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Sunday, May 28, 2017

LPAPA at Carlsbad with Rita Pacheco

The paint out for LPAPA was at Dog Beach in Carlsbad.  It started at 8:30 am so I had to really move and start early.  I got a little lost but was only 5 or 10 minutes late.
Rita gave a great demo.  She painted quickly, kept her focus on the information that she was sharing, and spent plenty of time with everyone who was there painting.
The lagoon was interesting.  The sand and the water in contrast to the grass and the hills in the distance.  The shapes of the sand, the path, the water, the hill on the left, and the hills in the distance really worked.  I had to shorten the width between the elements to get them into the 24x30 board.
To me there were attractive aspects to each of the choices.  The grass with a hint of sand and water seemed incomplete.  The sand dominating the picture with the water seem too simple.  The answer for me was to combine them.
I really liked the warm colors in her painting.
This painting started by indicating the large shapes within the context of the composition.  You can see the S shape of the composition.
There were about 15 painters who showed up to paint and speak to Rita.  There were painters who came from as far away as Anza Borrego.
Rita worked with everyone who showed up.  She was so positive in the feedback and information she shared.
This path that bends through the grass was the most interesting element in the painting to me.  The accurate shape and perspective of the path and beach were most important
Here the dark shapes help define the light shapes.
Here I am defining the dark shapes through the lighter shapes.
Pulling the foreground to the bottom of the painting helps to finish defining the shape of the composition.
Now I wanted to bring the foreground into sharper contrast to the background.  I tried to get as dark as I could in the foreground to push the background back further.
Here the composition looks like a double S.  This is something I could have never planned to do.  Giving in to the moment allows freedom of expression.  Overthinking leads over wrought paintings.
Refinement within all of the areas of the painting to make them support each other yet be able to stand alone on their own strength.
Cleaning up the pallet at the end of the day.
I have been trying to use all of the paint that I lay down.  It has been a struggle.  It seems like I am throwing away a tube everytime I start.

Finished!  Now clean up and rush home to beat the traffic.
24x32 oil on board en plein air.
The value shot.
The detail shot.

Friday, May 26, 2017

Statice Quo

The day started as cool and foggy.  The Statice were blooming more than I can remember.  They commanded the stage this morning.
I have painted this scene so many times but I still did a quick sketch to get the composition right.  The size of the board makes it tricky to get all the elements into the painting.

I am continuing to experiment with different colors.  I have added about 10 colors to my pallet.  I am working to create a brighter more vibrant range of colors.
This painting started differently than a lot of my other paintings.  Instead of drawing or covering the board with washes, I ended taking a mosaic approach.  The strength of the colors in the Statice suggested this treatment.  This was an unintended process.  What I mean to say is that it was not a conscious decision.
As with many of my paintings, being open to suggestion leads to a more unique perspective and handling of the composition.
Covering the surface with this approach is more time consuming.  One of the challenges when painting this way is to not lose the shapes within the mosaic.
Another challenge is to maintain the integrity of the values as the painting progresses.  Blending the colors within the mosaic too early could result in mud soup.
Bringing the foreground forward through color and value became important to me at this point in the painting.  It was critical to get the relationships between the foreground and the rest of the painting correct before I moved onto anything else.
It had been sunny for a while, but there was still an atmospheric haze  that I wanted to convey within the painting.
Here I am pulling everything together.  All of the hard work has been done and the painting is about staying on track.
There is always that moment when I feel compelled to drive to the finish.  Everything speeds up to get to the finish line.
Here is when I look to tie up all the loose ends.  Clean up the rough spots, complete any unfinished thoughts, and finalize the highlights.
The last thing I do is touch up any spots, step back and evaluate, and to sign it.
What does it look like in direct light?

The day has completely changed during the course of the painting.
The finished painting Statice Quo.  24x30 plein air oil on board
The value shot
The detail shot.

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Redefining Beauty

I heard an interview of a musician who was asked if he was trying to redefine beauty.  It made me think about the subjective view of beauty.

When I am painting, I am putting my feelings about the subject down.  Every painting is painted because I see beauty in the landscape I am painting.  My feelings and thoughts about the subject and my expression of their beauty are specific to me.  They are a lifetime of experiences distilled into the effort and the immediacy in the moment of my painting.  All of these experiences may push me in a direction but it is the feeling about beauty at the moment of creation that is my biggest influence.  Yet this influence as pervasive as it may be is so hard to define in words.  It is like an invisible hand guiding my work.  It is at a deep subconscious level.

My experience and ability are always moving and changing.  As I continue to grow in my ability to handle my medium,  my ability to express changes.  My ideas of beauty are always on the move and my skill to express them is changing as well.  This moves my evolution of beauty forward.

Every day I paint seems connected to all the days that have come before.  Every day beauty is defined on my terms.  Inside my mind what I consider beautiful changes slowly.  This is demonstrated by tendencies within subject matter, color, and technique.  My ideas about beauty and my ability to express them are never in sync.  My ability to express them is limited.  That limitation compromises the communication of my ideas to a certain extent.  It is easy to pinpoint the limits of my ability.  I am not sure what my limitation to perceive beauty is.

Beauty is redefined every time I paint.  I am taking something that is beautiful to me and I am trying to express my unique impression of that beauty.  None of my paintings would be considered a literal interpretation.  They are a combination of impression, expression, and personal interpretation.  Everything involved in my creation of art is in a state of flux.

When I am creating art, I am moving towards the fullest expression of what I think is beautiful.  Redefining beauty is not taking something that I find unattractive and trying to make it beautiful.  Redefining beauty is taking a subject that has enough attractive elements, using my perception of that beauty, and  pushing those elements forward through my medium.

By my definition creation of art is the redefinition of beauty.


Looking For Kitchen Table And Chairs

Looking For Kitchen Table And Chairs

Looking For Kitchen Table And Chairs - Choosing your kitchen seats depends on how you intend to work with them and also on the way you would like them to look. Kitchens get used for a variety of purposes, and never just for cooking. They're places for eating, for using your notebook PC, for the children to do their assignments and for get-togethers with family and friends. So your seats will even need to fit in with this assortment of tasks.

Take cooking to begin with. Even preparing food such as skinning for slicing vegetables, fish, meat and so on is generally done on a work surface which is which is used when you're standing up, and at waist height. That is not to say you will never work with a chair and do some of this work at a kitchen table, but what it does mean is that the kitchen seats should be as "storable" as they're "usable".

Having identified this as a first criterion, the next one is to possess kitchen seats that fit the different individuals who will be sitting to them as well as the different occasions. Uncomplicated to clean seats are a high priority for lots of people, particularly when you have kids who eat finger food and forget to wipe their hands later. With all the continuous movement back and forth to the refrigerator, kitchen seats pulled forward by sticky fingers and get pushed back.

If on the other hand, you've got a farmhouse-style kitchen table, then you definitely would possibly well prefer to have wooden seats to go with it. In this scenario, be prepared for the accompanying wear and tear on your own seats. For kids that are very little you will probably need to give a helping hand for then to have their chair pulled in enough to the table. The wooden farmhouse kitchen seats that go with the chunkier tables are generally quite solid in themselves.

Tags: #kitchen table and chairs edmonton #kitchen table and chairs espresso #kitchen table and chairs painted #kitchen table and chairs red #kitchen table and chairs value city


Achieving Black Belt, though still impressive to college application reviewers, unfortunately does not carry the same weight that it used to 10 years ago (mainly due to explosion of martial art studio growth and the resulting exponential growth of black belts). We, at USSD Laguna Beach, have created the Service and Mentoring Program for teens that expands on the commendable achievement of earning a black belt.

The Service and Mentoring Program is for the teenage student to mentor students in the childrens' class, and help develop the child to his or her full potential. This not only builds leadership and mentoring skills for the teenager, but also provides a unique opportunity to both describe the achievement of earning a black belt and the positive work done as a black belt.

Both male and female teenagers can benefit from martial arts instruction in a variety of ways. Young men learn skills that will help them assess danger and make wise decisions about when to be assertive and when to avoid confrontation. Young women also gain experience in assessing dangerous situations, and learn tactics that will help them escape and the confidence to defend themselves if escape isn??t possible.

Our kempo style karate training is unlike many martial arts in our teaching approach. We focus on personal skills through one-on-one classes and group lessons. Our belt ranking system sets achievable goals that motivate while strengthening their sense of self-worth. The lessons learned in self-defense both physically and mentally will last a lifetime, and improve performance in other activities such as school (improved grades) and sports (better balance and focus). Teenagers are at the perfect age to begin studying martial arts because they are both physically able to do the movements and mentally mature enough to understand their applications.

Come see why USSD is a truly different experience from any other martial arts training you may have seen before.


How Ukraine sees Kersti Kaljulaid’s visit?

PHOTO: Presidendi kantselei

Ukraine welcomed Estonia’s president with blue, black, and white flags, blue skies, and warm weather. That said, Kersti Kaljulaid has not been as prominent in the Ukrainian media as she could be.

She has mainly been mentioned in official communications and some popular online channels, accompanied only by a short description of circumstances. Some national networks broadcast the official part of the presidents’ meeting.

I asked Ukrainian experts to comment on the first days of the Estonian president’s visit. My first question was whether Ukrainian media coverage is lacking as concerns Estonia and other Baltic countries.

Director of the World Politics Institute Yevhen Magda is convinced that the Ukrainian media is not paying enough attention to Estonia and indeed all of the Baltics, even though the countries actively support Ukraine. He believes the president’s visit will deliver an impulse for the development of mutual relations.

Professor Serhi Fedunyak of the Chernivtsi University disagrees. He is convinced that the Baltics are sufficiently covered by the Ukrainian media. That said, Fedunyak believes coverage could be more thorough and go beyond an overview of facts to lessons from the achievements of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Some news associated with Kaljulaid’s visit were thoroughly covered by the media in Ukraine. One of the more prominent was the fact Kaljulaid is to become the first foreign head of state to visit the war zone in Eastern Ukraine.

Member of foreign policy experts network Prisma Serhi Gerasimchuk believes it is an important gesture in the context of international politics. It sends a clear signal that Ukraine is important not just for Estonia and the other Baltic counties but also the European Union. He hopes Kaljulaid’s decision will serve as an example to other heads of state.

Magda agrees with Gerasimchuk and is convinced that what counts is not a country’s size or obligations but political will on the level of leaders. Magda said that Kaljulaid is a brave woman who is willing to take the trip to get trustworthy information.

Head of diplomacy at initiative group Professional Governance Viktoria Vdovichenko believes that Kaljulaid’s Donbas visit paints her as a politician sporting a long vision. She added that Kaljulaid will send the signal that the conflict in Ukraine is not frozen but open war that makes life difficult for locals and the aftermath of which will affect the whole of Europe.

The other message to receive broader attention was Estonia and Ukraine’s mutual opposition to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Vira Konstantinova from the Ukrainian Diplomatic Academy believes that Kaljulaid’s message was chosen well. The project is not just contrary to the two countries’ interests but is also a security risk. She also finds the plan’s economic benefit to be questionable, making it simply a geopolitical agreement.

The Estonian president’s official visit to Ukraine continues which is why it is too early to analyze its effects. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear that while Ukraine must also look for allies in the West, its true friends are located in the north. They are the Baltics and especially Estonia.

More stories


The Packaging Gradient

The Packaging Gradient

There are many options to package software, particularly Python software. How do all these options fit together, and how does one decide which option is right for them? This guide takes a holistic approach, as presented at PyBay 2017.

Mahmoud Hashemi

August 12, 2017


Do you like to sleep on a pillow stack or do you have one, flat-as-a-pancake, pillow that you’ve had forever? No matter how you like to sleep, the important thing is that your neck and body are aligned at night. Here’s all you need to know to choose a pillow that will help keep your spine in alignment and your body healthy.

Understanding Neck Alignment

When you are asleep, your postural goal should be to keep your spine in neutral alignment. This means that nothing is twisted or torqued sideways or up-and-down. It means that your spine is allowed to lay as it naturally wants to, without being pushed or pulled in any particular direction.

While your nighttime posture depends on quite a few things, like your mattress, your sleep position, and more, your neck alignment is primarily influenced by your pillow. A pillow that is good for you helps maintain that neutral position, while one that isn’t good for you will keep you out of alignment. Note that a pillow that works for you may not work for your partner or someone else.

Here’s how to tell if your pillow is doing its job.

For Side Sleepers

If you are a side sleeper, test your pillow by lying on it as if you were trying to fall asleep. First, make sure the pillow’s position is correct. The bulk of it should be in the small of your neck, with complete contact throughout the length of your neck. You should not have pillows under your shoulders or touching your back.

Next, have someone take a photo of you from the back and the front and compare it to the chart below:

You should be able to draw a straight line from your sternum, up your neck, and through the middle of your face. The line shouldn’t have bends or twists. These indicate a postural problem and that you likely need a new pillow.

For Back Sleepers

Again, lie down as if you were about to fall asleep. The basics are the same. The pillow should like mostly in the small of your neck and should make contact with your entire neck. However, you shouldn’t have pillows under your back or your shoulders. In addition, make sure that the back of your head is lying on the pillow and you don’t have it scrunched up and pressing against the top of your head.

Take a photo and compare it to the chart below:

The line you draw this time will curve, because your neck naturally curves. However, you don’t want the curve to be exaggerated or too shallow. If you’re not sure, take a photo of yourself with good posture while standing and compare it to the one you took while lying down. Your neck posture should look the same, or you may need a new pillow.

For Stomach Sleepers

Maintaining healthy neck position is very difficult if you sleep on your stomach because you usually have to twist your head sideways to breathe. Consider sleeping without a pillow or changing your sleep position to one that is healthier for your body.

How to Choose the Right Pillow

You’ll want to choose the pillow that keeps your spine in alignment. Needless to say, this may take some trial and error. Many pillow manufacturers understand this and will give you a trial period when you buy your pillow. Be sure to keep track of this, in case you need to return your pillow later.

If at all possible, take a potential new pillow home and sleep on it for several days before you make your decision. Most people know pretty quickly if a pillow is right for them. In addition to performing the tests above, many people notice neck and back pain within a night or two if a pillow won’t work for them.

Not sure where to start? Many back sleepers like memory foam, because of the way it cradles the neck and head. You could also try an adjustable pillow, where you can add or remove different kinds of filling until you find the combination that keeps your spine in alignment all night.

Do I Need More Than One Pillow?

Most people should be able to find one pillow that keeps their neck in alignment and is comfortable to sleep on. In fact, layering pillows can cause more harm than good. Sure, you may be able to layer several pillows to get the height of one good one, but these can slide or shift overnight. This can cause spinal damage and neck pain.

While it’s best to sleep with only one pillow under your head, many sleepers benefit from the use of other pillows elsewhere on the body.

  • Back sleepers often sleep better with a pillow under their knees. Ideally, this wouldn’t be necessary, but when we hunch over computers all day we often end up with excessive arching in the lower back. Raising the knees with a pillow helps reduce that arch and brings the spine back into alignment.
  • Side sleepers often like to sleep with a pillow between their knees. This helps keep the pelvis straight so that the top side isn’t torqued forward all night. Some side sleepers achieve this with a body pillow that they can also wrap their arms around, which can help with shoulder alignment, too.
  • Pregnant women can benefit from a body pillow or several different pillows to arrange as they will. This can help them deal with the various aches and pains that can pop up as the human body grows another human. As pregnancy progresses, many women find that a pillow under the belly offers needed support for the lower back.

You may have to experiment to find the pillow arrangement that works best for you and keeps your neck aligned. Take your time, and you should be able to find a pillow or pillows that will help you sleep well for a long time.

If you are in the market for a pillow, take a look at our in-depth pillow buying guides and reviews.

by: Sarah Winfrey


7 ways to manage shyness

Shy womanTrue story – Once upon a time there was a very shy 14-year-old candy-striper who volunteered in a hospital gift shop. She was so shy that when anyone she didn’t know spoke to her, her face would get flushed with red and her hands would tremble. Working in the gift shop was easy for her because selling gum and newspapers was a pretty easy task as there was little conversation for those short transactions. One afternoon, a man who had obviously been celebrating, bolted through the door of the gift shop and in a loud voice happily announced that his wife had just delivered their first child. His “celebration” had obviously removed any inhibitions he had, if he had had any at all. He chose a gift for his wife and brought it to the volunteer to be wrapped. She took the gift and nervously began to wrap it. The new dad was talking away and noticed the shy volunteer’s hands trembling as his voice got louder and louder, “Look she’s turning red. Don’t be nervous, it’s OK. Look, she’s shaking!” It seemed to take forever for the young woman to get that gift wrapped, the transaction completed and for the new dad to get back out the door. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, it was over and new dad was gone. The volunteer was left red-faced, trembling and in a sweat from the arduous encounter.

The funny thing about this story was that the entire event, while embarrassing for the candy-striper, turned out to be a blessing for her. Something amazing happened that day. That experience was sort of a “trial by fire” for the volunteer, and since she survived that encounter, she was able to deal with people much more easily from then on. She even went on to manage the entire hospitality shop where she would greet many different people in a day.

Of course, not everyone who is shy will either have a similar experience or the same result to such an experience as the young woman in the story, but if you are someone who suffers from shyness, you know how difficult it can be.

There are different degrees of shyness; it can be life limiting and can even be debilitating. There are those who may just blush a little when meeting someone new, but it can restrict others from making friends, going places, attending events or having meaningful relationships. Why people are shy probably varies by person, but most feel shy due to a lack of confidence. If you want to overcome shyness, there are some ideas you could try:

Take a Class in Public Speaking

If you can get past how scary that sounds at first, a course in public speaking may benefit you a great deal. It will teach you to speak with confidence, how to use body language to project yourself and how to engage an audience. Some institutions even offer free adult education classes; see if you can find one in your area.

Practice Speaking to People

Try engaging people wherever you go. Choose some less scary scenarios at first, like the line at the grocery store. Look back at a person looking at you, instead of looking down, and smile. Say hello. There now, that wasn’t so bad. Practice with other people you meet in a safe environment.

Walk Into a Room Like You Own It

You may have heard that before, but it really is effective. Stand tall, shoulders back, head up, no slouching. Walk into a room, bar, restaurant, wherever, and look at people as you walk by. Don’t look down at the floor or dart your eyes away from someone who might look at you. This may feel awkward at first, but it will get easier and easier and before you know it, you will own the room.

Don’t Let Your Imagination Sabotage You

Sometimes our imagination can get the best of us. We imagine that we are less than, or that people don’t like us, or we don’t deserve to be here or there because . . . when none of that is true. Most likely, you are more appealing to people that you think, but without engaging people you won’t know. Use your imagination instead to see yourself making friends, telling stories and having fun!

Stay In The Moment

When engaging with others, stay out of your head and listen to what they’re saying. Instead of thinking about your hair being out of place or you really don’t like what you’re wearing, stay engaged and be part of the conversation. When you stay focused in the moment, you will forget about your hair and your outfit and before you know it, you’ll be enjoying a great conversation.

Just DO IT

When you feel shy about a situation, just dive in. Don’t stay home when you’re nervous about going to that party you were invited to. Just show up, ring that bell and walk in. You might feel awkward or out of place at first, but chances are, you will begin to feel more comfortable as you meet the people there.

Seek Counseling

For some, shyness can be overwhelming. Seek out a professional counselor should you feel you need one. Don’t feel embarrassed about seeking help; you and your future are worth it.

CCI Training Center’s Career Placement Service offers job placement assistance to every student.


Service Charges - When is a Management Agreement “for a term of more than twelve months”?

Corvan (Properties) Ltd v Abdel-Mahmoud [2018] EWCA Civ 1102

If a landlord of residential premises wishes to recover the costs of employing a managing agent through the service charge, he must ensure that he complies with the requirements of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. Under that Act only £100 will be recoverable from each tenant unless the tenants are consulted beforehand on any “qualifying long term agreement” which the landlord proposes to enter into.  The question of how long is long enough to qualify arose in the recent Court of Appeal case of Corvan (Properties) Ltd v Abdel-Mahmoud  and managing agents have been eagerly awaiting the outcome.  I represented the tenant in that case with Philip Rainey QC.

What is a Qualifying Long Term Agreement?

A “qualifying long term agreement” is defined by s. 20ZA of the 1985 Act as “an agreement entered into, by or on behalf of a landlord or a superior landlord, for a term of more than twelve months.”   Corvan (Properties) Ltd was the landlord of a block in Maida Vale and employed managing agents without consulting its tenants, who included Ms Abdel-Mahmoud.  Clause 5 of the management agreement provided that:

Can this agreement be brought to an end by the end of the year?  If so does the fact that it is expected to continue for longer than a year mean that it is for a term of “more than twelve months” or is it enough that the agreement could be terminated at the end of the first year?

The Issues in Corvan

The Court of Appeal was faced with two questions:

(1)            what was the proper construction of the management agreement; and

(2)            What is the correct interpretation of the s. 20ZA – does “term” refer to a minimum term or a certain fixed maximum term?

The first question is, of course, specific to this agreement although there are many like it.  The second is of more general concern.

On the construction question, McFarlane LJ considered that the word “will” in Clause 5 introduced a mandatory requirement that the contract will continue beyond the initial twelve months, without specifying for how long.  He said:

“Although the wording of the clause does not prevent the giving of notice of termination before the conclusion of the twelve months, any such notice would have no effect until after the twelve month period has ended.  To hold otherwise would be to do violence to the words “and will continue”.

The meaning of s. 20ZA

The agreement was therefore for a term of more than 12 months and the tenant was home and dry.  There was strictly no need to consider the correct statutory interpretation of s. 20ZA but the Court of Appeal agreed with HHJ Marshall QC in Paddington Walk Management Ltd v Peabody Trust [2010] L & TR 6  that the deciding factor is the length of the commitment – that is the minimum commitment.  The fact that the agreement can be allowed to roll on with not make it a QLTA if the agreement’s minimum term is less than 12 months.  McFarlane LJ said that it necessarily followed that HHJ Gerald had been wrong in Poynders Court v GLS Property Management Ltd [20112] UKUT 339 (LC) when he found that an indefinite term which could be terminated on 3 months’ notice was a QLTA.  HHJ Gerald had found that the issue was one of duration not termination.  The Court of Appeal disagreed and said that whilst in Poynders Court  the managing agent may have been intended to provide services for a period of more than 12 months, the agreement did not secure that they were under contract to do so for more than 12 months.

The landlord need only consult its tenants before entering into an agreement which is for a minimum term of more than twelve months.  It does not, therefore, matter if the term could last longer provided it can be brought to an end before the expiry of a year.  However, when using rolling contracts careful consideration must be given to the wording.  It is all too easy to create a term which in reality cannot be terminated at the end of a year through drafting which has not been properly thought through.


Interviews with Monster Girls Volume 1

By Petos

With monster girls now a genre in of itself, several series have taken new approaches that explore the concept in unique ways. Petos’s Interviews with Monster Girls muses upon how monster girls could integrate into human society. Featuring three demi-human students, and one demi-human teacher, referred to in colloquial terms as “demis,” Petos uses the public school system as a way to distill the society of this world in a formative and universally relatable, multifaceted social setting. Here, the high school is not simply a trendy and familiar setting, but it’s also a place where Petos explores a diverse range of characters of different ages, with unique problems. Petos is very interested in the thought-experiment of how demis live their daily lives, and uses society to contradistinguishes them from Tetsuo. This first volume works well as a self-contained thesis on that very subject, contrasting how the four demis fight the culturally ingrained prejudices and preconceived notions society has about them.

The result is a down-to-earth and eminently relatable treatise on minorities trying to achieve social understanding in a homogenized culture. Japan’s minority population is low, and there have been many stories from foreigners who live there who faced daily prejudice based on their skin or hair color. Even in the U.S., for as much as social awareness expands in some circles stories of prejudice and racism still permeate from the island country. The succubus teacher Sato, for instance, wears plain clothing, take the first and last trains home, and live far away in the sticks, abiding by strict regulations as to how close she can live or even exist in proximity of normal human beings. It’s not hard to see the racial discrimination and segregation allegories here. Interviews’s look at how far the demis have to go to conform to a society that doesn’t making living easy for them is surprisingly perspicacious.

In a broader context, the series presents a variety of allusions to the real-world problems of people who can’t live normally. Takanashi the vampire’s dieting habits, relying on rations of government-sanctioned blood donations, supplementing it with alternatives like tomato juice, and needing to eat blood-stimulating foods like liver and onions, is allegorical of someone with celiac disease who needs a monitored diet of gluten-free meals. The series even shows how her family changes their eating habits to adapt to her condition, with even her fully-human sister eating the same meals as she does (and enjoying them!). Similarly, the snow woman Yuki’s problems with overheating and fainting when exposed to too much sunlight relates to someone with heat intolerance. Petos adeptly fuses minority issues with medical restrictions to create believable problems for the demis that a wide breadth of readers can relate to, which helps make the readers’ social empathy for the demis and understanding of the struggles of minority groups deepen in a more profound and emotionally connected context.

Beyond themes of discrimination and adaptation, the series also explores how the teenage demis deal with social prejudices, puberty, and coming of age. The biggest conflict of the volume finds Yuki being badmouthed by bullies for her social awkwardness, perceiving her shyness as haughtiness. This subplot resolves when the generally aloof Takanashi confronts the bullies herself and very honestly tells them that they’re wrong, going so far as to break down in tears by the end after laying herself emotionally bare. It’s a classic coming of age trope in young adult media for the heroine to confront the bullies spreading rumors about her, but rarely does it end with the heroine in tears, nor end with the bullies realizing that they’ve legitimately hurt the feelings of someone else and feel bad for what they’ve done, apologize, and everyone becomes more aware of each other’s feelings. Rather than proceeding like a YA coming of age trope, this feels like a genuine situation involving real people being caught up in their misunderstandings and prejudices, only realizing the error of their assumptions when confronted with the truth. The result of the incident prompts Tetsuo to form a support group for the demis, asserting that by spending time with one another they can help each other out of similar jams in the future. This is very much the kind of support group a high school might form for its LGBT students or just any at-risk minority group, another detail of realistic fallout and institutions in place to support minority groups in the series that helps make this world feel true to life. Moreover, this arc wears the themes at the heart of the manga on it’s sleeve by illustrating that no matter how matter how someone may be outwardly or in their lifestyle, we ultimately all have the same human emotions and capacity for empathy. It’s a good message for teens that plays well alongside the other themes confronting discrimination and normalizing alternative lifestyles in the book, really making this series a great recommendation for young adult readers who feel disenfranchised, alienated, or unsure of themselves as they transition into adulthood.

The series isn’t faultless, though. Part of the fun of most monster girl series are the crazy inventiveness of the character designs and providing a rational explanation of how mythical beings operate in a human world. The demis are a little too human-like; their character designs could easily be mistaken for normal high school girls in any average slice-of-life series. The only girl who is unmistakably a monster girl is the dullahan Machi, by virtue of her head being detached from her body at all times. There are some fun chapters that explore her peculiar circumstances, like how she left her body on the bus one time when someone else was holding her, but otherwise most of the girls’ problems are a little too grounded in reality and not as fantastical and bizarre as they could be. It works for exploring the themes Petos wants to, but as monster girls series go, Interviews is honestly one of the least creative in terms of it’s character designs and crafting unique scenarios.

Another issue is the blatant harem elements pervading the series. All four demis have a crush on the male protagonist by the end of this volume, with the last chapter being about them all wanting to give him a hug, ending on a boob joke when he reacts awkwardly to squeezing Machi’s breasts against his body. Tetsuo is an adult man and a teacher to these girls, so it’s a little squicky for the series to have high school girls form a harem around him.  The presence of Sato, the adult demi, is at least somewhat comforting as she should by all rights be his default love interest. To his credit, Tetsuo also doesn’t reciprocate the girls’ interest with him and is pretty clueless about their crush on him. He also behaves responsibly as a teacher entrusted with helping them with their problems, never taking advantage of them emotionally during his interviews. Still, an entire chapter is devoted to Machi trying to go on a date with Tetsuo, and this is only the first volume. In general the rom-com elements of the manga aren’t particularly funny and are often uncomfortable, and I’m cautious about how they might escalate in future volumes.

Those unfortunate issues aside, there’s really a lot to like about Interviews with Monster Girls. It uses its premise for observant social commentary about minority rights and fuses it with relevant, positive messages of acceptance and empathy. It’s a series that could really resonate with young readers in particular and help them contextualize a lot of complicated and confusing issues they face in society both externally and internally. Based on the reception for the anime, it seems the series will end up focusing more on the harem aspects over the social commentary going forward, which is disappointing. Even so, this first volume works well as a stand alone treatise on tolerance and community, and explores these subjects so skillfully that it’s worth checking out regardless of whether you’re a fan of monster girl series.

Monster Girls

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A lot of people think cooking food is a difficult task to accomplish, but this is not the case. Cooking is quite simple if you follow instructions and have the proper knowledge. The article below contains many tips that will assist you in cooking your favorite dishes and eliminating the stigma of difficulty.

If you are cooking for someone important, such as a new boss or for a dinner party, don’t use a new recipe and a new ingredient. Make sure you practice the dish first for your own family. Play around with it to make sure it is how you want it.

To maximize the efficiency of the cooking that you do, always make your food in large quantities and when you are finished with the meal, store the meats in freezer bags. This will allow you to create a meal the next day for your family that is still fresh and tastes great.

Cook your chicken over other ingredients. If you are making a chicken dish that includes an ingredient like onions, cook the chicken over them. Oil the pan and cut the onion into slices. Put them in the pan and place the chicken over them. The juices from the chicken will soak into the onion.

Make sure that if you are planning a party with friends and family, to have each course planned out in advance. You should have an appetizer course, salad course, main dish and dessert. Breaking your meal into courses will give people a chance to digest and appreciate what you have cooked for them.

As previously stated in the article above, many people think cooking is difficult, but that is not true. Cooking is simple when you have knowledge and instructions present. If you remember the tips in the above article when you are cooking your dishes, you will have an easy time.


Wetlands and Flood Management

BY EDM | 01 FEB 2017
Wetlands play an important role in flood management and disaster risk reduction.
Wetlands are ecosystems, which can be found where the soil is permanently or intermittently saturated (or inundated) with water and has vegetation that tolerates high moisture levels. There are many different types of wetlands including:

Marshes: Common in floodplain areas near the lower reaches of a river; characterized by low grassy vegetation and peaty soil that can hold very large amounts of water.

Estuarine or tidal wetlands: Reed beds, salt marshes, mangroves or mudflats at a river mouth or landside of a lagoon; can provide protection from tidal floods.

Riverine wetlands and forested wetlands: Wooded or shrub areas immediate to a river; can absorb small increases in flow and prevent localized floods.

Shallow lakes and ponds: Occur in depression areas of a landscape; can act as a reservoir during a storm and release water slowly to the aquifer or natural waterways; important in urban or agricultural areas to regulate overland floods.

Wetlands can provide important ecosystem services for flood and disaster risk management:

Retain and detain flood flows and stormwater.

Wetlands can help manage the flow of water for example by gradually releasing water into downstream ecosystems (sea, rivers and groundwater aquifers) which will reduce the amount of water that flows over the surface of the land.

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Improve water quality through filtration.

Wetlands primarily help filter water in two ways: firstly, by slowing the flow of water, sediment in the water can settle to the bottom of the wetland; and secondly, vegetation in the wetland can absorb excess nutrients reducing the amount of contaminants from urban/agricultural areas that reach downstream aquatic ecosystems.

Reduce the impact of storm surge and coastline erosion.

Wetlands can reduce the speed of waves and wetland plants helps prevent coastal erosion by anchoring sand and soil.

Healthy wetlands can help manage flash floods, storm surge, and localized flooding (particularly in urban areas). In general, a watershed with more wetlands is better able to absorb floodwater, although extreme weather events have the potential to overload any system. From a risk management perspective, wetlands can be managed and restored as natural ways to reduce risk from flood waters; in many cases, climate-informed wetland restoration is a low-cost method for managing potential flood risk.

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首页 > 上海 兼职 > 职位详细

[原帖] 发信人: saplabs(SAPhr), ☉ WWW.YINGJIESHENG.COM☉
标 题: 【实习】SAP 项目助理 - 2018年毕业
发信站: 饮水思源 (2016年11月28日23:21:11 星期一)

The objective of this position is to support the implementation of SAP projects at customer sites by delivering the following tasks.

You are responsible for:
1.Assisting the project manager in planning the resources for the project
2.Assist the project manager to collect the information needed and prepare the daily and weekly project progress report
3.Assist the project manager to track the progress of open action items
4.Prepare project related documentation for the team
5.Assist in project related logistics
6.Project related IT support
7.Translating, proofreading, documenting project-related materials from Chinese to English or vice versa, which might include but not limit to emails, presentations, blueprints, status update reports, announcements, etc.
8.Attending customer meetings and/or workshops and taking meeting minutes, distributing them to action plan owners as required
9.Communicating relevant project information between customer site and backoffice in a timely and accurate manner
10.Using SolutionManager to monitor and update project plans, issues, progress, requirement changes, etc.
11.Other ad-hoc tasks required by project team

Soft Skills
1.Quick and self-motivated learner
2.Organized and logical thinking
3.Positive and outgoing personality
4.A can-do mind set
5.Strong attention to detail without losing the broader picture
6.Ability to multi-task, deal with fast-changing priorities and meet tight deadlines under minimal supervision
7.Maintain a professional decorum at all time
8.Able to get on with people from a diverse set of cultural backgrounds
9.Willing to work over-time and on weekends when project timelines are tight and travel on short notice

Hard Skills
1.Strong linguistic (Chinese Mandarin and English) and translation skills
2.Proficiency in MS Office Suite, especially MS Excel
3.Familiarity with financial and IT terminology is preferred
4.Exposure to CAT toolkit is preferred

Education and Qualifications
1.Bachelor’s degree in computer science, finance, accounting or economics
2.Business Operation Background in MNC is preferred

If you are interested with this position, kindly send your CV to fiona.choi@sap.com , thank you.

※ 来源:·饮水思源 bbs.sjtu.edu.cn·[FROM:]

※ 修改:·saplabs 于 2016年11月28日23:22:51 修改本文·[FROM:]

※ 修改:·saplabs 于 2016年11月28日23:24:10 修改本文·[FROM:]

百信银行校园招聘 郑煤机集团校园招聘 心动网络校园招聘 海格物流校园招聘 中国建设银行博士后科研工作站校园招聘
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Tag Archives: primacy

Battling Confirmation Bias and First Impressions in Litigation

By Thomas M. O’Toole, Ph.D.

Confirmation bias refers to when people accept or reject evidence based upon what they want to believe as opposed to basing it on the actual merits of the evidence. In some ways, it is a psychological survival mechanism tied to our beliefs about how the world works. Challenges to these beliefs can cause a great deal of chaos and stress, so our brains are, essentially, pre-programmed to seek out evidence that reinforces those beliefs, while minimizing, explaining away, or outright rejecting evidence that challenges them. In fact, this explains the siloed media we have today where people tend to pick which news channels to watch based upon their political affiliation.

For lawyers, confirmation bias can be a significant problem at trial, especially when the first impressions favor the other party. As Nobel prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman notes, “The sequence in which we observe characteristics of a person is often determined by chance. Sequence matters, however, because the halo effect increases the weight of first impressions, sometimes to the point that subsequent information is mostly wasted.” In other words, first impressions at trial often shape how jurors perceive the subsequent evidence and testimony at trial. A poor first impression of the defendant will likely lead jurors to place greater focus and emphasis on evidence and testimony that reinforces the negative view of the defendant and vice versa. Continue reading

Primed to Decide: How Impactful are Opening Statements?

My Cousin Vinny

By Thomas M. O’Toole, Ph.D.

Primacy and recency are, by far, the most popular theories of persuasion that arise in my discussions with attorneys. I have never heard an attorney mention “elaboration likelihood model,” but references to primacy and recency seem to come weekly at times. Primacy refers to the idea that what is presented most remains the most salient and, consequently, impactful for the audience. Recency is the opposite idea that an audience is most impacted by what it heard last.

Applied to a litigation setting, the primacy/recency debate translates to a popular debate about whether opening statements or closing arguments are more important. The traditional belief among lawyers (and in some respects, this author) is that opening statements are the most important part of trial. Many attorneys take primacy to an extreme, embracing a statistic that has been passed down through the ages that 70-90% of jurors make up their minds about the case after opening statements. In other words, these attorneys go as far as arguing that trial is essentially over after opening statements. Hans and Sweigart[1] offer a rich discussion of this belief in their analysis of civil jurors’ perceptions of attorneys, suggesting that this belief originated with a 1940 study[2] where researchers assessed liability judgments at eighteen different points in a mock trial and concluded that the vast majority of final verdicts were consistent with judgments made right after opening statements. Continue reading


Informing Spectroscopists for Over 40 Years

New method for faster pharmaceutical residual solvent characterisation

VUV Analytics has announced the launch of a new method for residual solvent testing in pharmaceutical products and excipients that reduces analysis time while allowing the combination of different sample types into a single test. The gas chromatography-vacuum ultraviolet (GC-VUV) spectroscopy method reduces the GC separation time recommended by the Unites States Pharmacopeia (USP) Method 467 of 60 min to 8 min or less. In addition, residual solvent classes typically run as separate tests can be combined into a single GC run due to VUV spectroscopy’s ability to provide unambiguous compound identification and quantitation even when signals overlap.

Organic solvents are used in the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and can contaminate drugs during packaging, storage and transportation. They account for 50–90% of the mass in typical pharmaceutical operation and present most of the process toxicity. This new GC-VUV method ensures complete identification of any solvents remaining from synthesis while delivering faster time to results.

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The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

Baker's Dozen

Learning Through Listening: Shabaka Hutchings Favourite LPs
Olamiju Fajemisin , March 28th, 2018 09:07

In anticipation of the release of Sons of Kemet's latest LP, Your Queen Is A Reptile and their appearance at this year's Field Day Festival, saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings detailed the thirteen albums that shaped his experiences as both a man and a musician to Olamiju Fajemisin

Georgia Anne Muldrow – Ocotea
I see her in a similar light to the way in which I see Don Cherry, as a pure musician, but this only started after hearing this album though. She's not singing on it at all and up until then, I'd only known and loved her as a singer. I didn't realise that she was also an instrumentalist. So I listened to this album, and I thought 'Holy shit! This woman is not just an instrumentalist, she's a killer instrumentalist!' She has an actual vision of music that has references to people like Sun Ra, and other people from this side of jazz that hasn't necessarily been that widely explored yet. It's not one of these orthodox albums. Listening to Ocotea you can feel her having been in the studio, quite simply creating. I've tried to learn from the free attitude I hear in this album. It feels like she went into the studio with the intention of giving us her creation, and that's just so motivating. Having the courage to do an album unlike anything you've presented before is easier said than done. I'm known as a saxophone player, so then why should I work on a project based an entirely different context of music, completely different to what people see me as and expect me to produce. To present an album like that takes courage that as an artist; I'm still trying to strive towards.


Williams - The Prague Spring and its Aftermath: Czechoslovak Politics, 1968–1970

ISBN: 9780521588034
Vydavatelství: Cambridge University Press
Rok vydání: 1997
Vazba: Paperback
Počet stran: 288
Dostupnost: Na objednávku

Původní cena: 1 Kč
Výstavní cena: 1 Kč(t.j. po slevě 15%)
(Cena je uvedena včetně 10% DPH)
Katalogová cena: 30.99 GBP

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Zpět Tisknout
The Prague Spring of 1968 was among the most important episodes in post-war European politics. In this book Kieran Williams analyses the attempt at reform socialism under Alexander Dubcek using materials and sources which have become available in the wake of the 1989 revolution. Drawing on declassified documents from party archives, the author readdresses important questions surrounding the Prague Spring: Why did liberalization occur? What was it intended to achieve? Why did the Soviet Union intervene with force? What was the political outcome of the invasion? What part did the reformers play in ending the experiment in reform socialism? What was the role of the security police under Dubcek? The book will provide new information for specialists as well as introductory analysis and narrative for students of East European politics and history and Soviet foreign policy.

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Bluestreak and the birth of a collaboration kernel

Successful Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) collaboration depends on the timely dissemination of relevant information throughout the project team. This task is made difficult by the number of collaboration interactions that occur and the diverse range of digital tools used to support them. To improve this process it is proposed that a collaboration kernel could weave together these disparate interactions and tools. This will create a more productive and efficient collaboration environment by allowing design discussion, issues and decisions to be efficiently and reliably exchanged between team members and the digital tools they currently use. This article describes how Project Bluestreak, a messaging service from Autodesk Labs, can be transformed into an effective collaboration kernel. To guide this transformation, the principles of the Project Information Cloud have been used to evaluate the existing service and identify areas for future development. These fundamental digital collaboration principles are derived from lessons learnt in the formation of the World Wide Web. When these principles are embodied within a digital collaboration tool, they have demonstrated an ability to improve the timely delivery of relevant information to members of the project team.

Seamless collaboration within a fragmented digital environment

A successful AEC digital collaboration environment brings multiple parties together so that they can productively work towards a satisfactory and achievable design outcome. During this process participants must engage in a variety of interactions between team members and the digital models used to describe the design. These interactions, and the technologies commonly used to enable them, are summarised in the following diagram and table.

Note: The term 'model' refers to a CAD or BIM digital model that represents the proposed design. Digital models play an important role in the collaboration process as they communicate ideas, impose restrictions and can be manipulated to reflect a participant's opinion.

Be2camp presentation on architectural micro-blogging

Below is the slide presentation I will (hopefully) present at tonight's Be2camp North un-conference. Basically the presentation graphically summarises my recent blog post on the use of micro-blogging within architectural collaboration.

The conference is in Liverpool and I am in New Zealand, so if the technology gods are not in a good mood things may go pear shaped very quickly...

Using micro-blogging to record architectural design conversation alongside the BIM

The majority of professionals within the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry use the telephone and email to collaborate on immediate design problems. Unfortunately there is a disconnection between this communication and the underlying Building Information Model (BIM) where the agreed upon architectural solution is recorded. As a consequence it is difficult for a person interacting solely with the BIM to take part or learn from this external conversation because they are often oblivious to it taking place. Micro-blogging is an emerging, Internet-based communication medium that may provide the common thread to tie these disparate sources of project information together. It will achieve this through enabling the issues and outcomes discussed during architectural conversations to be quickly recorded by any member of the project team. Those working on the BIM will be able to actively monitor and search across these conversations to keep up to date with the project’s state and help solve new design problems.

Unlike blogging and instant messaging, micro-blogging can communicate simple messages between groups of people using mobile phones or any Internet connected device. These conversations are published online so they can be referenced in further design discussion, or indexed for searching alongside other sources of project information. For adoption to occur the technology must be integrated within the BIM toolset so that being part of this conversation is a natural extension of the digital workspace. Current micro-blogging services such as Twitter, lack this integration and have not (yet) been tailored to meet the specific demands of architectural collaboration. A focused implementation would likely improve architectural collaboration because micro-blogging embodies many of the principles of the Project Information Cloud. Its qualities of simplicity, ubiquity, decentralisation, modularity, awareness, context sensitivity and evolving semantics make it a promising collaboration medium, and one that could move the AEC industry towards the goal of hyperlinked practice.

Autodesk Seek gets a new look and more content

Autodesk has not yet abandoned their web-based services endeavours in spite of a wilting construction industry and sinking global economy. Just prior to Autodesk University 2008 their Seek service received a significant makeover. Now this week it was announced BIMWorld has been acquired by Autodesk so that its BIMLibrary catalogue can be folded into Seek's. These events all sound good on paper, but how do they stack up, and more importantly is this a step forward for the Seek service?

The new user interface

The old white on black style of Seek has disappeared in favour of pastels on white. Overall this is a welcome change, but more importantly the overall appearance has been tidied up, with more attention paid to the rendering of onscreen elements. The result still feels very database-driven, but compared to the previous interface it does have a better flow and a less haphazard look. The Javascript-based Yahoo! User Interface library has been used to good effect and overall it feels very snappy. Unfortunately under this new coat of paint some things have not changed, for example the URIs for each product are shockingly bad. The option to email a link of the product has improved, but most people are used to simply copying and pasting URLs from the browser. If Autodesk expect others to link to content they need to resolve this problem. Until then it is very difficult for people to collaborate using Seek as a point of reference.

Making digital collaboration "more betterer"

Recently I gave a presentation at Victoria University on the work I am doing with my PhD. For posterity I have uploaded this presentation to Slideshare.

The talk covered the problem of digital architectural collaboration and how it is an immature field compared to other aspects of architecture. Due to the pressing nature of architectural collaboration the solutions to this problem will not be revolutionary, e.g. Second Life-like, but rather evolutionary, and at times even haphazard.

After introducing the problem-space I went on to discuss the emergence of the Building Information Model (BIM) as a central figure in digital architectural collaboration. However whilst BIM is an excellent productivity tool it does not address many of the industry's collaboration issues - in fact in many respects it compounds them.

WIth BIM identified as a significant yet problematic collaboration technology I outlined the need for an overriding set of digital collaboration principles that can be applied to future collaboration technology decisions. Rather than starting from zero I propose that we build on top of the underlying theories of distributed systems such as the Internet. With this need and methodology identified, I go on to introduce the seven principles of the Project Information Cloud:

  1. Simplicity
  2. Ubiquity
  3. Decentralisation
  4. Modular design
  5. Information awareness
  6. Context sensitivity
  7. Evolutionary semantics

Through application of these principles it is hoped we can establish Project Information Clouds within architectural projects. These unbounded information clouds will link significant amounts of projects data into intelligent, loosely joined, knowledge-bases.

Autodesk Seek talk by Mike Haley

A day after posting my critique on Autodesk Seek I came across this presentation Mike Haley of the Seek team gave in March. Boy I wish that I had come across this last week as it answers some of the outstanding questions that I posed. The video covers the technologies that Seek is composed of, i.e. Atom syndication feeds (PartAtom), schema design, Amazon EC2 and open source modules. The entire thing looks surprisingly good (and open) for a big company like Autodesk. The presentation is an hour long but worth watching as it is probably the most significant thing one of the big-AEC software vendors have attempted on the Internet.

Another interesting thing Mike mentions is that Amazon are working on Windows-based EC2 instances...

Autodesk Seek steps towards ubiquitous AEC search

Note: Before reading this critque I would recommend checking out this Autodesk Seek presentation as it answers many of the questions raised here.

In May Autodesk released a beta of Autodesk Seek, a web-based Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) specific, 3D model and specifications search tool. Rather than a free for all model index in a similar guise to Google's 3D Warehouse or CADoogle, the service is focused on exposing the model and specification catalogues of AEC suppliers. This is hardly going to interest the armchair designer, but for architects and engineers the ability to quickly locate, access and reference specifications and 3D data could potentially reduce design development time and costs significantly.

Gauging by the initial contents of Seek it would appear Autodesk have partnered with some large U.S. suppliers in order to kick-start their index. Whilst the index signals a clear sign of intent its current contents is hardly awe inspiring. That being said raw index size itself does not ensure success, to really make a mark and stand the test of time the Seek team need to execute on three things:

  • Quickly build out this index with up to date and relevant content so that it becomes the first place AEC professionals head to.
  • Create a compelling user experience which overcomes the idea that a specifications catalogue must be dull, unhelpful and always two months out of date.
  • Work to integrate Seek into as many aspects of Autodesk's existing modeling and drafting tools. By doing so the line between desktop and Web will be blurred and Seek will become a natural extension of their professional digital toolset.

What differentiates Seek from the crowd?

The idea of an online product catalogue for AEC specifications is certainly not new. However Seek is unique in that it is the first online product catalogue backed by a large company who's primary customer-base is not AEC suppliers. In the past online AEC catalogue initiatives have been spearheaded by suppliers or third-parties financially dependent on these suppliers. This close association has hindered growth and because for a Web-based, universal product catalogue to be successful it must stand independently from its data suppliers. This independence establishes trust which is important because users do not want the relevancy of their search influenced by who is paying the bills, nor do they want a 'walled garden' where only products from selected (paying) suppliers are on show. Consequently even though many supplier-backed catalogues exist, none can be considered the Google of the AEC world.

Seek has the potential of filling this 'Google' void because Autodesk's primary income is from people who make material purchasing decisions (architects, engineers and contractors, etc.) and not the suppliers themselves. This difference places Seek in the position of being able to design a catalogue that acts in the best interests of the search consumer. At the same time suppliers are practically forced to take part given Autodesk's vast global audience. The challenge facing Seek it is that Autodesk are not known for producing search indexes or successful Web products.

So given this background and the potential rewards on offer what works and what doesn't in this early beta release? Let's take a look...

Architecture Astronauts

A blog post by David Megginson brought to my attention an article posted six years ago by Joel Spolsky about architecture astronauts. Who are they? Architecture astronauts in Joel's words are:

"Smart thinkers (that) just don't know when to stop, and they create these absurd, all-encompassing, high-level pictures of the universe that are all good and fine, but don't actually mean anything at all."

The moral behind Spolsky's story will continue to remain relevant simply because it is a lesson often forgotten in the heat of a debate or brainstorming session. David Megginson agrees with many of these observations but does point out architecture astronauts have had a positive, if not always successful effect on technology development. From the real world of architecture I am always reminded of Mies van der Roe's ability to grasp the big ideas of modernism whilst still keeping his head when it came to functionality and details (after all, 'God is in the details'). This ability gains even more credit when you compare his work to Le Corbusier, arguably one of architecture's great astronauts, who's ideas often far outstretched their functionality or success in the real world.

On a technical tangent I especially agree with one of David's last points about XML and the heady effect it has had on technology architects and evangelists in the past:

"(Architecture astronauts) believe that if a bit of standardization is good, a lot must be even better."

If anything both posts highlight the importance of stopping work, taking a step back and readdressing what it is you are actually trying to achieve and the way it is being done. Unfortunately for most of us it is all too easy to get caught up in the big idea or the nuts and bolts, in the process missing the chance to grasp what we were really on to in the first place.


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12.12  Optimization of the Viterbi Decoder

Returning to the Viterbi decoder example (from Section 12.4), we first set the environment for the design using the following worst-case conditions: a die temperature of 25 C (fastest logic) to 120 C (slowest logic); a power supply voltage of V DD = 5.5 V (fastest logic) to V DD = 4.5 V (slowest logic); and worst process (slowest logic) to best process (fastest logic). Assume that this ASIC should run at a clock frequency of at least 33 MHz (clock period of 30 ns). An initial synthesis run gives a critical path delay at nominal conditions (the default setting) of about 25 ns and nearly 35 ns under worst-case conditions using a high-density 0.6 m m standard-cell target library.

Estimates (using simulation and calculation) show that data arrives at the input pins 5 ns (worst-case) after the rising edge of the clock. The reset signal arrives 10 ns (worst-case) after the rising edge of the clock. The outputs of the Viterbi decoder must be stable at least 4 ns before the rising edge of the clock. This allows these signals to be driven to another ASIC in time to be clocked. These timing constraints are particularly devastating. Together they effectively reduce the clock period that is available for use by 9 ns. However, these figures are typical for board-level delays.

The initial synthesis runs reveal the critical path is through the following six modules:

subset_decode -> compute_metric ->
compare_select -> reduce -> metric -> output_decision

The logic synthesizer can do little or no optimization across these module boundaries. The next step, then, is to rearrange the design hierarchy for synthesis. Flattening ( merging or ungrouping) the six modules into a new cell, called critical , allows the synthesizer to reduce the critical path delay by optimizing one large module.

At present the last module in the critical path is output_decision . This combinational logic adds 2–3 ns to the output delay requirement of 4 ns (this means the outputs of the module metric must be stable 6–7 ns before the rising clock edge). Registering the output reduces this overhead and removes the module output_decision from the critical path. The disadvantage is an increase in latency by one clock cycle, but the latency is already 12 clock cycles in this design. If registering the output decreases the critical path delay by more than a factor of 12 / 13, performance will still improve.

To register the output, alter the code (on pages 575–576) as follows:

module viterbi_ASIC

wire [2:0] Out, Out_r; // Change: add Out_r.

asPadOut #(3,"30,31,32") u30 (padOut, Out_r); // Change: Out_r.

Outreg o_1 (Out, Out_r, Clk, Res); // Change: add output register.

module Outreg (Out, Out_r, Clk, Res); // Change: add this module.

input [2:0] Out; input Clk, Rst; output [2:0] Out_r;

dff #(3) reg1(Out, Out_r, Clk, Res);

These changes move the performance closer to the target. Prelayout estimates indicate the die perimeter required for the I/O pads will allow more than enough area to hold the core logic. Since there is unused area in the core, it makes sense to switch to a high-performance standard-cell library with a slightly larger cell height (96 l versus 72 l ). This cell library is less dense, but faster.

Typically, at this point, the design is improved by altering the HDL, the hierarchy, and the synthesis controls in an iterative manner until the desired performance is achieved. However, remember there is still no information from the layout. The best that can be done is to estimate the contribution of the interconnect using wire-load models. As soon as possible the netlist should be passed to the floorplanner (or the place-and-route software in the absence of a floorplanner) to generate better estimates of interconnect delays.

TABLE 12.13  Critical-path timing report for the Viterbi decoder.

Instance name

Delay information 1

inPin --> outPin incr arrival trs rampDel cap(pF) cell

CP --> QN 1.65 1.65 F .20 .10 dfctnb

A1 --> ZN .63 2.27 R .14 .08 ao01d1

B --> ZN .84 3.12 F .15 .08 ao04d1

B2 --> ZN .91 4.03 F .35 .17 fn03d1

I --> ZN .39 4.43 R .23 .12 in01d1

S --> Z .91 5.33 F .34 .17 mx21d1

B0 --> CO 2.20 7.54 F .24 .14 ad02d1

... 28 other cell instances omitted ...

B0 --> CO 2.25 23.17 F .23 .13 ad02d1

CI --> CO .53 23.70 F .21 .09 ad01d1

A1 --> Z .69 24.39 R .19 .07 xo02d1

setup: D --> CP .17 24.56 R .00 .00 dfctnb

slack: MET .44

Table 12.13 is a timing report for the Viterbi decoder, which shows the critical path starts at a sequential logic cell (a D flip-flop in the present example), ends at a sequential logic cell (another D flip-flop), with 37 other combinational logic cells in-between. The first delay is the clock-to-Q delay of the first flip-flop. The last delay is the setup time of the last flip-flop. The critical path delay is 24.56 ns, which gives a slack of 0.44 ns from the constraint of 25 ns (reduced from 30 ns to give an extra margin). We have met the timing constraint (otherwise we say it is violated ).

In Table 12.13 all instances in the critical path are inside instance v_1.u100 . Instance name u100 is the new cell (cell name critical ) formed by merging six blocks in module viterbi (instance name v_1 ).

The second column in Table 12.13 shows the timing arc of the cell involved on the critical path. For example, CP --> QN represents the path from the clock pin, CP , to the flip-flop output pin, QN , of a D flip-flop (cell name dfctnb ). The pin names and their functions come from the library data book. Each company adopts a different naming convention (in this case CP represents a positive clock edge, for example). The conventions are not always explicitly shown in the data books but are normally easy to discover by looking at examples. As another example, B0 --> CO represents the path from the B input to the carry output of a 2-bit full adder (cell name ad02d1 ).

The third column ( incr ) represents the incremental delay contribution of the logic cell to the critical path.

The fourth column ( arrival ) shows the arrival time of the signal at the output pin of the logic cell. This is the cumulative delay to that point on the critical path.

The fifth column ( trs ) describes whether the transition at the output node is rising ( R ) or falling ( F ). The timing analyzer examines each possible combination of rising and falling delays to find the critical path.

The sixth column ( rampDel ) is a measure of the input slope (ramp delay, or slew rate). In submicron ASIC design this is an important contribution to delay.

The seventh column ( Cap ) is the capacitance at the output node of the logic cell. This determines the logic cell delay and also the signal slew rate at the node.

The last column ( cell ) is the cell name (from the cell-library data book). In this library suffix 'd1' represents normal drive strength with 'd0' , 'd2 ', and 'd5' being the other available strengths.

1. See the text for explanations of the column headings.

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Zombats are small bat-like creatures sent by Vrak to enlarge monsters. Malkor refers to them as Vrak's pets. Vrak says that he owns them because the royals have access to the best technology.

In appearance, the main body of a Zombat looks similar to a microphone, with bat wings at its sides. It's eye has a blue iris, and appear somewhat blood-shot.

Usualy summoned by a snap of Vrak's fingers, 6 Zombats would surround the defeated monster, each generating a piece of a blue hexagon that would cover the creature briefly. After that, the creature would be revived as a giant.


Vegan Sweet Potato, Coconut Milk, & Roasted Chili Ravioli

● 2 cups of all-purpose flour
● 2 cups of semolina flour
● A dash of salt
● 1 cup of water or a little more

● 3 medium sweet potatoes
● 2 chili peppers
● 85 mls of coconut milk
● 85 mls Almond Creamery Almond Milk

1. Preheat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius
2. Rub the peppers with olive oil and then put the sweet potatoes and peppers on a baking sheet and into the oven.
3. Roast for about fifteen minutes.
4. Let the peppers rest for fifteen minutes in a paper bag or an air-tight container to make the skin easier to remove.
5. After that, peel the skin and remove the seeds. Mince and set aside.
6. Meanwhile, the potatoes are still in the oven.
7. During that time, combine the two flours and salt in a large bowl. Make a hole in the middle to pour water. When you mix them all pour on a floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth. Divide into two, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest.
8. Check if the sweet potatoes are soft. If they are, remove them from the oven.
9. Leave them to cool.
10. When they are cool or at room temperature, peel their skin off, and mash them in a large bowl. Add the coconut milk and minced peppers. Stir, until it is well combined.
11. Roll one bowl of dough in a rectangular shape on a floured surface. It should be thin, but not close to tearing. Place even spoonfuls of the sweet potato filling along the dough.
12. Roll the second bowl of the dough in the same shape and size. Brush some water between the fillings, and place the second rectangle of pasta on top of it. Press to seal well.
13. Cut out the ravioli with a pasta wheel or a knife. Press all around the edges of each ravioli with a fork to be sure they are sealed properly.
14. Bring a pot of water to boil over medium-high heat. Add the ravioli. Cook until they begin to float in the pot.
15. You can eat them straight out of the pot or make them crispier by roasting them additionally on olive oil in a pan. This will take about three minutes

These delicious treats can be served in different ways. You can top them with rosemary, basil, rocket salad, etc. You can also serve them with tofu cheese or some vegetable-based sauce.

If you are too lazy to prepare ravioli (we get it, there is a lot of work to it), you can simply serve the filling as a mashed potato dish.


about osho

Osho represents a paradigm shift in the history of human consciousness.

Osho is in spirituality the equivalent of Einstein in science and Kant in philosophy, and Picasso in art and Freud in psychology: he represents a point of no return.

Osho is a modern Buddha whose presence, insights and devices have touched the life of millions of people across the globe. He belongs to no tradition or religion of the past, and yet he has absorbed them all.

Osho is known for his revolutionary contribution to the science of inner transformation, with an approach to meditation that acknowledges the accelerated pace of contemporary life. His unique Active Meditations are designed to first release the accumulated stresses of body and mind, so that it is then easier to take the experience of stillness and thought-free relaxation into daily life.

Osho is an enlightened master who is working with all possibilities to help humanity overcome a difficult phase in developing consciousness.
— The Dalai Lama
 Osho Active Meditation in London
 Osho Active Meditation in London


- this week

Gender: Female Meaning of Asteria: "star" Origin of Asteria: Greek

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From the experts:

Asteria is an Anglicized spelling of the Greek Astraea or Astraia, the goddess of justice and innocence. She became the constellation Virgo, so all forms of this name would be especially appropriate for a child born in late August or early September.

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Asteria, role in the opera 'Nerone' by Arrigo Boito
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