasted about three months," he said. He started using John Deere mowers in 2000 from Legacy Equipment, formerly Kirk Equipment, in Paragould, and is now using his 11th John Deere, a JD 960.
"I had to start early to get through all the yards," Johnson said. Arkansas summers are hot and dry, but despite dry fields, humidity is extensive, and most of the lawns are irrigated, contributing to lawns remaining wet well into midday. "I found that if I was going to cut wet grass I had to have a bagger mower, so I bought my first Wright diesel mower in 2001 from Jonesboro Tractor," he said. "We've had five Wrights."
He started using Honda Hydrostat mowers in 2003, purchasing from Lyle's Engine Repair, Paragould. "It's smaller, and I like to use it when we're on soft yards. We're using our fourth Honda," he said.
The extremely rugged terrain calls for various approaches. "My trailer carries the three types of mowers we use. The Wright diesel can be used to bag, discharge or mulch," he said. "The John Deere gives us more power, and I like to use the Honda Hydrostat on soft yards to avoid making ruts in the yards. Sometimes we'll have all three mowers running."
Johnson said, "I don't use turf tires. I use knobby tread tires for more traction on our gullies and banks."
Equipment care is a major focus for Johnson. "I never wash a piece of equipment. If you get water into any of those electronics, it's a major problem," he said. Instead, he opts for high-powered blowers to clean the equipment. "I always try to turn over my equipment after about 1,500 to 1,800 hours," he said. He uses all Stihl trimmers and edgers.
Johnson has increased his prices only three times even though recent overhead costs have increased. "We have had to learn to work more efficiently," he said. "We have to use the right equipment to do the job efficiently to keep costs down."
Johnson bills his customers only for the number of times he actually mows grass or does other work. "I get paid only when I work. If it rains on the day we're scheduled to do a lawn, we don't go back to do it, but if it rains the second week, then lawns are rescheduled, so nobody's lawn goes more than two weeks," he explained.
Tree and shrub trimming is an essential part of maintaining manicured lawns. Bradford pear trees are very popular in northeast Arkansas, presenting a cloud-like appearance when in spring bloom. "They're very popular and beautiful, but they aren't strong trees," Johnson said. "You have to trim them back hard to avoid branches catching the wind and breaking off or splitting the tree." Each fall, Johnson collects the abundant leaves on the yards and disposes of them on property owned by his family.
Johnson's wife Carmon, a supervisor at Monroe Auto Equipment manufacturing facility, has worked with her husband from the start. Their daughter, Candace, a junior at Arkansas State University, began working in the lawn care business as a teenager and continues to help out when she has time available. "Occasionally, I've subcontracted with other people to do some mowing when I've gotten behind, but they're people I know well who are just as particular about their work as I am," he said.
"We've been very lucky," Johnson said, citing the expanding northeast Arkansas industrial base as bringing in a number of new clients. "I think Paragould is about 40,000 population now, and Jonesboro, 17 miles away, about 60,000. The recession hasn't hit Arkansas as hard as some places, and there are a lot of new industries that have brought in people. My clients depend on me and really want to deal with just one person for everything about their lawns," Johnson said.
Nancy Riggs is a freelance writer and has been covering the green industry for Turf for almost 20 years. She resides in Mt. Zion, Ill.
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About the Author Nancy Riggs
Nancy Riggs is a freelance writer who lives and works in Mt. Zion, Illinois.


Howard Jacobson (born 1942-08-24) is a prize-winning British comic novelist, non-fiction writer and former academic.
All those words of praise they use for novels – spare, economical. Why should I shell out £17 for economical?
I'm a Jewish Jane Austen.
This page was last edited on 16 July 2018, at 00:06.


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In case you need an occasional reminder… » « "What the futz do drag queens have to do with Atheism?"
Is Apple trying to drive me away?
AleksandarN
My latest aggravation with the company: I upgraded to their newest version of the OS, Catalina, recently, and it looks and performs just fine, except for a couple of gigantic problems. Both Audacity, the great audio processing program, and OBS Studio, the most popular broadcasting software around, crash and die if you try to run them. It's a conflict with how the OS manages permissions to access things like microphones and cameras. There a couple of ugly workarounds floating around that involve launching the programs from the Unix command line, but still, this is appalling.
Apple should have known about these conflicts long before the OS was released, and if they couldn't fix them on their side, they should have flown a couple of engineers straight to those companies and helped them fix their code. It's not as if Apple has a shortage of cash. I can understand how they might find it necessary to move forward, especially on issues that involve security, and break backwards compatibility…but then they are responsible for making the information available to enable apps to conform to the new standards.
Oh, yeah, and the camera software for my microscope is also broken. That's a very narrow niche so I don't expect a huge effort by Apple to make it work, but still, I'm sitting here feeling like my computer has been crippled in some of the functions I use most.
Doc Bill says
Dreamweaver (website editing program) broke, too, but it almost seems to be Adobe's business model to allow it's software to be broken by Apple, then hit you up for an upgrade. Now, they have a subscription model which simply doesn't make any sense for a less-than-casual user of that software. I think the Universe is telling me that a website started with Notepad in 1997 and converted through 4-5 web editing packages over the years is time to retire!
8 December 2019 at 12:08 pm
The software that runs my Eye-TV box got caught up in the total conversion to 64 bit software with Catalina. The developer has a beta version in open testing. All developers have known this transition was coming for years. Mojave kept displaying notices of 32 bit software would not run under Catalina.
I looked at the age of my old iMac, and decided to freeze it at Mojave to be able to run mission critical 32 bit software, and got a new iMac to be my main computer which runs Catalina and beyond.
brucej says
It's not Apple's job to make 3rd party sofware work.
Just be grateful you're not dealing with instrument sofware running under windows. "Oh you want to upgrade the software for your $50,000 HPLC to run under Windows 10? That'll be $10,000 please…"
We have a stack of very old computers laying about JUST to make sure we have spares to keep faculty member's instruments that require Windows XP (often very specific versions of Windows XP ) running.
Another fun fact: If you roll back your computer to Mojave via Time Machine (you DO have Time Machine running?) Time Machine got broken, because Apple changed some of it under the hood, so if you roll it back, you have to reformat your Time Machine volume (or start with a fresh drive).
So far I've only updated one test system to Catalina; I only just recenly updated my main work computer to Mojave, and am in no huge hurry to update it.
hemidactylus says
Ideally 3rd party software makers stay connected with platform OS development and offer immediate updates already beta-tested after major OS updates.
The 32 to 64 thing happened with iOS several years ago, leaving my iPhone 5 in the dust. Several apps were left behind.
The recent iOS13 update raised holy hell with a browser, which I stopped using since it has yet to be updated. Guess developer didn't care. There were some other quirks, like touch screen sensitivity launching links by scrolling in apps and in the iPhone's own settings menus, but all have been resolved.
Most apps I use are free, which may make me the product, though Apple is a bit stricter on app standards, I assume, than Android.
I have several Linux desktop boxes sitting neglected because I no longer care. My next project, on backburner, was a safer router than consumer grade crap. pfSense was the idea, but I'd have to figure out separate wireless AP, especially a safer platform and firmware (flashed but not bricked openwrt?) and lost interest. Maybe in the future. Following a routersecurity website made me even more disgusted with tech corporations than I could get with Microsoft, Google, and Apple. Routerland and iOT are the wild west (to the extent that was a thing and not a mythos beyond the movies).
garnetstar says
They've successully driven me away. I've never so much as turned on another kind of computer, the only devices I've ever use have been Apple. But, the deterioration of quality in both the software and the hardware is too much, and I'll never buy an Apple device again. The oldest devices I have now are 2011, and I still run many of the older OS's, as you have to go that far back to get the quality of hardware and software that they used to have.
madtom1999 says
#3 It's not Apple's job to make 3rd party software work.
It depends why its broken. Apple seems to be be moving things around for the sake of moving them around – or more likely so it can fleece both customer and software provider. I've been in IT since before PCs and Apple have got to be the most painful people to work with. They stopped providing a service for their customers many years ago.
sparks says
Smart enough to understand a significant portion of the Cosmos, yet so stupid as to cave in to profitability.
Go Humans!
Also related: I recently looked up the latest Powerbook models, because my current machine is getting rather long in the tooth at 6 years of age (but still working, so I'm not in crisis mode here). They're replacing all the Thunderbolt 2 ports with Thunderbolt 3, and there is no standard USB port anywhere. This is horrifying. If I get a new laptop someday, I'll have to replace all the cables and adapters I've got, and also get a Thunderbolt to USB adapter so I can use all this other gear I have right now.
Jesus, Apple. Just switch to USB everywhere, like all the other PCs out there, so I can use 3rd party equipment without also having to buy an apple-branded adapter. Cheap assholes.
Of course, if they break all of my extant software, I'll have no reason to stay in the Apple camp at all. That's the main thing keeping me here now…not the hardware, but my investment in software.
mailliw says
There a couple of ugly workarounds floating around that involve launching the programs from the Unix command line, but still, this is appalling.
I have long been baffled as to why Steve Jobs became so enamoured of Unix when he started NeXT. Unix is so fundamentally removed from the whole Apple notion of the intuitive user interface.
One might think that today Apple would have the resources to build a modern, multi-tasking operating system of its own.
Deborah Goldsmith says
One clarification: recent Apple laptops do have standard USB ports. It's a USB-C connector rather than USB-A, but it's still USB:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C
If you have cables that have USB-A connectors, you don't need to buy the adapters from Apple, and they're pretty cheap:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=usb-c+usb-a+adapter&crid=2ZXCLFCT30TU4&sprefix=USB-C+USB-A%2Caps%2C196&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_11
You won't need Thunderbolt/USB adapters to use your existing USB peripherals, just USB-A/USB-C adapters. The ports can do both Thunderbolt 3 and USB. It's just a connector change, not a proprietary port (other PC manufacturers also use USB-C).
daved says
I work for a very large computer company where most of the software engineers have Macbook Pros. So many people reported problems with Catalina that I am simply not upgrading from Mojave until I have to, Some of the problems people have reported still don't have good workarounds. I haven't upgraded my personal iPhone to iOS 13, either. Too many reported problems.
wereatheist says
Both Audacity and OBS Studio run on Linux-based systems, too. No idea about your microscope-camera software. Maybe you could jump into the un-American cesspool of FLOSS?
nicknamenone says
I use apple computers for audio/video work and pretty much every DAW and plug in maker sent emails saying don't upgrade to Catalina until they figure out how to work with it. Apple isn't much interested in third party software working with their computers and for a good stretch they didn't really care to much about professional users, at least not in my field. Final Cut Pro was gutted and useless for a long time. Logic seems like good software but old timers like haven't switched over as much as we could, maybe should have. Sorry to hear nothing is working. I know I am one update away from having to replace tons and tons of older apps I use on a daily basis.
chrislawson says
This is exactly what drove me from Apple to Linux about 5 years ago, after being driven away from MS 10 years ago. There are many frustrations to using Linux but it has never tried to make my life difficult just so it could extort more cash from me. MS is blatant about it. They repeatedly changed the format of Office files for the sole purpose of making old software incompatible with newer file formats thereby forcing users to upgrade the Office Suite if they want to read files from other users even though the suite was working fine for them. Apple doesn't do that. Most upgrades are free once you've bought the program which removes that incentive. What Apple does instead is repeatedly make life difficult for 3rd party vendors by breaking functionality, thus driving frustrated users to Apple software. This is particularly tough on smaller vendors or FOSS vendors like Audacity.
brucej@3–
Apple definitely has a responsibility to make 3rd party software work. It's not an absolute responsibility — I don't expect Apple to pay to debug 3rd party software — but they have a direct financial responsibility to their customers and the 3rd party vendors who sell through the Apple Store. Even the products that are not sold through Apple are still helpful because they expand their ecosystem, making an Apple computer a better purchase. All of these vendors are helping Apple and Apple is returning the favour by acting like a particularly awful feudal lord. 'As of today, you may not use the baron's roads to bring grain to market unless your wagon is fitted with genuine Baronmobile wheels, which will be made available to the public only a few months after harvest. But you still owe tithes!'
I would also note that Mac OS upgrades rarely break core Apple software, which means they make damn sure their own products work before upgrading but they don't give 3rd party vendors the same privilege. This is clearly anti-competitive.
Finally, just because 3rd party vendors on the MS platform can be even more extortionate doesn't excuse Apple's behaviour.
whheydt says
Re: mailliw @ #10…
Unix doesn't actually have a "user interface". You connect with a terminal. If you want a GUI, you do the sensible thing and run a graphical processing program (mostly it's been Xwindows, but there's new stuff coming along now) and then whatever GUI you happen to like. The same is true of Linux.
If you want an inexpensive example to play with, get a Raspberry Pi, install Raspbian, and then try out as many different GUIs as you care to.
This is all something unix/Linux got right. The user interface has no business being embedded in the OS.
For those talking about Audacity… I check (apt-cache search) and it's in the Raspbian Buster repositories. Raspberry Pis are a heck of lot cheaper than anything Apple sells.
PZ, I don't know about Powerbooks (I thought they didn't make those anymore, do you mean MacBooks?), but all the Mac laptops now have all the components soldered to the frame, making upgrading and repair next to impossible.
So, if your hard drive breaks, you can't buy a new one and have it put in. You have to buy a new laptop. If you want to buy and install a larger hard drive, you can't: you have to buy a new computer with that size of hard drive already in it.
Same with the RAM. The chips are soldered in, so you cannot add new ones to upgrade the memory, you have to use the amount of RAM that was originally in the computer forever.
And, if, say, the controller (or whatever it's called) that works the SMC breaks and needs replacement, the SMC has firmware on it that self-erases when you try to replace the controller that works it. It basically commits suicide so that you can't have that repaired, and have to buy a whole new computer.
All this is for no reason at all except as a power play to make customers throw away their entire computers and have to buy a new one, just when a minor component goes down, or if they want to upgrade its components. Apple started this in, I believe, 2012, so any laptop after that is not really repairable or at all upgradeable.
As I said, I own no Mac hardware that's older than 2011. The 2010 or 2011 models originally came with 4 GB of RAM: that was easy to have upgraded to my current 16 GB. I believe they were sold with 500 GB hard drives, but when one of mine broke, I just had it replaced with a 1 TB drive. That sort of use is no longer possible. You want an ungrade or a minor repair, you have to throw your computer away and get a new one. Not hardware that I'll ever buy.
John Morales says
chrislawson,
Apple definitely has a responsibility to make 3rd party software work.
Apparently not. :)
Clearly, providing backward compatibility between versions is both harder and less profitable.
MS is blatant about it. They repeatedly changed the format of Office files for the sole purpose of making old software incompatible with newer file formats thereby forcing users to upgrade the Office Suite if they want to read files from other users even though the suite was working fine for them. Apple doesn't do that.
That's with the proprietary DOC format, which is basically a dump of the application's internal representation of the document, not just the document content and metadata, and the default setting.
MS Word could save to RTF from the start IIRC. Still can. Or XML or whatever.
Oops, apparently RTF is also proprietary. Bah.
waydude says
Well, Apple is the worst out there, except for all the others
Sunday Afternoon says
@#10, mailliw:
For a certain type of software developer (including me), the fact the macOS is close to linux really makes an important difference in choice of system. I use macOS both for work (where I do a lot of work with AWS instances running linux) and the hobby project (webapp programming using python also running on a linux host). Our corporate IT gives us the choice of macOS or Windows. The choice is clear – it is far easier to get a development environment going with macOS than Windows due to having a close-to-linux command line with homebrew to fill in the gaps.
Jason Nishiyama says
There's a reason I'm still on High Sierra and refusing to upgrade. Every time I upgrade something I need breaks. Even the stuff that doesn't break usually needs a multi-hour re-compile.
Too much hassle to upgrade.
The Vicar (via Freethoughtblogs) says
@#10,mailliw
Two reasons:
1. At that time the Mac OS was basically a quivering mass of duct tape and spit which was terribly unstable. It could only run one real program at a time ("desk accessories" were not real programs), they were using the upper byte of memory addresses for data, program crashes were nearly automatically system crashes, and programs could overwrite OS memory. (And the latter two problems never really went away in the "Classic" Mac OS.)
2. Jobs got kicked out of Apple, and he wasn't a gracious person so he presumably felt just a bit bitter about it. Going with a technologically superior back-end let him legitimately sneer at the Mac, although it did mean that NeXT computers had to be much more expensive than Macs to produce. (They stuck with Motorola CPUs at the time, but couldn't use the cheaper 68000 or 68020 because neither one came with a standard MMU.)
There's history there, unfortunately. Apple tried to partner with IBM to build a "modern" OS, back in the 90s. It really didn't end well, for either of them. Then, while they were trying to write a "modern" (i.e. protected-memory and preemptive multitasking) version of System 7, their own toxic management practices got in the way while Jean-Louis Gassée was hiring away as many Apple programmers as he could to start Be. (And it has been stated by multiple sources that his plan was always to build an OS which would be basically Mac OS 8 with different icons and windows, and then blackmail Apple into buying Be so they could re-skin it. And he would have gotten away with it if he hadn't gotten so greedy and repeatedly raised his price during negotiations to the point that it was cheaper for Apple to buy NeXT instead. And since nobody wanted a Mac-like OS but Apple, and Be's hardware never really caught on, that was pretty much the end of him.) Apple's internal efforts failed, and they floundered for a while. Gil Amelio was brought in to fix things, made a lot of sensible decisions, and eventually brought Jobs back in and the company recovered, but had committed to use NeXT OS underpinnings.
And yes, the hybrid Mac-NeXT GUI is inferior to both. The Dock in particular manages to combine elements of both and to do every single task that it does far worse than either the equivalent mechanisms in the Classic Mac OS or NeXTStep/Openstep. In the words of a certain colorful blog I'm about to reference, "they crossed a black male horse with a white male horse and ended up with a double-ssed zebra that keeps shtting itself".
@#17, whheydt
Unix doesn't actually have a "user interface". You connect with a terminal.
That is a user interface. Specifically, a "command-line interface".
And Mac OS X has that, too, if you really want it. Most people not only don't, but actively want to not deal with it. (And no wonder: the POSIX standard basically consists of enforcing compatibility with the original UNIX, which was written by a couple of college students who apparently did a lot of drinking.)
Most people would disagree with you completely. The fact that there is no standard GUI in Linux/Unix is a terrible hassle. Writing programs becomes needlessly more difficult, troubleshooting becomes — for the normal user — basically impossible.
If your OS requires the user to go to the command line? Your OS is a failure. When PZ says there are workarounds but they require the terminal? That means that the level of performance you are recommending is so unacceptable that PZ is considering uprooting everything and rolling back the OS, and maybe even jumping ship entirely, because some of his user experience is as bad as Linux routinely is.
It's a pity that the old Linux-Hater's Blog is apparently gone because foul-mouthed as it was it had some really concise criticisms of the whole open-source world. In particular, the post titled "The Fallacy of Choice" is directly applicable here: most users don't care about a choice between broken (or otherwise hard-to-use) options, they much prefer a single working baseline, even if it means they have no meaningful choice.
kaleberg says
I use Audacity now and then. It's open source, so it's maintained by volunteers. That means that when the OS changes and breaks something, it usually takes a few months before one of the volunteer maintainers fixes it. That's what happened in the move from 32 to 64 bit for Mojave.
Apple didn't break Audacity just to have something to do on a slow Monday. Apple has been tightening security and moving to a capabilities oriented framework. They're tightening the screws on the microphone and audio output. For a long time, any program that could run on your machine could do anything it wanted. It could install system software. It could connect to the any website it chose. It could get your location and hardware details, upload your contact list to Estonia, turn on your camera and microphone, and so on, all without you having a clue.
Sure, a perfect system would never allow a piece of unauthorized code to execute, and having perfect users would mean no one ever getting tricked by a phishing attack. Since neither systems nor users are perfect, modern computers need what they call defense in depth. If some code does manage to execute or the user does get tricked into revealing a password, it would be nice to be able to limit the damage. This means that good programs now have to work harder and ask the user nicely for all sorts of permissions, like in a digital game of Simon says requiring "may I" after "may I".
Meanwhile, stuff breaks and doesn't get fixed for a while or maybe it never gets fixed. Think of it as a transient immune system problem, like a low grade fever or sore arm after getting a vaccine. It's not pleasant in the short run, but in the long run, the immune system upgrade is an overall win.
@17 whheydt
Sometimes Unix/Linux enthusiasts remind me of the Christian evangelists who come to the door and ask me if I have heard about Jesus. As I went to a Christian school where we had a religious service everyday, I generally find that I know more about Jesus than they do.
Likewise having worked with (rather than played with) some of the expensive examples of Unix like HP-UX and AIX (not to mention free Unices like BSD and Linux) I think I am in a reasonable position to judge the OS's strengths and weaknesses.
On the whole I see the success of Unix/Linux as a Qwerty effect rather than the result of the operating system's technical qualities, it was (comparatively) cheap and a bit portable, it's now free and a bit more portable.
As @25 The Vicar mentions the command line is the user Interface in Unix/Linux. Presumably an operating System without a user Interface would involve programming at machine code level.
It is perhaps worth remembering that operating systems without a command line existed before Apple. Not GUI but without a command line.
The Unix Haters' Handbook is an entertaining read, written by scientific programmers who were naturally unhappy about having their beautiful, elegant, advanced Apollo and Symbolics workstations replaced with cheap and nasty Sun products https://web.mit.edu/~simsong/www/ugh.pdf. The new foreward by Donald Norman is a welcome Addition, replacing the unsurprisely somewhat sour original foreward by Dennis Ritchie.
Surely the open source community can do better than Linux?
Pierce R. Butler says
Last I heard, the iPhone/iPad crew were the Official (ahem) BSDs at Apple, and everybody else has to tug forelocks and get out of their way when they come swaggering down the hall: partly a result of the toxic competitive compartmentalized corporate culture fostered by S. Jobs, partly due to general California chronic status-climbing one-up-manship culture, high-school cliquery writ large.
This generates lots of unnecessary stress for the majority of Apple workers, of course, and harms quality of products and services across the board. I feel a bit surprised, on reflection, not to have heard of overloaded-employee-snaps violence in Cupertino – but considering their legendary ferociously enforced code of silence and secrecy, now I wonder…
sc_a5c68a34b2f6e431ec3e46c0a6153ea9 says
Apple don't operate like most companies. They have a very specific target audience. They write their use case stories for those people and those people alone. If you don't fit into their niche, you'll have a hard time with them.
This is why I can't use apple. Not because I don't like them, but I'm not at all the kind of person they think about. I realised this when all my attempts to sync my iPod to my Linux box failed because they were considered attacks and apple kept "closing the doors". I bought hardware from them, I liked it, all I wanted to do was sync the podcasts from the computer to the iPod. But because I use Linux, and their stories don't include the kind of person who uses linux, I was not only left cold, but actively worked against by apple themselves.
PZ, the problem is you're using 3rd party software. And open source software at that. That's like a nerd thing to do. You need to use fully supported apple software to do the things you do like a good little citizen. That's all that they consider when they make these changes.
Microsoft has always been a lot better with this. Their backwards compatibility has been pretty astounding from my point of view. Linux isn't all that great with it, but compensates by having all the apps get released with updates all the time.
Some history is in order.
First of all, Unix took over because at the time, it was the only OS that wasn't tied to a particular vendor's hardware. AT&T licensed it (with source!) to pretty much anyone, and they didn't charge much (if anything) to academic users. So if you developed some new hardware and didn't want to have to write your own OS, then Unix was the only option; all you had to do was to modify the few hardware-dependent parts. Plus, you got all the software that other users had developed to get their work done, e.g., networking software, compilers, etc.
There were lots of other OSs out there, and I'm told that some were better than Unix, but then you were tied to a particular vendor's hardware and to the capabilities that the computer vendor decided to provide for you. With Unix, if you went for different hardware, you could fairly easily port your stuff to the new system. And if the flavor of Unix you got didn't have some feature you needed, you had the source code and could modify it.
> Unix doesn't actually have a "user interface". You connect with a terminal.
That's because the only input devices available at the time were serial devices. Mostly ASR-33 teletypes, which were electro-mechanical typewriter-like device. The alternatives were (punched) paper tape and punch cards.
The "command line interface" was considered by many to be a step up. In those days, if you used IBM, you handed a stack of punch cards to someone who ran it through a punch card reader, and instead of "commands", you had a bunch of cards with "Job Control Language" in front.
If your OS requires the user to go to the command line? Your OS is a failure.
Unix does not require anybody to go to a command line. The command line interface is a user-level program (a "shell"), just like the GUI is.
The reason people "go to a command line" is that command lines are a lot more flexible. GUIs will only allow you to do the things that the person who designed the GUI intended for you to do. If what you want to do is always what the GUI writer anticipated, then it's fine. But if you want to do something different, the GUI is no use to you. I have seen GUIs that were more open-ended, and it always amounted to typing in some sort of script, i.e., a list of statements and commands. Which is exactly what a Unix "shell" does.
@30 Allison
The success of Unix is down to historical circumstances rather than technical superiority, much like the QWERTY keyboard layout.
The teletype may have been an advance on punch cards but many of us were raised on 70s and 80s vintage minicomputer Systems with terminal based input so this "advantage" wasn't apparent to us. We were subjected to huge hype about how great Unix was, though my first reaction to seeing it was to think that it was some kind of bizarre practical joke rather than an operating system.
The correct attitude to Unix/Linux is still, I think, bemused shoulder shrugging acceptance rather than enthusiasm.
ericoehler says
This happens every time there's an OS update to pro media developers. Audio or video something breaks in service to security.
I understand why they break it – it's usually a particularly nasty vulnerability they're trying to close with such a major overhaul – but it is nonetheless a pain in the ass.
Developers are usually given fairly substantial heads-up times on changes, but nevertheless small shops often lag behind since they're usually one or two folks writing code on the weekends.
Only about half of my audio apps are catalina-ready.
This is why most music and video producers have a firm "no updates for at least six months" rule.
jdmuys says
I think it's important to realize (this has been mentioned, but perhaps not stressed enough), that Apple gives a lot of help to all developers, including:
long term deprecation warnings
tools that flag incorrect or deprecated use of APIs
access to pre-release versions of system software months in advance (typically early June for a release in late September)
long term warning of major changes (eg dropping support for 32 bit software. This one has been on the wall for years. Audio software developers in particular, have no excuse).
MacApp Store diagnostics and reviews, which have also other purposes of course.
access to engineering resources, either with Tech Support incidents (not free, 2 incidents per year included in the developer program), and access to Apple Engineers in labs at some points in time (eg the WWDC)
As a developer myself, I have witnessed time and time again "product managers" refusing engineering time for code health reasons, forcing the accumulation of technical debt, and leading to decreasing quality in software and refactoring done when there is no choice and no time, leading to weeks or months of wait time imposed on users while the software is brought up to documented standards.
Next on the wall: In November 2020, Push Notification Servers will stop accepting the HTTP 1.1 protocol from notification sources. Apple has communicated to that effect, explaining how developers must switch to the more modern, more efficient HTTP 2 protocol. My prediction: in November 2020, suddenly many apps will stop receiving their push notifications, and the usual people will blame it on Apple, instead on developers.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This year, I want to write more. But when? Blog entries take me hours. So instead I take mental notes on the changes in our lives and wonder when I'm going to find the time to write it all down. Tonight, the first of the year, I wanted to get a little caught up.
For a while I was a little worried about her language acquisition. She has an exceptionally wide vocabulary, but she was a little slow at stringing words together. I was reading in my babycenter.com emails about how kids her age should be saying "Hi Mommy" and "blue car" and that sort of thing and from her... nothing. Hi. Blue. Mama. Car. But then all of a sudden, she exploded into conversation. Hi Mama. Eat oatmeal now. Our car wash bath? Elmo's song hear it? Lying down crib now. And on and on and on. Her pronunciation is getting better and clearer, though at least five times a day I have to ask her to repeat herself or I look blankly at Johnny for help with translation. And then, clarity. Oh! Bridge! She means bridge! Or whatever.
She sings the ABCs, has parts of Big Bird's "ABCEDFGHI..." song memorized, and, my favorite, still sings "Ma-MA! Ma-MA! Ma-MA!" like the world's cutest little cheerleader. We have conversations now and I can see that she really absorbs the things I say. For example, when she wakes up at night I'll go in and we'll sit in the glider. I'll give her pinky and rub her back and I'll sing a song or two, or I'll tell her that when she lies back down she should think of all the people she loves and the things she likes to do. So together we list everyone: Mama... and Daddy... Teeny... and Rayna and Shiva... Nana and Poppa... Hilary... Poppa... G-Ma... Lina and Kaela... Dana and Stan and Taz and Chester... and so on. Sometimes she even adds Mei and Satsuki and Daddy from My Neighbor Totoro because she loves them so much too. Then I'll catch her doing this when she's entertaining herself in the car, in the tub, or alone in her room. "Mama... Da-yee... Beya... Poppa... Hih-ree..." and so on.
This week she learned "yummy" and "oops-a-daisy" from her Aunt Hilary and she says them both all the time now. This video, which isn't much of a video as I just wanted to capture the sound, is totally adorable (at least it is until the baby starts to cry). Listen to it and if it doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will.
Her food vocabulary has expanded too: purple vitamins, chip, cookie, crackers, raviolis, tofu, quinoa, carrot, rice and beans, broccoli. Pizza. Cheese (Daiya, of course, as she's vegan.) She says juice box too - and she has a discerning palate, asking specifically for orange, apple, purple or "Grover" juice - and those are totally different than just juice, which is diluted OJ that we put in her special juice cup. Then there's soda (by which she means seltzer). I-meem (ice cream) is still a favorite, but grapefruits now reign supreme, even above avocados and hummus. Only pink grapefruits are permissible, however. We accidentally gave her a yellow one last week and she refused to touch it.
Her memory is startling. She loved her Nana's banana muffins so much the one time she had them that when she next saw her Nana, weeks later, she instantly asked for muffins. My mother had no idea what she was talking about. Thora insisted. Muffin. Muffin? Muffin! Then we looked at each other and remembered the muffins from weeks before. She knows the few DVDs she watches so well that she will say "tree!" or "sheep!" and I'll look up and there's no tree but then the scene changes and sure enough, there's a giant tree, or a herd of sheep. She forgets nothing. If I say "You can have a cookie later. First let's take your vitamins and have some oatmeal," forty-five minutes later she will sidle up to me and smile. "Cookie?" She does this with everything, so we have learned never to promise what we can't fulfill, whether it is the promise of a cookie, a trip to the p-a-r-k, or anything else.
She has these little tablets that dye her bath water so every evening when bath time approaches she reminds us how well she knows her colors: orange bath, blue bath, purple bath, red bath.
Whenever she wanders away from me, I ask her where she's going and she says "the park." This is what she said at 5:15 this morning - New Year's Day - when I was trying my hardest to keep her quiet and in bed with me because I was slightly hung over and exhausted from being up until 2 am and not at all ready to get up and her aunt was asleep on the couch in the living room. She wiggled away from me, saying "walk walk walk," so I put her down and she made a beeline for the door. I said "Hey Bea, where are you going?" "The park," she said again, completely deadpan. And she means it too - she knows how to open our front door, and there have been numerous times I'll catch her turning the knob and heading out and I race after her. "Thora, where are you going?" "The park." So this morning I had no choice but to get up because I wouldn't put it past her to try to get there herself!
"Toys" is a new word. As are crib, lying down, standing, dancing, hear it, eat, shirt, pants, bucket, alligator, squeeze, rain, snowman, and my current favorite, not yours. She says that every time she reaches for something she's already been told not to play with. "Bea, that's not yours." She tries to work out yours vs. mine, you vs. I/me, but she doesn't really get it yet. She'll walk over to me and hand me something, say, a closed jar of Play-doh, and ask for help. I'll clarify by asking "You want me to help you open it?" And then she nods and says "Yeah. Help you." I don't know when she will grasp the concept of person more accurately, but she generally gets her point across. She knows her trains by name: Thomas, Emily, Molly, James, Toby, and knows to put them on the tracks and push them over the bridge. She will tell me if something hurts her or if she gets stuck and can't move her bike out of whatever corner she's ridden it into. Little things are cute, lights go on and off, walking into a room, she points and says she wants to go "in 'ere," and when she wants something, she insists "have it!" Mostly she insists on having "Mama mone," (my iPhone) and sometimes even remembers the possessive: "Mama's mone."
I have deleted thousands of pictures just like those.
She climbs on everything. Whenever things go quiet, we know we can either find her hiding in a corner doing a poop or climbing on top of her toybox, the couch, the end table, stairs, or anywhere else she shouldn't be. She's gotten a few nasty bumps and bruises from falling off of things and try as we might we can not keep her from doing it again and again. My coworker says "she's a bruiser" and I guess she's right.
She gets into everything: my shoes, my bags, my breast pump, the cabinets, under the couch, you name it.
This week she had her first cold. It was a nasty one: 102.7 fever, wakefulness at night, whininess during the day, refusing food, and an awful runny nose. What was worse was that it happened while we were visiting family over 200 miles from home. No one slept for three days. After a while she started to run away from us when she saw we had tissues in our hands. I got a look at her nose under all the snots and saw it was red and raw, so Vaseline became our best friend. After one particularly miserable attempt at roto-rootering her face with the Nosefrida from which I emerged somewhat battered and bruised (and utterly unsuccessful), we also got creative with dispensing the Vicks and the other medicines so that they got in the baby (as opposed to just all over the baby and the mama as well). We made it through, though not before she infected her baby sister, who fortunately for me is not yet strong enough to fight back when I stick the Nosefrida or the saline dropper up her nose, so she got better a lot faster.
On the more positive side, this week she also had her first Christmas and her second Hanukkah. She helped light the candles each night and light up the tree each morning. We spent holiday time with family and with good friends and neighbors, we baked and cooked, we sang songs and watched videos. She rediscovered her love for the Mahna-mahna skit and figured out how to watch it again and again on my iPhone. (Which is more complicated than you might think. She unlocks it, finds the You Tube app, goes to favorites and then to that video and waits for it to load and then clicks start. Not too shabby!) She got an easel and a bunch of art supplies, a train set and trains, Red Sox gear, a dump truck, stuffed animals, monogrammed stationery, a few musical instruments, books, a gorgeous hand-knitted hat, and other awesome things. She now knows what presents are and has fun playing with the wrapping and the ribbons. "Omen!" she'd demand, "omen it!" She wanted to play with each thing she got, which made me feel regretfully materialistic because I kept taking things out of her hands and telling her to open the next thing. Next year I think we will spread some gifts out over the eight nights of Hanukkah and save a big one or two for Christmas so she doesn't get overwhelmed and nothing gets forgotten.
Freyja is growing just as quickly but a lot more quietly. She is perhaps less prolific than her big sister, but her achievements are no less notable. She spends her days putting on weight, moving from 9th percentile at birth to 25th at her 3 month pediatrician visit. Now around 11 and a half pounds, she is all eyes and cheeks. This means she's starting to look a lot like Thora. Her 0 - 3 clothes, while not yet unwearable, are getting snug. She's got a great grip, can hold her head up well, nurses well, takes a bottle without complaint, and enjoys taking warm baths. She sleeps exceptionally well, for which I thank her every day. She goos and coos, smiles and gurgles. We haven't yet heard the first laugh but it can't be far off. There is so much to smile and laugh about!


text:
By Cliff Moore
Seeing Jools Holland live is like being enveloped in the arms of a great big festive family singalong – all warm and cosy with some well-loved old tunes and a familiar face tickling the ivories.
There are no surprises and nothing particularly innovative, but whether it's your first or fortieth time, you know you are going to get two hours of exemplary musicianship from the exuberant Rhythm & Blues Orchestra who always do what it says on the tin.
All the regulars were here – the almost spherical blues shouter Ruby Turner, the sublime Louise Marshall, long-time drummer Gilson Lavis and band stalwarts, guitarist Mark Flanagan, bassist Dave Swift, Jools' brother Christopher on keys and saxophonist Phil Veacock.
The composer, pianist, bandleader and broadcaster tours every November/December, always plays the BIC and always puts on a grand show.
Tonight we were fortunate to have Pauline Black & Arthur 'Gaps' Hendrickson from The Selecter to add a little edge to proceedings – a 40-year old edge, mind, but an edge nevertheless.
They celebrated four decades of 2Tone with a run through of Train To Skaville, Once I Had A Secret Love, Too Much Pressure, On My Radio and a tribute to the late Rico Rodriguez, who had a foot in both camps.
Marshall had her own three-song showcase, including Sweet Country Love Song, the Holland/Gregory Porter collaboration, before boogie woogie queen Turner stole the evening with the likes of The Informer and the brilliant I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free (think Barry Norman's film show theme tune).
With up to 20 people on the stage at any one time, including an 11-piece brass section, there couldn't be anything but a big sound. And there wasn't. Although it inevitably was a little samey at times there can be no doubt that Holland & Co put on a great show.
Of course, it was all about the piano, with two cameras focussing on Holland's stupendous playing, the ceaseless movement of his hands and the incredible sounds he extricates from the old Joanna. His skill level is immense.
His playing was altogether much more convincing than his awkward stint hitting the tambourine with the backing singers as the ever-smiling Black went through her paces and he still, after all these years, is a bit like a fish out of water as a frontman.
But he is a generous leader and all members of the band had their time in the spotlight with various amounts of huffing and puffing down the front and the machine-like Lavis contributed his customary drum solo, which, as drum solos go, was pretty entertaining.
The show ended with a rousing rendition of the old Prince Buster number Enjoy Yourself, but don't worry if you missed it as the December 31 Hootenanny is coming up soon.
Support came from the 'pint sized powerhouse', as she has been described, Emma Hatton – a versatile chanteuse operating mostly out of the mainstream and earning plaudits in the mixed fields of blues, soul, jazz and country, as well as in musicals. Tonight was mainly rocky blues, including Al Green and Prince covers.


Pretty pictures on equipment pages are one thing, but if you are uncertain about how Legend Fitness equipment can be integrated into your workout, check out this section to see some of our more popular items being put through their paces.
Burn those lats with this plate-loaded beast that's adjustable to different arm lengths, handles that offer four hand grip positions, and much more.
It's a plate-loaded variation on a machine that's usually seen as a pin select device in most gyms. But for gyms that are heavy on plates, the LeverEDGE 6005 the only answer.
A plate-loaded high row? Yes, and it's a smooth operator that provides another angle (about 45 degrees, actually) in back exercise. Hit the back in a new way with the LeverEDGE 6009.
It's the most affordable GHD on the market, but it still gets the job done. Great for beginners and advanced athletes alike. Despite the name, this quick look shows that you don't have to have a partner to use it, either.
The incline is where it's at for definition and size, and the LeverEDGE Incline Chest is packed with the features to please.
The chest press that gives you a deep stretch, is built to the highest standards, and takes up less floorspace. Here's what it looks like to use one.
The Pro Series Stealth Leg Press! It's much more than just a leg press.
Erin Stern, Team Legend member, track and field All-American and two-time Ms. Olympia Fitness, gets in a workout on our Performance Plyo Cushions in this brief, music-driven video.
Just a little informal footage of our standard glute/ham developer being put through its paces while we demonstrate proper knee placement as well as ease of adjustment. The 3130 is everything an athlete needs to get a thorough burning sensation in the glutes and hammies, as well as the resulting increases in running speed, acceleration and jumping ability.
See a few exercises being performed on our Pro Series GHD during the 2009 CSCCa trade show.
You can do more on a glute/ham developer than just glute/ham raises! Watch this vid to see a few examples of routines you might not have thought of yet. Features the Legend Fitness Pro Series Glute/Ham Developer.
An older video from the 2009 CSCCa show that demonstrates a few exercises that are made possible by the incredibly versatile Legend landmine cage attachments.
Safer and more effective than traditional plyo boxes, Performance Plyo Cushions are one of the most capable plyometric tools on the market. Watch this video to learn how they can be used in a variety of applications.
The most economical of our elevated glute/ham developers, the Varsity GHD features a bolt-together construction for more affordable shipping costs. While not as fully welded as the rest of our GHD line, this video will demonstrate the impressive rigidity still inherent in our design.
See this unique device in action to better understand just how it focuses on the upper back, while removing the rest of the body from the exercise. Great for rehab and sport specific applications.
Dr. Yessis himself, in a dingy gym somewhere, instructing on the proper use of the Yessis Glute Ham Back Machine! Some great points in here on the proper execution of the glute ham raise.


Charter Communications is nearing a $55bn (£35.5bn, €50bn) deal with US peer Time Warner Cable and is expected to announce the acquisition on 26 May, according to media reports.
The deal would result in the combination of the second and third largest US cable operators, posing stiff competition to rival Comcast, which is the largest player in the industry. Comcast's move to acquire Time Warner failed in 2015, primarily due to competition concerns.
The cash-and-stock deal values Time Warner Cable at $195 per share. Time Warner Cable shares closed at $171.18 on 25 May.
Charter is also expected to announce its acquisition of Bright House Networks, the sixth-largest US cable operator, for $10.4bn, according to the reports. Following the deals, Charter is expected to have a total customer base of about 23 million, just behind Comcast's 27.2 million.
Luxembourg-based telecom group Altice was separately in talks with Time Warner Cable, according to reports. Altice's controlling shareholder, the French billionaire Patrick Drahi, earlier met with Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus to discuss a potential deal.
Charter Communications has been working on a possible merger with Time Warner, after its merger proposal with Comcast failed in April due to competition concerns. The company offered about $132.50 per share, or $37.3bn, for Time Warner Cable in 2014, and the bid was countered by Comcast at $158.82 per share.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported that Tom Wheeler, chairman of US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), called the CEOs of Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications and other cable executives to say the agency was not opposed to any and all cable deals.
The development eased concerns in the US cable industry about regulatory hurdles for mergers and acquisitions.
Time Warner Cable's Marcus earlier expressed uncertainty about the regulatory climate for future cable deals, after the company's merger with Comcast fell apart.


When I'm making sous vide chicken breast, I like ot keep things REALLY simple. I want the meat to be juicy and tender and I am not a big fan of pink chicken. After testing a few times and temperatures out, I found this combination to work just right for my tastes. Of course, you do not have to include the salt, pepper, OR garlic powder if any do not comply with your dietary guidelines, but I personally enjoy the hint of flavor that the combination brings to the meat. This chicken is absolutely perfect on its own or as a base for other chicken dishes.
NOTE: This recipe is designed for chicken breasts up to 1"/2.5cm thick. For thicker breasts, up to 2", you will need to use the manual setting and increase the time to 2 hours.
Set the Anova Precision Cooker to 150ºF/68.3ºC.
Drain your chicken breast if it is in a package, or gently pat dry if from the butcher.
Season all over lightly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
Place into a zip-locking bag and use the immersion method to release as much air as possible before sealing.
Drop into the heated bath and set timer for: 1 hour for 1"/2.5cm or less thickness, 2 hours for 2"/5cm thickness. Pro-tip: if you have a range of thicknesses while batch cooking, err on the side of the thicker pieces.Chicken breast texture holds for up to 4 hours in the cooking bath!
Remove and chill or consume!


text:
Sports managers gain experience, sense of community
[media-credit id=25 align="alignright" width="264″] [/media-credit]
Junior Jackie Ly, a boys' lacrosse manager, keeps score of Senior Night with freshman Yaaron Yavim.
by Ryan Condon
Being involved with the school community is something that all students do, whether by acting in a play, joining a club or playing a sport. For students who want to be a part of this school's sports community and help out on a team, managing a sports team can be another way to get involved.
Responsibilities of a manager
Boys' soccer coach James Dow said, "Managing is almost like being a student coach. It gives students a perspective on what it takes to run a team."
According to senior Allison Wu, who managed girls' indoor track, managers help at practices and keep statistics for games and meets. They also work with coaches to make sure the team runs efficiently.
Junior Rosanna Gessel-Larson, who managed girls' swimming and diving, said she helped with administrative work and running meets.
"I wrote up diving sheets, made photocopies and recorded times and scores on the official meet sheet," she said.
Gessel-Larson described managing as being about the same time commitment as being on the team.
Wu said, "We work closely with the coach and make sure everything goes smoothly. Last season, we had worked together for a long time, so sometimes I knew what a coach wanted and I could get it done before he asked."
The difference between managing a small team and a larger one is important, according to Wu.
"It's important to recognize the different dynamics of a team before selecting one to manage. For example, girls' track has no formal divide between varsity and JV during practices or meets, which creates a different environment from other teams," she said.
Building a sense of community
Managing can lead to being part of a community, Wu said. "The team has been like a family to me," she said. "We have a long tradition of fostering a sense of community."
While Gessel-Larson did feel part of the community while managing girls' swimming and diving, she warns that managing is not the same at being a member of the team.
"I was treated as a full member of the team, but I didn't get to know any of the girls as well as they got to know each other. They bonded over a difficult practice and they talked when they got breaks, and by not practicing with them, I didn't have the same relationship with them as they had with each other," she said.
Lack of appreciation
Gessel-Larson said that managers usually get the recognition they deserve, but sometimes they should receive more.
"I have been on a few sports teams, and I did not really appreciate the manager's job until I managed swim," she said.
According to Dow, managers are appreciated, but they are not recognized enough. "They do such an important job, but their job is understated a lot of the time," he said. "We appreciate them, but we don't verbally express that enough."
Wu said that she does not feel the need for any extra recognition, "but there are managers on other teams who do a great job, and I hope they get the recognition they deserve," she said.
Managing is just one of the ways to get involved at this school, according to Wu.
"I've appreciated the opportunities I've been given at Newton North, including the opportunity to be involved with the girls' track team," she said. "No matter what you end up doing, I hope everyone is able to contribute to the North community."


Essie HODGES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Jo Anne B. BARNHART, Commissioner of Social Security Administration, Defendant-Appellee.
Before ANDERSON, Chief Judge, BLACK, Circuit Judge, and MORENO, *District Judge. James P. Frey, Jr.,James P. Frey, Jr., PC, Birmingham, AL, for Hodges. Shirley I. McCarty, Winfield J. Sinclair, Birmingham, AL, Marilynn Burt Kelm, Office of General Counsel, SSA, Atlanta, GA, for Barnhart.
This is an appeal from a denial of social security benefits for mental retardation where the plaintiff did not present affirmative evidence of such disability before the age of twenty-two. The administrative law judge did not presume from the evidence of present mental deficiency that the claimant was mentally retarded before the age of twenty-two. We agree with other circuits in concluding that there is a presumption that mental retardation is a condition that remains constant throughout life. Therefore, we find that a claimant need not present evidence that she manifested deficits in adaptive functioning prior to the age twenty-two, when she presented evidence of low IQ test results after the age of twenty-two. We reverse the district judge with directions to remand to the administrative law judge for a determination of whether there is substantial evidence to rebut this presumption of a fairly constant mental capacity before the age of twenty-two.
Essie Hodges applied for Supplemental Social Security income under 42 U.S.C. § 1383. Hodges appealed the denial of benefits before an administrative law judge ("ALJ"). On the date of the administrative hearing, Hodges was 49 years old. She testified that while she had intended to return to school, she only received a seventh-grade education because she was unable to pay for books. She also testified that she could not recall whether she received any special education during her schooling. Although Hodges worked briefly at a fast food restaurant, she testified that she had not gained employment outside the home in the fifteen years preceding the hearing. Hodges also testified that she raised her seven children.
At the hearing, Hodges testified that she suffered from arthritis in her back, anxiety, depression, migraine headaches, blurry vision, bladder failure that caused muscles spasms, blood blisters, and pain in her neck and lower back. According to Hodges, these physical ailments disabled her from working.
Aside from the evidence regarding Hodges' physical condition, the ALJ considered evidence regarding Hodges' mental impairment. In March, 1997, Dr. Thomas W. Tensbrunel examined Hodges at the request of the Division of Disability Determination and administered a Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale ("WAIS") IQ test on her. The WAIS test revealed that Hodges had a verbal IQ of 67, a performance IQ of 79, and a full scale IQ of 72. Dr. Tensbrunel noted that a higher score on the performance scale as compared to the verbal scale was consistent with her limited educational background. Dr. Tensbrunel's prognosis was that Hodges could maintain unskilled employment in the future and manage any finances she accrues. He also referred her to a psychiatrist for treatment for anxiety and depression.
Two non-examining psychologists evaluated the degree of Hodges' mental impairment. In April, 1997, Dr. F.A. Breslin determined Hodges was moderately limited in the following areas: (1) the ability to understand, remember, and follow detailed instructions; (2) the ability to concentrate for an extended period; (3) the ability to interact appropriately with the public; (4) the ability to respond appropriately to changes in a work setting; and (5) the ability to complete a normal workday without an unreasonable number of rest periods. Dr. Breslin added that Hodges could understand, remember and follow simple two-step tasks and that she could attend to tasks for a two-hour period. Overall, Dr. Breslin thought Hodges capable of working an eight-hour day.
The other non-examining psychologist Dr. T. Michael Hammond evaluated Hodges in June, 1997, and noted that Hodges was moderately limited in the same ways that Dr. Breslin had opined. Dr. Hammond added, however, that Hodges was also moderately limited in her ability to (1) work in proximity to others without being distracted by them; (2) accept instructions and respond appropriately to criticism from supervisors; and (3) work with coworkers and peers without distracting them. He concluded that Hodges could complete simple tasks but recommended contact with others be infrequent and supervision direct and nonconfrontational.
The record is devoid of any evidence relating to Hodges' mental capabilities before the age of twenty-two. Hodges testified that she attempted to get her school transcripts but the records could not be located and were most likely lost in a fire. As far as her reading and writing ability, Hodges testified that she could read a little out of books and letters and could write letters with her daughters' assistance.
The ALJ did not presume that Hodges' mental capabilities at 49 were the same as before twenty-two. Though noting that Hodges had a "severe impairment" based on her borderline intellectual functioning, depression, chronic low back pain, obesity and early chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the ALJ decided that these impairments did not meet or equal the criteria of any section of the Listing of Impairments under the Social Security Act that would permit a finding that Hodges was disabled. Specifically, the ALJ concluded that Hodges did not meet the criteria for Listing 12.05(c), which addresses mental retardation. The rationale behind this decision as revealed in the ALJ's decision letter is the lack of evidence revealing deficits in adaptive functioning initially manifested during the developmental period before age twenty-two. Thus, the ALJ concluded that Hodges could successfully perform certain jobs despite her impairments.
Mental retardation refers to significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning with deficits in adaptive functioning initially manifested during the developmental period; i.e., the evidence demonstrates or supports onset of the impairment before age 22. The required level of severity for this disorder is met when the requirements in A, B, C, or D are satisfied․C. A valid verbal, performance, or full scale IQ of 60 through 70 and a physical or other mental impairment imposing an additional and significant work-related limitation of function.
Acknowledging the lack of IQ evidence before age twenty-two, Hodges asserts that absent evidence of sudden trauma that can cause retardation, the IQ tests create a rebuttable presumption of a fairly constant IQ throughout her life. We agree. Other appellate courts have recognized this presumption finding that IQ's remain fairly constant throughout life. See Muncy v. Apfel, 247 F.3d 728, 734 (8th Cir.2001) ("Mental retardation is not normally a condition that improves as an affected person ages․ Rather, a person's IQ is presumed to remain stable over time in the absence of any evidence of a change in a claimant's intellectual functioning."); Luckey v. U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Servs., 890 F.2d 666, 668 (4th Cir.1989) (holding absence of IQ test in developmental years did not preclude finding of mental retardation predating age twenty-two and courts should assume an IQ remained constant absent evidence indicating change in intellectual functioning).
The Eleventh Circuit has not formally recognized this presumption and the issue of whether a claimant must present affirmative evidence that she manifested deficits in adaptive functioning before age twenty-two is one of first impression. This circuit implicitly recognized that a claimant meets the criteria for presumptive disability under Listing 12.05(C) when the claimant presents a valid I.Q. score of 60 to 70 and evidence of additional mental or physical impairment. See Lowery v. Sullivan, 979 F.2d 835, 838 (11th Cir.1992). The claimant in Lowery presented evidence indicating a deficit in adaptive functioning before age twenty-two. Hodges presented similar evidence of mental disability, but the evidence related to her condition after age twenty-two. The ALJ did not presume from such evidence that Hodges manifested a mental disability prior to age twenty-two. We hold that this failure to presume is error.
The proposed listing ․ stated that the significantly subaverage general intellectual functioning with deficits in adaptive behavior must have been initially "manifested" during the developmental period. We have always interpreted this word to include the common clinical practice of inferring a diagnosis of mental retardation when the longitudinal history and evidence of current functioning demonstrate that the impairment existed before the end of the developmental period. 65 FR 50746, 50772 (August 20, 2000) (emphasis added).
The ALJ, however, did not recognize the presumption that the claimant had initially met her burden of establishing an impairment under Listing 12.05(C). Therefore, we remand for further proceedings before the ALJ who is to presume, based on this evidence, mental impairment before age twenty-two. At such hearing, the Commissioner may present evidence of Hodges' daily life to rebut this presumption of mental impairment. Our holding adopting a presumption of mental impairment before age 22 does not, however, shift the burden of proof from a claimant to prove entitlement to social security benefits. Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is reversed.
1. Listing 12.00(D)(6)(c) mandates that[W]here more than one IQ is customarily derived from the test administered, e.g. where verbal, performance, and full scale IQs are provided, in the Weschler series, we use the lowest of these in conjunction with 12.05.20 C.F.R. Pt. 404, Subpt. P, App.1, § 12.00(D)(6)(c).


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We're now on the 3rd day of training, good job so far.
Today we will be doing a night-time assault on the town of Oreokastro.
The premise on this training will be to utilize most of what we've done so far but in a night-time setting, with heavy gear restrictions, thus requiring element leaders to coordinate not only between themselves, but with their fireteams aswell to be able to deliver accurate fire onto the enemy.
Once you reach the town, there will be vehicular assets in different parts of the town, your primary objective is to destroy all these targets. Keep in mind however that enemy infantry will most likely have garrisoned the town itself, making reckless movements troughout it extremely dangerous.
After objective has been completed, fall back to the armory for debrief.
N.B: The enemy has a large airbourne QRF stationed to the south, be aware that when we start our attack on the town, it will probably be between 20-30 minutes until the QRF arrives, it's highly recommended that if you're still in the town by then, that you expedite the completion of your objective, or pull back. An organized retreat will be expected from you.
ONLY squad and fireteam leaders will be allowed to utilize night vision.
Everyone is encouraged to bring flashlights and tracer ammo, aswell as flares for better visibility during firefights. 40mm flares for grenadiers and element leaders are perfectly acceptable.
Utilizing chemlights for signalling of cleared houses is also recommended.
squad and fireteam leaders are free to use IR laser/flashlight combos for better coordination, aswell as IR strobes.
Everyone is to kit up with non-magnified scopes. I.E CCO red-dot and holosights.
Ensure that fireteam members do not pick up Night vision from dead enemies, as this will partly compromize the purpose of this training.


text:
#CZ116 – 1933 14c dk bl, ovprnt type B, rotary
- Unused Stamp(s) (small flaws)
- Used Stamp(s) (small flaws)
CZ116 – 1933 14¢ American Indian Overprint
Like many early Canal Zone issues, this stamp was created by overprinting an existing stamp – the 1931 14¢ dark blue American Indian stamp, U.S. #695.
Canal Zone Stamps Chronicle America's Rise as a World Power
If you've never collected Canal Zone stamps before, now's the time to start. These intriguing stamps are historic links to our nation's past. With Mystic as your collecting partner, it's easy to own stamps documenting this remarkable American engineering feat!
With military assistance from the United States, Panama declared its independence from Columbia on November 3, 1903. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty was negotiated, than ratified in Panama on December 2, 1903. The United States followed suit on February 23, 1904, clearing the way for a long-anticipated canal project across the Panama isthmus.
Almost immediately, administrators began preparations for the tremendous influx of people who would eventually assemble to work on the project. Faced with the knowledge that most of the work force would be imported to the region from America and Caribbean countries, authorities quickly established a postal service to serve their needs as well as those of the Canal Commission.
On June 24, 1904, postal service was established as part of the U.S. Department of Revenue under the supervision of the Treasurer of the Canal Zone, Paymaster E.C. Tobey. On this day, post offices were opened in Ancon, Cristóbal, Gatun, Culebra, and Balboa. Railroad station agents operated as postmasters.
A small supply of 2¢, 5¢, and 10¢ Panama stamps were overprinted "Canal Zone." Only ordinary mail was handled by the Canal Zone postal system. Mail destined for Central and South America and the West Indies was turned over to the Panama postal service to be forwarded, while mail sent to the United States and its territories and possessions were sent to the U.S. aboard vessels departing for New York.
Overprinted Panama stamps were in use for less than a month. On July 18, 1904, they were replaced by U.S. postage stamps overprinted "Canal Zone."
In December of 1904, Secretary of War William Taft ordered the overprinted U.S. stamps to be withdrawn, and replaced them with overprinted Panama stamps. Taft's executive order was reversed in 1924, when overprinted U.S. stamps were placed in use again.
On October 1, 1928, the first permanent issue Canal Zone stamp was issued. The 2¢ stamp featured Lt. Col. George W. Goethal, the Canal project's chief engineer and first Canal Zone governor.
In 1929, the first Canal Zone Airmail stamp was issued and in 1941, a series of Officials were produced. On October 25, 1978, the last Canal Zone stamp was issued.
#CZ115
1933 3c dp vio, ovprnt type B, rotary
1937 14c bl, Sibert, flat, unwmk.
1928-40 30c blk,Williamson,flat,unwmk
1928-40 15c gry blk,Smith,flat,unwmk.
1928-40 12c Canal Zone - Major D.D. Gaillard - brown violet, flat plate printing
1928-40 20c brn, Rousseau,flat,unwmk.
1939 2c ros car, Balboa-After
1929 50c ros lil,Blackburn,flat,unwmk
1939 3c pur, Galliard Cut Before
1939 1c yel grn, Balboa-Before
1939 5c dk bl, Galliard Cut After
1928 2c car, Goethals, flat, unwmk.
1928-40 10c Canal Zone - Lt. Col. Harry Hodges - orange, flat plate printing, unwatermarked
1934 3c red vio, Goethals, flat,unwmk
1939 6c red org, Bas Obispo Before
1939 1/2 c red org, ovprnt, rotary
1939 11/2c bis brn, ovprnt, rotary
1931 3c vio, ovprnt type B
1928-40 1c grn, Gorgas, flat, unwmk.
1951 10c car, Workers in Culebra


Geoff Bridger's illustrated talk will take place just a few days after the centenary of the Battle of Aubers Ridge on the Western Front, in which the 2nd and 5th Battalions of the Royal Sussex Regiment played their part.
The 2nd Battalion, one of the Regiment's two regular battalions, had already seen much action. However, this was the first major attack in which the 5th Battalion was involved. It was part of the territorial force, with its C company in part Lewes-based, and had arrived in France less than three months previously. Both units suffered heavy casualties in the attack, and most of the names of those who died appear on local war memorials.
Geoff will explain the context to the battle, its planning and execution, and the casualties sustained. He will focus on the roles played in the attack by the two Royal Sussex battalions. Finally he will talk about four selected casualties from Lewes, and we will learn about their civilian and family backgrounds.
The image below shows Le Touret Memorial, France upon which are commemorated 13394 British soldiers men who were killed fighting in the local area and who have no known grave. Some 443 men from the Royal Sussex Regiment are named on its panels.


text:
2019 OneLove 5k Results
Men's Lacrosse: Nine Cadets earn GNAC All-Conference honors
WINTHROP, Mass. - The Norwich University men's lacrosse team had nine different player's named to the Great Northeast Athletic Conference All-Conference teams, the conference announced on Monday.
Cody Moore, Peter Orlandella, Joseph Santangelo, and Jacob Center took home First Team honors, with Christian Williams and Jake Giannelli appearing on the Second Team, and John Jennings, Sean Wallace, and Nick Kandra rounding out the honorees on the Third Team.
Senior captain Cody Moore has put together another all-time single-season effort after his 58 point season last year that ranked as the fourth highest single-season mark in program history. He's repeated his stats almost exactly this year, recording 43 goals and 14 assists for 57 points so far. His 13 man-up goals this year rank him third in all of NCAA Division III out of the 250 ranked athletes and he'll end his career in the top-ten in Norwich history in goals, assists, and points, and now as a two-time First Team All-GNAC recipient and GNAC Champion.
Classmate Joseph Santangelo put together his own historic season, as the faceoff specialist earns his second All-Conference nod to join his Second Team honor from last season. Santangelo leads a faceoff unit that has posted a conference-best 62.0% winning percentage this season. Individually, Santangelo boasts a 69.7% (198-284) mark this year, the fifth best single-season mark in program history and the 13th best of 250 ranked players across NCAA DIII. His 117 ground balls shattered the single-season program record of 99 set in 2013 by Nate Fortezzo. He put up his best performance of the year during Norwich's 19-7 GNAC Quarterfinal victory to break the single-game faceoff wins record with a 27-29 in the circle, with one loss coming due to a false start faceoff violation and the other coming when the ball rolled out of bounds off the draw and was awarded to Emmanuel.
Junior Peter Orlandella and senior Jacob Center both earn their first All-Conference honor with spots on the First Team. They're joined by two other defenders, senior team captain Jake Giannelli and sophomore Sean Wallace on the Second and Third Team respectively. All four were part of the heart and soul of this year's Cadets' team, a defense that ranked in the top-20 nationwide with just 7.88 goals allowed on average and 9.06 caused turnovers a game.
Junior midfielder Christian Williams earned his first career honor defensively, as the top midfielder defensive option and a key part of the faceoff unit on the Cadets' team. He led all short stick midfielders with ten caused turnovers to go with the second most ground balls on the team with 47 this year.
On the Third Team, John Jennings earned his first career honor in his first season in the maroon and gold. Jennings led the team with 20 assists on the season, the eighth most in a single-season in program history. For good measure, he added in 17 goals, 20 ground balls, and seven caused turnovers.
He's joined on the Third Team by goalie Nick Kandra. The GNAC Tournament Most Valuable Player Award winner, Kandra emerged as the leading figure for a goaltending unit that ranks first in the GNAC in save percentage and second in goals-against average. Kandra's 62.1% save percentage would theoretically rank him third in the nation, but he does not fulfill the qualifier of playing at least 60% of his team's minutes in goal. He was named GNAC Tournament MVP after making 22 saves in the two games he handled for Norwich during the conference tournament, allowing just 12 goals in 119:42 in goal.
These nine, alongside the rest of the Norwich roster, earned the program's second trip to the NCAA Tournament with a thrilling 8-6 victory over Lasell College in the GNAC Championship last Saturday. They'll travel to take on New England College at Tufts University tomorrow afternoon at 4:00 PM, for complete game information and preview, click here.
May 7, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Norwich falls to New England College in the NCAA Tournament, 12-10
May 6, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets draw New England College for opening game of NCAA Tournament, Preview
May 6, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Nine Cadets earn GNAC All-Conference honors
May 4, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets claim GNAC title with 8-6 victory over Lasell
May 3, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets and Lasers set to do battle in GNAC Championship, Preview
April 30, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Norwich rolls into eighth straight GNAC Semifinal, Preview
April 30, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets win a thriller against JWU, advance to GNAC Championship with 15-13 victory
April 27, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets take care of business, advance to GNAC Semifinals with 19-7 victory
April 26, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Norwich to square off with Emmanuel in GNAC Quarterfinals, Preview
April 23, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets take pivotal conference battle over Monks, 12-8
April 20, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets dominate Emmanuel, Moore gets 100th career goal in 19-10 win
April 17, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets and Spartans battle in annual Connor Roberts Memorial Game, Norwich prevails 13-5
April 15, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Third Cadet goalie takes Goalie of the Week, Milburn receives honors
April 14, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Norwich dominates Regis in conference play, 16-1
April 9, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Norwich defense shines in 11-6 victory over Rivier
April 8, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Kandra snags first career Goalie of the Week honor
April 6, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Norwich falls in conference battle to Lasell, 11-5
April 5, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets roll to 12-5 victory over Anna Maria
March 30, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Norwich handles conference foe Albertus Magnus, 19-4
March 19, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets fall to Skidmore in home opener, 12-7
March 18, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Kriger takes home fifth career Goalie of the Week award
March 16, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Norwich defeats JWU in conference opener, 15-9
March 14, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets win with four in the fourth, defeat Mass. Maritime, 12-10
March 9, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: USM rallies late to best Norwich, 10-9
March 2, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Norwich drops one to New England College, 7-5
February 27, 2019 Lacrosse: Men's and Women's Games Postponed Due to Weather
February 23, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets open 2019 season with dramatic win over Curry, 11-10
February 22, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: 2019 Season Preview
January 31, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Cadets, Spartans to Climb for Connor
January 9, 2019 Men's Lacrosse: Moore and Giannelli named 2019 Team Captains
August 15, 2018 Men's Lacrosse: Anderson announces 2018-19 Recruiting Class
August 2, 2018 Men's Lacrosse: Bracy signs on with Ohio Machine of MLL
Tue, 05/07 | Men's Lacrosse vs. New England College L, 12-10 (Final) RC | BX | V
Sat, 05/04 | Men's Lacrosse at Lasell W, 8-6 (Final) RC | BX | PH | V
Tue, 04/30 | Men's Lacrosse vs. Johnson & Wales (RI) W, 15-13 (Final) RC | BX | V
Sat, 04/27 | Men's Lacrosse vs. Emmanuel (Mass.) W, 19-7 (Final) RC | BX | V
Tue, 04/23 | Men's Lacrosse at Saint Joseph's (Me.) W, 12-8 (Final) RC | BX | V


text:
Q: ID exists jQuery "test" not working OK thought I would be clever... https://learn.jquery.com/using-jquery-core/faq/how-do-i-test-whether-an-element-exists/ says you can just do
$( "#myDiv" ).show();

to see if something exists.
I have text areas that, when added, have IDs message2, message3 etc. I want to remove a button when there is only one textarea. So, at that point, there will be no message2 id (not very elegant structure but it works). So trying to build a hide button function.
$("#removeMessage").on('click', function () {
    $(".smhTextArea:last").remove();
    if ($("#message2")){}else {alert("Gone!")};
})

The click removes the last textarea as intended but I do NOT get the alert. What am I doing wrong.

A: Use the length property:
if (!$("#message2").length){ //if there's no #message2
   alert("Gone!")
}

It is also there in your provided link.
It's not the way to test whether an element exists or not:
$( "#myDiv" ).show();

But it's the way to test:
if ( $( "#myDiv" ).length ) {

A: if($("#message2").length == 0) {
//doesnt exist
}

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