The fleeting fiddlehead fern season is upon us, readers. All across the country, gourmands are eagerly descending upon farmer's markets, food co-ops, and premium grocers in search of the slightly fuzzy, furled fern tips that taste a bit like asparagus. Cooked properly, the fiddlehead fern is bright green and tender, with a nice crisp bite.
Their name comes from the fact that the tightly coiled ferns resemble the curled end of a fiddle or a violin. Like their namesake, good fiddlehead ferns are expensive, stemming from the high production costs. Fiddlehead ferns are wild-harvested, mostly in the northeastern United States; they're foraged for, rather than cultivated, and the expansive selection of similar-looking (yet inedible) wild ferns make proper foraging a difficult task requiring expertise. What you want is the ostrich fern tips, but what the inexperienced fern forager might come across is the nearly identical Bracken Fern, which is carcinogenic. So, seeing as how I neither live in the northeast nor do I have access to an "Edible Fern Field Guide," I figured I'd just buy the ferns at a store. Grok would have disapproved, but whatever.
After a healthy high school sports career (swimming, water polo, and cross-training), I went off to college and found that, like many people, I had a much harder time exercising without a tight practice schedule and all the camaraderie that goes with being part of a team. I made occasional forays to the gym and played some pickup ball now and then, but by 21 or 22, I was caught in the perfect storm of a backwards sleep schedule, way too many available calories, and a general lack of discipline (I was a largely self-supervising researcher at the time, and it turned out I was not a very strict boss!).
The "before" photo was taken during a family trip to Big Sur in 2003, and it definitely embarrassed me into action (that, and being invited for a run by the cute girl in my creative writing class). Having found the motivation I was looking for, I started running, first 1-2 miles, then 3-4, then 5, 6, 7, and immediately took off weight. I also began to get much more serious about vegetables, and took advantage of the local fish market to get hefty servings of Omega-3s. However, I was still stuck in some of the classic fallacies of modern diet and exercise: thinking that more distance meant better health, and that caloric balance was a simple, zero-sum game – i.e., eat all the pasta you want as long as you run it off. This continued for a few years.
Mark's Daily Apple Redesign Finally Coming!
The long awaited redesign of Mark's Daily Apple is almost here. Yesterday I tweeted to all my fellow tweeters a screenshot of the redesign (follow me on Twitter for exclusive updates!). Today it's your turn. Below you'll find an image of the new and improved Mark's Daily Apple (click on it for the full size). I've only included the one truncated image because I don't want to give everything away just yet. You'll have to wait until Monday for the unveiling, a video from yours truly and an introduction to all the new features and changes.
I'd love to hear your first impressions in the comment board. Thanks!
I have two pictures of me and two stories. The first was taken in 2005 at age 20 after I finished a big bulking session. I had spent the previous four years working out like a bodybuilder. I ate little to no sugar, only "complex" carbs (brown rice, baked/sweet potatoes, wheat bread, etc) and followed typical bodybuilding low-fat high-carb diet. I worked out 4-5 times/week, did steady state cardio (swimming, usually), etc.
Around this time, I started developing severe anxiety and panic attacks, both of which are disorders of serotonin regulation. Serotonin is largely affected by insulin and messed up serotonin often goes hand in hand with insulin resistance. You can barely tell from the picture that I had substantial musculature, because it is so covered by fat. I weighed about 175lbs and I could bench 240 and squat 300. Not bad, but not great either. A week after this picture was taken, I had appendicitis and then an appendectomy,followed by the mother of all panic attacks. For over a month, I was completely incapacitated and could only sleep for 1-2 hours each night. After months of trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with me, I stumbled upon the Paleo diet on Art DeVany's website.
To begin with, there are several types of olive oil, each determined by the method of processing.
Virgin olive oil is produced only by physical means, rather than by chemical treatment. The best stuff comes from only ripe olives (as green and overripe olives produce bitter and rancid oil, respectively) ground into a paste using millstones or steel drums. By definition, a virgin olive oil has not undergone any processing other than washing, decanting, centrifuging, and filtering (although none of these are required for virgin oil, nothing else is permitted). Some heat can be applied and, as long as it doesn't alter the composition of the oil, the process can still be dubbed virgin pressing.
Refined olive oil is poor quality (either due to acid content or other defects) virgin oil that must be refined if it is to be edible. Refining is usually done with charcoal filters or chemical processes. Refined olive oil is more shelf-stable, but it's also essentially flavorless.
The Vibram 5 Fingers look great for exercise but not very practical for daily use and I'm wondering if there are any decent shoes available.
The Vivo shoes are the most interesting I've been able to spot so far (but haven't tried them yet).
Thanks, Scott. This is actually a pretty common question I get from readers, and it's typical of the essential problem we Primal Blueprinters face almost every day: that constant battle between doing what is right for our bodies and what is deemed socially acceptable.


text:
Q: Permissions issue trying to create an external data source on Azure SQL Database Please bear with me as I am trying to learn Azure. I have in my resource group a SQL Server database, and a blob storage account with a container. I am the owner of these resources.
I am trying to create an external data source on my SQL database to link to my blob storage account, but I am running into a permissions issue that I cannot seem to resolve. Running the query:
CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE MyAzureBlobStorage
WITH (
    TYPE = BLOB_STORAGE,
    LOCATION = 'https://[redacted].blob.core.windows.net/'
);

Returns this error message:
Msg 15247, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
User does not have permission to perform this action.

My Google-fu seems to be betraying me, as I can't seem to find any references to this issue. Am I missing something basic? I'm browsing through my Azure Dashboard but I can't find any obvious way to manage specific database permissions, although I would have assumed that given that I am the owner, I had maximum possible permissions?

A: Please provide the credential as shown below:
CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'some strong password';

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL MyAzureBlobStorageCredential
 WITH IDENTITY = 'SHARED ACCESS SIGNATURE',
 SECRET = 'sv=2015-12-11&ss=b&srt=sco&sp=rwac&se=2017-02-01T00:55:34Z&st=2016-12-29T16:55:34Z&spr=https&sig=copyFromAzurePortal';

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE MyAzureBlobStorage
 WITH ( TYPE = BLOB_STORAGE,
        LOCATION = 'https://myazureblobstorage.blob.core.windows.net',
        CREDENTIAL= MyAzureBlobStorageCredential);

A: I was having the same error when trying to create an EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE. What worked for me was add the grant CONTROL for the database user:
GRANT CONTROL to your_db_user

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


So happy to be a part of their special day. If you have about 15 minutes, enjoy some great memories made on Saturday night in Louisiana!!!
A Few cool images from Abby's Senior Session ~ Beautiful inside and out!!!


text:
function Welcome(props) {
    return
Hello, world! Your index is {props.index}.
;
}

const element = <Welcome index="0" />;
ReactDOM.render(
    element,
    document.getElementById('root')
);

for (var i = 1; i <= 3; i++) {
    ReactDOM.render(
        <Welcome index={i} />,
        document.getElementById('root' + i)
    );
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


A state of the art music studio facility has been opened in Beijing by Modern Sky Entertainment, with the independent company teaming up with Stephen Budd Music to bring talented UK producers to China.
The new Modern Sky Studio complex is based in the firm's Beijing HQ and includes four recording rooms and three control rooms with a total area of almost 1,000 square metres. It also comes complete with an impressive spec list, including the first AMS Neve 88RS mixing console to be used in the country.
Furthermore, the company will work with Stephen Budd Music to offer domestic Chinese artists the chance to work with producers from all over the world. Stephen Budd Music represents a raft of revered producers, songwriters, mixers, engineers, remixers and programmers from Europe and the US, alongside a selection of the best up-and-coming creative studio and writing talent.
Among the management firm's roster are Mike Hedges (U2, Dido, Manic Street Preachers), Colin Elliot (Kylie Minogue, Richard Hawley, Paul Weller), James Lewis (Arctic Monkeys, Duffy, Wonderland), Tomasso Colliva (Muse, Franz Ferdinand), Rick Nowels (Madonna, Lana Del Rey, Ellie Goulding), Hugo Nicholson (Radiohead, Bjork, Beck) and many more.British producers from Stephen Budd Music will join Modern Sky Studio's experienced recording team consisting of Chen Dong, Wang Haichen and Zang Lu.
In addition to its Beijing HQ, Modern Sky Entertainment has offices in New York and Liverpool in the UK. Modern Sky UK is headed by Sound City founder Dave Pichilingi.
Budd commented: "We are delighted to be cooperating with an innovative music company like Modern Sky.They have an important influence in China and the international market. I am looking forward to the next step of my work career."


Do you trust Amazon not to start collecting your data when they will take over Eero? I don't. They have no credibility because this is part of the machinery that powers this business. The more they know, the better. I cannot change my mind about Apple missing something big.


My current SCP i am working on.
This is my first official released SCP on the critiques forum, so please by all means tell me anything that might be wrong or things that is factually incorrect. If you find things that you dislike, please quote it so i know where i can edit it.
Ok, so, I'm just going to tackle high-level issues here.
First, you go way, way too far in trying to make your language sound technical, especially when it comes to describing precise measurements and making up new nomenclature. There's no need to call an area of effect around the object "Alpha Wave Minor" and the effects on a person who is already labeled SCP-XXXX-1 "Alpha Wave Major", when just using plain language is more effective. Similarly, it's a book (x cm by x cm by x cm) with a completely unmarked light brown leather cover. It doesn't "resemble" light brown, and you don't need half a paragraph to describe it.
Just try writing it in plain language, and then correct for clinical tone later. You also have a lot of repetition, particularly when you're talking about the 13 ft radius, so try to watch for that.
Also, just use metric units for everything, don't even include the imperial. If you have trouble picturing the size in metric, just convert from imperial online.
You also have a lot of random anomalous abilities and effects that aren't worked into the story at all and just feel completely tacked on to make this thing seem more mysterious and powerful. Why do lead helmets stop its powers, why does it hit people with G forces (and incidentally, that's probably not the appropriate use of that unit) and why for the love of God does its binding material disintegrate in a way that defies the known laws of physics? You've made the most trivial and boring part of this object do something so bonkers that it would warrant its own SCP classification, and then never mention it again. Nobody is going to buy that.
The interview with algebra was absurd, because that's not a skill that's going to impress anyone with a high school degree (most of our readers are in college), and the bit on the end felt like tacking on something like SCP-033. See my above comments on random unconnected abilities trying to make this seem more impressive.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: Let's get to the core anomaly itself. It makes people near it unlucky in very precise and absurdly powerful ways. Ok. It makes people who touch it even more vastly unlucky, including changes in behaviour and personality which bring it into bad compulsion effect territory, for 13 days. If they survive this, it does what SCP-028 does, only less interesting and with a weird guru figure and more pyrotechnics.
There might be something to the misfortune and increasing tiers of survival in return for knowledge, but right now you've got this thing cloaked in way too much text trying to make us believe that this thing is terrifying and powerful. Something being powerful or dangerous doesn't inherently make it any more interesting, nor does including random anomalous effects and powers.
I recommend you scrap this draft entirely. If you're still interested in pursuing the core idea, I recommend you take it to the Ideas and Brainstorming forum to make sure it's unique enough from past SCPs and maybe flesh out some parts of it, and then write it in a much simpler version. Plain language, cut way back in the bells and whistles, and don't try to convince the readers that this thing is God. We won't buy it. Focus on telling us an interesting story, instead.
Alright, thanks for the feedback Petrograd, i think i might have been a bit too informational and put too much ambition into this scp draft. Thanks! I'll take into consideration these points in my next scp draft!


On Sunday Charlotte, the children and myself visited Salon International de l'Agriculture in Paris. Yes in Paris not in the countryside.
It was HUGE. Live sheep, goats, cattle, pigs and anything else edible all inside and accessible to all and amazingly it was all spotless. Fresh hay replaced any soiled hay in seconds. I have no idea how they do it but it bloody works.
I have never seen so many different breeds of animals in my life. Most were massive. In fact it was more like a Mr Universe competition.
The food halls were separated into French Regions and the fresh foods on sale and the ready to eat versions were to die for. We had a Normandy Duck Sausage Sandwich each which we could have fed an army with. A glass of regional wine was €2.
The children are only 6 and 18 months but they had a ball. Tiana did a blindfold tasting test and was rewarded with a kid's cookery book and some goodies. Josh was just happy to run around and look at the animals.
The children were allowed to touch the animals but it was left up to the adults to keep them safe. After all isn't that what adults are supposed to do? To be honest the children seemed to instinctively respect the animals which I suppose comes from being allowed to be free around them.
We British are too quick to blame the EU for our Nanny State, this proved to me that it's not the EU it's the crazy litigious society we have created. Too quick to sue someone instead of taking responsibility. We have stolen our children's childhoods from them for money and for that I feel very ashamed.


text:
\section{Introduction}

Recently positrons \cite{1} have been shown to be very effective in probing surfaces
and reduced dimensional systems such as nano-particles which possess high surface-to-
volume ratios.
If positrons become trapped in image potential surface states before annihilation,
they can provide a means of selectively sampling the top most layer of a material or nanostructure
due to the fact that such states typically extend about one atomic layer
below the surface.  Subsequent annihilation of surface trapped positrons with core or valence electrons results in signals
(e.g. annihilation induced Auger electrons  \cite{2}
or annihilation gamma rays \cite{3}) containing crucial information about the composition of
the outermost regions of nano-materials.

In this letter, we present experimental evidence for an efficient
mechanism for depositing positrons directly
into surface states through a single quantum step. In
this process, the energy associated with the positron transition from an unbound scattering
state to a bound surface state is coupled to a valence electron
which may then have sufficient energy to leave the surface.
Due to its similarity with the Auger transition in solids, this process has been
termed as Auger mediated quantum sticking (AMQS). The quantum nature of the AMQS follows
from the fact that the de Broglie
wavelength of a $1$ eV positron (about $12$ \AA) is an
order of magnitude more than the width of the surface potential well (about 1 \AA ) \cite{7}.
Similar ideas have been suggested in theoretical models \cite{4,5,6}, however no
experimental evidence of this mechanism was available until now.
The AMQS process schematized in Fig.~1 is related closely to
the Auger de-excitation of atoms \cite{8}
or molecules \cite{9} near surfaces, which has been studied
for decades in various fields.

Here we provide direct experimental confirmation of the AMQS process through measurements
of electron energy
spectra resulting from very low energy positron bombardment ($1.5-7$ eV).
The strongest evidence
for the AMQS is found in a narrow electron peak
observed at incident positron kinetic energies well below the electron work function value.
The present experiment also allowed us to determine the positron
sticking probability as a function of incident particle energy
and to obtain an independent measurement of
the positron binding energy at the surface \cite{10}.
The fact that this new mechanism has an efficiency exceeding $10$ \% at positron
energies $\sim1$ eV proves that it will be possible to use low energy positron beams
to selectively probe the surfaces of fragile systems such as nano-particles and
bio-materials and to obtain Auger signals
which are completely free of secondary electron background.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=\hsize,width=8.cm]{1.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{ (Color online) Schematics of AMQS process:
(a) the slow positrons in real space is directly trapped at
the surface state resulting in the release of an electron carrying away the residual energy
(b) the energy band diagram showing the AMQS (VB = valence band )}
\label{fig1}
\end{figure}

The experiments were carried out using Time of Flight -Positron Annihilation
induced Auger Electron Spectrometer (TOF-PAES) \cite{11} which uses a magnetic bottle analyzer\cite{12}.
Positrons from a Na-22 source are guided to the sample
using an \textbf{E}$\times$\textbf{B} field.
The emitted electrons are detected by a
multi channel plate (MCP).
The energy of the emitted electron was calculated from the electron time of flight (TOF) which was determined from the time difference between the electron and annihilation gamma ray detections (see Ref. \cite{11}).
An Au sample (a $99.985$ \% pure polycrystalline foil, $0.025$ mm thickness)
was sputter cleaned every $12$ hours while a Cu(100) sample
(a $99.9$ \% pure single crystal $10$ mm diameter $\times$
$1$ mm thickness)
was sputter cleaned followed by annealing at $740$
$^o$C every 12 hours.
The incident beam profile at $0$ V sample bias was fitted with a Gaussian of $0.4$ eV FWHM
and maximum at $0.65$ eV. $99$ \% of the positrons have energy
less than  $1$ eV and this is referred to as the beam energy. The incident positron beam energy was increased by negatively biasing the sample.

The primary evidence for the AMQS process in Cu is shown in
Fig.~2(a), where
the normalized energy spectrum taken at different
positron beam energy $E$ ($1.5$-$7$ eV) is plotted.
In each spectrum the large peak at low energies ($< 10$ eV) corresponds
to electrons that are emitted as a result of positron impact at
the sample surface.
The much smaller peak at about $60$ eV is the
PAES \cite{2}.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=\hsize,width=8.cm]{2.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{(Color online)
Electron energy spectrum of emitted from Cu(100) resulting
from low energy positron bombardment:(a)
The spectrum were taken for a series of positron energy ranging from
$1.5$ eV to $7$ eV.
All the data have been normalized to Auger peak.
(b) Electron energy spectrum taken with a beam energy of $3$ eV;
(c) Energy spectrum with beam energy $1.5$ eV; (d) same as (b)
but with background, as estimated from (c), subtracted.
}
\label{fig2}
\end{figure}

AMQS can be distinguished from another process
in which the final state of the incident positron is the bulk state.
In the latter
process, the maximum kinetic energy of the outgoing electron
(as measured outside the sample surface)
is given by
\begin{equation}
E_{\mbox{max}}=E - \phi^- + \phi^+,
\end{equation}
where $E$ is the incident positron energy (measured from the vacuum level) and$\phi^-$ = 4.65 (4.8) eV is the electron work function  in Cu(Au) and $\phi^+$ = -0.02 (+0.9) eV is the positron work function [13-16]. Both work functions are measured from the vacuum level with positive sign below the vacuum level.
The electrons can escape the sample if $E_{\mbox{max}} > 0$ eV which implies
that $E$ should be greater than $\phi^- - \phi^+$.
Hence, for incident positron kinetic energies of
less than $4.7 (3.9)$ eV there should be no secondary electron emission
according to this mechanism.
In the case of AMQS, the positron excites an electron-hole pair
while dropping to the surface state.
The energy to dissipate is the initial positron kinetic energy
plus the positron binding energy to
the surface, thus we have
\begin{equation}
E_{\mbox{max}}=E +E_{ss}- \phi^-,
\end{equation}
where $E_{ss}$ is the surface binding energy of the positron measured from the vacuum level (with positive sign below the vacuum).
Annihilation induced processes
including Auger transitions and $\gamma$-ray emission
can lead to the emission of electrons with energies as high as the Auger
transition energy and $511$ keV respectively.  However, such processes
would lead to the formation of broad electron peaks.
In our experiments, we found a narrow electron peak even when the incident
kinetic energies of the positrons were less than $3$ eV.
This can be explained from Eq.~2
by considering the process in which the electron excited from the Fermi sea
escapes from the surface if the positron incident energy is greater than a certain threshold
of about $2$ eV since $E_{ss}$ is of the order of $3$ eV in most metals
\cite{15}.

Fig. 2(b) shows a typical electron spectrum of Cu.  The large peak centered
at $3$ eV corresponds to AMQS induced electrons. Fig. 2(c) shows the spectrum
similar to Fig. 2(b) except the beam energy is below the threshold for electron emission, thus,
one can notice the absence of the low energy (AMQS) peak:
the quantum sticking is still
taking place, but electron emission outside the sample is energetically prohibited.
The same broad background between
$5 - 30$ eV can be seen in both Figs 2(b) and 2(c). This
feature is presumably the low energy electron tail associated with the PAES peak at  $60$ eV.
Fig. 2(d) shows the same spectrum of Fig. 2(b) but with the PAES background subtracted.

As a test to determine whether the low energy peak (AMQS peak) is due to
a secondary effect of PAES or not, we have heated up the sample
to $700$ $^o$C and  performed measurements with
incident positron beam energy above (Fig. 3(a)) and below (Fig. 3(b))
the threshold given by Eq.~2 respectively.
At $700$ $^o$C,
the positron trapped in the surface state is desorbed  as positronium \cite{15}.
This prevents  annihilation of the positron with core electrons and eliminates the PAES peak.
Therefore, the presence of the AMQS peak at high temperature
in Fig. 3(a) proves that this feature is not
associated with the PAES process.
Finally, the PAES peak always disappears
at high temperature (as shown in Figs. 3(a) and 3(b))
while the AMQS peak disappears
only when the beam energy is below threshold as given by Eq.~2.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=\hsize,width=8.cm]{3.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{(Color online)
Comparison of electron time of flight spectrum
resulting from positron bombardment from hot and cold Cu(100) surfaces:
(a) Cu at  $700$ $^o$C and room temperature with a beam energy of $3$
eV (b) same as (a) but with a beam energy of $1.5$ eV. In (a)  when the sample is at room temperature the
incident positrons stick to the surface via AMQS followed by annihilation with the core electrons resulting in PAES
signal. When the positrons encounter the hot surface, they still undergo AMQS but are desorbed as positronium
before they can annihilate with core electrons\cite{10} (note the inverted scale on TOF axis).
}
\label{fig3}
\end{figure}

The AMQS peak integrated intensity with  the background subtracted
is plotted in Fig. 4 (a) and (b) as a function of the
incident positron energy and it is used to estimate
the surface state binding energy $E_{ss}$. Previous measurements of
$E_{ss}$  needed the monitoring of the fraction $f(T)$ of
incident positrons which forms positronium  as a function
of sample temperature $T$ \cite{10}.
Here, we fit the low energy part ($< 5$ eV) of the
AMQS peak integrated intensity
with a linear function of the positron incident energy.
The intercept of the straight line
in conjunction with Eq.~2 is used to determine $E_{ss}$ for
Cu ($2.79  \pm 0.2$ eV)
and for Au ($2.87 \pm 0.22$eV).
This simple determination of $E_{ss}$ agrees well with
values reported in literature \cite{16}.

The AMQS peak integrated intensity was also used to estimate the positron sticking probability $S(E)$.
It has been assumed that the transition of the positron to the surface state is always associated
to an electron-hole pair excitation.
Hence, the sticking probability can be written as
\begin{equation}
S(E)=\frac{N_{AMQS}/N_{e+inc}}{P(E)r(E)},
\end{equation}
where $N_{AMQS}$
is the integrated
intensity of the AMQS peak,
$N_{e+inc}$ is the number of incident positrons,
$P(E)$ is the escape probability for the excited electrons  \cite{18}
and  $r(E)$ is that fraction of the excited electrons which have enough energy to escape
by overcoming the workfunction $\phi^-$. The ratio $r(E)$ is therefore given by
\begin{equation}
r(E) =\frac{ \! \int_{E_a}^{E_{F}}  g(E)\,dE}{ \! \int_{E_b}^{E_{F}}  g(E)\,dE}
\label{eq:fine},
\end{equation}
where $E_F$ is the Fermi energy of the metal,
$E_{a}=E_F-(E+E_{ss}-\phi^-)$,
$E_{b}=E_F-(E+E_{ss})$
and $g(E)$ is the density of states (DOS) \cite{19}.
The number of incident positrons $N_{e+inc}$
was estimated using
\begin{equation}
N_{e+inc}=N_{SS}+N_{Ps}+N_{ref},
\end{equation}
where $N_{ss}$ is the number of positrons trapped in the surface state,
$N_{Ps}$ is the number of positrons that form positronium and
$N_{ref}$ is the number of positrons that are reflected from the surface.
$N_{Ps}$  and  $N_{ss}$ are related by
$N_{Ps}=f(N_{ss}+N_{ref})/(1-f)$ where $f$ is the fraction of incident
positrons that form positronium ($\sim 0.5$, determined as  in Ref. \cite{10}),  while $N_{PAES}=C N_{ss}$
where $N_{PAES}$ is the integrated intensity of PAES peak
and  $C$ is the probability that a
positron trapped in the surface state will annihilate
with a core electrons($4.6$\%) \cite{14}.
Taking $0.2$ as the upper limit of $R=N_{ref}/N_{e+inc}$ \cite{20},
the total number of incident positron can be written as
\begin{equation}
N_{e+inc}=\frac{N_{PAES}}{0.8(1-f-R)CT_{PAES}},
\end{equation}
where  $T_{PAES}=0.45$ $(0.58)$
is the fraction of Auger electrons for Cu (Au) that are transmitted to and detected
by our analyzer. The sticking probability $S(E)$ estimated in this way is plotted in Fig 4(c) and its trend agrees well with the calculations by Walker et al. \cite{6}. This model predicts that $S(E)$ will vanish as $E\rightarrow0$. However, this prediction cannot be resolved by the present experiment. Here we only focus on high positron surface sticking rates for non zero positron energies.

\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=\hsize,width=8.cm]{4.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{(Color online)
AMQS peak integrated intensity for (a) Cu and (b) Au as a function of incident positron energy.
The data for positron energy less then $5$ eV has been fitted with a straight line and
the energy intercept has been used to determine the binding energy of the surface state \cite{17}.
The dashed line corresponds to the average background when the AMQS process in energetically forbidden;
(c) Sticking probability $S(E)$ calculated from Eq.~3.
The theoretical calculation is from
Ref.\cite{6} and corresponds to a typical electron
density of $r_s=2$ au,
 $\phi^+=-0.16$ eV and
 $E_{ss}=3$ eV.}
\label{fig4}
\end{figure}

We have reported experiments that provide strong
experimental evidence for a quantum sticking process in which an
incident low energy positron makes a direct transitions from an
unbound scattering state into an image potential surface state
resulting in emission of a secondary electron.  We have termed this
process Auger mediated quantum sticking (AMQS) because the energy lost as the positron makes a transition to the bound state is given to an outgoing electron.  Measurements of the incident beam energy at which the secondary peak first appears indicate a threshold almost $3$ eV lower than the value that would be expected if the positron were making a transition to a bulk state.  These measurements were used to obtain the first estimates of the surface state binding energy at room temperature.  The AMQS peak integrated intensity was used to estimate the sticking probability of positrons to surface and is found to be in qualitative agreement with the theory \cite{6}.  Our measurements provide the first
experimental demonstration of the trapping of positrons into the
surface state with high efficiencies ($\sim10$\%) at incident positron
energies  below the threshold for collision induced secondary electron generation ($\sim{1.5}$ eV).
We have used this effect to obtain the first Auger spectra that are
completely free of background due to primary beam induced secondary
electrons. These measurements also demonstrate the possibility of greatly reducing the beam induced surface damage associated with Auger analysis by using incident positron energies below the threshold of chemical bond breaking \cite{21}.  The strong signal associated with the AMQS process suggests that measurements of the AMQS intensity as a function of energy can provide an independent way of testing models for inelastic scattering and quantum sticking of light particles \cite{22,23}.

We acknowledge useful discussions with A.P. Mills Jr., P.M. Platzman and R.M. Nieminen.
This work was supported in part by the NSF Grant No.$DMR-0907679$, Welch Foundation Grant No. Y-$1100$ and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Grant No. $2.1.1/2985$ and $2.1.1/3199$.
B.B. was supported by Contract No. DE-FG02-07ER46352
from the Division of Materials Science and Engineering,
Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy
and benefited from the allocation of computer
time at the NERSC and the Northeastern University's
Advanced Scientific Computation Center.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


CBCE will organize several outstanding, high-level and authoritative seminars. At these seminars, foreign industry associations and top media will introduce the status quo of their home-based industry and experiences from abroad while revealing the trends of the Chinese craft beer industry in the future. Craft beer experts will share the latest brewing technologies to the audience, founders of domestic and foreign well-known breweries will provide insights of their operating experience of breweries and brand management methods.
5 12 Jun 2018 Robert Hunt Purchasing Manager at Mp Pumps, Inc.
Alley Culture Tianzi Fang Duple..


text:
Government and Nation
Story: Voting rights
First voting rights, 1852
Miners and Māori
Male suffrage
Votes for women
20th-century reforms
Kate Sheppard
The story of the successful campaign for women's suffrage sank into obscurity until rediscovered in the 1970s. A result of this renewed interest was the celebration of Kate Sheppard, leader of the campaign. In the following decades statues were erected, an apartment building opposite Parliament was named after her, and her face appeared on a bank note. The bust shown here was presented by the Women's Christian Temperance Union to the New Zealand Parliament in 1993 (the centenary of women gaining the vote).
Parliamentary Services
Polling place, 1890
Petition for women's suffrage
Neill Atkinson, 'Voting rights - Votes for women', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/photograph/36435/kate-sheppard (accessed 18 July 2019)
Story by Neill Atkinson, published 20 Jun 2012, reviewed & revised 17 Feb 2015

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Ink is what carries your message, and it has to speak loud and clear. We work with specialty inks that deliver brilliant color and clarity while still being environmentally friendly.
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text:
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch
Your First Glimpse At Netflix's Sabrina Reboot With Kiernan Shipka And Ross Lynch Looks Magical
We're sensing a whole lot of chemistry, and we're not talking about the kind in a cauldron.
Rachel Davies-Day
Thursday, April 5, 2018 - 10:59
There's some pretty exciting news for Riverdale and Sabrina fans alike, and that's because Netflix's reimagination of 'The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina' comics (which also happens to be a Riverdale spin-off) has begun filming in Vancouver.
With the shoot underway, we've now got our first glimpse of Kiernan Shipka and Ross Lynch in character as Sabrina Spellman and Harvey Kinkle, and it's safe to say it's already looking truly magical.
Hit play on the video to see Riverdale's Lili Reinhart and Cole Spouse sharing a sweet smooch in Paris...
The pair were snapped while shooting scenes for the series, and they've got some seriously cute chemistry by the looks of things, we're thinking we might even be in for some Bughead-esque shipping of these two.
Backgrid
While Sabrina's cute red get-up and headband are giving us butter-wouldn't-melt vibes, we're actually in for a pretty dark ride with this witch.
"This is a darker, more macabre version of Sabrina, and we're incredibly excited for people to see Kiernan make this iconic character her own," executive producer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa told Entertainment Weekly.
Ooh-er, we can't wait to see Sabrina go all dark and mysterious on us.
Now take a look at MTV News to see Cole Sprouse celebrate Riverdale season 3...
More From Sabrina, The Teenage Witch
The 'Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina' Actor Who Almost Played Jughead Jones
Kiernan Shipka Explains Why She Has No Time For The Child Star Curse
22 Ultimate 90s Throwbacks: From Our Favourite TV Shows To Our Most Used Toys
Sabrina The Teenage Witch Teases Harvey's Return With First Look At Script
Where Are The Stars Of Sabrina The Teenage Witch Now?


text:
Q: AngularJS: Linking multiple scope variables inside external template I am trying to build some custom directives for inputs with validations provided by ngMessages directive. Still, I can't link multiple variables from $scope to dynamically determine the form name and the input name. Here's my code so far:
The directive:
app.directive('textBox', ['$compile', function ($compile) {
    return {
        restrict: 'E',
        scope: {
            label: "@",
            fieldName: "@",
            bindTo: "="
        },
        require: "^form",
        templateUrl: '/WebClient/Directives/TextBox/textBoxTemplate.html',
        link: function (scope, element, attrs, ctrl) {
            $scope.formName = ctrl.$name;
        }
    };
}]);

The template:

    {{label}}
    <input type="text" name="{{fieldName}}" ng-model="{{field}}" required />

You left the field blank...

Your field is too short

Your field is too long

Your field has an invalid email address

The usage:
<text-box bind-to="myField" field-name="myField"></text-box>

The issues I encounter are related to the ng-messages attribute value. Doesn't seem to work when I use curly braces and it renders the text "formName.fieldName.$error" if I don't. The other issue is related to the ng-model, the same scenario applies.
Thank you!

A: You can pass the formController, ctrl in your link method to directive scope like scope.form = ctrl;.
Then you can add
 to access the $error property.
Curly braces are only required for the name of the input field. For ng-model you can directly add the model with-out curlies because ng-model requires two-way binding to work.
Please have a look at the demo below or this jsfiddle.

angular.module('demoApp', ['ngMessages'])
 .controller('mainController', MainController)
    .directive('textBox', ['$compile', function ($compile) {
    return {
        restrict: 'E',
        scope: {
            label: "@",
            fieldName: "@",
            bindTo: "="
        },
        require: "^form",
        templateUrl: '/WebClient/Directives/TextBox/textBoxTemplate.html',
        link: function (scope, element, attrs, ctrl) {
            //$scope.formName = ctrl.$name;
            scope.form = ctrl;
        }
    };
}]);

function MainController($scope) {
 $scope.myField = 'test';
}

    <form name="testForm">
        <text-box bind-to="model" field-name="myField"></text-box>
    </form>

    {{model}}


Asena Otel is located in Antalya's city centre, just 1.5 km from Konyaalti Beach and the main bus station. It offers air-conditioned rooms with private bathrooms and satellite TV.Otel Asena offers an à la carte restaurant that serves traditional Turkish cuisines and grilled meats.The Asena offers free Wi-Fi throughout the entire hotel and complimentary onsite parking. It is located just 15 km from Antalya Airport.


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text:
/* eslint-env node, mocha, browser */
'use strict';

const e = require('./setup/test-environment');
const C = require('./setup/test-constants');

describe('single-instance graphics', function () {
	this.timeout(10000);

	before(function (done) {
		this.timeout(0);
		e.browser.client
			.newWindow(C.SINGLE_INSTANCE_URL, 'NodeCG test single instance graphic', '')
			.getCurrentTabId()
			.then(tabId => {
				e.browser.tabs.singleInstance = tabId;
				done();
			});
	});

	it('shouldn\'t enter an infinite redirect loop when including a polymer element that loads an external stylesheet',
		done => {
			const singleInstance = require('../lib/graphics/single_instance');
			singleInstance.once('graphicAvailable', cb);

			function cb(url) {
				if (url === '/graphics/test-bundle/single_instance.html') {
					throw new Error('The graphic must have gotten redirected.');
				}
			}

			setTimeout(() => {
				singleInstance.removeListener('graphicAvailable', cb);
				done();
			}, 5000);
		});
});


text:
Send letters to:
28 Little Russell Street
London WC1A 2HN
letters@lrb.co.uk
Please include name, address, and work and home telephone numbers.
Vol. 8 No. 12 · 3 July 1986
Milton's Republic
SIR: I was intrigued by David Norbrook's case for Paradise Lost as a political poem (LRB, 5 June). His arguments are very different from those advanced by Tom Paulin in his introduction to the Faber Book of Political Verse – so different that I can address them without compromising my editorial function. About the anthology I must remain silent, as I have done throughout this controversy. My objections to Tom Paulin's Geoffrey Hill piece were confined to two factual points – the 'echo' of Yeats, which was a quotation from the Psalms, and Paulin's inaccurate metrical analysis of Hill's sonnet, where he imputed metrical monotony to lines whose metre was demonstrably varied. It was Tom Paulin who chose to present my intervention in these diversionary terms: I have made two catastrophic errors about Geoffrey Hill's poetry but Craig Raine doesn't like my anthology of political verse. For similar reasons, 'metre' later became 'diction' as the correspondence progressed.
David Norbrook is cool and logical enough to see my objection to his first point, which concerns the 'republican assertiveness' of Paradise Lost's 'very metrics'. There is, of course, no avoiding Milton's description: 'an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty recovered to Heroic Poem from the troublesome and modern bondage of rhyming'. Clearly, there may be a cryptic innuendo here, but the passage in its entirety is aesthetic and not political. Even were the point conceded, there is still a distinction to be observed between Milton's republican intent and the actual status of blank verse. It is a subtle distinction, admittedly, but crude distinctions can't have things their own way all the time. Milton, David Norbrook insists, wants rhyme to be 'a symbol for all the irrational and luxurious panoply of monarchy and aristocratic and ecclesiastical hierarchies that had gradually weighted down the political forms of the Roman republic and which the English Revolution had begun to sweep away' – but is it? And is that all? What, one wonders, does it do with all its spare time? Torture radical activists? According to Milton himself, rhyme sets off 'wretched matter and lame Meter', when it isn't vexing, hindering and constraining poets to 'express many things otherwise, and for the most part worse than else they would have exprest them'. When it isn't working overtime for Mr Norbrook, then, it is evidently into bondage of a purely literary kind.
And is blank verse a symbol of all things opposite to the 'luxurious panoply of monarchy and aristocratic and ecclesiastical hierarchies'? After all, the Spaniards and the Italians had 'rejected Rime both in longer and shorter Works' without reference to their political situation or its improvement. And aren't the 'best English Tragedies', cited with approval by Milton, somewhat problematically heterogeneous in this symbolic context? It cannot be true that the 'very metrics' of Paradise Lost are assertively republican. Intrinsically, blank verse is neutral, like ink or paper. As Milton's own examples show, its affiliations are promiscuous.
Of Mammon and Beelzebub, David Norbrook remarks: 'their language can at times sound republican, but there is no room here [in Paulin's anthology] for the framing episodes in which the essentially theatrical, anti-rational, in short monarchical, character of diabolical political organisation is manifested.' I think I detect circularity here. Mr Norbrook will correct me if I am wrong. Unless one already believes Paradise Lost to be a political poem directed against monarchists, it is hard to see how 'theatrical' and 'anti-rational' can be translated so automatically into 'monarchical' – without, in short, a great deal being gained in the translation. Theatricality and anti-rationality, I have noticed, are not qualities exclusively earmarked for any particular political persuasion.
It worries me, too, that the devils 'can at times sound republican'. Perhaps it should worry David Norbrook more than it appears to? The difficulty with presenting Beelzebub as a monarchist 'working to erode a collective spirit in favour of giving supreme power to one charismatic leader' is not only that Beelzebub puts his proposals to the vote, advising 'all circumspection' 'in our suffrage', but also that he is so clearly against the supreme power of another charismatic leader called God.
I found David Norbrook's account of Milton's presentation of God in his heaven clever but implausible. It is always difficult to argue convincingly from what an author didn't do. Milton, he tells us, 'weakens the poem's power by refusing to surround God with the conventional courtly theatricality of the Baroque Heaven'. I cannot myself see that Milton would have strengthened his presentation by such conventional additions. Put like that, David Norbrook's argument looks a little flimsy.
Milton's presentation is surely explained by his theological disposition. W.H. Auden affected to find religious poetry embarrassing, except the most liturgical kind. Milton, a serious theologian and a shrewd poet, felt this objection genuinely and foresaw that any concrete presentation of God was liable to be ludicrous. In De Doctrina Christiana, he writes: 'It is better therefore to contemplate the Deity, and to conceive of him, not with reference to human passions, that is, after the manner of men, who are never weary of framing subtle imaginations respecting him …'
So where do I stand? I stand unpersuaded.
SIR: In his interesting review of Tom Paulin's Faber Book of Political Verse, David Norbrook describes how Paulin classes Dryden among the 'conservative', 'monarchist' writers (in which company Dryden 'seems a less ambiguous figure' than Spenser, Shakespeare or Jonson), and suggests that 'Absalom and Achitophel' illustrates Dryden's 'nostalgia for an organic society free of the disease of politics and commerce'.
Might I suggest that some of your readers may be interested in looking at the discussion of these matters in my recently-published study, John Dryden. I argue that if one attends to the full range of Dryden's work – not just the hackneyed 'public' poems – and if one is sensitive to the enormous qualitative discrepancies, not only between different areas of Dryden's oeuvre as a whole but also within individual works, it is evident that, whatever his views may have been as a private citizen, Dryden the poet cannot be at all accurately described as an unambiguous conservative royalist who believed wholeheartedly in an organic body politic and regarded political dissension as a disease which must be cured. Paulin's inclusion of the whole of 'Absalom' in his anthology – the poem has some deservedly famous lines, but also contains some conspicuously slack and unconvincing writing – unfortunately will do little to discourage the undiscriminating approach which has for so long impeded a full appreciation of Dryden's genius. In his best poetic moments, Dryden does not write from a position of simple conservative parti-pris, nor does he attempt to evade or sidestep political questions. At his best, Dryden encompasses and subsumes his interest in politics within his investigation of a much larger subject, the subject which has always been poetry's business: the nature of Man, and 'truth, not individual and local, but general and operative'. Dryden's fearlessly exhilarating explorations of that subject involved him in entertaining and relishing some very subversive thoughts indeed about all the things which the textbooks tell us he valued most dearly – monarchy, Christianity, Toryism, peace, stability. To lump Dryden among 'the conservatives' is simply to ignore the full implications of what he's saying in his best verse – which is, I believe, what most people have been doing for over a century.
David Hopkins
Modernisms
SIR: Nobody enjoys an adverse notice, and Professor Stead has replied when still so cross as to be rather silly (Letters, 19 June). His suggestion that I failed to read his book with care is offensive, but the rest of what he has to say is really neither here nor there. Having thought very well of The New Poetic, I expected much of this new book, and was disappointed when it turned out to be manifestly inferior, much less useful, and oddly self-indulgent. It may tell us something about Stead that he thinks I could have disliked his book because he makes critical remarks on some pages I wrote thirty years ago.
Any report of his views which fails to give ipsissima verba is condemned as inaccurate. He says I misrepresent his remarks on the politics of Eliot and Pound, but his further explanation simply shows that I didn't. He fusses about my saying that he has been 'teaching' The Waste Land for quarter of a century when I should have confined myself to saying he was offering public explanations as to how one should read it only 22 years ago. I'm puzzled that Stead, in his tantrum, should mistake my disappointment for a tantrum, and that he takes comfort in the absurd supposition that in liking the other books under review better than his I was patronising their authors. The fact, however sad, is that Shattuck's book belongs to an entirely different class of criticism; and if Stead will compare what he says about Four Quartets now with what he said in 1964, he may be compelled to consider whether the same might be said of The New Poetic.
Darling Clem
SIR: Trevor Burridge takes issue (Letters, 5 June) with my review of his biography of Attlee. My comments, he claims, boil down to the charge that Attlee was no Superman, and are best explained by my longing for a new Lloyd George to deliver us from the rule of the Iron Lady.
Not so. My argument was that nostalgia for yesterday's radicalism, and regret at the passing of the English gentleman, have conspired to inflate Attlee's reputation. No one has a higher regard for Attlee as a decent old stick than I have. He and King George VI proved that Britain was a land in which Mr Pooter could get to the top, if only by accident. This was a heartening democratic development and it will be a happy world when politics are so banal that aspiring young Pooters, like Dr Burridge and myself, can safely be put in charge of everything. But in the rough and tumble of British politics as they used to be in the bad old days, Attlee was an uninspired and uninspiring man who tended to follow his party rather than to lead it. No Superman was required to steer the Labour Government away from the rocks after 1945: but a politician of greater force and imagination might have done it.
Paul Addison
Department of History, University of Edinburgh
Making truth
SIR: Richard Rorty (LRB, 17 April) suggests, quoting Heidegger, that the force of Nietzsche's arguments is greatest when his 'metaphysics of power' are discarded. May I suggest that Rorty himself has swallowed a 'metaphysics of contingency' which could be discarded equally happily, leaving many of his insights intact. An organising principle is needed for any work of scope. 'Contingency' plays this role in Rorty's pieces and he has used it to devastating effect on language, the self and, in a promised third article, community. But it is not clear that he sees 'contingency' as merely this. In fact, one fears that he could, at any moment, 'cap up' the initial letter and provide the manifesto for a voguish new school of 'Contingentism'.
Rorty has previously drawn a distinction between systematic philosophers and those, such as the later Wittgenstein, whom he dubbed 'edifying'. The latter stand at the sidelines of any particular contemporary philosophical debate – gadflies challenging the very notion of philosophy as a cooperative and progressive discipline. By temperament, Rorty himself would seem to lie somewhere between these two types: perhaps this is his strength in subtly understanding what makes both sides really tick. But, for my money, he is at his best when he wants, as 'edifying' philosophers do, to keep space open for the sense of wonder which poets can sometimes cause. His elevation of 'contingency' into an overarching concept simply smacks of a bit of bad systematic thinking. With its apparently pessimistic overtones, no wonder it provokes criticism that Rorty is 'retailing the same fashionable arithmetic of despair'.
Victor Smart
Observer, London EC4
Untheory
SIR: In describing 'developments' in 'the war between philosophy and poetry', Alexander Nehamas (LRB, 22 May) ignores the fact that it is largely conducted by non-poets – although his review inevitably demonstrates it. 'Poets today have struck back,' he announces, 'by arguing that philosophy itself is a species of poetry.' 'Poets' have done no such thing; and since the professor means 'critics', or 'theorists', or 'philosophers', then that is what he ought to call them, unless he believes that they too are all somehow 'poets', in which case the name wasn't worth his casual appropriation.
C.J. Cook
Irish Extraction
SIR: It strikes me that perhaps Nicolas Walter is making too much of the ancestry attributed to Major Yeates in the Irish R.M. stories (Letters, 5 June). For Irish, in this instance, I think we read Anglo-Irish, which isn't quite the same thing – and whatever his nationality, Major Yeates is at a sufficient distance from the natives of Skebawn to find their antics bemusing: this is surely the point. If Somerville and Ross had intended their hero's 'Irishness' to contribute irony to the stories, they'd have underlined it: as far as I can remember, the matter isn't brought up again after the first mention.
Patricia Craig
Hääyöaie
SIR: Orgasm in Finnish is orgasmi, or, if you prefer a home-grown alternative, hekumanhuippu ('peak of sensual pleasure'). Your reviewer Don Coles (LRB, 5 June) should know better than to take D.M. Thomas's linguistic follies seriously. The latter's hääyöaie means 'wedding-night intention', not something even a Finn would cry out in ecstasy. The umlauts which aroused Mr Coles's concern are quite harmless (there's even a hidden one in the y, prounounced ü): in Finnish they tend to come in clusters, like bats.
Keith Bosley
Uncle Clarence
SIR: Mr Bennett (LRB, 5 June) should not think that his Uncle Clarence's death was pointless or that 'nobody could say why these men died.' Any competent historian of modern European could tell him. German foreign policy since the time of Bismark, coupled with Prussian ambition and a neurotic Kaiser, made that war inevitable. It may be tempting to think 'they died in vain,' but one can also imagine the outcome of abandoned treaty obligations, territorial guarantees and European comity. It was not the fault of the pre-1914 policymakers that Versailles was botched and the contest had to be resumed later. Private Peel played his part, nor is his glory blotted out, at any rate not in my eyes. There is glory in a faithful and enduring army; the fortitude of the British Army is its glory.
C.A. Latimer
Woodbridge, Suffolk
SIR: I much enjoyed Alan Bennett's evocative essay on his Uncle Clarence until the final paragraph, where he writes, 'Nobody could say now why these men died,' and refers to the Second World War as 'the one with a purpose'. Now I always thought that the purpose of the Great War on the Western Front was clear enough: to shift the German Army from French and Belgian soil and, to quote my late father (Private, Duke of Wellington's Regiment, gassed and wounded at Passchendaele), 'to shove the buggers back into Germany'. This the Allied armies eventually succeeded in doing. Had they not done so, then the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, where Germany demanded large tracts of Russian territory as well as a substantial proportion of Russia's industrial and agricultural resources, may serve as a guide to what might have happened had there been a German victory in the West. This view was supported by Fritz Fischer's study of German expansionary war aims in his Griff nach der Weltmacht as long ago as 1961.
The 'futility' myth, I have tended to assume, was the creation of poetically-inclined (though very brave) junior officers and post-war metropolitan literary intellectuals, a myth unlikely to seduce someone brought up in Leeds, who shopped at the Co-op, into thinking that his Uncle Clarence died for nothing. Perhaps all that Wilfred Owen at Leeds Modern School is to blame, rather than, one hopes, the degree in Modern History at Oxford.
D.G. Wright
Shipley, Bradford
Alan Bennett writes: Beg pardon. I had thought there were faults on both sides. When the next lot comes I hope Messrs Latimer and Wright will be around to tell us why we did the proper thing there too. Bags not be in the same cave.
SIR: Michael Neve's discussion of animal sexuality (LRB, 22 May) had its moments. Still, in his lust to score anti-American points, he makes a big cultural deal out of a phrase he fundamentally misunderstands. I refer here to his citation of Bettyann Kevles's sentence: 'This checking-out period is called courtship.' Whereupon, the overheated Neve writes: 'Life is now a teeming Holiday Inn.' Unless I'm seriously mistaken, 'check out' doesn't have anything to do with dying: rather, it means 'to inspect' or 'to examine' something. Thus the pedestrian in New York is bombarded with requests from street vendors to 'check out' their wares. I don't imagine George Orwell or Dwight Macdonald would have been ecstatic about this particular usage, but it's hardly a linguistic atrocity. More importantly, Mr Neve just doesn't know what he's talking about. Neve's anti-Americanism continues to get him into trouble. Later on in his review he writes: 'Personally, I'm less and less convinced, but I am writing with a sense of dreading America that sometimes overtakes the all too measurable European.' I can't for the life of me figure out what that sentence means, but I do know that it's an example of bad, pretentious writing.
Richard King
When an American offers to check out of a hotel, he is not deemed to be offering to investigate it.
Editor, 'London Review'
Domesday Matters
SIR: I read with interest the article '1086, 1866, 1986 and all that' by John Dodgson (LRB, 22 May). In it there was a brief reference to the BBC Domesday Project which implied that it was a kind of event at Wembley. The Project is in fact a new survey of the United Kingdom involving about a million people which will be issued on two interactive videodiscs.
Amanda Wood
BBC Television, Bilton House, 54-58 Uxbridge Road, London W5 2ST


What does it take to be a private investigator? A flashy car, a loud shirt and a trademark mustache like TV's iconic tom Magnum? Or does our image of a "private eye" slant more towards Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe? Do you think the only way to catch a cheating spouse is by going on "Cheaters"?
Are you frustrated that your high school sweetheart is not on Facebook?
Experience and knowledge are the key elements in the investigative methods that include having access to vast databases in searching for missing persons, divorce and child custody records, workman's compensation fraud and background checks.
And then there is the most common use of private investigators-cheating spouses. This specialty requires sophisticated surveillance techniques, training and equipment, along with undercover operations that provides the information that is needed in each individual case. The most important factors are discretion, confidentiality, and caring about the client.
To find out exactly what a private investigator does, we contacted Las Vegas private investigator, Venus Lovetere. Her business card reads "Specializing in Unusual & Difficult Cases".
We spent a recent afternoon at Venus's office at 1900 E. Bonanza Road, at a criminal law firm. While unsure at first exactly what we really wanted, Venus vetted us thoroughly. (Did Venus uncover Victoria's spending history and Nikki's overburdened event calendar?) Venus told us we passed, so she was willing to answer all our questions. We came away thrilled to know Venus. The most significant opinion we agreed upon was that Venus cared about her clients and made each case a personal one.
Venus Investigations came to Las Vegas in 1992. Venus became a licensed private investigation in 1988. Venus began her "private eye" career working on high-profile cases as a member of famous P.I. Vinny Parco's New York team. Venus started by answering Parco's phones and quickly realized she had a talent for complex finance-based investigations. Venus became a licensed private detective in 1988.
Venus presents a very likable demeanor and a disarming friendliness. People like talking to her which is a skill a private investigator must have to be s successful. Acquiring information is what investigators do and Venus knows the words, phrases and tone of voice needed to delve deeper to secure the information her clients want. There is more to Venus's work than having the ability to search databases.
Facebook may have 500 million users, but not the girl you met on the train to New York in 1959. People finder websites need a full name and city. The websites that offer these services use outdated information and usually require a monthly fee that is often impossible to stop. There are many websites devoted to unhappy users complaining about these companies.
The only option left is Venus. Her fee is modest and she will dedicate 3 weeks to the search. Venus confided that it rarely takes that long using her search techniques. She will know within days where your long-lost college roommate is and other helpful information.
Experience and knowledge are the key elements in the investigative methods that include vast databases in searching for missing persons, divorce and child custody, workman's compensation fraud, background checks, infidelities and more. Surveillance experience and equipment, along with undercover operations will provide the information that is needed in each individual case. The most important factor is being discreet, confidential and caring about the client.
Private investigator Venus Lovetere cares about her clients and makes each case a personal one. No case is too small or too big. Nikki immediately bonded with Venus upon discovering that they both were from New Jersey. They became instant friends.
Venus is an expert in knowing how to find someone and she told us about an 86 year old man who had recently been widowed and wanted to find his sweetheart again. Venus found the woman and gave her client a thorough report and a recent photograph of her. Unfortunately she is married. Another case was of a woman who thought her husband was cheating with another woman. Venus's investigation discovered that he was indeed cheating. However, he was cheating with a man. The wife was relieved that he wasn't cheating with another woman.
Venus works with lawyers, bail bond companies and employers. It is common for employers to hire a private investigator to do a background check on a prospective employee. Venus is an expert at "skip tracing" – finding a person who has left an outstanding debt. This type of investigation often requires Venus to "gumshoe" (as it was known back in the 50's) by visiting former addresses, interviewing neighbors and generally tracking a person's physical "footprint" using their known history.
Primary importance for anyone thinking about hiring the services of a private investigator is, understandably, confidentiality. Venus assured us that even an inquiry is treated with confidentiality.
*Nikki's story about going "undercover" with Venus will appear later in Las Vegas Informer.
If your career is unusual and you would be interested in Nikki and Victoria visiting you, please send Nikki Artale at nikkiartale@gmail.com and Victoria Alexander at kwanitaka@aol.com an email.


text:
Q: Can't install metrics plugin on Jenkins with mvn I'm trying to install metrics plugin on a Jenkins server and running into some issues following along with the project's README instructions. When I attempt to release:prepare release:perform -B I get this:
root@:/usr/share/jenkins/metrics-plugin# apache-maven-3.5.3/bin/mvn release:prepare release:perform -B
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[WARNING] The project org.jenkins-ci.plugins:metrics:hpi:3.1.2.12 uses prerequisites which is only intended for maven-plugin projects but not for non maven-plugin projects. For such purposes you should use the maven-enforcer-plugin. See https://maven.apache.org/enforcer/enforcer-rules/requireMavenVersion.html
[INFO]
[INFO] -------------------< org.jenkins-ci.plugins:metrics >-------------------
[INFO] Building Metrics Plugin 3.1.2.12
[INFO] --------------------------------[ hpi ]---------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven-release-plugin:2.5.3:prepare (default-cli) @ metrics ---
[INFO] Resuming release from phase 'scm-tag'
[INFO] Tagging release with the label metrics-3.1.2.12...
[INFO] Executing: /bin/sh -c cd /usr/share/jenkins/metrics-plugin && git tag -F /tmp/maven-scm-946969304.commit metrics-3.1.2.12
[INFO] Working directory: /usr/share/jenkins/metrics-plugin
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 2.721 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2018-05-01T22:13:29Z
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-release-plugin:2.5.3:prepare (default-cli) on project metrics: Unable to tag SCM
[ERROR] Provider message:
[ERROR] The git-tag command failed.
[ERROR] Command output:
[ERROR] fatal: tag 'metrics-3.1.2.12' already exists
[ERROR] -> [Help 1]
[ERROR]
[ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR]
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1]
http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/MojoFailureException

The apache link is unhelpful. Here is the pom.xml I am using:
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <parent>
    <groupId>org.jenkins-ci.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.37</version>
  </parent>

  <artifactId>metrics</artifactId>
  <version>3.1.2.12</version>
  <packaging>hpi</packaging>

  <name>Metrics Plugin</name>
  <description>
    This plugin exposes the Metrics API to Jenkins plugins.
  </description>
  <url>http://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Metrics+Plugin</url>
  <licenses>
    <license>
      <name>The MIT license</name>
      <url>http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php</url>
      <distribution>repo</distribution>
    </license>
  </licenses>

  <developers>
    <developer>
      <id>stephenconnolly</id>
      <name>Stephen Connolly</name>
    </developer>
  </developers>

  <prerequisites>
    <maven>2.2.1</maven>
  </prerequisites>

  <scm>
    <connection>scm:git:git://github.com/jenkinsci/metrics-plugin.git</connection>
    <developerConnection>scm:git:git@github.com:jenkinsci/metrics-plugin.git</developerConnection>
    <url>http://github.com/jenkinsci/metrics-plugin</url>
    <tag>metrics-3.1.2.12</tag>
  </scm>

  <properties>
    <jenkins.version>1.580</jenkins.version>
    <metrics.version>3.1.2</metrics.version>
    <java.level>6</java.level>
    <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
    <project.build.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.outputEncoding>
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <maven.findbugs.failure.strict>true</maven.findbugs.failure.strict>
  </properties>

  <repositories>
    <repository>
      <id>repo.jenkins-ci.org</id>
      <url>http://repo.jenkins-ci.org/public/</url>
    </repository>
  </repositories>
  <pluginRepositories>
    <pluginRepository>
      <id>repo.jenkins-ci.org</id>
      <url>http://repo.jenkins-ci.org/public/</url>
    </pluginRepository>
  </pluginRepositories>

  <dependencies>
    <!-- regular dependencies -->
    <dependency>
      <groupId>io.dropwizard.metrics</groupId>
      <artifactId>metrics-core</artifactId>
      <version>${metrics.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>io.dropwizard.metrics</groupId>
      <artifactId>metrics-servlet</artifactId>
      <version>${metrics.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>io.dropwizard.metrics</groupId>
      <artifactId>metrics-healthchecks</artifactId>
      <version>${metrics.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>io.dropwizard.metrics</groupId>
      <artifactId>metrics-jvm</artifactId>
      <version>${metrics.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>io.dropwizard.metrics</groupId>
      <artifactId>metrics-json</artifactId>
      <version>${metrics.version}</version>
      <exclusions>
        <exclusion>
          <!-- use the version supplied by jackson2-api -->
          <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
          <artifactId>jackson-databind</artifactId>
        </exclusion>
      </exclusions>
    </dependency>
    <!-- plugin dependencies -->
    <dependency>
      <groupId>org.jenkins-ci.plugins</groupId>
      <artifactId>jackson2-api</artifactId>
      <version>2.5.4</version>
    </dependency>
    <!-- jenkins dependencies -->
    <!-- test dependencies -->
    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>4.12</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
  </dependencies>

  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>com.infradna.tool</groupId>
        <artifactId>bridge-method-injector</artifactId>
        <version>1.14</version>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <goals>
              <goal>process</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>

</project>


Burek, P. (2006). Developing a complete project scope statement in 2 days. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2006—North America, Seattle, WA. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Through our experience working with project teams in many industries on hundreds of projects, we recognize that although Project Managers and project teams may understand the theory and value of developing a Project Scope Statement, many do not have viable tools, techniques or processes for creating a one. Unfortunately, Project Managers may attempt to write the Project Scope Statement on their own or assign this effort to a team member. Often, they move forward with a scope statement completed by one person or route the scope statement to other stakeholders seeking input, buy-in, or approval. This process can take weeks and usually results in missing portions of key information needed to effectively manage scope on the project. In this situation, Project Managers are faced with spending too much time trying to recognize and manage scope creep due to unclear project boundaries. This paper illustrates how to build a scope statement while gaining alignment from all project stakeholders in a matter of days. The alignment gained in the scoping effort will carry through the remainder of the project. This paper presents core concepts to effectively plan and run a scope statement workshop, using collaborative JAD techniques, to build the needed scope outputs for a project.
Project Scope Management involves ensuring all of the required work and only the required work necessary to complete the project is accomplished (PMI, 2004, p103). Any work that does not support the needs of the project is Out Of Scope and should not be performed. This concept seems obvious, but unfortunately only 29% of projects are completed successfully. This means 71% of projects either fail outright or are "challenged" - completed over budget, behind schedule, or deliver fewer features and functions than the Customer expected (Standish Group, 2004).
JAD (Joint Application Design) workshops can effectively address poor End-User / Customer involvement, poor executive management support and unclear statement of requirements by incorporating collaborative techniques. JAD workshops are led by a neutral Facilitator (i.e., someone without a stake in the project) to engage all the appropriate stakeholders as participants in a workshop to make project decisions and create project deliverables.
JAD workshops must be fully planned prior to conducting the workshop. Planning enables the project management team and the Facilitator to agree on the scope deliverables and activities for creating these deliverables in the workshop. A standard Planning Template and Facilitator's Agenda can save time preparing for the workshop and creates consistency in the planning effort. The Facilitator conducts the workshop using collaborative techniques to collect information, validate this information and continually adjust it to ensure it is clear, complete and addresses the needs of the project. The results of facilitated JAD workshops are consensus among workshop participants, ownership, and buy-in on all decisions made and all deliverables produced.
The Project Scope Statement provides the documented basis for making all project decisions and is used to direct the project effort and communicate the project scope to the project team and other project stakeholders. Projects that do not have a Project Scope Statement are plagued with scope creep issues. When a project team creates a Project Scope Statement early in the project lifecycle, they define the boundaries of the project. The team understands the business need and the expected outcome of the project, recognizes constraints that will limit their options for developing a solution, are aware of assumptions regarding decisions outside their control, gain alignment on high level requirements, understand processes they are affecting, and recognize entities the project solution will interface with. These tools allow the project manager, project team and stakeholders to make informed decisions on what is included in the scope of the project, as well as recognize when all of the requirements for the project have been identified and appropriate solutions defined.
Additionally the JAD workshop produces a current Business / System Environment Assessment known as a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).
Objectives define the targeted changes in the organization the project is expected to achieve. They are the reason for the changes that will be introduced as a result of completing the project. Objectives are defined at two levels: Business Objectives and Project Objectives.
Business Objectives describe the high level results the organization expects to achieve relative to the overall business strategies. These results are achieved through the execution and implementation of one or more projects. Understanding Business Objectives helps the project team understand how their project fits in with the direction or strategic plan of the company.
Project Objectives describe the changes that will occur as a direct result of the team's specific project effort. Project Objectives state at a high level what the project team will do to address some part of the Business Objective.
Time-based – a date for achieving the objective is stated. Objectives without target dates are merely dreams.
The process for documenting Objectives is to review and clarify each Objective stated in the Project Charter. If the project charter did not include the Objectives, the workshop participants will document the Objectives with help from the Project Sponsor during this activity. It is important to understand that the project team does not have the option of deciding what Objectives they want to address. The Project Sponsor must be involved since the Sponsor establishes the Objectives. Objective statements are reviewed and clarified until each statement is clear and meaningful.
Many times, project teams are confused about the level of information captured in an Objective statement and tend to include too much detail. Objectives are high level statements. Clearly stated Objectives describe what must be accomplished, but do not communicate the details for how the Objective will be achieved. Using appropriate vocabulary will help the participants define the Objectives at the correct level. Business Objectives should start with verbs like: Improve, Reduce, Minimize, and Increase. These verbs paint the picture of the change in results the organization is striving for. Project Objectives should start with verbs like: Replace, Design, Install, Implement, and Automate. These verbs paint the high level picture of what the project team will do to achieve the change.
The Context Diagram is a high level picture depicting the boundaries of the project. It communicates what is "In Scope" for the project. The diagram is a one page process model - built at Level Zero (0) or the 50,000 foot level. Details about the project boundaries are not clear at this point, but understanding the major pieces of functionality and interface points are identifiable. The Context Diagram includes two components: Business Processes and External Entities (Exhibit 1). The Business Processes are presented inside the center box of the Context Diagram while the External Entities are presented as boxes surrounding the center box and connected with lines and arrows to represent flows of information.
A Business Process describes actions or capabilities that will be affected by the project, either changes to existing processes or creation of new processes. Project teams often confuse processes with departments (e.g., Accounting, Procurement, Marketing, etc.). A Business Process is not a department, but it does describe the work that people in departments perform. Many times this work is performed by multiple departments, a primary department (e.g. Accounts Payable Department enters, approves and pays invoices) and secondary departments (e.g., Marketing Department can initiate an invoice). Business Processes focus on the work being performed, not who is doing the work.
Think of a Business Process as a "machine" that transforms things. It must have at least one input going into the machine and at least one output coming out. The output must be different from the input which is a result of the processing that occurred. Typically seven (7) or less Business Processes can be defined for any given project scope. Lower levels of work defined during the Business Process activity are typically pieces of a higher level process and can be rolled up into another Business Process. During the Scope Definition workshop, Business Processes will be defined at the highest level. Later in the project lifecycle, Business Processes may be decomposed into lower level sub-processes, as needed. Each Business Process should contain enough descriptive information to clearly differentiate one Business Process from another.
If the project has been initiated to modify an existing product or service, a list of Business Processes from the current environment may already exist. This list can be reviewed to decide which Business Processes will be adjusted or added. If a list of Business Processes does not exist, the Facilitator will use Brainstorming to help the participants define the Business Processes affected by the project. Business Processes defined during the Scope Definition workshop are used to categorize lower level Business Requirements later during the project lifecycle.
Specific vocabulary is used to define Business Processes at the appropriate level. Business Process are stated in Verb / Noun format and describe an action being performed. The use of Action Verbs versus Empty Verbs is encouraged. When participants close their eyes they should be able to visualize the work occurring associated with Action Verbs; whereas Empty Verbs do not provide a clear picture of any action.
The Business Process brainstorm may result in 20 or 30 potential processes – remember, we are looking for 7 or less high level processes. The first brainstormed idea is reviewed, clarified and if accepted as a Business Process, it is given a unique identifier. Each subsequent idea is then reviewed and clarified. The Facilitator asks if the idea is part of a prior Business Process already defined and if so, this idea is moved to the description of the other Business Process. Through multiple review passes, similar processes are grouped together and redundant processes are deleted until 7, or less, Business Processes remain. The resulting Business Processes are copied to the Context Diagram and placed in the middle box on the diagram labeled Business Processes.
An External Entity is a person, organization or system that performs processes which are outside the scope of the project. Inputs and Outputs are always described from the perspective of the Business Process. Business Processes either send information to the External Entity (Output) or receive information from the External Entity (Input). The project scope does not include the processes performed by the External Entities. It does include providing the interface between the Business Processes and the External Entity.
Project teams often list too many External Entities on their Context Diagram. They mistakenly assume everything the company does is affected by this project, or they fail to group similar External Entities together. Participants can validate an interface legitimately exists between the Business Processes and the External Entity by defining the information that flows between them (Inputs and Outputs).
The Facilitator will lead the workshop participants through an activity to brainstorm a list of External Entities. This list is reviewed and clarified, adding enough description to distinguish one External Entity from another. The participants will list the inputs and/or outputs associated with the External Entities. At least one input or output must be defined for the External Entity to remain on the list. Each External Entity is added to the Context Diagram as a box which surrounds the center Business Process box. A line is drawn between the External Entity box and the Business Process box with an arrow to indicate input, output or both. The inputs and outputs are also listed on the Context Diagram by placing inputs above the line and outputs below the line.
Are any External Entities missing that need to provide something to the Business Processes or receive something from the Business Processes?
Are any processes performed by the External Entities going to be changed and funded as a result of this project, if so, the External Entity should be removed from the diagram and the associated process should be added as a Business Process.
Are there any major inputs or outputs missing from the diagram that would require a new External Entity to be defined?
A Project Constraint is any physical, legal, or policy issue limiting the options of the project team or constraining the solution produced by the project (PMI, 2004, p89). Constraints are not likely to change during the project, but if they do change, they could create opportunities the project team may want to exploit. Constraints are typically set by sources external to the organization or by management. It is important for the project team to understand the constraints early in the project to avoid developing a solution which cannot be implemented.
Policy: The Tax Preparation Software must comply with Corporate User Interface Guidelines.
Project Constraints may be provided to the project team from the Project Charter, but if they are not provided, the Facilitator will lead the workshop participants through an activity to identify the Project Constraints. After brainstorming, participants review and clarify each Constraint ensuring it is clear. It is important for the Project Sponsor and other management stakeholders to participate in this activity to ensure the project team does not randomly describe limitations that are not real Constraints for the project.
A Critical Success Factor states major expectations the project MUST accomplish in order for the project to be considered a success. There may be many ways for the project team to provide a solution for the project, but if the solution does not satisfy the Critical Success Factors, the project is a failure. Critical Success Factors are actually high level requirements for the project. The project team has full control over work required to achieve the Critical Success Factors.
The Tax Preparation Software Release must be completed in time to take software orders by Oct 1 or we miss the major segment of the 2006 tax preparation season.
A list of Critical Success Factors may be identified by the Project Sponsor or defined in the Project Charter. If a list is not provided, the Facilitator will lead a brainstorming activity to identify Critical Success Factors. This list is reviewed and clarified, with the project team acknowledging they have control over achieving each Critical Success Factor. It is important to involve representatives from the management team and the Project Sponsor to validate that the statements listed are indeed Critical Success Factors for the project.
The vocabulary used for defining Critical Success Factors includes the word "MUST" in each statement to indicate it is a known expectation of the project team.
A Project Assumption represents a decision the project team believes is valid, but may not be valid, and for which they have little control over (PMI, 2004, p89). Other project deliverables are influenced by the fact that these decisions are assumed to be valid. Due to their uncertainty, Project Assumptions contribute to risk identification during the Risk Management Process. Project Assumptions may describe the availability of other project deliverables or resource dependencies affecting the project. Any time a Project Assumption proves to be invalid, the project team needs to identify the changes to other project deliverables that were dependent on the assumption being valid.
The final approved tax forms from the IRS will be released and available for inclusion in the Tax Preparation Software no later than Feb 1, 2007, allowing for a timely release of the product.
An initial list of Project Assumptions may be provided in the Project Charter to be reviewed during the Scope Definition workshop. If the Project Assumptions list does not exist, the Facilitator will lead a brainstorming activity to help the workshop participants uncover the Project Assumptions. Vocabulary used for Project Assumptions includes the words "WILL BE or WILL NOT BE" in each Assumption statement to reflect the sense of uncertainty about the decision. Although Project Assumptions are defined during this activity, the list of assumptions may be added to throughout project lifecycle.
It is recommended that the Project Assumption List be reviewed at the beginning and end of each facilitated workshop, as well at all project meetings, and during Risk Identification and Monitoring, to test the validity of each Project Assumption.
▪ The project team will build all components to satisfy the required functionality of the project.
▪ The project team will build A, B and C components and will purchase D and E components to satisfy the required functionality of the project.
The Facilitator will lead the participants through an activity to document various decisions regarding the solution: will pilots / prototypes will occur, will the implementation be phased, are purchases required, and if so, which parts of the solution will be purchased, and will an RFP will be developed to select a vendor.
Threats (external to the organization) – Influences outside the company which might cause a loss of market share, competitive edge, or effect the ability to achieve the project objectives.
Strengths Activity: What are the characteristics in the current environment we do not want to inadvertently lose or we can capitalize on with this project?
Weaknesses Activity: What are the characteristics or results we currently achieve that we want to eliminate or minimize impacts of with this project?
Opportunities Activity: What new technologies, ideas, or gaps exist that we want to develop or exploit to achieve our objectives?
Threats Activity: What factors or competition exists that might cause us to lose business or fail to achieve our objectives that we need to mitigate or eliminate?
After the components are brainstormed, each item is reviewed to achieve clarity. It is not realistic to assume every item from every SWOT component should be addressed by the project. Each participant will select what they consider to be the 3 - 5 most important items for each category. The facilitator will read each SWOT item, asking for a show of hands from those who selected the item as one of their top choices. Sorting the list allows the items with the largest number of votes to filter to the top. These are the SWOT items the project team will primarily focus on for developing requirements, and identifying and managing risk.
To complete any facilitated JAD workshop, it is important for the participants to agree on next steps. There may have been issues identified during the Scope Definition workshop which could not be resolved due to time constraints, lack of appropriate decision makers, or the resolution to the issue was not critical at this point in the project lifecycle. Follow Up Tasks are created to ensure resolution to these issues is achieved. This deliverable is sometimes referred to as an Issue Log.
To ensure tasks are completed, it is necessary to assign a responsible person (owner) to each task and to assign a realistic date for completion. The Facilitator will ask the workshop participants to document the next major milestone for the project, placing this on the Follow Up Task list. The due date of this milestone and the person responsible for ensuring the milestone is achieved, will be documented. Each of the remaining tasks on the list are then reviewed for clarity. If it is determined the task is still needed, the person responsible for the task is assigned. The responsible person must be someone in the workshop, to ensure proper ownership of the task, although this person may not do the work to complete the task. If the task must be completed in order to achieve the next milestone, a date prior to the milestone date is assigned. If the task is not needed to complete the next milestone, participants document the date as TBD (To Be Determined) indicating the task resolution occurs after the next milestone and a date will need to be set later.
Defining Project Scope in a collaborative workshop environment provides several advantages to the project team. Team building occurs as a result of working collaboratively to make decisions regarding the Project Scope Statement. This approach minimizes overlooking decisions, increases alignment on the project scope deliverables, and reduces confusion related to what ideas or decisions mean. When participants work together to create a realistic and achievable Project Scope Statement, team buy-in is achieved.
Management commitment is required for project teams to work collaboratively. Their support and approval is necessary to allocate the time needed to conduct and complete the workshop, and to reduce interruptions during the workshop caused by outside demands on the participants' schedules. Although a 2 day commitment to a Scope Definition workshop may appear to be a significant time commitment, the results produced through this collaborative effort save valuable project time by eliminating costly rework later.
Organizations need to acquire or develop facilitation skills which allow JAD workshops to be successful. Workshops that are led by a neutral skilled facilitator, versus an unskilled project team member, allow the participants to focus on content and make decisions for the project, during the workshop. The Facilitator's focus is on ensuring the appropriate processes are selected and followed, and participant interaction is effective.
A great way to introduce collaborative workshops and JAD techniques into an organization is to prove the concept one project at a time, versus introducing these techniques across the board. Select a project with high visibility to the company, and implement the JAD workshop techniques. Once the project team experiences the success and time savings of this method, they become instrumental in promoting the concept to other project teams, encouraging the use of these collaborative techniques on their next project involvement.
Project Management Institute. (2004) A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) (2004 ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.