So the latest rumor this week is that Apple is going to develop a car. They're hiring automotive designers and engineers. Yes, it would be totally awesome if Apple came out with a car, and it kicked GM/Ford/Chrysler's asses the same way the iPhone kicked Microsoft and Blackberry's asses.
But can Apple fix any of the issues that currently face electric vehicles? Or will they just be a slightly different $100,000 Tesla, splitting the market that is not really that big in the first place?
Assuming the 1,000 cycle life promise Apple made when it went to sealed batteries is still true, that would provide for a long lifetime (for a 200 mile EV, 1,000 cycles to 80% yields about 180,000 miles on the pack before it only gets about 160 miles per charge).
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus battery's energy densities are quite good – 250Wh/kg and 575 Wh/l. The battery cells in the Tesla Model S are around 250Wh/kg and 700Wh/l. This means Apple's equivalent batteries would weight the same, but take up 22% more space – this is a difficult thing to overcome, so Apple would need to be very creative on how they can come up with more space to store the battery pack relative to Tesla's battery pack.
The power output of the current iPhone batteries is unknown, rate capacity generally isn't an issue for batteries in small consumer electronics. The iPhone and iPad batteries can usually recharge in about 1 to 2 hours, which indicates a C-rate of 1C. Batteries for EVs generally need a C-rate of 2C to support fast chargings and highway speeds in all conditions (rain, snow, headwinds, etc.).
Apple's batteries are generally safe. The lithium polymer cells are a lot safer than the NCA chemistry used in the Tesla Model S.
Finally cost, Apple and Tesla produce roughly on the same scale now (see below) but Tesla has a much more aggressive ramp planned for battery production than Apple does. And the lead time on building new battery manufacturing capacity is pretty long.
Next I wanted to figure out how many kWh of batteries Apple sold in 2014. This is pretty difficult because Apple's phone models have different cell sizes: 5/5S/5C varied between 5.45 and 5.96Wh, the 6 has 6.91Wh, the 6 Plus has 11.1Wh. So beyond that, the mix of how many phones sold is unknown, so thats another estimation we have to factor in.
Lets assume that for the first three quarters of 2014 (no iPhone 6/6 Plus), the average battery size per phone sold was 5.7Wh, and in the final quarter the average battery size was 6.5Wh. In the first three quarters they sold 118M iPhones, and in the insane fourth quarter they sold about 75M iPhones (mix of 5-series and 6-series phones). This results in 672 MWh of batteries sold in the first three quarters and 487 MWh of cells sold in the final quarter, for an iPhone total of 1,159 MWh of cells, or just over a gigawatt-hour of energy storage devices.
The iPad sold 63.35M units. We can judge from the average selling price of around $420, that a lot more iPad minis are being sold than traditional, larger iPads. If we assume that the mix is 4 mini iPads to 1 large iPad (either last gen or current gen), then the average battery capacity was 25Wh, which is a total of 1,583 MWh of batteries.
This brings us to an approximate total of 2.75 GWh of battery cells produced by Apple for just the iPad and iPhone line. This doesn't include the batteries used in the iPod or in Mac laptops. Estimating the mixes and volumes of laptops and iPods is beyond my expertise at this moment.
Meanwhile, Tesla sold 31,600 or so cars. If the average unit battery capacity was 75kWh (3 85kWh units for every 2 60kWh units sold), that would yield about 2,370 MWh, or 2.37 gigawatt-hours. For comparison, the Gigafactory will be able to produce 35 GWh of batteries.
It is safe to say that Apple uses more batteries than Tesla in 2014. However, that may change in 2015, as Tesla will try to grow their overall production by 70%, increasing their total annual usage to about 4 gigawatt-hours. Apple, with iPad sales flattening or even declining, likely will not see a 45% increase in battery cell usage to keep up with Tesla.
I have no doubt Apple's design team would have a field day with an Apple-mobile. I just hope its as practical as it is beautiful. One of the recent thoughts that has caught my attention is that the value in the car itself is changing. Thirty years ago, 0% of the value of a car came from the software. As the cars got better, engine computers became more advanced, and the infotainment systems in cars became more prevalent, the value of software has increased, from 10% to 40% over the next 10 years as cars learn how to drive themselves, manage their internal components, and become more "smart" in general.
This puts companies like Apple and Google ahead of the game, with their fleets of software engineers and development know-how. Ford, GM, and everyone else has to play catch-up. Can they offer sufficient amounts of money and incentives to lure developers away from places like Apple and Google, where they could invent and develop things to change the world, to Ford, where they will make another difficult-to-use in-car infotainment system.
One interesting aspect would be Apple deciding to take advantage of Tesla's offer to release all their patents. They can use the same skateboard battery module design and powertrain to underpin the car, with a new design and Apple flair to the rest of the car.
Tesla's most recent quarterly conference call brought out the bears – they're burning cash like crazy on capital expenditures in order to ramp up for an annual run rate of 2,000 cars a week (100,000 per year) as well as building the Gigafactory that could make cells for 500,000 cars a year in 2020, plus batteries for renewable energy storage.
However, all this spending – $5 billion on a battery factory and $2B or so more on its factories in California, is just petty cash for Apple. Apple currently has a $177B cash pile, of which $150B is net of debt. Apple could easily invest $5B in the facilities to build the batteries and the cars – its not a matter of whether they have the cash, its if its the right way to spend that money.
The genius bar is usually pretty good about customer service (I haven't been in a while, knock on wood), even if the lines are horribly long. But how does that translate to getting your Apple EV fixed? Most Apple Stores are in malls, not a place you can drive your car into to get fixed. So what does Apple do? If they go with automotive franchises, they lose their exacting control over the process. Beyond that, they run into the same problem as Tesla with franchises – it'll be multiple brands under one roof since they will be a small-time player to begin with, and its always more profitable for the dealer to sell a higher maintenance gasoline car compared to a low-maintenance Apple EV because dealers make their money on service, not on new car sales.
It would make a lot of sense for Apple to partner with Tesla on the supercharger network, and infuse a boatload of cash to expand it to support the number of Apple EVs made. Here there are a lot of brand synergies between Apple and Tesla.
But What's the Sustainable Competitive Advantage?
Apple would only be thinking about becoming a car manufacturer (because eventually it will be more than one car – it'll be a line of cars) unless it thought it could bring something to the table that all the other companies out there (Ford, GM, Toyota) can't, and that it would have a long term sustainable advantage. They aren't trying to be like Elon Musk, who just wants to advance EVs and save the planet from carbon poisoning.
Design? Apple has impeccable design under Jony Ive. The Model S has great design, but lacks luxury in many ways that show its newness to the car industry (the seats, the small visor), and those are being fixed, but it will take a while. Apple will likely have some of these issues out of the gate too, but they would likely be fixed within the first few iterations.
Batteries? Could Apple be working on engineering and developing its own batteries? Not likely. As I illustrated above, Apple ships a tremendous amount of batteries every year. Is it enough to rely on the battery industry at large to continue to innovate in the battery space? Maybe not, but battery research is remarkably difficult – the annual improvement rate is only 7-8% and big breakthroughs are very rare, even if the scientific papers stack up to the ceiling. If Apple has something up it sleve to differentiate itself like working, mass-producible solid-state batteries that offer 700Wh/kg and 1300Wh/l, it would be a coup in the portable consumer electronics and EV worlds – phones as thin as 15 playing cards, cars that can go 400 miles without recharging. But this is very unlikely (I really hope I'm wrong but I doubt it).
Integration? This is always where Apple shines. Apple isn't generally the first to move (they weren't first with contactless payments) but they are usually the first to get it right from top to bottom, in a way that the user can understand. The difficulty here is that cars are a mature industry, very mature. Its easy to say that just about every company could do in-car computers better, even Tesla. Apple will show everyone how its done. But after that, and people understand the new paradigms for how people interact with cars, then what? This knowledge and innovation diffuses throughout the industry and becomes general knowledge in the same way physical keyboards went away and capacitive touch screens became the norm.
Self Driving? The individual automakers aren't doing all the heavy lifting individually, automotive suppliers like Bosch and startups like Mobile Eye are the ones coming up with the hardware and software to solve pieces of the autonomous driving puzzle. Apple could either redo that work or simply integrate parts from suppliers into a self driving system like Tesla is. It's nothing terribly novel or unique.
The problem to be solved with Electric Vehicles is batteries – weight, volume, range, cycle life and safety. All five dimensions need to be improved, plus the cost will need to come down dramatically before the general public adopts EVs over gasoline cars (especially in the current gas price climate).
What isn't a problem is design or features. Sure, design can be improved and refined, but a better designed car won't bring out customers in droves. An electric car fits very nicely with Apple's sustainability goals – working to have a cleaner environment, but there won't be that much of a market given the current limitations on batteries. This is the problem Fisker had – brilliant design but they didn't solve the battery problem in a new or novel way – and now they're out of business.
Its difficult from the outside at this early stage to determine why Apple would want to develop a car, along with the immense investment that would need to accompany development and production if it had honest aspirations of being a worldwide automotive manufacturer. For Apple to enter the market, there needs to be some long-term competitive advantage here. I just don't see it right now – just designing a better looking or more user friendly EV doesn't solve the major pain points consumers have right now.
The problems with EVs are battery range, recharging time, and battery weight and volume. And Apple isn't more or less likely to be the company with a group of electrochemists that discover a breakthrough than any other company, large or small, doing battery research today. It is for primarily that reason that I think Apple would be a fool to enter the automotive space, specifically EVs, in the short term. As cars transform from machery we operate to automated consumer electronics on wheels, there is a space for Apple and others who want to move in that line of products, but that transition is 10-15 years away.
The core problem at the center of today's broadband debate: laying down fiber, or even hybrid fiber/coax or 75Mbps DSL, to everyone's house is extremely capital intensive. It leads to mono/duopoly conditions because the more competitors in the market equals more ways you split revenue pie equals marginal investment is less attractive.
So what do we do? We can heavily regulate these monopolies/duopoly (Title II) but that doesn't fix the lack of competition. Prices will still be high because you only have one or two companies providing "Broadband" (25/3) in a given geographical area. There is no incentive to price compete when there will never be new entrants & no substitute products (wireless broadband wont cut it). So we'll be stuck with high priced broadband that doesn't block Netflix, that's OK for now, but doesn't address long term competitive issues.
We could let local PUC/Corporation Commissions regulate price for broadband, same way they do investor-owned utilities. But lets step back and look at this from a least-regulation position. Mono/duopolies shouldn't be allowed to do whatever they want. So lets try and get rid of the fact they're monopolies in the first place.
How do we increase competition? Government can't force laborers to work cheaper to install the fiber, nor can they make the materials cheaper, so capital costs remain high. If we force companies like Comcast or Verizon (I-ISPs) to open up their lines to competitors (C-ISPs), it will never be an even field. Comcast or Verizon will always slant things to benefit them, in pricing or response time to fix issues, and run C-ISPs out of business. You think Comcast treats their own customers bad now? Imagine being a customer of a C-ISP using Comcast's pipes.
We need a company to lay fiber that will resell transport but not compete with its customers (the C-ISPs). A municipal agency (govt) that owns the fiber and maintains it would be a good option. Better than your city/county maintaining roads because its a dedicated agency and the money coming in from the C-ISPs stays in the agency for upgrades and improvements (the digital highway trust fund cannot be raided to pay for other things). Limited scope by govt charter, regulated by the state to prevent scope creep. One mission, one goal of building 21st century roads. The agency has a fee structure for (flat + per Mbit + per Mbit/sec) companies who want to sell access. Companies are free to add value (alarm systems, television, phone, etc.). The net neutrality issues go away because of the high degree of competition – if company A slows down Netflix, switch to B, C, D or E.
If we put this plan in motion, existing ISPs try to run other companies out of business. We need regulatory help to prevent that. The optics get difficult, "XXXX is responsible for your higher bills!" they'll say, but ultimately its to prevent anti-competitive behavior by the large incumbents. Without it, incumbents will wage a price war longer than the government and the competitive ISPs can sustain, which would spell doom for the entire program.
So I've decided that after 17 years, I've had it with AT&T and their now slower-than-Sprint LTE speeds in Las Vegas. So when the iPhone 6s comes out this fall, I'm jumping ship. So who should I switch to? Verizon is the gold standard for cellular networks, but it also has the golden price tag. But, with T-Mobile's fastest data speeds and John Legere's promises that they'll have coverage nearly equal to Verizon by the end of 2015, they've become a contender. Like all things, it comes down to money. AT&T has decided that they're going to increase their dividend by 4c/year per share, while cutting CapEx (how much they spend on capital expenditures, from new towers and equipment to spectrum acquisitions).
On top of the price for service and a single line for T-Mobile (or adding a second line to my fiancee's Verizon plan), there is also the cost of upgrading to a new phone every year. Previously with AT&T, I was able to use other family member's upgrades. But that wont be happening in either case.
Figuring out which plan is cheapest for me is way more difficult than it should be. I've got at least four scenarios: with Verizon, either traditional subsidy with paying to upgrade the phone every 12 months (paying for a device in full every other year), their Edge program which now requires 75% of the device to be paid off before I can trade it in for a new one; T-Mobile Jump/installment plan or purchasing the device outright. Purchasing the device outright on Verizon is a horrible deal – they still charge you the full $40/mo (which includes a roughly $15-25/mo subsidy that you aren't using) even though you bought your phone.
Going with T-Mobile's Jump plan, its $27.08/mo for the device and $10 for the mandatory Jump insurance ($175 deductible). Already we're up to $37.08/mo. You also have to pay $99 upfront for the 64GB device, as well as the sales tax on the full amount ($60), so we're up to $160 in up-front costs and $37.08 per month. With the $60mo data plan, the total annual cost is $1,324.96. With the Jump plan I get to trade my phone in for a new one (plus $160) every 12 months.
Buying the device outright, the base price of the 64GB iPhone is $750 plus tax, about $810 in my area. I upgrade my phone every year, so that's 12 months of usage and depreciation. If I can sell my year-old phone for about $400 ((right now, Gazelle is low-balling me at $345, so I figure 10 more months of use plus factoring in their low-ball price is around $350-400)), that leaves me on the hook for at least $410. To make things more equal between the Jump plan and this option, lets add in AppleCare+ on the purchased iPhone, $99 to cover the phone against accidental damage ($79 deductible). With the $60mo data plan, the total annual cost comes to $1,229, or $95.96 less than the Jump plan, plus a much lower deductible in case something were to go wrong.
Verizon's subsidy plan means paying $323 up front for the 64GB device every other year (on subsidy) and $810 ($750 + tax) up front every other year (not upgrade eligible), but being able to sell the phone every year for around $400. Purchasing AppleCare+ would be an extra $99 per year. This works out to an average of $166.50 per year for the hardware. The monthly line access would be $40, and the marginal cost over my fiancee's data plan is $30, so the total cost runs about $1,105.50 per year (higher in some years, lower in others).
Verizon's Edge plan is a worse deal. While you don't pay anything up front other than tax ($60), the monthly device payment is $38.40 (phone payment and insurance) and the monthly line access is $15/mo (on 10GB+ plans) and the marginal cost over my fiancee's data plan is $30. The total cost so far is $1,060.80. But in order to upgrade, you have to trade in the phone and 75% of the device cost has to be paid to Verizon. After 12 months I'll only have 50% paid off, so I have to cough up another $187.50 to trade in my phone and get the new one, bringing the total annual cost to $1,248.30, $142.80 more than the subsidized plan.
The benefits of going with Verizon here are obvious – being on a multi-line plan is cheaper than two individual line plans. The Edge program is a bad deal, but not by staggering margins. My fiancee might stay on the Edge program since her Android phones only make it about 18 months before becoming very slow and annoying, which fits the current Edge rules very well. As long as she can manage to not damage her phone too badly.
The biggest variable is the resale value of the iPhone after 12 months. If its only worth $300, then the Jump/Edge plans start to look much more attractive because the carrier is taking the resale hit, not the consumer. I think its OK as long as I stick with Apple devices since they seem to have higher resale values than Android devices.
Barring any substantial improvement from AT&T (not likely since they are cutting Capex), I'll likely be leaving for Verizon when the iPhone 6s comes out. I'll have to pay AT&T an ETF but I'm OK with that.
I decided to pick out four up-and-coming battery companies to highlight the companies that are trying to break in to the battery industry with breakthrough innovations. Keep in mind – they can get all the way to cell commercialization, but to compete in the EV market they will go up against the highly integrated cells Gigafactory Tesla is building on cost, a very tall order.
Lithium Sulfur cells have an excellent energy to weight ratio, but have struggled with energy to volume ratio and cycle life. The upside is that Li-S is a relatively safe chemistry, so car companies will be able to reduce the amount of safety equipment integrated into the battery pack, increasing the percentage of pack weight and volume dedicated to battery cells.
Sion Power: Recently broke a record for longest unmanned aerial flight of an all-electric UAV (14 days) using solar power and their 350Wh/kg batteries to store energy during the night.
Oxis Energy: Recently announced 300 Wh/kg, in a 25Ah cell. I'm guessing their Wh/l figure is quite low, but they are working on increasing that aspect as well as getting to 400Wh/kg by 2016 and 500Wh/kg by 2018. Their EV cell target is a 95Ah cell with 450Wh/l and 400Wh/kg.
Solid State batteries have been a holy grail for batteries for a while now because they can be form-fitted to fit spaces. They have high volumetric density and cycle life, but have issues with Li-Ion conductivity through the solid electrolyte (low power, slow changing current).
Sakti3: On a recent episode of Autoline, the founder and CEO of the company stated they had achieved over 1,100 Wh/l in a battery cell. No mention of weight of the cell, but she expressed her optimism that they could be in consumer electronics in two years (late 2016).
Solid Energy: Recently demonstrated a cell with 1,337 Wh/l. Expresses confidence that they will be commercially available in 2016.
For the last six months or so, the focus has been on Netflix and net neutrality. Should ISPs be allowed to rig their high speed networks, through various means like traffic shaping, peering and interconnection decisions, etc., to purposefully disadvantage or advantage an internet-based service or experience. The majority of the users on the internet seem to think that no, they shouldn't. But corporations and corporate apologists seem to think that without giving high-speed internet monopolies or duopolies the freedom to do whatever they want will mean an end to broadband investment, and a loss of competitiveness as a whole.
First its important to note why regulation is so heavy-handed in this market. Its all about competition, or lack there of. The barriers to entry for building out a wireline or wireless high speed data infrastructure are immense. And those high barriers to entry mean there is a lack of competition. And that lack of competition means that the competitors who are established in the existing market environment need to be regulated to ensure that the consumer is protected, especially with a product especially as important as internet access.
Open access: companies like Comcast and Verizon have decided not to increase their network interconnect capacity with certain companies to keep Netflix traffic slow. Level3, a tier 1 ISP, even illustrated the habit of ISPs creating congestion to incent data providers to enter paid-peering arrangements.
Lack of competition: it costs a lot of money to build a broadband network from scratch, so there is not a lot of incentive to enter a market to create an additional competitor, especially if a regional or nationwide competitor can create a price war locally until you run out of cash and go bankrupt.
How can we solve all five of these problems? New rules for Net Neutrality, or regulating ISPs as Common Carriers under Title II don't solve all the problems. We're still left with the monopoly/duopoly with companies we have now. They'll begin work immediately to lobby for loopholes in the rules or legislation, while working to undermine the enforcement through lawsuits, and finally by getting people friendly to them in the regulator's chair to keep the rules from being enforced.
It turns out our approach to internet access its entirely wrong-headed. Infrastructure should only be built once and from there, upgraded over time to meet demand. Otherwise we're just wasting money. Let the market compete on top of the infrastructure, not by building separate infrastructure networks and selling proprietary access to that network.
But we can't just throw it all out and start over.
The internet is most often referred to in analogy as a highway network. Billions of miles of fiber optic cable criss-cross the globe carrying your request to watch that funny cat video for the 100th time.
There is robust, healthy competition at the "Tier 1" level – that is, the worldwide backbones that carry traffic all over the world. But when it comes to your metropolitan area, that last few miles of connectivity are often dominated by one or two competitive ISPs ((I moved recently, and actually lost my phone company – when I moved in, Centurylink wasn't able to provide DSL at my house, so my only option is Cox)), in the same way your local roads are maintained by your local municipal agency (whether its a city or county).
This infrastructure is expensive. Its expensive to build – which is why we have so few options in the first place. Its expensive to maintain – everyone keeps using more and more data, and it costs money to add capacity to the network. So why are we building redundant infrastructure in many places?
Does it make sense to build two power grids to provide some fig leaf of "choice" for consumers, while the fixed costs of building and maintaining two separate power grids are factored into everyone's monthly bill? Does it make sense for your community to build two sets of roads for the same purpose ((By this, I mean having two driveways, two street addresses, two non-interconnecting local streets that both connect to the highway network)).
But with our current state of broadband, its not as straightforward as that since the cable and phone networks were originally built for other purposes, and were re-purposed for internet access. Phone lines are inherently more handicapped than their coax sibling – DSL speeds are pretty much always slower than cable. But phone lines are more ubiquitous, usually required by regulation. Cable companies can pick and choose who they serve – if you're not sufficiently urban or suburban, I hope you like DSL and Dish/DirecTV!
Wireless-only options are a very distant third place in the broadband game, encumbered by very low monthly data transfer caps, high cost, and questionable signal strength ((Masayoshi Son's fevered dream of using Sprint's 2.5GHz spectrum to compete with wireline home broadband is laughable – its a simple matter of physics, even 120MHz of shared wireless communication at QAM64 isn't able to compete with 200MHz of coax bandwidth operating up to QAM4096 (the DOCSIS 3.1 spec) to offer 10Gbit speeds to your home)).
So we are left with different kinds of monopolies in the two different situations – in exurban and rural areas, DSL is your only option because you are unserved by cable; elsewhere cable ISPs can offer much faster speeds than DSL can manage and its really a not much of a competition ((My Cable ISP's two main tiers are now 50Mbps and 100Mbps, while the fastest the DSL company can go in most locations its 10Mbps)).
One option for solving the problems would be to force loop unbundling on the cable and phone companies, requiring them to lease their own lines at competitive rates ((Which probably would not be competitive, but what are you going to do? Sue them and their lawyer army in court? How profitable is that? Its just cheaper to put up with their uncompetitive rates.)). This would allow other companies to sell internet service over the hosting company's coax or fiber-optic network. These companies would be responsible for their own transport out of the network to whatever Tier 1 ISPs they purchase transport from, and all of the technical support, billing and usage information, etc.
Loop unbundling works well in Europe, but their business environments are drastically different than ours in the US (PDF), and I fear that between the relentless lobbying budgets of the cable and phone industry, the bad-faith dealings and legal shenanigans that would occur against those who want to come in and resell transport, it would not be a profitable business. In the same way we see cable and phone companies working hard to prevent municipal broadband, we would see an even more rigorous offensive campaign against loop unbundling before, during and after its implementation.
Another option would be heavy regulation of internet service provided by wireline companies. This regulation has been happening at the national level with the FCC, but maybe that's the wrong place for it. The best option may be with the local and state agencies like Corporation Commissions or Public Utilities Commissions. In the same way electricity rates or phone companies are regulated by a PUC or Corp Comm., so would the internet access. The Department of Energy in DC doesn't regulate your electricity rates, so why does the FCC want to regulate broadband with the goal of making it more affordable and ubiquitous? The local solution may be much more effective because local officials are much more responsive to citizen complaints. If everyone is complaining that Netflix is running slow on Comcast, or that Verizon is intentionally letting its copper-based infrastructure degrade, the PUC may be in a better position to force Verizon or Comcast to deal with it than a gridlocked FCC or Congress.
This would put some burden on the telecommunications companies because its more government they have to deal with. In my case with my ISP (Cox), they seem very receptive and integrated with the local community ((Even though they raise my cable and internet bills by 10% a year, 3-5x the rate of inflation)), so I don't believe that for companies like Cox it would put an undue burden on them, but for large companies stuck in that unaccountable monopoly mindset like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast, it would be more difficult.
One option that has had mixed results so far is municipal broadband networks, where the local government agency owns and runs the ISP. Unfortunately, approximately 20 states have legislation that prevents or has halted the growth of these types of networks. The FCC is looking into creating regulation that would overrule states' abilities to pass laws against them.
The existing companies have one legitimate issue with municipal broadband networks as competitors – these private companies have invested billions and billions of dollars in infrastructure and they don't want the government to offer a subsidized competitor with the community's tax dollars making up for the financial losses. However, that is not an excuse for the banning or restriction of municipal broadband networks. The community's side is that broadband is (in their opinion) more expensive than it should be – see Chattanooga's successful $70/mo Gigabit internet service – and nationwide ISPs are unresponsive or just don't see the return on investment needed to build out or improve service. Ultimately, the benefits of municipal broadband networks is that, as taxpayer-owned agencies, they are ultimately responsible to the people they serve through the feedback look of their board of directors being locally elected officials. Short-circuiting the dysfunction in the marketplace and in Washington DC through local elections.
Municipal broadband networks aren't always successful though, either through internal mismanagement or being undercut by a national competitor (who can sustain losses in one region) for a long enough period of time to lead to financial ruin for the publicly funded network.
The goal would be to build a network that combines the advantages of the methods described above, while trying to do this as cheaply as possible and without building a redundant network.
Eminent domain is essentially creating the municipal broadband network while removing the threat of a private broadband company attempting to undercut and destroy the effort ((This isn't socialism or communism — as long as the assets are purchased in the public interest (to provide faster internet at cheaper prices) for fair market value)). Customers can continue to use their existing ISP under a temporary management agreement until the necessary infrastructure upgrades can be made to support Loop Unbundling.
Eventually, all devices on the network (Internet, TV, Phone) will need to be IP or have a set-top-box for incompatible devices. This would be the most difficult aspect – you would need either affordable devices that can authenticate themselves to the network and then broadcast the subscribed set of channels over the customer's home coax, or you would need even cheaper boxes for people to hook up to individual TVs and output the broadcast signal over RCA, S-Video or HDMI to the TV.
The new network would be managed by a regional "Broadband District" for a metropolitan area. That BD would issue bonds to purchase the physical infrastructure from the cable company or phone company (whoever has the best infrastructure) by force at market value under eminent domain. Once the network migration is complete, it would be opened up to anyone who wanted to run their own ISP.
Eventually the goal would be to use the local fiber loop purchased by the government agency to provide everyone fiber to the home, and then allow everyone to have a competitive list of broadband providers to choose from.
The unbundled nature of the network would provide for real competition, ranging from little value-add (here is your internet service, have a nice day) to high value-add (on-location tech support, home networking, security, phone, TV, whatever else they can think of) at various prices.
Companies like Google or Facebook could offer subsidized service that, in exchange for your browsing habits, phone records, TV watching habits, dignity, and whatever shreds of privacy you have left, give you a discount on service.
For economically disadvantaged areas, instead of providing fiber to the household or multi-tenant building, offer WiFi services and prepaid broadband cards for a fixed amount of data transfer (1GB, 5GB, 10GB) sharable amongst a number of devices. This way, even those with only a basic smartphone could still use the internet for essential tasks like applying for jobs or requesting benefits.
First, we need to remove redundant investment. We don't have competing road networks, power grids, or water systems ((Even in the great free market of Texas, there are multiple energy companies, but only one energy transmission company – why? Because infrastructure is expensive!)). Why do we have these expensive, redundant last-mile communication networks? Because of some historical legacy? Time to ditch them and have one broadband infrastructure for all Americans.
Next, we need to figure out where competition works – clearly its not working in its current state as prices climb and the US lags in broadband penetration. Letting companies compete over a shared infrastructure will work – it works every day as companies compete with each other while driving over our shared roads, utilizing the power grid and water and sewer networks.
Finally, costs need to be managed as we convert the proprietary networks of today to the open networks of tomorrow. We can't have gold-plated equipment blowing up the budget. Any agency willing to do this would need to be responsible and disciplined in its conversion to eventually opening the network up to other companies to compete on.
So what does this mean for the watch? That the battery capacity would be slightly higher than my original estimates of 1.9Wh or 520 mAh at 3.6V. Its more likely that the battery will end up around 600 mAh or 2.1Wh at 575Wh/L.
The Model S AWD models are impressive. We knew they were coming for a while now – there is a space in the frunk that would be perfect housing for the motor for the front wheels. The performance is the headline here – 691 HP (combined) and 3.2 seconds for the 0-60 time launches the Model S AWD into supercar territory. But its not a supercar that just sits in the garage and looks nice – its a great daily driver, highly efficient, very low total cost of ownership per mile relatively speaking, and very user friendly. Beyond that, the way the two electric motors are tuned to work together help improve the overall efficiency of the car, allowing it to, despite the added weight of a second motor, increase the electric range from 265 to 275 miles for the performance model and a whopping 30 mile increase from 265 to 295 for the non-performance 85kWh model (numbers provided are Tesla estimates, EPA numbers are presuming to be pending certification before deliveries in December).
The new Autopilot functionality of the Model S seems eminently more practical than the hyped up Google self-driving car of the last few years. The great news is that instead of having to wait until 2018 or 2020, we can get highway autopilot several years earlier than expected.
The sensors include sonar around the car (forming a bubble around the car) as well as a forward-looking radar and camera system. These allow for active safety systems – automatically braking the car if an obstacle in front is detected, preventing you from steering into a car in your blind spot, etc. These features have existed in cars for a few years now. Beyond the active safety systems is the new Autopilot software.
Autopilot is a very fitting name for this feature, as it mimics overall idea of autopilot on a airliner – the pilots control everything until the plane is at a comfortable cruising altitude and can be turned over to an automated system. Same with cars – if your commute is a long drive on a highway, once you're on the highway, you can manage the car with just the turn signal. Cameras read the speed limit signs, slow for cars in front of you, and perform actions to keep you safe.
Though after watching the official Tesla video and reading the press release, I wasn't quite sure what features are being delivered today and what will be made available in future over-the-air updates to the autopilot software. What's important is that the hardware necessary for autopilot is being delivered today. Software improvements can come in time, but its prohibitively expensive to go back and retrofit this hardware on existing cars (Tesla has stated they won't retrofit, so you'd have to buy a new Tesla and trade in your old one). As Tesla adds features to the autopilot software over time (the ability of the car to park itself in a garage without you in it), the car will evolve to the self-driving ideal, though it won't make it all the way there.
The only negative is I don't think there are enough sensors – that in the future, rear facing radar sensors or cameras will be added to the package to help the car switch lanes when there are high differences in the rate of speed between the two lanes. And making sure the sensors are redundant enough to withstand a failure.
One of the interesthing things about the new AWD cars is that the smaller electric motors (188 and 221 HP) seem to be a perfect fit for a Model 3-sized car – one for the standard model, and one for a "performance" Model 3. Tesla should be able to re-use the motors with small adjustments in the firmware to optimize it for single-axle drive.
Beyond this, we're able to get a better idea of the specs of the Model 3. One thing Elon has stated is that the Model 3 will be about 80% of the size and weight of the Model S. The Model S originally (2012) had a curb weight of 4,450 lbs. However recent statements have indicated they've taken "hundreds" of pounds out of the car, I'd estimate the current curb weight for the single-motor model is around 4,200 lbs. A 20% reduction would put the car around 3,400 lbs. A 188 HP motor should be able to propel the car with respectable (certainly not supercar) 0-60 MPH times. By comparison, my Chevy Volt has a curb weight of 3,700 lbs and only a 160 HP motor. While 188 HP might not sound like a lot, the fact that its electric and instant torque will compensate for the relatively small HP rating compared to gasoline engines.
The battery for the future Model S will end up around 45kWh using these smaller motors, reduced vehicle weight and improved efficiencies (an improvement from 300 Wh/mile in a RWD Model S to 225 Wh/mi for the base Model 3). This reduction in pack capacity, combined with the reduced costs of the pack through the Gigafactory increase the chances that Tesla will be able to hit the $35,000 price with a base 200-mile model. The conservative estimate for packs out of the Gigafactory is $196/kWh (down 30% from Tesla's early 2014 baseline of around $280/kWh), and the aggressive estimate is around $168/kWh (down 40%), which would put the pack price between $7,600 and $8,800. This is 22-25% of the price tag of the overall vehicle, which should leave plenty of room for the rest of the car (50%, or $17,500) and a gross margin of 25%. A longer range 60kWh version could be made available with the beefier 221 HP motor for a range of just over 250 miles. The only issue with a battery pack that small is how fast (or slow) it can be supercharged.
One of the things not mentioned at today's Apple Keynote was the battery life of the APPLE WATCH. It was implied that it would be recharged every night, there was nothing specific about the hardware itself.
Battery life is determined by three things – size of battery, power intensity of the CPU/SOC and the power consumption of the display.
We will assume the display is using the most efficient display possible – IGZO or aSi. This will minimize the power draw from the display as much as possible.
The CPU/SOC is likely minimized as much as it can for the first generation product. This is where Apple will need to innovate – integrating more and more functions from discrete chips in the APPLE WATCH package into one piece of silicon that can be fabricated at a small process (which as of right now is 20nm from TSMC).
Batteries, however, don't progress as quickly as everything else. They improve at about 8% per year, and thats in a good year. It's why we're not all driving electric cars right now. Electrochemistry is difficult.
Specifically, the issue with the batteries for the APPLE WATCH is the volumetric energy density. Apple needs a battery that has a high volumetric energy density (measured in Wh per liter) so that they can cram as much watt-hours as they can inside a specific volume. This is different that EV companies, which are typically looking for high gravimetric energy density (Wh per kg).
Right now, some of the best batteries are about 700 Wh/l (for this application, NCM Li-Polymer from SK Innovation at 200Wh/kg and ~700Wh/l). If we assume the battery inside the WATCH is 30mm x 25mm x 5mm, or 3750 cubic millimeters, thats 0.00375 liters. If Apple used the best battery technology possible, they would have about 2.7Wh of storage (730mAh at 3.6V). That figure seems high, so I'm guessing they're using something less substantial (probably in the 500 Wh/l range) around 1.9Wh, or 520mAh.
The difficulty Apple faces when it comes to battery development is that it is largely on its own – most battery companies are working hard to increase the gravimetric energy density and the cycle life of batteries. For example. Li-S batteries, while the gravimetric energy density may increase to from 200 to 400Wh/kg, the volumetric energy density is only in the range of 425Wh/l. Lighter batteries do Apple no good – they need more space-efficient batteries.
This is why my hopes are dim for amazing battery life on the APPLE WATCH anytime soon. It will take several generations of hardware integration and software optimization before the product matures. But this is no different than the original iPhone, with its slow 2G data speeds, adequate battery life and no apps.
Initially announced in October 2013, Centurylink Las Vegas announced they were bringing Gigabit internet speeds to the Las Vegas area (FTTP, or fiber to the premises). All the politicians were happy to announce what a great thing it was for our city to make us part of the "21st Century".
The problem though, is that its simply "Fiber to the Press Release", a token effort designed to keep competitors away (like Google Fiber or a municipal fiber effort). The problem is that there are no build-out deadlines, rather they're simply upgrading their infrastructure to the richest, most profitable customers, further enhancing the digital divide between the haves and have-nots.
Centurylink has announced approximately 40 subdivisions (about 20 initially in December 2013, and 20 more in spring 2014, plus a recent announcement of availability to select businesses) that will be enhanced with FTTP, which is approximately 5,000 single-family homes using a generous estimate of 125 homes per subdivision. At this rate of 5,000 single family homes per year, it will take CenturyLink 80-100 years to provide fiber to the home for all 400,000 to 500,000 single-family homes in southern Nevada, and thats even making the assumption that all new subdivisions built moving forward are built with FTTP.
There is no reasonable mind that thinks 80-100 years is an acceptable time frame to wire up a city with Gigabit Internet. The politicians or the PUC of Nevada need to force Centurylink to move faster in wiring up homes with gigabit speeds.


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10 iconic Soviet space posters of the Cold War era
The USSR's many successes during the Cold War space race led to the creation of some enduring, iconic artwork, which forms the subject of a new book.
Published: March 20, 2020 at 12:34 pm
Among the most iconic images of the Cold War Space Race – the dawn of the 'space age' – were the colourful posters and illustrations created by the USSR to promote their successes in putting satellites, animals and human beings in Earth orbit.
The Soviets enjoyed numerous space firsts, including putting animals in space, Sputnik 1 becoming the first artificial satellite to be launched from Earth into space (1957), Yuri Gagarin's triumph at becoming the first human to reach Earth orbit (1961), and Alexei Leonov's daring and unprecedented spacewalk (1965).
To boast of their successes and hint at the domination of space that was surely to come in the not-too-distant future, Soviet artists created awe-inspiring posters and magazine covers full of national pride and vivid imagination.
Space artwork from the USSR is the subject of a new book, Soviet Space Graphics, published by Phaidon, that reveals some of the historic images produced during the golden age of Soviet spaceflight.
We've selected a few of our favourite pieces, created during a time when interstellar travel seemed just around the corner.
All images courtesy of Phaidon Publishing and used with permission.
Youth, issue 4, 1976, illustration by V. Kotlyar. Picture credit: The Moscow Design Museum
Knowledge is Power, issue 10, 1960, illustration by V. Viktorov depicting space dogs Belka and Strelka. Picture credit: The Moscow Design Museum
Radio, issue 6, 1956, illustration by N. Grishin, for the article 'Television of the Future', which discusses the potential for communications satellites to transform television. Picture credit: The Moscow Design Museum
Technology for the Youth, issue 8, 1958, 'Machines – Astronauts', illustration by N. Kolchitsky showing the individual components of Sputnik 3 as different characters. Picture credit: The Moscow Design Museum
Outlook, issue 4, 1976, 'Yuri Gagarin: Let's Go!', illustration by S. Alimov. The first track on the magazine's accompanying flexi-disc record was a recording by Gagarin titled 'Planet Earth is Beautiful'. Picture credit: The Moscow Design Museum
Technology for the Youth, issue 10, 1965, illustration by Alexei Leonov for 'The First Space Dawn Artist Provides Us With His Drawings', depicting the Sun rising over Earth. Leonov was the first human to spacewalk. Picture credit: The Moscow Design Museum
Technology for the Youth, issue 2, 1959, illustration by B. Dashkov for the article 'What Would a Space Station on the Moon Look Like?' Picture credit: The Moscow Design Museum
Technology for the Youth, issue 11, 1965, 'Satellite for Everyone', illustration by O. Yakovlev. Picture credit: The Moscow Design Museum
Technology for the Youth, issue 5, 1969, 'Oh, that Mysterious Moon!', illustration by R. Avotin for an article that presents photographs from the Luna 9 unmanned space mission. Picture credit: The Moscow Design Museum
Young Technician, issue 10, 1964, illustration by R. Avotin for the article 'Space Greenhouse', which hypothesizes on the creation of an environment suitable for growing plants in space. Picture credit: The Moscow Design Museum
Soviet Space Graphics is available from 1 April 2020 and is published by Phaidon.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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HomeNewsNorth AmericaScience, Scientists and the Independence of the EPA
Science, Scientists and the Independence of the EPA
May 20, 2022 Glen Asher North America 0
This article was last updated on May 20, 2022
On the same day that the United States Senate failed to pass a bill approving the construction of the Keystone pipeline, the House managed to sneak one of those little bills that gets almost no attention from the media.
For background, let's look at what Representative Chris Stewart (R – Utah 2), sponsor of House Resolution 1422 had to say about the Environmental Protection Administration at a House Science, Space and Technology Committee Hearing on November 14, 2013:
We now have some sense of where Mr. Stewart is coming from when it comes to the EPA.
H.R. 1422, the rather innocuous-sounding EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2014 which was sponsored by Republican Chris Stewart (R – Utah 2), passed the House by a vote of 229 to 191 on November 18, 2014. Just in case you wondered, here are screen captures showing the "ayes" and "nays" and non-voters:
Here is the text of the bill:
Note section (2)(C) which states that "persons with substantial and relevant expertise are not excluded from the (Science Advisory) Board due to affiliation with or representation of entities that may have a potential interest in the Board's advisory activities.". This changes the EPA's current ability to screen out scientists with financial ties to corporations that may conflict with the EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB). As well, according to section (2) (E), the new rules forbid scientists from participating in discussions that cite their own peeer-reviewed research.
The Bill is being touted as a move to increase the transparency and accountability of the EPA's science advisors, however, the Union of Concerned Scientists suggests that the changes open the door for more corporate influence on the Board since experts with financial ties to the corporations that may be impacted by the decisions of the SAB are not excluded from serving on the Board as shown in this letter:
It's interesting to note that H.R. 1422 turns the concept of conflict of interest on its head when it comes to science. While experts with corporate ties are allowed to serve on the Science Advisory Board, a Board that may have a direct impact on their corporate masters, scientists are not allowed to participate in Board activities that are directly or indirectly connected to their own, peer-reviewed research, a concept that would generally be considered a plus since that particular scientist would be very well versed on the subject.
The White House has already announced that they will veto H.R. 1422 because it would "…affect the appointment of experts and would weaken the scientific independence and integrity of the SAB.".
Click HERE to read more of Glen Asher's columns
Father Vows New Evidence Proves Teen's Innocence in "Swatting" Case


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東北大学 ホーム
Synthesis of nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure and effect of nitrogen doping on H2O adsorption
Peng Xiang Hou, Hironori Orikasa, Toshiaki Yamazaki, Koichi Matsuoka, Akira Tomita, Norihiko Setoyama, Yoshiaki Fukushima, Takashi Kyotani
A nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure was synthesized by using zeolite Y as a template. The filling of carbon into zeolite channels was performed by the impregnation of furfuryl alcohol and subsequent chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of acetonitrile. The template was then removed by HF washing. The two-step carbon filling process (the impregnation and the CVD) was found to be essential for obtaining both high microporosity and ordering. This carbon is characterized by its very large surface area (3310 m2/g) and very narrow micropore size distribution (1.0-1.5 nm), and it contains nitrogen of 6 wt %, most of which is quaternary nitrogen. The distribution of nitrogen atoms in the carbon was examined by the detailed analysis of the carbon deposit at each carbon-filling step. The effect of nitrogen doping on the affinity to H2O molecules was elucidated from the comparison of the H2O adsorption behavior between this carbon and a nitrogen-free ordered porous carbon with a very similar pore structure. It was found that the nitrogen-containing carbon has a higher affinity to H2O molecules than the nitrogen-free carbon.
https://doi.org/10.1021/cm051094k
Published - 2005 10 4
化学工学(全般)
10.1021/cm051094k
「Synthesis of nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure and effect of nitrogen doping on H2O adsorption」の研究トピックを掘り下げます。これらがまとまってユニークなフィンガープリントを構成します。
Doping (additives) Engineering & Materials Science 100%
Adsorption Engineering & Materials Science 87%
Nitrogen Engineering & Materials Science 83%
Micro Porosity Chemical Compounds 81%
Carbon Atom Chemical Compounds 42%
Impregnation Engineering & Materials Science 21%
Hou, P. X., Orikasa, H., Yamazaki, T., Matsuoka, K., Tomita, A., Setoyama, N., Fukushima, Y., & Kyotani, T. (2005). Synthesis of nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure and effect of nitrogen doping on H2O adsorption. Chemistry of Materials, 17(20), 5187-5193. https://doi.org/10.1021/cm051094k
Synthesis of nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure and effect of nitrogen doping on H2O adsorption. / Hou, Peng Xiang; Orikasa, Hironori; Yamazaki, Toshiaki; Matsuoka, Koichi; Tomita, Akira; Setoyama, Norihiko; Fukushima, Yoshiaki; Kyotani, Takashi.
In: Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 17, No. 20, 04.10.2005, p. 5187-5193.
Hou, PX, Orikasa, H, Yamazaki, T, Matsuoka, K, Tomita, A, Setoyama, N, Fukushima, Y & Kyotani, T 2005, 'Synthesis of nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure and effect of nitrogen doping on H2O adsorption', Chemistry of Materials, vol. 17, no. 20, pp. 5187-5193. https://doi.org/10.1021/cm051094k
Hou PX, Orikasa H, Yamazaki T, Matsuoka K, Tomita A, Setoyama N et al. Synthesis of nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure and effect of nitrogen doping on H2O adsorption. Chemistry of Materials. 2005 10 4;17(20):5187-5193. https://doi.org/10.1021/cm051094k
Hou, Peng Xiang ; Orikasa, Hironori ; Yamazaki, Toshiaki ; Matsuoka, Koichi ; Tomita, Akira ; Setoyama, Norihiko ; Fukushima, Yoshiaki ; Kyotani, Takashi. / Synthesis of nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure and effect of nitrogen doping on H2O adsorption. In: Chemistry of Materials. 2005 ; Vol. 17, No. 20. pp. 5187-5193.
@article{3cba6d005ca64b7bb40194a26510b662,
title = "Synthesis of nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure and effect of nitrogen doping on H2O adsorption",
abstract = "A nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure was synthesized by using zeolite Y as a template. The filling of carbon into zeolite channels was performed by the impregnation of furfuryl alcohol and subsequent chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of acetonitrile. The template was then removed by HF washing. The two-step carbon filling process (the impregnation and the CVD) was found to be essential for obtaining both high microporosity and ordering. This carbon is characterized by its very large surface area (3310 m2/g) and very narrow micropore size distribution (1.0-1.5 nm), and it contains nitrogen of 6 wt %, most of which is quaternary nitrogen. The distribution of nitrogen atoms in the carbon was examined by the detailed analysis of the carbon deposit at each carbon-filling step. The effect of nitrogen doping on the affinity to H2O molecules was elucidated from the comparison of the H2O adsorption behavior between this carbon and a nitrogen-free ordered porous carbon with a very similar pore structure. It was found that the nitrogen-containing carbon has a higher affinity to H2O molecules than the nitrogen-free carbon.",
author = "Hou, {Peng Xiang} and Hironori Orikasa and Toshiaki Yamazaki and Koichi Matsuoka and Akira Tomita and Norihiko Setoyama and Yoshiaki Fukushima and Takashi Kyotani",
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T1 - Synthesis of nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure and effect of nitrogen doping on H2O adsorption
AU - Hou, Peng Xiang
AU - Orikasa, Hironori
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AU - Matsuoka, Koichi
AU - Tomita, Akira
AU - Setoyama, Norihiko
AU - Fukushima, Yoshiaki
AU - Kyotani, Takashi
N2 - A nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure was synthesized by using zeolite Y as a template. The filling of carbon into zeolite channels was performed by the impregnation of furfuryl alcohol and subsequent chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of acetonitrile. The template was then removed by HF washing. The two-step carbon filling process (the impregnation and the CVD) was found to be essential for obtaining both high microporosity and ordering. This carbon is characterized by its very large surface area (3310 m2/g) and very narrow micropore size distribution (1.0-1.5 nm), and it contains nitrogen of 6 wt %, most of which is quaternary nitrogen. The distribution of nitrogen atoms in the carbon was examined by the detailed analysis of the carbon deposit at each carbon-filling step. The effect of nitrogen doping on the affinity to H2O molecules was elucidated from the comparison of the H2O adsorption behavior between this carbon and a nitrogen-free ordered porous carbon with a very similar pore structure. It was found that the nitrogen-containing carbon has a higher affinity to H2O molecules than the nitrogen-free carbon.
AB - A nitrogen-containing microporous carbon with a highly ordered structure was synthesized by using zeolite Y as a template. The filling of carbon into zeolite channels was performed by the impregnation of furfuryl alcohol and subsequent chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of acetonitrile. The template was then removed by HF washing. The two-step carbon filling process (the impregnation and the CVD) was found to be essential for obtaining both high microporosity and ordering. This carbon is characterized by its very large surface area (3310 m2/g) and very narrow micropore size distribution (1.0-1.5 nm), and it contains nitrogen of 6 wt %, most of which is quaternary nitrogen. The distribution of nitrogen atoms in the carbon was examined by the detailed analysis of the carbon deposit at each carbon-filling step. The effect of nitrogen doping on the affinity to H2O molecules was elucidated from the comparison of the H2O adsorption behavior between this carbon and a nitrogen-free ordered porous carbon with a very similar pore structure. It was found that the nitrogen-containing carbon has a higher affinity to H2O molecules than the nitrogen-free carbon.
U2 - 10.1021/cm051094k
DO - 10.1021/cm051094k
JO - Chemistry of Materials
JF - Chemistry of Materials


Last night at 2 am, a Norfolk Southern Train completely derailed, caught fire, and exploded on Fields Avenue in Columbus. 11 total cars derailed while two exploded due to the ethanol the train was carrying. Approximately 100 people in the surrounding area were asked to evacuate.


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Angel Stadium Packed for 25th Annual Harvest Crusades, Greg Laurie Leads Thousands to Accept Christ
Helen Zacker and Vince Baumann of Riverside take a silent moment to reflect as Phil Wickham takes the stage on the first night of the 25th annual Harvest Crusades held at Angel Stadium on Friday. About 28,000 attended the crusade Friday night, Harvest said.
CHRISTINE COTTER , STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Even if you've never attended one of the Harvest Crusades, you've probably seen a bumper sticker advertising the event as you're driving down the freeway.
The 100,000 bumper stickers and half-million fliers and invitations produced every year and distributed throughout Southern California are part of an extensive and sophisticated promotional effort by the evangelical Christian gathering, which celebrated its 25th year Friday night at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
About 28,000 attended the crusade Friday night, Harvest said. The gatherings, a ministry of Riverside's Harvest Christian Fellowship that typically attracts more than 100,000 people to Angel Stadium each August, continue Saturday and Sunday nights.
The bumper stickers are the most visible sign of the crusades. But Harvest doesn't expect the stickers in themselves to spur non-Christians to attend the events, although that sometimes happens, said pastor John Collins, crusades executive director.
Bringing in non-believers in the hopes they'll accept Jesus as their savior is the chief reason for the crusades; the stickers and other promotional materials primarily are designed to set the stage for Christians to invite a friend, family member or co-worker to the gatherings, Collins said.
"We're promoting the event, giving it some kind of recognition in the community, so that when a believer asks a person to come to the event, they'll be familiar with it," he said. "They can say, 'I've seen the bumper stickers.'"
Christians are informed of the crusades through DVDs, posters, fliers and other materials distributed to churches. Pastors make announcements encouraging congregants to invite non-believers.
"There's a huge relational component here," Collins said. "It's getting believers to leverage their relationships to bring people along to the crusades to hear the message of the Gospel."
That's been true since the beginning. The template for the promotion strategy came from the Billy Graham Crusades, he said.
"In the first year, we didn't have the organization they had," Collins said. "But we stripped it down and made it work for us."
For this year's Anaheim gatherings, the crusades will rely on more than 5,000 volunteers, about 10 year-round staff members and about 50 others from Harvest Christian Fellowship who assist with the event as needed.
Over the years, crusade organizers have learned from mistakes.
For example, the bumper stickers for the first crusades, in 1990, had mixed results. They were florescent pink and printed on paper. The paint on the stickers faded within a few days and were difficult to remove.
"By the second year, we learned vinyl is the way to go," Collins said.
Revolutionary technological changes have transformed Harvest's marketing campaigns.
The crusades now rely on Christians using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media to promote the gatherings.
As Jennifer Hagman, 35, of Menifee, listened to pastor Greg Laurie preach Friday night, she was posting about the crusade on Facebook. She was trying to reach both Christian and non-believer friends and family.
"For non-believers, it's so they can have the hope they're looking for," she said.
SOURCE: The Orange County Register
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PAS tests waters with Bersatu alliance in Melaka election
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang said on Nov 7, 2021 that it was not unusual for the party to fly a different flag. PHOTO: PAS
Hazlin Hassan
Malaysia Correspondent
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https://str.sg/3Gov
KUALA LUMPUR - The leadership of Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) has defended its decision to contest under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) banner in the upcoming Melaka polls, but stressed the party was still open to working with PN rival Umno at Malaysia's next general election.
PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang said on Sunday (Nov 7) that it was not unusual for the party to fly a different flag, citing the 1974 general election when it contested using the Umno-led Barisan Nasional logo. It won 14 parliamentary seats to Umno's 62 then.
"This shows that the decision by the PAS central committee to use the PN logo in the Melaka state election is not something unusual," he told delegates at the closing of the party's two-day annual congress in the eastern state of Terengganu.
PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said that although PAS and Umno will be competing against each other in the Melaka state election on Nov 20, the Islamist party has no plans to leave Muafakat Nasional (MN), its formal pact with Umno.
He said MN had a bigger agenda to unite Malays and Muslims, and that talks between the two parties would continue.
On PAS' political direction, Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim said the party would "only move forward and become stronger" with PN in Melaka.
"The election, with PAS being a PN component party, will be a benchmark of how we will fare in the future. I'm sure many want to see how things turn out in Melaka," he told reporters.
PAS will contest eight of the 28 state seats in the Melaka election. The party had no seats in the state legislature before it was dissolved for the polls.
Analysts say the Melaka state election will test whether the pact between PAS and Bersatu yields success at the ballot box.
If it fails, PAS could well switch to working with Umno.
PAS' pact with Bersatu will determine PAS' plans for the next general election, said sociopolitical analyst Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya.
"If this alliance fails and they do not win the Melaka state election, then PAS could then use this reason to work with Umno at the next election," he told The Straits Times.
(From left) PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan and vice-president Idris Ahmad attending the 67th annual congress in Terengganu on Nov 7, 2021. PHOTO: FOTOBERNAMA HAK CIPTA TERPELIHARA
Executive director for think-tank Ilham Centre, Mr Hisommudin Bakar, said the Melaka polls will act as a referendum for PAS and guide its strategic decisions ahead of the general election, which is widely-expected to be held next year.
"If three-cornered fights do emerge in Melaka, this proves that the three Malay parties have failed to find the best formula in the distribution of seats between them," he told ST.
Multi-way fights expected in all 28 seats in Melaka state polls
Political bigwigs waging shadow war for votes in Melaka polls
PAS, which was formed in 1951 and has roots in the rural conservative north-east of Peninsular Malaysia, has seen mixed results from its previous political alliances.
In 1990, it joined forces with Umno splinter party Semangat 46, and won seven parliamentary seats.
Nine years later, it won 27 seats as part of the Barisan Alternatif coalition with the Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the new Keadilan party formed of supporters of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.
Ahead of the 2008 election, PAS joined the DAP and Keadilan in a new coalition called Pakatan Rakyat, winning 23 seats.
Between 2008 and 2018, it formed part of the state governments of Penang and Selangor with the federal opposition.
After a fallout with DAP over its Islamic agenda, PAS left Pakatan Rakyat and entered into yet another alliance called Gagasan Sejahtera with two smaller parties, and won 18 parliamentary seats in the 2018 general election.
It then formed the MN pact with Umno, who had lost the 2018 election. It helped the former ruling party win by-elections in Cameron Highlands and Tanjung Piai in 2019, by not fielding candidates who might split the Malay-Muslim vote.
In 2020, PAS became part of the country's ruling coalition for the first time in its history, under the PN government that took over from Pakatan Harapan. It currently governs the states of Kelantan, Kedah and Terengganu, and is part of several state governments including in Johor and Perak.
Political turmoil grips the Malaysian state of Melaka again after defections from ruling ranks
Melaka polls to see clash between parties to win rural, Malay votes: Analysts
PARTI ISLAM SEMALAYSIA
IN FOCUS - MALAYSIA


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22 1/4 Inch Aged Brass Kyle Pendant - This beautiful pendant light features a silk shade with an airy frame structure. Adjustable height ranging from 22 1/4 to 74 1/4 inches. Width measures 17 inches. Takes four E12 Candelabra base bulb up to 60 watts each.


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Q: How to clone a user profile on the same computer? Does anyone have a sure-fire way to make a new profile identical to another profile on the same computer? I have to put that in bold because it seems every time I search online the only thing that comes up is how to copy a profile to another computer which, for all I know could be the same only extra work.
I just installed Powerbroker and joined a Linux computer to the domain and would like to copy my local profile /home/johndoe into the new domain profile at /home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe.
I tried this (Can't Clone a User Profile?) but not only do I not have a "gdm" service to stop, it rendered my domain profile useless. When I try logging in as domain\johndoe it starts to log back in but then goes back to the login screen.
After joining to the domain and logging in for the first time with a new domain account, I logged back out and then logged in locally as the original user /home/johndoe, and ran these commands:
sudo cp -a /home/johndoe/* /home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/
sudo cp -a /home/johndoe/.* /home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/
sudo chown -R johndoe:johndoe /home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe

Anyone know why it's not working or what went wrong? When I entered that second command (cp -a /home/johndoe/.* /home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/) here is what I got -- which I didn't/don't think it's a big deal but I'm kind of a noob so I don't know if these errors even matter (even though I got the following errors I continued on with the chown command):
cp: cannot copy a directory, '/home/johndoe/..', into itself, '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/'
cp: will not create hard link '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/.adobe' to directory '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/./.adobe'
cp: will not create hard link '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/.cache' to directory '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/./.cache'
cp: will not create hard link '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/.compiz' to directory '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/./.compiz'
cp: will not create hard link '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/.config' to directory '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/./.config'
cp: will not create hard link '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/.dbus' to directory '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/./.dbus'
cp: will not create hard link '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/.gconf' to directory '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/./.gconf'
cp: will not create hard link '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/.local' to directory '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/./.local'
cp: will not create hard link '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/.macromedia' to directory '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/./.macromedia'
cp: will not create hard link '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/.mozilla' to directory '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/./.mozilla'
cp: will not create hard link '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/.pki' to directory '/home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe/./.pki'

A: Why not copy the entire home directory?
sudo cp -a /home/johndoe /home/local/DOMAIN/

This will create /home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe with the exact file structure, permissions, etc. as the original.
Make sure you cleanup any previous attempts before you run this, i.e. sudo rm -r /home/local/DOMAIN/johndoe.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Bam! The dancing ladies of thirtySomething Dance Co'Op deliver once again this year. I can't say enough about how much I love being a part of this group. While it is a huge amount of work, it also brings joy and balance to our lives.


text:
Tag: Boris Johnson
On the 12th, the British Labour Party suffered a devastating electoral defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson's Conservative Party. There have been lots of pieces about why Labour lost. Having taken the better part of a week to think about it, I've come to a view about where the trouble lies. Let me share it with you.
Britain: For the Love of God, Please Stop Boris Johnson
On 12 December, Britain has a general election. I care deeply about British politics–I did my BA over there and am finishing up a PhD there as we speak. But more importantly, the Conservative Party has managed the country's economy and future with stunning fecklessness, and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do my part to point this out.
Let me tell you the story of what happened in Britain and how Cameron, May, and Johnson are making everything much, much worse.
Is Theresa May Britain's Mitt Romney?
With the abrupt departure of Andrea Leadsom from the Conservative Party leadership contest, Theresa May has cruised into number 10 as Britain's new PM. To many, it appears that the Tory establishment has reasserted control over the Conservative Party. But I'm not convinced this is true–when Mitt Romney won the 2012 Republican primary, many people assumed that this meant the Republican establishment was in firm control, but within just four years Donald Trump had run Romney and the rest of the establishment Republicans off the Tarpeian Rock. Indeed, a close look at the data reveals that just as the 2012 result concealed deep weaknesses within the Republican establishment, the Tory establishment remains extremely vulnerable. May owes her victory to the incompetence and disorganization of her rivals, and she will need to be extraordinarily careful to preserve it.
Brexit is the Right Nationalist Response to Austerity
Like many people, I initially responded to Brexit with outrage at the terrible consequences of the result for the British people. Among other things, they may lose crucial worker, consumer, and environmental protections, they may lose access to the European market, they may lose the opportunity to work with other European countries on climate change and tax avoidance, and they may even lose Scotland. It is critical that the British Parliament assert its sovereignty and decline to implement the results of the non-binding advisory referendum, which was a mistake to hold in the first place. After all, by asserting UK sovereignty, Brexiteers are asserting the sovereignty of Parliament, so if Parliament declines to invoke Article 50 and chooses to stay in the EU it is merely exercising the very powers the Brexiteers wished to assert for it. But today I want to take a step back and look at the big picture–why the vote went the way it did and what that says about where we're at. Many people have been happy to chalk the Leave win up to bigotry and leave it at that, but this response is too reductive and doesn't give us enough to work with. If bigotry is the problem, why is bigotry the problem now? There have been bigoted people in Britain and in the EU and all over the world forever, but Brexit didn't happen in 1996 or 2006, it happened in 2016. What's different about now? Brexit is not the result of some culture war between the nice people and the nasty people, it is a consequence of economic stagnation and inequality and of a voting public that is unable to correctly identify the causes of that stagnation and inequality or confront them with meaningful and effective policy.


text:
package org.apache.syncope.core.rest.cxf.service;

import java.net.URI;
import javax.ws.rs.BadRequestException;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
import org.apache.syncope.common.lib.to.AbstractTaskTO;
import org.apache.syncope.common.lib.to.BulkAction;
import org.apache.syncope.common.lib.to.BulkActionResult;
import org.apache.syncope.common.lib.to.PagedResult;
import org.apache.syncope.common.lib.to.PushTaskTO;
import org.apache.syncope.common.lib.to.SchedTaskTO;
import org.apache.syncope.common.lib.to.PullTaskTO;
import org.apache.syncope.common.rest.api.RESTHeaders;
import org.apache.syncope.common.rest.api.beans.TaskQuery;
import org.apache.syncope.common.rest.api.service.TaskService;
import org.apache.syncope.core.logic.AbstractExecutableLogic;
import org.apache.syncope.core.logic.TaskLogic;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Service;

@Service
public class TaskServiceImpl extends AbstractExecutableService implements TaskService {

    @Autowired
    private TaskLogic logic;

    @Override
    protected AbstractExecutableLogic<?> getExecutableLogic() {
        return logic;
    }

    @Override
    public Response create(final SchedTaskTO taskTO) {
        SchedTaskTO createdTask;
        if (taskTO instanceof PullTaskTO || taskTO instanceof PushTaskTO || taskTO instanceof SchedTaskTO) {
            createdTask = logic.createSchedTask(taskTO);
        } else {
            throw new BadRequestException();
        }

        URI location = uriInfo.getAbsolutePathBuilder().path(String.valueOf(createdTask.getKey())).build();
        return Response.created(location).
                header(RESTHeaders.RESOURCE_KEY, createdTask.getKey()).
                build();
    }

    @Override
    public void delete(final String key) {
        logic.delete(key);
    }

    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    @Override
    public <T extends AbstractTaskTO> PagedResult<T> list(final TaskQuery query) {
        return (PagedResult<T>) buildPagedResult(
                logic.list(
                        query.getType(),
                        query.getResource(),
                        query.getNotification(),
                        query.getAnyTypeKind(),
                        query.getAnyTypeKey(),
                        query.getPage(),
                        query.getSize(),
                        getOrderByClauses(query.getOrderBy()),
                        query.getDetails()),
                query.getPage(),
                query.getSize(),
                logic.count(
                        query.getType(),
                        query.getResource(),
                        query.getNotification(),
                        query.getAnyTypeKind(),
                        query.getAnyTypeKey()));
    }

    @Override
    public <T extends AbstractTaskTO> T read(final String key, final boolean details) {
        return logic.read(key, details);
    }

    @Override
    public void update(final AbstractTaskTO taskTO) {
        if (taskTO instanceof SchedTaskTO) {
            logic.updateSchedTask((SchedTaskTO) taskTO);
        } else {
            throw new BadRequestException();
        }
    }

    @Override
    public BulkActionResult bulk(final BulkAction bulkAction) {
        BulkActionResult result = new BulkActionResult();

        switch (bulkAction.getType()) {
            case DELETE:
                for (String key : bulkAction.getTargets()) {
                    try {
                        result.getResults().put(logic.delete(key).getKey(), BulkActionResult.Status.SUCCESS);
                    } catch (Exception e) {
                        LOG.error("Error performing delete for task {}", key, e);
                        result.getResults().put(key, BulkActionResult.Status.FAILURE);
                    }
                }
                break;

            case DRYRUN:
                for (String key : bulkAction.getTargets()) {
                    try {
                        logic.execute(key, null, true);
                        result.getResults().put(key, BulkActionResult.Status.SUCCESS);
                    } catch (Exception e) {
                        LOG.error("Error performing dryrun for task {}", key, e);
                        result.getResults().put(key, BulkActionResult.Status.FAILURE);
                    }
                }
                break;

            case EXECUTE:
                for (String key : bulkAction.getTargets()) {
                    try {
                        logic.execute(key, null, false);
                        result.getResults().put(key, BulkActionResult.Status.SUCCESS);
                    } catch (Exception e) {
                        LOG.error("Error performing execute for task {}", key, e);
                        result.getResults().put(key, BulkActionResult.Status.FAILURE);
                    }
                }
                break;

            default:
        }

        return result;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


It's been so cold in New York City recently that I intuitively started craving hearty meals. One of my favorite things to do during the fall months is roasting vegetables. It is quick, easy, healthy and so nutritious. There are four different colors of cauliflower you can scout at the local markets these days - purple (my happy color, hello! in case you didn't notice my Art de Fete logo is purple too), vibrant green, yellow and of course, white! In my opinion, they all taste similar and you can cook them all together at the same temperature. Make sure that the florets are roughly the same size. What a colorful plate they make! Mushrooms are another fall essential and the shiitake variety is superb - earthy, delicate and delicious. For my spaghetti with cauliflower, you need to roast the florets first at a high temperature to save time in the kitchen. The smaller the florets, the faster they cook. Plus, they are much easier to chew when mixed with pasta. I like to use different spices when roasting vegetables, especially garlic and onion powder, harissa spice, cumin, and turmeric. Deciding which spices to use really depends on what I am serving with the dish. Lately, I favor adding fresh herbs, such as rosemary and thyme. So you choose! Make a quick Alfredo sauce with heavy cream, butter, lemon juice and cheese, and toss it really well with al dente spaghetti, roasted florets and thinly sliced jarred red bell pepper for an acidic bite. A great substitute for bell pepper would be briny Kalamata olives. When serving, drizzle each plate with extra-virgin olive oil, sprinkle with red pepper flakes for some mild heat (I am really obsessed with Aleppo and Asado peppers), grate more cheese on top and enjoy it hot! It should taste lemony and creamy with a hint of garlic!
Ingredients: spaghetti, cauliflower, butter, heavy cream, lemon, jarred red bell pepper, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, mushrooms, dill, thyme, cumin, Aleppo pepper, nutmeg, garlic powder, EVOO, salt.
Roast cauliflower: Preheat oven to 425 F. Separate cauliflower heads into small florets.
Drizzle with oil, season with salt, cumin, pepper and scatter thyme leaves.
Mix with your hands, then spread florets along the baking sheet for perfect browning results. If florets stay too close to each other, they would rather steam than brown, so really leave space in between or use two baking sheets instead.
Roast for 15 minutes, take them out and shave cheese on top while cauliflower is still hot.
Alfredo sauce is a creamy white sauce usually made of heavy cream, butter and lots of cheese. In my recipe, I added lemon juice and zest for a clean delicious taste, as well as dill and mushrooms at the end of cooking.
In a large 12-inch skillet, melt butter.
Pour heavy cream, season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, nutmeg.
Let the sauce reduce, about 2 minutes, then add cheese. Let it melt, then add mushrooms and dill, season again. Cook on low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often.
Cook pasta according to packaging instructions, until al dente. Pasta will continue cooking once you add it to the sauce.
Add pasta, roasted cauliflower and bell pepper to the sauce, cook for another minute, tossing well with the sauce.
To serve, divide pasta between 4 plates, drizzle each with olive oil lightly, grate more cheese on top and sprinkle with Aleppo pepper. Serve at once.
Roast cauliflower: Preheat oven to 425 F. Separate cauliflower heads into small florets, transfer to a baking sheet. Drizzle with oil, season with salt, cumin, pepper and scatter thyme leaves. Mix with your hands, and then spread florets scarcly along the baking sheet for perfect browning results. Roast for 15 minutes, tossing them once half time. Take florets out from the oven and shave cheese on top while cauliflower is still hot. Set aside. Kitchen tip: If florets stay too close to each other, they would rather steam than brown, so really leave some space in between or use two baking sheets instead.
Alfredo Sauce: In a large non-stick skillet, melt butter, then add lemon juice and zest. Pour heavy cream, season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, whisking constantly. Let the sauce reduce, about 2 minutes, then add cheese. Let it melt, then add mushrooms and dill, season again. Cook on low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often. Add pasta, roasted cauliflower and bell pepper to the sauce, cook for another minute or two, tossing ingredients well with the sauce.


text:
The Laopandao exploration area covers 44.88 square kilometers and is located approximately 650 kilometers north by northeast of Beijing in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia
Mineralization zones have been identified in the northern, central, and southern portions of the exploration area. The most significant recent discovery was the existence of Ag-Sn-Cu-Pb mineralization on the peripheries of a previously identified tin mineralized zone. The mineralization is mainly a continental volcanic-sedimentary rock altered strata-bound mineral type.
Silver Dragon and its Chinese Joint Venture partners have completed a major surface and underground exploration program at Laopandao during the 2010 exploration season. Since 2006, a total of 7,174 surface trenching, 14,632 metres of diamond drilling, 2,514 metres of underground exploration-development (tunneling) has been completed to help define the resource potential on the property culminating in the preparation of a preliminary assessment.
The Company has retained Southampton Associates Inc. of Toronto, Canada, to prepare a National Instrument 43-101 report on the Laopandao Property
Laopandao – (Pronounced "law-pen-daw")
Commodities Silver, Copper, Tin, Lead, Zinc
Ownership: 40% with Exploration Rights
Click here to visit the NI 43-101 reports section of the website
Laopandao Project Google Earth Fly Over
Silver Dragon Resources Inc. owns 40% of Sino-Top Resources & Technologies, Ltd. which owns 100% of the Laopandao Beihou Silver Project located in the Erbahuo Silver District approximately 13 km to the north of the Reshui Town of Keshiketeng County in Inner Mongolia covering a total area of 44.88 km2.
The rocks found in the region are primarily acidic volcanic rocks and tuffaceous sandstone of Permian age and Continental volcanic eruption acidic lavas and clasolite of the Upper Jurassic Manketouebo formation as well as acidic lava and tuff. The faults are in a northwest direction.
The anomalies are mainly silver anomalies in the southern, central and northern parts of the region. Altered fracture zones can be found, with a length of 580 meters and width of 3 meters. Silver, Copper, Zinc, Tin, Molybdenum and arsenic anomalies have been identified.
Alteration takes the form of chlorite, tourmaline, quartz, sericite and fluorite. There are 37 mineralized zones, with lengths of up to 164 meters and varying widths.


I personally wanted to tell you, But I can't wait until the evening! Do you remember that we wanted a child, So now there is no limit to happiness!
I bought a test … There are two strips there, even tears rolled down from happiness! You'll be my dad, my love. Glad? The child will be above all awards!
Let it be like you in everything! Let it be both cheerful and nice! Let's celebrate tonight with you, you hurry let's go home already!
And, you know, my tummy is growing up And very soon a little baby will know everything about our world! Let it be a healthy burly man!
And it's sweet to understand that a baby will appear in our life … It looks like us … This is just my dreams and thoughts! I know he will be all around!
Perhaps you decide that this is harmful, But I do not want to do mischief at all … I want to say that this is just a value – Pregnant now go to the doctor!
And the term is already coming before birth, The delivery hour is coming closer … A great pleasure awaits us with you When a baby appears with us!
My love, I hasten to congratulate you. You will be the father of the glorious twins! I want you to deliver the pleasure, After all, you will become a father very soon!
The doctor told me that cute twins You and I will be born exactly on time! I know there will be cute cuties! May God save them and cherish!
The truth about belonging to the floor is not clear, the ultrasound does not see, the doctor does not speak … It doesn't matter, it promises a healthy and cheerful Birthday to our kids!
With you, we waited a long time tirelessly, When we can conceive a child again … We worked on it constantly, Not ceasing to believe again and wait!
My tummy grows, the baby grows stronger, All closer to the date of birth … When our child is born, our child knows! Let God help him only!
And I ask you to be such a dad, who have not yet seen the light! The child will be a life stage, there is no more beautiful one in the world!
So strangely the gait changes, Habits change, even the look … I smile like an idiot, After all, I'm glad for everything and everyone in a row!
I am happy that you are with me together, That you are expecting a child as I am … That we will soon be more interested in life, After all, the family will be exactly full!


text:
Mansfield Town badge - Link to home
2019 pre-season fixtures
U21 pre-season fixtures
U18s fixtures/results
Family tickets
Quarry Lane memberships
Youth Setup
The RH Academy
3G pitch
Sandy's Bar & Kitchen
Mansfield Town Blind FC
Stags Supporters' Association
First time guide
Sammy & Sally the Stag!
We are delighted to announce two key dates that you can add to your diary, after we returned to the Football League following today's dramatic 1-0 win over Wrexham.
The npower League Two fixture list will be released at 9.00am on Wednesday 19 June, whilst the 2013/14 campaign will commence on Saturday 03 August.
The decision to start the season slightly earlier than normal follows a ballot of clubs, in which a clear majority preferred the chosen date, as it delivers an additional weekend match.
The season will conclude on 03 May with the Play-Off Finals being held at Wembley Stadium on 24-26 May.
The 2013/14 Christmas and New Year programme will include matches on Saturday 21 December and Sunday 29 December, as well as Boxing Day and New Year's Day.
Our side will also compete in the Capital One Cup next season.
Special edition programme available before pre-season friendlies
A special poster edition of our matchday programme, The Stag, will be available to purchase for just £1.50 prior to our three home pre-season friendlies against Blackburn Rovers, Hull City and...
Your weekly guide to Sandy's Bar & Kitchen
Here is what's happening in the new Sandy's Bar & Kitchen this week...
Fans' gallery: Alfreton Town 0-1 Stags
Were you among the 756 Stags' fans at Impact Arena on Saturday for our 1-0 pre-season victory over Alfreton Town? See if you can spot yourself in our fans' gallery!
Gallery: Alfreton Town 0-1 Stags
View a gallery of images from Stags' 1-0 pre-season victory over Alfreton Town at Impact Arena.


cTrader Settings allow configuring the trading accounts, the application basic options, and the FIX API settings. Click the Settings button ( ) to the lower left to open cTrader Settings dialogue box.
Account Number – the current trading account number (view only).
Currency – trading account currency. Can be changed only for the trading accounts that have never been traded (accounts with empty history).
Leverage – trading account leverage.
Account Type – Netted or Hedged.
Note that you can change the account properties only when all the open positions are closed. Also, the availability of the options may depend on your broker.
Email Statements - trading account statements.
Note that these settings will apply only to the current trading account.
Also, keep in mind that each custom margin call is triggered only once and then turns off automatically.
Language – select the desired interface language and click OK in the pop-up to apply changes.
Sounds – enable or disable application sounds.
Color Theme – select Dark or Light UI color theme.
Layout Mode – select whether you would like the Active Symbol and the TradeWatch panels to be displayed on the main screen. You can also toggle these panels from the main screen with the Layout button ( ).
Font Size – select the size of all the UI texts.
History Deals – enable All History item in the Period drop-down in the History tab of the TradeWatch panel. If you select this option you will be able to see all the deals ever closed. This may significantly impact the performance of the cTrader app.
Note that General settings are Workspace-specific.
Note that Workspaces saved in cTrader Web does not apply to the desktop version of cTrader and vice versa.
Set the default asset trading units (units or lots). Additionally, check the Set unit price per asset class box to set the trading units for the different asset classes separately.
Note that trading units are Workspace-specific. If you change the Workspace, the trading unit settings will return to default.
The Market Watch settings allow enabling or disabling the Daily Change and the Single click on the Market Watch.
Daily Change option allows displaying the difference between the symbol closing price on the previous day and the opening price on the current day directly in the Symbols list.
Note that the Market Watch settings are Workspace-specific.
Notifications settings allow enabling or disabling all the event pop-up notifications inside the app. By default, all the notifications are enabled. You can select to show only the Error notifications, the Last notifications of disable all.
Alternatively, click Configure to proceed to the cTID portal to configure the notification events manually.
QuickTrade is a fast trading mode that allows users creating orders, adding volume or reversing open positions with one click directly from the MarketWatch or from the symbol chart. It is a one-step process with no confirmation required. The QuickTrade feature as the name implies is designed for the faster trading process. Just click or double-click (depends on your settings) on a Buy or Sell button in the Chart or in the MarketWatch, or use the buttons in the Positions tab on the TradeWatch panel, and the corresponding order or request will be sent.
By default, the QuickTrade is set to send Market Orders by clicking once. Configure it as you wish it to work.
In the QuickTrade Settings select Single-Click or Double-Click to configure the QuickTrade mode, or Disabled to turn the QuickTrade off.
Market, Stop, and Limit orders are available in the QuickTrade mode. In the Order Type Settings section, select the corresponding tab and configure the Stop Loss and Take Profit settings separately for orders of each type.
You can also narrow or widen the market range for Market Orders, change Stop order trigger, and use Trailing Stop Loss for all order types.
Note that you can create Stop and Limit orders directly in the Charts by right-clicking and selecting the corresponding item from the submenu. The price depends on where you have clicked.
Note that before the first use of the QuickTrade, you should read and agree to the terms and conditions of QuickTrade.
Note that QuickTrade mode is Workspace-specific. This makes it very easy to have different QuickTrade settings for different Workspaces.
When done, click Apply to save changes.
Select Hotkeys to view all the hotkeys and keyboard shortcuts available to operate in the app. The Hotkeys can significantly improve the speed and comfort of trading. Note that you cannot customize the Hotkeys in the web version of cTrader.
FIX API is an industry-standard connection protocol for high-speed and efficient exchange of information. With the FIX API protocol, traders can create their own trading systems and algorithms that will make decisions based on the information that they receive from multiple sources.
In cTrader Web FIX API settings section, you can find the direct link to cTrader FIX API help page, and copy the API connection credentials to connect your algorithm to the network.