text:
From Wikivoyage
Jump to: navigation, search

County Carlow is in Southeast Ireland. Settled for 8,000 years, the county retains evidence of its earliest inhabitants, yet rapidly adapts to meet the demands of modern life. Noted for its nature, culture, vibrant nightlife and modern amenities, County Carlow is a pleasant place to visit, where history and contemporary life sit side by side.

  • Carlow - the county seat and home to 40% of the county's population, boasts some of the best architecture in the country
  • Bagenalstown (Muine Bheag) - a picturesque riverside town with 17th and 18th Century architecture, pleasant walkways and gardens under the shadow of Mount Leinster
  • Borris - a small traditional village in the south, located in the Barrow Valley, nestled under the Blackstairs Mountains
  • Hacketstown - in east Carlow, beneath the Wicklow Mountains, Hacketstown is surrounded by woodland and farmland and has a varied array of walkways
  • Leighlinbridge - large village between Carlow and Bagenalstown, on the Barrow Track
  • Rathvilly - located along the banks of the Slaney, renowned for its attractive appearance, panoramic views nearby of Mount Leinster and the Wicklow Mountains and its quiet, peaceful setting
  • Tullow - located in the northeast of the county, along the River Slaney, an area with strong historical links, most significantly its prehistoric ringfort and burial ground

The Liberty Tree in Carlow Town.

The Carlow area has been settled since before the dawn of time, or c. 6,000 B.C. The earliest settlers possessed the tools of their time, usually made of flint, traces of which have since been found and preserved. Carlow's early settlers built monuments around the county which still stand today, like the Browneshill Dolmen which lies 3 km. east of Carlow town.

The name Carlow comes from its Irish derivative, Ceatharlach, meaning either City of the Lake, or Four Lakes. Traditionally, it's understood that the Barrow / Burrin confluence in Carlow town took up a large area of land, forming a lake, or, as some believe, four lakes.

The first notable event to take place in County Carlow occurred in 300 B.C., when Dinn Righ, a hill fort near Leighlinbridge, was destroyed by Labraidh Loinseach, an early Celtic settler. Christianity later came to Carlow, prompting the construction of the monastery in St. Mullins, which is believed to have been built in the 7th Century. Its ruins still exist today.

The county itself is understood to have been created during the reign of King John, which lasted from 1199 to 1216 AD. This period saw the construction of Carlow Castle, which was overseen by William de Marshall. Recent excavations suggest that the construction commenced in 1210 AD and finished ten years later. It originally consisted of a hollow square, with a round tower at each corner.

However, all that remain today are its ruins. In the early 1800s, Dr. Philip Parry Price Middleton spent £2,000 attempting the turn the building into a lunatic asylum. As part of the modifications to the building, an underground passageway was to be created using dynamite. On February 13th, 1814, the explosion took place with disastrous effects, with the blast bringing down the eastern wall, the east towers and the adjoining walls.

One of the earlier events of note to take place in the region occurred in 1394. With Ireland under British rule, King Richard II's cousin, Roger Mortimer, was killed by the forces of Borris native Art McMurrough Kavanagh, King of Leinster. This took place in Kellistown, near Tullow, shortly after Richard II had departed the region with a 10,000-strong force, having signed a treaty with a view of ending attacks on Norman forces. The enraged monarch returned to defeat Kavanagh, but the venture ended in disaster and defeat for the King's forces. The kingdom was returned to the King of Leinster, and Carlow became a Gaelic dominion.

In 1798, a large scale uprising took place against British forces took place, led by a revolutionary group known as the United Irishmen. By the time the rebellion began, there were 11,000 members of the group in the county. On May 25th, 2,000 rebels descended on Carlow town, however the town's defenders had received word of the rebels plans in advance, and set out to give them some leeway so that they would advance quicker than expected and become disorganised. Tragically for the rebels, this worked to perfection.

With the United Irishmen now expecting an easy victory, they were under little order as they reached Tullow Street and Potato Market. Celebratory cheering, known as 'the roar of a thousand voices' provided the cue to those inside the buildings and on the rooftops to open fire. The result was a convincing and a complete victory for the defenders who are understood to have suffered no fatalities. The bodies of 640 United Irishmen were thrown together in a pit, locally known today as the Croppies Grave, which can be visited in Graiguecullen.

In 1820, natural philosopher John Tyndall was born in Leighlinbridge, whose experiments included elucidating the blue of the sky.

In 1844, Carlow's workhouse was built with a capacity of 800 people. It was to be put to use in the years that followed, to accommodate those suffering from the nationwide 'Great Famine'. In September 1845, during a period of high unemployment, the first signs of potato crop failure appeared in County Carlow. Within six months, few potatoes from that year’s crop remained, and the government established relief schemes to provide work. Most of the following year’s crop was diseased, and soup kitchens were set up across the county.

Despite the assistance Carlovians received and the fact that Carlow fared better than most counties, 11,000 died from fever, cholera and starvation. Others fled the country. In 1841, 86,000 people lived in County Carlow - almost twice the population there is today. Ten years later, the number of residents had decreased to 68,000.

Carlow was a grim place entering the 1900s. Unemployment was rife, and the population was generally quite poor. In 1926, much needed investment was provided, when Edward Duggan succeeded in bringing Ireland's first sugar beet factory to Carlow town. The factory operated for nearly 80 years, until its closure in 2005.

Recent Times[edit]

Carlow town has undergone significant development over the past 10-15 years. New inner relief roads, housing estates, and shopping centres have dramatically changed the face of the town. In 1994, the first major shopping centre in Carlow opened, and this was followed in 2003 with the opening of the Fairgreen Shopping Centre [1]. It's a short walk from one to the other, however when the latter establishment opened many people deserted the main shopping thoroughfare in the town, Tullow Street. While it seems that the number of shoppers on the street is growing, it's not quite as busy as it was in the 1990s.

The town is home to two third-level colleges - Carlow I.T., on the Kilkenny Road, and Carlow College (known locally as St. Patrick's College). The student population Carlow town is 3,000 strong, contributing to the growth in the number of student apartments, and the aforementioned nightlife.

Until 2005, the town was home to one of two factories in Ireland which produced sugar. Amid much controversy, the 80-year-old plant was closed, leaving only office staff with jobs. Since then, the land has been idle, however in November 2006, Greencore (the owners of the facility) announced plans to invest €1.1 billion, and turn the 333 acre site into a new commercial, residential, and community hub. Its set to create 2,000 jobs if completed, and will also feature a 35 acre riverside park, with a further 30 acres reserved for leisure and amenity purposes.

This project, known as Carlow Gateway, is in the mere planning stages, and is unlikely to be completed for several years if given the go ahead. However, it is a sign of the continuing development which has radically transformed the town in the past two decades, and is a welcome sign of confidence in an area which has seen more than its fair share of job losses in recent times.

Carlow is in "The Sunny South East" [2], which the regional tourism board refers to the area as. Carlow and Kilkenny are typically the warmest parts of the country. Despite the name, you're best advised to pack a raincoat. Ireland's unpredictable weather is a feature of life, and can change from day to day, or even hour to hour.

July daytime temperatures average 20C (68F). In January it drops to 7C (45F), although it can feel a lot cooler when the wind chill is taken into account.

All places of work, including bars, restaurants, cafés etc, in Ireland are smoke-free. Rooms in hotels and Bed & Breakfasts are not required by law to be smoke-free, but many, if not most, are. It's best to make enquires in advance, and specify that you require a smoking bedroom if you need one.

Local media[edit]

  • The Nationalist. Carlow's best selling regional newspaper, providing local news, sport and entertainment listings. New edition on sale for €2.20 at news stands across the county each Tuesday.
  • The Carlow People. Also provides local news and sport, as well as features entertainment listings. Now available free of charge from newsagents each Tuesday.

Carlow is served by one local radio station, which also serves County Kilkenny. KCLR 96fm has news on the hour, with a Carlow opt-out at 18:00 each evening providing local news for the county on 96.9fm. Its Carlow studio is located at Exchequer House, on Potato Market near the Liberty Tree in Carlow town.

Tourist Information[edit]

  • Carlow TourismForester's Hall, College St +353 59 913-1554fax: +353 59 913-0477, e-mail: . Carlow town's tourist office is located at the junction where College Street and Tullow Street meet, just across from the AIB Bank. It's in the same building as the County Library, and will help visitors with accommodation, maps etc. It also sells souvenirs and maps for other parts of the country.

English is the first language of most residents, however as Carlow becomes increasingly cosmopolitan, the variety of languages spoken in the county continues to increase. It is not necessary to know any Irish (Gaeilge) to communicate with locals, most of whom probably have a poor understanding of the language anyway, however it may impress if you possess a "cúpla focail", i.e. a couple of words. Although there are no Gaelteacht areas in Carlow, Irish is the first official language.

The county is now home to residents from many different countries, including most of the accession states to the EU. If you need to communicate in Polish or Lithuanian, for instance, you may be able to find someone who speaks these languages.

The majority of students are required to learn a foreign language as part of their studies, with French emerging as the clear favourite, mainly due to the attention which schools give to this language over others. Although fluent French speakers are few and far between, many young people in particular would have a basic understanding of the language.

Get in[edit]

Carlow's central location means that it is quite accessible to visitors from overseas.

By plane[edit]

Carlow doesn't have a public airport, but can be easily reached from Dublin Airport, the largest in the country - see the Get in section of the Dublin article.

The most straightforward way to get to Carlow from Dublin Airport is to travel by JJ Kavanagh / Rapid Express Coaches [3]. Eight buses leave the airport daily, serving Carlow along the way. Nine buses make the return journey every day. All JJ Kavanagh tickets are valid for one month from the date of purchase, and you shouldn't expect to pay more than €15 for a return ticket.

A single Bus Éireann [4] trip from Dublin Airport costs €13.50. Note that these aren't direct services, so you'll have to change at Busarás (Dublin city's central bus station near Custom House Quay).

Alternatively, direct bus services connect Dublin Airport with Heuston Station, Dublin's main train centre. See the By train section below for more information.

By boat[edit]

If you are travelling by car and you arrive at the sea port of Rosslare, Carlow town is about a 60 minute drive away, while eastern parts of the county are a good deal closer. Those who leave the car behind can get the train to Carlow; however you will have to change services, usually at either Waterford or Dublin. More information is available from the Irish Rail website [5].

If you arrive at Dublin Port, you can either get the train direct from Dublin Heuston to Carlow, or you can travel by bus. Bus Éireann services depart from Busáras or you can get the JJ Kavanagh service, which leaves from its bus stop on George's Quay. Check out their websites for more.

By bus[edit]

  • JJ Kavanagh / Rapid Express Coaches. Carlow and Royal Oak (near Bagenalstown) are on the Waterford - Dublin route, which starts in Tramore, Co. Waterford and finishes at Dublin Airport. Along the way, it has 18 bus stops, meaning that Carlow town and Bagenalstown are easily accessible to those travelling from Counties Waterford, Kilkenny, Kildare or Dublin.
  • Bus Éireann follows a similar route, starting in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford and finishing at Busáras in Dublin's city centre. It also stops at Carlow and, on request, will stop at Royal Oak. It will also stop at Leighlinbridge, if requested in advance.

By train[edit]

Carlow and Bagenalstown are served by the Dublin-Waterford rail line. Seven trains leave Heuston Station in Dublin on weekdays, the earliest being the 07:30 service, the latest is the 20:05 service. Trains take one hour and 20 minutes to reach Carlow, and about ten minutes longer to reach Bagenalstown. Eight trains make the return journey to Dublin.

Six trains leave Waterford each weekday, however the last train from Plunkett Station in Waterford city is at 18:25. These take about an hour and a half to reach either Carlow or Bagenalstown, and six trains make the return journey to Waterford.

Naas, Newbridge, Kildare, Athy in County Kildare and Kilkenny and Thomastown in County Kilkenny are also served by this line, meaning Carlow and Bagenalstown are easily accessible from these towns.

The best source of information is the Irish Rail website [6], where full timetables are available. For other enquiries, the information line can be contacted on 1850 366222 within Ireland. Lines are open from 09:00 to 17:00, Monday to Friday.

Get around[edit]

Carlow Castle

By bus[edit]

Until 2004, a regular "town link" bus service operated in Carlow town. Ongoing talks aim to have the facility restored, however there have been many setbacks. It's unclear if any progress has been made recently.

  • Ring a LinkUnit 2, Abbey Business Centre, Abbey Street, Kilkenny +353 1890 42 41 41, e-mail: . A flexible, inexpensive option, which responds to bookings and enquiries from its Kilkenny base by telephone. Their scheduled services and times are available on their website but different times are sometimes available by contacting the company.
  • JJ Kavanagh's local bus serviceLittle Barrack St +353 59 914-3081fax: +353 59 9142738, e-mail: . These infrequent buses travel to and from Portlaoise (County Laois), Kilkenny, Tullow, Rathvilly, Baltinglass and Hacketstown.

By train[edit]

  • Irish Rail, +353 59 913-1633. Carlow town and Bagenalstown are connected by rail. Six services depart from either station on weekdays, and the journey time is less than 15 minutes. Note that Bagenalstown is referred to as Muine Bheag, its Irish name, on all rail literature.

Passengers who use wheelchairs are catered for, however you will need to inform staff in advance of your journey.

Carlow Cathedral

County Carlow is home to many fine buildings, backed up by splendid countryside and natural beauty. On a clear day, be sure to go up the Killeshin Hills, where you'll be treated to a spectacular view of Carlow town. It's equally impressive by night.

Items of historical importance are plentiful and are well-kept in museums across the county. In urban areas, summer days can be happily spent in Carlow's award-winning parks, most notably the Oak Park Forest Park and Carlow Town Park.

Blackstairs Mountain

Carlow has a pleasant blend of history, scenery and modern attractions.

KCLR 96fm's Community Diary airs daily at 11:45, 14:45 and 17:45. As a free-of-charge advertising service, it is good at outlining upcoming events and activities taking place across Counties Carlow and Kilkenny. Its listings are also available online [7].

In August each year, the Carlow Floral Festival takes place. Carlow's status as the "floral county" is recognised in this county-wide gardening, flora and nature extravaganza. The nine-day festival is attended by well-known broadcasters and includes demonstrations, nature trails, workshops, music and entertainment.

Theatre and arts[edit]

In September 2009, Carlow Local Authorities launched their long-awaited multi-arts venue, Visual Centre for Contemporary Art and The George Bernard Shaw Theatre [8]. The building is designed by UK architect Terry Pawson and boasts four galleries and a 290 seat theatre with a programme of local, national and international work in the visual and performing arts. It is in the grounds of St. Patrick's College, beside Carlow Cathedral in the centre of Carlow town.

Several schools across the county produce musicals each year (usually around October) including St. Leo's and the Presentation College in Carlow town.

Carlow is famed for its golf courses [9], and is within easy reach of facilities in neighbouring counties, like The K Club [10] which hosted the 2006 Ryder Cup. The county itself is home to five high quality facilities, including the Killerig Golf Resort and the Mount Wolseley in Tullow, both of which have four star accommodation on-site.

Carlow is not well known for its sporting success, particularly in the popular games of Gaelic Football and Hurling, where the county teams usually make an early exit in the championship each year. However, the county has had significant success in other sports, with many local competitors doing well at both national and international levels. Coarse angling is making a strong come back in Carlow with a local club running several matches throughout the year, so much so that Carlow Coarse Angling Supplies based in Graiguecullen opened this year to facilitate coarse anglers in their pursuit of a good days catch. Call Gerry on +353 5991 37664 for details or visit [11]

A concise directory of all of the sports clubs in County Carlow whose services can be availed of by locals and visitors alike is available from County Council website (Adobe Reader required) [12]. Note that some contact details have changed and new clubs have formed since this directory was produced.

  • Go With The Flow Canoeing +353 87 252-9700. The River Barrow from a different perspective.
  • Hang Gliding +353 1 455-6437. Hang Gliding from the internationally renowned Mount Leinster spot. Available most Sundays from March to October. Call Eamon for details.

Brownshill Dolmen

County Carlow offers a diverse shopping mix, generally at prices which are slightly cheaper than larger urban centres like Dublin. Carlow town has the biggest variety of high street shops in the county, but locally-owned outlets can be found in towns across the county. ATMs are available at all banks and in many shops also.

There are many award-winning restaurants and pubs in County Carlow. The Lord Bagenal Inn in Leighlinbridge is renowned for its pleasant riverside setting and fine food. In Carlow town, there are many restaurants in the town centre and beyond, with new establishments appearing quite regularly. All tastes are catered for, from oriental food to traditional meals and local specialities.

Traditionally, tipping was never considered to be a necessity. Although it has recently become common to tip up to 10% of the bill total, the practice usually remains optional. Some establishments will add a 10-15% service charge on top of the obligatory 13.5% Government VAT charge, especially for larger groups.

County Carlow's pubs constantly get good reviews, with the area being home to some of the best outlets in the country. In Carlow Town, the Dinn Rí superpub has won the prestigious Black & White Pub of the Year accolade on three occasions in the past decade, with the Lord Bagenal in Leighlinbridge scooping the award five times since 1983. The traditional practice of brewing beer locally was revived when the Carlow Brewing Company established itself in Carlow town nine years ago. It makes three award-winning beers: O'Hara's, Curim and Molings, all of which are available at most pubs around the county.

Carlow is widely recognised for its active nightlife. Tullow Street and Dublin Street are usually thronged with people on Friday and Saturday nights. The Foundry nightclub is a popular venue, with many people travelling to Carlow especially to sample its offering.

County Carlow has a wide and varied array of accommodation, conveniently spread across the region. All budgets and tastes are catered for, from country guesthouses and B&Bs to the luxurious hotels which are most easily found in Carlow and Tullow. Most of the accommodation options don't have many rooms, so it's best to book as early as possible, particularly around peak times such as New Year's Eve or Saint Patrick's Day, where rooms could be fully booked out many months in advance.

Carlow town offers the greatest range of Internet Cafés in the county, some of whom are open until late in the evening. There is also an expanding list of Wireless Hotspots. Free internet access is available by booking in advance at libraries throughout the county; however there is usually competition for places as these are an attractive option.

Stay Safe[edit]

Carlow is relatively safe, especially compared to bigger cities like Dublin or Limerick. As a general rule, only basic precautions and common sense are needed - if you leave your wallet behind you at a restaurant, it's more likely to be handed in than stolen. But that doesn't mean you should try it out. Most locals go about their daily business without ever facing significant trouble; therefore it may help if you "act" local.

However, the risk does increases during night-time, and like anywhere, caution is always advised. Weekend incidents are usually limited to a handful, and generally these aren't too serious. But nonetheless they're a most unpleasant experience so be sure to be cautious if you're out and about at night. Drink 'spiking' does occur, so many people choose to drink from a bottle, rather than a glass, but it's best not to leave either unattended. If you'd like to sample the night time atmosphere, then stay around well-lit areas where there are lots of people, try to stay in groups of at least three or four, avoid confrontation and act sensibly.

Most housing estates have a pleasant vibe; however some are known for unsavoury behaviour, so try to avoid journeys into these unless necessary. Minor incidents of anti-social behaviour (e.g. playing with shopping trolleys) occur from time to time - if you notice it, the safest (and easiest) thing to do is to ignore it and carry on with whatever you're doing.

Police contacts[edit]

In Ireland, the police force is known as An Garda Síochána. A police officer is known as a 'Garda', or in its plural form, Gardaí (pronounced Garr-dee). The emergency services can be contacted free of charge on 999, or, like the rest of Europe, on 112.

  • Carlow Garda Station +353 59 913-6620. Carlow Garda Station is on the Athy Road, near the County Council offices.
  • Bagenalstown Garda Station +353 59 972-1212.
  • Ballon Garda Station +353 59 915-9122.
  • Borris Garda Station +353 59 977-3102.
  • Hacketstown Garda Station +353 59 647-1202.
  • Leighlinbridge Garda Station +353 59 972-1122.
  • Myshall Garda Station +353 59 915-7622.
  • Rathvilly Garda Station +353 59 916-1122.
  • Tullow Garda Station +353 59 915-1222.

Stay healthy[edit]

The nearest public General Hospital to Carlow is St. Luke's Hospital in Kilkenny. Carlow has a district hospital, called St. Dympna's located on the Athy Road. It offers psychiatric care, among other services. It has a Caredoc [13] centre on site, which offers G.P. services for those with urgent medical problems who need to contact a doctor after surgeries close. Cars will transport the doctors on duty to house calls when patients are unable to attend treatment centres. It's Carlow service was the first of its kind in Ireland, and opened in June 1999.

Medical contacts[edit]

  • CaredocSt. Dympna's Hospital, Athy Rd, Carlow +353 1850 334 999. M 08:00, Tu-F 18:00-20:00, Sa 09:00.
  • Dr. John ConwayBurrin St +353 59 914-3247. G.P.
  • Dr. Helen Delaney, Dr. Sandra Kehoe & Dr. Christopher G. Moran65 Tullow St, Carlow +353 59 913-0770. G.P.'s.
  • Dr. Brendan M. DoyleAvoca House, Barrack St, Carlow +353 59 913-1127. G.P.
  • Dr. Jonathan JacobCastle Hill, Carlow +353 59 913-0357. G.P.
  • Dr. Sean McGuireClayton Hall Medical Centre, Staplestown Rd, Carlow +353 59 913-3330. G.P.
  • Dr. Carole McInerney & Dr. Fionnuala Ní Ghráinne72 Tullow St, Carlow +353 59 913-2450. G.P.'s.
  • Dr. Patricia O'Toole23 Staplestown Rd, Carlow +353 59 913-2525. G.P.
  • Dr. Declan Gerard WoodsCathedral Walk, College St +353 59 913-0828. G.P.
  • Dr. Eithne Marie BolgerCrosslow, Tullow +353 59 915-1555. G.P.
  • Dr. Michael Aidan KehoeTullow Medical Centre, Tullow +353 59 915-1101. G.P.
  • Dr. John MurrayTullowhill, Tullow +353 59 915-1492. G.P.
  • Dr. Brendan Thomas CoffeyRoyal Oak Rd, Bagenalstown +353 59 972-1650. G.P.
  • Dr. Thomas FoleyRoyal Oak Rd, Bagenalstown +353 59 972-1502. G.P.
  • Dr. John Charles GavinBrambletye, Blackberry Lane, Bagenalstown +353 59 912-1067. G.P.

Go next[edit]

Because of Carlow's aforementioned central location, it's relatively easy to travel elsewhere. This makes Carlow attractive to visitors who are looking to explore the east coast of Ireland.

  • Dublin - Ireland's flourishing capital city is a great place to shop, or to while away time in one of the many museums on offer. It's 80km away, and shouldn't take longer than two hours to reach by car or bus. Direct train services link Carlow with Dublin, and take about 70 minutes.
  • Kilkenny - Ireland's "Medieval City" is rich in culture and heritage, and offers many monuments and other items of historical importance. A popular city with Carlovians, and well worth a visit. Less than 45 minutes away by car, train or bus.
  • Waterford - the capital of The Sunny South East, and home of Waterford Crystal. About 80 minutes from Carlow town by car, train or bus.

Taxis will usually have no problem carrying you anywhere else you'd like to go in the country, but expect to pay up to €200 if you're looking to go to Belfast, for instance.

52.6667; -6.8333Map mag.png

This region travel guide to County Carlow is a usable article. It gives a good overview of the region, its sights, and how to get in, as well as links to the main destinations, whose articles are similarly well developed. An adventurous person could use this article, but please feel free to improve it by editing the page


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Truncated: length

WARC-Type: response

text:
Looking for warmer weather? Be careful what you wish for.

Here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, this past March has been anything but spring-like. Even by our standards, we’ve had more than our fair share of cold, wind, and snow. And now winter seems to be extending itself into April…after a tease of spring with a warm and sunny Easter Sunday, this Monday brought us a high of 39F with scattered snow flurries. To which I say boo.

So, yes, warmer winter weather would be nice. And as it so happens, warmer winters are something we should expect to happen with climate change, so that’s good news. The bad news is that (as economists like to say) there is no free lunch, so climate change will bring us hotter summers too. And as anyone who lived through last summer in Ann Arbor will attest, three months of scorching weather can be pretty unpleasant too.

But does the discomfort associated with a hotter summer actually outweigh the increase in comfort that will come with a warmer winter here in Ann Arbor? And what about the rest of the U.S., some parts of which currently experience very little winter cold (Florida), while others experience very little summer heat (North Dakota)? In a new paper (Climate Amenities, Climate Change, and American Quality of Life), David Albouy, Walter Graf, Hendrik Wolff, and I try to answer these questions by assessing U.S. households’ willingness to pay to avoid hot and cold weather.

How do we come up with an estimate of households’ willingness to pay for climate, in dollars? We take advantage of the fact that local climate is a factor that potentially affects households’ choice of where to live. Compare Berkeley to Ann Arbor, for example. I’ll conjecture that most people think that the climate in Berkeley is superior to that in Ann Arbor–Berkeley has lots of days with warm afternoons and cool, comfortable evenings, while in Ann Arbor such days tend to occur only in the spring and fall. So why don’t people move from Ann Arbor to Berkeley as soon as they have a chance? Well, it costs a lot more to live in Berkeley than it does in Ann Arbor. For the cost of a studio in Berkeley, you can get a pretty nice two bedroom apartment in downtown Ann Arbor. So there’s a tradeoff here–if you live in Berkeley you get beautiful weather, but you have to pay a pile of money in rent (or mortgage payments if you own) to get decent housing, leaving you with less money to spend on other things you want. Thus, the cost of living difference between Berkeley and Ann Arbor reveals something about their residents’ willingness to pay for a comfortable climate.

In the paper, we extend this idea across the U.S. to get at households’ willingness to pay to avoid hot and cold weather. There are, of course, a number of important details that are important to get right along the way–for instance, differences in wages across cities matter too, as do differences in other amenities such as coastlines, mountains, and population density. Our main result is that, on average, households’ willingness to pay to avoid an excessively hot day is greater than the willingness to pay to avoid an excessively cold day. This result comes from the fact that in hot places like the South, the cost of living is quite low relative to wages, indicating that households are willing to pay very little to endure the South’s hot, humid summers. The result also makes (at least to us) a lot of intuitive sense. On a cold day, you can protect yourself outside by layering up with coats, hats, and mittens. On a hot day though, there is unfortunately a limit to how many clothes you can take off (most jurisdictions won’t even legally let you get down to zero), so you’re uncomfortable outside no matter what you do. Sure, you can go inside to your air conditioning, but if you’d rather be outside in the afternoon, there’s a cost to doing so.

What does all this mean for the potential effect of climate change on comfort? If heat is worse than cold on the margin, then the extra discomfort from hotter summers will outweigh the benefits of warmer winters. When we use “business as usual” climate projections for 2100, we find that unless technology or preferences change, the annual net loss of comfort from climate change will be worth between one to three percent of U.S. income. Those numbers might seem big or small to you depending on your perspective, but for reference they’re in the same range as forecasted losses in GDP from damages to market goods such as agricultural products that come from the Nordhaus DICE model and the Stern report.

Perhaps even more interesting than the average welfare loss is the distribution of this welfare loss across the U.S., which we depict in the map above (losses expressed as a percent of 2100 income). As you might expect, the South gets hit fairly hard, since their summers are already hot and their winters are fairly mild–there’s not a lot of scope for climate change to give southern residents benefits in the winter. But most of the North fares quite poorly as well, even in places like North Dakota that currently have harsh winters but mild summers (though they do already experience some pretty hot days). What’s going on there? This is where it’s important to note that not everybody has the same preferences for climate. Some people aren’t bothered that much by cold weather, while others can’t stand it. It turns out that people sort themselves according to these preferences, so that North Dakota is largely populated by people who don’t mind the cold so much, while Florida gets populated by people who strongly dislike the idea of winter. So if you live in North Dakota, the fact that climate change will result in a warmer winter won’t be worth that much to you, but the fact that your relatively mild summer will turn into an extremely hot one will be worth a lot. The take-away message here is that if we want to forecast who will gain and who will lose from climate change, taking regional preferences into account can matter a lot, and it may be that southerners won’t be the only ones to suffer if the latest climate projections are realized.

Aside | This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Looking for warmer weather? Be careful what you wish for.

  1. Jardinero1 says:

    I laughed when I read this: “hot places like the South, the cost of living is quite low relative to wages, indicating that households are willing to pay very little to endure the South’s hot, humid summers.” There is absolutely zero data, to support this ridiculous “conjecture”.

  2. Azmat says:

    I am wondering if this is a serious blog, or an April fool’s, posting.
    But seriously, economists need to look at ‘real’ situations and not ‘ideal’ assumptions. Even if someone wants and is financially able to move, there are usually too many other factors at play that may hinder a move … most people seem to continue to live in close vicinity to where they are born (or perhaps go to college etc) usually because that is where their professional and socio-cultural network is. I live in the SF Bay Area because I went to Cal, and just moved to the South Bay.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-171-96-226.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2015-35
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2015
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


text:
Professional Development Opportunities for Graduate Students

Employers in academia and industry are looking for far more than classroom knowledge and research lab experience today. Gone are the days you can wait until your final year to prepare for your career. To be competitive today, you are expected to have published peer-reviewed journals, secured grants, engaged in leadership development, participated in community outreach, and gained valuable communication and presentation skills. YOU NEED TO STAND OUT.

At the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, we believe your professional development is essential to your success. In fact, we have a full time staff member dedicated to the professional development of graduate students and to making impactful connections with industry partners for the mutual benefit of our graduate students, partners and program. Below you'll find more details in the following areas of professional development:

Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering Professional Development Courses and Programs

This program provides formal training in innovation and entrepreneurship in the context of biomedical technology. Participants gain insight into the process of taking medical technology from design to implementation and commercialization.

BME Research Seminar Series
Instructors of weekly seminars in biomedical engineering host faculty from the larger biomedical engineering community to present cutting-edge research.

     Events Calendar

BME Summer Seminar Series
This seminar series is a chance for students to refine presentation skills and to address critical questions that may be raised by audience members.

BMEGSA Research Symposium
This is an annual event sponsored by the graduate student organization. The day agenda features presentations by senior graduate students, poster session, career panel, networking lunch and keynote speakers.

Grant Writing Course for Nationally-Funded Fellowships
Leadership and Impact in Engineering course provides hands-on experience and mentoring to students as they prepare to apply for nationally funded fellowships like the NSF and NIH.

     Graduate School Incentive Grant -Receive $500 for simply applying to eligible fellowships

Lunch-and-Learn Sessions
Graduate students have many opportunities to learn about industry, academia, career development and entrepreneurship during meal-time workshops. Some examples of these workshops are: Networking at a Conference, Landing your Dream Job, Being your Best You: Managing your Personal Brand and Building a Stellar LinkedIn Profile just to name a few.

Summer Start-up Series
During the summer months, we invite start-up companies and investment companies to speak about topics that are relevant to young entreprenuers.  Some of the topics discussed are lessons learned, marketing, funding support and patent licensing.  Each of the seminars is then followed by a small group lunch to further explore more specific questions from our presenters.

On Campus Resources

Center for Career Opportunities
Helps students prepare for all aspects of career planning and job search including job listings, resume critiquing and mock interview services.

Graduate Student Professional Development
The Graduate School offers services, courses and programs to help students reach academic, professional and career goals.

Purdue Graduate Student Government: Professional Grants
The PGSG offers grants to assist students with costs associated with their academic and professional development. These grants are for items such as journal publishing fees, printing posters, cost of special courses etc.

Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR)
A program developed to ensure an environment of research integrity.

Technology Realization/ Entrepreneurship Programs
Want to learn more about patents, licensing and building a technology start-up company? This seminar course series is focused on the discussion of pertinent issues related to technology innovation and entrepreneurship.

Writing Lab
Purdue's award winning Writing Lab offers over 200 free resources including writing and teaching, research, ESL (English as a Second Language), grammar and mechanics, job search,  and professional writing assistance.

College of Engineering Travel Funds for PhD Candidates

Student Organizations, Leadership and Volunteer Opportunities at Purdue

Students who engage in leadership and community outreach activities better understand themselves, learn the impact of social issues, and will learn to lead with compassion and critical thinking skills.

Organizations & Involvement

Civic Engagement & Leadership Development

Volunteer Opportunities

Career Opportunities

Individual Development Plan

MyIDP is a unique, web-based career-planning tool offered through Science Careers tailored to meet the needs of PhD students and postdocs in the sciences.

Pathways to Science

Identify pathways to careers in academia, industry, clinical medicine, and policy & government and discover what they really have to offer.

Students join a LinkedIn sub-group hosted by the Weldon School for online discussion and interaction with fellow grad student and industry partners. Training is provided in the development of stellar LinkedIn profiles.

Conference Travel Funding

Bourland Travel Award
Application deadline:  November 30th (for traval between January 1 and June 30)
Application deadline: May 31st (for travel between July 1 and December 31)

College of Engineering Travel Funds for PhD Candidates
You can apply for these funds anytime throughout the year.

Purdue Graduate Student Government Travel Grants


text:
Soto, NYC

September 27, 2011

Sotohiro Kosugi was born a third generation sushi chef in a fishing village in northern Japan. In 1997, after ten years experience at home, he opened a restaurant in a shopping center in Atlanta. In 2007 Food and Wine Magazine named him one of the best young chefs in the U.S. In that same year he closed in Atlanta and opened Soto in New York. Michelin gave him a star in 2010 and a second star in 2011. To celebrate my 71st birthday on July 27, 2011, Karyn and Blair joined Linda and me for dinner at Soto.

It is on a downscale commercial block of Sixth Avenue, north of Fourth Street. There is no sign in front, just the street number and a zen arrangement of rectangular cutouts in a white wall.

Karyn and Linda in front of Soto.

On entering one sees the sushi bar down the left wall. On the right are tables. We were seated in the back near the kitchen. The decor is plain with one Japanese emblem on the right wall.

This was the view of the sushi bar from our table.  The chef works there with two sous chefs, preparing the sushi and other raw dishes. His wife, Maho, supervises the kitchen in back where the cooked dishes are prepared.

The menu, which is reprinted each day, is quite extensive. The first page had twelve “small plates.”  The second, “From Sushi bar” had thirteen elaborate uncooked, non-sushi dishes. The third, “From Kitchen,” showed thirteen cooked dishes. The fourth page listed the many Sushi nigiri and roll offerings of the day. Eight and twelve piece sushi nigiri omakases are offered. We chose the “Omakase Course,” which combines dishes of the chef’s choice from all four pages. As they were served, the listing on the printed menu was shown to us. The titles below are exactly as they were on the menu which I took home and scanned into my computer. Some of the spellings may seem unusual, but they may be a better conversion from the Japanese. The sake descriptions are taken directly from the sake menu.

For apéritif we had a small bottle of Shintaro sparkling sake.

It woke up and prepared the palate, but didn’t seem like the real thing.

We ordered a bottle of Kansansui dai ginjyo sake: Fukuoka, semi-dry, sharp, clean; “shizuku-shibori brewing method, soft touch in contrast to the sharp taste, has elegant and fruity aroma.” We thought that it had a nice flavor, but was too much of a “soft touch.”

The first course was
goma tofu
Black sesame and white sesame tofu, served with wasabi soy sauce and soy foam.

There were nicely varying sesame flavors here perked up by the mild soy on top and below.

fluke ponzu
thinly sliced fluke with chive, ginger shoots, shiso leaf, under mizore ponzu sauce

The flavors here were quite delicate, as is appropriate early on in the meal.

chawan mushi
traditional organic egg custard soup with shrimp, chicken, shiitake, mitsuba, ginko nuts, yuzu zest

This was still in the delicate flavor phase; it was nice to get away from the soy/ponzu sauces, although they were enjoyable in the first two courses.

uni and yuba
black soy bean milk skin with finest Japanese uni, served with shiitake broth

This was served in a large martini glass, which is not evident in the photo. Soto is known for its uni, or sea urchin, dishes. This was superb.

uni tempura with uni powder
deep fried finest sashimi quality sea urchin in tempura batter, flavored with home made uni powder.

Tempura deep-frying is not the best way to treat good uni, but this was an interesting variation with the somewhat cooked-out flavor of the uni enhanced by the concentrated powder made from uni that had been smoked, steamed, baked, dried and grated. A squeeze of fresh lemon juice sparked it up and cut the richness.

sea trout carpaccio
cured tasumanian sea trout with black truffle sea salt, sweet miso mustard sauce, served with sesame cresoon

The truffled sea salt brought out the flavor of the sea trout. The watercress with sesame dressing was particularly good and provided a fresh contrast to the rich fish.

scallop shiso and fluke agedashi
deep fried shiso wrapped scallop and fluke, served in dashi broth

I have never understood the Japanese idea of putting a very crisp hot deep-fried ingredient into a liquid which makes it mushy. This is not a good way to use contrasting textures. Fortunately the top half of the fried tempura batter was still crunchy. The flavors were nice.

wild snapper carpaccio
new Zealand sea bream with aged vinegar and sea salt, sesame oil, garnished with chopped ginger shoot and cilantro

The garnishes dominated this interesting sashimi dish.

hokki nuta
thinly sliced surf clam with myoga ginger shoots and sesmaem, marinated in sweet miso mustard sauce.

The marination of the clam slices had made them more tender and brought out the flavor. The lime cup added as much citrus as you wanted.

minute steamed tai
lightly steamed Japanese sea bream with ginger scallion oil

As the meal progressed the fish was becoming more substantial, as was the saucing. Very good.

steamed lobster with uni mousse
layers of steamed main lobster and uni mousse in lotus wrap, garnished with smoked uni and caviar

Up until now we had each had our own serving of each dish. This was served for the table in the middle and we each helped ourselves. The lobster with sea urchin mousse was very rich and very delicious.

live soft shell crab
crispy deep fried live soft shell crab, served with ponzu sauce

This crisp, good course was served on two plates for two.

braised black cod with Japanese vegetable
soy broth braised sable fish with Japanese satoimo,  shimeji mushroom

The soy broth braising of the fish chunk made it rich and salty without hiding its flavor. The simmered taro root alongside was a nice bland counterpoint.

At this point we started on a second bottle of sake: Kura, “Hiroshima semi dry, full body sake with rich umami taste yet soothing and fresh aroma.”

This was our favorite sake of the evening. Its full-body combined well with the cuisine.

cyu toro tar tare
chopped fatty part of big eye tuna with avocado coulis, garnished with caviar, chive, served in sesame ponzu sauce

This elaborate dish was also served on two plates for two. Luxurious and excellent.

uni ika sugomori zukuri
finest sea urchin wrapped in thinly sliced squid with shiso. served with quail egg and tosa soy reduction

This lovely faux sea urchin was decorated with thin strips of nori. As if the sea urchin and squid inside were not rich enough, one mixed in the raw quail egg and continued the delicious, rich luxury effect which had already been created by the lobster and big eye tuna dishes. Excellent.

broiled langoustine
lightly broiled new Zealand langoustine under shiitake sauce.

I would not have thought of garnishing a plain, good langoustine with shiitake shards, but they are mild and the combination worked very well.

Our waitress said that the chef wanted to know if we would like some sushi. We were having a very good time and so ordered four pieces each and a bottle of Mansaku No Hana from Akita; “yamahai brewing method, excellent aroma and mellow touch of dai-ginjyo.”

It was mellower than the Kura and so it went well with the sushi, but would not have been sturdy enough for the preceding courses.

We each received a small bowl of fresh pickled ginger, but no soy sauce or wasabi was brought as the chef had seasoned each piece of sushi properly. There were small scores on top to hold the small amount of soy sauce he put on some of them.

On the left is saba, mackerel from Norway. It had the good oily flavor that I like in mackerel.  On the right is chutoro, midfatty big eye tuna from Ecuador: luscious. As with the tartare, the chef does not use endangered bluefin tuna. Big eye is not endangered.

On the left is unagi, smoked fresh water eel from Taiwan. the flavor was just what I was hoping for when we ordered it. On the right is tai, Japanese sea snapper with a little powder of pickled wasabi on top that made it more interesting.

To finish we had two plates with six ice creams wrapped in mochi half shells. They included red bean, green tea, strawberry, vanilla and mango.

The meal concluded happily with a cup of roasted white rice tea. It was not just each dish that was well composed. The entire meal made a logical progression from lighter dishes to more substantial ones. There was no need for a meat course near the end. The four pieces of sushi introduced rice where it would appear on a traditional kaiseki menu.

The service was always friendly and efficient, although sometimes we had to surmount the language barrier. Fortunately we could always refer to the printed menu. The pace of the meal was just right. We were told when ordering the Omakase Course that it would take at least three hours and it did. The noise level was nicely low. The presentation was always elegant with the dishes carefully arranged on lovely, varied plates.

Much of the clientèle seemed to be treating Soto as their neighborhood sushi bar, which is extraordinary for a restaurant with two Michelin stars. They would take a place at the counter or a table and just order two or three dishes, leaving quickly. But we were very happy that we had chosen the big menu and spent our evening at Soto. We will be back.

357 6th Avenue, New York
(212) 414-3088 (under construction as I write.)

To see Chuck’s typically philosophical thoughts on Soto click here.

To see Docsconz’ report with great photos click here. Even though it was from a year and half ago, many of the dishes are the same.

5 Responses to “Soto, NYC”

  1. ChuckEats Says:

    philosophical? :-)
    You shared that steamed lobster / uni mousse dish? i can’t bear the thought – it is too good imo to share!

  2. Lora Vance Says:

    It’s good to see uni is being served somewhere. I love it and order it every time I go for sushi. Unfortunately, no one is serving it here. There is not enough demand and it spoils rapidly. I am quite bummed about it.
    I’m thrilled you got to enjoy it though and the fried uni makes me curious. :)

  3. Alex Says:

    I love Sushi in New York, it’s often so much better than what you’d find in Europe. Loved Yasuda last time. Now I have Soto on my list. Thanks for this report! Cheers!

  4. John Says:

    We miss Soto in Atlanta. Great review including some of my favorite dishes he served here. I hear there is a long wait for reservations?

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 146 other followers


text:
Environmental Protection

U.S. Senate Confirms McCarthy as EPA Administrator

The 59-40 vote confirmed her as the newest chief of the powerful agency.

After confirming a new secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez, by a narrower vote, the U.S. Senate on July 18 voted 59-40 to confirm another delayed nominee, Gina McCarthy, as the Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

Her nomination was held up until an agreement was reached this week to avoid the "nuclear option" to prevent filibusters against most presidential nominees. McCarthy, previously assistant administrator for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation, had her nomination approved on a 10-8 party line vote May 16 by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

The National Resources Defense Council posted this on its Facebook page July 18: "The Senate has finally confirmed Gina McCarthy as #EPAAdministrator! That's good news for America. And the planet."

comments powered by Disqus

Free e-News Subscription

I agree to this site's Privacy Policy


text:
[ skip to content ]

Items from "Lauber, R. "

Up a level
Export as [feed] Atom [feed] EPP RSS 2.0 [feed] RSS 1.0 [feed] RSS 2.0
Group by: Item Type | No Grouping
Jump to: Articles
Number of items: 1.

Scaramozzino, Pasquale and Curatolo, M. and Petersen-Felix, S. and Arendt-Nielsen, L. and Lauber, R. and Högström, H. and Luginbühl, M. and Sieber, T. and Zbinden, A.M. (1998) 'Adding Sodium Bicarbonate to Lidocaine Enhances the Depth of Epidural Blockade.' Anesthesia and Analgesia, 86 . pp. 341-347.

This list was generated on Tue Sep 1 17:16:03 2015 BST.


text:
Academic Workers! Don’t Mourn, Organize!

AAUP (American Association of University Professors, the largest professorial union in the USA) has a new issue of their magazine, Academe, out.  It is focused on Graduate Students and Graduate Student Labor.

Cary Nelson (president of the AAUP) has an excellent essay in there titled, “Don’t Mourn, Organize.”  More wobbly-inspired work within this magazine includes Joe Grim Feinberg’s essay on reviving old labor songs to create a new public sphere (Joe’s in the Graduate Students United at the University of Chicago, a union I had to withdraw from, with some unhappiness, once I was no longer a graduate student).

Nelson writes:

“The only thing the PhD now reliably confers is the potential for lifetime poverty and underemployment.”

I’m one of the very lucky ones.  I have  job right now.


text:
This first couture ensemble, above, is the BlackAndrea dress, perfect for admiring the art works at the Criss Museum of Contemporary Art in Alajuela.  The strapless bodice and knee-length pencil skirt form a classy and feminine silhouette.  The hat adds a modern flair while the included gloves and stockings are keeping with the classic feel.  The skin here is Baiastice_D. Casting-Peach-make up 10 BK.  The look is completed with Laqroki Cutie hair in black, Stiletto Moody Pinups in Black Patent Python and Necklace No 128 [small] and Earrings No 127 in silver from Kraftika.

Sissy Pessoa

Sissy Pessoa, the stylish designer of Italian super brand BAIASTICE, after being a sponsor in ALTAMODA magazine’s launch took some time to answer questions about her incredible work and genuine passion for fashion.

Una Ewing: What three words best describe Sissy Pessoa’s designs under the BAIASTICE label?

Sissy Pessoa: Romantic, hot, rich.

UE: What is your main source of inspiration?

SP: Everything around me can be a reason for inspiration. The period in which I am working and what it contributes to my creations is very important. For example, in my last collection there are references to the fantasy of Roman baroque parties through a futuristic point of view, all seen in a logic of ostentation, style and luxury.

UE: As an Italian designer, how do you position yourself?

SP: In Italy at this moment, there are several young designers of undisputable talent. My designs are easily recognizable among the others. Due to this reason, I think that I can be considered an integral part of the Italian design.

UE: How do you want the people to feel when they wear BAIASTICE?

SP: I hope they feel satisfied, because my creations are my way to see people’s dreams and let them become true. Recognizing themselves in my style, I hope people enjoy this feeling of ostentation.

UE: What three words describe your new collection?

SP: Groovy, fancy, spirited.

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.


text:
Possibly True. Necessarily Entertaining.

Local election heats up as Marx’s 0.47% comment goes public

leave a comment »

“These comments simply confirm that my opponent is an elitist, out-of-touch, liberal intellectual,” says Schmidt Geldbesitzer (pictured), the current neighborhood association president.

Des Moines, Iowa – Karl Marx’s campaign for the presidency of the Beaverdale Neighborhood Association was engulfed by controversy this week after a video surfaced of Marx addressing supporters earlier this year at Hessen Haus, a local bar. In the video, Marx suggests that 0.47% of the population are takers who leech off the rest of society.

“There are 0.47% of the people who will vote for the [current neighborhood association] president no matter what,” Marx says in the video, referring to the 0.47% of Beaverdale residents who own a business with employees other than themselves. “All right, there are 0.47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government for the enforcement of their property rights, who believe that they are entitled to the surplus value produced by the proletariat. These people already own the means of production, so our message of workers’ control doesn’t connect.”

The video was leaked to local news stations by an anonymous businessman who surreptitiously recorded Marx talking to a small group of supporters. After airing on Tuesday, the video immediately caused an uproar on aSmallWorld, Diamond Lounge, and other social networking sites for the wealthy.

Marx held a press conference on Friday to address the controversy. “If elected, I promise to be president of 100% of the residents of Beaverdale,” Marx said before adding with a wink, “But I also promise to round to the nearest percent.”

This is the second time that Marx has run for president of the Beaverdale Neighborhood Association, after a failed bid in 2008. Marx lives in Beaverdale with his wife, Jenny, and their children, Jenny (age 16), Jenny (15), and Jenny (5).

Written by fauxphilnews

November 25, 2012 at 11:23 pm

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 570 other followers

%d bloggers like this:


text:
First Group

Forth Day - Back to town

The party has a group of people to bring back to town for medical attention.

I'm sorry, but we no longer support this web browser. Please upgrade your browser or install Chrome or Firefox to enjoy the full functionality of this site.


text:
November 9, 2010

Chuck Bullough talks defense

The Bruin defense played an outstanding game against Oregon State as some of the younger players stepped. The defense should only get better when Patrick Larimore and Sheldon Price return from their injuries.

...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now!


text:
April 27, 2006

Olive Branch's Wright holding two instate offers

Ole Miss already has pledges from four defensive linemen across the state and area but the real question is how many will the Rebels sign on National Signing day 2007.

A lot of offers still remain on the table and it's evident that linemen on both sides of the ball will be a major priority for this class. One local defensive end that is holding an Ole Miss offer is Olive Branch's K.J. Wright.

Wright, a 6-foot-4, 205-pound athlete that runs a 4.5 forty, has official offers so far from Ole Miss and Mississippi State.

"Right now those are my only two offers," Wright said last week. "Alabama, Tennessee, Florida State, Southern Mississippi and Memphis are showing me a lot of attention as well."

One thing that has impressed Wright about Ole Miss is its campus and new athletic facilities.

"Everything at Ole Miss is so much more up to date than a lot of the other campus in the state," Wright said. "Their indoor practice facility and the tunnel leading to the stadium are really impressive."

Wright has also had the opportunity to visit MSU this spring as well.

"I like the family atmosphere there," Wright said. "I also like the fact that Coach (Sylvester) Crooms stresses academics as much as he does."

Another thing that standouts to Wright about Ole Miss is the fact that two of his best friends have recently signed with the Rebels and the recent success Ole Miss had in recruiting.

"They dominated the state in recruiting and produced a top 20 class in the nation," Wright said. "If they win some ballgames this season it will even get better, Ole Miss is a program that is headed in the right direction."

Wright is ready to start learning a new defense under new Olive Branch head coach Scott Samsell.

"We are ready to get on the field and see how we are going to be this fall, I think we are going to be good again," Wright said. "We have several players coming back and we are excited about the possibilities."

...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now!


text:
January 31, 2010

Bennett surprised by offer

Ohio State was busy over the weekend looking at the class of 2011 as the Buckeyes took a strong look inside the state borders and offered Centerville (Ohio) defensive tackle/offensive tackle Michael Bennett. The 6-foot-3, 275-pounder very well could be one of the best players that you know nothing about and Bennett is just fine having his play on the field do the introductions of him.

But just because the fan base may not know much about Bennett the Ohio State coaching staff does and offered Bennett on the same day as the Ohio State junior day.

"I was excited and really wasn't expecting it," Bennett said. "I didn't know if they were that interested in me or not."

Bennett can play on either side of the ball but the Buckeyes are looking at Bennett to play defensive tackle. That suits Bennett just fine who likes the opportunity to mix it up in the trenches and try to get to the quarterback. Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Heacock has been handling the recruitment to this point.

"Coaches like that I am aggressive," Bennett said. "They like that I come off of the ball so well and can run really well to go with my aggressiveness."

Bennett holds just shy of double digit offers including ones from NC State, Wake Forest, Indiana and Cincinnati. Of course there is something to be said about being offered from the in-state power in Ohio State but Bennett also knows that he can't allow himself to get caught up in the fervor of the hometown team when it comes down to making decisions.

"I am interested in coaches and teams that are interested in me," Bennett said. "I don't want to go in with a favorite team and I just have to see where the best fit is for me. I can't look at things by just living in a state and I have to look at the caliber of a college."

Does Bennett see any sort of timeline when it comes down to making a decision for where he would like to play his college ball?

"I am not going to rush into a decision but I also know that I can't take it down to the wire," Bennett said. "I will just have to look at things."

...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now!


text:
February 6, 2008

Oklahoma gets it's first 2009 commitment

It may be the night of National Signing Day, but that hasn't stopped Oklahoma from getting their name out with some of the nation's top prospects and with their 2008 class seemingly wrapped up Oklahoma has already dug it's heels into the class of 2009 extending numerous offers and hosting a junior day last weekend. One of those visitors was Ronnell Lewis from tiny Dewar, Okla.

It seems that the 6-foot-3, 220-pound two-way prep star came away feeling really good about Oklahoma.

Just as importantly it seems he left with Oklahoma feeling really good about him.

"We were up there on Saturday for the Jr. day, and things went really well," said Dewar head coach Josh Been. "Then on Monday coach Jackie Shipp called and asked for some academic information.

...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now!


text:
July 2, 2008

Video: Chase Barnett Takes It the Distance

Name: Chase Barnett

City, State: Stafford, VA

Position: Running back

Class: 2009

Media: Video

Click on video clip link to view prospect videos:

Jersey Video
Duration File
of clips
25 Chase Barnett #1 RB

Note: Rivals.com recommends a high speed
connection (cable, DSL, etc.) when attempting to download video files. When
using a dialup connection, users will experience extended download times. This
service is primarily intended for users with broadband connectivity. If video
delays during buffering stage, please allow video to completely load before

...More... To continue reading this article you must be a member. Sign Up Now!


text:
Spending Equal Time With Your Grandchildren

I only have two grandchildren, but at times I find it challenging to give them equal attention. I often wonder how grandmothers with lots of grandchildren spread their time among them.

Juliet had me all to herself for almost four years before her little sister, Amelia, was born.  She’s an incredibly loving sister, but I think sometimes she forgets she has to share me. For the first year of Amelia’s life, I rarely got time alone with her because Juliet was always vying for my attention. I kept wondering: when am I going to get to know Amelia?

Now that Juliet is in kindergarten, I am getting some quality time alone with my little “Pixie,” as I lovingly refer to Amelia. As she acquires more language and we spend more time together, we’re bonding the way I did with her big sister.

But, when the three of us are together, I need to constantly remind myself that I need to give equal attention to the little one. Otherwise, Juliet tends to dominate in games or choose an activity that is too advanced for Amelia.

The other day we were playing on their swing set and Juliet kept wanting my help on the monkey bars. Meanwhile, Amelia sat patiently in her swing waiting for me to come back and push her. It made me realize that I need to be more conscious of Amelia’s needs until she starts asking for them herself. You know what they say about the “squeaky wheel” getting all the attention!

I’ve read a lot of comments from parents who say they feel bad when grandparents show favoritism toward a particular grandchild. I sure don’t want to get caught in that dilemma.

So how do you grandmothers with several grandchildren manage to give equal time to each one?

  1. Julia Lowcher says

    What a nice grandparent you are to even be worried about this. I am the mother of 2 girls who has never lived close to grandparents. My husband’s parents passed away before I met him. My own mother & stepfather visit every 2-3 years. We see them 1-2 times a year if I make the effort to visit them. She lives near my step sister & her kids in the summer & sees them frequently. The rest of her kids live far away. She makes an effort to see my other sister’s kids 1-3 times a year, even flying one in for 2 months every summer while he is out of school since my sister is a single working parent. It is hurtful that she makes so little effort to see my kids. I am lucky to be a stay at home mom, and i know it is her loss that she doesn’t know her own grandkids. She does send cards & presents at birthdays & Christmas if we are not with her. She has been retired since before my kids were born & is not on a fixed income. She & her husband enjoy a nice life with 2 homes & frequent international travel. My grandparents were so important to me growing up nearby them. It’s a pity that she seems to be so selfish, but there is nothing I can do to change it. I am working on changing the way I react to it.

    • Donne says

      First, let me congratulate you for changing the way you react. That is a very healthy thing to do and will help you accept what you apparently cannot change.
      I’m so sorry because it is a loss for all of you. I have such a hard time understanding grandparents who are not involved in their children and grandchildren’s lives. They bring us such joy at a time in our lives when we have the wisdom and patience to really get to know them. And they help us understand ourselves better, too.
      The only thing I can suggest is that you find some surrogate grandparents for your girls – neighbors, friends, or people from some other circle of your life.
      I wrote a post on a new website on surrogate grandparenting.
      Good luck.

  2. Carolyn Weston says

    I was really taken with your article. I am the parent of two girls, Annie (7) and Charlotte (2). Annie was the first and only grandchild in my husband’s family for about 4 years before the second, and six months later, third grandchildren came along. Annie received so much wonderful one-on-one time from her grandparents – sleep overs and, for her first two years, baby sitting two days a month while I worked. When the second grandchild came along, my niece, she also received this same amount of attention – sleep overs with lots of traditions established from Annie and other babysitting as my sister-in-law needed. With both Annie and my niece, my inlaws have been amazing – so caring, fun, giving and supportive.

    When my second child, Charlotte, came along six months after my niece, there just didn’t seem to be any room or time left, and that has only continued to be the case. There have not been any fun sleep overs at Grandma’s house or one-on-one time for Charlotte, so she is missing all of the fun traditions that the other girls are making. The times my in-laws have spent alone with Charlotte has been so limited, that I can count them on one hand in her two years. I know what good people my in-laws are, so I can’t imagine that this is intentional, but they have acknowledged the situation and have not made efforts to make any changes. There seems to be limitless willingness on their part to care for and spend time with my niece and my older daughter, but it does hurt my feelings that Charlotte does not seem to be a priority in their lives in the same way. I worry that as she becomes old enough to understand the stories that her sister and cousin share about their time with my in-laws, she will also understand that she didn’t get that same kind of time.

    As a parent, I can completely understand that time with grandchildren can not be completely equal, as you only have so much time to give, but I do think that it is important to try to be in the ball park in order to avoid potentially hurting the feelings of you grandchildren as they get older or your own children who are watching the situation unfold.

  3. says

    I have seven grandchildren, and it’s impossible to spend equal time with them. As they have gotten old enough to understand, I have tried to explain that I love them all and want to spend time with them all, but there is no way I can keep everything equal. I definitely spend more time with the ones who live ten minutes away instead of the ones who live one hour away, so that is one factor. Another factor is that my son doesn’t have custody of his daughter, so we don’t get to see her as often. Also, I don’t try to keep up with how much money I spend on each one as that can be a nightmare also. I hope by not becoming a strict accountant in these matters that I can make the point that love is not something to be quantified.


text:
Glenbard South Raiders Varsity

Glen Ellyn, IL · Prep Baseball

  • Loading... Loading Team News...
  • Become a fan.
    Follow this team
  • Fans
  • Invite Fans
  • Team Admins

    Clayton George , Kevin Schmit
    Team Info

Official Scoring Team

We encourage any user to create a GameChanger team and utilize our scorekeeping and stat management tools. As a result of this open platform, there may be several versions of the same team.

GameChanger is beta testing solutions to establish authenticity of teams so fans can easily trust that the teams they follow will provide consistent game data.

Official GameChanger teams will be marked with an official tag in search results and on team home pages.

GameChanger reserves the right to contact a team's head coach to confirm that it is an official team.


text:
Archive for June, 2013

June 30, 2013

When 2 + 2 = 22: A Multi-Path Approach to Getting It Right

Not long ago, I submitted a case study to the editor of the Georgia Genealogical Society Quarterly for publication. In this paper, I discussed how I “proved” the identities of a young woman’s parents, both of whom had died when she was very young. My research began with this woman’s death certificate, which listed her parents’ names incorrectly (if you’re wondering, the names weren’t even a close match), and worked outwards from there. In the end, the breakthrough records were ones researchers don’t often consult, which was the main point of the article: If the “normal” records don’t help, then look to the “unusual” ones.

The thing is, I wouldn’t have been able to successfully resolve this problem even a decade ago, maybe not even five years ago. I know that when I first started researching, back in the dinosaur days of microfilm and dusty court records, I would have accepted the information on that death certificate unquestioningly, and been stuck with a brick wall until I figured out that such information cannot be taken at face value.

For me, it was a long and steep climb between those two points. In other words, it took me a long time to realize that 2 + 2 = 4, not 22.

Knowing how to solve genealogical problems takes a complex variety of skill sets learned through multiple paths over a long period of time. There are some people who believe that this educational path or that one are the only ways in which one should become a genealogist, but this isn’t true. That’s not to say that education, including instruction at college and professional levels, is not necessary, but it is only one facet of a whole that should encompass many other paths, including reading, studying, mentoring, teaching, and publication, and perhaps even certification or accreditation.

Taking only one of those paths will not lead one to become a good genealogist, because genealogical problem solving requires a multiple-path approach. Most of all, it takes time and practice. This is one field where experience truly is the best teacher.

June 30, 2013

A Sunday Walk Around the Blogs

Harold Henderson of Midwestern Microhistory ruminates on “Good enough” citations? We can do better.

The Concord Review’s blog featured an interview with Emma Scoble, whose paper on the Broderick-Terry Duel was published in the 2013 issue of The Concord Review. TCR is the only academic humanities journal dedicated to publishing exemplary work by high school students.

Colonial America’s oldest unsolved murder has now been solved. Forensic archaeologists at Jamestown, Virginia, have discovered the identity of skeletal remains unearthed in 1996. The remains are believed to be of George Harrison, who died in 1624 after a duel with Richard Stephens.

June 22, 2013

Saturday Skills: Source List Entries or Reference Notes?

As a new editor, I’m dealing with some surprising issues, things I had no idea would come up during the editorial process. One of these issues is the proper formatting of source citations. The order of elements in citations is of concern, certainly. Just as frequently, I’ve found that authors confuse the format for source list entries with that for reference notes. Each has a place in historical writing, but when should authors use what format?

The source citation Bible for genealogy is Elizabeth Shown Mills’ excellent resource, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, 2nd ed. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2009), commonly referred to as EE. The companion web site, which is also incredibly useful in learning how to create citations, is Evidence Explained. I’ll be using EE in the following discussion, for those who would like to follow along.

Continue Reading

June 16, 2013

A Sunday Walk Around the Blogs

Missing records aren’t always lost, and sometimes they’re returned, as Madison County, Alabama, court officials discovered recently.

Harold Henderson discusses a recent article on the demise of genealogy in Does genealogy have a future? Don’t ask a journalist.

Judy G. Russell brings us some really peachy news: the Georgia Archives is opening to the public two additional days beginning 31 July, and somewhere along the line will be adding additional staff. Woot!

Robyn at Reclaiming Kin writes about The Definition of Black according to instructions for federal census takers. This post is an excellent example of why Robyn’s blog is one of my favorites.

A new web site seeks to document the Historic Rural Churches of Georgia.

June 12, 2013

Digging the Foundations of Research into the Past, 2 July 2013, Clayton, GA

Please join me 2 July 2013 at 1 p.m. at the Rabun County Public Library in Clayton, Georgia, as I present “Digging the Foundations of Research into the Past: Essential Skills for Genealogists.” This one hour lecture provides an overview of necessary skills, from planning research to citing sources, and includes a brief discussion of sources, information, evidence, and proof.

This lecture is part of the library’s Summer Reading Program, and is open to those aged 16 and up. Admission is free and no registration is required.

I hope to see you there!

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 65 other followers


text:
Latest Posts
Home > Ask The Get Out of Debt Experts > I’m Ready to Settle My Debt in Dubai. I Live in India. – Niki

I’m Ready to Settle My Debt in Dubai. I Live in India. – Niki

“Dear Steve,

i used to live and work in dubai. In 2009 after the market crashed, i had lost my job and had to come back to india. In dubai i had credit cards from different banks. Few cards i had used in dubai and after coming back to india my financial situation was not good. So i had used few cards in India as well. Now the dubai banks ha transferred my case to the collection agency in india. They are calling me regularly for the settlement of the credit cards and threating me everytime that they will forwarding my name to Interpol.

The total amount including the principal & interest & other charges has reached upto 1,00,000 dhs. Now I am ready to settle the credit cards & make the payment as I want to go back to Dubai. But I do not know that on what amount should I get the setlement done. In total they are asking me to pay 50,000 dhs. I am unable to pay this amount as my monthly income is very low due to which i can’t pay this amount. I am asking them to give some more discount and maximum I can pay 20,000 dhs. They are not agreeing to that. So, please tell me what should I can do and also from where I can check that whether my name is in Dubai Police wanted list or not?

thanks & regards,

Dear Niki,

First off, I’m not worried about them forwarding your name to Interpol. If Interpol took on the cases of everyone that owed debt, they’d never get anything done. It’s a scare tactic.

I would suggest you contact a lawyer in Dubai to represent you. They can make the police inquiry as well. The lawyer in Dubai could also act as an intermediary with the bank to negotiate some solution.

I’m sorry that I don’t know of a specific firm to use for this but maybe contacting some friends back in Dubai and asking them for a personal referral to a lawyer would be a good place to start.

You are doing the right thing by trying to proactively deal with the situation. A solution is possible through negotiations with your creditors before you step foot back in the country.

Please post your responses and follow-up messages to me on this in the comments section below.

Get Out of Debt Free Hotline
debt settlement helpstudent loan help

About Steve Rhode

Steve Rhode
Steve Rhode is the Get Out of Debt Guy and has been helping good people with bad debt problems since 1994. You can learn more about Steve, here.
  • Rajan

    Hi steve,

    I owe 20000 Dirhams to a bank in Dubai. I lost my job and moved back to india, I am planning to immigrate to USA. I dont have a job at the moment but I have all good intentions to start paying up once I get a job. will I have a problem in going to usa from india…. Kindly answer

    • Steve Rhode

      You will have no problem.

  • deepak

    Respected Steve sir

    In March 2009 when i come to india i have done some shopping of AED 5000   thru my Mashreq Bank credit card . I don’t have any wrong intention about repayment but when i come  in india there are a young death of my brother  in law in my native place and my family simtums is totaly disturbed so  i   resign my job and not go back to dubai . As on 13-10-2009 i have paid my credit card liability with penalty . Now i would like to confirm that there is any offence will pending on me as per UAE Law and can i go dubai with out any tension or heddick .

    Kindly give me your advice and oblige

    with regard

    • Steve Rhode

      The best thing to do is to contact a lawyer in Dubai and have them check for you. In a case like this, being absolutely certain is better than being 90% certain.

      • deepak

        thank u very much sir and may u please guide me that how much fess lawyer will charge on such type consultancy

        with regard

  • niki

    Hi Steve,

    How are you? thanks a lot for your reply. the information that you have provided is really helpful. I am relaxed now. I was really worried because of the situation. I will try to contact some lawyer for the same.

    thanks & regards.

    • contact

      Hi Niki, Please let me know if your issue is resolved , i am also in a same situation as you . also kindly share with me contact details of lawyer if you any . thank you.

Get My FREE Get Out of Debt Guy Newsletter

It is the smart thing to do.

I promise to keep your email safe and secure.

I want to keep you posted each weekday with just one email about the latest get out of debt news, scam alerts and information to beat back debt.

You can unsubscribe at any time with just one click.

After you subscribe, check your email to confirm your subscription. If the confirmation email does not appear in your inbox in a few minutes, check your spam folder for it. Sometimes it likes to annoyingly hide there.

  • It will keep you posted on the latest scams.
  • You will be alerted to the latest articles.
  • You will wind up smarter than everyone else dealing with debt.


text:
Jupitermedia Acquires eStockMusic; Second Royalty-Free Music Buy

Jupitermedia (NSDQ: JUPM), which mainly focuses on stock photos, continues to expand in the music space… the company has acquired the assets of eStockMusic, a royalty-free music site, for an undisclosed sum. This follows the December purchase of Flying Hands Music, which also has its own library of royalty-free tracks. In addition to the retail side of eStockMusic — it sells individual tracks for $1.00 — the site is also a a platform for composers to upload and sell their works. Jupiter’s main music properties are RoyaltyFreeMusic, StudioCutz.com and BlueFuse Music. Release.

Comments have been disabled for this post


text:
Survey Says: Americans Would Choose iPod Over Planet

A survey out this morning from the advertising firm Shelton Group suggests that very few Americans would be willing to give up the comforts of modern life even if they knew such comforts hurt the planet. Of the survey respondents, only 38 percent said they would give up their iPod; 21 percent would give up their cell phone; 7 percent would do without a computer and just 6 percent would go without a car. Yet 60 percent of the people surveyed gave lip service to being interested in “greener products.”

While the survey is an interesting snapshot of which devices hold the most value for people (only 13 percent of people would give up a TV!), the whole premise of the survey is a bit bogus if you think about it in terms of global warming (the survey focuses only on “harming the environment”). People don’t have to give up things like iPods, cell phones and laptops to fight global warming. The suggestion that they do only provides fodder for people and groups lobbying against action on climate change to argue that consumers would have to make those types of sacrifices.  More useful questions for this kind of survey might include: Would you buy an iPod that’s better for the planet but doesn’t have, say, as nice a screen or case (remove some of those toxic chemicals) and perhaps some reduced functionality (consumes less energy)? The answers would probably be similar to those of the original survey.

The one thing that’s pretty disturbing about the survey is the finding that people are the least willing to do without the one thing that would be really beneficial to the planet to lose, especially in cities: cars. Clearly people in communities that have been built around driving (and have poor public transportation) can’t easily give up cars, but the price of electric vehicles will take a very long time to drop low enough before they can offer a realistic option for the average car buyer. And because so few people are willing to have “carectomies,” there’s going to be a gap in a transportation solution for quite some time.

Image courtesy of Brianfit and creative commons.

Comments have been disabled for this post


text:
5 Reasons the $499 Atrix Laptop Dock Is a Tough Sell

One of the most talked about devices at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show, the Motorola Atrix 4G, now has official pricing. The dual-core, 4.3-inch Android smartphone will cost AT&T  customers $199 with a two-year contract when it arrives on or before March 6. But the phone is only part of the story: more innovative is the Motorola Laptop Dock, which is powered by the Atrix 4G. Less innovative is the $499 standalone price tag for the Dock, although AT&T will bundle both the phone and dock for the same $499, provided you add the $20 mobile hotspot service to your monthly plan.

Before I cover the issues here, let me recap what the dock is. Essentially, it’s a laptop-like shell that uses the Atrix handset for its processing power. You plug the phone into the back of the dock and see a basic Linux computing interface on the 11.6-inch display of the dock. The appeal is that you have a larger screen and keyboard, plus all phone data is usable on the dock; there’s no syncing involved. The dock also has an internal battery, which can charge the Atrix handset.

There are a number of challenges that face this accessory at nearly $500, but here are my main concerns that will keep this otherwise fresh, new mobile solution away from many consumers.

  • It’s a single-purpose accessory. The Laptop Dock can only be used with one phone on one carrier: the Atrix 4G, which is an exclusive device to AT&T’s network for now. That means customers are shelling out up to $500 for an accessory that’s useless if they decide to later change carriers or phones. A far better situation would be if Motorola announced a number of Atrix phones that can work with the docking accessory. That could happen in the future, but until it does, this is a $500 one-trick pony.
  • It’s a dumb terminal with no broadband connection. You can’t use the dock without the phone because the phone provides the processing power and the wireless connection needed to be useful. Without the phone, the dock is a paperweight.
  • It doesn’t reduce the number of devices you’ll carry. For $500, I’d want to see some sort of convergence benefit, meaning that instead of carrying three devices — a phone, a tablet, and a laptop, for example — you could carry two. But even if customers buy the Laptop Dock in lieu of a laptop, they’re still carrying the same number of devices. And this device is limited when compared to a full computer.
  • Computers are cheaper. At this price, the Laptop Dock is competing against netbooks, and even some notebooks, which today can run all day on a single charge yet still weigh only three pounds. That’s a tough sell and while there are benefits to having the dock, will consumers value them enough to justify the price difference?
  • It costs more than the phone. While this is obvious, it’s going to play a big role in terms of consumer mindset. Keeping smartphones at or under the magical $199 price point is helping to attract many feature phone upgrade candidates. Part of how that’s done is through carrier subsidies on the hardware to keep the up-front pricing at that number. When consumers see a $499 price tag on the dock when the phone is $199, there’s an expectation of far more value in the dock. Yet, as mentioned above, it’s a very limited accessory with a web browser and a few applications.

Make no mistake; I still believe Motorola’s Laptop Dock was one of the most innovative and forward-thinking devices I saw at the CES last month. There’s no question the company is pushing the envelope in terms of mobile computing. The theory is sound, but the execution isn’t where it needs to be for mainstream consumers to even test such a theory yet.

I suspect most customers who do purchase the Laptop Dock will take advantage of the $499 bundle, which includes both the Atrix handset and the dock accessory. That makes it a little easier of a pill to swallow, but is that enough? I’m curious to hear if the dock is worth the $300 price tag in that situation for you.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Comments have been disabled for this post


text:
Skip to content

Subversion checkout URL

You can clone with
Download ZIP

enhancements pypy

StefanBehnel edited this page · 8 revisions
Clone this wiki locally

CEP 801: PyPy backend support

The goal of this CEP is to find ways to make Cython code run in the PyPy Python runtime environment.

  • Status: Open
  • Implementation status: Interfacing at the C level is mostly implemented.

Relevant discussions on the PyPy mailing list:

The current state of the discussion seems to be that PyPy provides ways to talk to C code, but nothing as complete as CPython's C-API in the sense that it allows efficient two-way communication between C code and Python objects. However, in order to accommodate for different needs of externally written software in general and Cython code in particular, a two-way interface is required.

There are different ideas about approaches that would bring Cython and PyPy closer:

  • interfacing at the C level
  • interfacing at the assembly level
  • generating Python code that uses ctypes
  • generating (R)Python code that uses a new FFI

Interfacing at the C level

This would require PyPy to gain a usable C-API in order to let external code talk to its object layer. Given that there is a partial implementation of this C-API already (cpyext), this originally appeared to be the easiest approach. However, Armin Rigo stated that this would be harder to do than it seems and also inefficient because it would require PyPy to restrict itself in the way it a) handles objects and b) is being designed internally. Basically, different PyPy configurations may require a different view on their internals, which renders a common C-API infeasible.

It is not clear yet if this would really be infeasible (or just inefficient) for Cython, because the generated C code could do different things when compiled for different PyPys, just as it currently does different things for different CPython versions. Reconfiguration of internals at runtime would, however, clearly represent a problem.

Update (arigo): I don't really understand the points made above, but the main issue is that you can't have some static C code (either manually written or generated by Cython) and hope that it can interact closely with PyPy's objects. It's just not possible, as far as I can tell. (So cpyext for example is an indirection layer, and is slow.)

Update (sbehnel): My point is that it is a difference for statically compiled code if you let it work against a given C-API and then replace that by a slower indirection layer that it needs to call through, or if you replace higher-level parts of the code itself by better targeted code right at compile time. Cython generated code can go much further here than what you could get by applying C macros only, and it would be an incremental optimisation process to improve the C interaction between the two, as opposed to a completely new way of interfacing. Basically, try the quickest changes to get it to work at all, then optimise it to make it fast.

One obvious optimisation could be to make both sides understand each other's internal function implementations and drop function calls into native code, instead of going through tuple packing and unpacking. Basically, PyPy could learn to introspect Cython's CyFunction type and generate a corresponding native call for a given instance, and for the other direction, Cython could use a more low-level calling convention, e.g. using a struct rather than a tuple object when certain argument types are known.

Here is an example. I think it should be quite easy for PyPy to bypass Cython's CyFunction to call directly into the underlying C function, with unboxed parameters. Cython could provide some sort of C signature introspection feature that PyPy could analyse and optimise for.

But that's only that direction. Calling from Cython code back into PyPy compiled code efficiently is (from what I've heard so far) likely going to be trickier because Cython would have to know how to do that at C compilation time at the latest, while PyPy decides about theses things at runtime. Still, there could be a way for Cython to tell PyPy about the signature it wants to use for a specific unboxed call, and PyPy could generate an optimised wrapper for that and eventually a specialised function implementation for the statically known set of argument types in a specific call. A simple varargs approach may work here, imagine something like this:

error = PyPy_CallFunctionWithSignature(
    func_obj_ptr, "(int, object, list, option=bint) -> int",
    i, object_ptr, list_obj_ptr, 0, int_result*)

And given that the constant signature string would be interned by the C compiler, a simple pointer comparison should suffice for branching inside of PyPy. That would in many cases drop the need to convert all parameters to objects and to pack them into an argument tuple. Even keyword arguments could often be folded into positional varargs, as I indicated above.

Other things that need different handling in CPython's C-API than in PyPy:

  • PyDict_Next() is horribly slow in cpyext. It's best replaced with normal iterator usage.
  • Simple macros like PyTuple_GET_ITEM() are much more involved in cpyext than in CPython. A generic function for sequence unpacking could help, e.g. {{{ int PySequence_Unpack(PyObject* iterable, Py_ssize_t min_unpack, Py_ssize_t max_unpack, ...) }}} The max_unpack argument gives the number of varargs, which are all of type PyObject** or NULL. Each non-NULL pointer will be set to a new reference of the item at the corresponding index. If the sequence is shorter than min_unpack, raise an error and return -1. Assignments may or may not have taken place at this point, but no owned references are passed back in this case.

Interfacing at the assembly level

Armin Rigo proposed to compile Cython code to C and down to assembly (potentially using the MIPS instruction set). This could then be interpreted by PyPy.

It is unclear if this can solve the problem. For one, assembly is an extremely low-level interface that provides almost no higher-level code semantics, which makes it hard to run such code efficiently. Also, this approach does not lift the requirement for an interaction with the CPython C-API, which means that this API still needs to be implemented completely, in one way or another.

Generating Python code that uses ctypes

This is what was initially tried in Romain's summer of code project. The problem is that ctypes is restricted in two ways. It is not capable of expressing Cython specific code semantics, and it is designed to work at an ABI level instead of an API level (which is used by Cython).

Extending the ctypes implementation in PyPy may be an option. Providing a dedicated (R)Python module in PyPy for the specific use by Cython code would be another.

Generating (R)Python code that uses a new FFI (like rffi)

This is a variant of the ctypes approach above. PyPy currently has two FFIs: ctypes and rffi. According to the core developers, rffi is a layer on top of ctypes that works more or less for RPython code but is not designed to be used by anything else.

More work needs to be done to design a foreign function interface that could be used by a Cython backend and potentially other code.

Open Questions

RPython code generation

Could Cython generate RPython code instead of Python code? This would require arbitrary Python code to be transformable into RPython code, e.g. using variable renaming, templating, code specialisation or other compiler techniques.

Something went wrong with that request. Please try again.