Author: admin

In a thoughtful essay for The Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal recently made the case that after years of prioritizing “nowness,” the Internet is slowly pulling back from what he calls “the stream.” By this he means a move away from the fevered gush of Twitter and the Facebook timeline and toward a version of online life that is a little more removed, a touch more calm. A lake, not a river. One can’t keep up with everything, so why even try? To make his case, he points to the rise of the proudly impermanent Snapchat, evergreen and “snowfalled” longform stories, and, yes, Netflix’s season-dumping strategy. Rather than mourning the loss of the collective, he considers these moves from the opposite perspective: Taking a step back not only allows the breathing room necessary to appreciate and process, it restores a cultural sense of boundaries, of beginnings and endings. In TV’s post-stream future, we might share less but appreciate more. Everybody’s watching. Does it matter if we’re all looking in different directions?
via ‘Breaking Bad,’ ‘Black Mirror,’ and the Year in Television – Grantland.

:26
Danielle Calixto, manager of a children’s boutique in downtown Miami, sat among season-ticket holders in row 26, section 124. She had purchased two tickets on Stubhub for $287 apiece and brought her boss’s eight-year-old daughter, Diandra. “The season-ticket holders were all getting up, shaking hands, telling each other, ‘I’ll see you next season,’ ” Calixto says. “I told them, ‘You’re going to regret this,’ and they said, ‘Yeah, you’re funny.’ Diandra started crying because everybody was leaving, and she didn’t understand why we weren’t leaving too. We were surrounded by empty seats. She wanted to call her mom. I told her, ‘You just have to sit here right now and believe with me.’ ”
via In 29 seconds Ray Allen, Miami Heat swung 2013 NBA Finals – NBA – Lee Jenkins – SI.com.

DB2 JDBC Driver and URL Information
Listed below are connection examples for three common JDBC drivers for IBM DB2:
IBM DB2 Universal Driver Type 4
DRIVER CLASS: com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Driver
DRIVER LOCATION: db2jcc.jar and db2jcc_license_cu.jar
(Both of these jars must be included)
JDBC URL FORMAT: jdbc:db2://<host>[:<port>]/<database_name>
JDBC URL Examples:
jdbc:db2://127.0.0.1:50000/SAMPLE
IBM DB2 Universal Driver Type 2
DRIVER CLASS: com.ibm.db2.jcc.DB2Driver
DRIVER LOCATION: db2jcc.jar and db2jcc_license_cu.jar
(Both of these jars must be included)
JDBC URL FORMAT: jdbc:db2:<database_name>
JDBC URL Examples:
jdbc:db2:sample
App JDBC Driver
In order to be able to use the DB2 App driver, certain software must be installed on your machine. This usually entails installing the IBM DB2 Client software. See IBM’s site for more information.
DRIVER CLASS: COM.ibm.db2.jdbc.app.DB2Driver
DRIVER LOCATION: To use the App driver, the DB2 client software should be installed on your machine. The name of the file that contains the DB2 App driver is usually db2java.zip. However, this may change depending on the version of the client software that is installed. Usually, the DB2 client software is installed in the SQLLIB directory. For example, if you are using Windows, the following may be the location of the db2java.zip file: c:\SQLLIB\java12\db2java.zip
JDBC URL FORMAT: jdbc:db2:<database_name>
JDBC URL Examples:
jdbc:db2:test
Net JDBC Driver
DRIVER CLASS: COM.ibm.db2.jdbc.net.DB2Driver
DRIVER LOCATION: The DB2 Net drivers can be obtained by installing the DB2 client software from IBM. Depending on the version of the client software, the net drivers are usually contained in the db2java.zip file. For example, if using Windows, the following may be the location of the db2java.zip file that contains the drivers: c:\SQLLIB\java12\db2java.zip
JDBC URL FORMAT: jdbc:db2://<host>:<port>/<database_name>
The default port for IBM DB2 is many times one of the following: 446, 6789, or 50000. Usually, if the default port is being used by the database server, the :<port> value of the JDBC url can be omitted.
JDBC URL Examples:
jdbc:db2://neptune.acme.com:6789/test
jdbc:db2://127.0.0.1:6789/test
via DB2 JDBC Driver and URL Information.

If anyone could claim to be leading by example in an age of austerity, it is José Mujica, Uruguay’s president, who has forsworn a state palace in favour of a farmhouse, donates the vast bulk of his salary to social projects, flies economy class and drives an old Volkswagen Beetle.
But the former guerrilla fighter is clearly disgruntled by those who tag him “the world’s poorest president” and – much as he would like others to adopt a more sober lifestyle – the 78-year-old has been in politics long enough to recognise the folly of claiming to be a model for anyone.
“If I asked people to live as I live, they would kill me,” Mujica said during an interview in his small but cosy one-bedroom home set amid chrysanthemum fields outside Montevideo.
via Uruguay’s president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills | World news | The Guardian.

Glenn Greenwald and Jeffrey Toobin went head-to-head on Monday’s “AC360,” debating whether Edward Snowden was right to expose secret NSA surveillance programs.
A federal judge ruled Monday that the NSA’s surveillance of Americans’ cell phone records — a secret program that Snowden revealed to Greenwald — is likely illegal. Snowden, who fled to Russia to escape the reaches of the American government and is still seeking permanent asylum, praised the ruling in a statement.
“How could it not vindicate him?” Greenwald said about the ruling on Monday night. “I think it’s not only the right but the duty in Edward Snowden’s situation to come forward at great risk to himself and inform his fellow citizens about what it is that their government is doing in the dark that is illegal.”
via Glenn Greenwald To Jeffrey Toobin: NSA Ruling Vindicates Edward Snowden.

So the most outrageous young players become these urban legends online and are stars before they turn 21, and as much as the hype and stardom is a compliment, it’s also a curse, because the same media that inflates the legends helps amplify the backlash when real life doesn’t measure up. Setbacks are inevitable. Athletes can still be wildly successful despite all this, but in general, it takes some public disappointment to shake us back to a place where we can appreciate athletes for who they are, not what we want them to be. It took LeBron a decade.
It’s something to keep in mind as we obsess over young superstars like Wiggins, Clowney, or anyone else. The once-a-year “Next” issues are obsolete now, because those stories happen daily, complete with the hype roller coasters that follow. This is what we do now.
via The Year in Prodigies – The Triangle Blog – Grantland.

The comfort made him do it.
That was the successful defense strategy used by a Texas teenager sentenced Tuesday to 10 years of probation after he killed four people in a June drunk-driving accident.
According to news reports, a psychologist hired by 16-year-old Ethan Couch said the teenager was a victim of “affluenza,” a condition caused by the sort of absurdly permissive home life that comes with being wealthy. The lenient sentence—prosecutors had sought up to 20 years in prison—prompted anger by the victims’ families and others.
These things tend to happen in free-market capitalist societies, said Oliver James, a British psychologist and author of Affluenza: How to Be Successful and Stay Sane. Wealth skews perceptions of right and wrong, he said.
“America teaches people that greed is good,” James said. “There are very few parents who don’t imbue their children with some values, but what those values are is another story. Bernie Madoff’s children were undoubtedly given a model that money is king.”
via Judge Says Drunk Teen Is Too Rich to Pay the Price for Killing Four People | TakePart.

How This Works
Stephanie Brown and Jordan Sheldon of Bloomberg Sports ran the timeout numbers for us (data gathered current as of Dec. 11), and we have at least the beginnings of an answer. To isolate dead ball performance, BS only looked at plays immediately following a timeout (including officials’ timeouts—though not ones that came just before free throws—and totaled up the points per possession for them, as well as the true shooting percentage for those possessions. This loses plays following intentional fouls late in a game, out of bounds, and other times you might get a set play, but it allows us to isolate the times you’ll definitely see a designed set play.
via ​Which NBA Coaches Are Best At Designing Plays During Timeouts?.

Home ›News ›LTFRB names Metro Manila’s ‘most dangerous’ bus operators
LTFRB names Metro Manila’s ‘most dangerous’ bus operators
23 Sep 2011
Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), the government agency in charge of the Philippines’ public land transportation services, has released names of the most dangerous bus operators in Metro Manila.
The LTFRB put together the list based on the number of death, injuries and damage to property incurred by the errant bus companies. According to Inquirer.net, the list published by the LTFRB covers the entire 2010 and the first half of 2011.
LTFRB board member Manuel Iway added that the agency hopes the publication of the list will make bus operators more aware of their passengers’ welfare or else risk the cancellation of their franchises.
Most dangerous bus operators based on the number of deaths (passengers and bus personnel)
1. Admiral Transport
2. Nova Auto Transport
3. JAM Liner
4. Gassat Express
5. Joyselle Express
6. Philippine Corinthian Liner
7. Rainbow Express Inc.
8. Alberto Garating
9. Alps the Bus
10. EM Transit Service
Most dangerous bus operators based on the number of injured (passengers and bus personnel)
1. Admiral Transport
2. Nova Auto Transport
3. AM Liner
4. Gassat Express
5. Joyselle Express
6. Miami Transport
7. Pascual Liner
8. Philippine Corinthian Liner
9. Rainbow Express Inc.
10. CEM Transit Service
Most dangerous bus operators based on damage to property
1. Don Mariano Transit
2. Nova Auto Transport
3. Gassat Express
4. Miami Transport
5. Pascual Liner
6. Rainbow Express Inc.
7. Ropal Transport
8. A&B Liner
9. GELL Transport
10. CEM Transit Service
via LTFRB names Metro Manila’s ‘most dangerous’ bus operators – News.

“The number of practicing Catholics is diminishing very quickly,” he said. “In the 1950s 90 percent of Catholics still went to church every Sunday. Now, it’s only five percent.”
This mass exodus has hit the bishops hard in their bank accounts. “The Dutch Church,” the cardinal said, “does not have a subsidy from the state but depends on voluntary contributions of the faithful. Therefore, we are forced to close many churches.”
He quoted figures from the Dutch Office for National Statistics that said in 2010 that just under 16 percent of the population identified themselves as Catholic, adding that this number is expected to drop to about 10 percent by 2020. The same office estimates that Islam will become the second largest religion in the Netherlands by the same year, with only about four or five percent expected to be Protestant Christians.
Cardinal Eijk said that the visiting bishops had given this report to the pope, who replied, “You must not give up. You must keep courage and above all the hope that Christ has given us. This hope never disappoints.”
via Dutch bishops tell Pope the Church is collapsing as they face hundreds of closures | LifeSiteNews.com.