Title II of HIPAA aims to reduce fraud and abuse while simultaneously simplifying administration of patient records. The Act's Privacy Rule sets forth who can receive protected health information (PHI) from the care provider. The Security Rule, also known as The Final Rule on Security Standards, complements the Privacy Rule by establishing administrative, physical and technical safeguards. Administrative safeguards generally require organizations that must comply with HIPAA to establish a set of procedures to protect patient privacy, identify employees or types of employees who can access electronic protected health information, train employees in the process and ensure that outside vendors who may see patient information have their own processes in place. There must also be plans in place for information auditing and to deal with security breaches should they occur. Physical safeguards are meant to protect against inappropriate access to patient data. These include how hardware and software changes and disposal are conducted, restricting access to electronic storage devices to authorized personnel only, creating security plans for maintenance records, protecting workstations from public view and training third-party vendors on physical access procedures and policies.
Technical safeguards require organizations to control access to their computer systems and protect data transmitted over computer networks. These safeguards include access protection, password protection, data integrity verification and documenting the security process and configuration settings.
The Security Rule applies explicitly to electronic medical records (EMRs). An EMR is any medical record stored in a digital format. These can include treatment records, notes on patient care, images, billing statements and insurance provider notifications, among others. EMRs have proven significantly more accurate than traditional, handwritten patient notes and other records.
They are more legible, as well as more easily stored and retrieved. However, there is a lack of established standards and a low degree of interoperability among EMR systems, and many organizations have been slow to adopt these solutions. Among regulators and patient groups, the benefits of EMR solutions outweigh organizational concerns, and there has been a concerted push to implement EMRs in healthcare organizations for that reason. The rate of adoption has been slow, but it has been steadily increasing. As a result of patient and industry demand, all healthcare organizations should consider their EMR strategy and how to make it compliant with HIPAA safeguards.
The benefits to a healthcare organization of converting paper records to electronic formats are well-documented both in terms of operation efficiency and patient care. However, until now no effective solution has existed to port those same benefits to telephone-based interactions. In a busy office, it is exceedingly difficult to create and maintain adequate paper notes on telephone conversations. Writing notes by hand or typing them on a keyboard by necessity leaves out content and creates a high potential for error.
With Replay call recording solution, individual users can refer to, play back and share phone conversations with other authorized users. They can also insert notes for supplemental information.
Our call recording software solutions works together in partnership with our Nova call accounting to capture calls and store them as searchable, playable electronic voice recordings. Now the call is documented and stored in its entirety and can be retrieved by Nova, acting as the search engine, and by a combination of any number of search criteria, commented upon and securely shared with others.
Our Replay call recording solutions can easily and immediately fit into an organization's Security Rule compliance programs.
Replay call recording satisfies HIPPA required safeguards.
Procedures must identify employees or classes of employees who will have access to protected information. Access must be restricted only to those employees who need the information to complete their job functions.
Built-in access controls are easily configured to restrict access to only those individuals who are authorized to access voice documents. Optional data encryption is also available.
Covered entities must have a plan for data backup and disaster recovery. Voice recordings safely reside in a central location, which can easily be incorporated into existing backup and disaster recovery protocols. Procedures must detail how to address security breaches should they occur. Our products will adhere to client's network security procedures.
Controls must be established to introduce and remove new equipment on the network. Replay call recording interfaces with the business telephone system on the trunk side or station side, utilizing established parameters without need for revision. Equipment containing healthcare information must have controlled and regularly monitored access and hardware and software access must be limited to authorized users. As a centralized solution with permissions-based access to content, Replay should meet these criteria.
Voice document sharing with outside entities is performed through a secure link sent via email, and a record is kept as to with whom the document was shared. As access to email is normally restricted to users logged in via password on a secure network, authentication is achieved. The ability to permanently delete voice recordings must be specifically assigned by an Administrator. Voice recordings cannot be changed except to add text-based annotations. Covered entities are responsible for ensuring data on their systems cannot be changed or erased in unauthorized manners. A covered entity must authenticate with whom it communicates.
The Security Rule requires that employees be trained in process compliance. Using Replay's voice recordings, supervisors have an ideal training and monitoring tool that uses an employee's own conversations to point out what is done correctly and where process adherence can potentially be improved.
Supervisors with appropriate access permission can conduct spot reviews of call recordings to ensure process compliance. When errors are made, the supervisor can highlight them by adding a call note to the call record in Nova.
Our Call Accounting and Recording software solutions ensure conversations between patients, healthcare providers, insurers and others related to their care are preserved with 100 percent accuracy and complete collaborative ability among authorized users. Voice documents themselves never leave the central location on which they are stored, and access links to voice documents are securely transmitted between authorized parties only.
The HIPAA Security Rule requirements place stringent controls on how EMRs can be stored and shared. Our call recording solutions satisfy these regulatory concerns while improving patient care and bridging potential gaps in record keeping.
Lastly, our solutions can be added to any healthcare organization regardless of where they may be in their transition to an EMR system, as they function separately and in parallel to whatever text- and image-based solution an organization may ultimately employ.
For more information or to request a demo, please contact us at 800-300-DIAL (3425).


This item recognizes Angiotensin I, Angiotensin II and Angiotensin III in ELISA.
Incomplete mapping indicates that the epitope is VYIHP (corresponding to amino acids 3-8 of Angiotensin I & II), a conserved region found in all Angiotensin molecules.
Synthetic peptide representing Angiotensin II, conjugated to rabbit albumin.
Purified IgG prepared by affinity chromatography on Protein A.
Store at +4 degree C or at -20 degree C if preferred.
Shelf Life: 18 months from date of dispatch.
Small volumes of anti-AGT antibody vial(s) may occasionally become entrapped in the seal of the product vial during shipment and storage. If necessary, briefly centrifuge the vial on a tabletop centrifuge to dislodge any liquid in the container`s cap. Certain products may require to ship with dry ice and additional dry ice fee may apply.
NCBI/Uniprot data below describe general gene information for AGT. It may not necessarily be applicable to this product.


text:
Q: Can force change mass in a system? My physics teacher defined force as "an agent that may change the shape, state of motion, size, or mass of an object" but I disagreed with him about "mass" being changed in any situation.
When I asked him and told him that the mass of a system cannot be changed by force, he told me it is beyond my understanding and it could be related to Einstein's equation $E = mc^2$.
I still do not understand it.
First: is it correct that force can change mass? An example will help me.
Second: how could this be related to mass-energy?

A: Force can change mass in two senses:
First: force can change the mass of an object by speeding it up or slowing it down as measured by an observer in an inertial frame. An inertial frame is one which does not accelerate.
$E = mc^2 = \gamma m_0 c^2$
where the Lorentz factor $\gamma = \frac{1}{\sqrt{1-v^2/c^2}}$
and $m_0$ is the rest mass: the mass measured by an observer who measures the relative velocity ($v$) of the mass to be $0$.
Applying a net force to a massive object changes its velocity by Newton's 2nd law, and since $m = \gamma m_0$ and $\gamma$ is a function of velocity, mass is changed even though rest mass, which is what is usually meant by "the mass of the object" stays the same.
In short: increasing kinetic energy $T$ of a system increases mass $m$ by $\Delta T/c^2$, while leaving rest mass $m_0$ unchanged.

Second: force can change the mass of an object at rest with respect to an observer by re-arranging it into a higher or lower energy state, which either sequesters energy (hence mass) in the object or dissipates it (as light, heat, or sound) into the environment.
Consider an ideal spring initially in its equilibrium state. We do work $\Delta U = .5 k x^2$ to the spring, compressing it by a displacement $x$, and we trap the spring mechanically in its compressed state. Here we have increased the energy, and hence the mass of the system in a reference frame in which the system is stationary, by bringing energy in from outside the system (applying a force) and storing it in the system's rearranged configuration.
For a spring the potential energy of configuration is a vanishingly miniscule fraction of the total mass-energy of the spring.
In short: increasing potential energy of configuration $U$ of a system increases rest mass $m_0$ by $\Delta U/c^2$, while leaving Lorentz factor $\gamma$ unchanged.

A: Force working along a way is work, so W=F*s. so the energy of an object gets higher with its velocity, and then this energy increases the mass.If the mass of a non moving object ist m0 then the mass of the moving object is $m=m_0*\sqrt{\frac{1}{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}}$ in this sense an accelerating force can increase mass. But citing the force as mean of acceleration includes this, an the "increasing mass" is very far fetched.

A: If we are talking about classical physics I would say absolutely not. Force should be defined as an agent that changes the state of motion of the system.
Moreover, it is even usual to write Newton's 2nd law as
\begin{equation}
F=\frac{dp}{dt}
\end{equation}
where $p$ is the linear momentum. Thus we say that force in an agent that causes a change in the momentum of the system.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Have you ever gone on pilgrimage? A very long journey for spiritual reasons?
You may well have heard of the Muslim Haj, but among many others, Christians also have three major ancient pilgrimage routes. Jerusalem and Rome are two of the major Christian destinations.
One other major route is very active right now in Spain. The way of St James - that leads to his shrine in Santiago - has had a revival of interest in recent decades. Called the Camino, it now attracts nearly two hundred thousand pilgrims a year. The main part of the walk is around 780 kms. The pilgrimage is promoted by an international organisation called the Confraternity of St James. July 25th is the feast day of St James for Western Christians.
James was one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ; key co-workers and friends who Jesus gathered around himself as he established his community. After the execution of Jesus, James led the first Christian community in Jerusalem.
In turn, James was the first of the Apostles to be martyred. But before Herod Agrippa ordered his death, James is traditionally said to have preached Christianity as far away as Iberia; the old Roman name for Spain. James is now the patron saint of Spain, where his major shrine is at Santiago de Compostela.
Whether historically verifiable or not, the body of James has long been believed to be buried there by many Christians - since a vision had by a previous Bishop of Compostela.
We spoke to just two Australian pilgrims who have made the Camino - the way of St James. Brad Kyle is currently from Melbourne. Peter Downey is from Sydney.
Our conversation began with me asking each of them how much the Camino was a "religious" experience for them personally.


text:
Q: Accuracy of 1D linear interpolation by CUDA texture interpolation I'm comparing 1D linear interpolation using a "standard" CUDA implementation and a "texture-based" CUDA implementation on complex numbers (float2).
The "standard" CUDA implementation comprises the following lines:
/*************************************/
/* LINEAR INTERPOLATION KERNEL - GPU */
/*************************************/
__device__ float linear_kernel_GPU(float in)
{
    float d_y;
    return 1.-abs(in);
}

/**********************************************/
/* LINEAR INTERPOLATION KERNEL FUNCTION - GPU */
/**********************************************/
__global__ void linear_interpolation_kernel_function_GPU(float2* result_d, float2* data_d, float* x_in_d, float* x_out_d, int M, int N)
{
    int j = threadIdx.x + blockDim.x * blockIdx.x;

    if(j<N)
    {
        result_d[j].x = 0.;
        result_d[j].y = 0.;
        for(int k=0; k<M; k++)
        {
            if (fabs(x_out_d[j]-x_in_d[k])<1.) {
                result_d[j].x = result_d[j].x + linear_kernel_GPU(x_out_d[j]-x_in_d[k])*data_d[k].x;
                result_d[j].y = result_d[j].y + linear_kernel_GPU(x_out_d[j]-x_in_d[k])*data_d[k].y; }
        }
    }
}

extern "C" void linear_interpolation_function_GPU(cuComplex* result_d, cuComplex* data_d, float* x_in_d, float* x_out_d, int M, int N){

    dim3 dimBlock(BLOCK_SIZE,1); dim3 dimGrid(N/BLOCK_SIZE + (N%BLOCK_SIZE == 0 ? 0:1),1);
    linear_interpolation_kernel_function_GPU<<<dimGrid,dimBlock>>>(result_d, data_d, x_in_d, x_out_d, M, N);

}

The "texture-based" CUDA implementation comprises the following lines:
texture<float2, 1, cudaReadModeElementType> data_d_texture;

// ********************************************************/
// * LINEAR INTERPOLATION KERNEL FUNCTION - GPU - TEXTURE */
// ********************************************************/
__global__ void linear_interpolation_kernel_function_GPU_texture(cuComplex* result_d, float* x_out_d, int M, int N)
{
    int j = threadIdx.x + blockDim.x * blockIdx.x;

    if(j<N) result_d[j] = tex1D(data_d_texture,float(x_out_d[j]+M/2+0.5));

}

// *************************************************/
// * LINEAR INTERPOLATION FUNCTION - GPU - TEXTURE */
// *************************************************/
extern "C" void linear_interpolation_function_GPU_texture(float2* result_d, float2* data, float* x_in_d, float* x_out_d, int M, int N){

    cudaArray* data_d = NULL; cudaMallocArray (&data_d, &data_d_texture.channelDesc, M, 1);
    cudaMemcpyToArray(data_d, 0, 0, data, sizeof(float2)*M, cudaMemcpyHostToDevice);
    cudaBindTextureToArray(data_d_texture, data_d);
    data_d_texture.normalized = false;
    data_d_texture.filterMode = cudaFilterModeLinear;

    dim3 dimBlock(BLOCK_SIZE,1); dim3 dimGrid(N/BLOCK_SIZE + (N%BLOCK_SIZE == 0 ? 0:1),1);
    linear_interpolation_kernel_function_GPU_texture<<<dimGrid,dimBlock>>>(result_d, x_out_d, M, N);

}

The "texture-based" interpolation is more than 20 times faster than the "standard" one. However, I noticed some mismatch in the results, with a root mean square error between the two implementations of about 0.07%.
The CUDA C Programming Guide says that the interpolation coefficients are stored in 9-bit fixed point format with 8 bits of fractional value, which may be the cause for that mismatch.
I have then two questions:
1) Is there any "trick" to enhance the accuracy of the "texture-based" interpolation?
2) I think that this 9-bits representation would limit the accuracy to that here obtained even if I move to float4, right? In other words, there would be no point in enhancing the number representation accuracy from float2 to float4?
Thanks in advance.

A: You could "pre-interpolate" your texture to increase your resolution, i.e. if your initial texture is 100x100 then you can pre-interpolate to make it 200x200, then you've doubled the resolution of the in-kernel interpolation.


text:
Red Cross Takes in $5 Million From Two Property Deals
A plan to restructure the American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles by selling off real estate is nearly complete, with the organization selling four buildings in the last 12 months.
Most recently, the Red Cross unloaded a 10,000-square-foot building at 129 Juniper St. in Los Angeles to La Brea Juniper Properties LLC for $2 million on Jan. 22. And the $3 million sale of a 17,566-square-foot building at 5051 E. Third St. in East Los Angeles to National Community Renaissance Inc. is set to close in May.
About two years ago, the Red Cross hired commercial real estate brokerage Cresa Partners LLC to analyze the organization's use of its space. Over the years, the Red Cross had acquired a 165,000-square-foot real estate portfolio largely through donations but only needed about 30,000 square feet, said Dave Leit, vice president at
Cresa.
After the Cresa study, the Red Cross tapped Leit to sell the properties taking advantage of the hot commercial real estate market and instead find rental space for the organization.
"We had excess space and valuable donor dollars going to fund facilities that we didn't need," said Timothy Nguyen, a senior Red Cross director.
Last year, the building sales included properties in Van Nuys and Burbank; the organization sold its former Wilshire Boulevard headquarters in 2005. In total, the organization has made about $30 million on the buildings, money that has been put into a local disaster-preparedness endowment, Nguyen said.
It was costing the Red Cross about $1.5 million a year to operate its buildings, and now it will cost the organization only about a third of that, $500,000, to lease five new facilities. The organization also bought a newer, more efficient headquarters building at 11355 Ohio Ave. in West Los Angeles.
Burbank deal
Connecticut-based Lexham Private Investors LLC has purchased three buildings in the greater Los Angeles area in one year's time highlighting the real estate investment group's new commitment to the area.
In mid-January the firm closed on the purchase of a three-story, mixed-use building located at 224 E. Olive Ave. in Burbank. Lexham purchased the 27,035-square-foot building for about $5.3 million from Blue Real Estate, a Beverly Hills real estate investment firm.
The building is 100 percent leased and includes ground floor tenants such as RadioShack, said Bob Safai of Madison Partners, who represented both sides of the deal. The sale breaks down to about $196 per square foot.
Pacific Design Center Looks to End Vacancy Streak
Grubb & Ellis Drama May Bring Broker Opportunities
Partnership Picks Up Westside's Sepulveda Eagle Center
Private School Changes Hands in $9 Million Transaction
Transamerica Signs $75 Million Lease at AT & T; Center
Defense Firm Sees Savings in Pending West L.A. Deal
Broker's Banner Day Bolsters Otherwise Slow '08
Deal Nears for Major Glendale Office, Development Site

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The boutique Ascot Hotel Dubai is situated in the Bur Dubai district. It is close to the Dubai Museum and Port Rashid. A short taxi drive from Jumeirah beach, Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club or the World Trade Centre. Rooms at the Ascot Hotel Dubai are decorated in gentle colours with pleasant furnishings, including a large walk in wardrobe. Formerly known as The Century Hotel.


text:
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You are at:Home»Magazine Archive»Volume VIII»APRIL/MAY 2013»GOOD GOVERNMENT
By Donna Shelley on	 April 3, 2013 APRIL/MAY 2013, Volume VIII
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE OF POLITICS
All politics is local," said Speaker of the House Thomas Phillip ("Tip") O'Neill, Jr. His 34-year success as a politician was tied to his ability to understand and influence the issues of his constituents. Rather than rely on lofty ideals about governance, the Speaker knew from experience that by addressing the concrete needs of those who had elected him, he'd remain in office. Some politicians and would-be politicians tend to lose sight of this rather simplistic observation about the government's real function: to perform tasks for the benefit of the people. Fortunately for politicians in Miami-Dade County, there is a program, the Good Government Initiative that will reinforce for them why they were elected to office in the first place.
Katy Sorenson (R) with Mia & Joe Corradino at the Chamber South Chairman's Gala held last fall. Corradino is Immediate Past Chairman (2011-12) of the chamber. At the Gala held in October 2010, he was the recipient of the Stephen J. Cranman Professional Public Service Award. The award acknowledges public servants whose accomplishments demonstrate their superior ability to use their position to find innovative solutions that benefit the community.
In 2005, Katy Sorenson was similarly recognized.
The Good Government Initiative, developed by former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Katy Sorenson, is a training program for newly elected officials in good governing practices. Its mission is to cultivate leaders of excellence in South Florida through the development and training of elected officials as well as those aspiring to run for office, and to engage the community in its governance through outreach and education.
"It is good training for what I see as an 'entry-level' job," said Joe Corradino, Class II graduate and Councilmember for the Village
of Pinecrest.
For Sorenson, President and CEO of the program (with sponsorship from the University of Miami), good government is the key to creating a community of lasting value for all residents. This basic belief, at a time when many Americans are a little less than sanguine about the ethics and abilities of those holding national office, is the rallying point for the program. Her inspiration was the Senior Executives in State and Local Government, a program presented by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government for which she was selected to attend. The Harvard program emphasizes the need for elected officials and executives to become more effective public managers.
"The Harvard experience got me thinking about a program that would benefit those just coming into politics. Frankly, it is a course that I wish had been available to me when I was first elected," said Sorenson.
Like many of her contemporaries, Katy Sorenson's interest in governance arose from her participation in civil rights demonstrations in the mid-1960s. Her activism was one hallmark of her service as an elected official. In 1994, she began representing District 8 on the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners. Her 16-year tenure as commissioner is notable for a host of accomplishments; her advocacy for human rights, the environment and managed growth; and her integrity and commitment to her constituency.
The Good Government Initiative offers elected officials the "Leaders of Excellence" program that is in session from August to November, running about 64 hours in total. Admission is competitive and based on a prospective applicant's integrity, the way in which he or she answers mandatory essay questions and how well he or she interviews with a panel of community leaders. The curriculum is extensive and includes ethics, budget and finance, media relations, economic development, constituent services, land use, and working with community organizations among other topics.
Vice-Mayor Josh Liebman presenting a proclamation to NFL free agent Kennard Cox at the Fountainbleu Hilton cocktail reception inaugurating his Outside the Huddle Foundation. Cox is pictured with cousin Jeremy Martin and Tiffany Morris, foundation director.
"I would say that one of the most valuable experiences in the program was the information we gained from the speakers," said Corradino.
Participating speakers come from academia, government and the private sector. In keeping with Sorenson's aim to steer clear of one party or one ideology, she was able to recruit both Senator Bob Graham (Democrat) and Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Republican) to share their knowledge and experiences with the class.
"I learned a lot from the exchange of ideas that these speakers sparked among the people enrolled in my class," said Josh Liebman, Class II graduate and Vice Mayor of the City of South Miami.
Speakers also included Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, council and school board members, mayors, and newly elected state representatives. One truly memorable experience for the class was hearing from former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty. McCarty, who was fined and convicted of fraud, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. This was the first
time she had appeared in public since leaving prison.
The course, into which about 18 participants are accepted, features two overnight retreats and four days of classes and activities. The course kicked off with an opening dinner at the Little Haiti Cultural Center and closed with a dinner at the Kampong, Dr. David Fairchild's Florida home and gardens in Coconut Grove.
One off campus visit was to the Chapman Homeless Assistance Center. Here the students learned how this private/public partnership reintegrated people who were once homeless via a successful job-training program (Chapman Partnership is the private-sector partner of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust).
Josh Liebman was elected South Miami's Vice Mayor in February 2012; this is his first elected office. His interest in the program was to learn what he didn't know about the complex world of politics. He wanted to learn from Sorenson chiefly because of what he calls her "stellar reputation" while in office. Liebman highly recommends the program to others in office and said that one of its major benefits was the ability to network with other public officials who come from all over South Florida.
"Florida's Sunshine law makes it impossible for me to discuss issues facing our city with other South Miami Commissioners outside of a public meeting. Now, I have a group of people to call on who are essentially in the same boat, but we can mentor and advise each other without breaking the law," said Liebman.
Joe Corradino is another civic-minded individual who appreciates the lessons learned at the Good Government Initiative. A City Planner by profession, Corradino operates on both sides of the governmental system. He is the Town Planner for the City of Homestead and he serves on Pinecrest's Council. Recognizing the fragile nature of political office, Corradino said, "Running a government is a lot about trust; without it you have bad government."
He encourages people to take advantage of Sorenson's program. He believes that present and future graduates of the class will raise the quality level for governance across South Florida. And he is certain that the class will help recruit more good people into politics.
Corradino noted that there are over 30 cities in Miami-Dade County. This means that each time an unincorporated section of the county decides in favor of forming a local government, rather than relying strictly on the county, they are closer to their city or town and have much more immediate access for their needs and concerns. He sees the class as helping to build a cohesive team of knowledgeable people who can best serve those municipalities.
"For me, the classes were always interesting. I find that every day I use what I learned in the Good Government Initiative," said Corradino.
Josh Liebman, too, extolled the benefits of the Initiative, "I never missed a class. As far as I am concerned, the program should
have Katy's name on it."
Sorenson reported that there are some programs similar to the Initiative in other parts of the country and that her model has the potential to be franchised. But in the final analysis, the program boils down to a few truisms: honesty and forthrightness are essential in a good leader, that knowing the rules will help you to correctly follow and apply them, and that in order for the community to understand your decisions, you must learn to effectively communicate your reasons for doing so.
And if you are considering a run for office, there is a workshop to help you decide if you have the right stuff to wade through the intricacies of land development codes, the patience for the cone of silence, and the steely nerves needed to properly assess a multi-million dollar budget. It is called "Thinking About Running?" which is now underway. But chances are there will be another opportunity to take advantage of this offering by the Good Government Initiative. To learn more about this and the Initiative, go to their website: http://goodgov.net/
And if you feel compelled to blame the "government" for what's wrong with the United States, keep in mind that our system is indeed one that relies on the participation of the people for its success.
As Katy Sorenson said, "It's important for citizens to understand the quality of their elected officials. If you don't do for government,
then government gets done to you."
Donna Shelley
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This stylish Iconic cushion is made from high quality polyester and skilfully stitched using industrial strength bonded nylon thread, All our cushions come complete with cushion insert.
The image is digitally printed using a special process to give crisp vibrant colours, this cushion will be focal point of any room. You can even take your cushion outside to relax in the sun, the material is water resistant so when there is a spillage (as kids do!) you simply wipe clean.
An Impressive 16" x 16", this cushion is suitable for all.


text:
Q: How to access state from multiple contexts in react native? I'm using the context API to share state across many components in my application. I have a couple of different context files that I wrap as providers around my root level component. I'm curious how to use multiple context hooks within the same functional component. See below:
import { Context as EpisodeContext } from "../context/EpisodeContext";
import { Context as PlaybackContext } from "../context/PlaybackContext";

const EpisodeDetailsScreen = ({ navigation }) => {
  const { state } = useContext(PlaybackContext);
  const { state } = useContext(EpisodeContext)

....omitted for brevity.....
}

This code obviously doesn't work when I destructure the second state variable it is already defined above.
What is the proper way to do this?

A: You just got name collision, its not related to React, try renaming one of the variables:
const { state } = useContext(PlaybackContext);
const { state: state2 } = useContext(EpisodeContext) // use state2 now


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text:
Modified 2019-04-28 by tanij
Required Reading: The following assumes working knowledge of 2D and 3D Cartesian coordinate systems, reference frames, and coordinate transformations. If you are not familiar with these topics, please see the following preliminary chapters.
Coordinate transformations.
Robots are embodied autonomous agents that interact with a physical environment.
As you read through this book, you will find that shared representations of the agent (i.e., the robot) and the environment in which it operates are fundamental to a robot's ability to sense, plan, and act—the capabilities that are key to making a robot a robot.
The state $\state_t \in \statesp$ is a representation that consists of a compilation of all knowledge about the robot and its environment that is sufficient both to perform a particular task as well as to predict the future. Of course, "predict the future" is vague, and we can not expect the state to include knowledge to predict everything about the future, but rather what is relevant in the context of the task.
The state $\state_t \in \statesp$ is a representation of the robot and the environment that is sufficient to predict the future in the context of the task being performed.
I understand that explicitly referencing the task as relevant to the notion of state is odd, but I want to convey that the representation that we choose for the state does depend upon the task.
Now, let's be a bit more formal with regards to what we mean by a state being "sufficient" to predict the future. We are specifically referring to a state that exhibits the Markov property, i.e., that it provides a complete summary of the past (again, in the context of the task). Mathematically, we say that a state is Markov if the future state is independent of the past given the present state (technically, this corresponds to first-order Markov):
\begin{equation} p(x_{t+1} \vert x_t, a_t, x_{t-1}, a_{t-1}, \ldots, x_0, a_0) = p(x_{t+1} \vert x_t, a_t) \end{equation}
A state exhibits the Markov property if and only if the above holds.
I usually say that "state" is all that is needed to predict the future. The agent only needs to keep track of a smaller thing than the state to act optimally. There isn't a good name to use; but it should be distinct from "state".
I think that this oversimplifies things. What is it about the future that is being predicted? Certainly, the states used by autonomous systems aren't sufficient to predict everything about the future (e.g., a self-driving car can't predict whether a street light is going to come on, but that probably doesn't matter).
Knowledge about the robot and its environment is often extracted from the robot's multimodal sensor streams, such as wheel encoders and cameras. Consequently, one might choose to formulate the state as the collection of all of the measurements that the robot acquires over time. Indeed, the use of low-level sensor measurements as the representation of the state has a long history in robotics and artificial intelligence and has received renewed attention of-late, notably in the context of deep learning approaches to visuomotor policy learning.
However, while measurement history is a sufficient representation of the robot and its operating environment, it serves as a challenging definition of state.
First, raw measurements are redundant, both within a single observation and across successive measurements. For example, one doesn't need to reason over all pixels in an image, let alone all pixels within successive images to understand the location of a street sign.
Second, raw measurements contain a large amount of information that is not necessary for a given task. For example, the pixel intensities that capture the complex diffusion light due to clouds convey information that is not useful for self-driving cars. Requiring algorithms that deal with state to reason over these pixels would be unnecessarily burdensome.
Third, measurement history is very inefficient: its size grows linearly with time as the robot makes new observations, and it may be computationally intractable to access and process such a large amount of data.
This motivates the desire for a minimal representation that expresses knowledge that is both necessary and sufficient for the robot to perform a given task. More concretely, we will consider parameterized (symbolic) formulations of the state and will prefer representations that involve as few parameters as possible, subject to the state being Markov and the constraints imposed by the task.
Metric spaces (namely, Euclidean spaces) constitute the most commonly adopted state space in robotics, be it through the use of feature-based parameterizations of the state or gridmap representation. However, it is not uncommon to define the state of the robot and its environment in terms of a topological space or a hybrid metric-topological space.
Importantly, the exteroceptive and proprioceptive sensor measurements from which the robot's perception algorithms infer the state are noisy, the models that describe the motion of the robot and environment are error-prone, and many aspects of the state are not directly observable (e.g., your Duckiebot may not be able to "see" some of the other Duckiebots on the road due to occlusions or the cameras limited field-of-view). As a result, robots must reason over probabilistic models of the state, commonly referred to as the belief, in order to effectively mitigate this uncertainty.
Robot Representations
Modified 2018-06-24 by Andrea Censi
TODO: Discuss conventions
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The following was marked as "todo".
File book/learning_materials/10_autonomy/40_representations.md.
File book/learning_materials/10_autonomy/40_representations.md
in repo duckietown/docs-learning_materials branch master19 commit ad02f682
last modified by tanij on 2019-04-28 09:21:28
Created by function create_notes_from_elements in module mcdp_docs.task_markers.
The state of the robot typically includes its pose $\pose_t$, which specifies the position and orientation of a coordinate frame affixed to the robot relative to a fixed global coordinate frame commonly referred to as the "world frame". The pose then defines the rigid-body rigid-body transformation between the two reference frames.
For rigid-body robots that operate in a plane ($\reals^2$), the pose $\pose \in \SEtwo$ consists of the Cartesian coordinates $(x,y)$ that specify the robot's position and the angle $\theta$ that defines the robot's orientation (yaw). For robots in $\reals^3$, including some ground platforms, aerial vehicles, and underwater vehicles, the pose $\pose \in \SEthree$ consists of three Cartesian coordinates $(x, y, z)$ that encode the robot's position, and three Euler angles $\phi, \theta, \psi$ that specify the robot's orientation.
The pose $\pose_t$ of a robot operating in a two-dimensional world consists of the robots $(x,y)$ position and orientation $\theta$ relative to a fixed reference frame.
In addition to the robot's pose, it is often useful to include its linear and angular velocities as elements of the state, resulting in an additional set of three or six parameters for robots that operate in two dimensions and three dimensions, respectively.
TODO: Discuss specific robot state representation for Duckietown.
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Environment Representations
The two most commonly used metric representations of the robot's environment are occupancy grid models and feature-based representations.
Occupancy grid representations discretize the world into a set of grid cells. Associated with each cell are its Cartesian coordinates in a global reference frame, $(x,y)$ in $\reals^2$ and $(x,y,z)$ in $\reals^3$, and a binary label that indicates whether the cell is occupied, where a value of one denotes that the cell is occupied.
pictures for these two? -AC
Feature-based models constitute the second commonly used environment representation. Feature-based representations model the environment as a collection of landmarks, and parameterize each in terms of the landmark's position ($(x,y)$ or $(x,y,z)$ in $\reals^2$ and $\reals^3$, respectively) and possibly its orientation.
Difference between topological and metric environment representations;
Details of topological representation;
Common metric representations, notably feature-based maps and gridmaps;
Duckietown Environment Representation
TODO: Discuss specific environment representation for Duckietown.
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text:
The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy
By David Cannadine
Category: European World History
About The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy
"A brilliant, multifaceted chronicle of economic and social change." —The New York Times
At the outset of the 1870s, the British aristocracy could rightly consider themselves the most fortunate people on earth: they held the lion's share of land, wealth, and power in the world's greatest empire. By the end of the 1930s they had lost not only a generation of sons in the First World War, but also much of their prosperity, prestige, and political significance.
Deftly orchestrating an enormous array of documents and letters, facts, and statistics, David Cannadine shows how this shift came about–and how it was reinforced in the aftermath of the Second World War. Astonishingly learned, lucidly written, and sparkling with wit, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy is a landmark study that dramatically changes our understanding of British social history.
Also by David Cannadine
See all books by David Cannadine
About David Cannadine
David Cannadine was born in Birmingham, England, in 1950 and educated at Cambridge, Oxford, and Princeton. He is the editor and author of many acclaimed books, including The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, which won the Lionel Trilling Prize and the… More about David Cannadine
Published by Vintage
Sep 07, 1999 | 848 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780375703683
People Who Read The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy Also Read
"No praise can be too high." —The New York Review of Books
"Cannadine has produced a great book, one that is comprehensive in its scope, and of critical importance." —London Review of Books
"This highly entertaining social history, full of fascinating anecdotal material…is the last word on the subject." —The Washington Post Book World
"An impressive volume that will be cited by writers on the subject for years to come for its immense learning and the care with which the author has organized a mass of material." —The Wall Street Journal


I don't understant why the output values of Experiment Manager don't vary.
I'm also having some problems with assembly station "TABULEIROS" and the dismantle station "FILME". The tabuleiro.MU is made with 12 lata.MU. And then the tabuleiro.MU goes to the dismantle station who creates a new MU - shrink.MU who is made of 6latas.MU.
You want the dismantle station to create 2 new container objects with 6 entities from a container with 12 entities after the assembly? If this is the case I'm sorry dismantle station does not do that. You should do it by method.
Now whe you have really small cycle times as in your case I would look for a way to apply a factor, so instead of having 0.6s I may apply a 100 factor and have a cycle time of 60s and I know each MU is = to 100MUs but my simulation model will run 100 times faster.
Your experiment manager is working properly, the conclusion I reach from running your model is both processes you are selecting to modify have no effect on the output of your process.
Try modifying "Gás" which looks like a real bottleneck instead.
Your station Tampas1 has the exit locked. When you open that gate the simulation will produce parts and you will see some more meaningful results in your simulation results. But I do not understand your experiment . Do you really bring in the input parameter to your simulation model?


text:
Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy
YourStory features the Takshashila Institution
YourStory features the Takshashila Institution as an organisation which is spearheading citizens' interaction with governance and providing them with various opportunities to participate in public policymaking in India. To harness the potential of the youth and provide a sneak peek...
Takshashila Successfully Concludes the First Batch of the Post-Graduate Programme in Public Policy
On 17 December 2017, the Takshashila Institution successfully concluded the first batch of the Post-Graduate Programme in Public Policy (PGP). The course concluded with the students presenting a defence of their dissertations over a period of two days. The subjects...
Study Public Policy with the Takshashila Post-Graduate Programme
The Takshashila Institution is inviting applications for the second batch of the Takshashila Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) in Public Policy. The Takshashila PGP is academically rigorous and attuned to the current requirements of industry, media, social sector and politics. Over a...
Takshashila Launches the PGP in Public Policy with a Workshop
The Takshashila Institution's Post-Graduate Programme (PGP) in Public Policy kicked off with a five-day workshop between 11 to 15 January 2017 at St Mark's Hotel, Bengaluru. The PGP brings together policy practitioners and academics from across the world. The programme...
Important Update to Takshashila Institution's Post-Graduate Programme in Public Policy
The Takshashila Institution is pleased to announce that we have recently received a new financial grant from our donors, which enables us to drastically restructure the pricing for the first batch of our Post-Graduate Programme in Public Policy (PGP). At...
The Takshashila Institution launches Post-Graduate Programme in Public Policy
July 1, 2016 The Takshashila Institution launched its Post-Graduate Programme in Public Policy (PGP), at a function held at the India International Centre, New Delhi. The event saw Mr Nitin Pai, Director of the Takshashila Institution, deliver the keynote address, followed...
The Takshashila Institution launches a pioneering Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy
The Takshashila Institution launches a pioneering Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy BANGALORE 20 June 2016 The Takshashila Institution launched its new Post Graduate Programme in Public Policy (PGP), at a function held at Taj Vivanta, Bangalore on 20th June 2016. ...
Creating professional careers in public policy & public affairs: New Post-Graduate Programme in Public Policy
Creating professional careers in public policy & public affairs: Takshashila launches a pioneering Post-Graduate Programme in Public Policy BANGALORE 3 May 2016. The Takshashila Institution today launched India's first post-graduate programme in public policy for working professionals. The 48-week programme...


The ultimate in log home living is embodied in this Water Dance dream, showcasing the best of all possible uses for beetle-kill pine with the rustic look on the main floor ceilings. Hardwood floors, massive beams, and natural rock inside and out add to the mountain experience. The openness of the kitchen, dining room, and living room give this home a warm, homey feel. Granite counter tops in the kitchen and on the bar, along with the massive fireplace add to the warmth. The home is situated perfectly on the lot to take advantages of spectacular lake and mountain views.


text:
Shocking political incompetence
It has been another day of shocking political incompetence in PF. We woke up to news that Nixon Chilangwa MP had naively taken on the most unwanted job in the country. He had accepted the job of PF Secretary General after Davies Mwila MP turned it down. Mwila's resignation brought much embarrassment to VP Guy Scott. As Chilangwa was accepting the appointment, riots from overnight were still continuing by students and PF cadres.
Edgar Lungu MP finally spoke through a lengthy statement. He refused to step down and accused Scott of acting treasonous: "I am aware that there is an attempt to usurp state and party powers to a group now commonly known as the ''cartel". The action by Dr. Guy Scott to illegally assume the office of party president and to pretend to perform such functions therein in the absence of the harmonization of this constitutional conflict, is promoting disharmony".
Finance Minister Alexander Chikwanda MP quickly followed observing that the decision to remove Lungu "may cause a massive cultural shock among mourners countrywide, fracture the smooth preparations for burial and impair the image of the ruling PF Party". Speaking for the family, he suggested that Scott's action are compounding [the First Lady's] anguish and that of the children and the rest of the family".
Then what followed was a complete outpouring of anger and ridicule at Scott and his supporters. PF National Youth Chairman Chishimba Kambwili led the way saying he had warned Scott during a phone call in front of seven ministers at his house in "no uncertain terms" that his decision may send Zambia into flames. Even the traditional leaders joined in. Chief Madzimawe said Scott was behaving "unZambian and unAfrican because we don't share property of the deceased when the body is still in the house".
Wave after wave of attacks followed against Scott. It did not take long before Scott was hunted at his farm and forced to reinstate Edgar Lungu. The VP appears to have miscalculated. It is obvious that he was trying to eliminate a key rival, but for what reason it is not clear. There are unverified reports that police even tried to arrest Edgar Lungu on unknown pretext.
Scott's actions have certainly left Lungu in a much stronger position than before. However, it's not obvious Lungu will necessary stand or even be able to win. There are still many contenders. Lungu is also not in the top physical shape. Most importantly if Lungu stands and loses the PF nomination he will no longer be the PF Secretary General. For the simple reason that the "agreed deal" requires a person to step down if they stand for PF presidency.
What makes it even more interesting is that in a normal general election, when the election period is announced, all ministers immediately step down. The only person usually left in charge of the country is the president and permanent secretaries. This usually means ministers hand back all their resources and vacate the houses. The situation during a presidential by-election is unclear since no one can dissolve the cabinet untila new president comes in. However, it is possible that Scott may still insist that ministers resign before the transition begins.
Where this puts PF's campaign for re-election is still not clear. If it is going to win it will not only need a popular candidate but also rely on the corrupt government machinery that usually flouts the electoral laws. There's certainly more drama to come. In the mean time there are pressing economic challenges facing Zambia. We shall speak to these in due course.
Economist | Researcher
THEMES : politics
Economic developments (Debt, Aviation, Health)
Sata's economic legacy
Monetary Policy Statement (November 2014)
Hichilema stutters on the economy
Zambia after Sata
Drug quality and global trade
Pardoning Criminals
A complete circus
Is it time for Zambia to RESET?
Profiting from Sata's death


text:
Violently Protective Girlfriend
So Bad It's Good/Anime
Kimono Is Traditional
Reed Richards Is Useless
Missing Episode/Live Action Tv
Trope, Characters As Device, Master of the Index, The Gift
"Being the best isn't all it's cracked up to be. When you have power, you become arrogant and isolated from the world no matter how coveted and sought after you are in the beginning."
—Itachi Uchiha, Naruto
Some people are just better than others. It's a shame that most of these people will inevitably turn evil at some point, not to mention be prone to engaging in vast amounts of Angst as they do it.
Beware of anyone who is described by his masters as possessing The Gift, in this case meaning a near instinctual grasp of the techniques the show is built around, often alongside some sort of quasi-supernatural physical or mental ability. Naturally his teachers will near worship his strength and fall over themselves to teach him new techniques, completely ignoring that the student in question spends his time pondering questions like "Is it wrong for me to rip out this person's liver and wear it as a hat?"
Yes, perhaps due to a respect for honest, hard work over freakish talent within most Eastern cultures the guy who gets it easy has a disturbing tendency to be evil. Even the good ones lean towards angsty Ineffectual Loners. To make it worse the Hero often admires their strength at the start or looks up to them as a friend or teacher, precluding their transformation into an Aloof Big Brother. Maybe it has something to do with the tendency of people to not value something they didn't have to work for? Maybe it's sour grapes and jealousy? Any combination of the two?
Many Arrogant Kung Fu Guys fall into this; the Social Darwinist is near defined by it. The Smug Super flaunts it. Beware the Superman when enough of them gather and cause collateral damage in their fights or take over the world.
If the person with the gift is the protagonist, it is often an example of Hard Work Hardly Works, though it also tends to be just as sucky (the underlying message seems to be that it's best to be unnoticeably average). Those with The Gift are frequently Born Winners, especially if they manage to avoid becoming evil.
Sometimes, to even things out, someone with the gift drops out of their training for some reason, leaving them Incompletely Trained and thus Unskilled but Strong. See also The Paragon Always Rebels.
For literal gifts, see It Was a Gift. Not to be confused with the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory, the Fanfic "The Gift", the book by James Patterson or the short story/jam by The Velvet Underground.
Examples of The Gift include:
Most of the main characters in Naruto, starting with the Uchihas (yes, all of them) and former Big Bad Orochimaru and working from there. It's really more notable when characters considered "geniuses" don't turn evil than when they do. Kakashi, Shikamaru, and the Fourth Hokage are about it.
Neji.
Itachi turned out to be on the good side all along even though he is arguably the most gifted.
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. Period. The better your skills, the deeper and more painful your inevitable fall to The Dark Side.
Like Judai?
Or Kaiser Ryo?
In Princess Tutu, the character Autor thinks he has powers to "bend reality to his will with pen and ink". Turns out he's mistaken, and the true prodigy of this power is Fakir. Autor even notes that they've "been chosen" in one particular scene. Fakir himself isn't a villain, but he is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, so he fits the personality type for this trope well.
Kongo Agon of Eyeshield 21 is another advanced example. He's described as a once-in-a-century football prodigy, capable of reacting in 0.1 second to any move the opposing team makes, as fast as physically possible. He never goes to practice and never exercises, at all, in sharp contrast to his brother Unsui, who trains tirelessly every day but can't keep up with him. Deimon managed to throw Agon a loop by sending in benchwarmer Manabu Yukimitsu, who managed to overtake Agon through sheer determination and tenacity. Oh, and he's practically the Anthropomorphic Personification of the Opposing Sports Team.
Brooklyn of Beyblade fits this to a tee. Thanks to a savant-level natural talent at playing spinning tops, he's never had to try in his entire life. On the one hand, far from making him an Arrogant Kung Fu Guy, he's actually a pretty nice guy who approaches the game with a zen-like calmness. On the other, when he's finally defeated for the first time, he actually starts trying... and the results are not pretty at all.
Mahou Sensei Negima:
Negi Springfield is often called 'Prodigy' or 'a Genius' thanks to his ludicrous growth, amazing smarts and innate ability to master many fighting styles. Neither brash nor overconfident, he's instead insecure, self-sacrificing, somewhat power-hungry with a noted inferiority complex, which eventually causes him to choose the powers of darkness to prevent harm to his students, in that sparing himself unnecessary pain at losing more loved ones. His lonely disposition has yet to be fully confronted, though he occasionally gets accused of being a Martyr Without a Cause.
Later on we get introduced to Kurt Godel, who's also described as a prodigy/genius. Unlike Negi, he's something of a Smug Snake (although with the ability to back it up), and is the epitome of the Wild Card.
Madlax features an extremely rare gift called, well, The Gift (Jap. shishitsu). It allows people to screw with minds and reality.
Berserker of Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple poses the danger he does entirely because of this. Berserker is so naturally talented in fighting that he can defeat the best of his peers despite not having had any formal training whatsoever. His defeat requires a massive aversion of Hard Work Hardly Works, with Hermit claiming to have put in 10,000 times the normal effort. Unfortunately, a recently released chapter of the manga suggests he has since received that formal training.
Medaka Kurokami from Medaka Box is better at everything than everyone. If she sees someone do something or even hears about it, she will quickly become better at it with no effort.
Inverted in Marvel's G.I. Joe continuity. Snake-Eyes, a white friend of the family, is regarded by the masters of the Arashikage ninja clan as being their most gifted and promising student. He stays good (probably partly because the masters don't tell him this to his face), but his friend, Storm Shadow, a blood member of the clan who had trained with them since childhood, becomes embittered at being constantly thought of as coming up short compared to his friend.
Moondragon is a classic case of this. Orphaned by the renegade Thanos of Titan, she was brought up on his homeworld and instructed in physical and mental disciplines for which she proved to have considerable talent. She got proud enough to challenge the Dragon in the Moon and apparently proved good enough to destroy it, which did not help. At her best she is insufferably arrogant (being almost That Damned Good to boot), and when the DitM's influence surfaces she lapses into full-blown Megalomania. Life with her new girlfriend seems to have mellowed her... somewhat.
The Gorgon, of Marvel Comics, is a ridiculously advanced case. He could read and write by his first birthday. By four, he was one of Japan's most acclaimed artists. He composed his first opera at age six. At twelve, he wrote a mathematical equation that proved the existence of God. He became a ridiculously-skilled martial artist in adulthood, as well. He's also one of the most bugfuck insane guys out there, and is fanatically devoted to the evil Hand. Oh, and he can also turn you to stone by looking at you. His actions so frequently cause "WHAT NOBODY IS THAT [good/fast/strong/silent]!" reactions that "Wrong. The Gorgon is that [whichever previous adjective]" is practically his Catch Phrase.
As one of the most extreme example of this gift; The Gorgon is, for all his gifts, a Badass Normal. In Secret Warriors, He manages to block and cut the arms off of a super-speedster faster than she could react.
Film - Animated
There are more than a few echoes of this in how Master Shifu treats Tai Lung in Kung Fu Panda--and true to form, seeing only the snow leopard's incredible natural talent for kung fu (he was after all the only one to master all one thousand scrolls) the guy proudly pumps him up to be the Dragon Warrior, all without seeing the darkness that was growing in his son's heart. Though Tai Lung turned evil, he luckily didn't indulge in a great deal of Wangst. You can guarantee, though, that if he didn't die in the final battle, shows up in the sequel, and does a Heel Face Turn, he will become either an Ineffectual Loner (which he may well have been before his Start of Darkness) or thanks to Defeat Means Friendship, an Aloof Big Brother to Po.
Remy is something of a subversion: he possesses the gift of incredible cooking skills, but unlike the examples here nobody looks up to him or is envious of it because he's a rat, who don't need to cook and aren't allowed in kitchens anyway. When he's able to express his gift by being The Man Behind the Man of a human, he gets taken advantage of: his rat clan uses him to steal food from the kitchen while his human "puppet" (who couldn't boil spaghetti without Remy's help) takes all the credit.
Film - Live-Action
Luke and Anakin Skywalker in their respective Star Wars trilogies. The Force was strong with those ones.
Sing, the eventual protagonist of Kung Fu Hustle, had tremendous chi reserves in his body for his entire life, which he subtly sets up for the climactic fight scene by recovering from a serious stab wound, concussion and poisoning, in the span of about an hour, then casually mentioning that he's never had to go to a hospital in his life. Only after a near-death experience (that is to say, the Big Bad delivered sufficient damage that the surprisingly powerful Obi Wans had to mummify him) was he able to use it consciously.
In the Tortall" books, there is a subversion on two levels. In the first, just about half the population has "The Gift", and it's actually called that. What it is is basically the ability to use magic - and that's it. Some of them do think they're better than everyone and two are the Big Bad of their series, but most are decent and nice. The second subversion is closer to the trope idea are wild magic; a much rarer 'gift' which has specific abilities. The only characters to have this (Daine and Tobe) are The Hero and a different hero's Sidekick.
Lord Voldemort of Harry Potter. From a very young age, Tom Marvolo Riddle was treated as an amazing prodigy and given special preference and instruction. Dumbledore likewise. Voldy just chose a very different path than Albus.
In The Wheel of Time series, some channelers require training and others have The Gift, such as Nynaeve.
Flipped in Thief of Time with Lobsang Ludd, who is naturally great at both the theory and practice of time manipulation. None of the teachers among the History Monks like him, because you can't teach someone who already knows everything.
Sylar of Heroes has the power of "intuitive aptitude", and thus is able to rapidly master new superpowers over the course of a few days, whereas the people he takes them from tend to suffer from How Do I Shot Web? or Superpower Meltdown even after living with their powers for several months. Then again, he has to crack open people's skulls and take their brains to get the powers in the first place, so the "evil" part is kind of a chicken or the egg thing with him. Compare the heroic Peter Petrelli, who also can absorb powers (without stealing brains) but is pretty incompetent with them and needs to spend considerable time training to get them to work properly.
River Tam of Firefly is a genius prodigy who can basically do anything she puts her mind to with incredible ease, and was already in some form of college by the time she was 14. As her brother Simon puts it, "River wasn't just gifted... she was a gift." After her Mind Rape, she is still extremely intelligent and talented, but it's often hidden behind many layers of insanity.
Ars Magica has this at the center of its premise. Magical ability (literally referred to as The Gift) instantly puts the primary player character class, magi, above the rest of the mundane world. This is reasonable enough; its setting, Mythic Europe, is a world of medieval beliefs after all. However, while the magi of the Order of Hermes swear an oath not to do anything that deprives another magus of his right to arcane power, or brings the ire of the mundane authority on the Order as a whole, any given mage is perfectly within his or her rights to abuse anyone who isn't a mage at their leisure, including their own apprentices. A particular list of legal cases includes the case of one mage who tortured several of his apprentices to death and was found to have committed no crime.
As with the above, Unknown Armies has the gift of magic being incredibly rare. The thing is, it tends to cause Adepts to become... well, insane. The technical definition is that they become obsessed with things like taking risks, cutting themselves up, or saving money, to the exclusion of all else. Oh, and the only reason mages aren't ruling the world is because they're terrified of what could happen when the world finds out about magic. Otherwise, their obsessions and magic cause them to look down on normal people, referring to them as sheep.
Nearly every single player video game falls under this trope, as the main character (played by you) is in some way 'special'.
Fridge Brilliance when you realize that you ARE special, because no-one else has access to the save/load feature.
In Final Fantasy Tactics a 2, Adelle is one of "The Gifted", which grants her such boons as an extremely extended lifespan, unique abilities and near-instant mastery of (non-combat) skills. While she never falls into outright evil (except for a brief moment when she is Brainwashed and Crazy), The Gift causes her a large amount of angst towards the fact that it makes her "different".
Knights of the Old Republic plays with the trope, but it still ends up used straight: the player character learns the ways of the Force very, very quickly, "learning in weeks what has taken others years". Later in the game, there turns out to be an explanation for that - but that explanation means that the player character is Revan, who before that revelation had been described as a bit of a prodigy, and rather powerful.
Order of the Stick's Start of Darkness for the lich villain Xykon revealed that one of his earliest conflicts was with the hard-studying wizards who looked down on him for the natural gift of sorcery he possessed.
In the Dilbert animated series, he tells Dogbert that he has "The Knack" (for engineering.) He accidentally drinks his boss's coffee, gets 'management germs,' and loses it for an episode. Hilarity Ensues.
In Avatar: The Last Airbender Azula and Toph are both among the most naturally gifted/talented characters in the series. Azula was born as a child prodigy but Toph is blind and learned how to depend on other senses, which just made her an unnaturally good earth bender. The former is Daddy's Little Villain and the latter is a loner who requires an entire season to soften up to her True Companions. Katara is a subversion; she taught herself waterbending and became a master soon after finding a master to formally train her. Aang is a inversion. His gift means is his job to saves the world.
Twilight Sparkle in My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic is a unicorn whose unique magical talent is magic. Princess Celestia -- a millenia old Physical Goddess -- says that Twilight has the greatest magical potential she has ever seen in a unicorn. In the pilot Twilight does come off as slightly arrogant and dismisses the future members of her Nakama as silly fillies who are getting in the way of her efforts to stop Nightmare Moon. Much of the series is devoted to Twilight coming out of her sheltered bookworm lifestyle. A few episodes also deconstruct The Gift by showing that Twilight can't always control her vast magical power.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.fandom.com/wiki/The_Gift?oldid=342032"
Master of the Index


text:
How to Re-Invent a 60-Year-Old Company
Harman CEO Dinesh Paliwal, 57, advises CEOs who find themselves in this position to "never completely ignore the founder. Keep him informed. Make him feel he is part of it. If you abruptly cut the founder off, then you invite trouble or a boardroom coup because an outgoing founder has board members who love and adore him."
"Never completely ignore the founder. Keep him informed. Make him feel he is part of it."
For Paliwal, who spent 22 years with ABB, the Swedish-Swiss-based $50 billion global energy and industrial conglomerate, taking over from a founder CEO was especially demanding. Having co-founded Harman Kardon in 1953, a company noted for its premium audio products, Sidney Harman was struggling with more than a succession problem. He had sold his company to Beatrice in 1976 only to buy it back in the 1980s, then face competitive turbulence and the need to revamp operations to get it back to fighting trim.
Two different CEOs came—and went. Each clashed with the founder and his board, which was comprised of numerous friends of Harman's, including, at one point, his daughter. Paliwal, who had worked and lived in six different countries, including the U.S., China, Switzerland, Singapore, Australia and his native India, was brought in first as vice chairman prior to becoming CEO in July 2007. "When I was first interviewed," he recalls, "I told Dr. Harman that I needed room because I'm decisive. I don't want to be second-guessed every day."
Around this time, Goldman Sachs and KKR had made an $8.3 billion offer for the company, only to pull the plug when internal problems proved bigger than they were led to believe. At the time, credit markets were also drying up. Faced with an existential crisis, the board, including Harman, turned to Paliwal asking, "What will it take to keep you?" "It will take a few years, but I will fix it. However, I need the freedom to choose my team and do the right things," he responded.
J.P. Donlon is Editor Emeritus of Chief Executive magazine.


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Tag Archive for: Analytics software
Analytics Are a Must for Business Success
March 11, 2021 /0 Comments/in Organizational Performance Measures /by StrategyDriven
Business analytics is a process in which businesses improve their operations by using statistical models to analyze data. They compare historical and current data and try to make adjustments where applicable to improve future performance. Business analytics' first usage was in the late 19th century but did not become standard practice until the 1960s.
Analytics Gives Companies an Edge
Once companies really began to use business analytics, they quickly developed an edge over the competition. There has always been a level of adaptation that companies have made to keep competitive. However, the use of analytics gave companies the ability to look deeper into the data and discover more useful information to improve business.
Gathering statistics and analyzing them to try to find useful information only works if you are collecting the right statistics. It is easy to get bogged down in the wrong information and draw false conclusions from statistical analysis. Any data set taken out of context is likely to lead analysts down a false path. All of the relevant information must be gathered and compared in order for analytics to truly be useful.
New Coke Was Delicious… And Terrible
Gathering a data set in a vacuum can lead to tremendous business blunders. Take one of the biggest marketing failures of all time: New Coke. The blind taste tests conducted by both Pepsi and Coke showed that the majority of people preferred the taste of Pepsi to the taste of Coke.
Then after developing a new formula, Coke ran over 200,000 taste tests. The results showed definitively, that people preferred the flavor of New Coke to both that of old Coke and Pepsi. Then we all know what happened. Consumers hated New Coke and demanded a return of their original beverage. After three months, Coca-Cola Classic made a return, and everyone was happy.
The researchers did not gather all of the relevant information. One of the key pieces of information they overlooked was that people don't typically only drink a couple of sips of a cola. They usually drink a can or a bottle. Some people drink several cans a day. For many, the sweeter taste of New Coke was not as palatable in large quantities as the original.
They also didn't gather information about why people drank Coke. Pepsi was working very hard to be the "cool cola", aiming at taking the youth market. Many of the people who stuck with Coke were about brand loyalty and nostalgia. They liked the beverage they had and were not looking for a change.
Had Coke done a proper analysis of the statistics, they would have looked at who was drinking Coke and why. By doing so, they would not have made such a mistake. Either they would have scrapped the idea of New Coke altogether or offered it as an additional beverage rather than an alternative.
Instead of replacing Coke, if they had continued to sell Coke Classic, but also offered "Coke Youth" to try to pull back some of the consumers they had lost to Pepsi, maybe people would still be drinking Coke Youth today, right alongside Coke Classic.
Sports Analytics
Despite an abundance of usable statistical information, it took a while for sports to follow in the footsteps of business in the use of analytics. Once they started using analytics to improve individual and team performance, however, they began to quickly perfect its usage.
While they may look big, sports organizations are relatively small businesses. Because of this, their analytics departments aren't nearly as big as big banks or global retailers. As a result, they have to outsource a lot of their analytical needs. This has led to the creation of many sports analytics companies. The use of football analytics software enables these companies to provide needed information to clubs across the league.
One of the best usages of analytics that sports organizations have used, which businesses could greatly benefit from, is the effect of individual performance upon the team. Sports teams are able to assess the potential contributions of players beyond their individual statistics. Some players don't put up the most impressive numbers but are able to elevate the level of play of those around them.
Some team members, whether in sports or business, are key to the success of the group. They are not valuable because they shine themselves, but because they help everyone around them to impress. Proper use of analytics can help businesses to make these determinations and so much more. The data is all there. It simply needs to be gathered and correctly analyzed in order for your business to thrive.
https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/business-1836990_1280.jpg 853 1280 StrategyDriven https://www.strategydriven.com/wp-content/uploads/SDELogo5-300x70-300x70.png StrategyDriven2021-03-11 14:00:472021-03-11 14:06:15Analytics Are a Must for Business Success
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Summers Web Designs


text:
package org.zavodnikov;

import static org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions.assertEquals;

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

/**
 * Tests for {@link MathHelper}.
 *
 * @author Dmitry Zavodnikov (d.zavodnikov@gmail.com)
 */
public class MathHelperTest {

    @Test
    public void testRound() {
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.round(0.0));

        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.round(0.1));
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.round(0.2));
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.round(0.3));
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.round(0.4));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.round(0.5));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.round(0.6));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.round(0.7));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.round(0.8));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.round(0.9));

        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.round(1.0));
    }

    @Test
    public void testRoundUp() {
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.roundUp(0.0));

        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.roundUp(0.1));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.roundUp(0.2));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.roundUp(0.3));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.roundUp(0.4));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.roundUp(0.5));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.roundUp(0.6));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.roundUp(0.7));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.roundUp(0.8));
        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.roundUp(0.9));

        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.roundUp(1.0));
    }

    @Test
    public void testRoundDown() {
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.roundDown(0.0));

        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.roundDown(0.1));
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.roundDown(0.2));
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.roundDown(0.3));
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.roundDown(0.4));
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.roundDown(0.5));
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.roundDown(0.6));
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.roundDown(0.7));
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.roundDown(0.8));
        assertEquals(0, MathHelper.roundDown(0.9));

        assertEquals(1, MathHelper.roundDown(1.0));
    }

    @Test
    public void testLog2() {
        assertEquals(1.0, MathHelper.log2(2.0), Double.MIN_VALUE);
        assertEquals(2.0, MathHelper.log2(4.0), Double.MIN_VALUE);
        assertEquals(3.0, MathHelper.log2(8.0), Double.MIN_VALUE);
    }

    @Test
    public void testExtendArraySize() {
        //@formatter:off
        assertEquals( 1, MathHelper.extendArraySize( 0));
        assertEquals( 1, MathHelper.extendArraySize( 1));
        assertEquals( 2, MathHelper.extendArraySize( 2));
        assertEquals( 4, MathHelper.extendArraySize( 3));
        assertEquals( 4, MathHelper.extendArraySize( 4));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.extendArraySize( 5));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.extendArraySize( 6));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.extendArraySize( 7));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.extendArraySize( 8));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.extendArraySize( 9));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.extendArraySize(10));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.extendArraySize(11));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.extendArraySize(12));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.extendArraySize(13));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.extendArraySize(14));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.extendArraySize(15));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.extendArraySize(16));
        //@formatter:on
    }

    @Test
    public void testReduceArraySize() {
        //@formatter:off
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16, 16));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16, 15));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16, 14));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16, 13));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16, 12));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16, 11));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16, 10));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16,  9));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16,  8));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16,  7));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16,  6));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16,  5));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16,  4));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16,  3));
        assertEquals( 4, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16,  2));
        assertEquals( 2, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16,  1));
        assertEquals( 1, MathHelper.reduceArraySize(16,  0));
        //@formatter:on
    }

    @Test
    public void testCalculateArraySize() {
        //@formatter:off
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.calculateArraySize(0, 0));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.calculateArraySize(0, 1));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.calculateArraySize(0, 2));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.calculateArraySize(0, 3));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.calculateArraySize(0, 4));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.calculateArraySize(0, 5));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.calculateArraySize(0, 6));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.calculateArraySize(0, 7));
        assertEquals( 8, MathHelper.calculateArraySize(0, 8));
        assertEquals(16, MathHelper.calculateArraySize(0, 9));
        //@formatter:on
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Royals News
Baseball in Kansas City Still Hasn't Recovered From the 1994 Strike
By Freneau Oct 7, 2008, 6:00am EDT
Share All sharing options for: Baseball in Kansas City Still Hasn't Recovered From the 1994 Strike
Summers in Kansas City can make one feel like it's 1995. Not because people are still watching Toy Story and Apollo 13 in movie theaters or because Kansas Citians are looking forward to the upcoming season of The Drew Carey Show and Seinfeld. Instead, a mid-90s baseball malaise and sense of resentment continues to hang over Kansas City, nearly a decade after the rest of the country has moved on.
Attendance at Kauffman Stadium Since 1994:
Per Game Avg AL Rank
1995 17,132 10th
We can make two quick observations from the numbers above: 1) attendance at the K has been fairly stable and 2) the Royals have not been able to keep up with the rest of the American League at the gate. While Royals fans may have not noticed, in the last decade attending baseball games in person has become extremely popular, and from 2003-7 Major League baseball set a new attendance record each season. The overall average attendance? In 2007: 32,785, in 2008: 32,539. The Royals are lucky to draw the Major League average, average mind you, ten times in a season.
Certainly, caveats can be made. To be sure, the Royals have been a consistent and indeed a spectacular loser since 1995, so much so that the team's hot start in 2003 -- and months spent in first-place -- was only able to provide a modest (very modest) bump in attendance. Moreover, Kansas City remains one of the smallest markets in baseball and a middling one economically. (According to Nate Silver's exhaustive and very math-heavy research, Kansas City is MLB's 29th largest market.) Finally, the un-balanced schedule has concentrated well-attended Yankee and Red Sox road games within the AL East, and the AL Central lacks a single team that travels well or that consistently interests casual fans at the gate. Nobody comes to the game just because the Twins are in town.
What makes the attendance figures since the strike even more telling however is the clear bright-line formed by 1994. In the interests of avoiding another table, going backwards, here are the game averages from 1994 to 1980: 24,356, 23,884, 23,058, 26,686, 27,888, 30,589, 29,195, 29,537, 28,652, 26,700, 22,346, 24,097, 28,203, 24,843, 28,256. The lowest average from that period, 1984's 22,346 is nevertheless higher than any average since 1994. When you consider how much lower attendance was during the 1980s, those totals are even more impressive. Then again, those numbers also underscore just how much the core of the Royals' fanbase has eroded.
How much might winning, real, sustained winning, improve things at the K? While it is difficult to find a truly comparable situation to the one in Kansas City (non-new stadium, small market, beaten-down fanbase) one would have to look at the Twins over the last five years and, weirdly enough, the White Sox as decent data points. The Twins are obvious enough, but the White Sox are roughly comparable as well, given their minority market share in Chicago, negligble regional appeal and convienent yet bland stadium. You might also throw in a variable covering "contentious relationship between ownership and fanbase" as well.
CWS-Comisky II MIN-Metrodome
Although attendance at the Cell was something of a punch line for many years, the White Sox have drawn well since winning the World Series, and in fact were rebuilding their attendance base as early as 2000. The Twins meanwhile, were supposedly so poorly supported that Baseball's best option was simply to contract the team. Well, emphasis on "supposedly". Truly, Minnesota's per game averages in the late-nineties were miserable, hovering around 14,500 at the end of the decade before collapsing to the 12,355 average you see above in 2000. The Royals have avoided sinking that low, however given the overall increases in league attendance, Kansas City's recent rut of 18,000 fans per game is hardly better than the performance of the contraction-era Twins.
In terms of both on-field success and market potential, the Twins are the more reachable model, and in part that table above reveals just how valuable actually winning a World Series is: even through a miserable 2007 season, the White Sox were still drawing well.
Unfortunately, with the economy headed south again, it's likely that we'll see attendance figures drop again next season, and depending on just how bad things get, a return to the bad old days of anti-Yankee protests with fans throwing trash and or fake money at supposedly greedy players could very well be possible. Spending 365 days a year on this website and the rest of the Royals blogosphere, I can confidently state that quite a few Royals fans remain on the verge of bitterness over salary imbalances in the game and that resentment towards the game's haves, both franchises and individuals is strong.
The Royals are two good summers away from drawing something like 24-26,000 a night at the K, maybe a notch more depending on how well the renovations go over and how low prices remain. However, if the current batch of players, namely the Alex Gordon Generation fail to materialize into a contender, attendance could drop all the way down to the mid-nineties levels. Unlike so many inside baseball, the Royals spent the boom years barely getting by, leaving them in a precarious position as storm clouds gather.


Wine Enthusiast 90Editor's Choice" Hints of black pepper, clove and cedar waft from the glass, followed by ripe and generous fruit flavors on the palate. This wine is dry, well balanced and has a mouthwatering texture stiffened a bit by light tannins. "
Wine Enthusiast 92A wonderful, deep blackberry-jam aroma and equally expressive fruit flavors on the palate give this wine a lot of enjoyment. This feels full and firm, with tones of blackberry, boysenberry, baking spice and dash of oaky complexity from 35% new barrels.


text:
Living For Longer
Fukushima Disaster
The Living For Longer Show
Who is Trying to Silence Filmmaker and Judicial Watchdog Bill Windsor, Currently Held in County Jail?
healthimpactnews.com
Filmmaker Bill Windsor of "Lawless America" is currently being held in Ada County Jail in Idaho on a $4.1 million bail. To whom is he a threat? by Brian Shilhavy Health Impact News Filmmaker Bill Windsor has been in the process of producing a film called "Lawless America" since 2005. It is a film project which exposes the corruption in the American judicial system. He currently has over 1200 videos in his YouTube channel of testimonials from American citizens who have exp [...]
Filmmaker Was Documenting Abuses in CPS and Children Murdered under State Custody Before He Died
Bill Bowen, Innocence Destroyed Health Impact News Editor Comments In 2009, Bill Bowen released a trailer for a documentary film he was producing exposing the corruption within Child Protection Services across the United States. The film is called Innocence Destroyed. Bill Bowen died unexpectedly the next year, in 2010, reportedly from a heart attack, before he was able to finish the film. The segments that were completed are now on YouTube, in three different videos. See below. WARNING: Videos [...]
Get The Latest Headlines!
Co-Creator of "Gray State" Speaks on Deceased Filmmaker; Future of Main Project
feedproxy.google.com
Amanda WarrenActivist PostLast week, we reported on the tragic and mysterious death of film producer David Crowley, his wife and young daughter who were all found dead in their Apple Valley, MN home, weeks after the incident took place.A few new details have been reported by the media. Hennepin County Medical Examiners report a murder-suicide saying wife Komel and their five-year-old daughter were shot, and report David's death as a suicide. No additional marks, injuries or signs of struggle, th [...]
Comment on WTF: Anti-Government Filmmaker 'David Crowley' and Family Found Murdered In Minnesota by Grumpy Vermonter
sgtreport.com
There's been nary a peep from Alternative News sources, let alone the MSM, about the significance of this crime; not to mention the extreme chilling effect to further erode our freedom of expression. The AltNews guys are either waiting for more information and planning a blitz of documentaries OR this really IS the middle of the end of freedom in the USSA! [...]
'THE BORDER FENCE IS A JOKE': Filmmaker crosses from US to Mexico dressed as Osama bin Laden as Border Patrol says 'we can't be everywhere at once'
from Daily Mail: A flamethrowing American conservative activist raised eyebrows in the U.S. on Monday by releasing a video of himself crossing the Rio Grande River from Mexico into Texas, dressed as the late al-Qaeda terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. Guerrilla documentarian James O'Keefe's footage comes at a time when Americans are engaged in a national debate about border security. Tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America have entered the U.S. illegally in re [...]
Filmmaker, Jason Charles, on The Liberty Brothers
from NorthwestLibertyNews: [...]
TSA Humiliated By Filmmaker
www.infowars.com
Infowars.com | Jakari Jackson interviews David Kirk West, the Director of the "We Will Resist TSA and NSA Tyranny" Contest. [...]
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text:
Columbia Square Celebrates Installation of Commissioned Art
Local Artists Linn Meyers and Robin Rose Create Unique Art for the Iconic Columbia Square Lobby
(WASHINGTON, DC) – Hines, the international real estate firm; Munich Re Group, its investor partner; and Hogan Lovells, the project's major tenant; celebrated the installation of artworks commissioned specifically for Columbia Square by two Washington, DC based contemporary artists, Linn Meyers and Robin Rose. Art consultant Peggy Sparks, principal of Artist's Proof, managed the art commissioning process.
Linn Meyers (www.linnmeyers.com) has created for Columbia Square a triptych of oversized panels (each panel measures 15 feet tall and 9 feet wide) produced with mixed medium on panel. The pattern of dots and open spaces seem to cause the pieces to undulate when viewed. Meyers received her BFA from Cooper Union (The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art), a private university in New York, New York and her MFA from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.
Robin Rose (www.robinroseart.com) has created two paintings for Columbia Square that hang on opposing walls: a predominantly white piece titled "Veil" and a mainly red piece titled "Infer." Both were produced using an ancient technique known as "encaustic" or "hot wax" painting. The process, as refined by Rose, uses beeswax, carnauba wax, resin and powdered pigments. This "paint" is kept molten on a heated palette (185 degrees) and applied to the panels. It can be manipulated using a variety of heated tools and techniques. Each painting is 11 feet wide and 7 feet high and are produced using encaustic over linen on aluminum Hexcel panels. Rose received his BFA and MFA from Florida State University.
Hines and Munich Re Group have been proactively making improvements to Columbia Square to further enhance the property's impressive environment for its tenants and to ensure Columbia Square maintains its trophy status for years to come. The installation of the new art supports the improvement strategies by transforming the atrium lobby in an impactful way.
Completed in 1987, Columbia Square was Hines' first project in Washington, DC. It is a 600,000-square-foot, 13-story trophy office building located in the east end of Washington's central business district and is proud to have had the law firm of Hogan Lovells as its anchor tenant since its opening. Hines developed the building and currently manages it in partnership with MEAG, Munich Re Group's asset manager. Designed by world-renowned architectural firm I.M. Pei & Partners, the property has earned LEED® Gold certification by the U.S. Green Building Council and the ENERGY STAR® designation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Columbia Square features a grand 13-story atrium lobby accented by 30-foot-high columns that support cantilevered offices overlooking the open space.
The public is invited to view the artworks during the building's normal operating hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The building is not opened to the public on Sundays and holidays. Columbia Square is conveniently located at 555 13th Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20004, just above Metrorail's Metro Center station (use the 12th and F Street exit).
Hogan Lovells is a global legal practice that assists corporations, financial institutions, and governmental entities across the spectrum with their critical business and legal issues. The firm has over 2,500 lawyers operating out of more than 40 offices in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and the United States. Hogan Lovells became a top 10 global legal services provider in May 2010 through a merger of two firms with international credentials, U.S.-based firm Hogan & Hartson and European based firm Lovells. Today Hogan Lovells carries on the 112-year tradition of excellence established by its founders and further builds on their legacy. For more information visit www.hoganlovells.com.
About MEAG
MEAG stands for best practice asset management for Munich Re and ERGO. MEAG has representations in Europe, Asia and North America and also offers its extensive know-how to institutional investors and private clients from outside the Munich Re Group. MEAG currently manages assets valued at approximately $300 billion.
About Artist's Proof
Located in the heart of Georgetown in Washington D.C., Artist's Proof brings great contemporary art to the city. This fine art gallery represents highly talented visual artists locally and from around the world. The gallery also specializes in art advisory services for residential, hospitality and corporate spaces having consulted in major projects in the US and around the world. The gallery provides professional consultation throughout the art acquisitions process. (www.aproof.net)
Hines is a privately owned global real estate investment firm founded in 1957 with a presence in 201 cities in 21 countries. Hines has approximately $100 billion of assets under management, including $54.5 billion for which Hines provides fiduciary investment management services, and $45.5 billion for which Hines provides third-party property-level services. The firm has 113 developments currently underway around the world. Historically, Hines has developed, redeveloped or acquired 1,262 properties, totaling over 414 million square feet. The firm's current property and asset management portfolio includes 529 properties, representing over 213 million square feet. With extensive experience in investments across the risk spectrum and all property types, and a pioneering commitment to sustainability, Hines is one of the largest and most-respected real estate organizations in the world. Visit www.hines.com for more information.


Please take a look at the opportunities scheduled below to see what works best for you. Future 50 will also be releasing a document detailing each idea and project being discussed prior to these events, and will include an additional space for public comments and feedback on the project website.
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