For example:> "UPDATE sys_user SET loginIp='127.0.0.1',loginAt=1544080356,loginCount=1,isOnline=true  WHERE id='d191153d83414830be4cd4d562cc0c04'"
For example:> "INSERT INTO sys_log(username,type,tag,src,ip,msg,opBy,opAt,delFlag) VALUES('超级管理员','info','用户登陆','cn.wizzer.app.web.modules.controllers.platform.sys.SysLoginController#doLogin','127.0.0.1','成功登录系统！','d191153d83414830be4cd4d562cc0c04',1544080356,'NULL') "
For example:> "SELECT * FROM sys_menu  WHERE href IN ('/platform/home','/platform') ORDER BY href DESC, path DESC   LIMIT 0, 1 "
For example:> "SELECT * FROM sys_menu  WHERE href='/platform/sys/role' LIMIT 0, 1 "
For example:> "SELECT * FROM sys_unit  WHERE parentId='' ORDER BY path ASC  "
For example:> "select distinct a.* from sys_menu a,sys_role_menu b where a.id=b.menuId and b.roleId='2caa3072c1fc46e8b7c665c94bcb9a41' and a.disabled=false order by a.location ASC,a.path asc"
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:12:41,991 org.nutz.dao.impl.sql.run.NutDaoExecutor.printSQL(NutDaoExecutor.java:388) - SELECT * FROM sys_role  WHERE id=?
For example:> "SELECT * FROM sys_role  WHERE id='2caa3072c1fc46e8b7c665c94bcb9a41'"
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:12:46,954 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:13:06,967 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:13:26,966 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:13:46,965 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:14:06,965 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:14:06,973 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport.doRecoverMisfires(JobStoreSupport.java:3198) - Found 0 triggers that missed their scheduled fire-time.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:14:26,969 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:14:46,979 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:15:06,977 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:15:26,982 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:15:46,979 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:16:06,981 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport.doRecoverMisfires(JobStoreSupport.java:3198) - Found 0 triggers that missed their scheduled fire-time.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:16:06,986 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:16:26,985 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:16:46,987 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:17:06,989 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:17:26,994 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:17:33,108 org.nutz.dao.impl.sql.run.NutDaoExecutor.printSQL(NutDaoExecutor.java:388) - SELECT * FROM sys_role  WHERE id=?
For example:> "SELECT * FROM sys_menu  WHERE href IN ('/platform/sys/role/editMenu/2caa3072c1fc46e8b7c665c94bcb9a41','/platform/sys/role/editMenu','/platform/sys/role','/platform/sys','/platform') ORDER BY href DESC, path DESC   LIMIT 0, 1 "
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:17:46,993 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:18:06,974 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport.doRecoverMisfires(JobStoreSupport.java:3198) - Found 0 triggers that missed their scheduled fire-time.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:18:07,000 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:18:26,996 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:18:46,999 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:19:07,557 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:19:27,573 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:19:47,560 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:20:07,537 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport.doRecoverMisfires(JobStoreSupport.java:3198) - Found 0 triggers that missed their scheduled fire-time.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:20:07,561 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:20:27,571 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:20:47,570 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:21:07,571 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:21:27,573 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:21:47,575 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:22:07,532 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport.doRecoverMisfires(JobStoreSupport.java:3198) - Found 0 triggers that missed their scheduled fire-time.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:22:07,578 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:22:27,582 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:22:47,587 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:23:07,584 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:23:27,592 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:23:47,591 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:24:07,531 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport.doRecoverMisfires(JobStoreSupport.java:3198) - Found 0 triggers that missed their scheduled fire-time.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:24:07,610 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.
[DEBUG] 2018-12-06 15:24:27,591 org.quartz.impl.jdbcjobstore.JobStoreSupport$ClusterManager.manage(JobStoreSupport.java:3877) - ClusterManager: Check-in complete.


A pressing question at the forefront of current global political debates is: how can we salvage the democratic project in the context of 'globalization'? In recent years political activists have mounted high-profile campaigns for the democratization of powerful international institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, and for greater 'corporate accountability'. In turn, many of the NGOs linked to these campaigns have themselves faced demands for greater democratic legitimacy. Global Stakeholder Democracy responds to these challenges by outlining an innovative theoretical and institutional framework for democratizing the many state and non-state actors wielding public power in contemporary global politics. In doing so, the book lays out a promising new agenda for global democratic reform. Its analysis begins with the recognition that we cannot simply recreate traditional constitutional and electoral institutions of democratic states on a global scale, through the construction of a democratic 'super-state'. Rather, we must develop new kinds of democratic institutions capable of dealing with the realities of global pluralism, and democratizing powerful non-state actors as well as states. Through reflecting on the democratic dilemmas surrounding the political power of global NGOs, the book mounts a powerful challenge to the state-centric theoretical assumptions that have underpinned the established democratic theories of both 'cosmopolitan' and 'communitarian' liberals. In particular, it challenges the widespread assumption that 'sovereign' power, 'bounded' (national or global) societies, and 'electoral' processes are essential institutional foundations of a democratic system. The book then re-thinks the democratic project from its conceptual foundations, posing the questions: What needs to be controlled? Who ought to control it? How could they do so? In answering these questions, the book develops a novel theoretical model of representative democracy that is focused on plural (state and non-state) actors rather than on unitary state structures. It elaborates a democratic framework based on the new theoretical concepts of 'public power', 'stakeholder communities' and 'non-electoral representation', and illustrates the practical implications of these proposals for projects of global institutional reform.
This book is both an examination of, and a contribution to, our understanding of the theoretical foundations of the common law of contract. Focusing on contemporary debates in contract theory, Contract Theory aims to help readers better understand the nature and justification of the general idea of contractual obligation, as well as the nature and justification of the particular rules that make up the law of contract. The book is in three parts. Part I introduces the idea of 'contract theory', and presents a framework for identifying, classifying, and evaluating contract theories. Part II describes and evaluates the most important general theories of contract; examples include promissory theories, reliance-based theories, and economic theories. In Part III, the theoretical issues raised by the various specific doctrines that make up the law of contract (e.g., offer and acceptance, consideration, mistake, remedies, etc.) are examined in separate chapters. The legal focus of the book is the common law of the United Kingdom, but the theoretical literature discussed is international in origin; the arguments discussed are thus relevant to understanding the law of other common law jurisdictions and, in many instances, to understanding the law of civil law jurisdictions as well.
This text provides a concise and analytical overview of the English law of trusts, drawing out especially this area's underlying concerns and suggesting ways in which the rules can be explained and evaluated.


If this were a perfect world, Dippin' Dots would be readily available on every street corner (is it not the future yet?), Kimye would be a word unrecognizable by humanity, and Bobby Boucher, Jr., would be plying his trade on NFL Thursday night football for our viewing pleasure.
Alas, this crazy world is far from perfect, so for now we'll just have to settle for regular ol' ice cream, more selfies than there are people in Asia, and more college football! It's not a bad tradeoff, really. Except maybe for the selfie part. Anyone want to go halfsies on a Change.org petition so we can make that stop?
Week 3 brings us cupcake tilts aplenty (Wyoming at Oregon—anyone gonna be watching that?), with the lone Top 25 head-to-head game being our marquee matchup. Oh hey, segue! Didn't see you there.
I asked Georgia alum and fellow Cooking Light staffer Gina Yu what her tailgating menu of choice was while in lovely Athens. The consensus? She and her friends enjoyed beer-broiled brats, homemade pulled pork, and roasted ears of corn on the grill, all washed down with the obligatory Athenian beer of choice. Since I'd be a-maized if Georgia doesn't leave Columbia with a W, here's a recipe tribute to tailgating Athenian-style. If you went to either school, shoot us some recipes that were near and dear to your tailgating experience heart and we may feature them down the road. We've still got plenty of season left. Enjoy the football weekend!
2. Place jalapeño on grill rack coated with cooking spray; cover and grill for 10 minutes or until blackened and charred, turning occasionally.
3. Place jalapeño in a small paper bag, and fold tightly to seal. Let stand for 5 minutes. Peel and discard skins; cut jalapeño in half lengthwise. Discard stem, seeds, and membranes. Finely chop jalapeño. Combine jalapeño, butter, lime rind, honey, and salt in a small bowl; stir well.
4. Place corn on grill rack. Cover and grill for 10 minutes or until lightly charred, turning occasionally. Place corn on serving plate; brush with jalapeño butter.


Extracts all occurrences of pattern in the string, where pattern is a regular expression.
The pattern as a regular expression.
The following expression extracts all occurrences of "o" from string "apollo".


On Wednesday evening (26 March), courtesy of LBC radio, the BBC and Sky, the UK public were treated to something UKIP leader Nigel Farage claimed his party had "waited a very long time for": a head-to-head debate between Farage and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg on Britain's membership of the European Union.
It should have featured the leaders of the Labour and Conservative parties, too, but they made their excuses weeks ago. Labour's Ed Miliband had called any such debate a "sideshow", and UK prime minister David Cameron, in contrast to deputy prime minister Clegg, said he was "too busy running the country". "Well, he's certainly running from something," quipped Farage.
As a debate, it was quick, slick, and towards the end, a little sweaty. But despite the heat generated, there was not too much in the way of light. Figures and stats were chucked around like so much mud. And cheap shots were never too far away. Still, by the debate's close, the antagonists' main positions had at least become clear.
As Clegg reiterated during almost every question, be it on immigration or the role of the European Court of Human Rights, Britain's membership of the EU was vital because it provided jobs and "clout".
"If we cut ourselves off from Europe," he said, "our hard-won economic recovery will simply be thrown away." People will lose their jobs, he insisted. Investors will look elsewhere, other European countries won't be as co-operative, and the advantages of belonging to a huge trading bloc will disappear.
This then was Clegg's main appeal to the public. Stay in the EU or the economy has had it.
Farage did try to counter Clegg's sometimes scary rhetoric. "How many jobs [is UKIP] prepared to lose if we leave the EU – 3 million, 2 million, 500,000?," asked Clegg. Farage countered that "foreign investment is important, of course it is", but it is coming into the UK at "a greater rate than it is to countries inside the Eurozone". There is nothing to fear, and everything to gain from an EU exit, he claimed.
But like Clegg, it was UKIP's main argument against EU membership that kept re-emerging through the fog of the particular answers: "the best people to govern Britain are the British people themselves".
At every stage, Farage sought out this position.
On trade, he argued, Britain should be in a position to negotiate its own trade deals, not have the EU do it on its behalf; on the ECHR, Britain should be in a position to administer its own criminal justice system, and not have Strasbourg interfere; on immigration, Britain should be in a position to police its own borders and not have them forced open to nearly 500 million EU citizens (although Farage was particularly concerned with those countries previously "trapped behind the iron curtain" – Romania, Bulgaria).
Clegg was at pains to characterise this as UKIP's 'anti-EU dogma': "I'm not prepared to see anyone lose their jobs at the altar of Nigel Farage's anti-European dogma," he said at one point; "We shouldn't be sacrificing a single job just to satisfy [UKIP's] dogmatic view," he said at another.
Towards the end, Farage tired of Clegg's accusation of dogmatism, and repeated himself: "I will tell you what the dogma is: the best people to govern Britain are the British people themselves, and not the EU."
It was that kind of debate.
What had emerged by the end of the debate was not a set of clear, opposing policies, but two incommensurable positions. One in favour of continued EU membership on the pragmatic grounds of economic security; the other in favour of an EU exit on the principled grounds of national sovereignty.
There was something else, too. Throughout, Clegg talked of the importance of "facts". "We owe it to you [the audience], we owe it to everyone, to ensure that these debates are at least based on facts." The implication of Clegg's appeal was clear: UKIP is the party of untruths and fantasies, as Clegg attempted to show by pointing out a UKIP local election pamphlet which asserted that there were more Romanian immigrants heading Britain's way than there were actual Romanians – cue audience guffaws.
But in many ways this attempt to bash UKIP into the ground with "the facts", to present it as borderline delusional, as beyond the political pale, rather than defeat it with principled, political arguments, played into Farage's hands.
It allowed him to present himself as the political outsider, a man apart from the 'the career politician', a man with experience of the world beyond 'the political bubble of Westminster', a man from whom the likes of Clegg – or "you lot" as Farage called them throughout – are running scared.
And viewers seemed to agree. In a snap, after-show YouGov poll, 57 per cent thought that Nigel Farage had performed best compared to 36 per cent for Nick Clegg.
Clegg has a chance to make amends, though. A second live debate is to be held next Wednesday (2 April).
Britain's UK Independence party has made a pact with Italy's Lega Nord, the Danish People's Party, the True Finns and a handful of other rightists to transform the eurosceptic Ind/Dem group into what is in effect a far-right 'lite' grouping in the chamber.


A concerto (from the Italian: concerto, plural concerti or, often, the anglicised form concertos) is a musical composition, whose characteristics have changed over time. In the 17th century, "sacred works for voices and orchestra were typically called concertos." J. S. Bach "was thus reflecting a long-standing tradition when he used the title `concerto' for many of the works that we know as cantatas.". But in recent centuries, up to the present, a concerto is a piece usually composed in three parts or movements, in which (usually) one solo instrument (for instance, a piano, violin, cello or flute) is accompanied by an orchestra or concert band.
The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words conserere (meaning to tie, to join, to weave) and certamen (competition, fight): the idea is that the two parts in a concerto, the soloist and the orchestra or concert band, alternate episodes of opposition, cooperation, and independence in the creation of the music flow.
Concertos is the 31st album by Michael Nyman, released in 1997. It contains three concerti commissioned from Nyman, the Mazda-sponsored Double Concerto for Saxophone and Cello, featuring John Harle and Julian Lloyd Webber, the Harpsichord Concerto for Elisabeth Chojnacka, and the Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra for Christian Lindberg.
The album was intended as the first in a series of Nyman recordings, as it reads "NYMAN EDITION No1: Concertos" on the EMI label, but Nyman's only other release on EMI (until The Actors in 2003), The Suit and the Photograph does not have such designation.
The album appeared just as completely clear jewel cases were being introduced, and the inside back cover is colored solid red, with the series designation in the left area that was previously hidden by the tray. The Suit and the Photograph, however, was packaged in a standard grey-black tray.
Nyman said of EMI, "I didn't excite them, and they didn't excite me."
Johannes Brahms (German: [joˈhanəs ˈbʁaːms]; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer and pianist. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. In his lifetime, Brahms's popularity and influence were considerable. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs", a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) was a German composer and pianist.
Miss Brahms, character from the British comedy show, Are You Being Served?


"Behind the friendly rhetoric, there are areas of tension"
The Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Berlin on July 4th and 5th before traveling to Hamburg for the G20 Summit. The agenda for the state visit is dominated by G20 Summit issues, including cooperation in world trade and climate policy as well as economic development in Africa. At the same time, Xi wants to present a positive image of his country: together with Chancellor Merkel, he will inaugurate a new panda enclosure at the Berlin Zoo.
China and Germany have close diplomatic ties. President Xi Jinping's stopover in Berlin comes only a few weeks after a visit by Premier Li Keqiang. Are relations between the two countries better than ever?
Germany and China are looking for collaboration, particularly in the areas of trade and climate policy. This is a reaction to major changes in US foreign policy. Relations between Beijing and Berlin are not exactly harmonious, however: behind the official, friendly rhetoric, there are areas of tension.
What are these areas of tension?
One key problem is the discrimination against foreign companies when it comes to market access. For years now, there have been growing complaints about discriminatory measures on the part of Chinese authorities. Even large companies can often only do business in niche markets due to restrictions on public tenders in areas such as infrastructure or health care. Many German automobile manufacturers, car industry suppliers and engineering companies have been successful outside the public procurement market. However, all companies are deeply concerned about unintended technology transfer and preferential treatment of Chinese competitors in growing markets like electric mobility, environmental technology or medical technology.
China is currently working on a comprehensive rating and credit system to determine and evaluate the trustworthiness of companies and citizens on the basis of big data. At the same time, the legislation on cyber security will be strengthened. What does this development mean for foreign companies?
This IT-based credit system, currently undergoing rapid development, will change the competitive environment for all companies in the Chinese market. The constant exchange of data between companies, state-authorized agencies and public authorities will call into question the protection of sensitive proprietary business data. It will be a lot harder to protect data and technologies if Chinese authorities, on the basis of the new cyber-security law, demand the storage of data on Chinese servers or require unrestricted access to company computers in the course of police investigations. Since many domestic Chinese regulations for data traffic and server use are vague, it is often unclear if or how a company can comply with the rules at all.
The fact that the Communist Party has recently increased the presence of party organizations in private companies has also been a cause for concern for foreign companies in China. In some cases, these party units have had a direct or indirect influence on personnel and business decisions. For foreign managers and investors, these developments increase the risk of direct political interference in their business activities in China.
Will these issues be on the agenda when President Xi meets Chancellor Merkel?
This trip is meant to be all about harmonious cooperation, which is why more contentious topics, like the controversial recognition of China as a market economy by the EU, will not be discussed publicly. Instead, Merkel and Xi will set the stage with soft, emotionally positive issues. These include the inauguration of a new enclosure for two pandas on loan to the Berlin Zoo by the Chinese government. This so-called panda diplomacy has a long tradition in China. For Beijing, the goal is to present itself as a generous, cooperative and friendly power, at home and abroad. It is also a distraction from politically controversial topics.
As a result of the change of course in US foreign policy, there are common interests which both China and Germany want to now pursue more vigorously. Where can China and Germany make progress, despite their differences?
There are common interests in global trade and climate policy as well as in the commitment to further develop multilateral rules for international cooperation. On many issues on the G20 Summit agenda, both countries are working together. Examples of new Chinese-German efforts for enhanced cooperation are policies on Africa: Chinese companies and investors have been active there for years, and Germany has a good reputation in development aid. Beijing and Berlin want to work together on specific Africa-related programs in order to stabilize African countries economically.
The new openness in German and Chinese relations since the change of government in the USA is noteworthy. And of course, Germany needs to take advantage of new opportunities for cooperation. At the same time, however, the two countries continue to have completely different understandings of basic political order, rule of law and civil society. The treatment of non-governmental organizations in China remains a source of friction. After the new NGO law came into effect earlier this year, German political foundations were registered and approved in China after months of tough negotiations. That said, it is still unclear in which concrete are-as these foundations will be able to work. In addition, other NGOs, such as church organizations and Greenpeace, are still waiting for official approval.


Brian: Hey Zach, you were playing pretty well out there. Did you play basketball in school or something?
Zach: No, not really. I played a bit of soccer when I was a kid, but I haven't played anything for a long time. What about you guys?
Jason: I played basketball all through high school, but I was never all that good at it.
Brian: I was never really interested in sports when I was growing up. I just got into it since starting work.
Brian: It's just that I work a lot. I spend a lot of time staring at my computer, designing things. Sometimes I go out to meet clients, but I'm usually just in my office. I started to worry about getting out of shape.
Jason: Yeah, I felt the same way. So we started meeting up on weekends, just to throw around a basketball.
Brian: Then I started to find I could concentrate a lot better on work on a Monday if I got some exercise on the weekend, so I really got into it. So I started jogging every Saturday morning, and getting together with Jason to play basketball when the weather is good.
Zach: That sounds pretty intense.
Brian: My girlfriend is really into yoga, and she's always trying to get me to go with her, but it seems a bit slow to me. If I am going to make time in my schedule to work out, I actually want to get some real exercise.
Jason: Yeah, yoga is not really for me, either.
Brian: I have been thinking of joining a gym for the longest time, but I'm not sure if I can make enough time to go to really justify paying the fees.
Zach: It sounds like you are really into exercise.
Jason: Me, I think I get enough exercise carrying my camera gear around to photo shoots.
Brian: It must be nice to be able to get out of your office on a regular basis.
Jason: It is nice, but it can be a bit much at times, getting to shoots, and finishing on schedule.
Zach: Are you guys into watching sports at all?
Brian: No, not really. I don't have the time for it.
Jason: I watch basketball when I have time, especially the finals. What about you, Zach?
Zach: I'm quite into sports. I watch what's on TV, but I also like to see live sports when I have a chance. Basketball, baseball, and I especially like to go see hockey.
Brian: I've never actually seen hockey live. It must be quite a thing to see. It is really fast-paced, isn't it?
Zach: Yeah, it's really exciting to see live. You guys should really come along with me sometime.
Jason: That sounds good, Zach.
Brian: Yeah, you should let us know when there is a good game coming up.


Upon hearing the name Admiral Angry you wouldn’t be mistaken in casting your eyes down memory lane with rose-tinted glasses and envisioning a comical childhood TV character. The Admiral was always waving his hook at the heavens, cursing the gods for whatever brand of humorous misfortune they had visited upon him this week. Maybe his haul of mackerel had been purloined by pesky seagulls, or he had lost his hat, or some such hilarious jape.
In reality, the music of Admiral Angry on their outing, Buster, is more like the sonic equivalent of a beast that abducts the aforementioned character, places him in a Pyrex tank and pisses on him until he drowns. As the weeks scrape by for the imprisoned ex-mariner, he finds himself confronted in some phantasmagoric nightmare by all the fish that he brutally gutted or bullied in moments of superiority, and all he can do is mutter ‘no, no, no’ whilst looking at the soiled digits on his now anorexic hands. In the background, his tormentor rocks back and forth in his grandfather’s chair, quietly laughing in between gulps of bourbon.
If this sounds appealing, or an utterly repulsive prospect, then Buster is an album that should definitely be experienced. There is also a sense of bittersweet luck, if one can call it that, when one finds out that the album was on the verge of not being released. It is hard not to imagine that some of the sheer anger that tears out of Buster was born out of the collective grief suffered by the band by the untimely death of their guitarist Daniel (whom they referred to as the Admiral) at the age of 22 to cystic fibrosis. However, the decision was made to release the album, which will also be joined later with an EP (also recorded with Daniel) called A Fire To Burn Down The World, with all proceeds from both albums going to cystic fibrosis charities.
Although the band’s ambivalence whether to tour or record again (according to guitarist Mark Richards they have an album's worth of material as yet unleashed) will leave all who are mesmerised by the evil genius that is Buster waiting with bated breath, for now let us count ourselves lucky and purge our collective bile to the low end madness that is one of the most impressive debut albums from any band in a long while.
What was the thinking behind the artwork for the album?
Mark Richards: The artwork for Buster has been somewhat controversial because a lot of people think that it doesn’t fit the music. This was our intention. We didn’t want to be too obvious or literal with our artwork but rather be more unassuming in order to give the music more room to speak for itself.
Do you think that there is a general resurgence in the interest and acceptance of heavy music nowadays? If so, is this down to fashion or the overall improvement in the body of work that has been released by bands in the heavier genres?
MR: There has been a resurgence of heavy music as of late but most of it has been rather disheartening because there is a huge repetition of ideas. There are so many bands that seem to be trying to do what’s worked for other bands to the best of their ability. The music has become so distracted by trying to follow the trend that it forgot that it is suppose to be the other way around. In theory, this should be the ideal breeding ground for genuine talent and originality to stand out but on the other hand it is like a needle in a haystack.
When I first listened to the album it brought me back to being stoned out of my tree listening to Iron Monkey, were you guys fans?
MR: It’s always nice to hear that our music makes someone feel like they’re on drugs but we are unfamiliar with Iron Monkey. We’ll be sure to check it out.
I noticed on your myspace page that you cited Arnold Schoenberg as one of your influences amongst the likes of Burning Witch and Khanate. What is it about the music and the man that you find interesting?
MR: Well some would consider Shoenberg the father of atonality. We appreciate his willingness to break the rules and make people feel uncomfortable. Khanate as well has a very original sound and is extremely intense, dynamic and artful. They can make you feel so much and are true heroes of heavy music.
Do you have any other influences that might surprise people?
MR: We are definitely influenced by D’Angelo and Parliament Funkadelic and any music with a strong groove. I hope our appreciation for this aspect of music transcends.
Brann Dailor of Mastodon recently stated in an interview that there were actually quite a lot of similarities between the structures of jazz and some forms of heavy metal. Do you agree? If yes, do you see your music as being in the same vein?
MR: I’m not about to disagree with Brann Dailor and because of his musicianship and the freedom he takes with his parts, I can certainly understand where he is coming from. I think, despite my appreciation for each genre, this correlation can rarely be found. Buster doesn’t have much in common with jazz but our next release, which we are currently recording does. It has a form but is more of a living, breathing piece of music with a lot of improvisation. We are forced, whenever playing the song, to work together and try to follow the music to where it wants to go.
I recently read a review of an Alice In Chains gig with their new vocalist. The reviewer said that the supporters seemed as frenzied and devoted if it would have been Layne Staley up there and that this seems to be common reaction amongst metal fans. Why do you think this is? Are metal fans more devoted than the rest? If so, why?
MR: Though Layne is one of the great vocalists of all time, in metal the instrumentation is just as, if not more important than the vocals and because of this the other members get credit and respect and the fans know that if the Chains decide to continue that, since no one knew and respected Layne more than them, that is probably what Layne would’ve wanted. Because of this, for fans not to accept their decision to continue would be actually disrespectful to Layne, not to mention the rest of the band. Metal fans will always be ostracized by popular music and metal musicians would have to be suffering from a brain injury to get into it for the money. Metal truly speaks to some of us and we tend to stick together, support each other, and let our appreciation of music occupy an exceptionally large portion of our lives.
What other bands around at the moment do you guys consider your peers and which of them has released something that you’ve been impressed by recently?
MR: We have always been close to Snakes Alive, not only because Daniel’s brother is a founding member ,but because they are a truly fantastic and genuine band. I held the seat as their drummer briefly in between permanent members and had a blast. They recently released a split on Sentient Recordings with another awesome band, Wire Werewolves, who is very close to us. Guitarist Jay Howard made a couple guest appearances on Buster. Also, Daniel’s most recently founded project, Fields, with Admiral bassist Brandon is recording this summer.
If there was one band that you would like to do a joint album with, as Sunn 0))) did with Boris, who would it be?
If you could write the soundtrack for any film what would it be?
MR: There are so many that we would love to do but Martyrs finds itself at the forefront.
Would you guys ever consider releasing a concept album? If so, what would it be about?
MR: We are currently recording for a release, which I guess you could call a concept album. Although it is only one song and I like to think that there should be a concept behind most songs, this isn’t like most songs. As far as the concept, for us to explain it now would be to the detriment of the listeners and the success of the record. Only well after it is released and our listeners have had an opportunity to interpret it would our interpretation be of any possible value.
Was there anything during the making of the album that you read, listened to, or saw that had a collective influence on you?
What do you think of some metal bands moving into what has been classified as prog-metal?
What band or artist do you wish you could have seen?
MR: Khanate, Gorguts, and Miles Davis just to name a few.
Finally, when are you guys coming over to these shores?
MR: When are you buying our plane tickets?


Woody Leanann an eachtra cowboy an scannán beoite "Toy Story" tóir, agus an uair seo tá sé ar teitheadh. A cheilt ó na súile Andy ar shiúl, ní mór dó a léim ar an mbalcóin ar an doll Helen álainn agus a teach doll chun turas amach an wrath an úinéara. Cabhair Andy gach cúram a chomhlíonadh d'fhonn a sheachaint coimhlint neamhriachtanach agus fanacht ina gcónaí sa teaghlach bréagán.. Seinn an cluiche Toy Story Woody Chun an Tarrthála ar líne.
A chur isteach ar an cluiche Toy Story Woody Chun an Tarrthála ar do láithreán gréasáin, a chóipeáil an cód agus greamaigh an cód html de do shuíomh. Chomh maith leis sin, más mian leat an cluiche Toy Story Woody Chun an Tarrthála, a chóipeáil agus a sheoladh ar an nasc chuig cara nó gach do chairde, a roinnt ar an cluiche leis an domhan!


are villains usually stronger than heroes?
Well they ought to be in at least one way or another.
Yes but the hero wins most of the time due to plot.
Given how many heroes and villains exist in fiction, even just comics, 'usually' is a tricky to apply here. Generally speaking, stories like to have conflict in them, which can often come from challenge, and so having an antagonist that challenges a protagonist, often achieves that. So having the antagonist be stronger than a protagonist, can lead to a greater challenge, and reflect well on the protagonist/protagonists. However conflict and challenge can be achieved many other ways, without a villain, sometimes the challenge presented by the villain isn't necessary via strength, it may be money, influence, charisma, intellect, so on. Also sometimes numbers, as in many heroes have villains that are weaker, but act in groups, and then vice versa, some groups of heroes have singular villains that are really powerful on their own… so lots of variables to consider.
I wouldn't think it controversial to say many heroes have to face villains that are stronger though.
In some way yes or it would be a bland villain and wouldn't work. Now this wouldn't necessarily be physically stronger, but mentally stronger, richer, etc.
In many cases, yes. For example, Venom is technically stronger than Spider-Man in terms of physicals. At times, Reverse Flash whoops Barry so bad that I can't help but wonder why he isn't the Flash instead. Even more demoralizing, Reverse Flash has mastered his powers inside and out and can actually justify every action he takes---albeit through bitterness and spite---with pretty reasonable/relatable motives. That's more than I can say for Barry many times, and this is my favorite DC superhero we're talking about here.
Not all villains are stronger than their heroic counterparts, but the ones that are are special. These special villains are meant to bring the best out of the hero, to cause their true greatness to come to fruition. These special villains make the hero fully realize their potential, and the hero can only defeat them once they become who they were always meant to be. Just my 2 cents!
It makes writing easier to have a villain stronger than a hero but it not a necessity. For example, most of Batman's villains are weaker than him (Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Two Face, Mr. Zsasz, Carmine Falcon, Black Mask etc). You just need a strong source of conflict to challenge your hero.
And this is pretty spot on as well.
Not being popular, not being able to rank up his hero status fast enough, being unpopular/disliked by the common people, having his work credited to other heroes etc.
they should be or they wouldn't be much of a threat to be a villain.


Sen. Joe Manchin Joseph (Joe) ManchinOn The Money: Cain 'very committed' to Fed bid despite opposition | Pelosi warns no US-UK trade deal if Brexit harms Irish peace | Ivanka Trump says she turned down World Bank job Cain says he won't back down, wants to be nominated to Fed Pro-life Christians are demanding pollution protections MORE (W.Va.) said Wednesday that he will oppose Betsy DeVos's nomination to lead the Department of Education.
Manchin — a Democrat from a red state who is up for reelection in 2018 — said he has "serious concerns" about President Trump's nominee.
"Every child in West Virginia deserves a quality education, and I do not believe that Betsy DeVos is qualified to serve in this role, which is so vital to the future of our state," he said.
Manchin specifically pointed to DeVos's support for charter schools and the fact that she hasn't worked or attended a public school as key reasons for his opposition.
"The needs facing rural schools in West Virginia are unique, and her lack of exposure to public education is very concerning for me," he added.
DeVos could face a rocky path to confirmation. Republicans have a 52-seat majority, but two Republicans — Sens. Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann MurkowskiCain says he 'won't run away from criticism' in push for Fed seat Cain says he won't back down, wants to be nominated to Fed License to discriminate: Religious exemption laws are trampling rights in rural America MORE (Alaska) and Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsSenate Republicans tested on Trump support after Mueller Collins: Mueller report includes 'an unflattering portrayal' of Trump GOP senator: 'No problem' with Mueller testifying MORE (Maine) — have voiced reservations about supporting her nomination.
If Republicans were to defect on the confirmation vote, GOP leadership could need to flip red-state Democrats, like Manchin, to get DeVos confirmed.
Top Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerHillicon Valley: House Dems subpoena full Mueller report | DOJ pushes back at 'premature' subpoena | Dems reject offer to view report with fewer redactions | Trump camp runs Facebook ads about Mueller report | Uber gets B for self-driving cars Dem legal analyst says media 'overplayed' hand in Mueller coverage Former FBI official praises Barr for 'professional' press conference MORE (N.Y.), have come out against DeVos, and Sen. Al Franken Alan (Al) Stuart FrankenWinners and losers from first fundraising quarter Election analyst says Gillibrand doesn't have 'horsepower to go the full distance' Gillibrand campaign links low fundraising to Al Franken backlash: memo MORE (D-Minn.) has predicted that no Democrats would support her.
Manchin said Trump's Education secretary needs to be someone "who has an understanding of the needs of all children, including those with disabilities, and is committed to ensuring they receive a quality education."


Jeff's second career ace got me thinking...what are the odds that a hiker will make a hole-in-one during one of the HHH events this summer? Assume we have 45 golfers participating, playing an average of 6 rounds (or 108 holes). That's approximately 1,080 chances at glory. Back in 2000, Golf Digest estimated the odds of a hole-in-one at 5,000:1 for a "low-handicapper", 12,000:1 for an average player. Let's assume 7,500:1 for our merry band of golf-crazed lunatics. That equates to about a 12-13% chance that one of our hikers will reached the promised land. And there's a 0.8% chance more than one person will make an ace during the event.
To generate some interest in the possibility of an ace by one of our participants, I'm introducing the HHHole-in-One Club. It's a special type of pledge where you are committing to donating a fixed amount to the cause of each hiker who makes a hole-in-one during his/her HHH event (the hiker must be in the club at $25+ in order for his ace to qualify). You can add yourself to the club simply by adding to the comment field below (something along the lines of "Jim Colton pledges $50 per HHHole-in-one") or sending an e-mail to jim@onedivot.org with 'The HHHole-in-One Club' in the subject line. If one or more aces is made, we'll automatically convert your commitment to a normal lump-sum pledge to the golfer and his/her stated cause.
I am joining the HHHole-in-One Club with a $50 pledge per ace, plus I'm adding a kicker of $1 for anybody who joins the club with a commitment of $10 or more. Although only hole-in-ones on the day of the HHH event officially count for Club purposes, I'm going to personally grandfather in Jefe's ace today with a $50+ commitment to his great cause, Els for Autism. I'll also commit to the same treatment for any other participating golfer who makes a hole-in-one during their pre-hike training. I encourage my fellow hikers to do the same.
- includes pre-event aces by fellow hikers.
Count me in for $50 for pre hike and actual hike hole in ones.
$25 per ace during HHH training and $50 per ace during HHH event.
John Penny in for $25 training, $50 during hike.
$50 during hike for this guy!!!
Jim, great idea and congratulations to Jeff.
I am in for $25 an ace during the event too!
I'm in for $25. Nice shot Jeff! Only 3 par 3s per 18 for me so I'll need to make them count!
I am in for $25 during the HHH. Nice advantage for the Kingsley crew with five par 3 holes on the course.
I'll pledge $50.00 per ace during the hike. Good luck to all!
Yep, I'm in for $50 during the hike.
I'm in for $50 during hiking.
Count me in for $50 for the Hike.
The fresh fruit is just about the most successful products on the one hundred year and its popularity might be caused by its wellness-enhancing healthy arrangements. Maqui berry can be a valuable dietary supplement to anyone who has diabetes along with other long-term health issues. It truly is great at backing blood sugar and is particularly a very adaptable health and fitness-giving realtor. Maqui berry is famous in wanting to be helpful to be a supplement. There may be significantly historical evidence that make clear do you know the primary advantages of consuming acai juice. maqui berry juice With all its positive factors, individuals must don't forget the fact even now opt for abracadabra for weight reduction. Guaranteed, an acai berry diet plan is appropriate magic, but only if having a strict strategy of healthy diet regime and physical exercises. You don't see any limited slashes reely seats to just about anywhere, with or without acai berry.
The berry is probably the most needed goods in the 100 years and its acceptance might be caused by its health and fitness-maximizing healthy compositions. Maqui berry can be a helpful health supplement to those who have having diabetes and various persistent condition. It can be effective in backing blood glucose and it is a nicely extremely versatile health-presenting broker. Maqui berry is noted in wanting to bo successful for a dietary supplement. There's considerably anecdotal information that clarify which are the advantages of using acai juice. maqui berry Many of us wish to have beautiful epidermis, as it can certainly allow us to look youthful, vivid and eventually lead us to good results. It is not only us who may have these needs, but possessing attractive skin color is put to use for thousands of years. Egyptian women of all ages applied to have their skin anti wrinkle-cost-free and exquisite with a lot of natural beauty tricks, which the current women never know. It is not just regarding the natural beauty that you see outwardly, being gorgeous from the inside is additionally crucial. You have to secure, use a skin moisturizer and refresh your solar cells into the entire body, that may carry spark in your exterior appearance too. Total skin care is required to seem attractive and balanced. And, to attain that you have to have a great handle for your diet regime, because the meals can aid you to glimpse the method that you want.
I'll put in $20 to be split among all hole in ones during hhh events.


Easy and delicious to make recipe.
STEP 1 : Place in a bowl STICAP harissa, oil, vinegar, a glass of water and salt. Mix everything.
STEP 2 : Cut 20 slices of bread. Dip the slices one at a time into the mixture and place on a plate.
STEP 3 : Put the cooked egg in boiling water for 5 minutes.
STEP 4 : Put a not completely teaspoon full of STICAP Mechouia salad, a cube of boiled egg and a bit of tuna on each slice.


Recently Demetrios Kalamidas, a young New York quantum-optics physicist, proposed an imaginative new superluminal signaling scheme--OKE (see also KISS and Demetrios! the Opera). The Kalamidas experiment proposes for Bob to send instant signals to Alice via the medium of a pair of path-entangled photons (A and B).
When Bob knows (from observation of his photon B) which path Alice's A photon took, then Alice cannot observe two-path interference. But if Bob can erase which-path information then, in principle, Alice can get her path-uncertain photon to interfere with itself.
Switching between these two options (knowledge of Alice's photon's path and erasure of that knowledge) Bob can instantly send a signal to Alice no matter how large the distance that separates them. So goes the argument for FTL signaling via quantum entanglement.
In my analysis of the Kalamidas experiment: NKE (caution: 2-MB pdf download), I consider three possible choices that Bob could make to either obtain or erase which-path info concerning Alice's photon A.
I call these three choices: 1. the Fock Choice; 2. the Frost choice and 3. the Kalamidas choice. The Fock choice preserves which-path info and both the Frost choice and the Kalamidas choice erase which-path info—but in two different ways.
The Frost-choice method for quantum-erasure of which-path info is well-known—scramble Bob's two paths in a beam splitter. This choice does indeed lead to interference of Alice's photons. But this interference is INVISIBLE because it is superposed with an exactly complementary anti-interference pattern, the sum of which produces a completely random signal at Alice's detectors. These two patterns (signal and anti-signal) can however be separated by a coincidence trigger from Bob that tells Alice which of Bob's two detectors fired. If detector B1 went off then Alice sees a signal; if detector B2 went off, then Alice sees an anti-signal.
So (making the Frost choice) Bob's erasure of which-path info does indeed produce interference at Alice's detectors but ALICE'S INTERFERENCE IS ENCRYPTED using a random key that Bob can only send by conventional slower-than-light methods. Hence the Frost choice fails as a superluminal signaling device.
What about the Kalamidas choice?
The gist of the Kalamidas experiment is the novel method he has invented for Bob to quantum-erase which-path info. In his original article: OKE = Original Kalamidas Experiment, Kalamidas demonstrates that his method leads to UNENCRYPTED INTERFERENCE at Alice's detectors. Hence it appears that Demetrios Kalamidas has devised a viable mechanism for sending signals faster-than-light. Furthermore all of the components of the Kalamidas device are available in most modern quantum-optics labs. No exotic processes needed—everything in principle is completely understood.
For his FTL machine, Kalamidas employs an unusual method for which-path erasure. Bob "ambiguifies" the number of photons in each of his two paths by mixing each photon (which is normally in a "Fock state" of definite photon number—either zero or one) with a state of uncertain photon number. In Kalamidas's original paper (OKE), he used for this number-uncertain state a truncated coherent state. In Nick's version of the Kalamidas experiment (NKE), I use a state |U> = x|0> + y|1> (which I call "gray light") as my number-uncertain input.
The beam-splitter math for the NKE experiment is simple but tedious—30 terms that must be carefully squared, added together and matched correctly with the right output detectors. The first time I carried out this calculation, I verified Kalamidas's claim: Bob, by his choice of what to measure could seemingly cause: 1. nothing to happen at Alice's detectors or 2. unencrypted interference to happen at Alice's detectors with a very large amplitude (when gray light parameters were maximized) of 25%.
I was happy to see this result. Not because I believed that I had verified FTL signaling. But because I believed that I had created a paradox (the Kalamidas-Herbert paradox?) which would be resolved in some clever way that might teach us something new about the subtleties of few-photon quantum physics.
I sent my results to Demetrios, who scrutinized them with a critical eye, eventually discovering a simple conceptual error that I had missed over and over again. It's easy to overlook your own mistakes—another good reason for peer review in science.
Correcting my mistake I recalculated and obtained Bob-induced interference at Alice's detectors. But this correctly calculated interference was completely encrypted—only visible (like the Frost choice) if Bob sends a coincidence-triggered decryption signal to Alice at slower-than-light speeds.
(Quoted from NKE): I wish to congratulate Demetrios Kalamidas for coming up with his imaginative new FTL scheme which gave me much pleasure and excitement to analyze. I would also like to thank him for correcting an error in my work which, up until his intervention, seemed to show confirmation of his FTL signaling claim. After his timely input, the present (presumably correct) calculation demonstrates a complete refutation of any FTL effect. However, the Kalamidas scheme of erasing which-path info by mixing Fock light with gray light is clever and may yet find new technical applications in areas other than superluminal communication technology.
When his theory's been tested?
At the end of the trail?
I might be looking for.
For all your complex surprises.
The phenomenon of quantum entanglement is truly bizarre. Two quantum particles (photons, electrons, atoms, for instance) that have once interacted seem in theory to behave as a single entity. No matter how distant their separation, an action on one seems (again only in the theory) to instantly affect the state of its distant partner -- which suggests that entangled particles can communicate faster than light. However no experiment with entangled particles has ever revealed a human-usable superluminal connection. Furthermore, using the very theory that describes entanglement, one can prove (in agreement with all current experiments) that superluminal signaling is impossible. However any impossibility proof is only as good as the assumptions that go into it. One can easily imagine that an ingenious way of making a quantum measurement might be discovered that evades the assumptions underlying these proofs, hence opening the door to a practical faster-than-light signaling scheme.
Recently Demetrios Kalamidas, who has a degree from CCNY and is currently working at New York nanotech company Raith USA, has proposed an FTL signaling scheme using a novel kind of quantum measurement. His proposal (which I have called KISS, for "Kalamidas's Instant Signaling Scheme) has been accepted for publication in the March 2013 issue of the Journal of the Optical Society of America. A preprint version with essentially the same content as Kalamidas's JOSA article appears here.
The KISS proposal is based on the observation that one member A of an entangled pair AB can show interference effects when its distant partner B is measured in a manner that "destroys which-path information". These interference effects vanish when B is measured in a manner that detects which of two paths B actually took. On the face of it this looks exactly like superluminal signaling were it not for the fact that in order to see this interference, "coincidence information" about results at B must be sent (at light speed or slower) and this information is necessary to separate the superluminal signal from noise.
One way of looking at this situation is that, using entangled particles, superluminal signals can indeed be sent. But these FTL messages are encrypted in a perfectly unbreakable cipher that can only be decoded using a key sent at light speed or slower. So far all schemes to send signals FTL have failed due to the necessity of sending this decryption key by conventional means.
The KISS scheme purports to be different. Kalamidas proposes to destroy "which-path" information in a novel way (that involves mixing the photons that carry this information with a kind of light that possesses an indefinite number of photons). Kalamidas calculates, in his JOSA paper, that this clever new way of introducing ambiguity into the which-path measurement of the B photon has an immediate effect on its A partner -- an effect that is "in the clear" and does not need to be decoded.
Although it is evident that this proposal is a bare naked FTL communication scheme, Kalamidas modestly entitles his paper A Proposal for a Feasible Quantum-optical Experiment to Test the Validity of the No-Signaling Theorem.


Improve your translation ability through the following simple drills. Please start with lesson one if you are new to Farsi translation.
To study = /mota:le _e_ kærdæn/.
To watch = /tæma:sha: kærdæn/. Also (more common), /nega:h kærdæn/.
Please translate the following sentences into Persian.
My brother is not studying.
I am not watching TV.
He/she is not watching TV.
We are not watching TV.
They are not watching TV.
The children are not watching TV.


Context: Listened to this while cooking for myself when my wife returned home to attend to her sick father.
I wasn’t really sure where this book was going when it started off. Sounded like another weird Victorian sci-fi like She or Erewhon which I find a real drag. But then I realised that this is an early spy novel and that it deals with scuppering German plans for a naval invasion of Britain. Now while that sounds a bit passe, it was anything but at the time it was written. I was astonished to find that this was written in 1903.
To write such a novel at such a time shows remarkable foresight, particularly as it was extremely critical of the lack of professionalism in the armed forces in Britain at the time. Considering that a mere 11 years later we were at war with Germany and to repel an invasion attempt less than 40 years later, the novel is little short of prophetic.
The book was extremely influential and not only in literary terms, setting the standard for spy novels to this day. In actual fact, the British Admiralty actually acted on the risk that Childers presented, building bases to counteract the threat, bases which still remain active today. Wikipedia reports that two sailors repeated the journey in the book in 1910 in order to actually scout German preparations!
The book is laced with sailing detail which, if you’re a fan of sailing or the Frisian coast in particular, you’ll love. I’m not. So, while I commend the novel for its influence and legacy, I cannot give it the same praise for its prose. Mind you, I’m not a fan of Le Carre and novels of that ilk anyway so I’m probably not the best judge.
Glad I read it though but glad it’s the only Childers book on the list.
In October last (1902), my friend ‘Carruthers’ visited me in my chambers, and, under a provisional pledge of secrecy, told me frankly the whole of the adventure described in these pages.
From that point our personal history is of no concern to the outside world, and here, therefore, I bring this narrative to an end.


Assignment#2 Solutions (Chapter 4) 3. Consider the training examples shown in Table 4.8 for a binary classification problem.
The best split for a3 occurs at split point equals to 2. d) What is the best split (among a1, a2, and a3) according to the infor-mation gain? Answer: According to information gain, a1 produces the best split. e) What is the best split (between a1 and a2) according to the classification error rate? Answer: For attribute a1, the error rate = 2/9. For attribute a2, the error rate = 4/9. Therefore, according to error rate, a1 produces the best split. f) What is the best split (between a1 and a2) according to the Gini index?
Answer: For attribute a1 the Gini index is given by: 4/9 [ 1-(3/4) -(1/4) ] + 5/9 [1-(1/5) -(4/5) ] = 0.3444.
Similarly. Which attribute would the decision tree induction algorithm choose? Answer: The overall Gini index before splitting is: Gorig = 1 − 0.2813.1633.6 = 0.4898 2 2 GA=F = 1 – (3/3) – (0/3) = 0 Hence the corresponding gain is equal to Gorig – (7/10)GA=T –(3/10)GA=F = 0. b) Calculate the gain in the Gini index when splitting on A and B.6 = 0. EA=F = -(3/3)log (3/3) – (0/3) log (0/3) =0 ∆ = Eorig-(7/10) EA=T –(3/10) EA=F = 0.4 − 0.48 The gain in the Gini index after splitting on A is: GA=T=1 – (4/7) – (3/7) = 0. Therefore a1 produces a better split. attribute B will be chosen to split the node. Similarly. which will be given by: Gorig –(4/10)GB=T -(6/10) GB=F = 0. 5. the information gain after splitting on B is given by: Eorig − 4/10EB=T − 6/10EB=F = 0.4 log 0.4 − 0.For attribute a2. Which attribute would the decision tree induction algorithm choose? Answer: The contingency tables after splitting on attributes A and B are: A=T 4 3 A=F 0 3 B =T 3 1 B =F 1 5 + − + − The overall entropy before splitting is: Eorig = −0.9852. A T T T T T F F F T T B F T T F T F F F T F Class Label + + + − + − − − − − 2 2 2 2 a) Calculate the information gain when splitting on A and B. Therefore. 2 2 2 2 . attribute A will be chosen to split the node.6 log 0. Consider the following data set for a binary class problem.9710 The information gain after splitting on A is: EA=T = -(4/7)log (4/7) –(3/7)log (3/7) = 0. the Gini index is given by: 5/9[1-(2/5) -(3/5) ] + 4/9[1-(2/4) -(2/4) ] = 0.1371.2565 ∆ = Therefore.4889. we can compute the gain after splitting on B.
the error rate using attribute Y is (40 + 40)/200 = 0.5. Consider the following set of training X 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 Y 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 Z 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 No. For attribute X. the error rate using attribute Y is (30 + 30)/200 = 0. Y . X 0 1 C1 15 15 C2 45 25 Y 0 1 C1 15 15 C2 45 25 . For attribute Y.5] and they are both monotonously decreasing on the range [0. the corresponding counts are: X 0 1 C1 60 40 C2 60 40 Therefore. of Class C1 Examples No. which are scaled differences of the measures. What is the overall error rate of the induced tree? Answer: Splitting Attribute at Level 1. do not necessarily behave in the same way. Answer: Yes. the subsequent test condition may in-volve either attribute X or Y. and Z. This depends on the training examples distributed to the Z = 0 and Z = 1 child nodes. the corresponding counts are: Z 0 1 C1 30 70 C2 70 30 Therefore. even though these measures have similar range and monotonous behavior. as illustrated by the results in parts (a) and (b). After splitting on attribute Z. Use the classification error rate as the criterion for splitting. For attribute Z.c) Figure 4. as shown in the table below. their respective gains. 6.4. the error rate using attribute X is (60 + 40)/200 = 0. To determine the test condition at the root node. 0. the corresponding counts for attributes X and Y are the same.13 shows that entropy and the Gini index are both monotonously increasing on the range [0. the corresponding counts are: Y 0 1 C1 40 60 C2 60 40 Therefore. Since Z gives the lowest error rate. it is chosen as the splitting attribute at level 1.5. Is it possible that information gain and the gain in the Gini index favor different attributes? Explain. Splitting Attribute at Level 2. we need to com-pute the error rates for attributes X. of Class C2 Examples 5 40 0 15 10 5 45 0 10 5 25 0 5 20 0 15 a) Compute a two-level decision tree using the greedy approach described in this chapter. For Z = 0. 1]. ∆.3.
For Z = 1.3. it provides a better split. respectively. the corresponding counts for attributes Y and Z are shown in the tables below. the corresponding counts for attributes X and Y are shown in the tables below. Y 0 1 C1 5 55 C2 55 5 Z 0 1 C1 15 45 C2 45 15 The error rate using attributes Y and Z are 10/120 and 30/120. respectively. Y 0 1 C1 35 5 C2 5 35 Z 0 1 C1 15 25 C2 25 15 The error rate using attributes Y and Z are 10/80 and 30/80. X 0 1 C1 45 25 C2 15 15 Y 0 1 C1 25 45 C2 15 15 Although the counts are somewhat diﬀ erent. (15 + 15)/100 = 0. The corresponding two-level decision tree is shown below. What is the error rate of the induced tree? Answer: After choosing attribute X to be the first splitting attribute. X 0 Y 0 C2 1 0 C1 C1 1 C2 1 Y . For X = 0. the corresponding counts for attributes Y and Z are shown in the table below. For X = 1. Since attribute Y leads to a smaller error rate. b) Repeat part (a) using X as the first splitting attribute and then choose the best remaining attribute for splitting at each of the two successor nodes. the sub-sequent test condition may involve either attribute Y or attribute Z. their error rates remain the same. it provides a better split.The error rate in both cases (X and Y) are (15 + 15)/100 = 0. Z 0 X or Y 0 1 0 C2 C2 C1 1 C1 1 X or Y The overall error rate of the induced tree is (15+15+15+15)/200 = 0.3. The corresponding two-level decision tree is shown below. Since attribute Y leads to a smaller error rate.3.
The overall error rate of the induced tree is (10 + 10)/200 = 0. This example shows that a greedy heuristic does not always produce an optimal solution. the error rate for part (a) is significantly larger than that for part (b). Answer: From the preceding results. c) Compare the results of parts (a) and (b). .1. Comment on the suitability of the greedy heuristic used for splitting attribute selection.


Some people may think that iPhone 5S is perfect that doesn’t let you experience some annoying issues. Well, even if it is the latest release from Apple, several users were also having problems with it. One of the most annoying issues is iPhone 5S Wi-Fi problem. Sometimes, you will experience your Wi-Fi icon just greyed out or your Wi-Fi doesn’t connect. It may connect but doesn’t let you access the Internet as signal suddenly drops. Such of this problem is really frustrating. To help you deal with it, you may consider the given problems and it corresponding solutions below.
Problem 1: Does your iPhone 5S displays a Wi-Fi grayed out icon?
Solution to Problem 1:Several users are experiencing grayed out Wi-Fi icon problem on iPhone 5S which doesn’t allow them to access a Wi-Fi network. Basically, such of this problem is due to iOS incompatibility or the device settings. To solve the problem, the solution below may help.Update your iOS to its latest version. Perhaps, upgrade to the new version iOS 7. If the problem is due to your device settings, go to Settings > Disable Airplane Mode > go to General > Reset > tap Reset Network Settings. NOTE: Before you reset, record all saved important data such as Wi-Fi passwords, Bluetooth pairing codes, VPN and APN settings.
Problem 2: Does your iPhone 5S fails to find Wi-Fi networks?
Solution to Problem 2: Inability to find a network is a very common iPhone 5S Wi-Fi problem experience by most users. To fix the problem, go to Settings > Wi-Fi and choose an available network. If your phone cannot recognize a network, get closer to available wireless router near you. If still it doesn’t work, go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. Now, connect to a network. Go back to Settings > Wi-Fi and select a network.
Problem 3: Does your Wi-Fi signal suddenly drops?
Solution to Problem 3: Poor and dropping Wi-Fi network signals is the most annoying problem in iPhone 5S. Probably, this problem is associated with the router or the Internet Service Provider (ISP). To solve the problem, go to Settings > Wi-Fi > Troubled Wi-Fi Network > then tap Renew Lease. Test if the signal is okay. If signal still drops, go to Settings > Wi-Fi > Trouble shoot Wi-Fi Network > then tap Forget This Network. Reconfigure your Wi-Fi and select a network. If your iPhone 5S Wi-Fi problem still exist, go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings and restart your Phone. This will help you solve the problem.


If there is anything currently uniting most political commentators in contemporary America, it is surely their on-going fascination with the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. The common agreement on both sides of the political aisle through most of 2015 appeared to be that his campaign was eventually bound to fail - the reason being some version of the Jeb Bush position that Donald Trump, far from being a serious candidate, was actually a "jerk." But labeling him in this fashion was - and remains - misleading in two very critical ways. The first is that it puts far too much emphasis on the personal characteristics of Trump the man, so ironically fuelling the narcissism which is so potent a feature of how the Donald continues to campaign. The other is that critiquing him pulls our attention away from the group of die-hard supporters who still flock to his every rally, and who give every impression of liking him precisely because, to Establishment-Republicans at least, he is definitely a jerk.
So who are these die-hard supporters, and why are they drawn to support Donald Trump's candidacy with such fervor? Answering that question is a vital pre-requisite to eventually keeping the White House safe from Trump's hands. For none of us will manage that if we don't first understand - and then address - the concerns of that very special breed of American who is now so keen to see a Trump presidency.
Three features of the core Trump support stand out, and all are now well documented. The first is that his support is heavily concentrated in just one major social demographic: Joan Walsh described it as "Republican voters who didn't go to college," - conservative Americans, that is, now surviving on the very bottom rungs of the generally-threatened US middle class. The second is that the level of anger among that particular group of Americans is at a new and unprecedented level. Many of those turning to Donald Trump for political leadership support him precisely because they are critical of, or actively angry with, the existing political establishment - and see Trump as attractive because he is not part of that establishment. And the third is that the current set of hard-core Trump supporters are - and intend to remain - loyal to him and his cause. If Frank Luntz is right, "half will follow him out of the Republican Party if he breaks his promise and declares as an independent." Support, anger and loyalty - three features of the Trump electoral base that need to be fully understood by those who would reject him. Let's review them here in reverse order.
When solid and committed Trump supporters are asked to explain their enthusiastic endorsement of a candidate prone to say outrageous things, one dimension of his appeal that often surfaces is his willingness to challenge conventional understandings of "political correctness." His supporters like him because "he calls it like he sees it." They like him because he moves into the center of the public conversation views and ideas which many of his supporters also hold, but which in the recent past was thought, even by them, impolitic to say. They like him, that is, for the very reason that the Republican Party establishment does not: that in campaign speech after campaign speech, he makes explicit so many of the underlying premise of the Party's "southern strategy" first put in place by Richard Nixon.
For the last four decades, Washington-based Republicans have been perfectly willing to garner white votes in the south by tacitly going along with residual southern white racism. They just haven't wanted to admit that: and they still don't want to. Instead, they label southern racism "parental choice" in relation to school selection. They call it "rolling back welfare dependency" in relation to the sustenance of the American poor, many of whom are black or Hispanic. They call it "supporting law and order" when police officers shoot black teenagers; and they call it "tax reform" when they denude the public school system of the funds necessary to ensuring that no black/Hispanic student is actually left behind. The Donald doesn't do that. He calls Mexican immigrants criminals and racists. He calls for immigration policies that treat all Muslims as potential terrorists. He even dismisses pushy female journalists as menstrual, or liberal disabled ones as worthy of parody. His supporters like him for some/all of that, depending on the character of their own conservatism. They like him because political correctness has kept them publicly silent for too long, and because he makes a virtue of treading right over every politically-correct line. Anyone wanting to defeat Donald Trump will have, therefore, to persuade a very tough audience that political correctness helps protect them as well as those they privately denigrate.
No doubt, core Trump supporters are angry for lots of reasons, only some of which the Trump campaign addresses directly. But at the very least, it hardly damages Trump's cause, among those white voters unhappy with a black man in the White House, that their man was an active 'birther' and still leaves open the question of the president's citizenship. Being tough on immigrants also helps bind him to that group of American voters - normally white, often male and invariably middle-aged - who was most disturbed by the changing ethnic composition of the United States (with their white majority status projected to vanish in many states by/before 2050). He certainly gains supporters among that same group when he criticizes trade pacts that outsource American jobs and patterns of business deregulation that privilege Wall Street over Main Street; and parading around accompanied by all the trappings of wealth does not alienate him from conservative white males - it helps glue them to him.
Donald Trump is increasingly presenting himself - in spite of his own billionaire credentials - as the champion of non-college educated American voters. Currently, "half of Trump's supporters within the GOP stopped their education at or before high-school graduation....Only 19 percent had a college or post-college degree. Thirty-eight percent earned less than $50,000. Only 11 percent earned more than $100,000." These are members of what Robert Reich recently labeled "the anxious class.... Two thirds of whom are living paycheck to paycheck. Most could lose their jobs at any time." These are men (and to a lesser degree, women) whose wages have stagnated now for over four decades, whose job security was ripped away by the recession triggered from Wall Street in 2008, who often now struggle to make a living wage, and who are in consequence increasingly denied their chance of living the American Dream. Many of them feel threatened from above by the entitlement culture of the super-rich, and even more threatened from below by the demand for equal rights for groups even more disadvantaged than they are. Few of them have the spare resources, week-on-week, to fund federal/state welfare programs through higher personal taxation. Most indeed lack the spare cash to sustain the private charitable giving that so many of them still prefer.
The Trump choice of timing and theme makes sense to Americans struggling to hang on to their middle-class life-style and status, because particularly white, male, non-college educated voters are having a tough economic time as the traditional American middle class increasingly erodes. Members of that demographic are even dying earlier at a greater rate now than in the immediate past, the victims of their increasing consumption of both alcohol and drugs. Their world is not going in a direction that they personally favor. Donald Trump is promising to pull that direction back in their favor, playing on both their anger about the present and their apprehensions about the future. Anyone wanting to defeat him will need, therefore, to persuade a very tough audience that Donald Trump's explanation of their present and future condition is wrong, and that theirs by contrast is not.
Donald Trump's current political problem is not that he has the overwhelming political support on older and less educated voters. It is that he is over-dependent on that demographic: one that is "less affluent, less educated and less likely to turn out to vote." His problem is that by playing to their concerns he effectively alienates other voting blocks that are socially adjacent to them but are more disadvantaged even than they are. Defending police violence is hardly the way to win African-American votes. Promising to expel 11 million undocumented voters hardly sells well in the Hispanic community. Trump is not a single-issue politician, but he is currently too much a single-constituency politician for his own long-term good: his 27 percent support among Republican voters in December currently translates into support among only 13 percent of the American electorate as a whole. That single-mindedness may win him the Republican nomination, but it will also likely create problems for him in the general election that follows.
If loyalty, anger and support are all key elements in Trump's current dominance of the Republican presidential field, rolling each back - and doing so in a progressive manner - is equally key to ensuring that that dominance does not persist into the general election itself.
Progressive politicians will never win over the racist element of the Trump coalition, and nor should they try. But they can - and must - win over that section of the white working class that is pulled to Trump by their general anxiety about economic conditions and future prospects. The question, of course, is exactly how: and here the traditional Democratic method of coalition-building may actually get in the way.
Habitually, Democratic politicians try to build their winning coalition by adding constituencies together: not least of late African-Americans given daily proof of the need to insist that black lives matter; Hispanic voters who want a route to citizenship for an undocumented Spanish-American working class who contribute so mightily to the success of key industries like agriculture and hospitality; and working women struggling to break glass ceilings while often attempting to combine paid work with the rearing of children. Women, that is, who are and regularly pushed towards poverty by a wage system that pays them only 79 cents on the male dollar. The premise of so much of the Democrats' political campaigning in 2015 appears to be that the white male working class that is drifting towards Donald Trump is simply another constituency to be added to the rest. Both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns seem currently to be treating that addition as ultimately a simple and straightforward one, because neither campaign seems willing to concede that, at the bottom of the US income ladder, the immediate economic interests of groups do not naturally align. It is an error of analysis that Trump does not share with them, and it is one that may yet let Trump in.
If they are going to stop Donald Trump in his tracks, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders need to build their 2016 campaigns on the explicit recognition that, as American capitalism is currently organized, different sections of the American poor and near-poor do compete with one another for limited resources (for jobs, wages and welfare benefits); and that in consequence there is an explicit strategic choice to be offered to those various constituencies in November - and particularly to the angry ones. It is either for potential voters to go on treating each other as competitors to be defeated/excluded - the Trump way - or it is to come together - the progressive way - in a joint endeavor to reform a system that sets similarly-placed people in such fierce competition with each other.
The politics of exclusion are the politics of Trump. The politics of inclusion have to be ours. Donald Trump may be promising to make America great again, but he is not promising to remove the competition between ethnic groups at the bottom of the US class structure for a limited set of employment opportunities and social resources. He is not, but progressives must: for unless the American Left can demonstrate how its policies, and its alone, can raise all ships, right-wing populists like Donald Trump will continue to play group against group, to the long-term mutual disadvantage of them all.
It is always easier to blame other victims for a shared condition. That is why the Trump message resonates so strongly among a certain group of angry, white middle-aged and anxious voters. But playing the blame game just reinforces the system that makes the allocation of blame necessary in the first place. Which is why progressive politicians need to develop and advocate for an entirely new way of running the American economy that does not require the setting of one group of the vulnerable against another. It is also why there is no more important task before us now than that of redirecting the anger and frustration that so many Americans feel - redirecting it away from its focus on people and groups who are our immediate neighbors, and directing it towards against the properties of an entire economic and social system that only survives by setting neighbors against each other.
What that means, in immediate campaigning terms, is this. It means bringing issues of social class back into the center of the political debate. It means anchoring discussions of racial and gender discrimination (real and powerful as those are) in a wider conversation about general social inequality and capitalist power (large parts of which are less visible but more potent still). It means doing what Bernie Sanders does best - proposing redistributive taxation to correct the theft of wealth and income by the top 1 percent - and it means doing what so far neither Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton do sufficiently well: articulating a growth strategy for the entire US economy that can do the two things that the alternative Republican free-trade/austerity growth strategy cannot. Articulating a progressive economic growth strategy that can pull well-paid manufacturing jobs back to the United States, in the process beginning to ease the anxieties of a middle class historically so dependent upon them. And articulating a progressive economic growth strategy that can raise all ships - one that can generate growth by anchoring prosperity at the bottom of the income ladder, so lifting the daily pressure of inadequate paychecks from the shoulders of more and more hardworking Americans.
For far too long, Washington-based Democrats have remained wedded to trade policies that outsource American jobs (the Obama Administration still is) and to triangulation with Republicans that block the strengthening of trade unions and labor rights (as the Clinton Administration did so spectacularly in the 1990s). Both those things have to end, and to end immediately. The only way to win in November is to out-trump Trump at his own game: to expose him for the peddler of half-truths that he is, and to replace those half-truths with the realities of an America that is still in need of root-and-branch progressive reform. The only way to roll back right-wing populism is to beat it at its own game by developing an even stronger form of left-wing populism. That is the progressive task par excellence for 2016. A year dominated by left-wing populism will not only guarantee success against Trump and his ilk in November. It will also turn the general election of 2016 into an election which is genuinely worth winning.
For a fuller statement on the articulation of class, race and gender in contemporary capitalism, see David Coates, Capitalism: The Basics. New York: Routledge, 2015.


Bomb Trains: What Can We Learn From Shipping Ethanol to Improve Oil-By-Rail Safety?
This article is the first in a series by DeSmog on the safety of shipping ethanol and oil by rail.
From 2010 to 2015, the total number of tank cars moving ethanol by rail was more than 1.98 million. That's about 18 percent greater than the more than 1.68 million tank cars of crude oil shipped over the same time period.
With more ethanol than crude oil moved by rail in recent years, why isn't anyone calling ethanol trains “bomb trains” too?
Ethanol is significantly less volatile than crude oil or gasoline. However, when an unpunctured rail car full of ethanol is engulfed in flames for long enough, it too will explode with the signature “bomb train mushroom cloud” typical of those carrying Bakken crude oil. For example, after a BNSF train derailed in Montana in August 2012, eight of the 14 cars carrying ethanol caught fire in what was described by a BNSF spokesperson as a “chain reaction,” which included a mushroom cloud–shaped ball of fire.
Yet perhaps the main reason no one is referring to ethanol trains as “bomb trains” is that these trains have been involved in fewer accidents — which is by far the best way to avoid large fires and explosions.
According to information provided to DeSmog by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), from 2010 to 2015 there were seven accidents involving ethanol train derailments; half as many as the 14 accidents with oil trains. This lower number of accidents for ethanol trains is despite the fact that more ethanol was moved by rail during the same six year period. So far, 2016 has seen one oil train accident but none involving ethanol.
However, to date, DeSmog is not aware of any discussion of the reason why oil trains derail more frequently than ethanol trains. Let's take Quarterman's advice and follow the data to determine possible explanations.
As previously cited, the data on derailments certainly suggests oil trains are different — and more likely to derail — than ethanol trains.
However, this statement fails to acknowledge that while crude oil traffic has seen an “enormous increase” since 2009, more ethanol actually was transported by rail over that same period. When you further examine the data, evidence begins to appear that something about oil trains is making them “inherently less safe” than ethanol trains.
To improve safety, we need to answer the following question: Why aren’t ethanol trains derailing at the same rate as oil trains?
One potential risk factor that stands out from rail crash data is that the oil trains that are derailing are long trains. Among the 15 oil train derailments since 2010, 10 were over 100 cars long and four were over 90 cars long. This fact by itself isn’t surprising; unit trains — those consisting solely of oil tank cars — are often longer than 100 cars.
At the same roundtable, Richard Kloster of rail consulting firm Alltranstek cited numbers showing unit trains of ethanol over 100 cars are extremely rare, with only 1 percent of ethanol moving this way.
He noted that 46 percent of ethanol was transported via trains of 75-99 cars. The rest — constituting more than half of all ethanol shipped by rail — traveled on trains of 74 or fewer cars. Furthermore, 32% of these ethanol shipments were actually single cars of ethanol transported as part of a mixed freight train.
Yet, of the seven ethanol train accidents between 2010 and 2015, three involved trains longer than 100 cars and two others included trains 98 cars long (although not all of them were unit trains carrying only ethanol). This means five of the seven recent ethanol train accidents occurred with the type of long trains typical of the more accident-prone oil trains.
Looking at this data, it is hard to argue with the fact that trains carrying oil are generally longer and derail with greater frequency than those carrying ethanol, which tend to be shorter. Most oil shipped by rail moves in these long unit trains. Most ethanol shipped by rail does not. When ethanol trains have derailed, however, most of them have been around 100 cars or more long.
In response, the room sat in silence for a full 12 seconds. After no one from the rail industry volunteered to comment, Karl Alexy from FRA made a statement in which he changed the subject without directly answering the question.
At that point, Robert Fronczak from AAR made the classic industry argument that by making the trains shorter, more trains will be required to move the same amount of oil, therefore, potentially increasing the risk of derailment.
ExxonMobil and the oil industry use the same argument against improving rail safety by making tank car shells thicker: because that would mean more trains on the tracks. ExxonMobil presented the following slide to regulators, which argues against requiring safer, thicker tank cars.
What would be better, more safe trains or fewer unsafe trains? Seems like a question worth exploring, and it is clear that Fronczak is “not sure” about which actually produces safer results. Based on the response to DeSmog's question (as visible in the above video), no one at either AAR or FRA appears interested in examinig the issue.
Judging by the long, awkward silence in a room full of the nation's top rail experts, train length appears to be the proverbial “third rail” of train regulation. It's the untouchable issue.
This “ignorance” approach is the other way bomb trains keep rolling. As long as industry representatives and regulators say they are never quite sure about the cause of or solution to an issue, they are forced to do nothing in the face of this uncertainty.
For example, regulators have not required the stabilization of Bakken crude oil to reduce its volatility prior to transport because they say “the science is still out” about how to do so most effectively. However, as explained in this DeSmog video, that is not the case. Still, the Department of Energy is now studying this issue and won’t have results until late 2017. Any regulations based on those findings would take several more years to complete.
And modern braking systems for trains are claimed to be an “unproven” technology, even though they been studied and proven to be safer than the current air braking systems on trains. The AAR even ran ads saying safety data didn’t support the use of modern braking systems. Congress has now mandated that train braking systems be studied further, again delaying any action.
Questioning known facts — or outright dismissing what is actually unknown, in the case of train length as a risk factor in derailments — is a very effective method for delaying action.
If longer trains do derail more often, perhaps they shouldn’t be allowed. As previously reported on DeSmog, no regulations exist for train length, and none are proposed.
As noted earlier, Dr. Barkan testified on behalf of the rail industry in support of the proposed Vancouver, Washington, oil-by-rail facility. Barkan is a professor of civil engineering at the University of Illinois with a focus on rail transportation and runs a research group that receives funding directly from the rail industry.
“Thus, it follows that longer trains have an increased likelihood of having an accident due to a larger number of car-miles of exposure.
In 2001, the average number of cars per freight train of Class I freight railroads was 68.5 cars (AAR, 2003b). In the same year, the average length of derailed Class I freight trains was 78.6 cars (FRA, 2003a). These two statistics are consistent with the hypothesis that longer trains have a higher likelihood of derailment.
This research came from a university closely aligned with and funded by the rail industry and concludes that trains may have an optimal length to reduce their risk of derailment. Yet, regulators and industry have not acknowledged these results, and nothing is being done to address this issue.
According to the Association of American Railroads, in 2015 the average freight train length was 72.5 cars. In his testimony for the Vancouver oil-by-rail project, Dr. Barkan estimated the average train length for oil trains at that facility would be 118 cars, considerably longer than the average and in the range expected to derail more often than shorter trains.
In late 2015, energy giant Kinder Morgan announced plans to build a new ethanol unit train facility in North Carolina.
Based on the ethanol industry's interest in using more unit trains for “efficiency,” and the fact that it is allowed to transport ethanol in the unsafe DOT-111 tank cars until 2023, perhaps it won't be long before ethanol trains are known as bomb trains too.
Talking to the people who operate these trains makes clear that it is no easy task. Mile-long trains, ever-changing cargo, various braking systems, slack in the train, hills, curves, and fatigue are all part of the mix for train operators. They have to make a lot of judgment calls about how best to navigate the tracks with any given train.
Bill Keppen is a former locomotive engineer and comes from a railroad family. Keppen told DeSmog about his experience learning to operate long, heavy trains.
“Being the son of a respected engineer, I learned on the job from other good engineers,” Keppen said. “After a few years of experience, I felt like I could make the elephant dance.” Keppen was referring to the skills it take to successfully operate a big, heavy train.
Keppen also was clear that the longer the train, the harder it was to operate.
All of the evidence supports the idea that longer trains, which are more difficult to operate, are also more likely to derail. Yet instead of seeing research and regulations to identify the optimal train length for preventing derailments, what we get is the ethanol industry making the potentially dangerous move toward the use of more unit trains.
By examining data on ethanol trains, the oil-by-rail industry could learn a lot about how to ship this volatile product more safely. Yet the reality appears to be that the ethanol industry wants to emulate the oil-by-rail industry, not the other way around. And that is bad news for the 25 million people living in bomb train blast zones.