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schedule, beyond budget, and below projection. </blockquote>
schedule, beyond budget, and below projection. </blockquote>
Sam give many more serious applications of FOA and illustrate the use of computer tools such as spreadsheets and simulations. An example of this is your Retirement Portfolio. For this we assume that your retirement fund is $200,000 dollars and your life expectancy is 20 years.We assume that you invest your money in a mutual fund with a good record. Their annual return has fluctuated from year to year with an average year return of 8%. You adviser calculates that you can withdraw $21,000 a year and will exhaust your funds in exactly 20 years.
Sam give many more serious applications of FOA and illustrate the use of computer tools such as spreadsheets and simulations. An example of this is your Retirement Portfolio. For this we assume that your retirement fund is $200,000 dollars and your life expectancy is 20 years.We assume that you invest your money in a mutual fund with a good record. Their annual return has fluctuated from year to year with an average year return of 8%. You adviser calculates that you can withdraw $21,000 a year and will exhaust your funds in exactly 20 years.
Laurie Snell
Laurie Snell
Revision as of 18:32, 8 August 2009
Correlation coefficients are now about as ubiquitous
and unsurprising as cockroaches in New York City.
Second edition, 1996, Page 286.
Growing up in China [Yale Assistant Professor of Genetics] Jun Lu might have pursued a career in math if his father, a mathematician, hadn't advised against it.
His reasoning: Math can be done with little more than a pen, paper and your mind. For 2,000 years, thinkers have had those tools to contemplate the questions of mathematics. "Any questions left behind by them are probably very hard to address," Lu said.
But biology, his father said, capitalized on advances in technology. His son could have the chance to explore a new frontier.
The Hartford Courant, July 12, 2009
A Princeton professor of economics/public affairs, who is also vice chairman of the Promontory Interfinancial Network and former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, argues that the economy has bottomed out.
[T]here is a reasonable chance—not a certainty, mind you, but a reasonable chance—that the second half of 2009 will surprise us on the upside. …. [T]his seemingly high growth scenario … [would follow] directly from the arithmetic of hitting bottom. …. Eventually those huge negative numbers [associated with the decline of some GDP components] must turn into (at least) zeroes … [and] … almost certainly do better. …. None of these events are probabilities; they are all certainties. The only issue is timing, about which we can only guess.
The Wall Street Journal, July 23, 2009
A mathematician, who is a former "algorithm manager" at a technology firm, has left his firm to "devote himself to his favorite shower-time epiphany – that what the world needs … is a museum devoted to math." He came up with the following formula, where E = expertise, CP = computational power, C = capital, R = risk, A = altruism, O = obsession, and I = indifference:
Math Museum = {Delta-O + [E(CP + C) + A] – R} / I
Wednesdays, hot weather and increased suicide rates
"National Study Finds Highest Rate Of Suicide On Wednesdays"
by Arielle Levin Becker, The Hartford Courant, July 11, 2009
A University of California at Riverside study, published in Social Psychiatry & Psychiatric Epidemiology, found, surprisingly, that suicides are more likely to occur on Wednesdays than on any other day of the week. The study's results were based on the 131,636 suicides in U.S. death records for the period 2000-2004.
One chart [3] gives the percentages of all U.S. adult suicides by day of the week: Sunday 11.8%; Monday 14.3%; Tuesday 12.7%; Wednesday 24.6%; Thursday 11.1%; Friday 11.2%; Saturday 14.4%.
A social worker suggested that workplace stress might mount up through the week, with weekend relief seeming too far away by Wednesday. A reader [4] blogged that a person in crisis might be upset to find that his/her therapist has Wednesday off, while he/she has to work. One of the researchers advised mental health workers to schedule more patient appointments on Wednesdays.
The researchers also found that summer and spring were more common seasons for suicide than fall or winter, another counterintuitive finding. A second chart [5] gives the percentages of all U.S. adult suicides by season: Autumn 23.8%; Winter 24.4%; Spring 25.8%; Summer 26%.
A third chart [6] shows the trend in the number of U.S. adult suicides (eyeballed approximations): 24,200 in Year 2000; 25,100 in Year 2001; 29,000 in Year 2002; 26,100 in Year 2003; 26,900 in Year 2004.
A Hartford Courant analysis of the 966 reported adult suicides in Connecticut for the period 2001-2004 showed less variation in rates among the days of the week. "Most suicides – 16.7 percent — occurred on Tuesday, while 16.4 percent occurred on Monday and 14.5 percent on Wednesday. Thursday had the lowest occurrence, 12.1 percent."
However, Connecticut records agreed with the national study with respect to summer and spring being the more common seasons for suicides. A Connecticut mental health worker hypothesized that:
"People think it's normal to be depressed in the winter. "Spring is the time of year when people are supposed to be rejuvenated and outside and enjoying themselves, and if you're not, it makes you feel comparatively worse than everybody else, which may make you feel more hopeless," he said.
1. With respect to the national study, do you think that the differences among days of the week and/or among seasons of the year were statistically significant?
2. Were you surprised that the Connecticut analysis showed less variation than the national study, in rates among the days of the week, from a statistical point of view?
Two new anti-aging studies
"Two Mammals' Longevity Boosted"
by Keith J. Winstein, The Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2009
In the journal Nature, anti-aging researchers from Maine, Michigan, and Texas reported on a study that found that a chemical (Wyeth's rapamycin) used to treat organ transplant patients increased the life span of mice. Because the chemical suppresses the immune system, humans are advised against taking the drug to prolong their lives.
Mice given rapamycin -- starting when they were 600 days old, or roughly the equivalent of 60 human years -- lived longer on average than mice who didn't get the drug. Their "maximal life span" -- meaning the age at which 10% of the mice were still alive -- increased to 1,245 days for females, compared with 1,094 days for those not fed the drug, or a 14% increase. For males, the maximal life span was 1,179 days, a 9% increase over the 1,078 days for those not fed the drug.
In an upcoming issue of Science magazine, University of Wisconsin scientists will publish results of a study that shows that reducing the calorie intake of monkeys extends their lives. A person who has seen the study's results said that "after 20 years, only 20% of the calorie-restricted monkeys had died, compared with half of the monkeys on a normal diet."
The Wisconsin study, which began in 1989 with 30 monkeys and added 46 more in 1994, is an effort to test calorie restriction in an animal genetically closer to humans. Researchers have known since the 1930s that eating 30% fewer calories than normal lengthens the life span of mice. Half the monkeys were given a normal diet, and half had their food intake cut back by 30% at roughly age 10.
A British gerontologist commented, "Aging is, unequivocally, the major cause of death in the industrialized world and a perfectly legitimate target of medical intervention."
A blogger [7] provided the following hypothetical dialogue.
Joe: Do you want to live to 100?
Pete: Don't ask me; ask the guy who's 99.
The Flaw of Averages
Sam L. Savage
John Wiley & Sons, published June 2009.
Sam is a Consulting Professor of Management Science at Stanford University, and a Fellow of the Judge Buisiness School at the university of Cambridge. He came from a family of famous statisticians: his father Leonard Jimmie Savage and his Uncle I. Richard Savage.
Jimmie Savage is best known for his Book The Foundation of Statistics but we all gained from his work. During the Second World War he was a member of the Statistical Reseach Group based at Columbia University. In addition to solving military problems they solved the Wald Sequential Ratio Test which led to Optimal Stopping which in turn led to my thesis. His discovery of the work of Louis Bachelier on stochastic models for asset prices led to Random walk becaming fundamental to mathematical finance. I. Richard Savage was also a well known statistician and in his Memorial we read:
Savage is one of a few mathematical statisticians of his generation who chose to pursue the application of statistical principles and concepts to problems of public policy.
Now Sam is one of the few mathematical statistians of his generation who chose to pursue the application of statistics and probability principles and concepts to problems of public policy.
Now on to the book. Sam starts with an explanation of the Flaw of Averages. A humorous example of this involves the statistician who drowned crossing a river that was on average 3 feet deep. It is pretty clear from this what Flaw of Averages means, but we are also invited to go to flawofaverages.com. Here we read that "Plans based on average assumptions are wrong on average!"
The book assumes no statistical background, but for those with statistical training the author claims he can repair the damage within the first few chapters. This type of humor appears throughout the book. We find here other examples of the Flaw of Averages including this one:
Suppose you are on time to your appointments on
average, and so is your partner. When you go someplace together, the Flaw of Averages ensures that you will be late on average. In fact the FOA pretty much explains why everything is behind
schedule, beyond budget, and below projection.
Sam give many more serious applications of FOA and illustrate the use of computer tools such as spreadsheets and simulations. An example of this is your Retirement Portfolio. For this we assume that your retirement fund is $200,000 dollars and your life expectancy is 20 years.We assume that you invest your money in a mutual fund with a good record. Their annual return has fluctuated from year to year with an average year return of 8%. You adviser calculates that you can withdraw $21,000 a year and will exhaust your funds in exactly 20 years. This is illustrated below by the first figure.
Howere of couse there is no reason to believe that year return will be exactly 8%. So you look at what your resourses will be with some random variations in the return.
The lower figure shows a dozen potential wealth paths simulated at random by a computer.
Laurie Snell
To be continued
"Baseball Veers Into Left Field", by Austin Kelley, July 17, 2009
This article describes some results of researchers in the field of "sabermetrics," apparently the "science of baseball analysis," in which "no topic is too small or hypothesis too unlikely" to be investigated due to the huge database available. Phil Birnbaum edits the statistical-analysis newsletter for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
From Wayne State University researchers, we learn that:
[M]ajor-league players who have nicknames live 2 ½ years longer, on average, than those without them.
[B]aseball players live a little longer than average folks.
[P]layers who debut at a young age have a shorter life expectancy than their slower-developing teammates.
[P]layers with "positive" initials have a longer lifespan than those with initials like "P.I.G."
[S]outhpaws are a little shorter than right-handers.
[M]ajor-leaguers are more likely to die on their birthdays than chance would predict.
From a pair of researchers, at University of California-Berkeley and Yale University, we have:
[P]layers whose first or last name begins with "K" strike out more than those without "K" initials.
From another pair of researchers, at Pennsylvania State University and Washington University, we are told:
Democrats support the designated-hitter rule more than Republicans.
The website directs readers to some articles:
"The Etiology of Public Support for the Designated Hitter Rule" [8]
"Moniker Madness: When Names Sabotage Success" [9]
"The 'K' study for real" [10]
"Underestimating the Fog" [11]
Baseball fans see also "No Casual Fans at World Series of Baseball Trivia" for late-breaking news about results of the baseball trivia contest held at SABR's annual convention.
"Strong Evidence" standards
"The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel"
U.S. Department of Education, 2008
This report is the result of two years of work by a panel of mathematicians, educators, and foundation representatives, formed in 2006 "with the responsibilities of relying upon the 'best available scientific evidence' and recommending ways '… to foster greater knowledge of and improved performance in mathematics among American students.'" Their main focus in seeking national standards was on the "delivery system in mathematics education," especially the high school algebra sequence and pre-secondary math courses leading up to it.
In compliance with the President's Executive Order forming the group, the Panel's "assertions and recommendations were based the "highest-quality evidence available from scientific studies." The Panel reviewed "more than 16,000 research studies and related documents. Yet, only a small percentage of the 16,000 research studies reviewed met the standards of evidence and could support conclusions."
The Panel placed strongest confidence in studies that "test hypotheses, that meet the highest methodological standards (internal validity), and that have been replicated with diverse samples of students under conditions that warrant generalization (external validity)…." The Subcommittee on Standards of Evidence developed relatively detailed standards for rating the quality of potential evidence as strong, moderately strong, suggestive, inconsistent, or weak. This section of the report begins on page 81 of the document.
Here is an excerpt relative to "Strong Evidence":
All of the applicable high quality studies support a conclusion (statistically significant individual effects, significant positive mean effect size, or equivalent consistent positive findings) and they include at least three independent studies with different relevant samples and settings or one large high quality multisite study. Any applicable studies of less than high quality show either a preponderance of evidence consistent with the high quality studies (e.g., mean positive effect size) or such methodological weaknesses that they do not provide credible contrary evidence. Factors such as error variance and measurement sensitivity clearly influence the number of studies needed to support a conclusion ….
See the United States Coalition for World Class Math [12] for more information about efforts to mitigate the decline in math performance among U.S. students, as well as its ranking of individual states with respect to math performance.
A return to coin tossing
In Chance News 50 we discussed a talk given by statistician Peter Donnelly. In this talk Peter asked us to consider two patterns of heads and tails, HTT and HTH, that would occur if we tossed a coin a sequence of times. He asked us if we thought that, on average, HTT would take longer to appear than HTH, or if HTH would take longer, or if they would take about the same number of tosses. He said that most people would think they would on average occur at about the same time. He said that this is wrong and in fact HTT would, on average, take less time to occur than HTH. This seems strange because it is obvious that they both have an equal chance of being the first to occur. However, it is strange but true. It turns out the expected number of tosses until the pattern HTT occurs is 8 and the expected time until HTH occurs is 10.
Suppose that Mary and John play a game in which Mary chooses HTH and John chooses HTT and the person whose pattern comes up first wins. Then this is a fair game even though the expected time for John's pattern coming is less than the expected time that Mary's pattern comes for the first time. How is this possible?
Additional reading
Mathematical games, Sci. Amer. 10, 120-125. Here you will find an elegant combinatorial solution to this coin tossing problem, due to John Conway. This article is also included in Gardner's book "Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments" and in some of his other books.
Introduction to Probability, Grinstead and Snell, pp 428,430, 432.
"XXXL", by Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, July 20, 2009
This article starts out describing some results of the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, which have been carried out since the 1950s. According to the CDC's surveys, the percentage of overweight American adults ("body-mass index greater than twenty-seven") took a giant leap in the 1980s. CDC researchers published their results in JAMA in 1994: First survey - early 1960s - 24.3%; Second survey - early 1970s - 25%; Third survey - late 1970s - 25.4%; Fourth survey - 1980s - 33.3%.
Men are now on average seventeen pounds heavier than they were in the late seventies, and for women that figure is … nineteen pounds. The proportion of overweight children, age six to eleven, has more than doubled, while the proportion of overweight adolescents, age twelve to nineteen, has more than tripled. ….
"If this was about tuberculosis, it would be called an epidemic," another researcher wrote in an editorial accompanying the report.
Reviewing five books about the recent surge in weight of many Americans (The End of Overeating, Fat Land, Mindless Eating, The Fat Studies Reader, Globesity), the article's author describes some hypotheses about our eating habits, as well as the results of some psychological experiments performed to try to identify possible psychological causes.
One story has Ray Kroc, of McDonald's, questioning why they could sell more French-fries if they "supersized' them.
Kroc pointed out that if people wanted more fries they could always order a second bag.
"But Ray," [a McDonald's Board member] is reputed to have said, "they don't want to eat two bags – they don't want to look like a glutton." ….
The result is that as French-fry bags get bigger, so, too, do French-fry eaters.
A solution to the probability puzzle
In Chance News 50 we gave the following probability puzzle
Find three random variables X, Y, Z, each uniformly distributed on [0, 1], such that their sum is constant. Since each random variable has expectation 1/2, the sum must in fact be 3/2.
The following solution was provided by Roger Pinkham
If {z} denotes the fractional part of z, then supposing U is uniform on [0, 1] put
X={2U}, Y=1-{U+1/2}, and Z=1-U. It is straightforward to check that X, Y, and Z have the required uniform distributions,
and that X+Y+Z = 3/2.
Congratulations Roger!
Laurie Snell
A bet with no losers?
"Using the Lottery Effect to Make People Save"
by Jason Zweig, The Wall Street Journal, July 18-19, 2009
The author discusses a Michigan pilot program to increase people's savings rates.
[P]sychologists have long known that people tend to overestimate the odds of rare events. Applying that behavioral insight, [a] finance professor … has devised a clever program called "Save to Win." Launched earlier this year for members of eight credit unions in Michigan, it is a cross between a certificate of deposit and a raffle ticket. Members who put $25 or more into a Save to Win one-year CD are entered into a monthly "savings raffle" for prizes up to $400, plus one annual drawing for a $100,000 jackpot. Only Michigan residents are eligible to participate.
This CD pays between 1% and 1.5% annual interest and has attracted about $3.1 million in new deposits. One new customer described her experience:
"The teller said somebody else she told about it won, … so I said, 'Well, you must be good luck then.' I thought it was a good idea, because earning interest means you win anyway. So I put down the minimum, $25." This past week, [the customer] won $400. She plowed the $400 back into her Save to Win account, getting a second shot at winning the $100,000 grand prize.
A credit union president stated, "You are sort of betting, but there's no losing."
Bloggers [13] commented:
Apply that same logic to the $250 SS stimulus check. Instead of sending $250 to everyone (which is mostly used to pay bills), give $2500 to every tenth person. Much more spending and stimulus will result.
One thing at least is certain - the credit union wins by offering a lower rate.
More scientific fraud
"Defining Data Down"
Book review of Eugenie Samuel Reich's Plastic Fantastic
by John Derbyshire, The Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2009
The book describes a late 1990s-early 2000s science fraud by a postdoctoral German physicist at Bell Labs, who was "seeking to persuade organic materials, like plastics," instead of inorganic substances, like silicon, "to exhibit behaviors useful in electronics."
The prize-winning physicist's results were widely published, in academic physics journals, as well as in more popular science magazines. While his work had its skeptics, it wasn't until 2002 that fraud was suspected, after which a Bell Labs committee confirmed that lab results had been faked and data fabricated. The man lost his job and his Ph.D and returned to Germany.
A key moment in the denouement came in April 2002 when a Bell Labs researcher noticed that two of [the physicist's] papers from two years before, one in ¬Science and one in Nature, had reported outputs that were identical—even down to the electrical "noise"—from two quite different devices. Two years, in two journals claiming a combined readership of nearly two million, and nobody noticed?
The physicist was skillful in maintaining support from his managers, possibly because he was "an amiable employee … and a cheap one, delivering striking results from a minimum of resources." An inadequate peer-review process on the part of editors or fellow scientists appears also to have been at fault.
No one seems to have found a motive for the dishonesty. According to the article's author, "Perhaps there is no better explanation, at last, than that he did it because he could."
A blogger [14] commented:
I have witnessed the bias in how proposals are often reviewed by "peers" - who at times seem more concerned with where the investigator was from as opposed to the quality of the ideas.
Two new scientific journals?
"On Navel Lint and Other Scientific Triumphs"
by Melinda Beck, The Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2009
Although there exist 5200 medical journals, author Beck recommends adding two more:
I'd call them Duh!, for findings that never seemed to be in doubt in the first place, and Huh?, for those whose usefulness remains obscure, at least to lay readers.
As background, she describes a number of findings from journals or conferences, one of which gave rise to the article's title: "The more abdominal hair, the greater the tendency to collect belly-button lint." She also provides details about other studies whose usefulness she questions.
Beck suggests that material for the journal Duh! might include a University of Cambridge obstetrician's 2003 paper [15], in which the doctor "could find no randomized controlled trials testing whether parachutes prevent death and injuries in response to 'gravitational challenge' — i.e., jumping out of aircraft."
She suggests a deliberately humorous article for the journal Huh!. Apparently a Vienna University of Technology chemist was surprised when the journal Medical Hypotheses accepted his study "The Nature of Navel Fluff" [16].
Inspired by a question posed in the 2005 book, Why Do Men Have Nipples? [the chemist] theorized that belly-button lint is largely the result of abdominal hair channeling loose shirt fibers. To test his hypothesis, he collected 503 pieces of his own belly-button lint over three years, wearing different shirts. Then he shaved his abdominal hair and found that no more lint collected.
"Many people nominated me for an ig-Nobel prize," [the doctor] wrote.
Predicting Hall of Famers
"A Computer Cracks the Cooperstown Code"
by Tim Marchman, The Wall Street Journal, July 27, 2009
A computer scientist and an MIS researcher claim that election of a Baseball Hall of Famer "is an entirely predictable outcome based on a few statistics." Their conclusion is based on a study of 1,592 players for the period 1950-2002.
[H]its, home runs and on-base plus slugging percentages are what count for hitters, while wins, saves, earned run average and winning percentage are what count for pitchers. All-Star Game appearances count for both, being especially valuable for hitters as they serve as a useful proxy for position.
A blogger comments [17]:
It's actually pretty easy to predict who will get into the Hall of Fame with just about any statistical method: 90% of the candidates are an easy decision. The single biggest factor is longevity and/or high totals. Even something unexciting and even uninformative - like at-bats for hitters - will be highly accurate as a predictor because you can't get a lot of them without getting a lot of everything else.
The blogger also cites David R. Tufte and John Topoleski's article, "Are There Performance Thresholds Which Help Determine Election to the Baseball Hall of Fame," Proceedings of the American Statistical Association, Section on Statistics in Sports, 2000, pp. 81-86.
"Dappers" and "schnooks"
Cocksure", by Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, July 27, 2009
The author describes examples of a phenomenon that psychologists call the "illusion of control." This phenomenon obtains when "confidence spills over from areas where it may be warranted ('I'm savvier than that schnook') to areas where it isn't warranted at all ('and that means I'm going to draw higher cards')."
[A psychologist] had subjects engage in a betting game against either a self-assured, well-dressed opponent or a shy and badly dressed opponent (in Langer's delightful phrasing, the "dapper" or the "schnook" condition), and she found that her subjects bet far more aggressively when they played against the schnook. They looked at their awkward opponent and thought, I'm better than he is. Yet the game was pure chance: all the players did was draw cards at random from a deck, and see who had the high hand. "
[Another psychologist] created a computer program that mimicked the ups and downs of an index like the Dow, and recruited, as subjects, members of a highly paid profession [investment bankers]. As the line moved across the screen, [the researcher] asked his subjects to press a series of buttons, which, they were told, might or might not affect the course of the line. At the end of the session, they were asked to rate their effectiveness in moving the line upward. The buttons had no effect at all on the line. But many of the players were convinced that their manipulation of the buttons made the index go up and up.
Cellphone driving risks
Drivers and legislators dismiss cellphone risks. New York Times, 18 July 2009
U.S. withheld data on risks of distracted driving. New York Times, 21 July 2009
In study, texting lifts crash risk by large margin. New York Times, 27 July 2009
Matt Richtel
In July, the Times published a series of articles with global title "Driven to Distraction", which reports both anecdotal evidence and research studies about the risks posed by drivers using cellphones. This topic has been under discussion for well over a decade. The first article cites a 2003 Harvard study which found cellphones contributed an 2600 fatal accidents annually, as well as 330,000 accidents involving "moderate or severe injuries". The article also links to an extensive 2005 bibliography on cellphone risks from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA). More recently, the enormous popularity of texting has added a new dimension to the problem. The third article describes a recent study of truck drivers conducted by the Virginia Tech Traffic Institute, which found that when texting the drivers had a 23 times greater risk of an accident.
This is collection of relatively long articles, which raise numerous issues that could be discussed in a statistics class. We were reminded of a classic 1997 article by Redelmeier and Tibshirani, " Is Using a Car Phone Like Driving Drunk?", which appeared in Chance magazine (vol. 10, no.2). An electronic version is archived at the US Department of Transportation website here. The article gives a very accessible discussion of the case-crossover design used in the authors' original research article, (published in The New England Journal of Medicine). Looking back, it is worth noting how many of the issues raised there are still current. For example, Redelmeier and Tibshirani were warned by colleagues that their investigation would anger the cellphone industry, which was already a powerful financial force. The second Times article asserts that the NHSTA refrained from publishing extensive research on cellphone risks because Congress did not want the agency to be seen as lobbying states for restrictions on the devices. Elsewhere in that article, industry representatives are quoted as arguing that it didn't make sense to say cellphones posed a risk given that overall accident rates were not increasing. The industry also argued that cellphones should not be singled out for restrictions, given the many other distractions now available to drivers. In fact, these two concerns had been anticipated in 1997 by the Redelmeier and Tibshirani article, which offers rebuttals. For example, they note that conversation with a passenger differs from a cellphone conversation, because passengers are aware of driving conditions and may even contribute to pointing out hazards, whereas cellphone conversations focus the participants on another environment.


text:
North Face
The brand history of The North face
The North Face brand was established in 1968, in San Francisco, California, when Douglas Tompkins and Dick "Hap" Klopp created an equipment retail store that eventually acquired the current name "The North Face".
This name was chosen because the north face of a mountain in the northern hemisphere is generally the most difficult face to climb.
By the 1980s, skiwear was added to the line of products, and eventually camping equipment was added as well. The North Face is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the VF Corporation.
Today, The North Face is based in San Leandro, California, near its corporate sibling, JanSport. JanSport is the world's largest backpack maker, and together, JanSport and The North Face manufacture nearly half of all small backpacks sold in the United States.
The North Face's logo consists of a slightly skewed quarter-circle with two lines running within it. This image is an interpretation of Half Dome, a rock formation in Yosemite National Park, viewed from the west, with the sheer north (or northwest) face of Half Dome to the left.
The North Face maintains strong links with the outdoor community through its sponsored athlete program. Athletes such as Lizzy Hawker who recently won the Ultra Trail Tour du Mont Blanc have benefited greatly from the programme.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Area prep wrestling roundup
Mendon's wrestling team hosted a quad to open the season on Wednesday.
The Hornets dropped two close matches, 36-48 to Loy Norrix and 33-36 to Bloomingdale.
Leading Mendon on the night was Brandon Bray at 140 pounds with two pins. Matt Noel at 145 pounds also had two pins. Danny Cleveland at 152 and Cole Harrison at 189 pounds both finished with two pins as well.
Caleb Henckel won two matches at 119 pounds. Kyle Noel earned a void win at 160 pounds while Jesse Samson earned a pinfall win at 171 pounds.
Sturgis goes 2-0
Sturgis' wrestling team opened the season with two wins at the Hillsdale quad Wednesday.
The Trojans knocked off East Jackson 52-21 and Madison 40-39.
"It's outstanding to start 2-0 on the year, we're still a very young team and we had a young team last year as well," coach Bryan Boughton said. "I think we went 1-1 in our opener last year, so to start at 2-0 is great. It wasn't anything pretty, but for the first match of the season, it's great to see."
Sturgis has several wrestlers that will see time on the mat as freshmen or sophomores.
"Even though we are young, it goes to show the hard work that a lot of people are putting in," Boughton said. "Things are looking good for us."
Going 2-0 on the night were Vince Urik-Brokus, Cole Campbell, Ricardo Soto and Tyler Elmore.
Alejandro Soto, Anthony Neal, Juan Espinoza, Noah Gleason, Nolan Tom, Dayland Bowser, Kurt Fields and Zack Heavrin all win matches as well.
"Tonight we only voided at one spot because of injury and that certainly makes a difference," Boughton said. "We've got more numbers out."
Constantine 62, Cass 18
Constantine's wrestling team picked up a win in their first action of the season, beating Cassopolis 62-18.
Earning wins for the Falcons were Andrew Turner, Cody Scarberry, Phil VanZile, Anthony Rudloff, Dominick Rogers, Will Ryan, Cody Hartwick, Ben Mallo, Andres Montoya, Tommy Reed and Adam Kinser.
Colon 1-1
Colon's wrestling team hosted both Pittsford and Constantine's JV on Wednesday night. The Magi finished the evening with a 1-1 record.
The Magi defeated Pittsford 36-21, but lost to Constantine 6-60.
Picking up wins on the night for Colon were Trent Williams at 130, Darrin Abraham at 135, Ben Weaver at 140, David Parrish at 160, Nate Martin at 171, Jesse Binkley at 171 and Nick Martin at 285.


text:
Institution educational statistics compiled from federal government data from the National Center for Education Statistics as of 2018.
College crime statistics for University of Colorado Boulder are compiled courtesy of the Clercy Act, and the US Department of Education. This data is required to be submitted by all institutions that accept federal financial aid, so if a college does not accept federal aid, these numbers may not be accurate.
Percentage of total applicants that are accepted.
Midpoint of SAT scores at the institution (critical reading).
Midpoint of SAT scores at the institution (math).
Midpoint of ACT scores at the institution.


text:
General Keith Alexander, the Director of the NSA and Commander of the DOD's US Cyber Command, has been announced as the keynote speaker at the upcoming Black Hat USA security conference at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The announcement comes on the heels of a request by Jeff Moss, organizer of the DefCon hacker conference, that federal employees take a "time-out" from attending DefCon this year because of high tensions in the wake of revelations made by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the NSA's widespread surveillance programs.
Black Hat occurs the same week as DefCon, just a mile away. But while the two events are both focused on computer and network security (or the lack thereof), they have totally different audiences and personalities. Black Hat is produced by UBM Tech, the media company that owns trade publications such as InformationWeek and runs the Interop technology conference. DefCon, on the other hand, is a "hacker convention," not a security convention, and tends to welcome a more anarchic demographic.
And while Moss sees the glass as half-empty in the wake of the Snowden leaks, the Black Hat conference's management sees it as half full. "We are honored to have General Alexander join us this year at Black Hat in Las Vegas for the first time," Black Hat's general manager Trey Ford told The Guardian. "We couldn't have asked for a better time to welcome him. The security and intelligence communities have common interest in protecting international critical infrastructure and the Internet at large. We both have an acute interest in defining and defending privacy."
This is a rare public speaking engagement for Alexander, who appeared for the keynote at last year's DefCon. It was that appearance that may have triggered some of the unease Moss expressed over federal agencies attending DefCon. In a response to a question at DefCon last year, Alexander said that allegations that the NSA had "millions or hundreds of millions of dossiers on people is absolutely false." That statement prompted inquiries from the Senate Intelligence Committee over whether the NSA collected data on domestic targets. On March 12, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper replied to a question from Sen. Ron Wyden on the subject during a hearing, saying that NSA did "not wittingly" collect data on US citizens. Clapper sent a letter of apology for the statement to Sen. Diane Feinstein, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on June 21.


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[You can find some of my comments on the 2009 Pulitzer Prizes for books, which will be announced Monday, at www.twitter.com/janiceharayda.]
How ignoring the economy and lifting up wedge issues got us into a mess
What's the Matter With Kansas? By Thomas Frank. How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. Holt, 336 pp., $16, paperback.
By Janice Harayda
Why did the Republican Party for years attract so many Americans who recently have lost their homes, jobs or life savings to its policies? How did the GOP recast itself as the party of working-class voters, who for generations had lined up behind the Democrats?
Thomas Frank gives bracing and witty answers in What's the Matter With Kansas?, a former New York Times bestseller that is still one of the best books on the political roots of the current fiscal mess. Frank argues that for decades, Republicans have been eroding the traditional Democratic base by focusing on wedge issues such as abortion, gun control, and "filth" in the media, not on the economic policies that separate the parties. And since the Clinton administration, the Democratic Leadership Council has played into their hands by promoting "triangulation," a business-friendly stance that downplays its differences with the GOP.
The result: The line between the parties blurred, and year after year Americans elected Republicans whose laissez-faire economic policies eventually would wipe out their 401(k)s.
Frank refracts the changes through his native Kansas, once a hotbed of progressive ideals, a state that has paid a scalper's price for its march to the right. A portent of the American economic meltdown occurred when the attacks of Sept. 11 halted the orders to the Boeing, a mainstay of the Wichita economy. The aircraft manufacturer laid off many union workers and said that, this time, their jobs wouldn't be coming back.
"In the summer of 2003, unemployment in Wichita passed 7 percent and foreclosures on homes spiked as these disasters reverberated through the local economy," Frank writes.
But Kansans didn't seem blame the Republican union-busting policies exemplified by Ronald Reagan's decision to fire striking air traffic controllers. The state went for George Bush in 2004. And Frank's pessimism about its political climate seems well-founded, if not prophetic, given the economic free fall that has occurred since the publication of his book. Even as the recession was spreading around the world, Kansas voted Republican in the 2008 presidential election.
Best line: At Kansas Vietnam Veterans reunion in 2002, trinket vendors sold "such items as the Jane Fonda urinal target."
Worst line: Frank describes how the national swerve to the right affected his hometown, the affluent Mission Hills, Kansas, and says you "can observe the same changes" in Shaker Heights, Ohio. No, you can't. Parts of Shaker Heights — where I lived for 11 of the years when those changes supposed to be occurring — may look like Mission Hills with its castellated stone fortresses. But the Cleveland suburb is 10 times the size of Mission Hills, has a far more diverse population, and for other reasons does not fit the pattern he describes. Shaker Heights has lost enough of its cachet in the past several decades that the elite suburbs now lie farther to the east. Those suburbs include Hunting Valley, which more closely resembles his hometown.
Editor: Sara Bershtel
Published: June 2004 (hardcover), April 2005 (paperback).
Furthermore: Frank's latest book is The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule.
Janice Harayda is a novelist and former book editor of the Plain Dealer in Cleveland.
© 2009 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.


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tagged version 0.3.4
Updated TableSorter to compile in Java 1.5 and some trivial changes in comments
added overloaded method setDistance for use in CM2Pymol for chains without chain code
Fixed space missing in one of the queries
testGraph2Pml.java fixed according to changes made in Msdsd2Pdb.java
Adapted to msdsd_00_07_a Now uses MySQLConnection and PrintWriters and not mysql client through shell (got rid of that method) Thus all methos taking new arguments user and pdbFile New methods: export2file taking accession_code, chain_pdb_code export2file taking chain_id, model_id
Initial commit. PyMol API script example, also using our PymolServerOutputStream to send commands directly to server
Modified method getIdFromMaster to create keyTable if it didn't exist
New static method getIdFromMaster. Inserts an id in a table in key_master database and gets the last_insert_id. To be used in graph generation
New class MySQLConnectionCheck, to check whether MySQL servers are alive, uses threads Changes in DataDistribution: - new field: String[] nodes, initialised in constructor - changed constructor to check for nodes that are alive, using new method nodesAlive - renamed getNodes to getMySQLNodes. New method getNodes just returns the new field String[] nodes DataDistributer: renamed calls to DataDistribution's getNodes to getMySQLNodes
Made loadMySQLDriver method public (needed to call it from other class) and static (makes more sense)
Added functionality to run commands in different threads
Initial commit, Hello World MySQLConnection program for newcomers
HOSTSFILE changed to new /project/StruPPi/Cluster/admin/hosts_mysql_server.txt
Modified finalizeDirs() to be tri-state: prompt, force or noremove. By default force. (using new field rmvtmp) Getting rid of temp dir created in constructor when calling setDumpDir, otherwise an empty tmp dir was left lying around
Method finalizeDirs now prompts by default whether to delete temp dirs, unless new boolean field "force" is true.
Added class TableSorter to tools package
Added getters/setters to host,db,user and password in MySQLConnection Added another constructor to QueryThread to take just the MySQLConnection as argument
Slight improve in insertIdsToKeyMaster method. Instead of querying in each insert for the nodeid, we get the node names to node id mapping in a HashMap through another query.
Adapted also ClusterConnection and checking methods in DataDistribution to text/numeric keys. Some methods in ClusterConnection have not changed at all even though they deal with keys. I haven't changed them because they are applicable only to numeric keys: insertIdxInMaster, getLastInsertId and getIdxSet
Simplified the code for dealing with text/numerical keys. Now there's no more double methods Integer/String, rather the methos use a generic Object[] that stores either String[] or Integer[] depending on the case. Thus modified a few methods in DataDistributer, DataDistribution and MySQLConnection.
Now split of data also working with text-based keys as well as numerical MySQLConnection: - method getAllIds4KeyAndTable now splitted into two methods one for numerical ids and another for text ids - new methods getColumnType and isKeyNumerical DataDistribution: - method getIdSetsFromNodes splitted into two one for numerical ids one for text ids DataDistributer: - new methods: splitIdsIntoSets now splitted into two methods one numerical, one text - change methods: splitTableToCluster, splitTable, insertIdsToKeyMaster, removePK, addPK, createNewKeyMasterTbl, removeZeros, loadSplitData, dumpSplitData to make them work for both text and numeric keys. Introduced generic type T in some of them - some bugs corrected: -- an important one in createNewKeyMasterTbl, was introducing record in dbs_keys with srcDb instead of destDb as it should have been -- some bugs in loadSplitData and dumpSplitData to account for cases in which there are less ids than number of nodes and thus some nodes don't get any data. Wasn't counting with this before.
Made KEYMASTERDB in DataDistribution public. Now using in all other classes/programs that need KEYMASTERDB.
Added method to setDumpDir method
Improved considerably the splitTableToCluster method: - got rid of the unnecessary step of creating partial tables before dumping. - now directly dumping with new method dumpSplitData, a modified dumpData that dumps using a WHERE condition - added variable NUM_CONCURRENT_SAMEHOST_WRITE_QUERIES used in dumpSplitData method. It sets the concurrency when dumping locally only from the master
Added PARALLELISM in load/dump of tables using new class QueryThread (extends Thread) Modified methods loadData, dumpData and loadSplitData to dump/load parallely in cases that is useful by using the QueryThread class. New method initializeDirs(String[]) to do some of the dir initialization that was in dumpData Got rid of one of the getConnectionToNode method, not needed anymore New important 2 final static variables: NUM_CONCURRENT_READ_QUERIES and NUM_CONCURRENT_WRITE_QUERIES. They define how much concurrency we want in reads/writes to nfs for loads/dumps
MAJOR change. Split DataDistribution into 2 classes: DataDistributer and DataDistribution. I haven't actually changed or added functionality DataDistributer deals with the distribution of the data, while DataDistribution deals with things to do when data is already distributed, right now is only a few data checks Note that DataDistributer now has two db fields: srcDb and destDb. This is different to before, when destDb was rather a parameter passed as arguments to the methods Methods in DataDistributer have been tidied up a little (specially load and dump ones)
Fixed bug in getTables4Db. Was closing the connection. Shouldn't do this! Add method getAllIds4KeyAndTables, moved from DataDistribution. It makes more sense to have it here.
Got rid of getTables4Db in DataDistribution Add method getTables4Db to MySQLConnection. Makes a lot more sense. Changed accordingly the only call to the method in DataDistribution's method chkCounts
Changed the Connection fields to be MySQLConnection. Thanks to this, simplify considerably a lot of the methods by using the MySQLConnection methods. Got rid of method loadSQLDriver and URL final field
Introduced better javadoc comments in constructors.
Modified insertIdsToKeyMaster method. Now removing pk in table before inserting, then removing zeros and adding finally the pk back. At that point mysql should complain if there are duplicates New methods to deal with key_master database actions. They belong in another class, but for the moment here. - createNewKeyMasterTbl - removePK - addPK - removeZeros
Got rid of method createNewKeyMasterTbl Didn't belong here but in DataDistribution (at least for now)
Bug in new method createNewKeyMasterTbl The query for inserting the new record in dbs_keys was totally wrong Wrote something more correct and simpler!
Minor change, in getHostId4Ifx one of the error messages was being written to out, now to err
In latest commit method insertIdsToKeyMaster wasn't yet complying with the new way of dealing with key Now modified insertIdsToKeyMaster accordingly. Now we create a ClusterConnection object to call the createNewKeyMasterTable method.
New method createNewKeyMasterTbl To create a new keyMaster table in the key_master database for a certain table Will also insert a new record in dbs_keys for the new table. If a record for it already existed it will print an error and continue as the error is harmless.
Got rid of keyColumn Now key is directly the keyColumn name, e.g. key is asu_id not asu This makes things less confusing and simpler. We've done this following last commit of DataDistribution to also change the ways we deal with key/keyColumn. Note that now the checkKeyCounts and checkDifferingKeys are using to get the keyTable name a ClusterConnection object and the new ClusterConnection method getTableOnNode
2 important changes: Fixed important bug on the constructor that gets the key passed (the bug was there since a lot of revisions ago and always passed since that constructor was not used in other classes) Got rid of keyColumn, was useless. Now key is directly the keyColumn name which is more logical and makes everything simpler - changed all calls to keyColumn to key - got rid of keyColumn field and setKeyColumn - changed completely the methods setKeyTable to get the table name from the dbs_keys on key_master db - introduced new method getTableOnNode. Gets the name of the table where splitted data is stored for this db and key
New method getIdSetsFromNodes, equivalent to splitIdsIntoSets but rather a posteriori, when tables are already distributed in cluster's nodes Modified method getAllIds4KeyAndTable, now taking host as parameter too, more general Changed the comments a lot for all those 3 methods. There are many catches to be taken in account, the comments explain them quite well
KEYMASTERDB had value for testing, change that back.
Added method insertIdsToKeyMaster Added call to the new insertIdsToKeyMaster in splitTableToCluster method
Added another clusterExecuteQuery method to take a HashMap of queries rather than only one. To be used in cases where the queries to be sent to nodes are different for each node (like in load/dump methods of this class) Right now strictly serial must paralelize it as with the other clusterExecuteQuery
Modified methods getAllIdxAndClients and getAllIdxFromMaster. They return now: - getAllIdxAndClients: an int[] - getAllIdxFromMaster: a HashMap<Integer,String> Got rid of having ResultSets returned which is very messy and dangerous.
Made MASTER final static variable also public. It is in use by other classes.
Initial commit of DataDistribution.java into aglappe repository Copied from repository scripts-jose rev 69 If want to have a look at previous history must do it from repository scripts-jose, there was no way of copying with history between different repositories
Added method getCreateIndex4Table
Fixed bug in getAllIndexes4Table, the SELECT needed a DISTINCT
Got rid of method dbExists. Was useless and not working.
Added method setSqlMode, to set sql_mode server variable
Added method dbExists to check whether database exists in server, used in constructor that passes a dbName Moved all the private methods to the beginning of methods section
Changed comments in constructors Changed in method readConnectionFile: - variable to count mandatory parameters to paramCount - number of mandatory parameters now 4, dbname is also mandatory
Now executeSQL method throws exception instead of catching it. Thought it was better than the calling class deals with these exceptions.
Added getConnectionObject Added printDbSizeInfo and 2 getRange methods from utils4DB Made private the loadMySQLDriver and readConnectionFile methods
execUpdateQuery method added and code in comments was removed
Initial commit. Class to create a connection to mysql db with basic functionality. Cann take parameters for connection as argument in constructor or from connection file (passing the filename to the constructor) Using code from both DBConnection (henning) and mySQLConnect (ioannis)
initial import
Fixed a bug with setKeyDb method, was not actually working: as well as setting the MASTERDB string needed to change connection to master database to point to new db! From now on take care if setKeyDb is used in another class. It will open another master connection, thus master connection won't be always the same during the run of the program
Changed error message printed in getHostId4Idx
Added setKeyDb method, to be used in testing, i.e. with this method we can change from another class the default MASTERDB database.
More examples added and the current ones modified according to Graph2Pml changes
More flexibility in coloring, popDefaults/setDefaults methods plus comments
Refresh method added plus refresh added before saving image
Added cgo functionality/examples in Graph2Pml and testGraph2Pml
PyMol class: adding refresh in saveImage methods
Graph2Pymol class now functional testGraph2Pymol class now functional with comments also PyMol class:python strings methods and removeList, concatList, refresh methods added Machine class: indentation
In PyMol class, objectNameQuotes class variable is replaced by the method parameter called variable. Graph2Pml is modified accrodingly.
Added executeSql method
Adding Graph2Pml and testGraph2Pml classes (non functional code!)
getRange methods now return double array instead of Float array. Previous code is into comments.
Adding Msdsd2Pdb and PyMol classes
Adding comments
Added getAllIdxAndClients method: gets all ids and client_names for a certain key
Some changes in error messages to be more clear.
Now using constructor without key and createStatement with key, since createStatement without key is not allowed anymore (is now private)
Clean up a bit and added some more comments
Refactor some method names to be more consistent. Changed some fields to be final (and uppercase them) Added comments for the most importat methods Made the createStatment(idx) method private, this should only be used internally. Would be dangerous to use it from anothe class.
Changed all error printing in catches to STDERR instead of STDOUT
New exec method taking only a String argument wasn't working. Fixed the bug.
Added exec method to take only a string as argument.
introduced generics, so class will compile in Java 5, not sure though whether the functionality is the same as before, will need more testing
changed server port to standard
prevent overlong commands from being sent to the server
initial import
fixed bug for very long command strings (> 255 characters)
moved executables (classes with main function) to root directory
Fixed important bug: - now closing nCon connection before opening a new one in the setHost method. - this is important. Before lots of connection were left opened after having used the ClusterConnection object
Fixed bug in getIdxSet method. Wasn't reading properly the index_matrix table into the array. Was starting from columnn 1 which actually is the serial column. Now starting from column 2.
New method int[][] getIdxSet. - Returns a 2-dimensional array with all indices for a certain key. - Each column j corresponds to client_id j+1 - Each row i is a set of idx values for each of the client_ids. If there is no idx for a certain client_id then the value is 0.
updated commentary
deleted, file was a copy of makenbhtable.java, original file was lost
initial import
Grouped all the setIdxColumn and setMasterTable into setKey. Also rationalised a bit the constructors by calling one from the other.
Added package tools.
Initial commit of the ClusterConnection class + small test class to test it out.
removed ununsed imports and variables
Adding SystemCmd class
removed some debug code
Corrected some bad mistake
Initial commit of the remote-pymol-from-java stuff
Adding R class
Deleted old tools.trunk files
Moved everything to subdir tools, so that we keep the tools name for the package. Also changed the package name in the files to tools. To work with it please check out only file:///.../svn/tools/trunk/tools
Adding getDbSizeInfo method into utils4DB program
Adding files utils*
Package tools changed to tools.trunk because code could not compile!
The name of the report table can be passed as argument now (default value is report as previous)
Comments in system.out.println & Dealing with no password cases
Initial import of tools


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Immigration OverviewPennsylvania
Every place in America is home to a unique group of immigrants, and Pennsylvania is no exception. This report uses the term immigrant more or less synonymously with the term foreign-born, meaning anyone residing in Pennsylvania who was born in another country. Only the latter term is reported by the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), the primary data source for this report.
How many people in Pennsylvania were born in another country?
The foreign-born population includes both non-citizens and naturalized citizens living in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania. It may include some Pennsylvania residents who do not consider themselves true immigrants, such as students and expatriates from other countries. It does not include children with immigrant parents—many of whom were born on U.S. soil. The tiles below show a few basic statistics about Pennsylvania that put the foreign-born population in context.
By the Numbers:
Where do immigrants live throughout Pennsylvania?
This map shows the foreign-born population as a percent of each county's total population in Pennsylvania. Hover over a county to see its percentage.
What languages do immigrants speak at home in Pennsylvania?
The ACS divides languages spoken by Pennsylvania residents into several broad categories, based on the major families of spoken languages.
Asian and Pacific Island languages include Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish, and languages spoken by indigenous people of Australia along with other Pacific cultures.
Indo-European languages include a huge swath of spoken languages, ranging from French to Farsi, along with the many languages spoken on the Indian subcontinent. English and Spanish are also Indo-European languages, but are recorded in separate categories.
Other languages include Arabic and Hebrew, many languages spoken in Africa, Native American languages, and Hungarian.
How many immigrants in Pennsylvania do not speak English well ?
This measure means that a Pennsylvania resident reported speaking English "not well" or "not at all" in the American Community Survey. It excludes foreign-born residents who report speaking English "well" or "very well," or who spoke English as their only language.
The bar chart below shows which languages are spoken by foreign-born Pennsylvania residents who lack English fluency.
About the Data
Data is from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS), 1-year estimates, with the exception of the county-level map, which uses 5-year estimates.
• Percentage and number of foreign-born: Table DP02.
• Total population: Table B05012.
• Number of naturalized citizens: Table B05005.
• Percentage of foreign-born who do not speak English well: Table B16004.
• English Fluency and Spoken Language: Table B16005.
This report uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.


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Participants listen to speakers during the kickoff rally across the street from Planned Parenthood. More than 300 participants of different faith backgrounds showed up to help kickoff the 2013 40 Days for Life prayer campaign Sept. 25. Crowds of participants peacefully lined the sidewalk across from the new Planned Parenthood building in southwest Fort Worth.
Along a short bend of road on John Ryan Drive in Southwest Fort Worth exists a strange juxtaposition of services — one offering life for the unborn and the other death. The Edna Gladney Center for Adoption and Planned Parenthood may be next door neighbors, but they stand in stark contrast to one another. Planned Parenthood resembles a bastion set back behind a stone wall, with no hint of what goes on inside. Next door, at the Edna Gladney Center for Adoption, the frontage is designed with a life-size metal statue of a young boy running in the grass, trying to set his kite aloft. Behind him are the words: "A Future and a Hope."
It was at here, with a clear view of Planned Parenthood as the backdrop, that organizers of 40 Days for Life kicked off their local pro-life rally Sept. 25. Fort Worth is one of 306 cities participating around the world. This includes 273 locations in the U.S. and 33 cities in nine other nations. Tens of thousands of volunteers have made commitments to the 40 Days for Life mission to end abortion through a 24 hour per day vigil of prayer, fasting, and peaceful activism. The lengthy campaign continues through Nov. 3.
Although she was not on the agenda to address the 300-plus people gathered for the 40 Days for Life kick-off, Janice Podell was welcomed to the microphone by organizers of the event. As community education coordinator with the Edna Gladney Center, Podell works right next door to the newly constructed 19,000-square-foot Planned Parenthood facility. Inside that building, Planned Parenthood makes available clinical abortions, abortion pills, and counseling — procedures and prescriptions for what Blessed Pope John Paul II termed, "the culture of death."
Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio, a prominent Catholic commentator and author, talks to participants at the rally.
During her brief and compelling remarks, Podell looked out at the crowd of pro-life supporters and said, "I can't tell you how grateful we are at Gladney that you guys are going to be here across the street for the next 40 days. I personally think that it is divine intervention that Planned Parenthood happened to go up next to an adoption agency." Podell extended her arm in the direction of the Edna Gladney Center and continued, "We built this sidewalk and gate for women who are looking for another answer, so they can come through that gate and find the hope they are looking for."
Podell invited pro-life volunteers to lead women to that adoption center entrance as they carry out their mission, adding, "We appreciate what you're doing. God bless you."
With the comfort of knowing there were friends in the neighborhood, 40 Days for Life organizers continued the rally with keynote speaker Marcellino D'Ambrosio, who holds a Ph.D. in theology and in biblical interpretation. He directs the Crossroads Initiative, an international apostolate of evangelization and renewal, is a New York Times best-selling author, and has appeared on national television news shows.
For the Fort Worth audience, D'Ambrosio quoted Saint Paul: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice!" (Philippians 4:4).
"There is cause for rejoicing right here," D'Ambrosio said, looking toward the new $6.5 million Planned Parenthood building. He explained that in 2004, 40 Days for Life started in front of a Planned Parenthood center in Bryan/College Station and continued there for three years before it expanded globally. Last month, he explained, the Planned Parenthood facility in Bryan/College Station closed. If it could happen there, it could happen here, he explained.
Gustavo Rodriguez and his wife, Nancy, lead their children, Samantha (left), Sarah (center), and Susana (right) in praying the Rosary outside Planned Parenthoood after the kick off rally. The family is from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Keller.
D'Ambrosio also discussed new abortion restrictions in Texas that are helping to close abortion facilities and save unborn lives. As people at the rally cheered, D'Ambrosio cautioned, "It's a tremendous victory, but the battle is still on."
He implored volunteers not to cast judgment on the mothers or employees walking into Planned Parenthood. He said they were all "victims," just as the unborn babies are victims of the abortion industry. D'Ambrosio asked the crowd to pray for families, employees, and babies "so we can say down the road, when this facility is closed, that we were part of this battle and the battle was won by love."
Emcee Steve Karlen, who serves as the director of North American outreach for 40 Days for Life, echoed D'Ambrosio's comments. He encouraged volunteers to remain strong and steadfast over the next 40 days.
"Don't despair," Karlen said. "We have our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who knows what it's like to walk in our shoes. He ministered in a world similar to ours.
"The ancient pagan Roman Empire was no friend to human life. Abortion and infanticide ran rampant," Karlen said. "Jesus Christ knew that Caesar didn't have the last word. That's why he didn't send disciples out two by two to lobby the Roman senate to legally ban abortion. He sent his disciples out two by two to proclaim the Gospel, to give witness to the good news of the Lord's plan for hope, forgiveness, mercy, and compassion, and to rescue lost men and women from the clutches of Satan."
Gabriella De La Torre, 11, prays with hundreds of other participants during the closing prayer of the kickoff rally.
Karlen concluded with a challenge for volunteers. Pointing to the Planned Parenthood building, he said, "They have built a fortress here. How else can I describe that, except as an abortion fortress? They are counting on us getting tired and going away," he said.
"I know that you won't let them outlast you, because you understand the stakes," Karlen told the crowd. "You know this is a matter of life and death. I know that they won't outlast you because you will fight the good fight. You will finish the race. You will keep the faith, because you — the body of Christ, his hands and his feet — will come here to bring the light of Christ to this place that is so desperately in need of it.
"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it. Let us begin."
The campaign is still needing individuals to sign up to pray during the overnight hours, and people are welcome to pray at any time, even if they are not signed up. For more information, or to sign up for a specific hour, visit http://www.40daysfortworth.com/.
Along a short bend of road on John Ryan Drive in Southwest Fort Worth exists a strange juxtaposition of services — one offering life for the unborn and the other death. The Edna Gladney Center for Adoption and Planned Parenthood may be next door neighbors, but they stand in stark contrast to one another. Planned Parenthood resembles a bastion set back behind a stone wall, with no hint of what goes on inside. Next door, at the Edna Gladney Center for Adoption, the frontage is designed with a life-size metal statue of a young boy running in the grass, trying to set his kite aloft. Behind him are the words: "A Future and a Hope."


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Amritsar Jn to Kolkata Chitpur train Seat Availability & Fare
Train seat availability for all 4 trains that run from Amritsar to Kolkata can be found in above table.
Fare for trains from Amritsar to Kolkata is Rs 4775 in First AC (1A), Rs 445 in None (GN), Rs 1945 in Third AC (3A), Rs 2805 in Second AC (2A) and Rs 735 in Sleeper (SL) in general quota. Tatkal ticket fare and premium tatkal fare in this route starts from Rs 2365 in Third AC (3A), Rs 3330 in Second AC (2A) and Rs 935 in Sleeper (SL).
Amritsar is the holy city located in the Majha region of the Indian state of Punjab. The city is situated 456 km north-west of Delhi, the national capital. This city shares the border (Wagah Border) with Pakistan. Pakistan's closest city to Amritsar is Lahore. It is the spiritual and cultural centre for the Sikh religion. Amritsar is famous for Golden temple also known as Harmandir Sahib. This important Sikh shrine attracts 100,000 visitors on weekdays. Amritsar is a food rich city. Amritsar is synonymous with Kulchas, the maida bread baked in a tandoor. Located beside the Golden Temple and the Wagah Border, the All India Famous Kulcha (yeah that's the name!) is a must-visit place to have the butter drenched, potato and cauliflower stuffed kulcha. Another famous foodie joint in the city is Kesar Da Dhaba which is located at Chowk Passian, a 10-minute walk from the Golden Temple. It is nothing short of an epicure's paradise. They serve the best maa ki daal, delicious lachcha paratha, palak paneer and the smoky baigan bharta. The city lies on the Grand Trunk Road which connects Delhi to Amritsar till Lahore in Pakistan. Amritsar also has an International Airport named Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport. Amritsar railway station is the main terminus. The Samjhauta Express runs from Delhi through Amritsar to Lahore in Pakistan. Amritsar has 1 railway station - Amritsar Jn (ASR).
Kolkata, also know as Calcutta is the capital city of West Bengal and is located at the bank of Hoogly river. It (then Calcutta) served as the capital of British-held territories in India until 1911, after which Delhi was made capital of India. No trip to Kolkata is complete without a visit to the Victoria Memorial, an architectural marvel built in Queen Victoria's name. It has an incredible museum inside. When is Kolkata, never miss the iconic Howrah Bridge. You can also enjoy a sunset cruise on the Hooghly River which passes under the Howrah Bridge. Other places to visit are Mangal Pandey Park and the Dakshineswar Kali Temple, built on the banks of the Ganga. Kolkata is well-connected to all major Indian cities by air, rail and road. This city has three railway stations and an airport named Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport. The airport is 14 km away from the Sealdah railway station. Kolkata ranks the top among the six cities in terms of public transport system.The Kolkata Metro is the oldest underground mass transit system in India. Kolkata is the only Indian city with a tram network, but the tram services are limited to certain areas of the city only. When it comes to food Kolkata is known for its variety of street food like famous kathi rolls, but the key elements of Kolkata's cuisine include rice and a fish curry known as machher jhol. This can be accompanied by desserts such as roshogolla, sandesh, and a sweet yoghurt known as mishti dohi. Kolkata has 5 railway stations - Howrah Jn (HWH), Kolkata Chitpur (KOAA), Kolkata Sealdah (SDAH), Santragachi Jn (SRC) and Kolkata Shalimar (SHM).
- RAC is considered as confirmed for evaluating confirmation chances.
- Colors under confirmation chances mean following:
- Red - Not likely to confirm.
- yellow - Difficult to say if this will confirm or not.
- Green - Very likely to confirm.
- Seat availability and berth status functionality may not be available between and .
- Disclaimer - Trainman is in no way affiliated to Indian Railways, therefore some times, the information shown may not be accurate. Trainman also does not claim 100% accuracy on any prediction done for waitlisted tickets.


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Win puts Florida State in ACC title game
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Having realized its quest to earn a berth in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game, No. 10 Florida State can now turn its attention toward other objectives — such as beating Florida, winning the league title and maybe, just maybe, making a run at the national championship.
Devonta Freeman ran for 148 yards and two touchdowns, FSU's top-ranked defense lived up to its billing and the Seminoles rolled past Maryland 41-14 Saturday to capture the Atlantic Division crown.
"One of our first goals is to win the division," coach Jimbo Fisher said. "Now we have to play the Florida game, get in the ACC championship game and see where that goes."
The Seminoles (10-1, 7-1) need a lot of things to fall into place before they can begin thinking about finishing No. 1. But who knows?
"Hey, there are still a lot of things out there to play for," Fisher said. "You don't know what's going to happen these last two or three weeks. A guy loses here, a couple people lose there..."
Regardless, FSU has already accomplished what Fisher called "one of our major goals."
"Before you can talk about winning a national championship, you've got to win your conference. You've got to be able to win your division, and that's what we did," Fisher said. "And also to have 10 regular-season wins, that's the first time since that's happened since I don't know when."
The answer: 2003.
Florida State led 27-0 at halftime and cruised to its fifth straight victory. In the process, the Seminoles earned the right to play for their 13th ACC crown on Dec. 1.
"This has been one of our goals since camp time," wide receiver Kenny Shaw said.
"I'm happy we won the game and clinched it," FSU defensive lineman Bjoern Werner said. "Now we got Florida next and then we can go to Charlotte (N.C.). It's awesome."
EJ Manuel completed 17 of 23 passes for 144 yards and two scores to supplement a running game that gained 237 yards. In their previous game at Virginia Tech, the Seminoles were held to minus-15 yards rushing.
"We just got back to fundamentals," Fisher said. "We got good angles and we were being efficient at what we were doing."
Operating against an injury-plagued Maryland team using a linebacker at quarterback, Florida State allowed 27 yards and three first downs before halftime and ended up giving up 170 yards — well below their nation's best average of 242.9 per game.
Were it not for a 42-yard touchdown pass from Shawn Petty to Kevin Dorsey with 25 seconds left, the Seminoles would have held the opposition under 10 points for the sixth time in 11 games.
The defeat formally ended any chance Maryland had of becoming bowl eligible. The Terrapins (4-7, 2-5) have dropped five straight, the last three by a collective 119-37 score.
Maryland's skid coincides with the loss of its top four quarterbacks with season-ending injuries. Making his third straight start, Petty went 8 for 19 for 136 yards and two touchdowns but lost a fumble.
Any reasonable hope the Terrapins had of pulling off an upset vanished after the Seminoles scored two touchdowns in a 12-second span to take a 14-0 lead with less than six minutes elapsed.
Maryland won the toss, deferred and promptly yielded an 11-play, 61-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard run by Freeman. Levern Jacobs fumbled the subsequent kickoff, FSU recovered at the 10 and Manuel threw a first-down touchdown pass to tight end Nick O'Leary.
"The one thing I told the team at the end of the game was that we would have had to play a perfect game to win," coach Randy Edsall said. "We went down 7-0 and then fumbled, and the next thing you know it's 14-0 — and we fumbled again."
Late in the first quarter, Petty botched a handoff and the Seminoles recovered the fumble at the Maryland 32.
After 15 minutes, the Seminoles had a 111-18 advantage in total yardage. On the second play of the second quarter, Dustin Hopkins kicked a 26-yard field goal to make it 17-0 and set a Football Bowl Subdivision record for career points by a kicker (442). He added six more points to extend the mark to 448.
Florida State's next drive began with a 21-yard pass from Manuel to O'Leary and ended with a 40-yard field goal. Late in the half, Manuel directed a 70-yard march that ended with his 30-yard touchdown pass to Rashad Greene.
In the third quarter, Petty threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to Dorsey on a fourth-down play. It was the final home game for Dorsey and 16 other Maryland seniors, all of whom never got the satisfaction of defeating a top-10 team.
Florida State went up 34-7 late in the third quarter. After Freeman ran for 47 yards on a third-and-1, he scored on the next play from the 2.
With Manuel and Freeman watching from the sideline, the Seminoles added a fourth-quarter touchdown on a 22-yard run by James Wilder Jr.
Asked afterward how it felt to clinch the division title, Manuel said, "It's a great accomplishment, but we know we have more games to win. I think we'll be able to celebrate everything at the end of the year."


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Yesterday I took my son to the Pretoria Showgrounds to write an exam, and while waiting for him I visited the Rebecca Street Cemetery nearby. I didn't see any tombstones belonging to my family, though I did see one for Loftus Versveld, after whom our city's biggest football stadium is named. I had sometimes wondered who Loftus Versveld was, and there was the answer — Robert Owen Loftus Versveld, 1862-1932. In addition to the tombstone, there was a stone from the Northern Transvaal Rugby Board, acknowledging his services to rugby. And Loftus Versveld Stadium is, of course, a bigger and more prominent memorial, the home of the Blue Bulls, the Northern Transvaal Rugby Team.
I wonder what Loftus Versveld would have thought of the World Cup Soccer tournament matches being played there next month. For a long time Loftus Versveld stadium was only used for rugby, and we went to the very first soccer match ever played there, on 12 October 1992, when local team Mamelodi Sundowns played Sheffield Wednesday. Actually that wasn't the first soccer match, because there was a curtain raiser with a women's team from Kaiser Chiefs playing against Sundowns, and the Chiefs won easily. So perhaps history was being made in more senses than one — it may have been the first time women had played in the Loftus Versveld stadium. The main match, between Sundowns and Sheffield Wednesday, was a draw. Just before the big match some people paraded around the field with a banner saying "Snor City welcomes soccer", a reference to the fact that in those days Pretoria civil servants often sported moustaches.
I went up to the highest point of the cemetery, on the northern edge, where there was a memorial garden for cremated ashes. There were some modern ones, with memorial stones in neat rows. And then there was an older rockery, rather pleasant, except that many of the niches had been broken open, and the ashes stolen.
I wondered who would do such a thing, and why.
It doesn't seem to make any sense. What makes cremated ashes valuable to thieves?
Filed under: South Africa, Tombstone Tuesday | Tagged: ashes, cemeteries, cremation, football, graveyard rabbits, Loftus Versveld, monumental inscriptions, Pretoria, Rebecca Street Cemetery, rugby, soccer, South Africa, Tombstone Tuesday, Tshwane, vandalism |


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PHP 28000 | 2013-04-12 21:53:14 | Condominium | studio type
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December 18th, 2012
My Take: Six things I don't want to hear after the Sandy Hook massacre
Editor's note: Stephen Prothero, a Boston University religion scholar and author of "The American Bible: How Our Words Unite, Divide, and Define a Nation," is a regular CNN Belief Blog contributor.
By Stephen Prothero, Special to CNN
(CNN) - There are a lot of things I am sick of hearing after massacres such as the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Here are six of them:
1. "It was God's will."
There may or may not be a God, but if there is, I sure hope he (or she or it) does not go around raising up killers, plying them with semiautomatic weapons, goading them to target practice, encouraging them to plot mass killings and cheering them on as they shoot multiple bullets into screaming 6- and 7-year-old children. Much better to say there is no God or, as Abraham Lincoln did, "The Almighty has his own purposes," than to flatter ourselves with knowing what those purposes are.
2. "Jesus called the children home."
I don't want to hear that Jesus needed 20 more kids in heaven on Friday - that Madeleine Hsu (age 6) or Daniel Barden (age 7) were slain because Jesus couldn't wait to see them join his heavenly choir. Even the most fervent Christians I know want to live out their lives on Earth before going "home" to "glory." The Hebrew Bible patriarchs rightly wanted long lives. Moses lived to be 120. Abraham was 175 when he died. Madeleine and Daniel deserved more than 6 or 7 years.
3. "After death, there is the resurrection."
In the Jewish tradition, it is offensive to bring up the afterlife while in the presence of death. Death is tragic, and deaths such as these are unspeakably so. So now is the time for grief, not for pat answers to piercing questions. "There is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance," says the biblical book of Ecclesiastes, and now is not a time for laughing or dancing or talk of children raised from the dead.
4. "This was God's judgment."
After every hurricane or earthquake, someone steps up to a mic to say that "this was God's judgment" on New Orleans for being too gay or the United States for being too secular. I'm not sure what judgment of God would provoke the killing of 27 innocent women and children, but I certainly don't want to entertain any theorizing on the question right now. Let's leave God's judgment out of this one, OK? Especially if we want to continue to believe God's judgments are "true and righteous altogether" (Psalms 19:9).
5. "This happened because America is too secular."
Unlike those of us who are shaking their heads trying to figure out what transpired in Newtown, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an evangelical icon, apparently has it all figured out. We don't need fewer guns in the hands of killers, he said Friday on Fox News, we need more God in our public schools.
"Should we be so surprised that schools have become such a place of carnage? Because we've made it a place where we don't want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability," Huckabee said in an astonishing flight of theological and sociological fancy.
Just keep plying people like the killer with Glocks and Sig Sauers. As long as we force Jewish and Buddhist Americans to say Christian prayers, then the violence will magically go away. The logic here is convoluted to the point of absent, leaving me wondering whether what passes for "leadership" in America can sink any lower.
6. "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."
If ever there has been a more idiotic political slogan, I have yet to hear it. The logical fallacy here is imagining that people are killed either by people or by guns. Come again? Obviously, guns do not kill people on their own. But people do not shoot bullets into people without guns. At Sandy Hook and Aurora and Columbine, people with guns killed people. This is a fact. To pretend it away with slogans is illogical and revolting.
The question now is: Are those of us who have not yet been killed by guns going to allow these massacres to continue unimpeded? Are Americans that callous? Is life here so cheap? I have read the Second Amendment, and I find no mention there of any right to possess any gun more advanced than an 18th-century musket? Do I really have the right to bear a nuclear weapon? Or a rocket-propelled grenade? Then why in God's name would any U.S. civilian have the right (or the need) to bear a .223-caliber assault rifle made by Bushmaster?
If you believe in a God who is all powerful and all good, then covering up for the Almighty at a time like this is in my view deeply unfaithful. Today is a day to shake your fist at heaven and demand answers, and then to shake it harder when no answers are forthcoming. To do anything else is in my view to diminish the idea of God, and to cheapen faith in the process.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Stephen Prothero.
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About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.