Archive for Crunche World
sneak peek: famille summerbelle
ever since seeing julie’s incredible paper cut of paris, i’ve been drawn to the work of famille summerbelle which has been popping up around the web. their designs and accessories are fun and playful, with the fundamental idea that they belong in a “room for everyone.” the sneak peek of their beautiful home comes to us straight from paris so be sure to CLICK HERE for the full post with additional images. [thanks, julie!] -anne
[above: Our living room. We love book, so this this a small selection of our favorites. The painting in the background and the drawings on top of the bookshelf are all done by me when I was at art college.]
Our Kitchen is just on the left. Once again I love the mantelpiece to display my collection of glass candle holders. The table cloth is from an antique market in Paris. The glasses from Habitat and the chairs were from a Church. We bought them on Ebay.
Dedicated hosting service
A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have full control over the server(s), including choice of operating system, hardware, etc. Server administration can usually be provided by the hosting company as an add-on service. In some cases a dedicated server can offer less overhead and a larger return on investment. Dedicated servers are most often housed in data centers, similar to colocation facilities, providing redundant power sources and HVAC systems. In contrast to colocation, the server hardware is owned by the provider and in some cases they will provide support for your operating system or applications.
Some providers will calculate the Total Transfer, the measurement of actual data leaving and arriving, measured in bytes. Measurement between providers varies, though it is either the total traffic in, the total traffic out, whichever is the greater or the sum of the two.
One of the reasons for choosing to outsource dedicated servers is the availability of high powered networks from multiple providers. As dedicated server providers utilize massive amounts of bandwidth, they are able to secure lower volume based pricing to include a multi-provider blend of bandwidth. To achieve the same type of network without a multi-provider blend of bandwidth, a large investment in core routers, long term contracts, and expensive monthly bills would need to be in place. The expenses needed to develop a network without a multi-provider blend of bandwidth does not make sense economically for hosting providers.
Availability, price and employee familiarity often determines which operating systems are offered on dedicated servers. Variations of Linux and Unix (open source operating systems) are often included at no charge to the customer. Commercial operating systems include Microsoft Windows Server, provided through a special program called Microsoft SPLA. Red Hat Enterprise is a commercial version of Linux offered to hosting providers on a monthly fee basis. The monthly fee provides OS updates through the Red Hat Network using an application called yum. Other operating systems are available from the open source community at no charge. These include CentOS, Fedora Core, Debian, and many other Linux distributions or BSD systems FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD.
Support for any of these operating systems typically depends on the level of management offered with a particular dedicated server plan. Operating system support may include updates to the core system in order to acquire the latest security fixes, patches, and system-wide vulnerability resolutions. Updates to core operating systems include kernel upgrades, service packs, application updates, and security patches that keep server secure and safe. Operating system updates and support relieves the burden of server management from the dedicated server owner.
Walgreens Diaper Sale
Here’s a great deal on diapers. Walgreens.com is currently having a sale on their own brand name diaperes for $5.99 per pack, which is $4 off their regular price. This includes Newborn through Size 6. If you order online, you can get free shipping for any order over $25. Not sure how long this deal will last, so you might want to check it out ASAP!
2009 Proof Platinum Eagle
Despite the fact that the 2009 Platinum Eagle bullion coins have been canceled, the US Mint announced their intention to release a collectible Proof 2009 Platinum Eagle later this year. Each year since 1997, the US Mint has produced a collectible proof version of the platinum bullion coin for collectors. Since 1998, the coins have featured a unique reverse design, which changes each year.
The 2009 Proof Platinum Eagle offerings will be curtailed from previous years. From 1997 to 2008, the US Mint had offered a full range of coins including 1 oz, 1/2 oz, 1/4 oz, and 1/10 oz coins, plus a 4 Coin Set. From 2006 to 2008, they had supplemented the offerings with collectible uncirculated coins produced in the same range of individual coins with a 4 Coin Set. At the end of 2008, the US Mint announced all but the one ounce proof coin discontinued.
The design for this year’s proof Platinum Eagle will be an interpretation of the theme “To Form a More Perfect Union.” Early in 2008, several design concepts were produced by the United States Mint and sent to the Commission of Fine Arts and the Citizens Coinage Advisory for comment and review. The CFA eventualy endorsed a design featuring a smal tree with thirteen leaves. The CCAC favored a design featuring four faces representing the diversity of America. The final design choice has not yet been announced by the US Mint.
The 2009 Proof Platinum Eagle has a tentative release date of December 3, 2009. Pricing and ordering information have not yet been announced. Based on a pricing grid used for the 2008 Platinum Eagles, the price of the one ounce proof coin is projected to be $1,692 based on an average price of platinum between $1,350.00 to $1,449.99. If the average price of platinum falls into a different $100 increment, the price would be adjusted accordingly.
Last year, the US Mint sold 5,030 of the 2008 Proof Platinum Eagles. Projected demand for the 2009 coin is expected to be higher, due to the curious circumstances surroudning the coins release. How many coins the US Mint sells may actually just boil down to how many they can produce.
Tamanaha: Wake Up, Law Professors, to the Failure of the Law School Model
It’s grim reading. The observations are raw, bitter, and filled with despair. It is easier to avert our eyes and carry on with our pursuits. But please, take a few moments and force yourself to look at Third Tier Reality, Esq. Never, Exposing the Law School Scam, Jobless Juris Doctor, Temporary Attorney: The Sweatshop Edition, and linked sites. Read the posts and the comments. These sites are proliferating, with thousands of hits.
Look past the occasional vulgarity and disgusting pictures. Don’t dismiss the posters as whiners. To a person they accept responsibility for their poor decisions. But they make a strong case that something is deeply wrong with law schools.
Their complaint is that non-elite law schools are selling a fraudulent bill of goods. Law schools advertise deceptively high rates of employment and misleading income figures. Many graduates can’t get jobs. Many graduates end up as temp attorneys working for $15 to $20 dollars an hour on two week gigs, with no benefits. The luckier graduates land jobs in government or small firms for maybe $45,000, with limited prospects for improvement. A handful of lottery winners score big firm jobs.
And for the opportunity to enter a saturated legal market with long odds against them, the tens of thousands newly minted lawyers who graduate each year from non-elite schools will have paid around $150,000 in tuition and living expenses, and given up three years of income. Many leave law school with well over $100,000 in non-dischargeable debt, obligated to pay $1,000 a month for thirty years. …
[L]aw schools must shrink the number of graduates, and must hold the line on tuition increases. (The fact that many students get scholarships is no answer because it simply means that some students, those paying full fare—often the students with the worst prospects—are subsidizing others.) This will be painful: smaller raises (perhaps even salary reductions), smaller administrations, smaller faculties, more teaching, less money for research, travel, and conferences.
The longer law schools delay in undertaking these measures, the more casualties there will be. At some point, law professors can no longer disclaim responsibility for the harmful consequences of this enterprise.
Training with Distractions
I made a mistake last week. This isn’t really news. As a matter of fact I probably made a mistake every day last week, so I should probably say “I made a mistake last Sunday” or maybe even “I made several mistakes last Sunday night around 11:00PM and I’m thinking of the third or fourth one right now.”
Anyway, I was asked to answer an e-mail interview (man I hate that picture) and one of the questions struck me funny. Funny enough that I outsmarted myself. Again, not news — I’m an engineer and experienced in outsmarting myself. (Ask me about the SSL redirector and CPU utilization sometime over beers.)
The question was : What are your views on negative reinforcement? What do you think about dog owners using spray collars and even shock collars?
I immediately jumped to how I have been told several times that shock collars are used more often to administer negative reinforcement than positive punishment. Negative reinforcement as defined by the four quadrants, that is. (The other trainer interviewed on the site was not using that definition.) The problem is (at least in terms of answering the question) is I don’t use shock collars and don’t plan on it.
I found the question quite puzzling. What are my views on one of the quadrants? When I gave it some thought I found that I don’t really use it a lot, but it’s not something I dwell on. I don’t get up in the morning and say “Gee, I sure hope I don’t need to use any R- today.” nor do I find myself saying “Technique X would fix this problem, but it’s R- and I don’t use that.”
When it came time for an example I didn’t want to put it in terms of two tools I don’t use. So, after a few minutes, I thought of standing on the leash in order to get a jumpy dog to stay down during class. It’s far from my favorite thing to do, but it was all I could think of late on a Sunday night. Unfortunately my wording could have been better:
There are times where it is in operation – stepping on a leash when a dog is jumping up too much or won’t hold a down during a class for example, but it’s most associated with much more aversive techniques than I normally use.
Within a couple hours of the interview hitting the twitterverse I received some positive punishment of my own. It was pointed out to me that if a dog is jumping and you step on the leash, it is actually positive punishment.
The picture in my head was a tight leash that loosens when the dog lies down. The picture in the other person’s head, due to my referring to a “jumpy dog,” was a dog jumping up and hitting the end of the leash.
Note to self: get your blogging done before you watch a three hour German epic without subtitles. It will save you embarrassment and consternation later. (On the other hand, mistakes make for great blog fodder — so maybe I’ll try a foreign movie in a language I don’t understand at all…full editorial calendar FTW!)
But, and this has more to do with the original question than my mistake and someone’s reaction to it, what is it with the quadrants?
The four quadrants were defined as a way to analyze how consequences influence behavior. They are not a moral code, nor are they a training manual.
The Mysterious Case of Mitrice Richardson Missing
While cruising a blog last Friday I heard about the case of Mitrice Richardson, the missing 24-year-old black woman from South Los Angeles who was arrested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department on Sept. 16 for not paying a $89.21 restaurant bill in upscale Malibu. After her arrest, she was released at 1:25 in the morning without her cell phone or her purse and no transportation because the police had impounded her 1990 Honda Civic in which they say she had less than an ounce of marijuana. Her purse and cell phone were in the car with her identification, according to her family, but the police say she had identification. After that, she vanished. With the exception of a few sightings here and there, the 5 ft 5 young woman just disappeared. (Photo from FindMitrice.info.)
I read this story at Field Negro and my comment was simply, “God, this story is horrible!” That’s how I get when something really upsets me. I don’t know exactly what to say. I go numb, dumb and mute.
This story has so many layers that indicate the police don’t always protect and serve. It reminds me how black women are not seen as people to protect, that sometimes not only do the cases of missing black women seem to get less attention from law enforcement and the media but so do their murders. While it appears Mitrice’s case is getting more attention than the average missing black woman case receives–perhaps because the police may be culpable should she come to physical harm–I can’t help but wonder if this slender woman had been white and blonde, had resembled one of those police officers’ daughters or wives, would they have taken better care to protect her? Would they have realized that it would have been better to find some excuse to keep her in the cell than to send her out onto canyon roads with nothing in the wee hours of morning, alone into the dark?
And yet something in me says that had these officers been people of color Mitrice may still have been released to nothingness. It’s that image of strong black woman thing, Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman” coming at you from the Twilight Zone. This idea that black women are like strong males, we can pull a plow or fight anything, even wee hour darkness with no phone, the chill of a dark canyon alone with no blanket, coyotes maybe or worse–we can fight a stranger who does not know we too have mothers and fathers who love us.
Another layer: This is not just me as a black woman speaking, wondering about Mitrice and weeping for her, it’s me as a mother screaming something is terribly wrong with how Mitrice was handled. As I read the opening of one article on her story by Carla Hall at the L.A. Times, my eyes fill with tears.
Mitrice Richardson is afraid of the dark and always has been, says her mother, Latice Sutton, who remembers that quirk when she thinks about her daughter’s release from a jail cell at a Los Angeles County sheriff’s substation in Calabasas in the predawn hours of Sept. 17.
Wearing jeans and a dark T-shirt, Richardson, 24, had no car, no cellphone and no purse as she left the station about 1:25 a.m. The nearest Starbucks and fast-food restaurants are about a mile away in a shopping area. Beyond them stretches Las Virgenes Road, which turns into Malibu Canyon Road, winding through Malibu Canyon and emptying onto Pacific Coast Highway near Pepperdine University.
I have a daughter too, one only four years older than Mitrice. She’s not afraid of the dark. In fact she walks fearless on the earth like an Amazon warrior, and my fear for her is that she is too sure of herself, not streetwise enough, not as observant as she should be.
I don’t want my daughter to be fearful, but I do wish she’d be a little more cautious, and yes, I think, what happened to Mitrice could happen to her. In fact, she walked absent-mindedly out of a restaurant a few months ago after dinner with a group. When the valet went into the restaurant for her to tell her I was waiting outside, she became a little flustered, left and realized after we’d been driving a few minutes that she hadn’t paid her bill. I called the restaurant immediately, and they checked. It turned out a young man in her group had paid for her, but the restaurant manager thanked me for calling to check.
She was just a little flustered and can be more than a little absent-minded, but what if she had been alone, without a group; what if she had experienced some kind of inexplicable mental collapse and wandered into a restaurant alone? Would anybody have tried to help her? What would happen if someone called the police?
It could happen to anyone’s daughter because Mitrice’s family declares the night of September 17, nothing reported to them about Mitrice’s behavior sounds like Mitrice. She was behaving “out of character,” they maintain.
And before you point a finger saying the police report that she had marijuana in her car, consider that even she did, even if she were a known user, would sending a young woman out into the night be acceptable? Would it have even made sense to release a young man into the dark with nothing–no money, no phone, and no ride because you impounded his car. It’s almost as if the police wanted another crime to investigate.
It appears that Mitrice was showing signs of a psychotic break. It could be she was high, but again, why release a person who you think is under the influence of a drug or alcohol into the night with nothing?
News stories report that before her arrest Mitrice showed up at the Geoffrey’s Malibu restaurant Thursday, Sept. 17, around 7:00 p.m. behaving strangely. You may read the account of her behavior at Anderson Cooper’s CNN blog.
And another layer:
Jeff Peterson, the restaurant’s owner, said her erratic behavior was noticed by customers and employees. “There was something a little strange about her,” he told CNN. “She wasn’t mentally ill, not ranting or raving. You couldn’t put your finger on it.” (AC 360)
First, Mr. Peterson is a restaurant owner, he can’t be expected to diagnose mental illness. Nevertheless, I noticed he has a preconceived notion of what mental illness looks like, someone “ranting or raving.” Mitrice, according to reports, showed bizarre behavior like “sitting down with a table of six (a group of strangers) and engaging them in conversation.”
Second, what do you do if you encounter someone who may strike you as “a little strange,” out of touch with reality? Is calling the police the best choice? The truth is, other than the person’s family, the police may be your only choice, and the police aren’t necessarily trained to diagnose and deal with the mentally ill. Police are trained to deal with people who commit crimes.
Why the restaurant owner couldn’t wait for someone from her family to show up, I don’t know. I could speculate about how he may have wanted to get this strange young black woman away from his upscale restaurant as soon as possible, but I won’t. All I know is that a young woman who was apparently in some type of mental distress was handed over to people who did not have her best interest at heart. Perhaps it says something about how we in America view those who are possibly mentally ill, a lack of resources, treatment facilities, and civil procedures.
I’m spending a little time here with the notion that Mitrice may have been showing signs of mental illness rather than drug abuse because the FindMitrice.info site declares, “She suffers from mental issues.” And as I’ve said in other posts, such as the one on the Revelus tragedy, this country is facing a crisis in lack of funding to properly diagnose and treat mental illness. In fact, a diagnosis of mental illness in your health records may jeopardize your receiving health care insurance should you ever have to apply for private insurance on your own.
The restaurant owner says he called the police because he was concerned for Mitrice’s safety, that after eating a Kobe steak dinner she refused to pay, but he was more concerned that she might get in her car and drive under the influence of something he didn’t understand. Her family says her refusal to pay is also strange because she had at least $2000 in her bank account.
She called her great-grandmother who offered to pay the bill using her credit card over the phone. According to news stories, the restaurant said it couldn’t accept the payment unless the older woman could fax them a copy of her signature. How many women in their 60s or 70s have fax machines at home?
Mitrice is a college graduate and an executive assistant who lives with her grandmother. Her family says that members began getting strange text messages from her on September 16. Some stories regarding her behavior in the restaurant indicate she may have been hearing voices.
Whatever the restaurant owner may have told the police, it’s clear that the police did not treat her as someone who deserved their protection. They treated her as a criminal, and claim they released her into the night because there was no room in the jail. Her family disputes the claim of no room. From MSNBC:
… Michael Richardson said deputies told him they were not running a baby-sitting service. He told Lauer he was also told that there was no room to keep her at the jail, but the father said he checked police records and discovered that there was only one other prisoner at the jail that day between 1:30 a.m. and that afternoon.
“It’s all inconsistencies,” Michael Richardson told Lauer. “I’ve talked to them several times.” He said he was first told that deputies told his daughter she could sleep in the lobby. Then, he said, he was told she was offered a bed in a cell. Then he says he was told about the alleged overcrowding.
Richardson’s parents and attorney say they have not been able to obtain police reports on the arrest.
Police deny any wrongdoing. A sheriff’s department spokesman declined to go on the air, but told NBC News that Mitrice Richardson is an adult, and there was no reason to keep her in custody after charging her because she showed no signs of being intoxicated. (MSNBC)
From Anderson Cooper’s 360 Blog:
Lattice Sutton said she told the officers that she would be there around 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. to pick up her daughter. But she said when she called again to check on her, she was told Richardson was already released. (Anderson Cooper’s 360 blog)
The L.A. Times update on the search which has turned up nothing:
Later, about 6:30 a.m., a homeowner in the Malibu Canyon area called to say a woman was resting in the backyard. When deputies arrived, she was gone. Whitmore said the department is almost certain it was Richardson.
On Saturday afternoon, as her friends stood on Pacific Coast Highway, holding up fliers featuring the missing woman’s face, sympathetic passersby stopped to chat with Sutton. One even offered a clue.
“I think I may have seen her walking,” said middle school teacher Janette Goeglein.
About 7:30 a.m. Sept. 17, Goeglein said she was driving to a meeting when she saw a woman walking south on the road through Malibu Canyon. “I thought it’s strange to see a black woman walking in the canyon,” she said.
Brian Boulton
There is a style of drawing, that you may see with some frequency on the web, that involves photorealistic rendering in pencil of images from photographs. It is often practiced by people with little or no professional training and, while I find that admirable, there is sometimes an accompanying lack of focus, finesse and artistic judgement.
The graphite drawings of Brian Boulton, on the other hand, are an exception. His current series of drawings is rendered in detail and is the result of close observation, but Boulton’s command of texture, value and compositional emphasis puts the rendering in the service of his artistic vision, well beyond the realm of mere photorealist representation.
His figures are most often turned away from the viewer, inviting us to grasp the figure as a human form, but without the obvious point of focus of a face with which to interact. The result is a different point of view, that of an unseen observer.
We are invited to see textures of cloth and leather, hair and areas of skin as surfaces, materials as well as forms. The details of folds in the clothing, essentially in the lineage of drapery in classical compositions, are presented with the kind of importance usually given to surfaces in still life drawings.
Boulton is based in Vancouver. He studied architectural rendering at the College of New Caledonia, in British Columbia and Film and Art History at Langara College in Vancouver.
The original concept for this series of drawings began in a previous series, “10 Drawings“, completed in 1999. Boulton returned to the subject, and expanded on it, in 2008 and 2009, and in apparently continuing to explore the approach.
Mello-Roos
Mello-Roos is a special tax that is imposed on Aliso Viejo real estate within a designated community. These Mello-Roos districts are created to raise public financing through the sale of bonds, for the purpose of paying for public improvements and services for that community. The services may include water lines, sewer treatment, drainage, streets, schools, electricity, parks, etc. The Mello Roos tax is used to pay for the bonds used to pay for these improvements. The passage in 1978 of Proposition 13 restricted local governments ability to pay for capital facilities and services by increasing property taxes. In 1982, Senator Henry Mello and Assemblyman Mike Roos enacted the Community Facilities District (now called Mello-Roos) to provide local governments with an additional way to raise needed funds. Below are common questions and answers regarding Mello-Roos… How much is Mello-Roos for Aliso Viejo Real Estate? It can vary from about $400 per year on up to about $2,500 per year dependent upon the community and the lot. A few home communities in Aliso Viejo have no Mello-Roos at all. How do I estimate the Mello-Roos when buying a Home? During the Escrow process, the Seller will deliver a disclosure which will state in writing the exact amount of the Mello-Roos fee. You can also estimate the Mello-Roos prior to making an offer on a home. You take the quoted Tax Assessor yearly Tax amount, and subtract the Prop 13 portion of the tax from this amount. The Prop 13 Tax can be estimated by multiplying 1.15% times the previous sale price stated in the tax rolls. The remainder is a reasonable estimate of your yearly Mello-Roos payment. How is the Mello-Roos Tax paid? The Mello-Roos is included in your normal tax bill which is billed to you twice per year. Does the Mello-Roos tax go up when I sell my Home? No, unlike the Prop 13 portion of your property tax, the Mello-Roos portion of your property tax does not change when you sell your Aliso Viejo home. The MelloRoos tax can increase dependent upon the community facilities agreement by about 1% to 2% per year, but it does not have anything to do with the sale price of your home. Can I deduct Mello-Roos payments from my Income Tax? Most Tax accountants are of the opinion that the Mello-Roos tax is not legitimate income tax deduction. Please consult with your Tax Advisor for final determination. How long does the Mello-Roos tax stay in effect on my Home? Typically, the Mello-Roos assessment is written for about 15 to 25 years dependent on the community facilities district. Although, many of the districts have the right to renew the Mello-Roos tax if needed. How do I compare the value of a Home with Mello-Roos against a Home without? Prior to making a decision to buy a home, here is a simple way to compare the total monthly cost of the home with Mello-Roos versus a home with no Mello-Roos. Say you are considering buying either a home in Aliso Viejo with yearly Mello-Roos payment of about $1,200, or possibly buying a home in say Mission Viejo with no Mello-Roos. To compare the prices of these homes, I take that $1,200 yearly Mell-Roos payment, divide by 12 for the monthly payment of $100. A $100 per month payment is approximately equal to a $20,000 mortgage in today’s interest rates. Therefore the home in Aliso Viejo is actually costing you about $20,000 more as compared to the home you’re considering in Mission Viejo. If the home in Aliso Viejo is still a bit more desirable at a comparative price $20,000 higher than the home in Mission Viejo, then buy it, if not, buy the home in Mission Viejo.
Early Report Card on Healthy People 2010: (Barely) a C
Next spring we get the official report on how the nation collectively fared in reaching the goals included in Healthy People 2010, an every-decade governmental assessment of various health indicators. If preliminary results hold, we’ll scrape by with a low C.
Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, Howard Koh, assistant secretary for health, says that the nation has “progressed” toward 52% of the measurable goals and has met 19% of them. That combined 71% is about the same as from previous decades. (Won’t get you into Harvard, though.)
There’s good news in heart disease. As the Health Blog reported earlier, the age-adjusted death rate from coronary heart disease surpassed its target in 2007, falling to 135 deaths for every 100,000 people from 203 per 100,000 in 1999. And, the report says, illegal drug use held steady, at least in the first half of the decade, as did the number of drinkers who binged at least once a month. And childhood immunization rates rose to 80.6% in 2006 from 72.7% in 1998.
But we’re laggards in other areas with implications for all sorts of diseases. The target for smoking, for example, was 12% prevalence; in 2008 it was more like 21%. And it will surprise no one who reads headlines that the goal of reducing the obesity rate to 15% was missed by a long shot; about a third of U.S. adults now fall into that category, defined as a BMI of 30 or more. (Here’s a calculator to see if you’re among them.)
Likely in part due to that increase in obesity, the age-adjusted prevalence of diabetes rose to 59 cases for every 1,000 people in 2008 from 40 cases per 1,000 in 1997. The 2010 target: 25 cases per 1,000.
We’ll get the goals for Healthy People 2020 this fall, Koh writes, and among the thematic additions will be a focus on “creating social and physical environments that promote good health.” That dovetails nicely with another ambitious public-health effort, the National Physical Activity Plan, rolled out earlier this week, which recommends changes for pretty much every aspect of our environment.
