text:
Given my love for ballet, it was only one logical step for me to look at a Barre certification course. And just at I had decided to look into it further, an opportunity for the very thing presented itself in Raleigh J. The stars were lining up.
The course provider is Core Barre™, and its creator is Monica Hoekstra. Given my over 20 years in the fitness industry and a fair amount of education, I am a rather critical consumer and not easily persuaded. The content and presentation of Monica's course, though, meets my full approval, and I enjoy it very much. Her approach to what she calls 'Smart Movement' is fully in line with my training of MELT, The BioMechanics Method and the other corrective exercise modalities that I employ. I am a hawk on good posture myself, and her entire Core Barre™ system is geared towards improving posture through the strengthening of the stabilizing muscles of the shoulder girdle, hip and core.
The course has elements of ballet without being a ballet class. Her suggested syllabus includes an intelligent warm-up, a segment on the barre, and floor exercises which are mainly inspired by Pilates.
Once I have 'incorporated' those exercises into my own body, I intend to augment them with MELT Length and Strength techniques. This format will be one only taught at my studio to a small number of participants, so be on the lookout for an announcement some time soon.
Hypertension is one of the common precursors to heart disease and stroke, and millions of dollars are spent on medication to control it.
Yet in many cases hypertension can be lowered as successfully as with medication through the DASH diet. Dash stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The DASH diet has more fruits, vegetables and low-fat dairy and less sweets, saturated fat and cholesterol than the typical American diet. Studies have demonstrated its effectiveness over and over again. If people also cut sodium, then the DASH diet is even superior to medication! (Source: Nutrition Action Healthletter March 2015)
So what are you waiting for? Make a DASH for it. Here is a link to more information http://dashdiet.org/.
By North Carolina standards, we had a lot of snow and ice during the last 2 weeks. Since snow is not necessarily an annual occurrence in this neck of the woods, the activity of snow shoveling is not often practiced.
The terms 'functional fitness' and 'functional training' have been thrown around a lot over the last decade, and quite rightly so. Sitting on a machine and pushing or pulling a weight stack in the only direction the machine allows can build strength in that one movement pattern, but rarely translates into the real world.
You know that you have trained yourself 'functionally' when, after two hours of shoveling snow, you are ready for nap and a little sore over all, but do not have aching shoulders or a painful lower back.
And, if I were you, I'd hop onto my foam roller and MELT away.
Today is Valentine's Day, hearts are aflutter and the card, restaurant, florist and chocolate industry has one of the most important days of the year.
February is also Heart Month as featured by the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). Here is an excerpt from their website with many good recommendations to keep your heart healthy so that the heartbeat only rises for the right reasons.
"Make Blood Pressure Control Your Goal
This American Heart Month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Million Hearts®–a national effort to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes in the United States by 2017–are encouraging Americans to know their blood pressure, and if it's high, to make control their goal.
Uncontrolled high blood pressure is a leading cause of heart disease and stroke. In fact, more than 67 million Americans have high blood pressure. People with high blood pressure are 4 times more likely to die from a stroke and 3 times more likely to die from heart disease, compared to those with normal blood pressure.
High blood pressure often shows no signs or symptoms, which is why having your blood pressure checked regularly is important. It's easy to get your blood pressure checked. You can get screened at your doctor's office and drugstores or even check it yourself at home, using a home blood pressure monitor.
Make Control Your Goal
If you know you have high blood pressure, take these steps to help get it under control:
Ask your doctor what your blood pressure should be. Set a goal to lower your pressure with your doctor and talk about how you can reach your goal. Work with your health care team to make sure you meet that goal. Track your blood pressure over time. One way to do that is with this free wallet card from Million Hearts®.
Take your blood pressure medicine as directed. Set a timer on your phone to remember to take your medicine at the same time each day. If you are having trouble taking your medicines on time or paying for your medicines, or if you are having side effects, ask your doctor for help.
Quit smoking—and if you don't smoke, don't start. You can find tips and resources at CDC's Smoking and Tobacco website.
Reduce sodium intake. Most Americans consume too much sodium, which can raise blood pressure. Read about ways to reduce your sodium and visit the Million Hearts® Healthy Eating & Lifestyle Resource Center for heart-healthy, lower-sodium recipes, meal plans, and helpful articles."
Check out more information
Here is a direct link to the CDC website http://www.cdc.gov/features/heartmonth/ where you can find out more information about high blood pressure.
How did that happen?
A few more days, and I will be celebrating (?) my 60th birthday. I rather think of it as the 2nd anniversary of my 30th, but that is really cosmetic.
It is certainly time to be grateful. Grateful that I have not been afflicted with one of those diseases that come out of nowhere and profoundly change a person's life. Grateful for all those years during which I could learn that 90% of all worries never materialize; so I am now making better use of my time. Grateful for the happenstance of my skin color and ethnicity which works like an automatic door opener where others have to push.
Grateful that I changed my career 20 years ago and got into the wellness industry. Without it, I may now be a manager at IBM (well, maybe not), spending hours at my desk, making forecasts of supreme irrelevance to anybody's well-being, and collecting frequent flyer miles. I would also look at retirement (if it had not already happened) and would be wondering what to do with the rest of my life.
None of those worries for me. Even though I realize that I am quite unemployable as a 60 year old woman (urgh! that sounds awful), I am and will be my own boss. I am in an industry where experience actually counts, and that includes life experience. Being 60 is not a mark against me but a batch of honor.
Happy Birthday to me :-)
I am once more moving away from my fitness field to talk about art which to me is therapeutic and stress-relieving (well, maybe I am talking about wellness after all …..)
I bought a beautiful piece of artwork called 'Odette in a Dogwood Forest' by Jaimon Caceres which unites in one piece my love of painting and my love of ballet. It is in a place where I see it often in the course of the day, and every time I pass by it makes me smile and feel happy.
It makes me wonder how colors on paper can have that effect. I am reminded of Magritte's famous painting "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (this is not a pipe) under the drawing of a pipe. It's our brain that creates the narrative and fills in the blanks. It's my brain that places me in a forest where I see an ethereal figure dancing, unaware of being observed. It is also my brain that marvels at the balance of the picture where everything is just in the perfect place. As I stand and look at it, I am receiving the gift of being in the moment. Whenever I look at the drawing, I forget, for that little space of time, what was and what will be.
And then I continue my day – smiling :-)
So, here you are at the dawn of a New Year (I am till in poetic mode after my Shakespeare impersonation). You have decided it's time to do something about those ……… (fill in the blanks such as extra 20 lbs., cigarettes, sodas) and you are determined to change. You were a little reluctant because those goals seem to repeat themselves year after year. You start off great, and then you fall off.
Setting goals is great but there is a way to increase the odds of you actually achieving them, and here are some tips:
- Write them down and divide them into a long-term (eg. I want to lose 20 lbs. in 6 months) and short-term goals (eg. I want to lose 5 lbs in the first month by walking every day for a total of 20 minutes and decreasing my caloric intake by replacing my afternoon super-size double chocolate thingamajig with a small single chocolate thingamajig).
- Share your goals with others, and if I were you, don't share them with your significant other as this can cause problems beyond the ones you have already ;-). A personal trainer or wellness coach would be an excellent choice.
- Tape the goals where you can see them every day. You can even write a subset of them on your daily to-do list if you do such a thing to keep them present in your awareness.
- Identify potential barriers and think through strategies how to offset them. For example, where will you walk when it rains so that you cannot go to a park? Is there a mall? Do you have access to a treadmill? Are you getting bored? Have you tried listening to music or a recorded book (my personal favorite)? Do you have a party coming up where thingamajigs will abound?
- Track your progress. After a week or two, review what went right and what was difficult. Adjust your short-term plan as necessary. Rather walking every day for 20 minutes, maybe it's better for you to walk only 5 times per week for 30 minutes each.
Studies have shown that good goal setting can make or break the deal whether you will reach your goal or not. And you do not have to wait for the New Year's Day to make a resolution. Changing the way you have done things for a long time requires commitment and vigilance. The old habits have not served you well; they have led you to where you are right now.
So try to be SMART as you set your goals.
S pecfic
M easurable
A ttainable
R ealistic
T imely
Happy New Year!
To make or not to make – that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous portion
Or to take up arms against a sea of gobbles,
And, by opposing, end them.
Oh Shakespeare, please forgive me.
'Tis this time of year again. And the question in many minds is whether or not to make a New Year's Resolution. The biggest argument I hear against it that people know that they will not be sticking to it anyway, so why bother making them in the first place.
Well, that's one way of looking at it. It is always easy to live up to no expectation at all. If you have not set yourself a goal, you cannot fail at it. And who wants to be a failure ……
I have a favorite quote from one of the most remarkable men who ever lived, Michelangelo. He said "The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark."
With the New Year approaching, I'll leave you to ponder the question of where you want to set your aim.
As a MELT instructor, I talk about hydration a lot. Water is what keeps the connective tissue happy and in good shape. I suggest to everybody to drink a glass of water after a class, and, from all I can see, everybody trots dutifully to the water fountain to get their fill.
With the latest cold spell, I noticed a change. Water bottles are not as common. To be honest, after a long walk with my dog, I feel more like a hot cup of tea than a glass of water.
But that's the problem: warmer temperatures make us so much more likely to drink water. So we have to be a little more mindful that hydration is just as, if not more important in the colder days.
And it has an added benefit: everybody complains about the effects of heating on mucus membranes and the skin. So let's get hydrated and improve all of the above.
Prost! To your health!
Last Tuesday, I spent almost 16 hours at a precinct to help my follow citizens exercise their right to vote. I had done this in the past and have always looked at it as fun, though in a rather twisted kind of way.
The last Election Day was almost too much fun.
I was assigned to the help table and in a very busy precinct. As I was assisting voter after voter with little break, it struck me to which degree physical fitness can help to survive such a day.
We were a team of 10, all women. All of us had been to the mandatory training prior to the election and had been at the polling location the evening before to set up the polling place with the voting booths and all the tables and folding chairs. The morning of the election, we were all there before 6 AM to put the finishing touches on the location before the polls opened at 6:30 AM.
A line had already formed outside the precinct, and at the stroke of 6:30 AM the voters streamed into the polling place.
Being sent to the help table means that something is not as it should be, and people are usually not happy about it. At best, it means a delay of a few minutes. There can be a line, and it may take a little while to figure out where the hang-up is in the process. The goal of a precinct worker is to help as accurately as possible, and checklists aplenty are provided to ensure that the processes are fully adhered to. There are so many fields to check and to initial! While each process seems straightforward and easy, the unrelenting stream of voters can cause an oversight. As the day progresses and fatigue sets in, one has to call on all reserves to get through it.
Most voters were very appreciative and gracious, some were impatient, some were suspicious, and some did not have a good understanding of the voting process. Well, and then there were a select few who …… well, how to put this politely, were …… not so very nice ………
When the day was over and I was at home, I took a physical inventory. Quite an interesting picture, and not one that I liked a lot. I got my roller and MELTed and also swung my rapid release device into action. Soon, all was well again.


text:
"America the Beautiful" audio terrorist, Keith "Cougar" Rodgerson, appeared in court today to answer charges that he disturbed the peace with Ray Charles's lovely rendition of the uplifting and patriotic song.
The "sonic subversive" was pinched for drowning out the horrific screeching and caterwauling emanating from that gaping chasm in the middle of Ann Coulter's loathsome face during a "Tea Party" held in Bridgeport on September 11th. Normally that's a day when Americans reflect on the thousands of innocent lives lost as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but for Coulter and the teabaggers it was a day for bad jokes and even worse singing and line dancing (from the Hartford 9/11 tea party). Revolting.
Meanwhile, a furious white teabagger hurled various threats, including a beyond-a-doubt death threat at an innocent black bystander while several police officers in the immediate area seemingly suffered from a temporary case of hysterical deafness (watch the video to see).
Lennie Grimaldi at Only In Bridgeport has this report:
Afternoon update: This is too funny. Keith Cougar Rodgerson, former City Council member, had his day in court today for crashing conservative crow Ann Coulter's downtown Tea Party in September.I'll continue to report on the saga of the "aural avenger" as details emerge.
Cougar was charged with this …
Sec. 53a-181a. Creating a public disturbance: Infraction. (a) A person is guilty of creating a public disturbance when, with intent to cause inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, he (1) engages in fighting or in violent, tumultuous or threatening behavior; or (2) annoys or interferes with another person by offensive conduct; or (3) makes unreasonable noise.
… because of this
Cougar noted in court today that his actions are protected speech under the 1st Amendment. He would not accept a plea offer and a trial is set for January 28, 2010...

subset: commoncrawl


text:
I do recall mentioning that we only post one main for posting purposes, and that now we have a 50 DKP cap on boxes bidding - but I do not recall I said to pick which one you brought - so I think that must have been another.
I believe bots are actually higher on the priority list for getting time flags.
and our DKP policy allows for both bots and alts to bid on gear with their dkp and until changed alts are not presently limited by how much they can but boxes can not bid more than 50 DKP. The alts might get the 50 DKP cap as well soon however.
our published DKP policy is more restrictive on boxes than alts - and the earning of points for boxes will continue to be more restrictive than the earning of points by alts. This is to prevent a player from gearing up a box and their main at the same rate as another person gearing up just one toon. However with the low bids on items lately - the 50 DKP cap is barely important any more.
Simply an alt is a player that plays more than one main or plays a char often that they don't consider a second main.
A box is a char that is played simultaneously as their Main (or their second main depending on how they perceive it).
Why are their restrictions on them and why is their discussion of incressing restrictions? Some feel like we are wasting the guilds time if alts ( a second raiding char per person) are bidding on a loot that if it went to a players sole raiding char would progress the guild faster rather than double farming any loot. The decision is do we want to gear up our guildies characters or do we want to progress as fast as we can. Right now we don't have a stated objective one way or the other.


text:
When ordering please advise the name and colour you would like in the "Delivery instructions, comments or gift message section" of the checkout process (directly after the delivery address section, view here). Type it exactly as you would like the name to look ie COOPER*, Cooper or cooper.
These personalised wall decals are a great way to display your child's name as part of the room decor and help your child recognise and spell their name. See our Gallery Page for customer photos of our name decals.
See colour chart here. Perfect for any style and colour scheme!
These are a custom made product, please allow 3 day for dispatch.
Please order with care, custom made items cannot be returned. Orders containing custom lettering will be held until this portion of your order is received so your full order can be sent together.
*A couple things to consider about using all capitals:
*Clearance Sale items are strictly limited, no holds, layby's or rainchecks, once stock is sold out we are unable to get anymore in at the sale pricing - so get in quick! Please purchase with care as Clearance Items are not able to be returned due to change of mind, no refunds or exchanges on Clearance Items only.


text:
James Swanson, chief investment strategist for MFS Investment Management, recently gave his midyear outlook for the markets, noting most prominently MFS's views that "a recession is not in the offing," and that "stocks are a better relative value than bonds."
During a call with reporters on Tuesday to discuss MFS' midyear outlook, Swanson said that interest rates "continue to be low, both in the U.S. and globally, which is helping to stimulate economic activity."
The housing market continues to rebound in the U.S., as well, he said, noting that "it is now cheaper to own versus rent on average, and demographics and family formation support the need for building more houses." If housing returns to its pre-2007 levels, he said, "it could deliver up to 2.5% of GDP, driving demand for labor, for construction, as well as for the goods and services that go into finishing a house (paints, fabrics, appliances, etc.)."
Another factor that's stimulating economic activity, he said, is the "pent-up demand for big-ticket items like cars. The average car on the road today is roughly 11 years old, for example. Consumers are also benefiting from lower commodity prices, leaving them more cash in their pocket after filling up their gas tanks than earlier in the year."
As to investment picks, Swanson said that stocks are a better "relative value" than bonds, warning boomers against tying up too much of their money in U.S. government bonds.
Given that most boomers have "quite a few more years to live, likely another 30," Swanson said, and with the "world expecting higher inflation ahead of us, I would say you're locking in a negative rate of return."
Putting too much money in "long-term government bonds may not serve [boomers] that well," as "rates going up would be harmful. As an investment process it doesn't seem there's great value in the U.S. government bond market."
But Swanson did note his optimism for the tech and emerging-market sectors. "The technology sector has matured considerably since 2000, with little debt, strong free cash flow and sustainable earnings underpinned by multiple product revolutions (mobile devices, cloud computing to name two)," he said. "There is also considerable pent-up demand for both software and hardware—the current installed software and hardware base is the oldest on record."
As for emerging markets, Swanson said that "some emerging-market economies cut rates in 2012 and are now starting to see the positive impact of the rate cuts, which have stimulated local economies." Emerging economies, he noted, "continue to drive demand for commodities as well as consumer goods."
Said Swanson: "We like globally diversified businesses with strong balance sheets generating revenue from developing markets as a way to play the long-term secular opportunity of EM equities."
Check out 5 Huge Market Shifts, and How Investors Should Respond: Merrill on AdvisorOne.


text:
Tag: Jazz
Confessions of a Vinyl Addict – Part 1
The first time I met the blues In 2013 I was asked to write a piece for the book publisher Faber. The inspiration for the request was a collaboration between Document Records and Jack White's Third Man Records which had just taken place. What was required of me by Faber was an insight into how I … Continue reading "Confessions of a Vinyl Addict – Part 1"


text:
(mostly a copy of the mail to the tickit-dev mailing list)
A lot of stuff happening lately. And also I haven't written one of these for ages. I won't go into every detail, but here's a rundown of the most interesting parts:
Rect/RectSet are now C library based (0.26)
Fairly simple, no surprises here. C implementation means it's available in C and other languages, and probably a bit faster in actual use.
New Term event binding API (0.26)
Rather than a single on_key/on_mouse/etc..., there is now just a list of possible event handlers. Event handling subs don't have to be restricted to a single event; each is registered with a bitmask. This is done to more closely match the C API.
The existing Perl API of having a single on_* handler for each event type is still supported, by wrapping the newer API.
All windows are now FLOAT windows (0.28)
As was first suggested in 0.23, all the windows now use the new float logic. The previous environment variable has now been removed. This hopefully shouldn't actually affect anything as it's been the default for a while now, but does simplify the code internals.
$win->close and no more weak references (0.28)
Using weak references and relying on DESTROY works OK in some circumstances in Perl, but won't scale to C and other languages, and still makes for tricky logic. To this end, I've removed all the weaken()ing and replaced it with an explicit ->close method to remove a window. This also makes it much more robust in nontrivial cases.
This change is mostly of interest to container widget developers, or in more dynamic long-lived programs.
Tickit::Style (0.29)
This one's the big main one of the list; in fact so bit I'll probably write another mail. In summary; we now have something of a first attempt at being able to separate out style from widget implementations, in a way that's easy to add to application- or user-specific style files. More on this later.
Tickit::Pen now comes in mutable and immutable forms (0.30)
Since most pens don't get mutated, and Tickit::Style performs better with cached pens, I've split the idea of a Pen into mutable and immutable types. Tickit::Style returns immutable pens, so widgets shouldn't attempt to mutate them.
Tickit::Pen->new itself still returns a mutable pen for now, but in the future this may change; code that specifically wants a mutable or immutable pen should use the appropriate subclass.
Tickit::Pen changes to support upcoming Tickit::RenderContext (0.31)
A few small changes that allow the new Tickit::RenderContext to work better.
Also some changes in the underlying libtickit C library:
Generic string/integer value termctl operations
Primarily provided to let the xterm driver set the window title, etc..., but the general idea is something similar to ioctl(), so we don't have to extend the API a thousand times just to add lots of little options for specific terminals.
Split xterm/TI-based driver model
To support more specific options in future, and also to give a better (or more accurate) terminfo-based driver. There are now two drivers, selected by the $TERM environment variable, so the xterm-specific things can be done nicely, and still arrange for the generic terminfo driver to work.
This also allows for other terminal-specific drivers in future, in case we find those useful. Perhaps a Win32 console one too.


text:
Monday, August 19, 2013
Important details
11 comments:
- Packer said...
Father at 98
Mother at 99
Patient is 86
I always wondered what the relationship was to that entire line of questioning.
- August 19, 2013 at 9:47 AM
- Harlowe said...
- August 19, 2013 at 10:32 AM
But it leads a life of quiet desperation.
- August 19, 2013 at 12:22 PM
If this were House, MD, then the goldfish would turn out to be key to the diagnosis...
- August 19, 2013 at 12:47 PM
- danielle said...
whew...glad to hear that...was worried about Goldie....
- August 19, 2013 at 2:34 PM
More accurately: "He has a pet goldfish which is in good health, save for its memory, which appears to disappear every 15 seconds or so, or approximately upon each trip around the goldfish bowl."
- August 19, 2013 at 5:08 PM
I have the same kind of cataracts as my dog. And yes, I told my optometrist. He did not seem impressed.
- August 19, 2013 at 8:24 PM
Ah, you forget that it isn't whether you practice good medicine; it's whether the patient marks you all Excellents on the survey. Asking those personal questions, including the pets, get the Excellents. Finding the solution to the chief complaint -- might not get those Excellents.
- August 19, 2013 at 9:36 PM
i ask about pets in the home, which yields a fountain (or bowl) of clinical pearls....
trip hazard?
able to attend to pet needs? (cognitive, financial, etc)
who can I call (about pet care handoff) if the patient is to be admitted?
while pets are part of some families, but maybe not most appropriate to list under "family history" ((I add to "social hx", on the other hand, goldfish would be tails and fins above some of my family members.... - old PA
- August 20, 2013 at 1:32 PM
- Vicki said...
Don't forget the sweet old lady whom Dr. Grumpy noticed forgetting to take her medicine suddenly! He discovered that she had been timing her med doses upon her dog's regular habits of going outside, but the dog suddenly died, leaving her to forget to take her pills! So in her case, a medical history of her dog would have been useful!
- August 20, 2013 at 4:58 PM
Does Ed need a date?
- August 20, 2013 at 10:58 PM


text:
It is acceptable. I shall hush the chitterings of unseen chitinous creatures in the shadows beneath the giver's home tonight; there will be an absence of strangely glutinous slitherings over their windowpanes; the unspeakable colors will cease flickering on the edge of their vision, as the malign influence of the Old Ones temporarily recede.
Just for tonight. One night of respite. We will resume tomorrow.


text:
Lil Scrappy Discusses His Incident Of Being Stabbed! "He Put Hands On My Sister, Talkin Reckless, I Bust Heads"
Lil Scrappy Discussing Incident. Shout out to Charley
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
Saga Collection '06 / Re: 2006 SDCC Exclusive Shadow Stormtrooper« on: March 20, 2006, 11:42 PM »
I was never able to get the VOTC stormtrooper, so I'll be buying a couple of these.
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
ROTS Pilot Obi Wan with the Clone Wars Battlepack Obi-Wan's head on it looks real good. Slap the Pilot Obi's headset on (little bulky, but as good as it'll ever get IMO), and you have a good AOTC Obi Pilot going there...
The heads swap perfectly too btw, no customizing necessary.


text:
Have an account?
Need an account?Create an account
Market Trends
Figure 1. Small Cell Market Trends
• Cisco® research shows that providers can expect mobile data traffic to increase 18-fold over the five years between 2011 and 2016. Analysts also point to the exponential growth in signaling traffic helping drive the data growth.
• Coupled with this growth in traffic is the lack of available new spectrum and the difficulty for operators to quickly and cost-effectively add new macrocell sites. In this environment, small cell solutions become very attractive.
• Distinctions between consumer and business services on mobile devices have become blurred. Small cells can help deliver those services transparently across third- and fourth-generation (3G and 4G) cellular networks and Wi-Fi.
• Wireless usage is shifting indoors. Network analytics show that the majority of mobile data usage - close to 80 percent - is indoor and nomadic, rather than truly mobile. Macro networks were built for voice on the go. Small cell networks are designed to address modern mobile data traffic patterns.
• Small cells offer new monetization opportunities by taking advantage of the intelligence inherent in the network, including policy, hyperlocation, context, application, and device information. Businesses can use this information to engage with their customers in new ways, including through augmented experiences, location-based content, and personalized loyalty programs.
Figure 2. The Growth of Wi-Fi Traffic by 2016
• Carrier-class solution by design: Cisco SP Wi-Fi is tailored to meet the needs of service providers, providing cost-effective small cell coverage and capacity to meet the scale and quality required by mobile data users today. Cisco has been designing service provider Wi-Fi networks for years, and our advanced products reflect the attention to design detail needed in real-world deployments.
• Comprehensive capabilities to reduce business risk: Cisco SP Wi-Fi is more than just a set of technologies; it is a solution ready for rapid, large-scale deployment. The technology architecture is transparent, secure, scalable, and manageable. The business architecture allows operators to use Cisco's expertise to finance, deploy, and start new services quickly.
• Unsurpassed Wi-Fi expertise: Cisco makes the most widely used Wi-Fi access points in the world, with over 15 million Wi-Fi access points deployed. Cisco has the most experience delivering the widest range of Wi-Fi solutions to the widest variety of customers. Cisco helps enterprises and service providers every day to simplify the user experience as mobile devices blur the lines between business and consumer services.
• Innovative technologies: Cisco is pioneering Wi-Fi innovation by addressing challenges of automatic roaming with Cisco Next Generation Hotspot built into our SP Wi-Fi solution. Cisco CleanAir® and Self-Organizing Network (SON) technologies provide reliability and manageability, including simplified subscriber and session management with standardized mobile packet core integration. We solve our customers' problems with a standards-based approach, and then add value with innovations like CleanAir technology and zero-touch provisioning. Cisco Connected Mobile Experience, with location-based context-aware information, allows service providers to better engage with their customers and provide new monetization opportunities with new business services. Cisco's end-to-end Wi-Fi solution is the ideal infrastructure to help you take full advantage of today's wireless market opportunities.
Cisco Service Provider Wi-Fi
Figure 3. Cisco Small Cell Solution
• A complete portfolio of intelligent access points, including the Cisco Aironet® 1550 Series for outdoor and metro deployments and the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series for indoors. Cisco's unique offer is silicon-level integration for crucial network functions, including interference mitigation, resource management, band selection, and video optimization.
• An Intelligent Services Cloud (ISC) for critical network management, subscriber management, and policy control. This includes the Cisco Wireless Controller, the Cisco Mobility Services Engine with built-in analytics, and the Cisco Intelligent Services Gateway (ISG). The Cisco Intelligent Services Cloud gives you the flexibility to deploy, operate, and manage networks with hundreds of thousands of access points, and to analyze the location and context data gathered by the network that can quickly be turned into new service offerings. The capabilities of the ISC translate into reduced operating costs and new revenue streams, including zero-touch provisioning for "hang-and-go" deployments, centralized interference mitigation and troubleshooting for ease of network maintenance, and business intelligence for marketing promotions and other context-based delivery of content.
• A mobile packet core with the award-winning Cisco ASR 5000 Series provides standards-based functionality that allows operators to transparently and securely integrate Wi-Fi, femto, and macro radio networks in the Cisco Small Cell Gateway. The Cisco ASR 5000 Series includes common subscriber management, policy, and authentication functionality, delivering transparent service integration to Wi-Fi users. The Cisco ASR 5000 Series, which powers the Cisco Small Cell Gateway, is in deployments today, providing the multivendor interoperability that operators require.
Intelligent Access Portfolio
Figure 4. Portfolio of Indoor Intelligent Access Points
Figure 5. Portfolio of Outdoor Intelligent Access Points
• Cisco ClientLink is an innovative radio resource management technology that employs beamforming to dramatically improve throughput, network coverage, and overall system performance. Cisco ClientLink also helps solve problems related to mixed-client networks by making sure that all clients, from new tablets and smartphones to earlier devices, operate at the best possible throughput. Cisco ClientLink performs real-time adaptation of the beam on a per-packet and per-client basis, for optimal performance with throughput improved up to 65 percent resulting in battery savings on mobile devices up to 35 percent.
• Cisco CleanAir technology tackles the number-one issue operators faced with Wi-Fi in the past: interference. Unlicensed spectrum only becomes a carrier-grade asset when it can be managed. Cisco CleanAir technology automatically mitigates the impact of wireless interference, optimizes network performance, and reduces troubleshooting costs. Cisco CleanAir technology uses sophisticated spectrum intelligence to monitor the airwaves; detect, locate and classify interference; alert operations; and automatically reconfigure the network to avoid problems. Cisco CleanAir technology also gives access to real-time and historic information about devices and assets located anywhere in the wireless network, so providers can enforce policies and improve network performance based on intelligent information. As an example of the efficiencies afforded by CleanAir technology, one operator tested their network with and without CleanAir enabled and saw ping times decrease by a factor of 5 and UL speeds double with CleanAir turned on, surpassing 3G network performance even on the busy 2.4-GHz band.
With Cisco CleanAir technology, your retail customers can be assured of highly secure credit card transactions, your hospital customers can improve efficiency with wireless patient care and the highly secure transfer of confidential medical records, and your enterprise and business customers can use Wi-Fi voice services to improve campus security.
• Cisco BandSelect further optimizes RF utilization and supports higher user densities by moving 5-GHz-capable clients like the Apple iPhone 5 out of the congested 2.4-GHz channels into the higher-capacity 5-GHz band. Both of these advanced features, and our Cisco SP Wi-Fi solution as a whole, are based on the 802.11 standard to support almost any Wi-Fi enabled device available today. Independent, third-party tests show these innovations can help increase total network capacity by 27 percent and deliver an up to 65 percent increase in device throughput. And most importantly, these higher data rates are delivered with fewer dropped packets (see Miercom Report 090112B).
• Cisco VideoStream enhances the delivery of video over Wi-Fi for a higher quality end-user experience. Most importantly, VideoStream brings both bandwidth efficiency and security to real-time video services, services that are in high demand from your enterprise customers that use interactive multimedia collaboration and communications solutions, and services that are in high demand from Cisco Connected Stadium Wi-Fi customers who expect easy access to the full range of high-fidelity video content.
Cisco Next Generation Hotspot
Intelligent Services Cloud Delivers the Connected Mobile Experience
Figure 6. Cisco Wi-Fi Solution
• The first cloud feature is the Cisco Prime. This first-of-its-kind platform offers converged wired, wireless, and security policy management in a single solution for faster troubleshooting and more efficient network operations. It provides complete visibility into endpoint connectivity, regardless of device, network, or location. Automated wireless configuration and management functions provide complete visibility and control from the Network Operations Center.
• Next is the ability to cost-effectively manage and secure the wireless networks with the Cisco 8500 Series Wireless Controllers. The Cisco Wireless Controllers provide real-time communication between Cisco Aironet intelligent access points, Cisco Prime, and the Cisco 3300 Series Mobility Services Engine (MSE). Integrated Cisco CleanAir technology protects 802.11n performance with forensics and policy enforcement capabilities to create a self-healing, self-organizing wireless network. The controller scales to manage thousands of access points while delivering centralized security policies, wireless intrusion prevention system (IPS) capabilities, and RF management for improved quality of service (QoS).
• The next two elements of the Intelligent Services Cloud provide the monetization engine for the solution. The Cisco 3300 Series MSE delivers mobility services in a centralized and scalable fashion across wired and wireless networks. The Cisco MSE supports an open API for easy integration with mobile applications and services. Application developers can create multimedia applications that take advantage of the location, context, and device information in the network for new service offerings in retail, health, hospitality, and transportation. The possibilities are endless.
• The Cisco SP Wi-Fi Service Manager for Cisco Prime gives operators comprehensive network control, service differentiation, and deep packet inspection capabilities. The Cisco Service Manager delivers network optimization, offers a cost-effective method of offloading large amounts of mobile data, and can quickly deploy value-added services such as automated subscriber authentication and authorization, self-branded web portals for subscriber access control, and tiered services based on policy rules.
• The Cisco ASR 1000 Series with the Cisco Intelligent Services Gateway (ISG) rounds out the functionality in the cloud. The Cisco ISG enhances the user experience by supporting identity management, dynamic bandwidth control, and self-care provisioning that allows customers to change their own settings. With the Cisco ISG, differentiated and personalized services can be offered by applying policy based on who the subscribers are, where they are, and what level of service they paid for. With these combined capabilities, service providers can rapidly define and deliver new service plans; simplify management; accelerate time to market; increase revenue through market segmentation; improve customer satisfaction with personalized, tiered, and interactive services; and reduce operating costs.
Figure 7. Personalized Location-Based Services over SP Wi-Fi
Figure 8. Business Intelligence Through Analytics
Mobile Packet Core
Partner with the Wi-Fi Experts
Figure 9. Benefits of Using Cisco Advanced Services
Figure 10. Capture the Wi-Fi Opportunity with Cisco SP Wi-Fi


text:
I agree with Professor Jeffrey Ian Ross that new laws against guns are not enough to end the mass shootings ("Ending mass shootings: It's not just about more or better laws," Sept. 22). We do have to figure out what actions, values and moral standings are supporting our culture of violence and the belief that a person has the "right" to solve his problems by taking the life of another.
We need to have a real, deep and truthful dialogue in our country about the violence within it, all the violence. We need to not only look at the expressions of this culture of taking human life at the drop of a hat. But we need to look at the amount of violence the average person sees on TV, in sports, in electronic games, in movies, on our cities' streets, in the abortion industry and in war. If most of what we see and hear and experience in our lives is the daily bombardment of the taking of human life, that does affect our moral reasoning, especially if we are mentally or emotionally sick.
We need the guts to stop the political rhetoric on this issue. We need to strongly challenge those who say that the fault for recent mass murder is not some combination of the killer, the mental health system, the lack of proper security at the naval base, the government procedures for security clearances or the standing down of the police response just when it was most needed, but want to see it all as the gun's fault. At the same time, we need to equally face down those who believe that our right to bear arms means that everyone should have a weapon of mass murder to go hunting or to be ready if the government tries to take over and abolish our system of rights.
We need to have the courage to ask hard questions about the gun lobby, the entertainment industry, the abortion industry, the war machine and the increasingly warped and extreme sense of individual rights. It is becoming clear in everyday life that more and more people in our country believe that they have rights without any responsibility and that their rights give them permission to violate the rights of others, be it a babe in the womb or the people having a snack at a courtyard of the Navy Yard. There will be no easy answers. The unattended sickness of mind and morality of the shooters is only a symptom of the undiagnosed sickness of our society.
I pledge to start the honesty. I'll give up any pretension of having the need of a gun that spurts out bullets faster than one can read this sentence, if you will give up your right to kill the unborn, watch graphic violence and play games with un-countable killing.
Rev. Michael T. Buttner, Bel Air


text:
Want to say something? If you would like to contact me, please use this web form. Please report anything you like. I'd appreciate thoughts on site issues, dead links or compatibility problems.
Any questions or comments regarding my Resources can be made using this page.
This is entirely anonymous and private, so if you would like a response make sure to provide a valid email address. This is strongly recommended. Note that email addresses will not be shown, stored or put into any lists. All messages should be plain text.
Please use appropriately. Thank you.
p.s. I would love to hear where you're from.