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Giant offers lessons by day, scares by night
ravel anywhere near CherryVale Mall this weekend, and you'll be hard-pressed to miss a giant kicking back outside.
Starting Friday, a 7,000-square-foot inflatable, reclining giant will take up residence in the mall's northwest parking lot for 10 days.
The giant is actually a maze that serves double duty: By day it's the "Fallen Giant," offering youngsters a brief human anatomy lesson during a safari-esque trek. At night it transforms into the "Internal Nightmare," a haunted house that puts the more daring in the midst of the human body.
Billed as the largest inflatable attraction in the country, the giant is making its first stop in the Rockford area. Its owners, Peter Koklamanis and Anthony Relken, whose primary business is running haunted attractions in the Chicago area, purchased the giant in 2004 and opened it to the public that year in Racine, Wis.
The pair, which does business as GPT Enterprises, looks for cities that have a healthy appetite for scream-filled fun when deciding where to set up their creature.
"We see what's on local Web sites and check for haunted houses, hay rides and things like that," Koklamanis said. "It seems like Rockford has a great zeal for those types of attractions."
GPT workers are scheduled to arrive in Rockford Wednesday to begin setting up the giant. It takes a crew of about seven people working 10-hour shifts two days to secure and inflate the giant. The company uses its staff as characters in the day and night versions of the maze, as well as using volunteers who typically are involved in local fright productions.
Three to four volunteers work the maze by day, taking children ages 5 to 10 through, handing out educational tidbits about human anatomy and fostering a sense of exploration.
At night, the staff turns on smoke machines, breaks out air cannons and cranks up the sound effects to mirror the sounds of the human body — such as those in digestion and the heartbeat — to create the feeling of being trapped inside a body.
"In most haunted houses, you go from scene to scene," Koklamanis said. "In this one, you go from organ to organ."

subset: commoncrawl


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Livestock fundraiser brings in more than expected
The fundraiser to bring draft horses and other heavy horse events back to the Ionia Free Fair "far exceeded" the expectations for the event's planners, said Dennis Arnold, chairman of the Ionia Free Fair board of directors, on Wednesday.
The livestock benefit party held Jan. 12 at the Steele Street Hall raised "in the neighborhood of $17,000," Arnold said. He and the board had hoped to raise $3,000 to $4,000 from the party.
An estimated 300 people attended the fundraiser, which included a hot dog dinner, live and silent auctions, a 50/50 raffle and a drawing.
"We had to start serving sooner than we planned because it was getting backed up," Arnold said. "It was really great to see the interest in ag from the community."
Arnold said he would like to see excess money used to enhance participation "at the back of the fair," where the 4-H and agriculture events are located. He plans to solicit recommendations from fair superintendents when they meet in early February. He also met with the 4-H director, Rebecca McCafferty, to get her input on where extra money would be most helpful in strengthen 4-H programming at the fair.
"People might live in Ionia and not realize the process of getting milk," McCafferty said. "We'd like to do demonstrations throughout the week of fair to draw attention to the rich agriculture of Ionia."
McCafferty added that she hopes to use volunteers from across the county, including leaders and local farmers, to conduct educational or interactive demonstrations about the agriculture industry during the fair, "really showcasing the agriculture side of the fair and the realm of agricultural opportunities there are in Ionia County."
4-H participation has been declining, she said, because many people don't know how valuable the 4-H program is, both in promoting agriculture but also in building youth leaders.
"We need to educate the community about 4-H, and the whole diversity that is open to every youth," she said. "We hope to draw attention to agriculture as a whole, but also as a viable youth develop organization kids can invest in, and experience things and grow."
McCafferty said the relationship with Arnold is going to be good for both 4-H and the fair.
"He has experience in livestock and agriculture, and I have a background in youth development and education," she said. "We'll work really well together to bring new ideas to the fair this year."
Follow Karen Bota on Twitter @KarenB_ISS.


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The Washington Nationals' long road trip started off with a whimper, as the team took just 1 of 3 games this week vs. the Pirates at PNC Park in Pittsburgh.
It was however a slightly more successful series if measured in terms of fan goodwill. The rivaly between the Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates falls somewhere between benign and nonexistent, so this year the teams decided to inject a little extra fun into the contest by sending mascots to the other team's stadium.
After hosting the Pirates' Racing Pierogies at Nationals Park in May, the Nationals visited Pittsburgh's PNC Park this week with members of the Nat Pack in tow, including racing presidents George, Tom, Abe, and Teddy.
After Teddy's disastrous turn running anchor for the presidents in relay races against the pierogies in games 1 and 2, the mascots hung up the cleats for game three today and just entertained the fans.
Kudos to Stan Kasten and the Nats organization for spreading the goodwill and putting the presidents on the road. I hope we get to see more of this type of reciprocity with other teams around the league.
Just keep the Phillie Phanatic out of Nationals Park.
Photo courtesy of Angela Calo


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Historic accommodation - heritage rated
We love British heritage and history. If your idea of fine accommodation is an historic medieval coaching inn or an elegant country house hotel, you'll like our Heritage Rating system for accommodation. If you love British heritage, look for , , or .
Alternative accommodation: Hotels - Cottages
ACCOMMODATION MAP - Featured B&Bs - Location list


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It may not feel that way, but we Mac users have now had quite a long run with OS X. We're coming up on 12 years since the first public release of the operating system (and even longer if you consider the betas and developer previews), and we've seen OS X go through plenty of changes during that time. Indeed, even Mac veterans may—with the passing of the years—have forgotten just how shaky some of those early OS versions could be.
Don't remember what OS X used to look like back when dinosaurs used to roam the planet and Apple's OS ran only on PowerPC processors? We've mined more than a decade of our own OS X reviews—studiously authored by John Siracusa—for screenshots and other OS X-related memories that trace the development of Apple's desktop OS through the 2000s. If you're interested in seeing how various UI elements have evolved over the years, strap yourself in for this safari showcasing OS X's big cats...
Mac OS X 10.0: Cheetah
OS X was officially released to the public in 2001 after a rollercoaster series of developer previews, some of which barely resembled the final product. Because it was brand new to most users coming over from Mac OS 9, the new OS featured a number of "shocking" interface elements, such as the new file browser:
And because so many users were still making generous use of their OS 8 and 9 applications, OS X featured a "Classic" mode. Take a look at 10.0's Classic mode settings panel:
In his review of Mac OS X 10.0, Siracusa concluded with this fairly mixed verdict:
Mac OS X shows tremendous promise, which is a nice way of saying that the 10.0 release is not quite ready for prime time. This is most certainly an early adopter's OS release. Interface responsiveness and effective stability are the two biggest fundamental problems, but missing features and compatibility issues rank just as high if you actually intend to use OS X as a full Mac OS 9 replacement: the 10.0 release cannot view DVD movies; printer drivers are still scarce; CD burning is not yet supported, even by Apple's own iTunes CD authoring application; and a lot of hardware (like my G3/400's serial port adapter to which my printer is attached) seem destined to be orphaned forever.
Perhaps the most important feature of the 10.0 release is the Software Update preference panel. A 10.0.1 update that includes a new kernel and classic environment, SSH support, a slew of updated drivers, and many other small fixes has been circulating on the net, and may be released by the time you read this. A regular series of free, network-distributed OS updates will go a long way towards making OS X fulfill even the limited promise of a first release of a brand new operating system. Let's hope Apple doesn't foolishly try to charge for the more significant upgrade due in time for July's MacWorld Expo in New York.
Unlike previous articles, this one was written almost entirely in OS X. I forced myself to do this, to some degree, and I certainly spent most of my time in classic applications like BBEdit and Photoshop even when running OS X. But the experience was at least tolerable, which is more than can be said for my experience with earlier releases.
Should you upgrade to Mac OS X? If you don't already have a copy (or plans to buy one), the answer is no. Most users should wait for a future release, and possibly new hardware to run it on. Should Apple have released OS X in its current state? I think so. Nothing stimulates application development like a shipping OS. Let's hope that the official release of Mac OS X also stimulates Apple itself to make improvements.
Mac OS X 10.1: Puma
The next major version of Mac OS X, 10.1, was released the same year (2001) as 10.0. Apple was quick to make some tweaks in the first six months. So what did it look like?
Here's Puma's Dock:
And the System Prefs:
The Login window also sported this Aqua-fied look:
Siracusa's take was only a bit more positive this time around, and believing in the new OS still required nothing short of faith:
I wrote at the start of this article that I want to believe in Mac OS X. I want to believe that it will replace Mac OS 9 in a way that improves upon every aspect of the classic Mac OS user experience. Unfortunately, although this may still come to pass, Mac OS X 10.1 is not that version of Mac OS.
But 10.1 improves on 10.0.x in many important ways. Overall system performance shows the biggest improvement, but it is not as drastic as some reports may lead you to believe. Other areas have stagnated. The user interface has not made significant strides since 10.0.x. Many annoying bugs remain, and many features have yet to be implemented.
Should you purchase Mac OS X 10.1? If you already use and enjoy Mac OS X 10.0, you should run out and pick up a free 10.1 upgrade CD at your local retailer as soon as possible. If you tried 10.0.x and found it somewhat lacking, I recommend at least giving 10.1 a try to see if the improvements are enough to push you over the edge. If you are waiting for the point of no return, where Mac OS X is a complete no-brainer upgrade from Mac OS 9, you'll have to wait a little longer. If you plan to run Mac OS X full-time, you should consider upgrading your RAM to what were previously through of as obscene levels (512MB or more). It will be the best thing you can do for Mac OS X, short of buying a faster Mac.
If you're not a Mac user at all, but are intrigued by the possibilities of Unix based operating system with friendly user interface (Linux fans, no flames, please), 10.1 is as good a version as any to dip your toe into. Windows users should not expect a feature set remotely comparable to Windows XP, but Mac OS X is different enough that it should still broaden some horizons. And Linux users might want to see how another operating system has chosen to build a GUI on top of a Unix core.
To amend my earlier sentiment, it might be more accurate to say that I want to believe not just in Mac OS X, but in Apple itself. I want to believe that they can produce the next insanely great platform: a powerful, stable OS with an interface every Mac user can love, running on stylish, high performance hardware. Both the software and the hardware end of that dream currently need work. And so the waiting game begins again, as Mac users settle in with 10.1 and prepare for the inevitable 10.1.x updates. Will there be more 10.1 users than there were 10.0.x users? Probably. But it says something about this supposed "mainstream release" of OS X when Apple itself is still selling all its hardware configured to boot into Mac OS 9 by default.
I want to believe. But it looks like I'll have to wait a bit longer.


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Happy Wednesday, kids! I want to sincerely thank all of you for your comments on my article over at The Daring Kitchen. You're all too cool for school, and that's the truth. So there. Now, onto W.I.P. Wednesdayness!
I was able to get a little work done on this month's Stitch-Along. I think these are the perfect size for my 6 month-old niece's hands to hold, so I'll be sending them off to her for Easter (meaning, I'd better get rocking on them if they are going to be finished and sent in time).
In-progress Bunny. Note the terribly sloppy outline. I did get a "D" in neatness in the First Grade. Scarred for life, I tell ya.
Finished little Bear
If all goes well, I'm going to put some tinkley-bells in one, and hopefully some crinkly-sounding plastic in the other for some added fun. I'll keep you posted.
I'm also trying to finish up some cupcakes for more notebooks like these. I've still got a few notebooks left, but I've got the materials together to make my own and I'm really excited about it! I'll have camera in hand to get you a proper tute when the moment arrives. For now, here's the in-progress cuppers :
Did you notice those gorgeous French knots/sprinkles? I'm going French Knot crazy, and not just because I'm a Francophile. Honestly, I couldn't figure them out until very recently (ie: bane of my embroidery existence). I started to think it was a seriously lost cause, but then I checked out Jenny Hart's tutorial and it changed my life. Well, it changed my embroidery. Thing is, I'm not sure if I like the French Knot sprinkles, or the longer seed stitch ones I did before. Thoughts?
Before the holidays I promised a tutorial to show you how to make a pair of child's pants sans pattern. Ture to my word, I had the opportunity to take some photos while making these :
Sorry for the wonky color-scheme here – these are orange and white striped pants for Guppy, who seemingly overnight grew 3 centimeters (yet to be confirmed with our highly-scientific measuring in-the-doorway method later today) and is in major need of longer pants (or higher socks). I'd started working on her dress, but have put that aside for the more serious and practical business of pants. Please forgive my slapdash sticking pants on wall with a piece of painter's tape mise en scène here (would have been more professional to actually get the legs and stripes to line up before I snapped the shot, hey?).
This is the most lovely fabric, which is a sailcloth-ish cotton twill (I'm not fluent in fabric yet, sorry) that I bought nearly a year ago at Ikea never dreaming I'd have the skillz to make pants! Had I known I would have bought more because I would love to have a pair of loungy pants like these – they look like acrobat pants and orange popcicles all at once. To me, anyway. I ended up having to slim the legs a little bit on these because Guppy wasn't into the baggy look, but that wasn't too difficult to pull off. If I can get over this sludge which had me bed-ridden all weekend (and up until today) and get all productive-organized-crawl out from under my pile of backlogged behindness, I'll get the tutorial for next Wednesday. Maybe. I hope.
Have a crafty week, and don't forget to see what the other Wipsters are up to, and to check out our W.I.P. Wednesday Flickr Pool, too.


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Nosal confirmed that although practically all local leopards are mature, pregnant females, they don't gather to give birth because the pregnancies are early stage. Other congregations of pregnant female leopards are also found throughout California and Baja, Mexico, but they choose quiet estuaries instead of open coastline for their summer sojourn.
Certainly, the La Jolla site is less rugged than much of the coast because it is doubly bordered by beach on one side and cliffs on another. This arrangement reduces predatory opportunities by mature male sea lions. And because the site is within the confines of the San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park Ecological Reserve, depletion — or worse — by humans is prevented.
Nosal looked closely at other physical aspects of the La Jolla Shores environment and discovered that most of the site's unique features are due to the presence of the nearby submerged canyon. The canyon is actually the conclusion of Rose Canyon Fault, known by its terrestrial link as La Jolla Parkway. The submarine canyon, which acts to slow down incoming swells, is responsible for the Shores southwest corner having the gentlest surf of all San Diego beaches.
Little water movement, combined with sunny skies, generates warmer water in this corner pocket than that found in the surrounding water. Toasty, calm conditions mean pregnant sharks expend less energy staying warm and holding position in the shallows so they can instead invest energy into speeding embryo development. The canyon also supplies the sharks with food security, primarily market squid (Doryteuthis opalescens), which are hunted during nightly forays into the depths.
Thus, while the La Jolla site is open coastal, it provides assets not unlike those seen in estuaries. But there is more to the story because where the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club stands today was, in the past, an estuarine lagoon. Evidence comes from driftwood, reeds and 7,000-year-old fossils (from a brackish water invertebrate) collected in the submarine canyon's mud, silt and clay substrate.
The ancient lagoon's only remnant is a small duck pond on the club's property. While this does not imply that today's sharks are somehow genetically programed to return to the lost lagoon, benefits from the lagoon would have been icing on the cake. Whatever extra goodness the long-ago lagoon supplied the leopard sharks, having a no-take reserve in today's environment has been key to preventing their local extinction from overfishing. Regarding commerce, the leopards shark's continued presence has benefited La Jolla's business community through leopard-shark ecotourism.
Nosal's work has not only demystified some of what makes La Jolla's leopard sharks tick, but it has demonstrated the value of small no-take reserves in protecting marine life that exhibits a singular behavior.
"This is a beautiful example of how vulnerable, pregnant sharks can be protected by a no-take reserve to benefit the sharks, the public, La Jolla's economy and science," Nosal said. "There is comfort knowing these sharks will be protected for generations to come."
— Judith Lea Garfield, naturalist and underwater photographer, has authored two natural history books about the underwater park off La Jolla Cove and La Jolla Shores. Send comments to email@example.com.


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NEW YORK — An email sent to the roughly 70 million Target customers who may have been affected by a pre-Christmas data breach is causing panic among those who fear it could be an attempt to victimize them again.
Target says the email, which offers free credit monitoring services to potential victims of the breach, is legitimate. But the company has identified a handful of scammers who are trying to take advantage of the public's fear and confusion.
Consumers have been on edge since news of the data breach broke last month. And they've been warned to be on alert for possible follow-up attacks that could come in the form of phishing emails, electronic messages designed to implant malicious software on their computers or draw them to websites that prompt them to enter personal information.
So when Target's email began circulating earlier this week, many recipients questioned its authenticity. The email was especially suspicious to people who say they haven't set foot in a Target store in years.
Jim Reid, 60, of Minneapolis says he was a little nervous about clicking on the link in the email and he questioned whether it was a good idea to send Target even more personal information when they were unable to protect it in the first place.
"There's too much uncertainty," Reid says. "They keep changing what they're saying about how many people were affected, about what kinds of information were stolen. It's obvious that they really don't know."
According to Target, hackers stole data related to 40 million credit and debit card accounts and also pilfered personal information, including email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses and names of as many as 70 million customers.
Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder says it's those 70 million people that Target contacted by email. And while Target believes the theft of the roughly 40 million debit and credit card numbers only affected cards swiped between Nov. 27 and Dec. 15, the 70 million people whose personal information was stolen could have last shopped at a Target store months, or even years, ago.
Meanwhile, consumers are right to be wary of emails purportedly sent by Target. Snyder says that in recent weeks the retailer has stopped more than a dozen operations that sought to scam breach victims by way of email, phone calls, and text messages.
Target says all of the letters it's sending to shoppers are posted on the company's website, along with information about what customers need to do to sign up for Target's free credit monitoring.
Snyder confirmed that the information gathered for the free service won't be used for marketing purposes. While shoppers are being offered the option of continuing the monitoring service after a year, they won't be automatically re-enrolled in the service or receive a bill.
The retail giant wasn't the only company to get hit with a data breach over the holidays. Last week, Neiman Marcus said thieves stole some of its customers' payment information and made unauthorized charges over the holidays. The Dallas-based luxury retailer is also offering its customers free credit monitoring for a year and plans to post sign-up instructions on its website by the end of next week.
Target's credit monitoring is being provided by Experian. Company officials wouldn't disclose details about how many Target customers have signed up for the free services.
Shawn Blakeman, 42, of Raleigh, N.C., said he was immediately skeptical when he saw the email from Target on Friday morning. He says he didn't click on the link just in case it contained a virus or sent him to a destructive website.
Blakeman says that after the news broke a few weeks ago, his bank automatically sent him a new debit card, so he's not worried about his bank account. And while he remains concerned about identity theft, he probably won't sign up for Target's free credit monitoring.
"I know there's always a chance it could happen to me," he said. "I can't win the Powerball, but watch me get hit with identity theft."
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AP: President Barack Obama's pick for defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, is meeting with senior Pentagon staff to try to set the record straight about his stand on Iran, saying he backs strong international sanctions against Tehran and believes all options, including military action, should be on the table.
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's pick for defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, is meeting with senior Pentagon staff to try to set the record straight about his stand on Iran, saying he backs strong international sanctions against Tehran and believes all options, including military action, should be on the table, defense officials said Wednesday.
In private meetings with top military and defense leaders and staff this week, Hagel sought to counter critics who say he is soft on Iran and would be the most antagonistic secretary toward Israel. Senior defense officials who have met with Hagel said he told them that his views on Iran have been misrepresented and that he has long backed international sanctions.
Hagel, a former Republican senator from Nebraska, has been given space on the Pentagon's third floor and a small staff so he can begin preparing for what will likely be a contentious Capitol Hill hearing on his nomination.
Already this week, Hagel has had dinner and lunch with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and met with Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey and Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter. He also has begun making calls to senators to answer questions and lay out his positions on key national security issues.
Critics have zeroed in on statements Hagel has made questioning the wisdom of a military strike by either the U.S. or Israel against Iran. As a senator, he voted against unilateral economic sanctions on Tehran, although he supports the joint international penalties Obama also prefers. Hagel also irritated some Israel backers with his reference to the "Jewish lobby" in the United States.
A handful of Republican senators, including Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., have already announced opposition to their former GOP colleague, and some Democrats have expressed unease with the choice. But it is likely that, in the end, senators will confirm the Vietnam veteran — who was twice awarded the Purple Heart — as Obama's third defense chief.
Defense officials said Hagel told senior policy staff in a meeting Wednesday that he strongly supports multilateral sanctions against Iran and that Tehran must be prevented from acquiring nuclear weapons. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting.
Officials also said that Hagel's own war zone experience came through as he spoke with staff about issues involving military troops, including traumatic brain injury, which is a common wound suffered by forces in Iraq and Afghanistan — most caused by being near bomb blasts.
In the coming weeks, Hagel is expected to get briefings on a broad range of defense issues, including extensive information on the budget. The Pentagon is facing a reduction of nearly $500 billion over a decade in projected spending, part of the budget deal that Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to in August 2011. An additional $110 billion in cuts to military and domestic programs will automatically kick in at the beginning of March if no congressional budget deal has been reached.
Many defense officials were meeting Hagel for the first time this week but said they were impressed with his passion for national security policy and his desire to take the job.
Both Panetta and his predecessor, Robert Gates, were pressed into service and made it well-known during their tenures that they were eager to eventually get back to their home states.
Gates, a former CIA director who had retired after 27 years of public service, famously carried a countdown clock with him that showed how many days remained in the Bush administration. And he agreed to stay on after Obama was elected only after getting a personal plea from the president.
Panetta also had retired from public service but returned to Washington at Obama's request in order to take the helm of the CIA in 2009. With Gates eager to leave the Pentagon and go home to Washington state, Panetta agreed 18 months ago to step in as defense chief. But he commutes home to California nearly every weekend and has spoken longingly of returning to his walnut farm in Carmel.


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Click here to go to index map || big earthquake list || all earthquakes list
Map need updating? Try reloading the page to your browser.
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What happens when I click on an earthquake?
Update time = Tue Aug 30 20:08:00 EDT 2016
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Northeastern US = Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network (LCSN)
New England Seismic Network = Weston Observatory New England Seismic Network = MIT
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Southeastern Canada = Geological Survey of Canada
Southern Ontario, Canada =The Southern Ontario Seismic Network
Central U.S. = CERI, Univ. of Memphis
National = U.S. National Seismographic Network, Golden, CO


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172nd Challenge
Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers
Week of 07-03 through 07-09-2018
This week's photo prompt is provided by Michelle De Angelis. Thank you Michelle!
Guide for Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers
1. A prompt photo will be provided each Monday pm to be used as a base to your story. Please include photo prompt with your story.
2. Linking for this challenge begins on Monday pm and runs to the following Monday pm.
3. Please credit photo to photographer.
4. The story word limit is 100 – 150 words (+ – 25 words). Please try and stay within this limit.
5. Please indicate the number of words in your story at the end of your story. (It doesn't count into the amount of words).
6. This is a flash fiction challenge (stories in 100-175 words or less) and each story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Therefore, no serial (continuation) stories. They become too complicated for our readers.
7. Add your story to the InLinkz Link-up (Blue Froggy button). Please let me know if you need link-up instructions.
8. Please keep stories below R rating.
9. Please respect the diversity of our readers and writers in regard to race, religion, and life style choice when writing your stories.
10. Remember, half the fun is reading and commenting on each other's stories.
If you are new to this challenge I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the FFfAW challenge. Welcome! We are happy you have joined us. If you have been away for awhile, welcome back!


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Lab Reagents
Human IgG antibody Laboratories manufactures the histomount reagents distributed by Genprice. The Histomount reagent is RUO (Research Use Only) to test human serum or cell culture lab samples. To purchase these products, for the MSDS, Data Sheet, protocol, storage conditions/temperature or for the concentration, please contact National Diagnostics. Other Histomount products are available in stock. Specificity: Histomount Category:


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Sometimes you begin writing about one thing, and it turns into something totally different. Be prepared, this is a more personal post for me than I've written in a long while. And it's long. While it started as an intro to us beginning our homeschooling journey, it became more about my fears all last year, where I was at (since I was not blogging) and where I think we're headed(?).
The idea of homeschooling has been discussed in our household for the last four and a half years. Since we had H, in other words. Rick was all for it from the beginning. Me, on the other hand, as the one who would be doing the "home teaching," I've been unsure.
We can see a lot of benefits of homeschooling. One of the biggest draws for us is that our kids can move at their own pace, and hopefully will always be able to be challenged and not bored. Boredom, I think, is one of the worst things that can happen in education. I know it really made school tough for me, especially in high school when we were graded on attendance, regardless of test scores.
A big drawback/fear in homeschooling has been whether I can actually teach our kids. I'm pretty type A. Take for example the time that we did a craft project at E's birthday party and three year old H started putting the stickers (a sun, some clouds) at the bottom of his project instead of the top. I started to correct him (the sun and clouds go in the sky, of course), when my sister, who is a preschool teacher, shot me the relax-and-let-him-do-it-you-crazy-control-freak look, wherein I promptly backed off. Quite literally. I had to leave the project table to prevent myself from squashing his creativity. I have to constantly remind myself that he is perfectly within his rights to color an alligator purple instead of green – without comment from me. The fear is that I will crush their creativity out of them and turn them into neurotic perfectionists or something.
Oddly, my fear has never been about socialization. That question just never made sense to me. We socialize with all kinds of people now, and I don't anticipate that changing, no matter what kind of education our kids get. I also have always thought the structure of public school – where everyone is the same age together, is a little odd. As an adult, you have to work with and live with people of all age groups, and meet them where they are at.
When we put H in preschool one day a week last summer, he started coming home with all kinds of new behaviors, habits and sayings. Some of which were fun and cute (new songs, funny phrases), but the majority of them went from annoying (nose picking) to down right against what we've been working for four years to teach (foot stomping, talking back, fit throwing). Of course, some of those behaviors happen naturally at certain ages, but when my veggie loving four year old tells me he doesn't like spinach (when I know for a fact he loves the stuff) and I ask him why, he says "Sam always says that – he doesn't like vegetables." I find myself cursing little Sam and having to hear for weeks now about all the things H "doesn't like" even though he goes right on eating them. Annoying and now a habit that we have to try to change.
Of course that's a minor example. There have been words we have to talk about not using, even though friends at school use them and behaviors (like that foot stomping). And it was helpful that my sister taught in the next classroom and could provide us with insights like, oh that Brady kid, he always throws fits when he doesn't get his way… fits that look oddly similar to the ones H's suddenly trying on for size. This is not the socialization I'm loving. I feel like that forces us to do more damage control than teaching.
One thing that has been extremely helpful to me in aiding our decision to start homeschooling has been the great variety of people we met at the farm that home school – all different reasons, shapes, sizes, etc. Some un-school, some follow a curriculum put out by the state, some do it for religious reasons. They all look different, but they all have a few things in common. Their kids are getting educated, they are well spoken, polite and very well behaved. And they have no problem conversing with both adults and the littlest kids on the farm. These were never the kids that I had problems with H being around (like the kid to wanted to torture toads, the liar, or the one who pushed him down in the sandbox every week).
But, even with all these great and different examples before me, I still felt uncertain. All last year, I really struggled as a parent. I had major symptoms of postpartum depression (or maybe just depression?), but not the more morose symptoms, I had the angry, raging symptoms. It was part of the reason we put H in preschool that one day per week. So I (and he) could get some tiny break and maybe take a nap once in a while. I was completely overwhelmed with life and parenting, and the idea of adding homeschooling to our lives was nearly enough to send me over the edge. I felt like my sanity was hanging by a thread as it was. I was taking supplements, trying to get out of the house and get some sunshine, trying to exercise, I even went to see a therapist twice. I was praying a lot. Mostly not to mess up my kids and that love would cover over everything – God's love, since mine was not that apparent, though it was there, buried under all the rage. I knew breastfeeding hormones were contributing, but I wasn't about to cut E off, and I didn't want to be on medication.
One very helpful resource for me during this time was my friend, Annie. She is a doctor and married to a doctor and home schools four kids and has a real life and is honest and kind and genuine. She invited me to her house and to the zoo a couple times last summer. She shared bits of her homeschooling journey with me, and was a gentle listener as I lamented feeling alone and far from all my friends and scared of messing my kids up. I met her at the farm our first year and I wish we lived closer to each other.
When I got pregnant unexpectedly 31 weeks or so ago, I was totally freaked. I was overwhelmed with two kids and felt almost paralyzed with fear at the thought of adding a baby to the mix. But a good thing happened then too. See, when I'm pregnant, I have to eat an insane amount of food to counter the insane amount of barfing that comes with my pregnancies. I realized that food was the thing I had been missing for all those months of anger and depression. Not that I wasn't eating – I love food and I was eating. But I wasn't eating enough. I realized my habits went from a tiny rushed breakfast at around 7:00 to waiting until 2:00 when both boys were napping before I carb-loaded myself with lunch. Then dinner (the only real balanced meal I had everyday) around 6:30. This was not enough food to sustain anyone, let alone a breastfeeding mom. No wonder I was crabby all the time. Not to say that this was the only reason for the depression, but so much was relieved when I changed that pattern. I just didn't see it until I HAD to eat more, being pregnant.
Another big change happened when I got pregnant. We finally realized we could no longer put off the bad situation we were in with Josie. Poor Josie. Our wonderful, horrible, funny, crazy, ill-behaved mutt. Things were never easy with Josie. She had food allergies that caused us to spend unreasonable amounts of money on her diet and separation anxiety that destroyed so much of our house and the apartment we had before it. She was ridiculously athletic, able to jump our six-foot privacy fence in pursuit of a squirrel… and she did this with some regularity. She was not good at socializing with other dogs, although we did all the right things when she was a puppy. And she didn't like sharing us with the boys. Add to it the fact that at eight years old, her hips were really, finally hurting her, and we had a one-year-old with a toddler's balance that could (and would) easily fall on her while she laid in her bed by the couch. She growled at E every time he came near her.
One day, E fell on her back legs and she snapped at him. All of this added up to a dog that was unhappily chained in the back yard when she was outside (so she wouldn't jump the fence) and being shooed around the house from basement to kitchen amid a tangle of baby gates when inside (so she wouldn't have to be afraid of getting fallen on and hurting her legs). It wasn't working anymore. She was miserable, we were stressed. After months of me "jokingly" asking our neighbor if he wanted Josie, he wisely suggested that maybe we should honestly look at either finding her a new home or putting her down.
I don't think I would have heard anyone else. He told us that he knew we were worried about her biting one of the kids and that it wasn't worth the risk. And he even offered to take her to the pound for us. I am very thankful for his frankness in a really tough situation. I cried and he brought us smoothies.
It was still a few months before we decided to actually do something. I loved Josie, and I didn't want to be one of "those people" who treated their dog like a child until they had kids and then just tossed the dog to the wayside. But we were in a holding pattern with her and no one at all was happy. We couldn't risk a bite to one of the kids, not to mention the fact we now had another on the way and we couldn't possibly ask Josie to wait out one more toddler.
We went round and round with trying to find her a new home, versus a shelter, versus putting her down. We really felt like we were asking a lot of anyone to adopt an eight year old dog with hip problems, food allergies, separation anxiety, who liked to roam and that could not be with other dogs, cats or kids. We really felt that no matter what, in the end, she'd end up in a shelter at least once, but most likely multiple times, finally getting put down. I couldn't bear the thought of her thinking we abandoned her and then having her put down by strangers regardless of how we tried. We decided to put her down ourselves, out of respect for her… she'd never have to be frightened in a shelter and we'd be with her until the end.
We should have done it right away after making this decision, but by then it was only a couple weeks until Christmas and we wanted to wait until afterward (I don't really know why, looking back now). So I spent that few weeks, incessantly crying and questioning whether we were making the right decision or not. We tried to make the last few weeks extra special for her – spoiling her with every kind of food and table scrap and letting her on the furniture. Then Rick took her and we switched roles. Now he cried and questioned.
Oddly though, as soon as it was over, a huge weight was lifted from me. I was suddenly much more patient with the boys and I realized I was yelling a whole lot less. We were all happier, even though we all missed having our dog. I'd like to get a dog again at some point (Rick says when the new baby is around two we'll talk), but I have large reservations about it even then.
Now, I was missing H on his school days too. It was nice to have extra time with just E, but I dreaded the two days recovery H would need after his school day to get back into our routine. And we realized that his school's new curriculum was not teaching anything to help him prepare for kindergarten.
Additionally, he missed the cutoff for being able to start school in 2011 because his birthday is in November. I have huge reservations about holding him back a whole year based solely on his birth date. The school district we live in is one of the worst in the state, and when I called to get info about School of Choice to enroll him out of district, I was basically laughed at for wanting him tested to see if he was ready for kindergarten early and wanting him to go out of district. The people I talked to were condescending, rude and impersonal. I couldn't help but wonder why these are the same people who are always harping on the socialization question for homeschoolers.
I got off the phone and cried to my mom about not being able to put H through all the drama and cog-making that I saw happening in public schools. Once, Annie shared on her blog about how the neighbor kids "learned to stand in line" on the first day of school. Barf.
So Rick and I decided that I'd home school H for kindergarten. We figured it's a year "early" for him to start anyway, so if it doesn't work, we can always have him repeat kindergarten in public school (or private or charter?). And, maybe I'd find that I liked it. I already had plenty of friends from the farm doing it, offers to join home school groups, etc. I feel pretty supported in the decision.
And I feel good mentally and emotionally. I'm a little afraid of what it will be like with three kids. A little afraid the postpartum will come back and bite me again. But I do know that I learned a lot last year, and Rick did too. And we're planning on being proactive on that front this time around. And I'm taking joy in my kids instead of just trying to manage.
All in all, I'm excited to start school with H this year. And for what the future holds for all of us, including the new little baby who helped clue me into what was wrong with me and nudged us towards taking care of things that needed taken care of – no matter how hard they were.


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Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
Will I be able to program the modules via usb controller (1141)?
Has anybody been using shutter controllers with MCE? As far as I can see the commands are on/off dim+ dim-
Check if you install the modules with correct polarity (Fase & Neutral) because if they are inverted then it doesn't work.Bugui
Just wondering from those running PLCBUS if anyone has tested their "standby" power usage. They say "<1W" on the modules, but I found my in-wall light controllers were drawing 9W each, the 2-light controllers 17W, plug-in power controllers around 20W. I only noticed when I got a power meter and it showed my lighting circuit was using up around 270W with all the lights off.I liked PLCBUS, but changing to Z-Wave because I'll have saved enough to pay for the Z-Wave in a couple of years.
I am having the same powerloss on x10 items comming from x10-hk.comNow I have some zwave items on its way.standby power consumption for my lighting devices is +-250watts what is unnacceptable IMO (15 wall plugs).I use current cost to measure power consumption currentcost.com
The device template doesn´t change, its "only" the orbiter buttons that changes.


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Export 1 results:
Filters: Author is N. Golowich [Clear All Filters]
Size-Independent Sample Complexity of Neural Networks. (2017). 1712.06541.pdf (278.77 KB)
CBMM Memos were established in 2014 as a mechanism for our center to share research results with the wider scientific community. Click here to read more about the memos and to see a full list of the memos.


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JewishGen.org Discussion Group FAQs
What is the JewishGen.org Discussion Group?
The JewishGen.org Discussion Group unites thousands of Jewish genealogical researchers worldwide as they research their family history, search for relatives, and share information, ideas, methods, tips, techniques, and resources. The JewishGen.org Discussion Group makes it easy, quick, and fun, to connect with others around the world.
Is it Secure?
Yes. JewishGen is using a state of the art platform with the most contemporary security standards. JewishGen will never share member information with third parties.
How is the New JewishGen.org Discussion Group better than the old one?
Our old Discussion List platform was woefully antiquated. Among its many challenges: it was not secure, it required messages to be sent in Plain Text, did not support accented characters or languages other than English, could not display links or images, and had archives that were not mobile-friendly.
This new platform that JewishGen is using is a scalable, and sustainable solution, and allows us to engage with JewishGen members throughout the world. It offers a simple and intuitive interface for both members and moderators, more powerful tools, and more secure archives (which are easily accessible on mobile devices, and which also block out personal email addresses to the public).
I am a JewishGen member, why do I have to create a separate account for the Discussion Group?
As we continue to modernize our platform, we are trying to ensure that everything meets contemporary security standards. In the future, we plan hope to have one single sign-in page.
I like how the current lists work. Will I still be able to send/receive emails of posts (and/or digests)?
Yes. In terms of functionality, the group will operate the same for people who like to participate with email. People can still send a message to an email address (in this case, email@example.com), and receive a daily digest of postings, or individual emails. In addition, Members can also receive a daily summary of topics, and then choose which topics they would like to read about it. However, in addition to email, there is the additional functionality of being able to read/post messages utilizing our online forum (https://groups.jewishgen.org).
Does this new system require plain-text?
Can I post images, accented characters, different colors/font sizes, non-latin characters?
Can I categorize a message? For example, if my message is related to Polish, or Ukraine research, can I indicate as such?
Yes! Our new platform allows members to use "Hashtags." Messages can then be sorted, and searched, based upon how they are categorized. Another advantage is that members can "mute" any conversations they are not interested in, by simply indicating they are not interested in a particular "hashtag."
Will all posts be archived?
Can I still search though old messages?
Yes. All the messages are accessible and searchable going back to 1998.
What if I have questions or need assistance using the new Group?
Send your questions to: email@example.com
How do I access the Group's webpage?
Follow this link: https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main
So just to be sure - this new group will allow us to post from our mobile phones, includes images, accented characters, and non-latin characters, and does not require plain text?
Will there be any ads or annoying pop-ups?
Will the current guidelines change?
Yes. While posts will be moderated to ensure civility, and that there is nothing posted that is inappropriate (or completely unrelated to genealogy), we will be trying to create an online community of people who regulate themselves, much as they do (very successfully) on Jewish Genealogy Portal on Facebook.
What are the new guidelines?
There are just a few simple rules & guidelines to follow, which you can read here:https://groups.jewishgen.org/g/main/guidelines
Thank you in advance for contributing to this amazing online community!
If you have any questions, or suggestions, please email email@example.com.
The JewishGen.org Team


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|Version 289 (modified by 15 years ago) (diff),
Scrum Burndown in Trac
Notice: This plugin is unmaintained and available for adoption.
- Thanks to everyone for the support and submitted patches to keep this plugin working with newer versions of Trac. I'm sorry that I haven't had any time to maintain this as of late, and my current employers are using Redmine instead of Trac. I would certainly be willing to pass this plugin off to someone else to maintain and would only ask that my name remain associated with it as the original contributor. If interested, please drop me a line at sam 'at' samandshannon 'dot' com.
- Will crash Trac 0.11. If you have installed it and upgraded your trac.11 into oblivion, apply the following patch and replace the egg:
Index: burndown/burndown.py =================================================================== --- burndown/burndown.py (revision 4148) +++ burndown/burndown.py (working copy) @@ -139,7 +139,7 @@ def get_navigation_items(self, req): if req.perm.has_permission("BURNDOWN_VIEW"): - yield 'mainnav', 'burndown', Markup('Burndown', self.env.href.burndown()) + yield 'mainnav', 'burndown', Markup('Burndown') % req.href.burndown() #--------------------------------------------------------------------------- # IPermissionRequestor methods
- KNOWN BUG There is a known bug in head.
- Say goodbye to the cron job! I finally found some time to implement Trac's iTicketChangeListener plugin interface so that now the burndown chart gets updated every time you change a ticket (version 01.08.10). This simplifies the install process quite a bit.
- Note that you may have to click the 'Start Milestone' button for any sprints that you're in the middle of after you upgrade to the latest version.
A plugin to enable burndown chart capabilities, a common part of Scrum and other agile development methodologies.
This plugin is now integrated with the TimingAndEstimationPlugin.
Current Version: 01.08.10 -- attachment:TracBurndown-01.08.10-py2.3.egg
Note that version 01.04.10 and later should work with python 2.4. The egg file just says py2.3 because that's what I had installed on the computer that built it. You will have to rename it to correct python version before installing to make it work.
Note: The above linked egg would not install for us. To create a new egg:
svn co http://trac-hacks.org/svn/scrumburndownplugin/ cd scrumburndownplugin python setup.py bdist_egg
Who's Using It
I'm interested to know how many people are using this plugin. If a lot of people are using it or at least evaluating it, I will be able to justify spending more time on it to my boss. If you download it, please increment this counter: 271
Also, feel free to drop me an e-mail if you've got any questions that aren't answered here and aren't really ticketable.
Installation Instructions
Installing this plugin is a five-step process.
- Install the TimingAndEstimationPlugin
- Install the ScrumBurndownPlugin egg
- Assign permissions
- Upgrade Trac project
- Restart the server
Installing the egg
Install just like you would any other Trac plugin. Drop the egg into your plugins or site-packages folder and then try to access Trac in your browser. Add plugin to [components] section in trac.ini (at least the following plugins must be enabled)
[components] timingandestimationplugin.* = enabled burndown.* = enabled
Assign Permissions
Assign permissions to users for 'BURNDOWN_VIEW' and 'BURNDOWN_ADMIN' The BURNDOWN_ADMIN permission gives users access to the 'Start Milestone' and 'Milestone Complete' buttons.
Upgrade The Project
Use 'trac-admin /full/path/to/YourProjectName upgrade' to perform the upgrade. You will get an error message saying that the database needs to be upgraded and telling you to use the trac-admin command to do it if you don't upgrade.
Restart The Server
Finally, you will need to restart your webserver in order to see some of the features that ScrumBurndownPlugin provides, such as the addition of a 'burndown' link on the trac navbar.
Using the plugin
At the beginning of a sprint, after the tickets have been inputted and estimated in Trac an admin user should click the 'Start Milestone' plugin. This inputs a datetime integer into the milestone table to indicate when the milestone was started. The daily burndown_job.py script will only record hours_remaining entries for milestones that have started, but have not been completed. It should be fairly obvious, then, that an admin user should click the 'Milestone Complete' button at the end of the milestone to prevent the burndown_job from continuing to collect data.
You can view different burndown charts, selectable by milestone and component by choosing from the dropdowns and clicking the 'Show Burndown Chart' button.
In order for this to work, it is imperative that developers keep the 'Estimated Hours' and 'Total Hours' fields accurate and up-to-date on the tickets they are working. The 'Total Hours' field itself should never be manually edited, but rather, it can be changed by inputting positive and negative values into the 'Hours to Add' field.
Bugs/Feature Requests
Workaround! Error with Markup().
- in file:
yield 'mainnav', 'burndown', Markup('Burndown', self.env.href.burndown())
- change to:
yield 'mainnav', 'burndown', Markup('Burndown') %self.env.href.burndown()
Existing bugs and feature requests for ScrumBurndownPlugin are here.
If you have any issues, create a new ticket.
Download the distributable Python egg here.
You can check out the source using Subversion, browse the source with Trac, or download a zip file of the complete source here. Current version is 01.06.10.
Related Plugins
- This plugin relies on the TimingAndEstimationPlugin
- Future plans for this plugin will make use of the t:WebAdmin plugin
- BurnDownPlugin is a similar plugin using Fusion Charts Free edition
- AgiloForScrumPlugin is a similar plugin.
Recent Changes
- 16778 by rjollos on 2017-08-26 04:31:01
TracBurndown 2.0.0dev: Fix incorrect types for milestone timestamp columns
Fixes #13257.
- 13150 by rjollos on 2013-05-16 23:38:18
Fixes #11089:
- Fixed incorrect
package_dataspecification (regression from [13076]).
- Renamed
admin_burndown.htmlin order to better ensure that we'll meet the requirements that template names are unique.
- Changed
setup.pyto point to the trac-hacks site.
Thanks to Jun Omae (jun66j5) for these fixes.
- Fixed incorrect
- 13148 by rjollos on 2013-05-15 23:40:27
- Removed Trac pre-0.11 compatibility code.
- Changed module names to follow Trac naming conventions.
- Updated source file headers and added where missing.
Note: If you enabled the plugin through the web admin, or by providing the full module name, you'll need to re-enable the plugin or edit the
burndown.burndown_admin_milestones.burndownmilestonesadminpanel = enabled burndown.burndown.burndowncomponent = enabled
burndown.admin.burndownadminpanel = enabled burndown.burndown.burndownmodule = enabled(more)
Author: sambloomquist
- The link to add 'integer' doesn't appear to add integer custom type, am I missing something?? (2006/08/24)
Answer: Removed the 'integer' type requirement because the patch for it is gone. Using text seems to work fine and is simpler. I may add some of the validation brought by the integer type back into the plugin at a future date.
- Is there an easy way to move the start date of a sprint into the past? (For example when some tickets of a milestone already have been closed when starting a sprint, immediately after installing this plugin.)
Attachments (1)
burndown.png (89.3 KB) - added by 3 years ago.
Burndown chart_
Download all attachments as: .zip


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Get the card that rewards you simply for doing the things you love - the Toyota Rewards Visa.
Every purchase you make earns you points redeemable toward Toyota service, parts and accessories at participating Toyota
dealerships. You can even redeem points toward an eligible vehicle purchase or lease. How do you want to be rewarded?
- 3.99% Intro APR on all purchases for the first six months.[1]
- 5 Points for every $1 spent at participating Toyota dealerships.[2]
- 1 Point for every $1 spent everywhere else that Visa is accepted.
Legal Disclaimers
*Upon account opening, your APR will be dependent on your credit history.
**The Delinquency APR will apply to all balances in the event the Account is 60 days past due once or 30 days past due twice in any twelve-month period. ***The Prime Rate used to determine your APR is a variable rate that is adjusted monthly based on the highest Prime Rate published in the "Money Rates" column of the Midwest Edition of The Wall Street Journal in the last 90 days. [1] The 3.99% introductory APR applies to Purchases and 8.99% introductory APR applies to Balance Transfers as defined in the Cardmember Agreement and are valid for the first six billing cycles. The introductory APRs will end early and increase to the APRs for Purchases and Balance Transfers if your Account is over the limit or closed, or to a Delinquency Rate APR if your Account is delinquent as further described above and in the Cardmember Agreement. We apply payments to balances with lower APRs first. Any Purchase or Balance transfer made during the promotional period that remain unpaid at the time the period
terminates, will accrue finance charges at the APR for Purchases or Balance Transfers otherwise applicable under your Cardmember Agreement. [2] Please contact your participating Toyota dealership for information regarding restrictions your dealer may impose on the use of credit cards related to vehicle purchases or leases. Points can not be redeemed for cash. Redemption only available at participating Toyota dealerships in the continental U.S. and Alaska.


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FreeBSD Manual Pages
LOADER.CONF(5) BSD File Formats Manual LOADER.CONF(5) NAME loader.conf -- system bootstrap configuration information DESCRIPTION The file loader.conf contains descriptive information on bootstrapping the system. Through it you can specify the kernel to be booted, parame- ters to be passed to it, and additional modules to be loaded; and gener- ally set all variables described in loader(8). The file /boot/loader.rc must contain the following two lines for loader.conf to be automatically processed: include /boot/loader.4th start If no /boot/loader.rc exists at installworld time, one with the above lines will be installed. SYNTAX Though loader.conf's format was defined explicitly to resemble rc.conf(5), and can be sourced by sh(1), some settings are treated in a special fashion. Also, the behavior of some settings is defined by the setting's suffix; the prefix identifies which module the setting con- trols. The general parsing rules are: o Spaces and empty lines are ignored. o A # sign will mark the remainder of the line as a comment. o Only one setting can be present on each line. All settings have the following format: variable="value" Unless it belongs to one of the classes of settings that receive special treatment, a setting will set the value of a loader(8) environment vari- able. The settings that receive special treatment are listed below. Settings beginning with "*" below define the modules to be loaded and may have any prefix; the prefix identifies a module. All such settings shar- ing a common prefix refer to the same module. exec Immediately executes a loader(8) command. This type of setting cannot be processed by programs other than loader(8), so its use should be avoided. Multiple in- stances of it will be processed independently. loader_conf_files Defines additional configuration files to be processed right after the present file. kernel Name of the kernel to be loaded. If no kernel name is set, no additional modules will be loaded. kernel_options Flags to be passed to the kernel. password Provides a password to be required by check-password before execution is allowed to continue. verbose_loading If set to "YES", module names will be displayed as they are loaded. *_load If set to "YES", that module will be loaded. If no name is defined (see below), the module's name is taken to be the same as the prefix. *_name Defines the name of the module. *_type Defines the module's type. If none is given, it defaults to a kld module. *_flags Flags and parameters to be passed to the module. *_before Commands to be executed before the module is loaded. Use of this setting should be avoided. *_after Commands to be executed after the module is loaded. Use of this setting should be avoided. *_error Commands to be executed if the loading of a module fails. Except for the special value "abort", which aborts the bootstrap process, use of this setting should be avoided. WARNING: developers should never use these suffixes for any kernel envi- ronment variables (tunables) or conflicts will result. DEFAULT SETTINGS Most of loader.conf's default settings can be ignored. The few of them which are important or useful are: bitmap_load ("NO") If set to "YES", a bitmap will be loaded to be displayed on screen while booting. bitmap_name ("/boot/splash.bmp") Name of the bitmap to be loaded. Any other name can be used. comconsole_speed ("9600" or the value of the BOOT_COMCONSOLE_SPEED vari- able when loader(8) was compiled). Sets the speed of the serial console. If the previous boot loader stage speci- fied that a serial console is in use then the default speed is determined from the current serial port speed setting. console ("vidconsole") "comconsole" selects serial console, "vidconsole" selects the video console, and "nullconsole" selects a mute console (useful for systems with neither a video console nor a serial port). kernel ("/boot/kernel/kernel") loader_conf_files ("/boot/loader.conf /boot/loader.conf.local") splash_bmp_load ("NO") If set to "YES", will load the splash screen mod- ule, making it possible to display a bmp image on the screen while booting. splash_pcx_load ("NO") If set to "YES", will load the splash screen mod- ule, making it possible to display a pcx image on the screen while booting. vesa_load ("NO") If set to "YES", the vesa module will be loaded, enabling bitmaps above VGA resolution to be displayed. beastie_disable If set to "YES", the beastie boot menu will be skipped. loader_logo ("fbsdbw") Selects a desired logo in the beastie boot menu. Possi- ble values are: "fbsdbw", "beastiebw", "beastie", and "none". FILES /boot/defaults/loader.conf default settings -- do not change this file. /boot/loader.4th defines the commands used by loader to read and process loader.conf. /boot/loader.conf user defined settings. /boot/loader.conf.local machine-specific settings for sites with a common loader.conf. /boot/loader.rc contains the instructions to automatically process loader.conf. SEE ALSO boot(8), loader(8), loader.4th(8) BUGS The loader(8) stops reading loader.conf when it encounters a syntax er- ror, so any options which are vital for booting a particular system (i.e. "hw.ata.ata_dma=0") should precede any experimental additions to loader.conf. HISTORY The file loader.conf first appeared in FreeBSD 3.2. AUTHORS This manual page was written by Daniel C. Sobral <email@example.com>. BSD January 16, 2008 BSD
Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:


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Cape Cod - Yarmouth Run
- Begins in:
- Yarmouth, MA, United States
- Creator:
Brookline, MA
- This is a 5.88 mi route in Yarmouth, MA, United States. This map was created by Greatruns on 03/29/2017. View other maps that Greatruns has done or find similar maps in Yarmouth
Directions / Notes
There are no directions to display. To view directions use the "Follow Roads" option in Map Controls.
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ElevationShow elevation with grades
Loading Mapping Tools
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Create a Map
- Map your run and get your distance
- Log and track your workout
- Plan a new place to run
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Phrasal User Guide
This guide explains how to set up and train a phrase-based Statistical Machine Translation system using Phrasal. It offers step-by-step instructions to download, install, configure, and run the Phrasal decoder and its related support tools.
Phrasal is designed for fast training of large-scale, discriminative translation models with:
- An intuitive feature engineering API
- Large-scale learning with AdaGrad+FOBOS
- Fast search with cube pruning
- Unpruned language modeling with KenLM
This guide assumes some familiarity with Unix-like command-line interpreters (or shells), such as bash for Linux and Mac OS X and Cygwin for Microsoft Windows. The commands in this tutorial are written for bash, but it is relatively easy to adapt them to other shells.
For background information on statistical machine translation, please see the StatMT site or Philipp Koehn's textbook.
Phrasal is written for Java 1.6+. If your JVM is older than 1.6, then you should upgrade. Many of the utility scripts included with Phrasal assume Python 2.7+ (but not Python3).
Questions about Phrasal should be directed to the JavaNLP mailing list.
If you use Phrasal for research purposes, then we ask that you cite these two papers:
@inproceedings{Cer2010, author = {Cer, Daniel and Galley, Michel and Jurafsky, Daniel and Manning, Christopher D.}, title = {Phrasal: a toolkit for statistical machine translation with facilities for extraction and incorporation of arbitrary model features}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the NAACL HLT 2010 Demonstration Session}, year = {2010} }
@InProceedings{Green2013, author = {Green, Spence and Wang, Sida and Cer, Daniel and Manning, Christopher D.}, title = {Fast and Adaptive Online Training of Feature-Rich Translation Models}, booktitle = {Proceedings of ACL}, year = {2013} }
The first paper describes the core decoder. The second covers the parameter learning algorithm.
If you enable the lexicalized re-ordering model (which is enabled in the system described in this tutorial), then please cite:
@inproceedings{Galley2008, author = {Michel Galley and Christopher D. Manning}, title = {A Simple and Effective Hierarchical Phrase Reordering Model}, booktitle = {Proceedings of EMNLP}, year = {2008} }
Download the latest version of Phrasal and the latest version of Stanford CoreNLP.
The Phrasal download file has the format phrasal.ver.tar.gz where ver is the current version number. Assume that you download to the directory $HOME=/home/me.
The CoreNLP download file has the format stanford-corenlp-full-date.zip where date is the release date.
Change to your download directory and unpack the archives:
cd $HOME tar -xzf phrasal.ver.tar.gz unzip stanford-corenlp-full-date.zip cd phrasal.ver
Add the Phrasal and CoreNLP jar files to your Java CLASSPATH in the following order:
export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:$HOME/stanford-corenlp-full-date/stanford-corenlp-ver.jar:$HOME/phrasal.ver/phrasal.ver.jar
Add the scripts directory to your shell PATH:
export PATH="$PATH":$HOME/phrasal.ver/scripts
Compiling Phrasal
If you change the Phrasal source code, then you'll need to recompile it. The distribution includes an ant script: build.xml. Windows users will need to edit that script to specify a path to Cygwin. Open the script and look for the "TODO" statement. Unix users can simply change to the distribution root and execute:
Language Modeling
Phrasal comes with a Java-based language model, but does not include a language model estimation tool. To build language models, we recommend that you download and install KenLM. Both the KenLM site and download package contain detailed installation instructions.
Later on in this tutorial we will use KenLM's lmplz tool to build language models.
The Phrasal Java-based loader can load the ARPA files created by lmplz, but it is very inefficient. Phrasal includes an efficient C++-based KenLM loader that can be compiled separately. You must first install the JDK from Oracle. Next, make sure to set the JAVA_HOME environment variable. Finally, compile the loader:
cd $HOME/phrasal.ver/src-cc ./compile_JNI.sh
To activate this loader, add the "kenlm:" prefix to the language model path in the Phrasal ini file.
Word Alignments
For word alignment, we recommend Berkeley Aligner. The download contains installation instructions.
Data Download and Pre-processing
Download the training, development, and test data from the WMT 2013 shared task site:
Unpack the files in a convenient location. Assume that we will build a system for French (fr) to English (en) translation, so we'll need the following files:
Parallel data:
- europarl-v7.fr-en.en
- europarl-v7.fr-en.fr
Monolingual data:
- europarl-v7.en
Development data:
- newstest2011.fr
- newstest2011.en
Test data:
- newstest2012.fr
- newstest2012.en
- tokenizer.perl
- lowercase.perl
To prepare the data, first tokenize and lowercase the parallel, monolingual, development, and test data using the scripts, e.g.:
cat europarl-v7.fr-en.en | tokenizer.perl -l en | lowercase.perl > europarl-v7.fr-en.en.tok
Each processed file should have the .tok extension.
For the bitext, run the corpus cleaner included with Phrasal:
clean-corpus.py europarl-v7.fr-en.en.tok europarl-v7.fr-en.fr.tok
This command will produce two files:
- europarl-v7.fr-en.en.tok.filt.gz
- europarl-v7.fr-en.fr.tok.filt.gz
Word Alignment
Align the bitext with the Berkeley aligner (or another aligner like GIZA++). The Berkeley aligner distribution contains an example configuration file.
In either case, you'll need the A3 files created by the aligner for phrase extraction later on. Assume that you have these files:
training.fr-en.A3 training.en-fr.A3
Language Model Estimation
Estimate a language model from both the monolingual data and the target-side of the parallel data:
lmplz -o 4 < europarl-v7.fr-en.en.tok europarl-v7.en.tok > 4gm.arpa build_binary trie 4gm.arpa 4gm.bin
System Training
Create a new directory for the MT system and copy over the system tuning files:
mkdir $HOME/phrasal.fr-en cd $HOME/phrasal.fr-en cp $HOME/phrasal.ver/example/example.vars fr-en.vars cp $HOME/phrasal.ver/example/example.ini fr-en.ini cp $HOME/phrasal.ver/example/example.binwts fr-en.initial.binwts
You might also want to copy over the language model:
cp 4gm.bin $HOME/phrasal.fr-en
Open the vars file and read the comments. If you've followed the instructions carefully until now, then all of the filenames and paths should match. However, you should verify the files and paths before proceeding.
Tuning and evaluation consists of eight stages, which are configured for convenience in a script. To see the phases, run:
If your PATH is configured correctly, you should see the following output:
Usage: phrasal.sh var_file steps ini_file sys_name Use dashes and commas in the steps specification e.g. 1-3,6 Step definitions: 1 Extract phrases from dev set 2 Run tuning 3 Extract phrases from test set 4 Decode test set 5 Output results file 6 Generate a learning curve from an online run
To train and evaluate a system, which we will call "baseline," run this command:
phrasal.sh fr-en.vars 1-6 fr-en.ini baseline
An explanation of each step along with associated parameters in the vars file follows.
Extract phrases from dev set
Purpose: Extract translation rules from the parallel data for the development set.
Phrase extraction parameters:
EXTRACT_SET -- Specifies the bitext files and symmetrization heuristic (default heuristic is grow-diag. THREADS_EXTRACT -- Number of threads to use for phrase extraction. MAX_PHRASE_LEN -- Maximum source phrase length. OTHER_EXTRACT_OPTS -- Other options that are described in edu.stanford.nlp.mt.train.PhraseExtract LO_ARGS -- Parameters for the lexicalized re-ordering model.
Dev set parameters
TUNE_SET_NAME -- The name of the tuning/dev set (e.g., newstest2011). TUNE_SET -- The actual filename of the dev set (e.g., newstest2011.fr.tok). TUNE_REF -- The reference file of the dev set (e.g., newstest2011.en.tok).
Run tuning
Purpose: Estimate model weights from the dev set.
TUNE_MODE -- The tuning algorithm. Here we'll use online. The Advanced features section describes how to enable batch tuning with MERT . INITIAL_WTS -- The initial weights file. TUNE_NBEST -- The n-best list size. ONLINE_OPTS -- Algorithm-specific options for the online tuner.
Extract phrases from test set
Purpose: Extract translation rules from the parallel data for the test set.
DECODE_SET_NAME -- Name of the test set (e.g., newstest2012). DECODE_SET -- The actual filename of the test set (e.g., newstest2012.fr.tok). NBEST -- n-best list size to generate (optional)
Decode test set
Purpose: Decode (translate) the test set.
Output results file
Purpose: Evaluate translation quality using BLEU. This step outputs a .bleu file for the test set.
REFDIR -- The base path of reference directory.
The reference directory must have a particular format. For example, here is how to make a reference directory for newstest2012:
mkdir -p $HOME/refs/newstest2012 cp newstest2012.en.tok $HOME/refs/newstest2012/ref0
The reference filenames must have the prefix ref. Multiple references can be specified by naming the files e.g. ref0,ref1,ref2 etc.
Generate a learning curve from an online run
Purpose: Evaluate weight vectors produced during each training iteration on the test set.
This step outputs a .learn-curve file for the test set. This file can be used to identify the weight vector that generalizes best from those generated by the tuning algorithm.
The phrasal-train-tune.sh script generates three log files:
- $HOME/phrasal.fr-en/newstest2011.baseline.online.log
- $HOME/phrasal.fr-en/logs/newstest2011.baseline.stdout
- $HOME/phrasal.fr-en/logs/newstest2012.newstest2011.baseline.stdout
The first log contains output from step 2. You can see the tuning objective function score by searching for "BLEU", e.g.:
grep BLEU newstest2011.baseline.online.log
BLEU scores should increase from one epoch to the next.
The other two "stdout" logs capture all system output to the console for the dev and test steps. You should look at the "stdout" logs for Java exceptions. In particular, if the paths in your vars file are not configured properly, then you will see Java FileNotFoundException information in these logs.
You can also inspect the inspect the intermediate weight files generated by the learning algorithm:
java edu.stanford.nlp.mt.tools.PrintWeights newstest2011.baseline.online.2.binwts
Advanced/Additional Features
This section describes features for advanced users who wish to maximize translation quality.
Feature Engineering API
Phrasal contains a very intuitive feature API that will be familiar to anyone who has written discriminative features for SVMs or logistic regression. Like cdec, feature functions can be loaded dynamically without recompiling the whole system. In Phrasal, this is accomplished via reflection.
The Feature API Tutorial---see the /doc directory in the download package---describes the interfaces in the API, describes example features, and provides tips for writing feature templates. MT features are tricky. Bad features can significantly reduce translation quality due to interaction with the approximate search algorithm.
Baseline "dense" features are located in edu.stanford.nlp.mt.decoder.feat.
Examples of discriminative "sparse" features can be found in edu.stanford.nlp.mt.decoder.feat.sparse.
Feature templates are via reflection in the .ini file as follows:
[additional-featurizers] edu.stanford.nlp.mt.decoder.feat.sparse.MyFeature()
Statistical Significance Testing
Phrasal includes an implementation of the permutation test described by Riezler and Maxwell. To obtain p-values for a pair of system outputs, run:
java edu.stanford.nlp.mt.tools.SignificanceTest [bleu|ter] reference_prefix system1 system2
where reference_prefix is a common filename prefix for multiple references.
Advanced Parameters
Additional phrase extraction options are passed via the OTHER_EXTRACT_OPTS in the vars file to edu.stanford.nlp.mt.train.PhraseExtract. See the usage and javadocs in that package for a description of the options.
Learning options are passed via ONLINE_OPTS in the vars file to edu.stanford.nlp.mt.tune.OnlineTuner. See the usage and javadocs in that package for a description of the options.
Phrasal decoder options are specified in the .ini file. The decoder supports popular functions such as force decoding, droppping unknown words, larger beam sizes, etc. For the full list of options, see the javadocs in edu.stanford.nlp.mt.Phrasal.
MERT (Batch) Training
Phrasal contains an efficient MERT implementation. MERT does not scale to the large feature sets supported by the API, but it is an effective algorithm for the baseline dense features. To enable it, comment out the online tuning parameters in your vars file and uncomment the following batch parameters:
SEED -- Random seed for MERT N_STARTING_POINTS -- Number of random starting points. TUNE_NBEST -- n-best list size OBJECTIVE -- objective function (e.g., bleu) THREADS -- Number of MERT threads OPT_FLAGS -- MERT configuration parameters (see scripts/phrasal-mert.pl for a full list of options)
Arabic-English Translation
Arabic-English is a common research language pair in the United States. The steps in this tutorial can be used to build an Ar-En system with the exception of Arabic pre-processing and segmentation. The Stanford NLP group provides a free tokenizer/segmenter for Arabic. Run it on the Arabic side of the parallel data and you should be ready to go.
A high-quality English tokenizer (i.e., better than the WMT perl script in this document) is included in Stanford CoreNLP.
Chinese-English Translation
Chinese-English is also common research language pair in the United States. Chinese, like Arabic, requires tokenization and segmentation prior to system tuning. The Stanford NLP group provides a free tokenizer/segmenter for Chinese. Run it on the Chinese side of the parallel data and you should be ready to go.
A high-quality English tokenizer (i.e., better than the WMT perl script in this document) is included in Stanford CoreNLP.


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