On the Benefits of Inoculation, an Example in Train Scheduling
The local reconstruction of a railway schedule following a small perturbation of the traffic, seeking minimization of the total accumulated delay, is a very difficult and tightly constrained combinatorial problem. Notoriously enough, the railway company’s public image degrades proportionally to the amount of daily delays, and the same goes for its profit!
This paper describes an inoculation procedure which greatly enhances an evolutionary algorithm for train re-scheduling. The procedure consists in building the initial population around a pre-computed solution based on problem-related information available beforehand.
The optimization is performed by adapting times of departure and arrival, as well as allocation of tracks, for each train at each station. This is achieved by a permutation-based evolutionary algorithm that relies on a semi-greedy heuristic scheduler to gradually reconstruct the schedule by inserting trains one after another.
Experimental results are presented on various instances of a large real-world case involving around 500 trains and more than 1 million constraints. In terms of competition with commercial mathematical programming tool ILOG CPLEX, it appears that within a large class of instances, excluding trivial instances as well as too difficult ones, and with very few exceptions, a clever initialization turns an encouraging failure into a clear-cut success auguring of substantial financial savings.
GECCO’06, July 8–12, 2006, Seattle, Washington, USA. \CopyrightYear2006 \crdata1-59593-186-4/06/0007
I.2.8Computing MethodologiesArtificial Intelligence: Problem Solving, Control Methods, and Search
Punctuality stands out as an important factor of consumer satisfaction and plays a key role in the railway world race for a competitive edge. Moreover, any delay for a given train results in additional occupation of resources, and hence in financial losses. The problem dealt with here was provided, together with real world datasets, by SNCF, the French national railroad company. It is concerned with the diminution of resulting delays in case of small perturbations of the traffic: each minute of delay costs SNCF about 1000 Euros ! More precisely, when for some operational reason, a train is delayed for a few minutes at some point of the network (unavailable track, malfunctioning equipment, etc.), it involves taking, within a few minutes, the right decisions for space-wise and time-wise neighbouring trains so that the consequence is minimal in terms of accumulated delays, while enforcing a great deal of operational, commercial and safety constraints. The problem at hand is therefore a difficult, combinatorial, constrained optimisation problem, equivalent to some form of job-shop scheduling problem.
At the moment, this problem is solved in real time by human operators who make use of expert knowledge and common sense to perform optimisation. A first scientific investigation of the problem by SNCF has led to its description and solving as a Mixed Integer Program (MIP) with commercial tool ILOG CPLEX. Obtained results are satisfactory for they show the adequacy of the chosen model and prove its computational tractability but do not meet criteria for real-time exploitation and suggest weakness with respect to combinatorial explosion. They indeed show that several hours are necessary on a fast computer to reach acceptable solutions for average-size instances of the problem. Additionally, computational efficiency seems to be greatly affected by growth of the instance in either size or complexity, which eventually leads to intractability.
A second investigation, source of the present work, was then launched at SNCF’s initiative. It lead to the problem’s formulation and solving in evolutionary terms based on an indirect approach and a permutation representation, both described below. Early results are reported in  and show very encouraging results on a single, large instance: the evolutionary algorithm is much faster than CPLEX early in the search but systematically converges at suboptimal levels of fitness. That work also showed how the evolutionary algorithm could be fruitfully hybridized with CPLEX to yield an efficient memetic algorithm.
The present paper details results obtained on many different instances and investigates a new, surprisingly efficient non-random initialization procedure for the evolutionary algorithm, which makes it outperform CPLEX on most instances.
1.2 State of the Art
1.2.1 On Competent Initialization
Most EC practitioners working on real-world applications will agree that “good stuff” will happen only when the algorithm is properly fed with relevant domain knowledge and that pure “black-box” optimization is bound to lead nowhere in most cases. There are many ways to achieve proper domain knowledge supply, among which stand out two for their importance and wideness of use: coming up with a concise and informative representation (notably providing tight linkage) and designing intelligent operators which perform competent recombination or efficient mutative exploration.
Another, often neglected way to provide problem-specific knowledge is to modify the algorithm’s initialization phase heuristically. Common ways to do this include biasing random sampling toward more relevant zones (by informatively picking adequate parameter ranges for instance) and seeking to provide a richer “primordial soup” of good building blocks (see e.g., Messy GAs ).
Few works exist on the specific subject of improving Initialization while we argue it is one of the most efficient and easy way to improve an evolutionary algorithm’s efficiency. A notable exception is the work by Surry [11, 12] which provides both an overview of real-world application examples and an in-depth discussion of the issues involved, like premature convergence and population diversity.
When it happens to be possible, an excellent way to initialize well is to build the initial population around a previously known good solution. This is the approach we are taking although both the purpose and the technicalities slightly differ from the norm. Instead of using an existing good solution to the actual problem or building one using constructive heuristics or other search methods, we actually pre-solve part of the problem once and for all using our evolutionary algorithm. Our strategy is indeed a Divide&Conquer one: as described in section 5, the problem can be decomposed in three parts, two of which can easily be solved beforehand, which results in an excellent starting point for the actual optimization phase.
1.2.2 On Evolutionary Train Scheduling
A number of teams worked on the particular case of train scheduling. We give a list, by no means exhaustive, of important examples. Caprara et al.  offered a MIP formulation of the problem along with a solving algorithm which makes use of graph-theoretic techniques and Lagrangian relaxation. Parkes and Ungar  use market algorithms where trains are represented by virtual agents that competitively interact for the allocation of resources attributed by an efficient auction-based system. Kwan et al. propose a Co-evolutionary approach  for initial timetable generation. Finally, Juillé  mixes permutation-based evolutionary search and constraint oriented programming to solve a bi-objective instance of the train timetabling problem in a decision support context. Following Juillé, our approach is an indirect one: the genotype is an ordering of the trains (a permutation), and all constraints are handled in some scheduler, i.e. during the morphogenesis process transforming the permutation (i.e. the genotype) into a valid schedule.
2 The Problem
2.1 Degrees of Freedom
As illustrated by Figure 1, the railway network can be seen as a graph where nodes are stations or switchings and where interconnecting edges eventually hold several tracks for trains to use. Each train ( being the set of all trains111We choose instead of to avoid confusion with time.) has a fixed ordered list of nodes to visit . There are three degrees of freedom for each train at each at node: times of arrival , departure and track choice (for route).
and are integers giving the number of seconds elapsed since an arbitrary temporal origin.
Track choice actually implies three tracks to be chosen: one in both incoming and outgoing edges (resp. and ) and one inside the node (). These three decisions are linked by underlying physical constraints: picking, for instance, a particular incoming track restricts the number of possible subsequent tracks inside the node and in the outgoing edge. Each node therefore holds a list of triplets indicating the physically possible combinations among which a choice has to be made.
To sum up, a schedule is completely defined by assigning values to all degrees of freedom, i.e., for each train at each node : , and .
The problem at hand is to reconstruct a valid schedule after some incident. The initial schedule that all trains had been assigned before the incident will be referred to by zero-indices (e.g. ).
As illustrated by self-explanatory Figure 2, schedules can be represented using space/time diagrams. This visual representation is very useful to railway scheduling experts to get a global glimpse of a complex network and to quickly detect abnormalities. The reader might also find it useful to think the equations given below in those visual terms and to see it as a visual representation of the phenotype.
This sections gives a brief enumeration of the constraints limiting the aforementioned degrees of freedom. Please refer to  for an exhaustive and more detailed list. All constraints are hard constraints and cannot possibly be violated, mostly for safety reasons. This set of constraints is not exactly exhaustive with respect to real world operational conditions but gets pretty close, which definitely places the problem outside the “toy problem” category.
For clarity, quantifiers (e.g. , , etc.) are omitted in all equations given below, assuming inequalities apply to the obvious relevant sets. For instance, safety spacing constraints only apply between trains that use the same resource (node or track section) at some point. All Greek letters, introduced in alphabetical order, will represent prescribed constants for spacing intervals.
Initial Times. These constraints are the most obvious ones: trains cannot arrive or leave a node earlier than specified in the initial schedule (, ).
Stopping Time. For both maintenance and commercial reasons, trains stopping times are both upper and lower bounded ().
Speed. According to physical contingencies such as engine power, trains need a certain time to cover the distance between two nodes and ().
Safety Spacing. At all times, there must be sufficient distance between any pair of trains so that either has enough time to undertake and complete emergency braking procedures. This applies for edges as well as for nodes (e.g. for nodes : ).
Connections Connecting trains must be coordinated and give each other enough time at connecting nodes to ensure proper transfer of passengers.
Switching Gates Two edges connected to one same node can share switching gates. These gates have limited capacities, being able, for example, to handle only one train at a time. Spacing constraints appear as a consequence to ensure proper use of this shared physical resource. These constraints are responsible for a very large part of the problem’s combinatorial complexity.
2.4 Objective Function
The goal of the optimisation procedure is to minimise the total accumulated delay, i.e. for all trains at all nodes, the difference between the actual time of arrival and the theoretical one. One should note that this is only used as a first step and will probably be improved in future studies. Many refinements are indeed obviously desirable like having trains of smaller importance matter less or seeking well spread rather than strictly minimal delay (a few slightly delayed trains would be preferable to one strongly delayed).
Using the above notations, and considering the fact that the theoretical schedule is fixed, the fitness function can be written as
3 The Permutation Approach
We use an indirect approach based on a permutation representation. This approach is classical for Job-Shop or Timetabling problems. A mapping function, generally called a scheduler, constructs the solution by iterative greedy insertion of elements (tasks, planes, …in our case trains) in the order dictated by the permutation. Greedy means that when a train is placed in the schedule, it uses the available resources, as left by previously scheduled trains, in the optimal way. The underlying idea is that the evolutionary optimisation process should come up with the permutation representing the order in which trains should be allowed to use available resources (tracks, gates, …) and the priority according to which they could be forced to wait for fluidification purposes. The order resulting from the Evolutionary Algorithm should form the basis of an efficient response to the perturbation that created the problem.
The evolutionary algorithm thus evolves a population of permutations. These permutations (the genotypes of the Evolutionary Algorithm) are turned into proper schedules (the phenotypes) by the scheduler. Such schedules are then evaluated for total accumulated delay, with respect to the initial, unperturbed schedules, to provide fitness. This population goes through the traditional evolutionary loop (see Section 4) until it reaches a satisfactory solution.
3.1 A Semi-Greedy Scheduler
The “scheduler” procedure is at the very heart of our algorithm and forms the basis on which much of the resulting performance is going to come from.
The role of the scheduler is to read the permutation of trains and to place them, each in turn, in the schedule while respecting all of the specified constraints. The following sections explain how constraints are checked for and how conflicts are detected and eliminated.
3.1.1 Main Loop
A train is inserted node by node. For each node, a loop goes through all the possible routes (i.e. triplets of incoming, inside and outgoing tracks). The route allowing for the earliest departure time is chosen and one moves on to the next node.
For each route, the arrival and departure times are initialised to their original, unperturbed value or, at departure time set for the previous node plus the minimum time it takes to get to the current node. The constraint checking loop then begins: for each kind of constraint in turn, one checks for violation. If it happens, what we call a conflict occurs. This conflict is solved using either method described below, a flag is raised and the loop is started again. The loop naturally goes on until no violation flag is raised.
3.1.2 Solving Conflicts
When a constraint is violated by a train being scheduled (noted below as train ), the conflict (usually with a previously scheduled train, noted below as train ) can be solved in two ways. If it is possible, moves its and variables forward in time until the violation threshold is overcome. If such a move is impossible (for example because it creates another fatal conflict), is removed from the schedule, thus solving the conflict, and placed on top of the “scheduling stack” to be re-inserted right after one is done with . The latter way is called the “kick” procedure and can be called for only a limited number of times per train in order to avoid infinite unscheduling cycles.
Three difficulties are created by using this indirect approach. The first one is that removing previously scheduled trains destructurates the permutation because the final scheduling order is not the one initially present in the permutation. This makes the optimisation process harder to understand and therefore to enhance. The second difficulty lies in the fact that not all of the permutations are feasible individuals: for some of them, a few trains cannot enter the schedule without violating constraints ; these individuals have a strongly penalized fitness and disappear early in evolution. Finally, the combination of an indirect approach and a fast semi-greedy scheduler (i.e. optimal at node level, locally, as opposed to a much slower actually greedy scheduler which would be optimal globally, at train level) only leads to suboptimal solutions which is not a major problem as the EA goal is to find excellent, not optimal, solutions very quickly. These issues are discussed extensively in .
4 The Evolutionary Algorithm
The problem for the Evolutionary Algorithm is to find an optimal permutation such that it results in an optimal schedule when fed into the scheduler. We chose to use a direct representation: permutations are straightforwardly encoded using a sequence of integers. Other representations were considered, like the Edge Representation , or the Random Keys . However, edges are here meaningless, and Random Keys would add yet another mapping step between genotype and phenotype, making it even harder to understand how the EA navigates through the search space. Additionally, beyond its simplicity in terms of implementation, direct representation is here better suited for the design of specific, intelligent operators based on expert knowledge of the problem, which is often the key to success for difficult real-world problems.
4.2 Population and Selection Scheme
A standard replacement scheme is borrowed from Evolution Strategies: a population of parents produces children using variation operators (see below). Among the set of both parents and offspring, the best individuals are chosen as the new parents for the next generation.
A smoother replacement is the so-called Evolutionary Programming Tournament (EPT): each individual virtually encounters randomly chosen opponents, and scores 1 when it is fitter than them. The highest scores are selected to become the parents of the next generation. EPT tournament turned out to be essential with layer-based initialization schemes (see below) to allow low fitness random individuals to survive the initial competition with high fitness inoculated individuals.
Finally, we use Ordered selection, which means that all members of the population are successively called to produce children in turn. This allows for a diversity preserving low selection pressure – the only selection pressure comes from the replacement procedure.
4.3 Mutation Operator
Several traditional permutation-based variation operators have been implemented, but extensive experimentation showed that using a simple, although enhanced, swap mutation (see below for details) was the best choice. Among other variation operators that have been tested are some variant of the Partially Matched Crossover (PMX ), the Uniform Order Crossover (UOX ), the Half-Swap mutation and a variety of enhancements inspired by metaheuristics (Tabu Search, Simulated Annealing, etc.). For space reasons, only the retained Swap Mutation will be detailed here.
This mutation simply consists in swapping two elements of the permutation, which means two trains exchanging their ranks in the permutation. To prevent it from being too disruptive, this swapping takes place within a restricted radius , which means the two swapped elements cannot be distant of more than permutation spots. This swapping operation can be repeated times.
Drawing an analogy from Simulated Annealing, we set the trade-off between exploration and exploitation by controlling the number of times this swap is performed by each mutation operation. This parameter (for Temperature) remains fixed during the first generations, then decreases according to the following monotonous function, which is calibrated by a 4-uple :
Additionally, and following Radcliffe and Surry , we make the choice of the number of transpositions less deterministic and narrow by drawing it as a realisation of a binomial law with mean : is still the most likely value, but neighbouring values are possible as well, and far values are not impossible. This is interesting especially late in the search when has converged to : although the search will concentrate on very local mutations, exploratory mutations nevertheless occasionally take place.
The main idea behind this new initialization heuristic comes from realizing that in this context, the evolutionary algorithm actually solves three problems at the same time :
: Moving from completely random permutations to reasonably natural ones. Scheduling trains in a completely random order makes little sense. First of all, obvious heuristics dictate natural orderings for many subsets of trains : earlier trains should be scheduled first, chains of connecting trains should be scheduled in order, important trains should come first, etc. But more importantly, the theoretical schedule, designed by real-world scheduling experts, is a nearly optimal one and benefits from a long history of day by day optimization which is reflected in the relative priorities given to certain pairs or subsets of trains, for example to access a given high-speed track. Starting from a random population, our algorithm has to rediscover all of this structure along the way (while optimizing) and come up with a set of permutations that correspond to natural schedules situated reasonably close to the theoretical, unperturbed schedule.
: Correcting initially present minor violations. This is peculiar to the problem and instance data studied here and is typical of real-world problems. It happens that the theoretical schedule does not respect all of the constraints specified in the mathematical model (two trains can, for instance, be scheduled to leave a given station a few seconds too close to each other than allowed by security regulations). Besides its job of minimizing the consequences of a perturbation, our gradual reconstruction algorithm must therefore detect and correct those small but numerous inconsistencies which can be found everywhere in the schedule both space-wise and time-wise.
: Solving the actual problem. This is the actual, real-time purpose of the algorithm: finding a permutation that produces a schedule which provides a satisfying answer to the local perturbation that just occurred while respecting all of the aforementioned constraints.
The key idea is that and can be solved beforehand because they do not depend on the particular incident instance being solved. One just needs to run the Evolutionary Algorithm once with an empty perturbation, which means solving and with a fictitious, meaningless . This results in a solution (the best individual obtained after a large number of generations) that is excellent with respect to and and that will be used as an inoculant (see below for details), or good starting point whenever a new instance of needs to be solved. This allows the algorithm to get to the point directly, and optimize efficiently without being slowed down by difficulties previously found upon and solved.
This kind of Initialization is referred to as Inoculation in the literature as introduced in [11, 12]. The pre-calculated solution around which the initial population is built is called the inoculant, noted below. The next section describes the various ways in which it can be done.
One should note that CPLEX also uses a constructive procedure to come up with a good intial solution situated close to the unperturbed schedule. Unfortunately, because of the indirect approach we take, this initial solution cannot be used as a starting point for the Evolutionary Algorihtm because we do not know how to turn it into a corresponding permutation.
5.2 Variants on How to Inoculate
We build the initial population used by the Evolutionary Algorithm by cloning and perturbing the inoculant as many times as needed. The perturbation, similarly to what the mutation does, is achieved by performing a chosen number (for perturbation Radius) of transpositions (swapping a randomly chosen pair of elements of the permutation). An inoculant perturbed times is noted below. The different initialization schemes are the following:
Mass Mutation : The population is uniformly initialized with clones of , each perturbed by transpositions (). This is the most straightforward way to inoculate. We use by default.
Gradual Perturbation : As the initial population is being built, each individual is perturbed with an increasing radius. Individual number is thus . The idea is to benefit from a large variety of possibilities ranging from close to far away from in order to get quick excellence while avoiding premature convergence. We use by default.
Layer Initialization Still in order to benefit from both the excellence of the zone close to and the diversity provided by randomness, we radicalise the previous method by cutting the initial population into layers of size (given in %), each of them being uniformly perturbed with a radius of transpositions. We actually used two schemes in turn:
Three Layers The first layer contains unperturbed clones of the inoculant, the second layer, mildly perturbed ones, and the last layer, completely random permutations.
Two Layers This scheme goes one step further toward radicalisation and gets rid of the intermediate layer in order to focus more clearly on the two sources of building blocks we are interested in: the inoculant and initial randomness.
6 Experimental Setup and Results
6.1 Easy and Difficult instances
Results reported here are obtained on a problem of size 541 (trains), on a large and complex railway network representing the suburban interconnections of a large city. It corresponds, in CPLEX terms, to 1 million variables and 3 million constraints.
Results vary greatly with respect to the perturbation instance considered. Influential factors are: the time at which the perturbation occurs, where it occurs and how long the corresponding train is delayed. We therefore compare results obtained on several such instances representing a variety of different cases. An illustrative example is instance A: it has medium/high difficulty and corresponds to a train being delayed for 10 minutes at 7am in a large node connecting suburban trains with intercity ones.
The duration of the delay (refereed to as below) is particularly important: as it grows, an instance can quickly go from very easy to very hard. Our algorithm behaves differently on easy and hard instances. An instance is classified as easy when CPLEX reaches the optimum almost immediately. To illustrate the difference, we compare results obtained on 4 pairs of instances, each of which has an easy version (B, C, D and E respectively) and a hard one obtained by increasing (resp. B’,C’,D’ and E’). All results are discussed and considered but for the sake of clarity, only the most striking and illustrative ones are charted below.
6.2 Experimental and parameter settings
All results obtained by the Evolutionary Algorithm given below are averaged out of eleven runs. Dominance or equivalence of algorithmic variants are refereed by the Wilcoxon unsigned test with a 99% confidence.
All tests are run on Pentium IV, 2GHz machines with 512MB RAM. On each instance, we independently run CPLEX for 24 hours and the Evolutionary Algorithm for 100 generations (around 2 hours). We report comparisons in terms of speed on the same machine over the first two hours of computation, which we observed as a sufficiently significant period of time.
We use a population of size parents, each producing 7 () offspring. Extensive experimentation has led to these particular values but has also shown that the algorithm is very robust with respect to these parameters. For the present set of experiments, the mutation radius is not limited ().
Table 1 details and gives convenient IDs to the various algorithmic variants described earlier and whose results are compared below. The “T” column describes the way in which the mutation strength is set during the run: is either constant or decreased as described in section 4.3 in which case a calibrating 4-uple is given; a subscript indicates the use of the binomial procedure described in Section 4.3. The “Init” column states how the initial population is built around the previously obtained inoculant using parameters described above: perturbation radius for Mass Mutation, proportions for Layers, etc.
6.3 Mass Mutation alone
We begin by the studying the most straightforward procedure: Mass Mutation () and how different perturbation strengths () can affect its efficiency. As can be seen in figure 3, is very robust from that standpoint: performance is not affected by when it lies below 20. Beyond a certain threshold however (between 20 and 50) the perturbation gets too strong and introduces too much randomness, placing the EA initially outside the feasible zone, which is reached back only after a little less than an hour.
6.4 Alternative Schemes
We proceed then to comparing the various inoculation strategies described earlier: Mass Mutation (), Gradual Perturbation (), Two Layers () and Three Layers (). Result vary across instances but the general trend is the following: 1) is better than both and , 2) and are alternatively better than one another and 3) is equivalent to . Because of this third result, confirmed with 99% confidence on all available runs by the Wilcoxon test, we do not report results below.
6.5 Varying T
This set of experiments seeks to establish whether the simulated annealing inspired decrease of the mutation strength described in Section 4.3 is useful as opposed to a constant value (usually 4) slightly randomized using a binomial law. We modify all algorithmic variants detailed above accordingly and compare them to .
The results are different on easy instances and on hard ones. As exemplified by figure 4, algorithmic variants usually perform better than on easy incidents. in particular outperforms or is equivalent to all other variants, including , on all easy incidents. Figure 4 shows one particularly striking example where is better than both and alone and far better than .
On hard instances however, as shown in figure 5, the simple with a small perturbation radius (), appears to be the best choice, as it performs significantly better than all others on several cases and not worse on the rest of the cases. and come second on this example, performing far better than , or alone. This configuration is the the one observed most often.
Overall, unless one knows in advance what kind of incident has occurred, easy or hard, it is hard to tell which, of and is the best choice. Difficult incidents being the Evolutionary Algorithm’s target of choice, both intuition and simplicity suggest to keep as the weapon of choice.
As to why such a dichotomy exist between easy and hard instances and to why particular variants are better suited than others in each case, one explanation seems to lie in the nature of the fitness landscape situated around the optimum. In easy instances, the feasible zone situated around the optimum is large and well structured. As such, it can benefit from variants such as which introduce interesting random blocks with a low risk of disruption or infeasibility and performs a wider sampling of the initial zone pointed out by the inoculant. Hard instances however have small feasible zones (many permutations lead to incomplete schedules) and a rougher landscape around their optima in the sense that small perturbations like a single short-radius transposition can make a good permutation infeasible. We argue that in such a case, a conservative, tightly focused Mass Mutation scheme has therefore better chances of success than a more exploratory variant.
6.6 Facing CPLEX
The purpose of this work, conducted under an industrial contract, is to compare the performances of Evolutionary Algorithms to those of CPLEX on a large and difficult problem with the long term objective of real-time use. In this context, the initialization procedure we introduce here is of great help as it increases the algorithm’s efficiency considerably.
Results obtained below compare CPLEX to the variant of our algorithm. CPLEX is run for 24 hours but the comparison is made over the first two, the time it takes to the Evolutionary Algorithm to make a hundred generations and to converge to a seemingly global optimum. Nothing much happens after a 100 generations, i.e. after two hours, for the evolutionary algorithms whereas CPLEX can make (and often does) brutal leaps after several hours of absence of progress. As we are ultimately aiming for real-time performance, we chose to focus on the shortest possible significant period of time, two hours here, while keeping in mind what happens for CPLEX over the next 22 hours.
On easy instances to begin with, that is on instances where CPLEX, as can be seen on figure 6 finds its best solution immediately or almost immediately, the Evolutionary Algorithm cannot hope to do any better than perfection and is, in its random initialization version, more than outperformed. Inoculation helps greatly reducing the gap, sometimes even almost suppressing it as illustrated in figure 6.
On hard instances, the picture is entirely different. The example shown in figure 7 is typical : the random initialization version is completely outperformed by CPLEX, only getting close in terms of fitness for a few minutes around the beginning of the second hour. The inoculated version however clearly outperforms CPLEX from the very beginning reaching almost optimal values very quickly (CPLEX does not go much further down over the next 22 hours). Similarly excellent results are obtained on all other incidents.
In some cases, over the considered period of two hours, as shown in figure 8, the inoculated version of the Evolutionary Algorithm is even able to reach solutions of much better quality than those obtained by CPLEX over the same period of time. In this particular case, CPLEX actually catches up only after 6 hours of computation time and goes only slightly further down.
We described a permutation-based evolutionary algorithm that efficiently solves a large and difficult real-world problem. Thanks to a Non-Random Initialization based on the Inoculation of a good starting point obtained after pre-solving part of the problem, the competition with CPLEX is won by far in most cases except when the solution is trivial and found immediately by CPLEX.
As mentioned earlier, one minute of delay on the railway network costs, everything included, around 1000 euros (1̃200 USD) . If a situation such as the one illustrated in figure 7 occurs only once a day, yearly potential savings brought by the Evolutionary Algorithm with respect to CPLEX reach several dozen million dollars.
CPLEX however, remains interesting for two reasons. First it is faster on easy instances. Second, if given enough time, it reaches better quality solution (). A good practical guideline would therefore be to use two computers and always run the EA and CPLEX in parallel. Moreover, more work on hybridizing both algorithms (see  for early efforts in that direction) would certainly be fruitful.
If more computers are available, an additional strength of the Evolutionary Algorithm can be used: parallelization. This can be done in two ways. The first one is to make several runs in parallel. All results considered for this work were averaged out of 11 runs. Inter-run variance being usually quite high, a parallel run on 11 computers would have been very profitable. Parallel runs would, additionally, allow to benefit from several parametrisations (such as and ),thus increasing the chances for a quick convergence. Ultimately, this problem will have to be solved in real-time, which means within a few minutes, almost regardless of the computational ressources needed. The second way to parallelize, which is to distribute fitness evaluations, could therefore be considered. In our case, with a replacement scheme, a 70 computers cluster would reduce the considered two hours to less than two minutes.
We gratefully acknowledge funding provided by SNCF’s Innovation and Research department under the LIPARI project. Among the SNCF I&R staff, we would like to personally thank Louis-Marie Cléon, Gilles Dessagne, Christelle Lérin, Laurent Gely and Véronique de Vulpillières.
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4 November 2004
Members considered a report recommending that the council upholds its previous decision to declare land at Compass Close, Rochester, surplus following cabinet's consideration of the matter on 19 October 2004.
The previous council decision to declare land at Compass Close, Rochester surplus, as edged black on the attached plan, be upheld and the land disposed of.
On being put to the vote, the motion was carried.
Votes by Councillor
To view the list of councillors who voted in favour or against the motion, those who abstained and those who were absent, click on the appropriate heading.

domain: law


text:
Macroscopic simulation of membrane wrinkling for various loading cases
Q. Huang, H. Hu, K. Yu, M. Potier-Ferry, S. Belouettar, and N. Damil
International Journal of Solids and Structures, vol. 64-65, pp. 246-258, 2015
The paper discusses membrane instability phenomena by a Fourier-related double scale approach that was introduced recently. This leads to a reduced-order model that is able to capture the main features of the wrinkles with few degrees of freedom. The paper focuses on the corresponding finite element procedure, its implementation and evaluation and applications to various cases of loading and boundary condition. The finite element model has first been implemented in a home-made code, the nonlinear system being solved by the Asymptotic Numerical Method (ANM), which has advantages of efficiency and reliability for stability analyses. It has also been implemented as a user element in a commercial software to evaluate the effectiveness of the reduction technique. Various loading cases were considered and the numerical tests establish that the reduced model can predict the wrinkling patterns, even when there are few wrinkles. The numerical results highlight the strong influence of a dimensionless parameter for wrinkling initiation.

domain: design


text:
Velvet Goldmine Studio is located at 38 Cheltenham Place, North Laine, Brighton, BN1 4AB, just 5 minutes walk from Brighton railway station.
From Brighton railway station – Walk straight out of the station down Queen’s Road, passing Budgen’s and Fitness First on the left. Take first left into Gloucester Road, cross the road and walk past Frederick Street and “The Pond” pub on the right, continuing down Gloucester Road all the way to the bottom. Turn right at the Basketmaker’s Arms into Cheltenham Place. Velvet Goldmine Studio is situated a hundred yards along on the left just past Colourfast printers.
By Car – There is no direct turning into Cheltenham Place coming from the north. You need to continue south on the A270 down to Grand Parade, take a left at BrewDog Pub just before the University onto Kingswood Street, take the first right turning onto William St. At the end of the road take a right onto Edward St. At the traffic lights turn right onto the Old Steine. Continue along Marlborough Place/Gloucester Place. Turn left at the North Laine Pub into Gloucester Street, then immediately turn left into Gloucester Road and left again at the Basketmaker’s Arms into Cheltenham Place. Velvet Goldmine Studio is situated a hundred yards down on the left next door to Colourfast printers.
Don’t hesitate to call us on 07949 393245 if you need travel directions.
Velvet Goldmine Studio offers two free parking spaces which is a rarity in central Brighton.

domain: geography


Dodge Repair Questions? Ask a Mechanic for Answers ASAP
Hi, my name is ***** ***** are most likely 2 different problems, do you have a test light or a volt meter? I can help you diagnose this?
ok, are with the vehicle now?
ok, do you know where the blower motor is located?
you said the blower motor does not either???
in your first question you said the abs light is on, and the fan for the heater and a/c does not work??
Different expert here.
Did the loss of cabin fan operation and abs light coming on happen at exactly the same time, or a few days or more apart?
Any actual braking issues such as brake pedal kickback on low speed braking, brakes locking up, brake pedal dropping to the floor?
Any speedometer issues?
Please remember that I am not there to test it, nor I am there to see what you have or have not tested and/or replaced. So if you state catagorically that the problem is not a faulty blower motor, you need to preface it by stating that either it was replaced or it was tested with a test light or voltmeter or 12v applied to it. This is so I know that whatever you say is good, I know it was properly tested and not simply based upon some assumption.


text:
|Nike Air Max 1
|8.9 / 10 (581 votes)
|January 20, 2023 2:23 PM
|February 21, 2024 5:14 AM
In 2023, the Nike Air Max 1 made a remarkable return, with a range of captivating colourways and designs following its hiatus from the scene. Among these is the Nike Air Max 1 ‘Sofvi’, drawing inspiration from Japanese soft vinyl toys, which are highly sought-after collector's items in Japan. Details on the shoe, such as a translucent outsole and an original shoebox design inspired by Japanese toys, all contribute to the playful theme.
The upper is white and mustard brown in colour, with white leather and translucent synthetic overlays. Chrome Swooshes adorn the sides, complemented by electric red on the leather mudguard and maroon accents on the heel branding and lacing system.
The off-white midsole showcases Nike Air Max 1 in Japanese characters on the left shoe, while retro-style prints decorate the insoles with Nike Air Max and the same text in Japanese. Intriguing sneaker design and Japanese toy inspiration combine to create a one-of-a-kind and alluring shoe.


text:
While the FBI uses drones on American soil, it only does so in rare instances and with a very small “footprint,” director Robert Mueller told a Senate committee on Wednesday.
Speaking to the judiciary committee for likely the final time, Mueller acknowledged drone use in the United States needs further debate.
“It’s very seldom used and generally used in a particular incident when you need the capability,” Mueller said, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“It is very narrowly focused on particularized cases and particularized needs.’’
He said the most recent, obvious example was from the six-day hostage taking in Alabama earlier this year.
Domestic drone use is a contentious issue, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and a small group of colleagues holding an hours-long filibuster questioning their legality.
Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union have called for increased limits and guidelines for domestic drone use.
More from GlobalPost: FBI warns cyber-attacks on par with terrorism
That, Mueller agreed, is underway.
“We are in the early stages of doing that, and I will tell you that our footprint is very small, we have very few, and have limited use. And we’re exploring not only the use, but the necessary guidelines for that use,” Mueller said, according to NBC News.
Mueller also spoke about other topics, including the investigation of the Internal Revenue Service and National Security Agency internet and cellphone monitoring.
Mueller, who is set to retire in a few weeks, defended such tactics and warned senators that the US faces increased terrorist attacks without vigilant monitoring.
“Communications are the soft underbelly of terrorist (operations),” Mueller said, according to USA Today. “If that goes dark on us, we will be sitting waiting for the next attack.”
More from GlobalPost: Obama to select James Comey as new FBI director, report says

domain: news


text:
With Smithfield, it’s so much more than food. Smithfield Foods in Smithfield, Va., the largest pork producer in the world, has been bought by Communist Chinese state-owned enterprise Shuanghui Group. Anytime Favorites, frozen breakfast sausage and pre-marinated pork tenderloins are our newest solutions for today’s busy lifestyles. Wan joined Henan Luohe Meat Products Processing United Factory — then a state-owned entity — in 1968, and eventually grew the business into WH Group. Profiling the world's richest and their businesses. What we didn’t hear were the details, warnings or implications of this record-breaking transfer of US assets to the Peoples Republic of China. The first signs of trouble emerged at Smithfield Food on April 9, when it announced that it would suspend operations at its Sioux Falls facility for three days. What we didn’t hear were the details, warnings or implications of this record-breaking transfer of […] Celebrating life and meaningful occasions is at the heart of our commitment to quality and the promise of premium flavor. June 9, 2013 Share Complete List of Smithfield Foods Subsidiaries and Brands June 9, 2013. Our legendary hams continue to be highly anticipated holiday traditions. EY & Citi On The Importance Of Resilience And Innovation, Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing For Change, Michigan Economic Development Corporation BrandVoice. The total cluster of 733 cases makes up more than half of the state’s total coronavirus cases, which stands at 1,311, according to the South Dakota Department of Health. Wan Long, who at age 80 is chairman and CEO of WH Group, is the firm's largest individual shareholder with a roughly 16% stake; Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.9 billion. South Dakota is one of the few states that has not instituted a shelter-in-place order, a decision that Governor Kristi Noem defended. Smithfield. We’re proud of where we came from — the place flavor calls home. About Smithfield & Smithfield Foods, Inc. California Transparency in Supply Chains Act Disclosure. Below we answer a few of the most frequently asked questions related to the acquisition and our ownership. Smithfield Foods, makers of ham products under a variety of brand names, is being purchased by Chinese food maker Shuanghui International, for $4.72 billion in cash. Smithfield Foods is a U.S. company that provides more than 40,000 American jobs and partners with thousands of American farmers. You may opt-out by, Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork processor and hog producer, has been making headlines for shutting down plants in three states after a rash of coronavirus cases hit its Sioux Falls, South Dakota operation. Some are shocked that 'China would own our Smithfield,' said Carolyn Burke, a longtime resident who owns the eatery. Amid the COVID-19 outbreak, our subsidiary Smithfield has been adopting a series of stringent and detailed processes and protocols," a spokesperson from WH Group said in a statement. Below we answer a few of the most frequently asked questions related to the acquisition and our ownership. They are a critical infrastructure business. , who took a small Chinese state-owned meat processing plant and expanded it into a multinational company with more than $24 billion in annual sales. “Let's be perfectly clear: a shelter-in-place order would NOT have prevented Smithfield from happening. The authentic way. Using a unique curing process and handcrafted approach, they produced the “Genuine Smithfield Ham” which soon won worldwide acclaim as the centerpiece of holiday meals and other special occasions. We all heard the brief media sound bites last week announcing the sale of America’s largest meat producer, Smithfield Foods, to a Chinese corporation. Smithfield Foods, Inc., is a pork producer and food-processing company based in Smithfield, Virginia, in the United States, and a wholly owned subsidiary of WH Group of China. “As a leading global food and protein company, WH Group is committed to continuously providing safe, nutritious and delicious food to its consumers. Founded in 1936 as the Smithfield Packing Company by Joseph W. Luter and his son, the company is the largest pig and pork producer in the world. The plant, which employs 3,700 people, produces nearly 130 million servings of food per week and accounts for as much as 5% of total U.S. pork production. After all, a hectic world is even more reason why families deserve the flavor of Smithfield. by Christian Gomez In addition, we have an impressive portfolio of products that include bacon, pork loins, pork chops, ham steaks, ground pork, sausage, lunchmeat and more. that she has been in communication with Vice President Mike Pence and Smithfield’s CEO, and a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has arrived to help assess the situation. (Photo by Nora Tam/South China Morning Post via Getty ... [+] Images). Complete List of Smithfield Foods Subsidiaries and Brands. Less well known: its Chinese billionaire owner Wan Long, who took a small Chinese state-owned meat processing plant and expanded it into a multinational company with more than $24 billion in annual sales. June 9, 2013. Less well known: its Chinese billionaire owner. In addition to owning over 500 farms in the US, Smithfield contracts with another 2,000 independent farms around the country to grow Smithfield's pigs. Smithfield Foods was sold to a Chinese company in 2013, but China won't be slaughtering and processing hogs raised in the U.S. and shipping them back to America. Now, the owner of Nathan's Famous hot dogs and Cook's ham is scrambling to contain one of the largest coronavirus hot spots in the U.S. As of Thursday, 598 Smithfield employees in South Dakota’s Minnehaha County have tested positive for COVID-19, as have 135 people who were not employed by Smithfield but were in close contact with its employees. They are a critical infrastructure business. Smithfield Foods was sold to a Chinese company in 2013, but China won't be slaughtering and processing hogs raised in the U.S. and shipping them back to America. “Let's be perfectly clear: a shelter-in-place order would NOT have prevented Smithfield from happening. Wan joined Henan Luohe Meat Products Processing United Factory — then a state-owned entity — in 1968, and eventually grew the business into WH Group.
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domain: food


Donald Hugh “Don” Henley an American rock artiste was born on 22nd July, 1947 in Gilmer, Texas. Don Henley is drummer, lead singer and also songwriters of the gang eagles. Don Henley has had a victorious solo performer and has played an origin performance in several political and environmental causes.
Don Henley was a son of a simple school teacher, along with “auto-parts salesman-farmer.” Don Henley nley grew up snooping to country melody and afterward passed six years performing in a group that had created according school days. Don Henley participated in Linda Ronstadt endorsement band along with some basis, the Eagles arose. Don Henley had a great love for high quality literature and also had a desire for ruling the right vocabulary in words. Don Henley described the rational power of nation music on Eagles this manner: "I was in a big Emerson and Thoreau frenzy [after college], living that Sixties idyllic flower-child kind of life from a rural perspective ... rediscovering that whole American agrarian myth." In 1970, California had the savor of West concerning it and Don Henley was achieving of bushy-haired musical group who preferred rock and roll. . "It seemed the logical place to go," Don Henley said, and the Eagles did, launching career successful with 7 award winning albums
Don Henley moved from Texas, to Los Angeles in 1970 to trace an album with his ultimately band, Shiloh. The band Shiloh was sponsored by researcher Texan Kenny Rogers, and then blushes with currency from his band “The First Edition”. Later Don Henley met Glenn Frey throughout Amos Records in Los Angeles. Don Henley and Glenn Frey became the component of Linda Ronstadt’s support band and after two months it became the Eagles.
The album the Eagles shaped in 1971in Los Angeles as four musical bands from diverse locales and backgrounds. It contained the best collection of songs “Take It Easy” The drummer Don Henley had traveled west from Texas with his groups, Shiloh. A guitarist Frey was a shocker from Detroit who moved to Los Angeles, where Don Henley met a colleague musician John David Southern and Jackson Browne. Bernie Leaden plays a diversity of stringed gadgets, showed off blue grass surroundings. Don Henley belonged to the Flying Burrito brothers. A harmony singer Randy Meisner and Bassist participated with such states- and folk-rock supports as James Taylor, Poco and Rick Nelson. After on tour jointly in 1971 as component of the band of Linda Ronstadt, they departed on their hold and were sharpen the collection of songs that emerged on their unveiling album- Eagles.
Don Henley sang main vocals on lots of of the popular song of the band, including ‘The Best of My Love’, ‘Desperado’, Hotel California’, ‘Get Over It’ and ‘The Long Run’. This album has got Grammy Awards and has become the most flourishing rock band. Their best hits (1971-1975) are considered the best advertising album in top 15 American best advertising of every time.
The band divided in 1980 subsequent a tricky tour and amplified personal tensions ensuing from the demo of “The Long Run”.
The Eagles came together in 1994. Don Henley carried on to excursion and evidence with the Eagles, with a latest album, “Long Road Out of Eden”, released last year 2007.
After the break up of the album The Eagles, Don Henley got on a prolific solo career. In 1982, Don Henley first singly releases “I Can’t Stand Still”, was the modest vendor. The song ‘Dirty Laundry’ a censure of local TV reports, established mainly airplay. Don Henley and his former lover, Steve Nicks, would duo on her poster Hot 100 and No.6 hit ‘Leather and Lace’ same year.
In 2000, Don Henley released another single studio recording, “Inside Job”, including the lead solitary Taking You Home’. This album did not get the marketable success of his two former releases.
Don Henley’s fresh soundtrack is a duo with Kenny Rogers on Roger’2006 release “Water & Bridges” and titles “Calling Me”.
Don Henley will be set up On Reba McEntire’s duets albums which has released on 18th September 2007.
Three Songs by Don Henley that Touched my Soul
"The Heart Of The Matter
"The Last Worthless Evening"
"A Month Of Sundays"
"I Can't Stand Still" (1982) #24 US, US Sales: 500,000
"Building the Perfect Beast" (1984) #13 US, #14 UK, US Sales: 3,000,000
"The End of the Innocence" (1989) #8 US, #17 UK, US Sales: 5,000,000
"Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits" (1995) #48 US, US Sales: 1,000,000
"Inside Job" (2000) #7 US, #25 UK, US Sales: 1,000,000
1998 Inducted into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame
1989 Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance - Don Henley: END OF INNOCENCE, THE
1985 Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance - Don Henley: BOYS OF SUMMER, THE
1979 Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Group - the Eagles: HEARTACHE TONIGHT
1977 Grammy Award for Record of the Year - the Eagles: HOTEL CALIFORNIA
1977 Grammy Award for Best Arrangement for Voices - the Eagles: NEW KID IN TOWN
1975 Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Group - the Eagles: LYIN’ EYES
|AFTER THE THRILL IS GONE||LILAH|
|ANNABEL||LITTLE TIN GOD|
|BEST OF MY LOVE, THE||LIVIN’ IT UP|
|BOYS OF SUMMER, THE||LONG RUN|
|BUILDING THE PERFECT BEAST||LONG WAY HOME|
|CERTAIN KIND OF FOOL||LOVE RULES|
|DAMN IT ROSE||LYIN’ EYES|
|DESPERADO||MAN WITH A MISSION|
|DIRTY LAUNDRY||MISS GHOST|
|DISCO STRANGLER||MONTH OF SUNDAYS, A|
|DOOLIN’ DALTON||MY THANKSGIVING|
|DRIVIN’ WITH YOUR EYES COSED||NEW KID IN TOWN|
|END OF INNOCENCE, THE||NEW YORK MINUTE|
|EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT NOW||NOBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD BUT YOU|
|FALLING DOWN||NOBODY’S BUSINESS|
|FUNKY NEW YEAR||NOT ENOUGH LOVE IN THE WORLD|
|GARDEN OF ALLAH, THE||ON THE BORDER|
|GENIE||ONE OF THESE NIGHTS|
|GET OVER IT||OUT OF CONTROL|
|GIMMIE WHAT YOU GOT||SAD CAF?â, THE|
|GOOD DAY IN HELL||SATURDAY NIGHT|
|GOODBYE TO A RIVER||SHANGRI LA|
|GREEKS DON’T WANT NO FREAKS||SHE’S ON THE ZOOM|
|HEART OF THE MATTER, THE||SUNSET GRILL|
|HEARTACHE TONIGHT||TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT|
|HOLLYWOOD WALTZ||TAKING YOU HOME|
|HOTEL CALIFORNIA||TALKING TO THE MOON|
|HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT||TEENAGE JAIL|
|HUMAN CONDITION||TEQUILLA SUNRISE|
|I CAN’T STAND STILL||THEM AND US|
|I CAN’T TELL YOU WHY||THEY’RE NOT HERE, THEY’RE NOT COMING|
|I WILL NOT GO QUIETLY||THOSE SHOES|
|IF DIRT WERE DOLLARS||TOO MUCH DRAMA|
|INSIDE JOB||UNCLOUDED DAY, THE|
|JAMES DEAN||VICTIM OF LOVE|
|JENNIFER O’ MY LADY||VISIONS|
|JOHNNY CAN’T READ||WASTED TIME|
|KING OF HOLLYWOOD||WHO OWNS THIS PLACE|
|LAND OF THE LIVING||WITCHY WOMAN|
|LAST RESORT||WORKIN’ IT|
|LAST WORTHLESS EVENING, THE||YOU CAN’T MAKE LOVE|
|LEARN TO BE STILL||YOU DON’T KNOW ME AT ALL|
|LIFE IN THE FAST LANE||YOU NEVER CRY LIKE A LOVER|
“'I could stand out front and sing Eagles songs that I sing in my set, but I think people enjoy watching me sing and play the drums. It seems to fascinate people. I don't know why.”


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Lubriphonic ... CD
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text:
Chanakya's Chant is a thrilling novel that tells its listeners about a sharp parallel story between two individuals. One of these individuals is the very person who brought the scattered Indian subcontinent under the reign of Chandragupta Maurya-Chanakya. Chanakya is one of the wisest political strategists to have ever lived in the history of India. The second protagonist is Gangasagar Mishra, who is a rather insignificant Brahmin teacher who seems to be struggling to make ends meet but is actually a reincarnation of Chanakya himself.
The author gives you an intricately woven plot that is set in two parallel worlds but is tied together by its two protagonists, namely Chanakya and Gangasagar. Chanakya's tale, set in 340 BC, is a tale of revenge that Chanakya seeks against the king and how he brings in Chandragupta Maurya to take over the throne. The second tale, based in modern-day India, is that of Gangasagar grooming a young girl from Kanpur to eventually become the prime minister of India.
Will Chanakya's ingenious ways bring about a drastic turn in the events of the nation? This captivating book answers just that through its exploration of Chanakya's ingenious and calculated moves that have altered the course of events in the past.
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4 for the Nerrator
Already recommended and few are already listening
beautiful way of comparing the Past and present day politics
5 For narration with humurous tone at applicable
5 For making me listen again and again and again and ..............again
3 for pronunciation of Indian terms and Shlokas and the Indian names (ex: Sharangrao pronunced as "Sharangro")
I felt his voice may not be apt during the prologue however, he made me to hear time and again and pulled it off beautifully
1. Debate between Chandni and Jeff
2. The Thug Home Minister Ikram- First shoot then ask
3. Every chapters from Chanakya's time
I would rather rated 10 of 5 for offering such a book especially to Indians..
MUST MUST MUST READ and LISTEN and Transform
The brilliance of Mr Sanghi.
Not what I expected
- Amazon Customer

domain: literature


Top 5 Tips For Recording Perfect Vocals
Are you just starting to delve into the perplexing world of recording vocals?
Do you want to learn how to record vocals that sound professional?
Although a lot of recording can be trial and error and personal preference, there are some techniques that I feel will help you get off to a good start.
I’ve compiled a list of vocal recording tips that I’ve learned over the years that I think will be the most useful to you.
I’m going to assume you’ve got the basics covered like microphone choice, stand, computer, DAW, interface and an acoustically treated room or reflection filter.
My Top 5 Tips For Recording Vocals
- Set up your microphone and stand correctly
- Learn where to position your microphone
- Be careful of the proximity effect
- Resolve sibilance
- Take steps to limit plosives
A Bit About Me…
I’ve been a professional session singer for 10 years now, recording vocals via my online session singer service from my studio here in North Devon. I studied recording at university and record my voice daily for hundreds of clients all around the world.
Do you want to know how these things will impact your vocal recordings?
Let’s talk about them in more detail…
Set up your mic and stand correctly
I know, it sounds easy doesn’t it!?
I think it’s still worth talking about briefly, it’s easy to skim over and it’s easy to knock a mic stand without realising until you listen back, at which point it could be too late.
You don’t want any unwanted low frequency rumbles ending up on your vocal recordings.
No matter how hard I try I always seem to tap my foot when I’m singing!
Even if the vocalist manages not to touch the microphone or stand, they are bound to shift their weight a little.
It’s worthwhile putting a bit of work into minimising unwanted vibrations before they potentially travel up and hit the microphone, especially if you have wooden floors.
Here are a couple of things you can do…
Use A Shock Mount
What is a shock mount?
A shock mount is a cradle made of rubber bands that the microphone sits in. It creates acoustic isolation between the microphone and the stand, minimising any vibrations like my annoying foot tapping before they reach the microphone.
A lot of Condenser microphones come with shock mount’s but some don’t. If yours doesn’t have one you’ll need to buy one specifically for your microphone, you can’t buy a generic shock mount.
What else can you do to minimise unwanted low end rumbles?
Use Rubber Pads On Mic Stand
For the same reason as using a shock mount, you’ll want to make sure your microphone stand has rubber pads on the feet.
Most microphone stands have them already but if they don’t, they’re super cheap.
You can pick them up for 35p on Thomann.
There are many homemade alternatives. Even a rug would be better than having your mic stand stood directly on a hard surface.
Anything that creates isolation between the floor and the bottom of the mic stand is a winner.
Here’s A Tip…
You can check you’re not picking up any floor vibrations by setting up your microphone like you would before recording, turning the gain right up, popping on your headphones and walking around the microphone to see if you can hear any floor noises.
Is there anything else you need to bear in mind when setting up your microphone and stand?
Just one more thing …
Lastly, check that your stand is nice and sturdy. Sometimes they can get a bit heavy and wobbly by the time you’ve put on a microphone, a pop shield and a reflection filter.
That should be everything about setting up your microphone and stand covered.
Onto the next recording technique…
Learn Where To Position The Microphone
How far away should you position the microphone from the singer?
The general consensus is 8-18 inches and that’s what I work to most of the time but it does depend on the singer.
Here are some factors to take into consideration…
How experienced the vocalist is
Experienced vocalists will know when to back off the microphone and when to pull in close without damaging the quality of the vocal recording. They know how to control their volume and avoid any unwanted plosives or sibilance (more on those in a bit).
If you’re working with an inexperienced singer, get them to back off the mic and stay at least 8 inches away. This is going to give you the most consistent vocal recordings.
A singer with bad microphone technique getting right up to the mic is, in my opinion, a recipe for everything you don’t want on your vocal recordings.
The Style Of Song You’re Recording
I’ve found that vocals for some songs can work really well recorded up close, taking full advantage of the proximity effect.
Usually, these are intimate, slower songs with sparse instrumentation. Singing closer than 6 inches to the microphone for a belting, busy song can end you up with A muddy mix.
The Tone Of The Singer
A singer with a big, belting, powerful voice is going to need to be further back from the microphone than a singer who has a timid or weak voice.
Now that we’ve considered the pros and cons to close and distant miking I’d like to talk about the next technique that’s going to help perfect your vocal recordings…
Be Careful Of The Proximity Effect
What is the Proximity effect?
The closer the sound source (in this case the singer) is to the mic, the more sensitive it is to low end frequencies.
This can result in a bass boost of up to 16dB, depending on the microphone.
It can be tempting when recording vocals to get as close to the microphone as possible to counteract any room noise.
I would suggest acoustically treating your room or using a reflection filter if room noise is the only reason you’re close miking.
Close miking is a cheap fix for room noise.
Why Would You Use The Proximity Effect?
It can create a warm, intimate sound if used correctly.
What Is The Downside To The Proximity Effect?
It can create a boomy vocal that can be impossible to mix.
On a small side note, here’s an interesting point…
Different microphone pickup patterns will make the proximity effect more noticeable.
A figure-8 pickup pattern will have roughly double the proximity effect of a cardioid and an omnidirectional will have no proximity effect.
How Can You Minimise The Proximity Effect?
Simply put, you can get your vocalist to back off the mic! The proximity effect really only starts at around 10 inches or closer to the mic.
Angling the microphone off-axis will also reduce the effect.
Is There Anything I Can Do To Stop The Proximity Effect?
Yes, you can use a microphone with an omnidirectional pickup pattern. Omnidirectional microphones don’t have any proximity effect.
Condenser microphones with a switch to change the pickup pattern to omnidirectional will still be affected by proximity because of the way the microphone is built.
From personal experience, getting closer to the microphone for a warmer, more intimate sound can work better on tracks with sparse instrumentation.
Although some low end warmth might sound great on an isolated vocal, once you add other instruments with low frequencies (especially if they have been close miked too) the mix can start to sound muddy.
In a nutshell…
Use, don’t abuse the proximity effect.
Let’s talk about the next tip for recording vocals…
What is sibilance in recording?
The consonants ‘s’ ‘z’ and ‘t’ are created by breath passing between your tongue or teeth.
(if you put your hand in front of your mouth while making these sounds you can feel little puffs of air).
Sibilance is a natural part of the human voice but it can cause some issues when recording vocals.
A sensitive condenser microphone will pick up on these sounds and exaggerate them, creating unwanted high frequency hisses.
So, what can you do to help sibilance?
Don’t Get Too Close To The Microphone
The closer the vocalist is, the more sibilant your recording will be.
Tilt The Microphone Off-Axis
Turning the microphone slightly off axis will change the way the high end frequencies are received. Tilting it to the left, to the right or facing down can help.
Other Fixes For Sibilance
I’ve heard of recording engineers fixing a pencil to the middle of the microphone vertically with an elastic band. I’ve also heard of singers putting a piece of chewing gum on the roof of their mouth.
I have no experience in using either of these techniques so I have no idea if they work!
All in all, using the above techniques, there should be no reason why you’re still ending up with sibilance on your vocal recordings.
Similar to sibilant consonants, plosives are also produced by puffs of air.
Let’s talk about them a bit more …
The consonants that make a plosive sound are mostly ‘b’ and ‘p’.
Rather than creating a high frequency hiss like a sibilant sound, they create a pop or thump.
If you use the hand in front of your mouth test again, you’ll feel the puffs of air, this time a little more vigorous.
So, how can you stop plosives on your vocal recordings?
Use A Pop Shield
A pop shield is a piece of mesh spread over a wire hoop that sits in front of the microphone. You can pick them up reasonably cheaply.
On a side note, l’ve found that I prefer to use a pop shield than the foam covers you get with some microphones, the ones that go over the top. They seem to cut out a lot of the top end frequencies in my opinion.
Don’t Get Too Close To The Microphone
Yet another reason to ask the vocalist to stay at least 6 inches away from the microphone.
Move The Microphone
Try moving the microphone up, level with the singers forehead rather than their mouth, this way the microphone isn’t taking the full brunt of the plosive blast.
If you’re working with an experienced vocalist they may well automatically tilt their head to the side on plosive consonants.
Something I have learned to do as a professional vocalist is modify the consonant so that it isn’t such an aggressive expel of air. This is done with breath control and having control over the position of your tongue and lips. Probably not something you can teach an inexperienced vocalist in a time limited studio environment.
I think that covers most of the ways you can help control plosives from ending up on your vocal recordings.
To Sum Up…
Hopefully this article has helped you to understand a little bit more about how to;
Set up your microphone and stand correctly,
The pros and cons to close and distant miking,
What the proximity effect is and how to use, not abuse it
And how to work around plosives and sibilance.
These recording techniques I’ve talked about are really just the tip of the iceberg, not a comprehensive guide to recording vocals.
They are the tips I would find the most helpful if I was just starting out on my recording venture.
Hopefully they go some way to helping you perfect your vocal recordings.
I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments below.
Lastly, if you’re interested in having your vocals recorded professionally, I’d love you to check out more about my online session singer service. I offer professionally recorded vocals for one fixed price with as many alterations as you need. Get in touch for a free sample or to talk about your recording project.


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I've just purchased a Samsung UN46C8000XF LED television.
I've got a couple of speakers mounted in the ceiling with cabling down to the TV location with banana jacks.
I want to exit out of the TV using one of the audio outputs:
1 Optical Digital Audio Output
1 Audio Output (Mini Jack)
I'm looking for a small amplifier (10, 20, 30watts) that will use one of the audio outputs from the TV.
That's all i want to do, just power a couple of light-weight 10" speakers. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks in advance for any help.

domain: entertainment


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Open to the public from 23rd November 2023 onwards, the new facility continues the company’s promise to fast-track adoption of electric mobility, and give customers a chance to experience sustainable driving experiences, all through the incredible new space in one of the UAE’s prime retail destinations.
The showroom, which covers approximately 800 square meters, is designed by the renowned STUDIO KKD. It stands as a testament to BYD and Al-Futtaim Electric Mobility’s commitment to environmental sustainability, repurposing an existing building to minimize its carbon footprint. This strategic choice of location, with direct mall access, is designed to attract a wide range of customers, from casual mall-goers to car enthusiasts.
Reflecting BYD’s global design language, the showroom’s aesthetic is a blend of clean whites, greys, and warm timber accents. The space is architecturally crafted around a conical skylight that is not only a visual focal point but also bathes the interior in diffused natural light during the day, while at night, it is lit by energy-efficient feature lighting. This thoughtful design ensures that customers can view all five models on display in an inviting and exciting environment.
Hasan Nergiz, Managing Director of Al-Futtaim Electric Mobility Company, commented, “The launch of this state-of-the-art space marks a significant milestone in our journey with BYD, a partner that plays a crucial role in our mission to accelerate the green transition in the UAE. This facility is not just a showroom; it’s a Discovery Center signifying our commitment to sustainable mobility solutions and our platform to bring the power of electric mobility to a much wider audience, in one of the city’s most central and popular locations.
“With Al-Futtaim Group being announced as the Strategic E-Mobility Partner of COP28, our focus is now more than ever on driving sustainable mobility experiences. The showroom is an embodiment of this goal; from the time we started envisioning the flagship showroom, our mission was to create a purposeful and sustainable space that educates visitors on the technology behind electric vehicles through various physical and digital proprietary assets. We wanted to minimise the environmental footprint of the showroom, right from the materials we source to the design and fittings that maximise energy conservation, while ensuring we minimise wastage across the operations.”
Among the showroom’s unique features is a 6-meter-high curved perimeter display that showcases an exhibition-style vertical chassis frame. Digital information screens are strategically placed to educate customers on the unique features of each model. The warmth of the space is further enhanced by a timber-paneled accessories wall and a cozy lounge café, where customers can relax and converse. In addition, the private, glazed meeting rooms and a separate handover bay ensure a bespoke experience for every customer.
AD Huang, General Manager of BYD Middle East & Africa, stated, “This showroom is a tangible representation of BYD’s philosophy of innovative technology harmonized with environmental responsibility. Our partnership with Al-Futtaim Electric Mobility Company has enabled us to create a space that not only showcases our latest electric vehicles but also educates and inspires customers about the future of sustainable mobility.”
In line with BYD’s clean energy philosophy, the showroom extensively utilizes locally sourced materials. This focus on sustainability is a crucial aspect of BYD’s mission, emphasizing the brand’s dedication to reducing environmental impact and aligning with the increasing global demand for eco-friendly practices.
This innovative showroom is more than a retail space; it represents BYD and Al-Futtaim Group’s dedication to innovation, customer experience, and sustainability. BYD stands at the forefront of the electric vehicle industry, leading with innovative designs and sustainable solutions, while Al-Futtaim Group, known for its leadership in the automotive, retail, and real estate sectors in the Middle East, is a perfect partner in this venture, sharing BYD’s vision for a sustainable future.
As one of the Middle East’s largest diversified business conglomerates and a major stakeholder in the region’s automotive sector, Al-Futtaim Group has been named the Strategic E-Mobility Partner of the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), taking place from 30 November to 12 December 2023, at Expo City Dubai. Al-Futtaim Group’s participation in the historic global gathering at COP28 is a significant testament to its dynamic leadership across core economic sectors in the UAE and the group’s long-standing commitment to sustainability.
Al-Futtaim Automotive, one of the major divisions of the Al-Futtaim Group, has an ambition to deliver 50% new energy vehicles (NEVs) and install 10% of the charging stations in the UAE by 2030.
As part of the strategic partnership, Al-Futtaim Group will deliver a fleet of 370 electrified passenger cars, sports utility vehicles (SUV), and buses to be utilised for COP28, including a fleet of BYD all-electric cars. The company will install its own Charge2Moov electric charging stations for the event.


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I remember when cronuts (the croissant/donut hybrid) started to get really popular in New York and beyond. It took forever for it to hit the Chicago area where I am. But when they did, I knew I had to avoid them or I’d make them my new hobby. The eating donut hobby of my dreams.
They’re super similar to my absolute favorite kind of donut, the French cruller. Light, flaky, and usually smothered in a sugary glaze. Cover me in glaze and call me Sally.
Making real cronuts is no joke. It can literally take days depending on if you make the pastry yourself. We’re going to take a HUGE shortcut and use pre-made puff pastry. If you’ve been here before, you know I do that a lot. Here are a few ways I’ve used puff pastry in the past:
I took this puff pastry cronuts recipe in a slightly different direction than others have by layering some cinnamon sugar in between the pastry layers before frying. You can add your own fillers or glazes as you like! Go wild.
This was actually my first time deep frying a dessert, if you can believe it. I’ve definitely fried up some chicken in the past, but desserts have always been baked for me so far. Even all of my previous donuts were baked:
Snag yourself a good candy/meat thermometer to make this even easier.
Check out the bonus cronut holes that are just as easy and cute.
Smiley face cronuts!
Yep, I cooked the scraps. Wanna fight about it? 😉
Would you try these easy puff pastry cronuts for yourself? Let me know if you try it!
Want more recipes in your life? Sign up to receive recipes via email and follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Bloglovin, and RSS for all of the latest updates.
- 2 sheets puff pastry, defrosted but still chilled
- All-purpose four, for rolling
- 1 quart vegetable oil
- 1 egg, whisked
- 1/4 cup sugar or sugar substitute
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
- Take the defrosted sheets of puff pastry, still folded from the box, and lightly dust with flour on both sides. Using a pastry brush, brush the face up layer with some of the beaten egg.
- Unfold the pastry and brush egg on each inner layer and sprinkle slightly with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Fold over each layer in thirds so it's in the same form it started. Repeat with the second sheet of pastry.
- Freeze the pastry for about 10-15 minutes.
- Over medium-high heat, heat the vegetable oil up to 350F.
- Take the dough out of the freezer, and with a 3-inch cookie cutter, cut circles out of each folded sheet. Take a 1-inch cookie cutter and cut little holes out of each circle. Feel free to make donut holes out of the small circles.
- Put the donuts 2-3 at a time in the oil, cooking for 3-5 minutes, then flipping to cook the other side for another 1-2 minutes. They should be a golden brown all over and puffed up. Drain on a paper towel and fry the rest of the cronuts.
- After letting the cronuts cool for just a moment, roll them gently in the rest of the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat.
If you make this recipe, share a photo and hashtag it #BIJOUXANDBITS. I’d love to see what you’re cooking!
Recipe adapted from Brown Sugar.
Dalila G. says
This is one way to get some homemade cronuts, NONE sold here. 🙁
I plan on trying your way soon, I happen to adore donuts, a fav treat of mine, along with cupcakes, my two favorite sweet-treats.
I believe I have more favs, but for now picking two….LOL!!
I do have some puff pastry in my freezer, a sale last week at the local grocers plus a coupon, yep, I’m a coupon clipper. *^_^*
I’ll let you know how they turn out.
I’m with you — sweets of all kinds are the best! I hope these work out for you! 🙂
Would the butter from the puff pastry not just leach out into the oil.
I think the oil would go rancid extremely fast f you did more than one batch , all that burnt butter in the oil would create some issues and smells. Please explain as I want to to make these commercially to sell at fairs for our school fundraiser.
For larger commercial sales, I can’t really know either way how it will scale, but I’ve made a few batches at one time and haven’t had any issues with rancid oil or weird smells at all. I’d suggest doing a trial run to see if you have any problems. I know frying puff pastry dough is pretty common in small batches, so it may just be a bit uncharted territory. Best of luck!!
Kathy Kelly says
I love this recipe. Its quick easy and delicious. I even mixed some powdered sugar and crushed walnuts with a little water to make a glaze.
That sounds amazing!! Thanks for trying it! 🙂
Susan Linton says
I am in the UK and puff pastry tends to come in a lump about 6 x 6″ and 3/4 inch thick, how thick should these be per layer and how many layers? I assume I would egg/sugar/cinnamon between the layers then use the cutter. This sounds like a great little recipe for quick and easy Sunday yumminess and uses up the leftover pastry I have sat in the freezer, not enough for a pie topping..
Kristin koss says
I would like like to make these hole after adding the cinnamon and sugar at the End cooling and filling it with raspberry jam that would be really good. Thanks


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domain: medical


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Our matriarch Sarah afflicted and chastised Hagar to put her in her place * Only when she understood there was no more chance of Hagar and Ishmael changing their ways, did she request banishing them * The divine decree to banish the handmaid and her son, is also when it is not pleasant * The more we contributed to the prosperity of our Arab neighbors, the sons of Ishmael, the more their war against us intensified * We are commanded to examine whether and how we can encourage the emigration of our enemies from our land * If we do not succeed in removing our enemies from all our land, we will have to suffer
The Good Intention, and the Imperfections
The original intention was very good. Seeing that God had restrained her womb, our matriarch Sarah nobly decided to give her good handmaid to Abraham. It was kindness to Abraham to merit a son after so many years, and tremendous kindness to her handmaid Hagar, to connect with the righteous, esteemed Abraham. Her children would cling to the great vision that Abraham and Sarah established in the world. Sarah was certain Hagar, who had until now accepted her leadership with humility and love, would continue recognizing her superiority, and the child born to her would be raised on Sarah’s knees. And due to her generosity, God would hasten her redemption, and perhaps also grant her a son. Hagar’s son would join her son fulfilling the great vision they established in the world, recognizing the primacy of the son born to Sarah.
But immediately after Hagar conceived, “her mistress was lowered in her esteem” (Genesis 16:4). She no longer served Sarah as before, and in her heart, she also stopped respecting her, saying: “This Sarah, her conduct in secret is not like her conduct in public. She shows herself as if she is a righteous woman, but she is not a righteous woman, for she did not merit to conceive all these years, whereas I have conceived from the first union” (Rashi, Genesis 16:4).
Similarly, many years later, the Muslims viewed the Temple’s destruction and Israel’s exile as proof God annulled His covenant with Israel, and their victories, as proof they replaced Israel as Abraham’s heirs.
Our Matriarch Sarah’s Initial Reaction
Our matriarch Sarah afflicted and chastised Hagar, to put her in her place. Ramban (Nachmanides) and Radak hold she did not behave properly in this matter. However, the righteous Sarah still hoped that afflicting the handmaid would make Hagar understand her place, and things would return to how they were beforehand. But Hagar no longer agreed to accept her authority, and fled the home. Only after an angel of God told her “Return to your mistress, and be afflicted under her hand” (Genesis 16:9), did she lower her head, accept Sarah’s authority, give birth to Ishmael, and raised him on her master Abraham and Sarah’s knees.
Even after Isaac was born, it still seemed Hagar accepted Isaac the mistress’s son’s primacy. But when Isaac became a child, Ishmael began mocking him. If Isaac strived to grow in righteousness, he, Ishmael, would pave another path. Some say Ishmael began lusting after idol worship and licentiousness. Others say he played with Isaac in life-threatening games, revealing his inner desire to murderously hate him for taking his place. And people would say: ‘Look at Abraham the Hebrew, who always preached to us to beware of robbery, licentiousness and murder – behold, his son Ishmael, is a wild man!’ (See Bereishit Rabbah 53:11).
The Decision to Banish
Then, our matriarch Sarah understood there was no more chance of Hagar and Ishmael changing their ways. Hagar’s return home and acceptance of authority was only external. Indeed, Hagar forgot the kindness of giving her a husband, and in her heart, believed she would inherit her mistress, with her son Ishmael becoming Abraham’s successor. This is apparently also why Ishmael was becoming more degenerate. If they remained in the home, Abraham and Sarah’s great vision of building a family and nation that would fix the world, could be dashed. “And she said to Abraham banish this handmaid and her son, for the son of this handmaid shall not share in the inheritance with my son Isaac” (Genesis 21:10).
This was very hard for our patriarch Abraham. He, who all his life lovingly drew near the distant, was now demanded to banish his beloved son. “And God said to Abraham: Do not be distressed over the boy or your handmaid; whatever Sarah tells you, do as she says, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be continued for you” (ibid. 21:12). As if, even to Abraham our patriarch, God had to state that although Ishmael is important, and will become a nation, nonetheless “through Isaac that offspring shall be continued for you.” He will continue you, not Ishmael.
The Painful, Yet Justified Banishment
If Hagar and Ishmael had separated agreeably, recognizing it is good for them to build their future elsewhere, the banishment would have been easy, and the pangs of conscience somewhat calmed. But apparently beforehand, Ishmael had already spoiled things, become unrestrained, wicked, and degenerate, to the point where Abraham could not send him from his home respectably with gifts, as he desired. Hagar and Ishmael were banished in shame (see Shemot Rabbah 1:1). Not only that, but despite Abraham guiding them on their way, they wandered in the desert, and Ishmael became deathly ill from thirst, until miraculously saved.
This is no condemnation of our matriarch Sarah, or patriarch Abraham. It is a fact that on Rosh Hashanah, the day we are careful about mentioning any speck of condemnation of Israel, our Sages instituted reading the Torah portion about banishing Hagar and Ishmael. Meaning, the divine decree to banish the handmaid and her son, is also when it is not pleasant. For the law is the law. Hagar who denied Sarah’s goodness, and Ishmael who already in Abraham’s home dared to worship idols, steal and threaten murder, must receive their punishment. Precisely on Rosh Hashanah, when Israel recognizes its uniqueness and distinction above all nations, it merits a good judgement for the new year.
Specifically after Hagar and Ishmael were banished and suffered did they recognize their sin, and repent. Perhaps I will be able to expand on this after the war is over, in a crushing victory over our enemies.
Then and Now
History has a tendency to repeat itself. We thought that if we were good to our Arab neighbors, the sons of Ishmael, if we made the land that was desolate under them flourish, if we developed the economy and raised their standard of living, granted them rights no other Arab have in Arab states – they would appreciate us. But the more we contributed to their prosperity – the more their war against us intensified. Even if we try afflicting and defeating them in wars – they accuse us, and cause others to do so as well. The only way for us to succeed, is by strengthening the Jewish nature of the state, clarifying to all that this land is ours, no other nation has a share or inheritance here. Anyone who lovingly accepts this can live here with us by the law of ger toshav (a resident alien). But towards those who do not accept this, we must act through all moral means at our disposal to make sure they emigrate elsewhere, as stated “They shall not remain in your land” (Exodus 23:33).
Three generations ago, this idea was acceptable. After World War II, over 12 million Germans fled, and were expelled from where they had lived for many generations, back to Germany. Half a million Ukrainians were expelled from Poland to Ukraine, Poles were expelled from Lithuania, Ukraine and Belarus to Poland, Italians were expelled from Yugoslavia to Italy, and Hungarians were expelled from Slovakia to Hungary.
Had Jews ascended to Israel when the nations of the world gave Britain the mandate to assist the Jewish people establish its national home in both sides of the Jordan, we would have avoided many troubles (Holocaust, Communism, and assimilation). And if the Arabs, then numbering less than a million on both sides of the Jordan fought us, we could have expelled them to their lands. But sadly, we delayed ascending to Israel, and the possibility of expelling enemies, considered moral and acceptable in the international arena 80 years ago, is today considered unacceptable.
And still, due to all the wars and waves of terror, we are commanded to examine whether, and how, we can encourage emigration of our enemies from our land. And simultaneously, draw close Arab friends, and recruit them to the army, so together with us, they will fight the State of Israel’s enemies.
If we do not succeed removing our enemies from all our land, we will have to suffer, as stated: “If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you leave will be thorns in your eyes and stingers in your sides, and they will harass you on the land you settle” (Numbers 33:55).
Understanding the Enemy’s Warfare
In order to understand our enemy, we must realize that, in general, the Muslim religion is a warring religion. Since the prominent aspect defining Allah according to Islam is power and might, there is a great commandment to conquer lands and nations, and force Islam upon them by might of sword. This is jihad. They believe this expresses Allah’s absolute might.
With the power of this faith, the Arabs founded a nation of brave, dedicated and stubborn warriors who conquered many lands and nations, and ruled them under Islam for over a thousand years. The war against the State of Israel takes supreme importance for them, because Islam already conquered the Land of Israel in the past, thus making it Muslim holy land in their view. It is a tremendous disgrace to their religion that a non-Muslim state arose on this land. The disgrace is magnified sevenfold being a Jewish state, for they are commanded to humiliate the Jews, in order to prove Islam replaced Judaism as the true religion.
The only way to exempt Muslims from the obligation to wage war to destroy the State of Israel is to decisively defeat them, until they understand they have no chance of defeating Israel, or weakening its strength. Then, according to Muslim law, they must wait until they have strength, and only afterwards will the commandment to fight in order to destroy the State of Israel return. Therefore, any Israeli concession erodes deterrence, and brings war closer.
It is fitting to add and hope, that specifically through our steadfastness and defeating the enemy, the deep streams existing in Islam recognizing that the Children of Israel and their right over the Land of Israel should be respected, will emerge. And that in truth, the purpose of Islam is to call for inner jihad against the evil inclination, and educate towards honoring all creatures, instead of warmongering.
This article appears in the ‘Besheva’ newspaper and was translated from Hebrew.