#please support your local zookeeper

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Happy National Zookeeper Week!

I’ll admit, I’m feeling a little spicy about it this year (well, every year) because zoos use the celebration for lots of positive facility PR, yet staff don’t often get the support and respect that is claimed in those posts.

So I want to share this great article written by a zoo industry consulting group last year looking at the reality of what happens when a workforce ends up conflicted between their passion (zoos and animals) and pragmatism (paying rent, existing in a capitalist society). They assessed AZA compensation rates by region against things such as a living wage and rental rates in the area. (All text formatting within quotes, such as bold and italics, is original to the article text.)

I cannot give the Canopy Group enough support for the way they framed this research:

“By observing the economics of keeper compensation, it’s no secret that keepers land on the lower end of the wage spectrum. Like all other wages and salaries, the market value of keeper compensation is driven by several economic factors – including the size of the labor pool, the rigor and danger of the work, the technical ability required, and the educational requirements. However, there is one factor that artificially lowers the market value of keeper compensation more than any other: passion.

In this article, we’ll take a look at why passion lowers the market value of animal care worker wages. More importantly, we’ll consider many factors that have emerged in recent years that are making people reevaluate the value of following their passion – a trend contributing to The Great Resignation, especially as it applies to zoos, aquariums, and similar organizations. (…)

The argument here is passion versus pragmatism: the unknown versus the sure thing. It is a decision all zookeepers and animal care technicians have made. Working with animals is immensely rewarding, but this passion is also very popular. This, historically, has meant that the keeper candidate pool is very large. Therefore, if the wage is livable and working conditions are reasonable, the pool should remain large. In a very real sense, a passion for animals drives down the market value of keeper compensation. Anyone who has been through an Economics 101 course will recognize this as a fundamental market principle: supply vs. demand.

However, many zoos and aquariums are having a more difficult time filling positions than normal and have started to see higher turnover rates in recent years. This begs the question – is the current keeper wage too low?”

Their findings?

Here’s their graph of “the median wage of keepers from organizations in different AZA-defined regions” from an AZA survey done in 2021. (Median is the type of average that looks at the middle of a data set’s range).

The median wage for AZA keepers in the South/Southeast was just over $15/hr at the low end, and the median wage for AZA keepers in the Far West / PNW was a little under $26/hr. That’s pretty dang low everywhere, especially when you factor in the increased cost of living in places like the West Coast. Also consider that looking at the median wage doesn’t mean this reflects just entry-level compensation - this data indicates the the compensation middle for all keeper positions, including people who have built their careers as keepers in those places long-term.

Then, they compared those wages to the “living wage” in each region - which they defined as “a calculation of what it takes to live in a particular area, without any other income. A living wage calculation takes into consideration how many earners are in a household, how many children are being supported, etc. The living wage includes the costs of all the basic items a household needs to be self-sufficient.”

“If you receive a wage for a job that is below the living wage, then you are essentially taking a negative net income. This is unsustainable for the long term, and essentially defines where wages start to exploit passion.”

Here’s a figure they provided using the MIT Living Wage Calculator showing the average living wage for each of the AZA regions. The chart on the left shows the living wage for a single person with no kids; the second, for two parents with two incomes and one child to support.

“By comparing the two graphs [to the earlier graph of the AZA median compensation rates], we find that median wages in the Southeast/South and Southwest regions are lower than the living wage for each household configuration in those regions. In other words, if you are a single person household or part of a two-income household raising 1 child in the South, a starting keeper salary will likely leave you with a negative net income. While many people work at this level, it increases the risk of accumulating debt, lowers a person’s ability to afford a home, set a much later retirement age, and can lead to many other negative, long-term effects.”

Big yikes, right?

Next, they looked at living wage vs. compensation for single parents.

“The single-parent living wage exceeds the average keeper wage in all AZA regions. In fact, the living wage required as a single parent is double the average AZA keeper wage in some regions.”

And then they did housing, specifically, being able to purchase a home.

“In many places, even a two-income household at an average keeper salary would not purchase a mid-level home. This means that keepers have to wait far longer than their peers to purchase a home. While paying rent in the meantime, this rent will account for a larger portion of their income than their peers. All in, these effects can set hopeful homeowners back years or decades.”

Canopy’s conclusion was something anyone involved in the field knew was coming.

“Companies like Chipotle, McDonalds, Best Buy, FedEx, Home Depot, Publix, and Walmart are all offering similar starting wages near starting keeper wages – plus many fringe benefits (like tuition reimbursement) and ample advancement opportunities. Many potential keepers in younger generations are putting their passion on the shelf so they can meet basic standard-of-living concerns.

To attract and retain quality candidates, an organization must consider the journey each new employee would have to make over their career. If the journey is fraught with massive debt, decreased disposable income, and limited career opportunities, then you are limiting your potential candidate pool to the small group of people who have decided that following their passion is worth significant lifelong financial hardship. There are many potential candidates out there willing to sacrifice and arm and leg for animals and conservation, but they wouldn’t dare jeopardize the financial future of their dependents and families.”

This is something I’ve heard about for years, and seen first hand. The low average wage at zoological facilities has been damaging their ability to hire and retain skilled staff for as long as I’ve been involved in the industry. I know so many zookeepers who still have roommates into their 30’s, or work multiple jobs, just to be able to make ends meet.

There’s a mythology about zookeeping jobs, a narrative that seeps into the field and actively exploits people’s passion for the job: it tells people that they’re so lucky to be able to work with these rare and cool animals; that they’re greedy and ungrateful when they ask for more compensation because they’re privileged to get to have the job at all. It says that most people would give anything to have these opportunities, so current zookeepers are interchangable and easily replaceable. Ask for too much? Push for a living wage? There’s always someone willing to take your spot. Not all facilities perpetuate this mentality - some places do treat their staff well without intentionally manipulating them to stay them in unsustainable jobs, and there can be legitimate financial reasons that limit staff compensation (mostly at smaller facilities, afaik) - but it’s a reality in the field.

For a long time, this type of mentality towards staff was sustainable. There really were always more people wanting to work in the field. But now, after three years of pandemic stressors and inflation, it’s starting to be a problem. A lot of staff left during the last few years, and facilities are having a really hard time hiring people and retaining them for any duration. I think a large part of that is low compensation rates. People are prioritizing long-term financial stability and recognizing when their passion is being exploited.

When I first started on tumblr back in 2011, there was a whole group of us within the United States who were baby zookeepers or volunteering as industry hopefuls. We all became friends, and I’ve stayed in touch with, or at least aware of, most of them as their careers progressed. Of the 10-15 or so people in that cohort? I can think of three who are still employed in the zoo industry. Everyone else has moved on into other fields - often with great grief over the loss - because of the extreme emotional labor, the physical exhaustion, and the lack of appropriate compensation.

But I guess that annual pizza party, being featured on social media, and maybe getting additional snacks all week makes up for it all?

#national zookeeper week #zoo industry #living wage #compensation #please support your local zookeeper #AZA accreditation #AZA zoos #zoos

[thorne93]

The Softest Fire (Part 27)

Prompt: Rosaline Vaughan had it all: fame, money, power, glory, a high status job. Until, one day, she woke up, and realized something was missing from her life.

Word Count: 3361

Warnings: fight/violence/near death

Notes: First Fantastic Beast fic! I could NOT have done this at all without @arrow-guy​​​​. They have created a counterpart to this fic, writing it from Nora Vaughan’s perspective (Rosaline’s cousin/adopted sister). Fic aesthetic done by @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo​​​​.

Nora was better. She decided to make an announcement that they were going to merge curse-breaking with the Ministry. I was at the press conference in the crowd to support her, Newt by my side. Theseus and her made the announcement with a handful of others from the Ministry and two other curse breakers in the world. 

My time at Hogwarts came to a close roughly two weeks ago. I’d moved in next to Newt’s flat. Not in the same building, but the one next door. It happened shortly after Nora returned. I felt she needed the space back, so she wouldn’t feel as though she was mothering me any more. It also gave her the chance for Theseus to move in, should they act on it. 

When things ended for me at Hogwarts, the question on many people’s minds was if I’d return. Children gave me gifts and cards, begging me to come back and teach. The other professors gave me words of encouragement, but they know I’d been through some ordeals in the last few years, so they simply said they would love to have me return and left it at that. 

Even I didn’t know what I wanted to do. So, instead of seeking sage counsel from Nora as I normally would, I gave her a break and went to the new source of advice in my life. 

I sat in Newt’s flat during lunch time as he took a break from caring for the animals. His sleeves were rolled up, but they were still covered with wetness and muck. 

“I’ve been thinking,” I began, a bit unsure. 

“Oh? About what?” he asked beside me on the sofa. 

“My career,” I said, my tone serious and loaded. “I love working at Hogwarts…”

“Alright,” he said, dragging the word out. “Is there something that’s wrong with that?” 

“Not wrong, per se, but it does beg the question about where I am to go next. I have been searching my heart for an answer and I just can’t decide. I love Hogwarts. I love working with Albus, seeing the children, having knowledge at my fingertips. The children keep me on my toes. But, if I made it full time, that would mean I was away from you for roughly ten months out of the year. We’d be forced to all those weekend visits. At the same time though, I loved working with you. These creatures gave me purpose. Working with you, traveling with you felt like I was giving something back in the world, helping helpless creatures, keeping them safe.”

“So come back to work with me,” he offered. “I still need an assistant.”

I nodded, biting my lip. “I know, and I love the work, but part of me is quite practical.”

“Yes, I know,” he said, as if that didn’t make a difference.  

Toying with my lips even more, I said, “Well, as much as I do adore working with you, if we are to remain… steady, then I need my own income. I don’t think it’s wise for us to rely on the same income.”

Newt nodded, but I felt I’d hurt his feelings. 

“Please, don’t think I mean any disrespect. You know I adore your work, our work together. I think what you do is absolutely vital and noble. But I don’t think it’s safe to rely on possible book deals popping up.”

“That’s...understandable. Although I always want you to reconsider. You always have a place here as my partner.”

I teared up at his words. “Partner sounds more than lovely.” I took his hands in mine. “I have been thinking and… I think I know a solution. It will keep me local to you, it will help me give back, and I can have my own source of income.” 

“That sounds fantastic! What is it?” 

I held my breath, trying to find the courage to say it. I hoped he would support me, but he might think I was absolutely bonkers. 

“I’d like to run for Minister for Magic,” I said evenly. 

His eyes went wide as his eyebrows shot up. “Really? Wow, that is um, exciting. What made you think of this?” 

“Well, I know I didn’t want it back when I first came to you, but I’m wiser now. I was afraid of being corrupt or not giving back properly, but life experience has changed all that. I’m stronger now. I know how to hold off the Dark Arts. I know how they work. I know things the magic world needs and things it doesn’t.”

“That is true,” he agreed. 

I sat there, ready to burst. I had no idea if he supported me or not. 

“So? Do you think I should do it? Do I have your support?” 

He glanced at me. “Of course you have my support. You have my support to do anything you set your mind to, Rosaline. No matter what. You’ll do every job wonderfully. I’m sure of that.” 

I smiled at him. “Really?” 

“Of course.” 

“You’re not disappointed? Going to call me a cold bureaucrat?” I asked, nervous. 

“No, not in the slightest. If anyone should do that job, deserves that job, or is more fit for a job, it’s you. I’d be proud to see you take that title.” He gave me a warm smile and I nearly melted into his arms. 

---------------------------------

I went to the Ministry just a few days later, both applying for the position and holding a press conference of my own to announce my decision. 

“And so it is with great pride and confidence that I, Rosaline Vaughan, announce to the great magical world, that I will be running for Minister For Magic once more,” I spoke into the microphone. My eyes flashed to Newt’s who was standing in the first row. Theseus was beside him. The two of them were smiling and clapping, as was the rest of the crowd. Nora was off tending to a small curse breaking job, and I didn’t have the chance to tell her.

The press swirled around me for quite some time, asking many questions and people offered to run my campaign, shoving their cards in my hands. Photo after photo was snapped. Finally though, I set off. 

Newt and I walked hand in hand outside of the Ministry. I felt alive, empowered, confident. Until I noticed the streets looked odd. There were no passerbys, no cars, no one. A dead streat. 

Except for something out of the corner of my right eye. 

“Rosaline, running for Minister? What a naughty move... If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was a threat to me, but I know you're smarter than that," the voice sent a chill down my spine. 

I turned to face the voice, the reason for my nightmares. There, several feet down the middle of the deserted road, was Gellert Grindelwald, flanked on both sides of him with six confidants. Of course, I recognized Vinda, Creedence, and Abernathy. The other three, I did not know.

“Gellert. I would say it’s lovely to see you again, but, I’d be lying and I was raised not to lie.” I stared him down. 

“What a pity. I thought you might like seeing me again. After all, we were lovers, soon to be wed. More than I can say for your zookeeper here.” He gestured to Newt and I didn’t respond. I knew he wanted anger, or for me to glance to Newt, or to defend him. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. 

“What do you want, Grindelwald?” I called back. 

“I want you to call off your campaign.”

“Why would I do that?” 

“Because, my dear, you know far too much about me and with you in the position of Minister…” He made a face of faux sympathy. “Well, I’m sorry, but that just wouldn’t work out in my favor, and we can’t have that.”

A few moments later, aurors began to slowly step out into the street. I raised my hand slightly, signaling for them to stay back. 

“I’m going to have to disappoint you. I will not step down, I will not back down, certainly not to the likes of you.” 

He gave an almost laugh, and his followers joined in with a smirk. “You think you can beat me? Darling, you beat my last spell but all that did was land you in my bed, nearly becoming my wife. What makes you think this will turn out any differently?” 

“Because I know things about you now. I know how you think and as unfortunate as that experience was, it wasn’t experience wasted.” 

“Shame. Because your power as a witch will be wasted, when I’m through killing you.” 

He raised his wand but I expected the oncoming blow so I casted a nonverbal multi-shot jinx, knocking back the six of his comrades. By the time he brought down his wand, they were on their backs, moaning, but he kept moving. 

Water from a nearby river swirled quickly over my head and I raised my wand to deflect the oncoming attack but it was too late. The water had enveloped me, forming a sphere around me. I couldn’t breathe. I was going to drown if I didn’t get this ball of water off of my body. Either the water would invade my lungs or Grindelwald’s force he was applying would crush my body. 

I thought hard and quickly. I saw through the water that the six followers were starting to stand. Newt wouldn’t stand a chance against all seven of them. I tried to raise my arms to claw out of it but the water continued to morph around me, suffocating me. 

Finally, I flicked my wand towards Gellert, using Impedimenta to get him to drop his wand and hand. It worked, and I fell to the ground, gasping for air. I didn’t have time to waste. I stood up and casted firestorm at the six followers, keeping them in their place. Following that, I casted expelliarmus at the lot of them, making wands fly at my hands. Using the banishing spell, I sent the wands towards the aurors for safe keeping.

Grindelwald took the moment I was distracted to throw a crucio curse my way but I used Protego to rebound it. It wasn’t effective as the hex was too powerful to rebound, but at least I got it to deflect away from me. 

He casted shot after shot at me, forcing me to either deflect or rebound them until I finally casted Everte Statum at him. He deflected it though, sending it back to me, but I jumped out of the way. 

I tried to send a confundo charm at him, but he blocked it. I followed it up with stupefy but all we were doing was dancing around each other's charms. We did this for several minutes. It appeared it was a draw, but I couldn’t give up. If Grindelwald won, there would be virtually no one to stop him. 

Newt began in on Grindelwald as well, casting Everte Statum on him, sending Grindelwald back. He didn’t expect the attack, so Newt had the advantage. In his stunned moment, I casted Glacius Duo at him, casting him in ice. 

I ran to Newt, my hands fawning all over him. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Rosaline. Just fi--” His eyes went wide as he looked over my shoulder so I spun to see what had him startled. 

Grindelwald had broken from the ice. He was standing before me, his eyes lit with fire. 

I raised my wand but he was invariably faster. 

The moment I saw his wand and eyes were aimed at Newt and not me, time slowed down. I saw a spark of green cast out of Grindelwald’s wand.

Avada Kedavra

I had no time to lose. I raised my wand and cast a banishing spell at Newt, sending him flying into one of the windows of the stores across the street. It might’ve hurt, but at least he was safe. 

In the split second he went flying, I gathered a ball of light quickly and casted it out from me, causing an explosion to occur up and down the street. Every window, every glass, shattered and I sent every shard straight for Grindelwald using the oppugno jinx. He protected himself with a shield charm, every shard falling away from him.  

The two of us locked eyes as soon as the shards were done falling before we casted curses on each other. Our wands locked on contact, the spells connecting before suddenly, the beam of light between us wasn’t one color or the other. Rather, it was one gold beam. 

Priori Incantatem

I’d studied this effect before. It was rare, but possible. It meant that it was down to the will power of Grindelwald and myself. Our wands had the same core. I’d forgotten he had the Elder Wand in his possession. 

My wand felt as if it would explode in my hand, but I couldn’t let go. My heart hammered in my chest. I could hear nothing but a roaring in my ears as echoes of the last spells spilled out around us in a golden cage. No one from the outside could reach us.

If I lost, if I let up, if I let him get the upper hand in any way, I’d surely die. He would cast the killing curse on me and not think twice, and it would only follow with killing Newt and possibly Theseus. 

I couldn’t let that happen.

Images began to flicker in my head. I remembered Grindelwald inflicting the crucio curse on Newt in front of me. I remember Newt telling me that Grindelwald almost killed him twice in New York. He nearly killed him in Paris. And he also forced me to attack Newt, ordering me to kill him. 

Five times he’d preyed upon Newt’s life. He’d attacked Nora, Theseus. He killed muggles and wizards alike. There was no stopping him. He didn’t think twice before ending someone’s life, it didn’t matter whose it was. He would've ended mine had I not been some form of asset to him. 

Suddenly, my rage boiled inside me. He’d caused the world to live in fear, to live in peril. He nearly killed the one person I’d ever loved. He didn’t deserve to get away with this. 

This ended now. 

I took a step forward, my energy, all my will power, all my anger, all my fear, all my frustration flowed into my wand. Every word of encouragement and confidence thrust upon me came flooding to the forefront of my mind and trickled into my hands. I grabbed my wand with both hands, moving forward ever so slightly. 

Grindelwald looked up in surprise and for the first time I’d ever seen -- fear. 

Finally, his wand flew from his hand, breaking our connection and the gold cage. He stared at me with total shock. He raised his hand to perform a non-verbal spell but I was quicker. I quickly casted Petrificus Totalus and Incarcerous. 

He was forced to his knees before me as ropes wrapped themselves around him.

“Aurors!” I called back to the witnessing crowd. “You have a criminal that I believe needs apprehending.” 

“Quite the show, Ms. Vaughan. I must say I’m impressed. I didn’t think you had it in you.” 

“You nearly killed Newt five times. I’m not like Albus, Gellert, I don’t reason with people -- I stop them.” 

“I’d heard you were working with him,” he informed.

“Yes. He asked me to destroy your blood pact.” 

“Were you successful?” 

“Not yet, so don’t think you can break out of prison to have him killed.” I flashed a smile full of malice just as the aurors came up, all of their wands at the ready to take him into custody. “But, I did ask him to tell me all your weaknesses. I thought it might come in handy, should you ever try to attack me.”

He looked down, as if he should’ve seen it coming. A bit of an amused smile came across his face. 

“You should’ve just killed me, Gellert.” 

“And waste such a talented witch? No. I’ll live in your memory forever now.” He flashed me a proud smirk as they hauled him to his feet.

I nodded. “You will,” I agreed “as the most evil Dark Wizard I’ve had the pleasure to stop.” 

As they walked him by, he stared at me with what I could only discern as a begrudging respect. Once he was out of sight, I finally relaxed. Theseus rushed up to me. 

“Are you okay? That was… that was quite something.”

I nodded, taking a breath. “I’m alright. Where is Newt? Is he okay?” I turned, panicked that I’d hurt him worse than I intended. Just as I spun however, he was standing there before me, holding a wand. “Is that his?” I asked, despite knowing the answer.

He bobbed his head. “It’s yours now I suppose. Unless, Theseus, the Ministry will have some objection to this?” He glanced over to his brother.

Theseus shook his head, almost laughing. “No, no, by all means, Rosaline won it fair and square. I prefer it in her hands over the Ministry’s.”

I thanked him and he thanked me before going inside. 

Newt looked at me curiously before I laughed and inquired, “What? What are you looking at me like that for?”

“You’re truly amazing, you know that?”

“I suppose I am,” I agreed proudly. 

“I thought I lost you,” he breathed, staring at me. 

“I know,” I admitted. “I thought I lost myself too. As soon as that water came around me, I thought I was done for. Then he casted the killing curse at you…” 

“When your wands connected, I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to protect you so badly but I didn’t want to get in the way either.” 

I reached up, cupping his face. “You could never be in the way. In fact, today, your attack on him distracted him long enough for me to get the upper hand. I was sure I was as good dead there for a few moments before that. So thank you, for saving my life.” 

“It’s the least I can do. You’ve saved mine on numerous occasions while we were capturing animals.” 

“I’ll always do everything I can to protect you, Newt. Always. I can’t live without you.”

“Nor I you,” he agreed. 

“I was ready to step in front of that curse for you, but I knew that I was the best hope for stopping him, so I couldn’t do that. I’m sorry if my spell hurt you by the way.” 

He shook his head. “Quite all right. Just a little bruised, but not bad for interfering with a duel between the two greatest wizards of our time.”

I gave him a half smile before putting my hand on his shoulder and concentrating. A nonverbal spell spilled out of me and I lifted my hand. 

“Feel better?” I asked.

“Much. What did you do?”

“A simple healing spell. I actually learned it from Grindelwald.” I smirked, amused at the irony.

“Will you ever stop impressing me?” Newt wondered as he stared into my eyes. 

“I hope I never do,” I replied. 

“Me too,” he admitted. “Now, we should get you home. You have a campaign to plan and some resting to do. You’ve far more than earned it.”

“Ah, yes, and we should probably tell Nora about my decision to run for Minister,” I insisted as I put my arm through his. The aurors began reconstructing the street as we walked. 

“I’ll be sure to mention that, and the fact that you just won the greatest wizarding duel.”

“Yes, but that will overshadow my decision to run, so be sure you lead with the campaign first,” I encouraged. 

Newt glanced at me before smiling keenly. “Yes, quite right.” 

The two of us laughed before I rested my head on his shoulder, walking along beside him happily, more free and weightless than I’d ever felt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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#the softest fire #newt scamander x oc #newt scamander fic #newt scamander x ofc #newt scamander

[yahoodevelopers]

Apache Storm 2.0 Improvements

By Kishor Patil, Principal Software Systems Engineer at Verizon Media, and PMC member of Apache Storm & Bobby Evans, Apache Member and PMC member of Apache Hadoop, Spark, Storm, and Tez

We are excited to be part of the new release of Apache Storm 2.0.0. The open source community has been working on this major release, Storm 2.0, for quite some time. At Yahoo we had a long time and strong commitment to using and contributing to Storm; a commitment we continue as part of Verizon Media. Together with the Apache community, we’ve added more than 1000 fixes and improvements to this new release. These improvements include sending real-time infrastructure alerts to the DevOps folks running Storm and the ability to augment ingested content with related content, thereby giving the users a deeper understanding of any one piece of content.  

Performance

Performance and utilization are very important to us, so we developed a benchmark to evaluate various stream processing platforms and the initial results showed Storm to be among the best. We expect to release new numbers by the end of June 2019, but in the interim, we ran some smaller Storm specific tests that we’d like to share.

Storm 2.0 has a built-in load generation tool under examples/storm-loadgen. It comes with the requisite word count test, which we used here, but also has the ability to capture a statistical representation of the bolts and spouts in a running production topology and replay that load on another topology, or another version of Storm. For this test, we backported that code to Storm 1.2.2. We then ran the ThroughputVsLatency test on both code bases at various throughputs and different numbers of workers to see what impact Storm 2.0 would have. These were run out of the box with no tuning to the default parameters, except to set max.spout.pending in the topologies to be 1000 sentences, as in the past that has proven to be a good balance between throughput and latency while providing flow control in the 1.2.2 version that lacks backpressure.

In general, for a WordCount topology, we noticed 50% - 80% improvements in latency for processing a full sentence. Moreover, 99 percentile latency in most cases, is lower than the mean latency in the 1.2.2 version. We also saw the maximum throughput on the same hardware more than double.

Why did this happen? STORM-2306 redesigned the threading model in the workers, replaced disruptor queues with JCTools queues, added in a new true backpressure mechanism, and optimized a lot of code paths to reduce the overhead of the system. The impact on system resources is very promising. Memory usage was untouched, but CPU usage was a bit more nuanced.

At low throughput (< 8000 sentences per second) the new system uses more CPU than before. This can be tuned as the system does not auto-tune itself yet. At higher rates, the slope of the line is much lower which means Storm has less overhead than before resulting in being able to process more data with the same hardware. This also means that we were able to max out each of these configurations at > 100,000 sentences per second on 2.0.0 which is over 2x the maximum 45,000 sentences per second that 1.2.2 could do with the same setup. Note that we did nothing to tune these topologies on either setup. With true backpressure, a WordCount Topology could consistently process 230,000 sentences per second by disabling the event tracking feature. Due to true backpressure, when we disabled it entirely, then we were able to achieve over 230,000 sentences per second in a stable way, which equates to over 2 million messages per second being processed on a single node.

Scalability

In 2.0, we have laid the groundwork to make Storm even more scalable. Workers and supervisors can now heartbeat directly into Nimbus instead of going through ZooKeeper, resulting in the ability to run much larger clusters out of the box.

Developer Friendly

Prior to 2.0, Storm was primarily written in Clojure. Clojure is a wonderful language with many advantages over pure Java, but its prevalence in Storm became a hindrance for many developers who weren’t very familiar with it and didn’t have the time to learn it.  Due to this, the community decided to port all of the daemon processes over to pure Java. We still maintain a backward compatible storm-clojure package for those that want to continue using Clojure for topologies.

Split Classpath

In older versions, Storm was a single jar, that included code for the daemons as well as the user code. We have now split this up and storm-client provides everything needed for your topology to run. Storm-core can still be used as a dependency for tests that want to run a local mode cluster, but it will pull in more dependencies than you might expect.

To upgrade your topology to 2.0, you’ll just need to switch your dependency from storm-core-1.2.2 to storm-client-2.0.0 and recompile.  

Backward Compatible

Even though Storm 2.0 is API compatible with older versions, it can be difficult when running a hosted multi-tenant cluster. Coordinating upgrading the cluster with recompiling all of the topologies can be a massive task. Starting in 2.0.0, Storm has the option to run workers for topologies submitted with an older version with a classpath for a compatible older version of Storm. This important feature which was developed by our team, allows you to upgrade your cluster to 2.0 while still allowing for upgrading your topologies whenever they’re recompiled to use newer dependencies.

Generic Resource Aware Scheduling

With the newer generic resource aware scheduling strategy, it is now possible to specify generic resources along with CPU and memory such as Network, GPU, and any other generic cluster level resource. This allows topologies to specify such generic resource requirements for components resulting in better scheduling and stability.

More To Come

Storm is a secure enterprise-ready stream but there is always room for improvement, which is why we’re adding in support to run workers in isolated, locked down, containers so there is less chance of malicious code using a zero-day exploit in the OS to steal data.

We are working on redesigning metrics and heartbeats to be able to scale even better and more importantly automatically adjust your topology so it can run optimally on the available hardware. We are also exploring running Storm on other systems, to provide a clean base to run not just on Mesos but also on YARN and Kubernetes.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to reach out via email.

P.S. We’re hiring! Explore the Big Data Open Source Distributed System Developer opportunity here.

#storm #Apache #apache storm #hadoop #open source #big data

[seaglassandsanddollars]

Mouse for a Day on Discovery Island, Disney World

 My seven-year-old, David, held the tail end of the Python snake with coveting worthy of an Academy Award contender.  I, on the other hand, held the middle part of the slippery, scaly, body of the domesticated snake, with a frozen, forced grin and very nearly peed myself.  A parent must always be brave for their children, but this was one of those times that didn’t count.  My kid hardly noticed I was there.  The zookeeper, Paulie, insisted I do my part either for insurance reasons or for his own entertainment.  

The snake had a name that I don’t remember.  What I do remember was the honorary title of, ‘Mouse for the Day’, Paulie and his female co-worker bestowed upon my shy son ten minutes earlier after they realized he had been late to the reptile show and missed everything except the last five minutes.

It was my fault we were late for the reptile show.  Being late was a bad habit I had been trying to overcome my whole life.  As we took seats for the show, far in the back, my son and I were both trying to move past the small disappointment, but my son’s had been palpable as Paulie, on stage but making direct eye contact with as many visitors as possible including my son and I, said, ‘”Thanks for coming everyone! Enjoy the rest of you stay at Walt Disney World and again, thank you for visiting Discovery Island!”  I tried to buck up my son’s spirits as he watched the curtain fall by telling him we would take our time looking at all the animals before we left the island.

We slowly meandered through the island and as I passed a caretaker, who was in an obvious hurry, I heard her loud walky-talky describe me, the clothes I was wearing, and my little boy’s sunglasses that were always propped on top of his head.  I stopped in my tracks and picked up my son (one of the last times I was able to do that) and with a little trepidation, followed the young woman.

David protested loudly enough that she turned around and I called out to her. “Are you looking for us? What did I do?” I asked, always on the defensive.  

The young lady smiled widely and talked into her walky-talky.  “I got them.”

I dropped David to his feet and he turned into a child beyond his years.  She looked directly at my annoyed son who had suddenly gone quiet. Instinctively, he knew something cool was about to happen.  

“We have a surprise for you,” the young woman said sweetly, “Follow me.”

Well, alright, I thought. It’s Disney World after all.  So, we trotted along as the speakers blasted that it was closing time.  David snapped his head up at me with despair for a second time.  I put a finger to my lips and he turned back to watch the girl.

We stopped in front of a refreshment wagon as the girl turned and looked at David.  “Would you like ice cream?  Every Mouse for the Day gets free ice cream.”  

David suddenly became shy as he smiled broadly and the young woman simultaneously pinned a large ribbon on his shirt.  Now I was trying not to cry.  

David touched all kinds of animals as I dutifully snapped pictures.  The young woman gave us a personalized, entertaining, and educational tour, and then Paulie from the show suddenly appeared.  Cheerful beyond measure, he smiled and said he saw us come in late.  I told him it was my fault for not knowing ahead of time what was offered on the island.

He held up a hand and looked at David.  “I’m Paulie, but I guess you remember that from the show.  Who are you, young man?”

“David”, came the small voice.

“I bet you love reptiles.” Paulie’s smile widened further, if that was even possible, as he spoke.  “How would you and your mom like to see some snakes?”

David shook his head and smirked while I just shook.  I hate snakes.  Hate is a kind word.  I’m not sure why, but they scare the hell out of me.  With wide eyes, I looked down at David, who had forgotten I existed, watched his interaction with the caretaker and knew I had no say in the matter.  I also knew I had to go with him.  We walked around the corner with these two caretakers to the area where reptiles were kept.  This was the stuff my nightmares were made of.  

“How would you like to hold one?” Asked Pauly directly to David.  “Mom, how about you?”

David remembered I was there and looked up at me with those saucer eyes I never could say no to, until he became a teenager, and it was easy.  “Sure.  I guess. Sure, why not.  Do they bite?”

David looked at me as if I was stupid.  “Mommy, please.”

I looked at Paulie and then to the young woman for some kind of support, which I didn’t get. “Alright.  Alright.  I’ll do it.” In my head, I was freaking out in a big way.

Paulie opened the cage to a Python of some sort.  It really doesn’t matter what kind of snake, it was big and he handled it like the pro that he was.  David was so excited he was literally bouncing in his little sneakers.

Paulie inclined his head toward me.  “Mom, you stand next to me, in the middle, David, get under the tail and lift. You’re strong so I know you can.”

David was on the snake before me.  I quickly dropped my backpack and stepped in the middle to protect David from something. The snake looked everywhere except at us.  I think he even gave Pauly a kiss.  

The young woman reached down to the camera she saw that I had dropped next to my backpack.  “How about some pictures?”  

David’s head went up and down as stroked the snake and my mind continued in freak out mode.   Maybe some of you have looked at the picture and think I overreacted, but I need to remind you that, I HATE SNAKES.

Paulie and the young woman were the consummate professionals. After allowing David to pet the snake and ask questions, they reminded him that the snake was tired and needed to rest.  I began to breathe again as the caretakers gently placed the snake in his cage and locked the door.  Kids can never get enough of anything, but I have to say that David looked satiated as we said goodbye to Paulie and the young woman and caught the last public boat off the island.

I still hate snakes. I’ll never understand why they are kept as pets.  I grew up in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey where snakes were not revered but were a necessary part of nature.  The local boys caught garter snakes because it was cool.  I ran screaming for my life.

This one time I held a snake and was glad I did.  Not at the time, but afterward as I looked at the picture.  This had been our third trip to Disney World.  A single mom and her little boy, with a memory, to last a lifetime.  

Where ever you are Paulie and your co-worker….Thank you.

[toteczious]

Surabaya Zoo is not the zoo of death anymore

Note: I'm telling this because you guys been watching vids about the zoo with photos from 2013 not from 2017. Please share and tell others before more 'animal justice' people think that the zoo is still dead. Those clickbait guys are using 2013 photos. Maybe not all of you guys read much local Indonesian updates.  But it now says that the zoo and its animals got so many healthy donations and renewed stuffs like cages or exhibits, even help from the wildlife experts from so many foreign nations?  It does improving these days, even in holiday months, it says it got 100% support from people. It also got education entertainments so children can learn the importance of taking care and REAL conversation activities. Surabaya government now took care of this place.  I think the news and photos in the vid you got there came from 2013.  That year people WERE so ignorant and everything was left bankrupt, because of low guests. Even some people used exhibits as karaoke houses and some poachers broke in and shot poor animals. Some zookeepers wanted to keep the animals healthy for real benevolent reasons, but they were left poor and helpless that they try part time jobs to just buy at least a bag of milk for a tiger cub.  The zoo's history said that it was built from the colonial era, year 1912 by Dutch people, so maybe some of those were concrete exhibits for old models because those years, people thought zoos were the place for keeping entertaining treasures in the shape of animals (Today is more like a garden because it is safer to replicate the animal's habitat rather than concrete exhibits).  The fences were damaged year 2013 and easier to climb by poachers and people who want to prank the animals by throwing rocks or garbages, but now it got better fences/walls like If you wanna try to break into an elephant's exhibit, your challenge is a deadly electric fence and a really deep pit. Police also guard some exhibits, to keep thieves and poachers from breaking in. I also found the sources from Youtubers who arrived at that place, not just the tv news or local newspaper. They said that place got really cleaner and healthier, even for the animals. Better and nicer zookeepers were also hired. Connections to poachers were shut down If you want to see better proofs, here's some vid and local news articles n fresh photos URLs. I also watched youtubers who got there, not just local news websites n newspapers: (Even If it's in Indonesian, the sights and photos can explain and some vids. One of the vids got the interview with the good zookeepers) https://youtu.be/36QT0gyESPo https://youtu.be/cfnoNU1Lfks https://youtu.be/rKUU8JGacB0 https://youtu.be/a4Wbv0MHoew https://plus.kapanlagi.com/foto/nggak-miris-kondisi-saat-ini-hewan-di-kebun-binatang-surabaya.html All we can do now is trying to keep this zoo clean and safe and healthy, and ofc good for the animals. There's no perfect zoo, said a Malaysian scientist that helped the zoo. All we can do is try the best to take care of it.  Today's problem is that the people there need to repopulate the komodos, because they got overpopulated in one exhibit and that male komodos can be very agressive and territorial. Of course the solution is by moving some of them to other zoos or to wildlife (If they are qualified enough to survive in the wild). Maybe you can try to donate to the zoo to make a bigger exhibit or pay the transport facility for moving the komodos?

#animals #zoos #surabaya #zoo #news #animal #surabaya zoo

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Helping Animals After Harvey

As the East Coast braces for a potentially catastrophic hit from Irma and disaster response is in full swing in Houston, a people obviously want to know what they can do to help. The politics of disaster response regarding animals can be complicated, so here’s some quick information:

Pets:

If you want to donate money, the best thing you can do is to donate it to a rescue organization local to the area that was hit. These smaller organizations often need the help the most, and it’s important to support the local businesses that are likely dealing with storm damage themselves (I wish I had a list of local rescues to recommend - please feel free to add suggestions in the reblogs or comments). 

If you want to adopt an animal post-Harvey and you live somewhere else in the country, or your shelter is asking for donations to support rescued animals from the storm, double-check that they’re only adopting out animals that were already living in shelters before the storm hit. After Katrina, a lot of animals who had families waiting to reunite them were transported across the country to other shelters - so just check and make sure they’re not actually adopting out animals who might have families back in Texas.

Don’t donate to large animal advocacy organizations that have gotten involved unless you’ve vetted their work very thoroughly. HSUS and PETA have both shown up in the Houston area and are doing massive fundraising drives for their efforts there, but before choosing to donate to them keep in mind PETA’s track record for euthanizing adoptable animals and the fact that HSUS only put a fraction of the donations they received post-Sandy towards helping animals impacted by that storm. There are some seriously iffy posts coming out of Texas about the conduct of HSUS and the ASPCA regarding their takeovers of local rescue efforts and the disappearance of large numbers of dogs - I can’t vet the truth of those reports, but given the previously known conduct of these organizations, it may just be worth staying clear of them if you want to be sure your money is actually going to help animals. (IMPORTANT: HSUS is NOT associated with local Humane Societies unless their website explicitly states that affiliation, so those groups are fine to donate to). 

Wildlife:

Donate to wildlife centers and rehabs, as they’re likely taking in a huge number of animals after the storm. The Houston SPCA Wildlife Center of Texas is one facility that has been reported on needing help to care for the sheer number of animals brought in by concerned people post-Harvey. 

If you like bats, consider contributing to the Bat World Sanctuary - they’ve taken in over 400 rescued bats that lived under the bridges in Houston. 

Zoos:

The zoos in Texas are working together to help affected facilities - it’s been great to see facilities and trade organizations that normally compete with each other putting all that aside and collaborating on disaster response. When it comes to helping out zoos after Harvey, there are two things you can do: donate to the zoos, and donate to the zookeepers.

The Texas Zoo in Victoria was really hard hit by the hurricane, with  mature trees were blown onto most of the buildings and several exhibits, causing major damage and all buildings on site flooding. Their animals are currently housed with other zoos while they repair the damage - you can donate directly to them here. 

The Forth Worth Zoo is taking donations to help fund the disaster response program at the Texas Zoo. 

The San Antonio Zoo is taking donations to help fund disaster relief for zoos across the state, and although their website doesn’t specify which facilities, news articles indicate they’re involved with helping both the Texas Zoo and the Downtown Aquarium in Houston. 

The Downtown Aquarium in Houston does not have a direct donate link on their website, but news reports indicated there was flooding in the building during the storm. 

The zookeepers in the areas affected by Harvey also need help to rebuild their lives after the storm, as many of them lost quite a lot to the storm. 

AZA has set up an employee relief fund for the staffers at AZA institutions affected by the storm (such as the Downtown Aquarium and the San Antonio Zoo).

The Houston Zoo has started an employee relief fund specifically to support their staffers. 

Colorsforacause has cute shirts and bags selling in their Etsy shop, with proceeds going to a relief fund for the Greater Houston American Association of Zoo Keepers members.