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The words “come unto Christ” are an invitation. It is the most important invitation you could ever offer to another person. It is the most important invitation anyone could accept. From the beginning of the Restoration of the gospel in this dispensation, it has been the charge given by Jesus Christ to His representatives. Their charge has been “to warn, expound, exhort, and teach, and invite all to come unto Christ.” 1
Every member of the Church, upon accepting the baptismal covenant, becomes a disciple who has promised to stand as a witness of Jesus Christ at all times in any place he or she may be in. 2 The purpose of our witness is to invite people to come unto Him.
All of us should be intensely interested in learning how to issue that invitation effectively. We know from experience that some will not respond. Only a few responded when the Savior Himself offered this invitation during His mortal ministry. But great was His joy in those who recognized His voice. And great has been our joy when those we have invited have come unto Him.
Know That He Is the Way
It is worthwhile to ponder over those instances in our own lives when people have responded. Personally, I have seen a pattern when people have accepted that invitation. In each case the Holy Ghost has manifested at least three truths to them. The experiences have not always come in the sequence in which I will list them, but they all come to the hearts of those who truly come unto Christ.
First, they come to feel that the only way they can have the happiness they want most in this life and in the world to come is through Jesus Christ. They come to believe these words from the Book of Mormon: “Behold I say unto you, that as these things are true, and as the Lord God liveth, there is none other name given under heaven save it be this Jesus Christ, of which I have spoken, whereby man can be saved.” 3
That assurance is not easy to feel in a world in which many voices say that there is no God, that there is no sin, and that happiness is found in pleasure. But our voices can be more powerful if we can get the gift of bearing a sure witness that Jesus is the Christ and the Savior of the world. That witness will come most powerfully out of your own experiences with the Atonement of Jesus Christ working in your life. If you reflect often on how His Atonement has changed you and if you give thanks often, you will find that your witness of Him gains power to touch the hearts of others. When those you invite out of your own testimony feel that witness, they will come to accept Him as their Lord and Savior. And that acceptance, when it comes, will warm their hearts and yours.
Covenant and Obey
Second, those I know who have truly come unto Him make covenants to obey and to follow Him. It may begin by keeping simple commitments, such as reading the Book of Mormon or going to a sacrament meeting. It must come out of their faith that Jesus is the Christ and the Savior. When they keep the commitment out of that faith, they feel something. They may not be able to identify the feeling in words, but they feel better. Obedience, even in small things, brings that blessing from God. And in time they begin to feel a repentant heart and with it a desire to make the covenant of baptism, to take the Savior’s name upon them, and to be cleansed from sin.
People come to make that crucial choice for many reasons. At first one man we taught could not see the need to be baptized. After all, he had tried to be good all his life. He had committed no serious sin. He had been baptized as a child in another church. But then two things came to his mind. One was that the Savior was baptized out of obedience, having never sinned. The other is that he wanted to make the commitment to the Savior through the authority of the true priesthood, just as the Savior went to John to be baptized.
Another young man we taught chose to be baptized out of a heart broken by the sorrow he felt for his sins. As he came up out of the waters of baptism, he threw his arms around my neck, tears streaming down his cheeks, and said in my ear, “I’m clean. I’m clean.”
Their choices to make the covenant of baptism sprang from a common faith. They knew that if they would keep a covenant to obey the Savior’s commandments, He would keep His covenant with them to lead them toward eternal life. They were ready to come unto Him that they might be changed and led by Him and, in time, become like Him.
Strive to Become like Him
That leads to the third thing I have seen in the lives of those who have truly come unto Him. They strive to become like Him. They begin to try to do unto others as they know He would do. You and I have seen that in faithful people soon after their baptism and receiving of the Holy Ghost. Once, I went with my missionary companion to visit a family we had taught and baptized just a few weeks previously. The parents took us down into their basement to show us a room. It had been the bedroom of one of their two daughters. But she had now moved in with her sister. The bedroom she vacated was filled with everything the family would need in an emergency.
We had not taught them anything about emergency preparedness. When we asked why they had done something so difficult so quickly, the reply was that they had read in a Church magazine that the Lord would like families to be prepared to take care of themselves and others. They said, “Isn’t that what Latter-day Saints do?”
That simple faith extended to everything they felt the Savior would have them do. And their desire to follow Him lasted. And it changed them. They had always been kind, trying to help others. But that ability to show charity grew. And that has been the pattern in all those I have known who continued to come unto Him over a lifetime.
We sometimes speak of retaining members as if we held them in. We can and we must be a friend to those who have made the choice to come unto Him. They can become discouraged when trials come, as trials always do. Yet we must remember that the best and surest friends they have are the Savior and His Father, who is also their Father. Heavenly Father and the Savior will send them the Holy Ghost to comfort them and confirm their faith if they are humbly obedient. So, for example, when going visiting teaching or home teaching with a new member, if you give him or her the chance to pray or to teach or to make the appointment, you may give him or her more strength than just your expressions of love. It will bring down the powers of heaven. And that will lift them through trials and protect them from pride when blessings begin to come to them, as blessings will.
A Change of Heart
Another wonderful thing will happen. When you give your heart to inviting people to come unto Christ, your heart will be changed. You will be doing His work for Him. You will find that He keeps His promise to be one with you in your service. You will come to know Him. And in time you will come to be like Him and “be perfected in him.” 4 By helping others come unto Him, you will find that you have come unto Him yourself. If you want to be near Him, to feel His peace, you can do it best in His service.
He is the one who said:
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” 5
I testify that He will keep that promise to those we invite for Him. And He keeps that promise to those who serve Him by doing the inviting.
Covenanting to Obey and Follow Him
I was 60 years old, my pockets were empty, and my life was a disgrace. I believed that life was for my own enjoyment. I was lost, my eyes were closed, and then Jesus Christ opened them.
My baptism, confirmation, and the covenants I made with Jesus Christ are the miracle that changed my whole life. I realized what I could gain and what is important to me. Now I am a happy person because I know Jesus Christ.
I would never have thought that a worldly man such as I was would one day become a Church member, a priesthood holder, and a branch president. It is a great gift for me to serve Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Striving to Become like Him
, Indiana, USA
I love the Lord with all my heart. He is my friend. I know that because of Him, I can be forgiven.
The gospel and my testimony of Jesus Christ have helped me to be a better mother, wife, sister, and friend. Because of my testimony, I try to live as God intends for me to—with integrity, honesty, kindness, love, patience, and compassion, treating others as children of God and extending service when needed. By my trying to live a Christlike life, I hope that others will want to learn about Him.
Finding Happiness through Jesus Christ
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). There are no better words than His to express my testimony.
I have studied literature, philosophy, and history for an advanced degree and have realized that all great ideas, theories, and businesses have their limits. Likewise an earthly father cannot guarantee peace, wisdom, or eternity even to his own child.
However, our Heavenly Father has declared to the world that by following the path of Christ, emulating His example, and obeying His revealed truths, we can obtain true happiness in this life. And after this life—when we return to our Heavenly Father’s presence—we can have unending happiness with Him.
Photograph by John Luke, posed by models
Photograph by Christina Smith, posed by model
Photograph by Christina Smith, posed by model
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Build a solid foundation in science, formulation and product development—find out more!
Most Popular in:
Ambi Launches Body Care for Multicultural Women
Posted: January 21, 2008
Multicultural brand Ambi is expanding into body care. The new line of products is designed for women with melanin-rich skin tones, touting the ability to moisturize and even skin tone.
According to the company, body care products for women of color is an underserved market. The company formulated the new products to address not only itchy skin and dryness, but also hyperpigmentation and stretch marks. The new line was created with an oil base, and features such ingredients as shea butter to absorb and retain moisture, soybean oil and almond oil to retain moisture, and vitamin E to soothe and condition. The line, including a stretch mark diminishing oil, a moisturizing cream and an oil lotion, launched in January.
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- Business Strategy & Transformation
- Enterprise Applications
- Governance, Risk, Compliance & Security
- Human Resources
- Information Technology
- Innovation - R&D - PLM
- International Development
- Marketing - Sales - Customer Services
- Real Estate & Facilities
- Supply Chain & Operations
- Sustainable Development
ERP strategy definition and business alignment
Organizations continually strive to differentiate themselves in rapidly changing and demanding markets. SAP-based solutions are often the core enabler for efficient execution of related business processes. Agility, flexibility, reuse and reliability of SAP-based solutions as well as compatibility with other systems are essential to successfully adapt to such rapid business change. In most companies the IT-landscape has evolved over time through generations of enhancements, upgrades and integrations. Mergers and acquisitions additionally increase the diversity and complexity of IT and by that also raise costs and problems in adapting to changing business requirements. Hence, the way SAP-based solutions are built and operated needs to be changed from being reactive to business-driven – otherwise IT will severely constrain business performance and limit its ability to introduce new products and services into the market at the required speed of action and consistency with the business strategy.
How BearingPoint brings value
BearingPoint helps its clients to:
- Align business requirements across relevant regions and business units and derive business’ IT-expectations and gaps
- Formulate vision and mission of the IT department as well as resulting guidelines and principles for each relevant IT-subject
- Determine the optimal ERP application landscape including governance standards, IT-organization and IT-processes around that
- Derive required activities to implement the ERP strategy step-by-step, including project / program definition, resource estimate, cost estimate, business case and timeline (realization roadmap)
To design or rework an IT- or ERP-strategy you have to talk to and understand people in various positions in the company including business unit leaders and board members. There is no standardized decision tree where you insert the client’s situation, press the “do it” button and a machine produces the optimal IT/ERP-strategy. It is a much more interactive process where BearingPoint’s ERP-Strategy Experts quickly utilize what they have learnt, with what they know from the client, together with their experience from other clients to formulate the next question or idea – always respecting political factors which may be at least of equal importance.
Business and industry experience, strategic and economic mind-set, broad IT-knowledge, good practices from other clients and political integrity – our proven toolset for your new IT/ERP-strategy.
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An immersive environment of living plants
9/9/2012 7:00 AM
Metropolis is a “personal biosphere” in which multiple people have an up-close experience of a landscape of native Pacific Northwest plants, as if a section of local forest floor was transported to the interior of the city.
Looking back at the futuristic hopefulness that marked the original World’s Fair in Seattle, the ideas of the future that marked that period may seem naïve and misplaced given our current ecological crisis. At the same time, this sense of possibility is still very much present in our contemporary city. I intend for this piece to raise conversation about the theme of illuminating challenges and imagining possibilities in a whimsical and poetic way. By placing your head inside the “Metropolis" personal biosphere, you come into contact with the lush environment that typifies the Pacific Northwest, while in the midst of the city. The piece both raises questions about our distance from the natural world, our need to control and contain it, while at the same time pointing to a more hopeful possibility, a scenario in which the form of the city and a landscape of plants are completely interdependent. Within this microcosm, plants and humans share air and exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide, bringing us face to face with both the challenge and the opportunity presented by our relationship to the land.
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Alright, someone already posted such a topics and actually got replies of some sort, so apparently, this is fine. Please do <u>NOT</u> tell me to serach the internet for "information on how to do such and such", because I have been doing that for about a year... (unless it is a new concept which is not obvious)
I have a keylogger and I have an IP. I need to know how to get this onto the target computer. Obvioulsy, I cannot get target to download anything from me because I would do that automatically. If you can actually tell me how to embed a file into another file without corrupting the file, I *may* be able to do that. But the direct way would be easier. Sure, port scans can be involved with it. But there are a bunch of setting on the port scanners. When I used mostly the default setting, it said the computer was not connected (this computer is always on & always connected). A friend who did a scan once got some open ports, but said "none of them are useful". I don't know why one port would be useful and one wouldn't be. But even if I do find a port, what would I do with it? You can't just say, "Okay, I have this information, now the logger is miraculously installed!". Will somebody please help me? I am not a retard, I am actually trying to LEARN here. And a typical "lollo sme plZ hak psswrd for me" person posted here as well, and got responses that were not too deragatory. Although I am not sure why you would be deragatory to those people at all, if they are typing with proper grammar and puncuation.
well i would suggest you use a file binder to send the keylogger
Ex- keylogger.exe + my.mp3 = my.mp3.exe
Obviously change the Icon for the file you want to use and send it along more files always in a zip or rar.
(people get scare with .exe) files
About the ports, some ports are useful and some are not, reason:
PORT NUMBER SERVICE
This is a list of the most commonly hacked ports, some of them are only used for stair stepping into a system and some of them can be cracked with the right credentials and give you full access... For instance, SSH port is open, you connect to it using PUTTY and type in the correct user name and password and there you go, full access. FTP port is open then you will only be able to send and receive files on the target computer once logged in. HTTP is open and you telnet to that port to get very valuable info from the computer like the OS and such. TELNET port is open and you will have full control of the system once logged in with the right credentials. SMTP is only for sending emails and if the server allows for anonymous emails you will be able to send emails on behalf of someone else. POP3 is for receiving messages and is quite useless but can be used to find the type of OS. Now, all the other ports will give you a hint as to what type of server is running and what services is running with what OS. SSH is mostly Linux, so the server will be linux 90% of the time, TELNET might be a router but it can also be an OS, so connect to that port an check uot to find out. port 135 is open then it mean that its more likely to be a NT or windows box... So we can go on and on, follow this link if you are more interested: http://www.go4expert.com/showthread.php?t=8841
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Learning the technical skills of accounting is vital to passing the Certified Public Accountant exams. From your very first semester on campus, you’ll learn those abilities from scholars and professors who have extensive experience in the field.
Drake’s program focuses on current accounting practices in United States, while also teaching the international standards that U.S. businesses will be required to adopt by 2020. This will provide you with the flexibility you’ll need to excel in your field well past graduation.
In the College of Business and Public Administration (CBPA), you’ll also develop skills that will help set you apart from the competition. Drake’s business majors emphasize communication, writing and presentation skills—things that are key to succeeding in the business world.
Students in the accounting program often choose to double major in finance, management, marketing or international business. Many take advantage of study abroad opportunities throughout the world and some even complete accounting internships in places like the United Kingdom.
Careers and Internships
Students in the CBPA are encouraged to hold internships and participate in networking events throughout their college career. Drake offers many tools to students to help them find — and obtain — internships and jobs, including a dedicated career counselor within CBPA that can help with resumes building and interviewing skills. Each year, the CBPA hosts an annual Accounting and Finance Career Fair, which brings major employers to Drake’s campus to meet with students.
The School of Accounting provides an education in accounting and business law that prepares graduates to assume entry-level positions in public, private, governmental and not-for-profit accounting. Drake students have held internships at places such as:
Drake is one of three universities in the state that has a chapter of Beta Alpha Si, an honorary society for financial information students. Students in the organization have traveled to places such as New York City, Denver and San Jose to participate in regional and national meetings. All students of the College of Business and Public Administration may join one of the two professional fraternities: Delta Sigma Pi and Alpha Kappa Psi.
The School of Accounting awards both graduate and undergraduate degrees in accounting. The undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA), requires 124 semester hours and is typically completed in four years on a full-time basis. A student may choose to pursue the full accounting major, which requires 27 hours of accounting beyond Introduction to Financial Accounting and Introduction to Managerial Accounting, or to pursue a joint major in accounting and another discipline in the College of Business and Public Administration.
Almost all of the 54 jurisdictions in the United States that confer the CPA certificate require 150 hours of collegiate study. Drake’s Master of Accounting degree provides the additional study in accounting, business law, and related subjects necessary to earn the C.P.A. designation in the jurisdictions that require 150 hours of study.
The Master of Accounting degree requires an additional 30 hours of graduate study beyond the undergraduate program and is typically completed in one year. However, with careful planning, both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees can be completed in as little as four and one-half years. A student may choose to earn the BSBA degree or both the BSBA and Master of Accounting degrees depending upon his/her career interests.
Students admitted to Drake University who declare an accounting major are conditionally admitted to the School of Accounting as “pre-accounting” majors. As pre-accounting majors, students are assigned accounting faculty members as academic advisers and are invited to participate in School of Accounting activities. An application for full admission to the school must be filed with the director of the school when admission requirements have been met, typically in the fall semester of the junior year. This requirement applies to accounting majors and double majors that include accounting and joint accounting majors.
Honors and Accreditations
Drake is one of only three colleges and universities in Iowa to be accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Approximately 170 of the more than 800 accounting programs in the United States have attained this accreditation; fewer than 10 accounting programs outside the United States are accredited by AACSB International.
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Nearly 53 percent of workers in Taiwan will accept high-risk jobs if the price is right, according to the results of a survey released by the 1111 Job Bank yesterday.
The survey was conducted between Oct. 28 and Nov. 12 on 1,300 workers, with a margin of error of 2.7 percent.
As to why a person would take a high-risk job, 42.38 percent of the respondents said these jobs usually offer high pay, 39.92 percent said they would earn big money in a short period of time, 30 percent said this would help them through the hard times of unemployment, and 24.23 percent said these jobs would enrich their life experience.
The top-10 high-risk professions named by the respondents were high-voltage electricity engineering, chemical manufacturing, high-rise window cleaning, quarry blasting, fire-fighting, oil and propane delivery, being a police officer, stunt performing, medical waste disposal, and mining.
As to the degree of risk involving their present jobs, the respondents graded an average of 3.84 on a 10-point scale.
Those respondents from the medical and biochemical sectors consider their professions the most dangerous (4.7 points), followed by those working in the traditional manufacturing sector (4.3 points) and dining, tourism and entertainment sectors (4.1 points).
The survey found that less than 20 percent of the workers will take workplace safety into consideration in picking their jobs, with 61 percent citing career development as their priority.
Also, more than 50 percent of the respondents are unaware of the fact that workers in some high-risk professions are not entitled to insurance because of rejection by insurance companies, according to the survey.
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To Morocco via the Peace Corps
November 30, 2004
Mitzi Shultes flew from Oklahoma City to Philadelphia on September 11, 2004.
She met up with 53 other volunteers, and together they became orientated to their team before boarding a bus for New York City. From there, they left on a flight bound for Casablanca. Now, in the city of Khemisset, about an hour and a half from Rabat, Mitzi is working as a Peace Corps volunteer. She never thought life would steer her in this direction.
It was on a trip to Dallas two years ago that Mitzi had a chance to re-evaluate her life. She went to see Tears of the Sun, a film that is primarily a portrayal of war. Mitzi saw something else. One of the secondary characters was a woman, a doctor, who had given up her practice in the States to work in Africa among an impoverished community. "My sister's a doctor," Mitzi says, "and I know how much schooling she has done. To think of her giving that up to go down and help people in another country is amazing. I ended up going back and seeing the movie again. I wanted to see the familiar quote that ends the film, 'All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for a good man to sit back and do nothing.' That registered with me and began my search for where God might lead."
The incident at the movie theatre pointed her to scripture. "My life is meaningless," says Mitzi, recalling her reading of Ecclesiastes. "I began to realize that God has set up my life, or allowed certain things to happen and not happen, so that I wouldn't have any excuses to answer a call to go. I had never before thought that having no husband and no kids and no career that I cared about were advantages, but I knew I never wanted the picket fence suburban life. I had no reasons to avoid something like the Peace Corps."
After Mitzi graduated from OBU in 1998, she worked several jobs that related to her journalism major. None of them seemed to fit. "I realized that I was working to pay rent and pay for a car and pay for all these things that represent the American Dream, things I never really set out to have," she says. Then Mitzi moved to Colorado, where she began working with a church's youth program. "It is really OBU that indirectly prepared me for a life of ministry," Mitzi says. "Even though I never thought I would be a missionary, because of the Christian environment at OBU, I was prepared to adapt. Maybe that made it easier to have no excuses in deciding to go to Morocco. OBU exposed me to missions as an option, and I feel that the Peace Corps is essentially mission work for me."
Morocco is a country that is nearly 100 percent Muslim. Even though its location is in Northern Africa, it is considered to be part of the Middle East mindset because of its religious, Mideast Arab ties. "It's a little daunting to think about," Mitzi says. Divided into four teams, the Peace Corps volunteers will teach English in youth centers, work in small business development, help with heath issues, and also assist in environmental concerns. Mitzi is working in a youth center. "My motivation is to go help people," she says, "and my actions can speak louder than my words. Mother Teresa's book, A Simple Path, points this out. It says, 'Love means nothing if it's not shared.' She shared Jesus through what she did, instead of what she said. I want to be like that. The verse in James about works accompanying faith also helped me affirm my decision as well."
Today, Mitzi says she has a fuller appreciation for ministry. "You can't pigeon hole it, that it has to be done this way or that," she says. Although she is not excited about wearing long skirts, a wedding band, and making sure her arms are covered, it is this way - to Morocco by way of the Peace Corps - that she is expressing her Christian mission.
To contact Mitzi, email her at firstname.lastname@example.org or visit http://www.geocities.com/mitzishultes/ morocco.html.
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The largest implication of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is broad distribution of the excellent US healthcare system. Cost-benefit ratios should always be considered when selecting between equivalent or near-equivalent treatments. The wider the disparity between cost and benefit, the more legitimate and crucial the cost-benefit analysis. While no treatment should be excluded solely on a cost basis, balance between the need to treat many patients and the financial limitations must be considered.
The impact on daily practice is completely unknown. For independent physician practices, the realities of overhead expenses, time available for patient care, and regulatory requirements can only be assessed when the specific requirements for reporting and reimbursement are clear. Many or maybe most of the practical aspects will depend on the currently uninsured population’s willingness to purchase healthcare insurance or to apply for—and be granted—public assistance. I do have significant concern as to who will be the gatekeeper or tax collector. I am quite uncertain as to whether the ACA can be operationalized, although I prefer testing it in its current iteration rather than starting all over again.
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Long-winded query ends on a high note
In the extensive question-and-answer session Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates held last week at a conference of the company's "Most Valued...
In the extensive question-and-answer session Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates held last week at a conference of the company's "Most Valued Professionals," one man's rambling introduction to his question was getting tedious.
As murmurs of "get on with it" rose from the crowd in the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, the questioner revealed a piece of ancient Microsoft history that was about to become much more valuable.
The man, who never identified himself, brandished a copy of Altair BASIC, Microsoft's first product developed in 1975 for MITS, the maker of what is widely regarded as the first personal computer.
He said his father bought the software, rather than copying it — a problem that prompted Gates to pen his famous "Open Letter to Hobbyists."
"I mean, there was a lot of software piracy back then of this product," the man said. "But we looked back through the garage over this past weekend and we found the original."
Then, to the delight of the audience, he read a bit of literature that came with this early piece of software.
"If any problems with MITS software are encountered, feel free to give us a call — and the phone number is listed," he said. "The software department is extension 3, the joint authors of Altair Basic Interpreter — Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Monte Davidoff — would be glad to assist you."
On top of TV
Global shipments of cable set-top boxes reached 27.5 million units in 2006, a 76 percent increase from 15.6 million units the year before.
The crowd roared with laughter.
The man finally got to his question: He asked for an autograph, and Gates obliged.
Later, another questioner joked, "I actually brought my copy of Microsoft Bob for you to sign."
Gates replied, "I'm glad people know to laugh."
A report last week put some economic implications of the "information-technology revolution" in perspective.
"Digital Prosperity," published by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (www.itif.org), looks at IT's impact on productivity, employment, efficient markets, goods and services, and innovation.
The authors conclude that investments in IT have "an impact on worker productivity three to five times that of non-IT capital," such as buildings and machines.
Further, they report that IT was responsible for two-thirds of total productivity growth in the United States from 1995 to 2002 and "virtually all of the growth in labor productivity."
While IT is a great enabler of economic growth, the authors conclude that the sector's own job-creation prospects are limited:
"IT jobs reached their peak in 2000 and as of March 2006 accounted for 3.76 million jobs, or 3.36 percent of total private sector employment. IT jobs have rebounded, but are not growing faster than the overall economy. Moreover, going forward, it is unlikely that the IT industry will be producing job gains out of line with its size."
On the record
Investments: HaloSource, a Bothell company focused on antimicrobial technologies for safe water and infection control, announced last week a $6 million funding round from Unilever Technology Ventures, the investing arm of United Kingdom-based consumer giant Unilever.
New products: Redmond-based Noetix, which develops business-intelligence software, has introduced Noetix Generator for Cognos BI, which works with Oracle E-Business Suite.
Download, a column of news bits, observations and miscellany, is gathered by The Seattle Times technology staff. We can be reached at 206-464-2265 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
When vice president of Sub Pop Records Megan Jasper isn't running things at the office, she's working in her garden at her West Seattle home where she and her husband Brian spend time relaxing.
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Each week, WAMU 88.5's Metro Connection reaches across D.C., Maryland and Virginia to gather the sounds and stories that capture the current events, culture and personalities driving the Washington region.
As Washington cruises through the sunny days of summer, we decided to go... to the dark side. This week, we're all about the mysterious and unknown: from hidden tunnels and zombies to the search for Sasquatch. So pull up an armchair -- or a beach chair -- and get ready for some Sherlockian digging into the strange and surreal!
[Music: "Every Little Bit Hurts" by John Davis from Title Tracks]
Humans have long been fascinated by the idea of Bigfoot. And in our region, few have pursued this mysterious creature with as much zeal as Billy Willard, a Virginia native whose interest led to the founding of Sasquatch Watch of Virginia. Rebecca Sheir heads to an undisclosed wilderness area in Fauquier County -- where Willard and his sons reportedly encountered the elusive beast -- and hears about other reported sightings around the region.
Mind-controlling wasps? Zombie critters controlled by worms? It's not just science fiction; our region recently saw a mysterious example of zombie-like behavior among insects. Environment Reporter Sabri Ben-Achour puts on his Sherlock hat to explore the enigma of how tiny parasites can take over much larger animals... including us.
[Music: "Zombie" by Fela Kuti & Afrika 70 from Zombie]
You might know about the old streetcar tunnels under Dupont Circle, but nearly a century ago, an entirely different -- and lesser-known -- series of tunnels was discovered on P Street NW. Rebecca Sheir visits the area with D.C. preservation buff Kim Bender, and hears about the mysterious tunnel system, and how this bizarre collection of passageways was the work of a man well versed in bugs and bigamy.
[Music: "Tunnel of Love" by Wanda Jackson from Queen of Rockabilly]
One of the longest-running puzzles for Washington commuters is the lack of subway service to Dulles Airport. And this week is finally bringing an apparent compromise to the dispute among local officials over how to build and pay for that Metrorail stop. Transportation reporter David Schultz gets us up to speed on this ongoing dispute, and whether all sides really are approaching an agreement.
[Music: "From A to B" by The Futureheads from The Futureheads / "Subway" by the Bee Gees...
It's been three years since the Supreme Court overturned Washington's historic ban on handguns. Before the Supreme Court decision, approximately 70,000 guns were registered in the city, mostly for law enforcement and security. But since the laws changed to allow individuals to keep a gun in their home, only 1,300 guns have been registered for that purpose. So here's the puzzle: Why isn't legal gun ownership more common in the District? Reporter Emily Friedman posed that question to a D.C....
When so much of our entertainment comes from computer and TV screens, you might not expect an old-fashioned, brick-and-mortar games store to survive. But Kathleen Donahue says people still go ga-ga over old-school puzzles. The Capitol Hill resident recently opened Labyrinth Games and Puzzles, and says while she doesn't quite peddle "puzzle drugs," she does have an increasing number of people coming in to get their fix, many begging her for the "harder stuff." Rebecca Sheir pays a visit.
Puzzles have been popular, inexpensive entertainment since the Great Depression. And for one puzzle maker in Maryland, they're not just a form of entertainment; they're art. Thom Spencer takes months to design, paint and cut wooden puzzles that involve materials from acrylic paint to cupcake sprinkles. Courtney Collins spent an afternoon in his workshop to learn about his creative process and his influences.
[Music: "Jigsaw Puzzle" by The Rolling Stones from Beggar's Banquet]
In the spirit of Independence Day, we meet some folks who like to raise a little ruckus: From a Civil War-era Radical Republican known as "the dictator of Congress" to a legendary DJ who's been rousing rabble and rhythm in Ocean City for 30 years. Plus, standing up to the world's largest retailer, and the burgeoning battle between the U.S. Park Police and pedicabs.
[Music: "Every Little Bit Hurts" by John Davis from Title Tracks / "Stars and Stripes" by Jazzin' Jacks from Snatches of...
On July 4, 1861, President Lincoln called Congress into an extraordinary special session. One of the House of Representatives' most powerful members at the time was Thaddeus Stevens: a flamboyant Radical Republican committed to creating equal opportunity for all. Rebecca Sheir visits the House's official historian, Matthew Wasniewski, to learn more about the so-called "Dictator of Congress."
[Music: "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals from You Get What You Give]
It's been a rough couple of weeks for the U.S. Park Police. The latest outcry against them involves a possible crackdown against pedicabs, the bike-drawn rickshaws you see on the National Mall. Transportation reporter David Schultz brings us the latest, including an incident involving a college student who says a Park Police sergeant roughed her up and then charged her with assaulting an officer.
[Music: "A to B" by The Futureheads from The Futureheads / "Bicycle Race (Karaoke Version...
The District is in store for another summer of no-holds-barred, independent plays, musicals, dance and other performances, with the sixth annual Capital Fringe Festival. Running from July 7 through July 24, Fringe is the only unjuried, self-producing, open-access festival in the D.C. area, and Rebecca Sheir speaks with the Fest's executive director, Julianne Brienza, to learn how the anything-but-mainstream magic happens.
Four Wal-Mart stores are scheduled to open in the nation's capital next year. And that's making one coalition of community groups in the District pretty uneasy. Courtney Collins recently attended a rally held by this coalition, which says it wants to make sure the world's largest retailer plays fair.
[Music: "Fight" by The Tragically Hip from Road Apples]
The new president of the Washington Teachers Union came to power on a platform of opposing former DCPS chancellor Michelle Rhee. Education reporter Kavitha Cardoza speaks with Saunders about what he's achieved so far and how he hopes to change the current teacher evaluation system, or IMPACT.
[Music: "Teacher (Karaoke Version)" by Stingray Music (Karaoke) from Karaoke in the Style of Jethro Tull - Vol. 2]
Activists say the case against Wisconsin dairy farmer Vernon Hershberger is about raw milk — and much more. His supporters have turned the case into a rallying cry for personal food freedom and the rights of farmers and consumers to enter into private contracts without government intervention.
The Chicago school board on Wednesday voted to close dozens of schools, despite community protests that the closings disproportionately affect minority students. The Chicago Teachers Union and community activists plan to show their disapproval by campaigning against elected officials who disagreed with them.
You've probably seen it in your inbox before: Someone who claims to have come into a fortune needs your help. You can share in the profits — if you send along a deposit or your bank account number. Boston Globe correspondent Finn Brunton talks about the history of the "Nigerian prince" or "419" scam, which actually got its start long before email.
When you give to WAMU, your tax-deductible membership gift helps make possible award-winning programs such as Morning Edition, All Things Considered, The Diane Rehm Show, The Kojo Nnamdi Show, and other favorites.
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Live Earth Run for Water FREE Training Guide
Live Earth has teamed up with Active Networks to offer you free training plans to prepare for the Live Earth Run for Water on April 18th. The beneficial tips are written by Coach Jenny Hadfield and will help you regardless of your current level. These plans are meant to get you ready and in-shape for running or walking the 6K, as well as bring awareness to the global water crisis.
It's easy to get started. All you have to do is download your free run or walk training plan to take advantage of all the training tools provided by ActiveTrainer--including the mileage log, hydration calculator, customized analysis reports and more. This plan is completely FREE--no strings attached. We just hope you read about this important cause and train your best!
Both the run and walk plans are eight-week programs, which include runs, walks, cross-training, and rest days to allow your body to acclimate to the progression of the plan. In addition to the workout program, this training plan provides fun Live Earth tips on how you can help preserve the planet and solve the water crisis. This program is sure to help you get fit, lose weight, and get prepared for the 6K event of a lifetime.
Click here for more information and to download your guide to get started!!
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Accessible Property Register
APR are accessible property specialists. They provide a register of accessible and adapted residential property for sale and rent, including retirement properties, social housing and accessible holiday accommodation.
Bayer Schering Pharma: MS Life
Their mission is ‘Science for a better life – Medical progress for the benefit of the patient’. The company engages in research on new drugs which, as innovative therapies, they hope will make an essential contribution toward improving people’s quality of life.
The Bladder and Bowel Foundation
The Bladder and Bowel Foundation is the UK charity for people with bladder and bowel disorders. B&BF provide information and support for all types of bladder and bowel related problems for patients, their families, carers and healthcare professionals.
Carers UK is the voice of Carers. They are an organisation of carers fighting to ensure that the true value of carers’ contribution to society is recognised and that carers get the practical, financial and emotional support they need.
Care Co-ordination Network Cymru
Care Co-ordination Network Cymru is the lead organisation in Wales promoting and supporting care co-ordination and key working for disabled children across the 0-25 age range and their families.
Tel: 01978 750685
Carers Trust works to improve support, services and recognition for anyone living with the challenges of caring, unpaid, for a family member or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or addiction problems. With their Network Partners, they aim to ensure that information, advice and practical support are available to all carers across the UK.
Carers Week campaign for greater recognition and support for carers, and inform those who are unaware, of the services and benefits they are entitled to.
Contact a Family
Contact a Family provides support, advice and information for families with disabled children, no matter what their condition or disability. Their vision is that all families with disabled children are empowered to live the lives they choose to live, and achieve their full potential, for themselves, for the communities they live in and for society. They work to remove the barriers imposed by society which prevent families with disabled children achieving their full potential.
The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives
The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives is a New York-based non-profit organisation of more than 270 leading neuroscientists committed to advancing public awareness about the progress and promise of brain research and to disseminating information on the brain in an understandable and accessible fashion. The Dana Alliance does not fund research or make grants. They are supported entirely by the Dana Foundation, a private philanthropic foundation with principal interests in brain science, immunology, and arts education.
DIAL UK, Serving the Disability Advice Network
DIAL UK is a national organisation for a network of approximately 120 local Disability Information and Advice Line services (DIALs) run by and for disabled people. DIAL information and advice services are based throughout the UK and provide information and advice to disabled people and others on all aspects of living with a disability. All DIAL services are currently working to meet strict new quality standards.
Direct Enquiries, The Nationwide Access Register, was developed in partnership with RADAR and the Employers’ Forum on Disability to provide people with information about disabled access in buildings and premises all across the UK. Direct Enquiries works with all the organisations registered, who provide Direct Enquiries with comprehensive information about their disabled access and facilities.
Disabled Living Foundation
DLF is a national charity that provides free, impartial advice about all types of daily living equipment and mobility products for disabled adults and children, older people, their carers and families. The DLF aim to improve the quality of life of people living with a disability by finding independent living solutions.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) established under the Equality Act 2006 – accountable for its public funds, but independent of government. This commission brings together the work of the three previous equality commissions – the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality, and the Disability Rights Commission – and also takes on responsibility for the other aspects of equality. Opening on 1 October 2007, the new commission works towards eliminating discrimination, reducing inequality, protecting human rights and building good relations, to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to participate in society.
Tel (press office): 020 3117 0235
England Main Helpline: 0845 604 6610
Wales Main Helpline: 0845 604 8810
Scotland Main Helpline: 0845 604 5510
The Disabled Workers Cooperative
The Disabled Workers Co-operative is a registered charity that helps disabled people to help themselves. Our aim is twofold – to raise the independence of disabled people (for those that want it) by enabling them to take an active role in the economy and achieve a greater sense of self-worth and also to raise awareness of the contribution that disabled people can make to society. They provide an online database and eJobs Portal aimed at jobseekers with disabilities.
Genetic Alliance UK
Genetic Alliance UK is the national charity of 150 patient organisations, supporting all those affected by genetic conditions.
Health6.com is an human edited directory for health and business related sites.
With an initial purpose of developing new mobility aids, Mobility Trust now work to fund them. They concentrate on providing powered wheelchairs and scooters for severely disabled children and adults who cannot obtain them through statutory sources or purchase such equipment themselves. Mobility Trust feel it is essential that all disabled people be given the chance to attain their own potential for independence through mobility. They give direct help to disabled people, whether effected by a well know or obscure condition.
Oyster Healthcare Communications Online
Oyster is a specialist medical publisher. Their quarterly magazines and news services in key medical specialties provide support to primary and secondary care teams.
Initially starting out as a directory of UK websites which provided information of health, disease and related issues, Patient UK now aim to be a reliable and comprehensive source of health and disease information, mainly aimed at the UK general public, but of interest to all.
RADAR (Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation)
RADAR is the UK’s largest disability campaigning network, with over 900 individual and organisational members. Their vision is a just and equal society whose strength is human difference. Their mission is to enable individuals, networks and policy-makers to do things differently.
The Regional Driving Assessment Centres
The RDAC specialises in providing assessments for people who want to learn to drive or return to driving with a disability, or following a debilitating illness. They operate in Birmingham, Oxford, Cannock & Hull, aiming to help people maintain independence through mobility.
Registered Charity No. 1122214
Spinal Cord Tumour Forum
For people in the UK who have had or whose lives have been affected by benign spinal cord tumours.
Talking Newspapers Association UK
The Talking Newspapers Association UK provide national and local newspapers and magazines on audio tape, computer disk, e-mail, internet download and CD-ROM for visually impaired and disabled people who find reading a strain.
If you know of any organisations that you think should be displayed on this page, please email your suggestion to email@example.com
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Several people whose lives have been shattered by gun violence will be watching from the packed House gallery as President Barack Obama gives his State of the Union speech.
But not Bill Sherlach, whose wife, Mary, was killed in the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14.
Washington officials fighting over gun control invited him to attend Obama's speech Tuesday night in the House chamber. Sherlach declined.
He said that rather than be the nationally televised face of tragedy, he prefers working within a group that wants the gun issue addressed as part of a comprehensive effort to reduce violence. He wants to work with Sandy Hook Promise, a group that deals with more than just gun control. Mary Sherlach was the Sandy Hook Elementary School psychologist.
Sherlach, who said he had other obligations the day of the speech, explained he also didn't want to be part of the heated rift over gun control that politics and dueling news conferences seem to inflame.
"I think the political aspect pulls people to one extreme or the other extreme," he said.
Rep. Jim Himes, Sherlach's congressman in Connecticut, had invited him to the president's address.
Victims of tragedy long have played major roles in the nation's most dramatic public policy debates, and there are few more bitter, or expensive than this year's legislative battle over gun control. Victims make riveting witnesses to wrenching problems and the consequences of doing nothing to prevent the nightmares they know.
The age of global multimedia sharing, however, opens them as never before to becoming pawns and targets in fights that can be more about the legacies and ambitions of others than their own lost loved ones.
Unfortunately, there's no shortage of gun victims in a nation that saw nearly 8,600 gun violence deaths in 2011, according to the FBI, or of politicians looking for real people to bolster their positions on gun control, mental health and other issues. There still will be representatives from Newtown in the House gallery for Obama's prime-time speech.
After a gunman shot his own mother at home and then 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook, Obama pledged to tighten gun laws. And then came a parade of the sorrowful and the defiant filing through the virtual public square.
At the White House, Obama met with Newtown families. At a public hearing in Connecticut, Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son, Jesse, was killed at the school, questioned the need for any civilian to own semi-automatic, military-style weapons. "The Second Amendment shall not be infringed!" someone shouted back.
In Washington, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a shot to the head during a 2011 assassination attempt, told a Senate committee that Congress must revamp gun laws. Her husband, Mark Kelly, got into a terse discussion at the witness table with National Rifle Association's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre.
At the Super Bowl, the Sandy Hook Elementary School chorus gave a stirring rendition of "America the Beautiful" that had some players on the sidelines and fans in the stands in tears.
The State of the Union address will showcase the results of intense campaigns by the White House and members of Congress to bring victims of gun violence, including some Newtown families, to the Capitol.
Cleopatra and Nathaniel Pendleton, the parents of a Chicago teenager slain just days after performing during Obama's inauguration, will sit with first lady Michelle Obama during the speech. Hadiya Pendleton, 15, was shot to death Jan. 29 in a park close to the Obama's Chicago home. Police say a gunman hopped a fence and opened fire on a group of young people. She was a majorette with the King College Prep band.
Twenty-four House members are bringing people affected by gun violence, according to Rep. Jim Langevin, D-R.I., who spearheaded the effort. The guests include Natalie Hammond, Sandy Hook's lead teacher, who was shot in the foot, leg and hand but managed to crawl to safety behind a door. She'll be the guest of Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will have as her guest a fourth-grader who attends a different elementary school in Newtown, but recently wrote to her about gun control.
"To have them in the gallery during the speech is a strong reminder to Congress that the American people want action on these issues," said Langevin, who has used a wheelchair since being paralyzed in a shooting accident as a teen.
Langevin was a 16-year-old Boy Scout cadet working with police in Warwick, R.I. He was in a locker room watching officers examine a gun they thought was unloaded, when the weapon accidentally fired. A bullet ricocheted off a metal locker and severed Langevin's spinal cord.
Would you give this guy your number? Most likely, says a new study.
So, who won "American Idol"? Click here to find out.
How did a photographer get an inside view of a bear's mouth? (Video)
An NFL player relieves himself of his feelings toward the IRS.
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By John Anderson
A SUNRAYSIA citrus group has lashed out at the State Government for its decision to wind back funding for fruit fly control.
Sunraysia Citrus Growers chairman Vince Demaria yesterday said he was disappointed at reports the government intended to declare Queensland fruit fly (Qfly) endemic and radically cut spending on controlling the pest in the region. The cost of controlling fruit fly has risen to unsustainable levels, according to the government, hitting $9 million last year.
The government has told the horticulture sector it intends to declare Qfly endemic across most of the state and spend far less controlling the pest in a thin strip of land along the Murray River – from Barham to Mildura.
But Mr DeMaria accused the government of pulling the carpet out from under the horticulture industry.
He said such a short-sighted decision would have a devastating impact on the citrus industry in Sunraysia.
“Citrus growers have worked co-operatively with the State Government over the past few seasons to fight the Qfly problem and now the government is looking to rush an ill-founded policy with no consultation and short time-frames,” Mr DeMaria said.
“Citrus along with other horticultural industries require more time to develop new models to deal with Qfly into the future.
“SCG are calling on (Agriculture) Minister Peter Walsh and our local MP Mr Peter Crisp to intervene and support our horticulture industries to develop a new sustainable Qfly management approach in a timely and cost effective manner.
For more of this story, purchase your copy of Thursday's Sunraysia Daily 23/08/2012.
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Housing Affordability in Australia - what first home buyers should do before entering the property market.
In this guide we will cover:
The issue of housing affordability in Australia now is very different to what it was six months ago. Since the end of 2007 we have seen interest rates rise, consumer confidence plummet, and global credit markets contract.
So what do these changes mean for first home buyers?
Well, for starters, it's not all doom and gloom.
These changes bring unique opportunities for first home buyers and potentially eliminate some of the barriers to entry that new home buyers were faced with this time last year.
Let's take a closer look. Since 2007:
Already Bought Your First Home?
Did you know that even small savings can make a massive difference to your finances?
Housing Affordability - Run the numbers before you do anything else!
The question of housing affordability is still crucial. Before you take any steps into the property market you should run the numbers and determine if you can truly afford to buy a home.
Can I afford it?
What if I can't afford it?
Don't get disheartened, do something about it! You're not alone.
Pay down debt, build your deposit and take the same steps to get your finances in order that you would if you were preparing to buy your first home. You have nothing to lose from improving your financial position! Keep reading...
Before you enter into anything...
Step back and take a look at things logically.
Don't rush into anything.
Take some time to think about why you want to buy property in the first place. It's not worth sacrificing everything just for the sake of home ownership and ending up miserable. There is more to life than servicing your mortgage. After all, it's typically a 25 - 30 year commitment.
It is important that you get this right. There are some free calculators on the Internet that may help you. Alternatively, Budgets Get Real can help you to run the figures and determine if you can afford the property that you want, and to build a deposit more quickly.
Renting VS Buying
The high cost of servicing a mortgage is one of the major issues regarding housing affordability. The truth of the matter is that you may be better off renting (and saving the amount that you would otherwise spend on mortgage repayments) than buying a property.
This is often an unpopular suggestion in Australia, where home ownership is often referred to as "the Australian Dream"... but it is an important option to consider. After all, Australian's are spending more on their mortgage repayments than ever before, and when you compare Australian house prices to Australian wages, property in Australia is currently amongst the most unaffordable in the world.1
One of the reasons that many people do well with property is that it forces then to put aside money that they may otherwise fritter away. If you have the ability to save a good portion of your income you may be better off using compound interest to your advantage and continuing to rent, or simply save a larger mortgage deposit.
In the end, whether you choose to rent or buy, it pays to begin saving what you'd need for a deposit. Even if no deposit home loans stick around (which I doubt that they will for much longer), there are some very good reasons for why you should save at least 10% to 20% deposit for your first home.
A Guide to Saving a Bigger Deposit
Top deposit building tips:
1. Pay Down Debt
Any outstanding debt will reduce your chances of getting a home loan, and reduce the amount that you can borrow for your first home.
2. Increase Your Savings
3. Review Your Expenses & Create a Budget
Budgets Get Real can give you a clear picture of your current financial position - including all of your income and expenses - from which you can easily create a budget. Use your budget to boost your savings and demonstrate your ability to successfully save money and meet your mortgage repayments.
Shares are another way to grow your deposit, and may provide a better return on investment. Shares can also be a more tax effective way to grow your deposit, depending on how you do it. But don't forget, with the promise of higher returns comes higher risk.
5. Find Some Extra Money
With regular saving you will not only meet your deposit goals, but prove to yourself (and your bank) that you have what it takes to meet your mortgage obligations and own your own home.
One of the downsides from the recent changes is that finding the finance you need may be more difficult. The fact of the matter is that banks have less money to lend than before, so they're going to be more selective about who they lend it to.
It is not necessarily those with the larger incomes who will get the loans, but those who can demonstrate their commitment (and ability) to save and meet the mortgage repayments.
How to Create a Compelling Report to Show your Bank
That you have what it takes to save money and meet the loan repayments -
Show them that you're committed
When you apply for your loan these are the sort of details that you will need to provide.
Showing them that you know exactly what is going on with your finances, and are well prepared, will set you apart from other mortgage applicants.
- The First Home Owners Grant ($7,000)
- Reduced or no stamp duty in your state
- Use of the new First Home Saver Accounts
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If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register or login before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
I was surfing the news and ran across this interesting article.
Researchers have developed technology designed to enable neighbors to pool their Wi-Fi Internet access to deliver better performance and exploit bandwidth that would otherwise sit idle.
Full article: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125587,00.asp
The idea would seem to be that neighbors could share a wireless ISP connection without compromising security. It's an interesting concept.
Hmmm. Kinda neat. I don't use wireless regardless though this idea would be fantastic for the regular web surfer and occasional AIM user. As for broadband shooting games (BF2 et al) I think I'll stick with my hardline. I still don't trust wireless connections. The signal fidelity is always at risk and there's a million different other waves in the air that could muddle the signal up.
[i]The problem with political jokes is they get elected.[/i]
The whole concept of wireless just seems creepy to me. I'm an old school geek - I luv wires. I still use a wired mouse and board and like to have my PC's wired w/ Cat 5. It seems to be more "under control" that way.
They are looking at doing some massive wireless stuff at my workplace and that will certainly help me make up my mind on whether to ditch the cables or not.
"We like our women like our gaming - Hardcore !" LongBlade, circa 2008
I use a wireless connection for my laptops in my home office. I absolutely love the freedom it gives me to work in any room in the house, including outside. I go full encryption and don't broadcast my network ID, though in truth there's really nothing that needs securing. Anyone who is so desperate to see whether I've corrected a few commas or periods on our latest reivew obviously needs to get a life...
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Dozens of Chicago's homeless -- primarily those with mental illnesses -- are being funneled into nursing homes through a network of salesmen, known as bed brokers, who have offered cash and gifts to shelter operators in exchange for the destitute.
At the city's oldest and largest shelter, Pacific Garden Mission on South State Street, as many as 15 men and women are shuttled monthly to privately owned, for-profit nursing homes-- sometimes resulting in violence for the homeless, other patients and the community, nursing home and state records show.
Higher vacancy rates in the nursing home industry have led Chicago-area facilities to troll the shelters and hospital wards for patients, according to nursing home owners and shelter employees. This little-known taxpayer-funded pipeline is generating tens of thousands of dollars for private owners.
Rev. Leo Barbee, director of the men's program at Pacific Garden, said he has accepted "appreciation gifts," including a free dinner, baseball tickets, and Chicago Bulls tickets, from brokers seeking to convert shelter residents into instant nursing home patients, but he has declined offers of cash.
Barbee said his only motivation is to help fragile people get off dangerous streets. Nursing homes offer a safe haven for many homeless people who have mental illnesses in addition to substance abuse problems.
He said he has provided dozens of patients for more than 10 brokers, who call the shelter once a month, asking, "Do you have somebody for me today?"
Nursing home administrators sometimes send a van to pick up homeless people, or the shelter provides bus tokens for prospective patients, he said.
Increasingly, hundreds of Illinois nursing homes established as way stations for senior citizens are embracing a new role as long-term care facilities for younger, able-bodied patients with mental illnesses. Propelling this shift is a migration to home or hospice care by the elderly.
On Sunday and Monday, the Tribune reported that a growing number of nursing homes have filled empty beds with psychiatric patients who have been treated or discharged from state-funded facilities.
Today, at least 562 nursing homes hold about 12,000 psychiatric patients as young as 20 years old. The mixture of two vulnerable populations--the elderly and those with mental illnesses--has resulted in hundreds of incidents of abuse and assault.
However, rising vacancy rates continue to outpace the number of available patients, compelling dozens of nursing homes to employ people to scout the shelters and hospitals for new patients, said one of the state's largest nursing home owners, Morris Esformes.
The Chicago businessman has filled hundreds of beds with psychiatric patients, and he said he also employs three people to scout hospitals and shelters for even more patients.
The homeless represent a largely untapped market of prospective patients. They suffer a high rate of mental illness--hundreds are believed to be former state psychiatric patients--often the product of years of drug or alcohol abuse, Esformes said.
Officials at the National Coalition for the Homeless, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, said transfers of homeless people to nursing homes appear to be unique to Chicago, although the homeless have been exploited by other health care organizations over the years.
Every filled bed generates up to $100 a day for nursing home owners, plus an extra $10 a day from the Illinois Department of Public Aid, which provides a financial supplement to homes that accept psychiatric patients, state records show.
Officials from Public Aid, which oversees nursing home funding, said there is nothing inappropriate about transferring homeless people to nursing facilities.
Before formal admission, both a nursing home doctor and an independent physician under contract to Public Aid must verify that prospective patients suffer a debilitating physical or mental condition that requires treatment, Public Aid officials said.
Nursing homes must also document that they have the services and staff to meet patients' needs, whether it is specialized psychotherapy or social activities, state officials said. However, state Department of Public Health inspection reports show that dozens of homes fail to provide adequate care and services for mentally ill patients.
Several other shelter and health care officials contacted by the Tribune said they have been contacted by bed brokers but refuse to deal with them.
Sharon Gottlieb, founder and director of the Elders in Distress program, said bed brokers are simply trying to generate new business.
"I refuse to do any business with these people," said Gottlieb, a nationally recognized advocate for the homeless and elderly since 1986. "Nobody wanted the homeless before. Now there's a buck to be made."
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On Monday, June 20, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) will deliver the keynote address at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) conference themed “Democracy, Human Rights and Governance: Today’s Challenges and Effective Responses.” Senator Cardin will discuss the United States’ role promoting democracy and human rights from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests taking place in the Middle East today, known as the “Arab Spring.”
· WHO: Senator Ben Cardin to deliver keynote address at USAID conference, “Democracy, Human Rights and Governance: Today’s Challenges and Effective Responses”
· WHEN: Monday, June 20, 2011 – 2:30 PM.
· WHERE: Hilton Hotel
950 North Stafford Street
Media who wish to attend must RSVP for entrance, please RSVP to Gina Jackson at firstname.lastname@example.org no later than noon Friday, June 17.
Senator Cardin currently serves as Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection. He is also Co-Chairman of the U.S Helsinki Commission, which contributes to formulation of U.S. foreign policy on human rights, economic development and democracy. He has served on the Commission since 1993.
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FCC Chairman Genachowski’s recent letter has instigated a lot of talk about Net Neutrality, some of it apocalyptical (“The end of the Internet is here!”), some of it reasonable (“Nothing has changed, business as usual”). Both sides of the discussion have valid points to their arguments, but what really is the impact?
Without going into details (I will leave that to the experts), the FCC has reset the status quo to what it was before the Comcast court decision. As Genachowski himself states in the document “…this approach would restore the status quo”, resetting the ability of the FCC to manage broadband as they have in the past, preserving the FCC’s mission.
This is not “the nuclear option” that had been proposed by some, which would have made every aspect of broadband service open to regulation and restriction, and it is also not a capitulation to the Comcast ruling which would essentially make the FCC powerless against ISPs. Instead, as Genachowski himself headlined in his letter, this was a third way to look at the problem. Under this framework, the FCC would ensure that open access to networks is maintained, and focuses on the connections to the network, and not the content or services that run on that transport.
So now we are back to where we were before the Comcast ruling. However, there still are some concerns about stifling innovation and curtailing investments in broadband, but I think much of the uncertainty has been removed for ISPs (Procera customers) that want to continue to invest in their infrastructures because the evolving needs of their customers require it.
But….we are not exactly back where we were two years ago. Several changes have already come about because of this whole exercise.
- ISPs know that they MUST be transparent in what they do on their networks, and consumers are watching them very closely, so no funny business is likely to slip by end users. This is a very good thing for consumers, and will force ISPs to think twice before they implement new policies, as they will be tried in the court of opinion well before any court case could be filed, and consumers will vote with their wallets and switch if practices are not to their liking.
- There is general agreement that applications should not be discriminated against during normal operations (I qualify that because congestion management is still a problem, especially for real-time services).
- Reasonable network management is OK. Although “reasonable” is open to interpretation, I think again the court of public opinion and consumer’s wallets will guide ISPs to a mutually agreeable definition (and this is also where congestion management is again an issue).
- The door is open to ISPs that want to be creative and find ways to have service plans that innovate new services and deliver LOWER cost options for subscribers that use the network less and higher cost for the users that consume more resources.
So what is the impact of Net Neutrality on Procera?, neutral to positive. I don’t see any ISPs “behaving badly”, and no application vendors claiming discrimination. I do see smart phone customers still complaining, and some broadband customers concerned about video and voice performance, but our “reasonable” network management solutions can help ISP’s take their service to the next level. Creating better customer experiences and evolving their networks to keep up with the innovations of technology.
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Yesterday, a workshop was held for the Greenbelt Metro Area and MD 193 Corridor Sector Plan, which covered land use scenarios for several areas of the sector plan, known as “focus areas.” Three time frames (short-term, medium-term, and long-term) were used to describe when these scenarios could be realized. Short-term is meant to be 1 to 6 years, medium-term is 7 to 15 years, and long-term is 15 to 30 years.
Focus Area 1: Greenway Center
This area has poor connectivity with a sea of parking and limited entrance points that hinders transit and walkability. The sector plan will call for a reduction in the parking lots through enhancing existing environmental amenities and incorporating new public/open spaces. The project team proposed filling in the parking area with a modest amount of retail and housing over the long-term (market constraints would likely prevent this from occurring sooner). Introducing residential units would allow activity to be maintained outside of working hours and thus provide support for more retail. It is assumed that there will be a lack of funds needed to support the demolition and replacement of the current buildings. But with the gradual infill of new development, a grid pattern would still be created that would bring connectivity and a new sense of place to the area.
Focus Area 2: Capital Office Park, Golden Triangle, Belle Point, and University Square
With the presence of the Beltway and Kenilworth Avenue, this area is divided into three pods that are fairly isolated from the rest of the sector plan area. This separation is unfortunate because it promotes auto traffic and acts as a resistance to mixed-use development opportunities and general connectivity. Thus, office parks exist where a variety of businesses and dwelling units could have been brought together. Building better sidewalks and adding a designated bike path along Greenbelt Road can help alleviate some of this isolation, but the interchanges and grade separation of the Beltway and Kenilworth Avenue would be very difficult and costly to overcome. The plan supports modest retail/office infill in the office parks, as well as improving the Lakecrest Drive and American Legion intersection by University Square. But overall, it supports retaining existing uses.
Focus Area 3: Greenbelt station’s North Core and South Core
As discussed in last week’s meeting, the north core could see either mixed-use development or a major employer by the Greenbelt station. If a major employer moves in, it may induce contractors to locate in the Greenway Center, Capital Office Park, or Golden Triangle. If the employer was GSA, it would probably not bring many employees to the south core. The plan could call for building a trail along Indian Creek, which would act as an extension of Indian Creek trail and run adjacent to the north and south core. A pedestrian path could be built over Indian Creek that would connect Breezewood Drive to the south core. Because of the sensitive nature of Indian Creek, it would probably not be a road. However, a road is proposed to connect the north and south core, and a shuttle system could run between them. A pedestrian bridge is also proposed, bringing another connection with Hollywood, although the location for it has not been confirmed (it was suggested that it could be located near Huron Street, between the north and south core). For the south core, it is likely that the southern portion would be multi-family residential and the northern portion would be townhouses. Potentially, this could be built in the short-term. In total, about 1,000 dwelling units and 115,000 square feet of retail and/or office space are proposed for the south core.
Focus Area 4: Franklin Park, Beltway Plaza, and MD 193 Corridor
With the lack of obstacles such as a creek or a highway, this area probably has the most potential in the sector plan area to become a walkable and well-connected place. Beltway Plaza could see its rear parking lot filled in with multi-family housing in the short to medium-term. Beltway Plaza itself could redevelop over the long-term, with the existing mall being replaced with smaller, mixed-use development. This would create a town center atmosphere with a more grid-like pattern that would provide at least one direct connection from Greenbelt Road to the rear of the plaza. If a major employer moved into Greenbelt Station’s north core, it could bring a greater incentive to redevelop this area, but it would also bring more traffic. Overall, we would like to see a general grid pattern take over this area, with stronger pedestrian connections linking Berwyn Heights, Beltway Plaza, Springhill Lake, and Greenbelt Middle School more closely together.
There was a general consensus to relocate the fire station to near the MD-193/BW Parkway interchange, which would reduce response times. There was also support for replacing surface parking with structured parking throughout the sector plan area, but the project team noted that the cost was too high to justify the demand for the short-term. Finally, a suggestion was made to shift transit stops from the periphery to the center of the focus areas to encourage more pedestrians.
The next meeting will be held on Thursday, April 19, at 6:30pm at Springhill Lake Elementary School. It will be a workshop that will present and discuss the preferred alternative for the future of the sector plan area.
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Russia, the Africa of the North
Cameroon, Ethiopia, Congo and Russia. What do these four nations have in common?
They are part of a group of six nations, which also includes Vietnam and Peru, that currently, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, have at least two journalists each in prison because of their writing alone.
Only eight countries on the entire planet have more incarcerated journalists according to CPJ. Russia, it seems, is the Africa of the North.
The two journalists currently being persecuted by the Kremlin are Anatoly Sardayev, editor of Mordoviya Segodnya and Boris Stomakhin, editor of Radikalnaya Politika.
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"They're very similar in certain ways — essentially both Apple and Google want to rewrite the rulebook; they don't want to do things in conventional ways. They want to come up with a better way — for everything; that's not even just the technology but the work processes, the work environment, everything has to be unique and better, so they're very similar in that way. One of the ways that they're different has to do with essentially trust of employees. Apple is very secretive within the company; people working on Macs don't know anything about the new iPods, et cetera. Google is extremely open within the company; once you're a Google employee you have access to just about every piece of information there is."
blackbearnh writes "It may make you feel very, very old, but the Macintosh will be turning 25 in January. As we approach this momentous anniversary, O'Reilly News had a talk with Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original Macintosh designers, about the long and storied history of the Mac. Hertzfeld, who tells the story of the Mac in his book A Revolution in the Valley, shares his thoughts about how the Mac has aged over time, how life might have been different if Steve Jobs had stayed on at Apple, and the differences between working for Apple, and for Google (his current employer.)" Read on below for a bit of what Hertzfeld had to say.
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Season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness
by Esmerelda Weatherwax (Nov. 2008)
It is autumn which is my favourite time of the year. October is my favourite month but November is not far behind.
Summer (I don’t like the heat) is over and Christmas is coming. Meanwhile it is
“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness” and lovable for its own sake.
I have a tub of blackberries frozen that we picked from the bushes that grow alongside the footpaths but not so many as previous years. With the wet summer they ripened later and due to family illness we didn’t get out to pick them until the week they were past their best. But my neighbour’s apple tree did well and he was very generous to me with his produce. If we have less blackberry and apple pies and more apple and cinnamon, apple and clove and apple and sultana pies next year we are still very lucky.
The squirrels in the forest and the churchyard are very lively and seem quite plump. I know some people call them tree-rats, vermin with good PR, and accuse them of killing our native red squirrel but if Beatrix Potter was happy to write about Timmy and Goody Tiptoes as well as Squirrel Nutkin that is good enough for me. They never really hibernate in England; they just sleep for a week or so at a time then pop out for a quick reccie on mild days before another short kip. But they still need to collect and store nuts, or in our churchyard acorns, of which we have plenty. Red squirrels can’t digest acorns well apparently so are dependent on a habitat with plenty of other nuts, like hazel. There is a school of thought that believes that red squirrels were in decline in some areas years before grey squirrels arrived there and that loss of habitat is more of a factor.
I love the smell of autumn. There is a tinge of bonfire to it but mainly it is leaves and wet earth and crisp air mingled. The leaves fall down around you like so much copper confetti. Then I shuffle through the piles on the path kicking them up into the air.
Picture by E Weatherwax October 2008 Somewhere in England.
I love that line in the 60s hit by Noel Harrison, “And the autumn leaves are turning to the colour of her hair” in Windmills of Your Mind. Does anybody other than me remember him in The Girl from Uncle? And the Kinks sang Autumn Almanac.
I like shiny conkers and conker fights. Mushrooms and fungi springing up literally overnight.
The trees may be losing their leaves and the summer flowers appear to be dieing back but now is the time to plant bulbs for the spring. I am trying hyacinths in bowls again this year to give as Christmas presents. I bought the bulbs at the Ely District Horticultural Society sale at the end of August, along with several bags of daffodils. I have put them round the trunk of a deceased cherry tree in my garden, in tubs and on my parent’s grave. Then tulips in the front garden, which I have not planted for years but for some reason I am optimistic of a good show next spring. The bluebells are well naturalised and I have given up on snowdrops. Good slug food. Since my unexpected retirement I have had time for gardening – that and the work of a colleague who has turned professional gardener as a second career.
My chrysanthemums are starting to flower and their smell, both leaves and flowers, is evocative of everything I have already written. They were a recent gift from another neighbour who had a surplus and I can see that they will be the bronze colour I particularly like. You can buy cut chrysanthemums all year round but this shade of bronze is only available in genuine autumn. I will buy cut white or yellow chrysanthemums in summer if that is the best available in the shop but they don’t smell quite the same.
Soon I must take my geranium pots into safety from early morning frost.
The RSPB reserve reports that the summer birds are on their way south. Others are on their way here from the Arctic of Siberia for the winter. I remember standing on the Norfolk coast one October and watching great flocks wheeling overhead one after the other all heading south but unable to recognise anything other than that some were geese, probably Brent geese, heading for the river estuaries of Essex. The Canada goose is breeding and thriving in England to the point of being a nuisance (cf grey squirrel above) but the smaller Brent geese are autumn visitors.
Then there are the festivals that take place in the autumn. Harvest festival (that’s late summer really), Sukkot, Diwali, Halloween and Bonfire night. Remembrance Sunday on the nearest Sunday to 11th November after which I will allow preparations for Christmas to begin in earnest. The Chinese have a moon festival around the time of the autumn equinox but I have no experience of how it is celebrated other than the eating of mooncakes. Trust me to know about cake.
I expect preparations for Diwali and Sukkot are tinged with the sights, sounds and smells of autumn in India and elsewhere. Harvest festival in Australia and New Zealand will be in March or possibly April. And their Christmas preparations shortly will have a summer air, of heat and the barbie on the beach.
But what of Ramadan and Eid which took place earlier this month? On the lunar calendar which rolls round the solar year in a 33 year cycle the scent of leaves and moss, or daffodils, or frost, or the changes of the season doesn’t herald the festival for the season for Islam, local traditions like Persian New Year and Spring in Egypt notwithstanding. Presumably the changes of the season have only their own personal significance to a Muslim, and Ramadan and the Eids have their own flavour separate to the weather or season.
“For everything its season, and for every activity under heaven its time” Ecclesiastes 3:1.
The Byrds' folk song, "Turn, Turn, Turn" is a little hackneyed but the words are true. I like the seasons and I like the cycle of the year.
To comment on this article, please click here.
Esmerelda Weatherwax is a regular contributor to the Iconoclast our community blog. To view her entries please click here.
To help New English Review continue to publish articles such as this one, please click here.
If you enjoyed this piece and would like to read more by Esmerelda Weatherwax, please click here.
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Real estate and other market experts suggest that a housing market recovery is on its way, and residential home prices are moving upward again, while others state that the housing market isn’t out of the woods yet.
“Americans continue to show growing confidence in home price increases over the next 12 months, providing further indications of a slow but steady housing recovery,” according to a Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) November 2012 announcement.
On the other hand, in January, the U.S. Department of Commerce released numbers showing that the latest residential sales didn’t paint a rosy picture. In December 2012, the residential housing market shrunk by 7.3 percent compared to November 2012.
A Jan. 24 article on the Seeking Alpha website talks cautiously about a housing sales recovery and bases its optimism on the Architecture Billings Index (ABI), as well as the November 2012 Federal Housing Finance Agency’s report of House Price Index increases for 10 successive months.
The Seeking Alpha article states, “The December ABI score was 52.0, down from the mark of 53.2 in November . … This score reflects an increase in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings).”
Housing Inventory at a Glance
“The current residential shadow inventory as of October 2012 fell to 2.3 million units, representing a supply of seven months. The October inventory level represents a 12.3 percent drop from October 2011, when shadow inventory stood at 2.6 million units,” according to a CoreLogic report on Jan. 2.
There is a distinct difference between shadow and regular housing inventory. Shadow inventory consists of homes that have been foreclosed or are in default, but are not yet included in the housing inventory for sale. In a typical housing market, the housing inventory consists of new homes not sold yet or homes for sale by owners.
A report published Jan. 23 on the Lender Processing Services website states that as of the end of December 2012, 5,292,000 houses were 30 or more days past due in their mortgage payments or in foreclosure.
The Housing Tracker on the Department of Numbers website suggests that the U.S. housing inventory in metropolitan areas amounts to 661,367 homes as of Jan. 28.
At the end of third quarter 2012, there were 2 million homes for sale, and 3.8 million vacant homes kept off the list of houses for sale, totaling 5.8 million homes that needed to be sold, according to a December 2012 report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
“Data continue to show important progress across many key indicators with the housing marketing bottoming out nationally and clearly turning a corner—as home values continue to rise and home sales remained strong in November—although officials caution that the overall recovery remains fragile,” according to a Jan. 11 HUD announcement.
Data published on the National Association of Realtors (NAR) website notes that in December 2012, 4.9 million existing homes and 369,000 new homes were sold.
“Demand continued to expand faster than supply. … The market has steadily moved towards a seller’s market. … Tight inventory conditions have boosted prices,” according to the NAR December 2012 Edition of the Realtors Confidence Index report, which is based on data from Dec. 27, 2012, through Jan. 4, 2013.
Problematic Conditions Hamper Sales
“Respondents indicated that credit conditions continue to be extremely tight, that lenders are taking too long in approving an application, and that information and documentation requirements are excessive and not requested in a timely manner,” according to the NAR report.
Lenders are approving loans for buyers with excellent credit scores, those with scores of 740 and above, but are risk averse to buyers with lower credit scores. According to the NAR, should lenders loosen their risk aversion, realtors could sell between 500,000 and 700,000 more homes, creating 250,000 to 350,000 jobs annually for the U.S. economy.
“Appraisals continued to be a problem in moving transactions to closure,” the NAR report states.
Some appraisers are basing appraisals on foreclosure values and are ignorant of true market conditions. Appraisers also add additional conditions, increasing the cost of the appraisal, and take too long to complete the process.
“Approximately 10 percent of the respondents reported that appraisal problems led to contract cancellation; about 10 percent reported a delay as a result of an appraisal problem, and almost 13 percent reported that the appraisal problems led to lower prices,” according to the NAR report.
Housing Market Realities
“The soft rebound in the U.S. housing market and home prices is something that’s never happened in our history. It’s not individuals buying houses that are moving prices and demand higher; it’s institutions. Yes, big institutional investors are buying houses—and in a big way!” according to a Jan. 11 article on the Profit Confidential website.
The above-mentioned article states that according to Bloomberg, the Blackstone Group LP paid $2.5 billion for 16,000 houses. In October 2012, the Blackstone Group owned homes with a total value of $1.5 billion and continued to purchase homes, spending $100 million weekly.
Colony Capital LLC, a private real estate investment firm, has purchased 5,500 homes since April 2012 and suggested that it would continue buying homes until the end of 2013, increasing their inventory by $1.5 billion.
Waypoint Homes, a home rental company, bought 2,500 homes and intends to buy another 7,500 homes during 2013.
Cogsville Group LLC, a Chicago investment group, paid $2.1 million for 94 foreclosed real estate properties and is aiming to purchase around 3,000 such homes during 2013 and the beginning of 2014.
“Cogsville in September completed its first residential buy here in partnership with federal mortgage giant Fannie Mae, investing $2.1 million in equity to take control of 94 foreclosed local properties scattered across the region … valued at $13.7 million,” the ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com website states.
Real estate experts and analysts suggest that many people are unable to buy a home. Therefore, the rental market is expanding and with it the rent charged for a rental unit.
“Investors plan to increase their holdings in single-family homes to strengthen their positions during times of high rental demand,” according to a Jan. 6 article on The Niche Report website, a magazine that reports real estate news.
For the housing market to be healthy, first-time homebuyers generally should account for 40 percent of all home purchases. Now they are priced out of the market because investors bid against each other, driving up the price of a unit, according to the NAR report.
In March 2009, 53 percent of all homebuyers were first-time homebuyers, after which the numbers fluctuated between 31 percent and 51 percent until July 2010. From that time onward, first-time homebuyers consistently accounted for less than 40 percent of all homebuyers, dipping to 29 percent in January 2011. The numbers fluctuated, but still stayed below 40 percent. In November 2012 and December 2012, first-time homebuyers accounted for 30 percent of all homebuyers.
“What I hear in the mainstream media about the rebound in the U.S. housing market isn’t very convincing to me. In reality, we don’t have any real growth in the U.S. housing market—only speculation,” a Jan. 25 article on the Profit Confidential website states.
The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 21 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.
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November 15, 2011 · 2 Comments
In 1995 Robert Cringeley, a tech expert and writer who once worked for Steve Jobs interviewed the Apple-co-founder and other Silicon Valley pioneers for a PBS miniseries, Triumph of the Nerds. He spent more than 60 minutes with Jobs, who at that time was ten years out from his wrenching ouster from Apple. But less than ten minutes of the wide-ranging and provocative interview made it into the PBS show. That ten minute clip is considered one of the best TV interviews Jobs ever gave. The master tapes for the other 59 minutes went missing until recently and now, dusted off and with a preamble from Cringeley to explain the back story, the full unedited interview will play at theaters around the country including at the Ritz Bourse, two days only Wed., Nov. 16 and Thurs., Nov. 17. This is not for nerds only. Jobs was one of the most game changing individuals of his time, maybe of all time. He may have been a tweakier, as Malcolm Gladwell dubs him but he tweaked like a genius and he had big thoughts about culture, about human beings, and about the place tools play to shape culture and lives. See the movie’s trailer on the jump page. And see the movie–it’s great!
Jobs was famously a hard interview but here he is at ease in a far-ranging back and forth that runs for 70 minutes without interruption. Here’s a few tidbits.
At age 12 I called up Bill Hewlett (of Hewlett-Packard). ‘Hi I’m Steve Jobs and I’m building a [frequency something or other]…He listened and he gave me the parts and he gave me a job in the summer.
About raising money to build the printed circuit board for the Apple 2 computer
I sold my VW bus (this is California in the 1970s) and he (business partner Steve Wozniak) sold his calculator.
About learning how to do business when he knew nothing about running a business.
I always asked why? Why do you do this? I found people in business don’t know. [They do things because it's always been done that way.] Business is a lot of folklore and you don’t need to do it that way.
I think everyone should learn computer programming. It teaches you how to think…I view computer science as a liberal art.
How does it feel to be rich?
I was worth over $1 mllion when I was 21…and $100 million when I was 25….It wasn’t that important. I never did it for the money. Money is wonderful. It allows you to do things. But the most important is the company, the people, the products.
Designing a product is keeping 5,000 things in your brain and figuring out how to make them fit together and work. That process is the magic.….It’s not one person. People like symbols so I’m the symbol.
About his ouster at Apple in 1985
It’s very painful. I’m not sure I want to talk about it. What can I say. I hired the wrong guy (John Scully). he destroyed everything I’d worked for for ten years. he got on a rocket ship and got confused and thought he built it …and he crashed it.”
About Apple in 1995
Apple is dying today….I don’t think it’s reversible.
Microsoft’s orbit was made possible by a boost of IBM….They are very strong opportunists and I don’t mean that in a bad way, and they keep on coming. The problem with Microsoft is they have no taste. I mean in a big way. They don’t think original ideas and don’t bring culture in. [He gives an example about proportionally-spaced type fonts.] I have no problem with their success, they’ve earned it. But their products are third rate, pedestrian and have no spirit. Most of their customers don’t have it either.
It’s better for the species if people grow up with better things. Mictrosoft is McDonalds.
About the future ten years out
Two exciting things: 1. The web. It’s a fulfillment of the dreams that computers will be the tool for communication. 2. It’s exciting that Microsoft doesn’t own it…Goods and services will be on the web. The smallest company in the world can look as large as the largest company.
What drives you?
…[Tells story about a human on a bicycle being more efficient than the condor, which is considered the most efficient animal]…Humans build things. Of all the inventions of humans, the computer will rank near if not at the top. It’s the most awesome tool that we’ve invented.
Are you a hippie or a nerd?
Clearly a hippie. And all the people I work with would be too.
Ask yourself what is a hippie? I saw a lot of it in the 70s in my back yard (California). You see that something is going on outside your career. Life isn’t about what your parents are doing. It causes people to want to be poets and not bankers. That same spirit can be put into products. People love it! You can feel it. The people I work with haven’t worked with computers to work with computers. it’s to share something with other people. This is the medium I can say something in.
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“Squid is my word for people who seem to be missing their backbones but possess myriad sucking tentacles of emotional need.” —Martha Beck
Another phrase for ‘squid’ is ‘energy vampire.’
More from YourTango: It's All In The Energy!
When your intent is to get love, rather than to be loving to yourself and share your love with others, you are a ‘squid.’ When you are not in the moment-by-moment process of learning what is loving to yourself, and taking loving action for yourself, then you are in the process of creating an empty hole within. This empty hole needs love, and you will try to get it from others in any way you can.
Others might not be fully conscious of the energy pull from you, but they will generally back off nevertheless — as your pull unconsciously feels yucky to them. Of course, you might find someone who is such a caretaker that they stay and let themselves be drained by you, but you need to know that people who allow themselves to be drained and used have strings attached. They have a huge expectation — expecting you to love them and fill their emptiness as well. Both of you will inevitably be very disappointed.
The whole issue centers around beliefs regarding who is responsible for your feelings, and whether or not you are responsible for another’s feelings. As an adult, you are 100% responsible for causing your wounded feelings of anxiety, depression, guilt, shame, anger, jealousy, and so on, and for managing the existential painful feelings of life — such as loneliness, heartache, heartbreak, grief and helplessness over others. When you fully accept this, you will stop either being a squid or caretaking a squid.
More from YourTango: Are You Caretaking or Are You Being Loving?
Over and over, I see so much suffering because people will not accept responsibility for their own feelings, and will not accept their helplessness over how others treat them or treat themselves, which may be causing their suffering. I see people spending years and years doing everything they can to try to have control over getting love, attention, approval, validation or sex from others, wondering why they never feel happy.
I spent the first 45 years of my life in this very situation. My ‘squid-ness’ was not as obvious as those who are addicted to sex or talking or blaming or complaining. I gave and gave with the secret hope that if I loved enough, I would receive love in return. And sometimes I did, but it was never enough to bring me the solid inner peace, joy, sense of worth and fullness that I sought. And all I knew to do was to try harder to get love. Until Inner Bonding.
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Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraqi human rights activist Hanaa Edwar has proved she is not afraid to speak her mind.
In June this year she stormed into a televised government conference and harangued Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki about the arrest of four protesters by the army.
In a video clip widely circulated on YouTube she holds up photos of the young protesters and shouts: "We, HR (human rights) NGOs accused of being terrorists, is this possible?"
Edwar, the 65-year-old secretary of an Iraqi human rights association, Al-Amal, laughs as she looks back at the clip.
She said her outburst was sparked by comments by Al-Maliki.
"He said I ask my friends and U.N. to see that some of the HR organizations in Iraq, they are killers and criminals," said Edwar. "It is my duty to say something in this situation, I can't be shut up."
Al-Amal was founded in 1992 after the Gulf War to help relieve the suffering of Iraqi people and build a just and democratic society, according to the organization.
There have been demonstrations in Iraq since February demanding basic services and reforms.
Both Al-Amal and Human Rights Watch are concerned the government is trying to portray the protesters as terrorists, and allowing thugs to beat and sexually assault them.
Despite her long career in human rights, Edwar is pessimistic about the current state of her country.
"We are losing everything now in Iraq, even you know, our dream for democracy, our dream for elections," she said.
She said she is inspired to continue her work by young people like 21-year-old Noof Assi, one of her employees.
Assi brushes off the harassment she receives driving to work each day through checkpoints manned by security forces.
"I don't trust them," she said. "Sometimes they just become aggressive with the people, sometimes because I am a girl and driving they make fun of me."
Assi has long kept a blog and wrote about the terror she lived through at the age of 17 during the Iraq War.
She said: "One day I remember my sister hit me and she told me 'Come on, cry,' because I couldn't drop any tear because I see dead people, I see people killed in front of me, so the life at that time doesn't matter for me."
One entry from her blog at the time read: "I dream to sleep without painkillers, I dream to wake up in a home that gives me love and hope, not to end it up in a grave."
Assi has also set up a website, Iqpalmtree, celebrating heroic and accomplished Iraqi women throughout history.
She said: "My first goal was to make the Iraqis know about their women, because in our culture they don't take them seriously, that's what I want to change."
Among those featured are Marie Teresar Asmer, an adventurer born in 1804 whose original diary is on display in the UK, and Hanaa Sadiz, an award-winning fashion designer currently working in Europe.
And of course, her idol, Hanaa Edwar.
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B.U.I.L.D. Mentoring Collective
What is BMC?
The B.U.I.L.D. (Broaden. Uplift. Inspire. Lead. Develop.) Mentoring Collective is a mentoring initiative and partnership. Graduate and undergraduate students are matched with City of Syracuse middle and high school students in one-on-one relationships for an academic year. Through these relationships, as well as recreational and group activities, mentors will provide mentorship, academic support/tutoring and guidance to local youth.
Mentors can encourage their mentee’s self-confidence and self-esteem. They can also help them plan for the future and expose them to higher education opportunities. Mentors in turn benefit from their mentees. They learn how to be reliable and conscientious of others while providing guidance and support to those in need.
The program is not intended to make every participant a college-bound student. Rather, we aim to provide adolescents with someone who can offer friendship and support with day-to-day issues as well as in planning for the future. We do, however, hope to make college less intimidating, and to present it as one option among many. We want participants to understand that life does afford them a myriad of options and opportunities. All they have to do is choose.
How does BMC work?
- Mentors and mentees will primarily have scheduled meetings once every three weeks.
- Mentors and mentees (with parental approval) will meet on their own and communicate via electronic tools (email, Facebook, video conferencing, etc.)
- Participants will be brought together for the Annual Sisters Empowering Sisters Conference in March and additional applicable activities.
Who are our Mentees?
Mentees are middle and high school students from the Syracuse City area who enjoy and benefit from individual relationships with college students, alumni and professionals. The program is designed for students with various needs and backgrounds. Mentees elect to fill out applications and are not assigned to the program by parents or guidance counselors.
Interested in mentoring?
B.U.I.L.D. mentors include:
- Syracuse Mentors – Local mentors including, but not limited to Syracuse University current students and alumni and various professionals within the Syracuse community.
- Virtual Mentors – Mentors from around the country for girls interested in meeting with someone outside of their community or with whom they have come in contact through an Image Initiative, Inc. program. Click here to download the application (link to pdf).
- Image Initiative, Inc. Alumni Mentors – Peer-to-peer mentoring where girls who have participated in our programs and graduated from high school lend their personal, peer guidance to current girls. Click here to download the application (link to pdf).
The Image Initiative, Inc. interviews and screens each applicant to make appropriate matches.
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Long discussions about long names
Posted May 4, 2009 23:07 UTC (Mon) by JoeBuck
Parent article: Long discussions about long names
I don't understand why the Rock Ridge Interchange Protocol (for storing long names on a CD-ROM file system) isn't considered prior art that invalidates the VFAT patents. The VFAT patents are written very broadly, and appear to cover essentially any mechanism that lets you store long names in a database with a name length limit. But this is exactly what Rock Ridge does. The standards documents have 1994 dates, and Microsoft didn't file until 1995.
Now IANAL, so perhaps the VFAT patents are written in such a way as to be distinguishable from RRIP.
to post comments)
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Who's Who Jean Paul Gaultier 18 April 2012 Bibby Sowray Picture credit: Imaxtree.com/VOGUE.COM Jean Paul Gaultier is a French designer, best known for his eponymous design house and his seven-year tenure as head designer at Hermès. Born in 1952 in the Paris suburb of Arcueil, he was interested in fashion from a young age but was never formerly trained in design. Aged 18, whilst still at school, he joined the house of Pierre Cardin - working there after lessons, which lead him to fail his school exams. His time at Cardin was short, owing to redundancies, and he moved on to Jacques Esterel where he learnt much of what was to become his signature style, and then to the couture house Patou. Returning to Cardin in 1974, he was sent to Manila to represent the company there. "When I started my career, I went to work with Pierre Cardin. At that time, of course, I didn't have my line or whatever, so I didn't have my style at all. I was doing Cardin. So I was sketching, imagining what he would love," Gaultier told US Vogue in 2004. "And afterwards, when I was at Patou, Michel Goma was the designer so I was in the spirit of Michel Goma. I quite loved that." He showed his debut collection in 1976, having raised substantial finances with his partner Francis Menuge, but did not establish his own design house until 1982 with the backing of Japanese consortium Kashiyama. Gaultier soon became known as "l'enfant terrible" of fashion because of his penchant for challenging the then-standard views of fashion; reworking them and infusing ideas of his own. His work has been characterised by a stylistic consistency since his very first collection. Many of his collections show women adopting masculine attire, or men wearing skirts, corsets, and dresses with trains. "People reacted much better to me in the UK, which was where it was all happening," he told The Telegraph in 2010. "Jean Muir was big at the time here and she was fabulous, as was Zandra Rhodes. You could see the craziness in the British people, but I couldn't move because I'd already started in Paris." In September 1985 he opened his first boutique on 6 Rue Vivienne, Paris. He became internationally recognised when he designed the costumes for Madonna's Blond Ambition tour in 1990. The conical bras and basques he created for her now rank among some of the most iconic designs in history. Gaultier has since said he had no idea that they would become so important. "I was a fan of Madonna's so I was pleased to collaborate with her for that reason - not because it would be good for my career," he told The Telegraph in 2010. He designed stage costumes again for Madonna for her 2006 Confessions tour. In the same year, Gaultier's professional success coincided with personal tragedy when his lover and business partner Francis Menuge became seriously ill and died of AIDS. In January 1992, he published a largely pictorial biography called A nous deux la mode. In the same year he introduced Gaultier Jeans, as well as accessories and perfumes. The following year he launched his signature scent in a glass bottle shaped like a corseted figure. In 1993, Gaultier became a co-presenter on television show Eurotrash, a magazine-format show which focused on the weird and wonderful from around the world. He showed his debut couture collection in 1997. In July 1999, French fashion house invested $15 million in his business as part of a deal which Gaultier described as "a dream marriage". He has designed the wardrobe of a number motion pictures, including Luc Besson's The Fifth Element, Pedro Almodóvar's Kika, Peter Greenaway's The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's The City of Lost Children. In July 2001, the designer was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. "Gaultier changed so many things: the creative process, sexuality in fashion," Balenciaga creative director Nicolas Ghesquière, Gaultier's former-assistant, told WWD. In 2003, Gaultier succeeded Martin Margiela as the head designer at Hermès, and debuted his first haute-couture collection for autumn/winter 2004-05. He designed the costumes for Kylie Minogue's international KYLIEX2008 tour in 2008. He became the latest designer to collaborate with US retail giant Target in May 2009 to produce an affordable line. It was announced in March 2010 that he would receive an Inspiration Award for his lifetime contribution to men's fashion and the fight against AIDS. He collected the prize at the AmfAR awards in New York on June 3. In the same year, Gaultier ended his tenure at Hermès, with the spring/summer 2011 collection being his last for the house. He launched his first-ever swimwear collection, in collaboration with La Perla, in July 2011. Gaultier was appointed Diet Coke's new creative director in March 2012. His role involved providing creative input into company's advertising campaigns, retail events and new online projects, as well as designing limited-edition bottles. He followed in the footsteps of Karl Lagerfeld, Matthew Williamson, Gianfranco Ferre, Marni and Roberto Cavalli who had also created new bottle designs for Diet Coke.
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WASHINGTON — Wireless devices such as Apple's iPhone are transforming the way we go online, making it possible to look up driving directions, find the nearest coffee shop and update Facebook on the go. All this has a price — in airwaves.
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As mobile phones become more sophisticated, they transmit and receive more data over the airwaves. But the spectrum of wireless frequencies is finite — and devices like the iPhone are allowed to use only so much of it. TV and radio broadcasts, Wi-Fi networks and other communications services also use the airwaves. Each transmits on certain frequencies to avoid interference with others.
Now wireless phone companies fear they're in danger of running out of room, leaving congested networks that frustrate users and slow innovation. So the wireless companies want the government to give them bigger slices of airwaves — even if other users have to give up rights to theirs.
"Spectrum is the equivalent of our highways," says Christopher Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, an industry trade group. "That's how we move our traffic. And the volume of that traffic is increasing so dramatically that we need more lanes. We need more highways."
That won't happen without a fight. Wireless companies are eyeing some frequencies used by TV broadcasters, satellite-communications companies and federal agencies such as the Pentagon. Already, some of those groups are pushing back.
That means tough choices are ahead. But one way or another, Washington will keep up with the exploding growth of the wireless market, insists Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va. He is sponsoring a bill that would mandate a government inventory of the airwaves to identify unused or underused bands that could be reallocated.
"It's not a question of whether we can find more spectrum," says Boucher, chairman of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet. "We have to find more spectrum."
CTIA, the industry group, is asking the government to make an additional 800 megahertz of the airwaves available for wireless companies to license over the next six years. That would be a huge expansion from the industry's current slice of roughly 500 megahertz. The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to make more frequencies available for commercial use, but has just 50 megahertz in the pipeline.
Two trends are driving the demand.
First, advanced new wireless applications — such as mobile video and online games — devour far more bandwidth than voice calls or basic text messages, says Neville Ray, senior vice president for engineering operations for T-Mobile USA Inc.
Second, consumers are flocking to wireless Internet connections, in some cases dropping landline accounts altogether. ABI Research projects U.S. mobile broadband subscriptions will climb to 150 million by 2014, up from 48 million this year and 5 million in 2007.
The predicament, says Jamie Hedlund, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Consumer Electronics Association, is that many users "assume the wireless experience should be the same as the wired experience, but the capacity is just not there for that."
The industry's concerns are finding a sympathetic ear in Washington.
Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, says finding more room for the wireless industry will be an important part of his agency's broadband plan. That plan, mandated by the 2009 stimulus bill, is due in February and will propose using wireless systems to bring high-speed Internet connections to corners of the country that are too remote for landline networks.
"If we are going to have a world-leading broadband infrastructure for the nation, wireless is an indispensable ingredient," says Genachowski aide Colin Crowell.
Lawrence Strickling, head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the arm of the Commerce Department that manages the federal government's use of the airwaves, says the agency is also hunting for more frequencies the wireless industry can use.
Some of the crunch can be addressed with technologies that make more efficient use of airwaves and new equipment that lets users share bands. The FCC also wants to promote greater use of frequencies that aren't licensed to anyone, such as the "white spaces" between the bands used by TV channels.
But such solutions alone won't solve the crisis, the wireless industry warns.
The FCC's attention for now is on TV broadcasters, which hold nearly 300 megahertz of airwaves that are mainly used to serve just 10 percent of American homes — those that still rely solely on over-the-air TV signals.
The FCC is exploring multiple options, most of which would leave broadcasters with enough capacity to deliver a high-definition signal over the air. One possibility, which might require congressional approval, is a voluntary program that would let broadcasters sell excess bandwidth through an auction, to either the government or directly to wireless companies. Although the FCC awarded spectrum licenses to broadcasters for free many years ago, those licenses are worth millions today.
"Fewer people are getting over-the-air TV and at the same time, more and more people are using mobile broadband," says Blair Levin, the official overseeing the FCC broadband plan. "So it only makes sense ... to get that asset into the hands of whomever can realize its greatest value."
The idea faces opposition from the powerful broadcast lobby. Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters, says the proposal would stunt the industry's plans to make innovative use of the airwaves that became free when it turned off analog broadcasts and went entirely digital in June. Broadcasters have already returned more than 100 megahertz of those airwaves to the government and plan to use the rest to transmit high-definition signals, "multicast" multiple channels and deliver mobile TV to phones, laptops and cars.
"The FCC proposal would kill many of our future business plans in the cradle," Wharton says.
Wireless carriers are also setting their sights on frequencies held by companies that deliver voice and data services through satellites.
Hedlund, of the Consumer Electronics Association, notes that some of these companies have a lot of bandwidth but not a lot of customers. TerreStar Corp., for one, launched its satellite in July and is just building a subscriber base. And ICO Global Communications, which is running tests on a satellite launched last year, has not announced when it will begin commercial service.
But TerreStar General Counsel Doug Brandon believes the company has a strong argument for keeping its airwaves: Satellites can provide a critical lifeline in emergencies when other communications links go down and in rural areas where other carriers don't offer service.
If anything, added ICO Vice President Christopher Doherty, satellite phone companies are ideal partners for cell phone companies that want to expand coverage. TerreStar, for one, has a deal for AT&T Inc. to resell the satellite service.
More potential sources of frequencies are federal agencies that handle everything from emergency communications to surveillance operations. The Defense Department, for instance, needs the airwaves for such critical equipment as radars, precision-guided weapons and drone planes.
The Pentagon has vacated some frequencies and is developing technology that can make more efficient use of airwaves. It also says it is committed to finding compromises that work for the government and commercial sector, so long as those don't jeopardize military capabilities.
Karl Nebbia, head of the NTIA's Office of Spectrum Management, points out that federal agencies may be open to moving to different bands because the government is "a huge user of commercial broadband services." But one challenge will be to ensure federal users get the resources to relocate — including new equipment, potentially paid for with spectrum auction proceeds.
For now, one thing everyone agrees is that there are no easy pickings in the airwaves.
"There is no open space anywhere," says Kathleen Ham, vice president of regulatory affairs for T-Mobile.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Remarks by MCC CEO Ambassador John Danilovich at the ‘MCC in Latin America: Managing Programs in Politically Changing Environments"
Acknowledging the great importance of Hispanic Heritage Month, we wanted to host this event to showcase the tremendous work Millennium Challenge partner countries are undertaking to convert the promise of prosperity into reality for the people of the Americas.
Let there be no doubt: MCC firmly supports growth and development in the Americas to transform the lives of the poor, to reduce poverty and to sustain economic growth.
Work in the Americas
Our commitment to the Americas is already visible in three Central American partner countries with whom we have signed compacts: El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. It is also evident in the two threshold programs we have signed with Guyana and Paraguay.
- In El Salvador, compact progress will be about improving the lives of some 850,000 Salvadorans living in the country’s poverty-stricken northern region with investments in
- transport infrastructure,
- agriculture production,
- rural business development, education,
- and community-based projects.
A new “Fondo del Milenio” (FOMILENIO) has been established in San Salvador and the program begins active implementation this month.
- In Honduras, our compact will increase the incomes of thousands of small farmers as they diversify to produce higher-value, exportable crops. It is about supporting improvements in secondary roads and highways that will enable these farmers to reach national, regional, and international markets. So far, some 800 farmers have been trained in production techniques and small business skills for more profitable commercialization of horticultural products.
- In Nicaragua, our compact will improve the quality of life for small farmers and entrepreneurs in the departments of Leon and Chinandega by
- reducing transportation costs,
- improving access to markets,
- strengthening property rights,
- and increasing private investment in the region.
To date, approximately 1,000 bean, cassava, and sesame producers have received technical assistance and other support through MCC to help them improve and market their products, increasing the prices they receive for them in the process.
On one of my early trips to Nicaragua, I inaugurated a milk-collection facility for an association of poor dairy farmers to help improve product quality and to promote rural business development in processing activities.
Our commitment to the Americas is also evident in MCC threshold programs. Our threshold programs target poor indicator performance in the hope of improving those indicators and pushing those countries over the threshold to compact eligibility.
- Guyana’s threshold program signed in August seeks to improve fiscal management of public revenues and decrease the number of days and costs required to start a new business, which will improve the investment climate.
- Paraguay’s threshold program seeks to reduce corruption and is also building a more transparent and attractive business environment. As a result, the cost to start a business in Paraguay has been reduced from $750 to $250, and the time involved to do so has been cut in half from almost 70 to 36 days.
In total, over the past 2+ years, the Millennium Challenge Corporation has made investment commitments of more than $890 million in the Americas through both compacts and threshold programs.
Yet, this dollar figure alone—as significant as it is—does not capture fully the impact of our work.
MCC Model in the Americas
In the Americas, we are seeing how the MCC model is working as Congress intended it to work when they established us in 2004.
It is a model focused on one mission: to reduce poverty through economic growth.
It is a model that provides grants—not loans—to countries that
- practice good governance,
- reject corruption,
- invest in their people,
- and provide economic freedom.
It is a model grounded in partnership with countries
- willing to undertake the often difficult work of policy reforms,
- willing to build their capacity to lead their own sustainable development,
- willing to deliver results where they matter most—in the lives of the poor.
MCC investments in the Americas—and for that matter in all partner countries—create a culture of competitiveness and independence that allows assistance, over time, to be replaced with the self-sustaining economic growth led by private enterprise and with an expansion of trade with other countries. And, we are seeing how partner countries are leveraging their MCC investments to make such a transition possible, especially in Central America.
We see it in the policies partner countries are adopting to overcome barriers to development. Good policies and good governance are essential for business development, for creating a culture of transparency and the rule of law that builds confidence in public institutions. As countries come to own their development, they are thinking critically about what policies are needed to sustain poverty reduction and economic growth beyond the period of MCC’s investment.
For example, El Salvador dramatically reduced the time and cost required to start a new business. New businesses create new jobs. Nicaragua passed critical road maintenance funding legislation to ensure the long-term sustainability of the road network.
We see it in how partner countries in the Americas are building the physical and commercial infrastructure to convert aid into trade. Consider the powerful regional effects that emerge when we look at El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua not only as partners with MCC but also as U.S. partners in trade through CAFTA-DR. MCC compacts among these neighbors are accelerating the pace of market-led growth in each country, while building their capacity to expand trade both regionally and internationally.
In addition to efforts in all three countries to expand production of exportable crops, MCC funding is helping to construct and improve transportation links between El Salvador and Honduras and between Honduras and Nicaragua. These linked routes will allow goods to cross the isthmus from the Atlantic to the Pacific and will help farmers move their products to markets in the region and in the U.S.
And, we see it in how partner countries in the Americas are creating conditions to empower private enterprise, which is the engine driving growth and poverty reduction. Being part of the MCC family gives countries a “good housekeeping seal of approval,” which sends a powerful signal to private investors that conditions for doing business in MCC countries are improving swiftly. One recent example of this is in Nicaragua, where MCC helped attract over $9 million in new investments that will create some 1,200 jobs in the country’s northwest region.
The State Department’s Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Tom Shannon describes the Americas as “on the cutting edge of transformational political and economic change…”
MCC drives this transformation, and we mean to continue to encourage it and support it.
There will, of course, be challenges along the way. Development takes time, especially in politically changing environments as our panel will discuss. Let me underscore, though, that MCC’s focus has been and will remain on the policies—and not the politics—of the region.
MCC partner countries continue to move forward and our programs are showing tangible results. We are seeing progress on the ground—
- in farmers gaining access to new markets,
- in transport costs being reduced,
- in new private sector investments.
We see our partner countries leveraging MCC’s investments to further
- reform their policies,
- expand their trade,
- and encourage new private enterprise.
We are proud of our work in the Americas, but the pride, rightfully so, belongs to the peoples and governments in partner countries who continue to shoulder the work of their own development. We recognize the progress the Americas have made in fighting poverty and stimulating growth in partnership with the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and I appreciate your support and interest in these ongoing efforts.
Introduction of the Next Speaker
It is now my pleasure to yield the podium to His Excellency Roberto Flores Bermúdez, Ambassador of Honduras to the United States. This is his second tour as ambassador in Washington, D.C.
As a career diplomat, Ambassador Flores Bermúdez has dedicated 30 years to representing Honduras abroad. He served as Honduras’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as his country’s Ambassador to the U.K. and Germany. Ambassador Flores Bermúdez also served as his country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Please join me in welcoming Ambassador Flores Bermúdez…
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Two superstorm Sandy deaths in Canada 0
Two Canadians are dead and thousands are without power as post-tropical storm Sandy diminishes.
Hydro crews in Ontario have been working around the clock to get power back to thousands of homes and businesses in Sandy's wake.
Less than 10,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity in Ontario as of Wednesday morning, as well as about 600 in New Brunswick. About 1,700 customers didn't have power Wednesday in Nova Scotia due to lightning strikes, but Nova Scotia Power said it was restored later that day.
Workers from power companies in Canada, including Ottawa and Nova Scotia, have also travelled to Newton, Conn., Wednesday to help get electricity back to half a million homes after hurricane Sandy struck.
"Restoring power is a specialized skill and the electricity industry supports each other in these times of need," Bryce Conrad, Hydro Ottawa's president and CEO, said in a release.
A hydro worker was electrocuted while repairing damaged power lines in Sarnia, Ont., on Wednesday morning, the Ontario Labour Ministry said. It will investigate the man's death.
This is the second death related to superstorm Sandy in Canada. A woman in her 50s died on Monday night when she was hit by a blowing sign in Toronto.
In the U.S., 64 people have died in relation to the massive storm.
Sandy has been blamed for at least 71 deaths in the Caribbean.
Damages in the U.S., where the hurricane made landfall Monday night, could exceed $20 billion. That's nearly double the cost of hurricane Irene in 2011.
Total damages in Canada aren't yet clear. However, Toronto Hydro estimates power line repairs will cost $1 million.
Sandy has weakened significantly as it heads north, Environment Canada said, but it doesn't mean the rain and wind is over.
Forecasters said freezing rain and snow is possible parts of northeastern Ontario, the Kapuskasing-Hearst and Chapleau-Gogama regions, into Thursday, the weather service advised in its latest bulletin.
In Quebec, the rain and wind is expected to continue, specifically along the St. Lawrence River, and the Gaspe region, where 50-70 mm of precipitation may fall by Thursday. Strong winds of up to 100 km/h were forecast for Wednesday night.
Maritimes residents should expect more rain, and southwestern Newfoundland could get wind gusts of up to 110 km/h into Thursday, Environment Canada said, but it's unrelated to the Sandy storm.
Were you hit by hurricane Sandy?
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Major European contractors have flocked to London for a piece of the 21-kilometer Crossrail tunnel project now advancing at more than 40 sites across the city. Billed as Europe's largest infrastructure project, Crossrail survived the U.K.'s toughest austerity drive in generations, in part because officials pushed back its schedule by a year. That move cut the estimated cost by around $1.6 billion, to $23 billion.
The election of a new, budget-slashing U.K. government in May 2010 cast doubt on all state spending just as Crossrail was approaching its main procurement phase. "We spent a lot of time … looking at what we could do to make Crossrail the most attractive investment opportunity we could," says Andy Mitchell program director with Crossrail Ltd. (CRL), the city's project company.
"We knew that, with this project, there would be a strain on U.K. resources for tunneling," says Paul Glass, project director with the BFK joint venture. Spain's Ferrovial Agroman S.A. teamed with the U.K.'s BAM Nutall Ltd. and Kier Construction Ltd. to form BFK and win the 6.1-km-long west twin-tunnel contract, plus station excavations at Farringdon, Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road.
Spain's Dragados S.A. teamed with the Irish Republic's John Sisk & Sons to secure the contract for 11.9 km of the twin drives that form the east-running tunnels. Germany's Hochtief Construction A.G. and locally based J Murphy & Sons Ltd. won the final 2.64 km of tunnel on the east side, including the River Thames crossing. From France, Vinci Group landed the contract to upgrade the 550-m-long Victorian-era Connaught tunnel in the dock area.
International firms bring "top-class tunneling expertise," says Ailie MacAdam, a senior vice president with Bechtel Inc., San Francisco. MacAdam is CRL's delivery director for the new tunnel section, which accounts for about half the total investment, she estimates.
Teams are now busy working at the sites of seven new underground stations. The first of six earth-pressure-balance (EPB) tunnel-boring machines has driven over 700 m of the west tunnel and will soon be joined by its twin. The east tunnel's first EPB machine is under assembly at Limmo Peninsula, with a second being prepared for shipment from Germany. For the east tunnels, the remaining two EPBs and two slurry TBMs will launch between this winter and 2014 for a 2018 completion—a year later than planned.
Around 200 million passengers per year will use Crossrail when it opens, increasing by 10% the city's rail capacity, say CRL forecasters. The 118-km east-west line, between Shenfield and Abbey Maidenhead and Heathrow Airport, includes the tunnel section in central London and passes through underground stations being grafted onto existing large transportation hubs.
The U.K.'s rail infrastructure owner, Network Rail, is handling surface construction on either side of the city, accounting for 15% of overall investment. London Underground Ltd. is managing and financing upgrades to its metro stations serving Crossrail; CRL is handling all work in the central tunnel and stations.
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“Punditry is fundamentally useless,” Nate Silver said repeatedly, in one form or another, after the election. When fuzzy interpretation was put up against statistical analysis, the stats won out.
But not every journalistic question benefits from the data set that Silver and the other electoral quants had to work with. What if you want to measure a question that doesn’t offer the cleanly defined Obama-or-Romney options of an election? Or what if you’re interested in the opinions of a group that isn’t defined by the electoral boundaries — or one where there just isn’t good polling available to aggregate?
These are the sorts of questions where journalism turns to pundit representatives. Want to know what “hockey moms” think? Sarah Palin gets called upon to represent them. How about the Occupy movement? Call Michael Moore. The Tea Party? Bring in Dick Armey. Gun owners? Alert Alex Jones. This sort of representative punditry comes with obvious, distorting flaws: Alex Jones doesn’t represent all gun owners and Michael Moore doesn’t represent everyone on the activist left, but the workflows of contemporary journalism let both stand in for what a larger group is thinking or feeling. And if your group doesn’t have an obvious mouthpiece, someone already in a cable news producer’s contacts? You might just get excluded from the narrative altogether.
That’s one reason news organizations are increasingly turning to sentiment analysis to try to reflect a crowd’s thoughts through data instead of punditry. When used wisely, sentiment analysis can push back against sweeping punditry claims and let many voices contribute to a message.
Sentiment analysis aims to analyze what a percentage of the population “feels” about something, often by measuring the sentiments embedded in social media posts or by asking a community directly to share its feelings, thoughts, or opinions in a machine-readable way. Many news outlets have already deployed sentiment analysis, to various effects. Politico, Pew, NBC, CNN, Current TV, Twitter, Facebook, and many others have all tried to measure the thoughts and feelings of social media groups or run these analyses a regular basis. For example, after the GOP primary, an analysis by Politico showed the amount of negativity expressed towards each the candidates on Facebook during the most intense months of the primary season. Newt Gingrich led handsomely.
The use of machines — or machine learning — in this way to discern the meaning of human feeling about a topic is by no means unique to social media. The New York Times wrote about “affective programming,” and how computers may soon read your facial expressions and respond to you. Another Times piece famously explained how Target can now determine when you are pregnant based on your consumer habits — sometimes, before you realize yourself.
What’s interesting about the use of sentiment analysis by journalists, though, is that so many of the industry’s ongoing concerns seem to crystallize in its promise: how to deal with social media platforms where the power to publish now belongs to millions; how to find a way to speak more authoritatively about the world it reports on; and how to take complex questions and display them simply and visually.
And it’s true that sentiment analysis does offer real potential on these question. Already, the technology exists to fire up software to go into a group Facebook page, run through specific posts, and gather a list of most discussed themes and general positive or negative reaction to specific debate points. This could be turned onto, say, The Tea Party Patriots page, with nearly 1 million users, to enrich knowledge of “the Tea Party opinion” on an issue. And at times, sentiment analysis has proven to be smarter than other data sources, as when it predicted Harry Reid’s 2010 reelection campaign was looking stronger than polls suggested.
Bu how accurate is this stuff? As Micah Sifry, co-founder of the Personal Democracy Project, said to me: “Whenever you hear the words ‘sentiment analysis,’ your BS detector should go up.” Sifry wrote a bearish take on Politico’s use of the technology, calling for them to stop using it and explaining some of the internal problems with machine learning.
Without going too deep into the weeds, natural language processing’s problems can be imagined by thinking about the “sentiment” of the following statements:
— “It is a great movie if you have the taste and sensibilities of a five-year-old boy.”
— “There’s a lot of tumult in the Middle East.”
— “It’s terrible Candidate X did so well in the debate last night.”
These examples — provided by Christopher Potts, a linguistics professor at Stanford who teaches natural language processing for the school’s computer science department — show the complexity. “Tumult” might sound like a negative sentiment, but if it’s in the context of a democratic revolution the speaker supports, maybe it’s not. In the first quote, it’s hard to know the speaker’s goals: Is this someone speaking tongue-in-cheek as a mom to other moms? As Potts says: “If you and I are best friends, then my graceful swearing at you is different than if it’s at my boss.” There is a certain threshold of knowing what other people mean when they speak that is still hard for machines to reach without additional information.
One popular tool, Crimson Hexagon — which has been used by CNN, NBC, Pew, and Current TV — claims its technology produces 97 percent accuracy. But what does “accuracy” mean in this context? It doesn’t mean Crimson Hexagon goes one-by-one to the authors of the analyzed posts and asks them what they really meant and that they’re right 97 times out of 100. Instead, it measures the tool’s accuracy relative to a hypothetical group of humans — a hypothetical test group who read the same tweets or Facebook posts and gauged what their authors were thinking. Crimson Hexagon tests its product against human groups in this way. So its accuracy is basically a rate at which it keeps up with “the crowd.”
So how accurate is the crowd? On this, too, researchers disagree, because there is no single interpretation of language. Anywhere from 65 percent to 85 percent is a reasonable guess, depending on the difficulty of the analysis. In this video from the Sentiment Analysis Symposium, Shawn Rutledge, chief scientist at Visible Technologies, discusses one sentiment-analysis study his company performed for a financial institution. The good news: The machine-driven analysis was found to be very close to an analysis by humans, with no statistically significant difference between the two. The bad news: “The problem is that the reviewers thought that the humans sucked at annotating sentiment just about as much as the algorithms.” (Philip Resnik, who teaches linguistics and computer science at the University of Maryland, says one possible way to label the results’ accuracy would be as a “percentage of human performance” — consistent with the idea that all analyses are judged against a test-control group, not objective reality.)
Setting a machine algorithm on hundreds of thousands of tweets about Mitt Romney’s statement about “binders full of women” and asking it to parse the thick cloud of sarcasm and irony, for example, is a tough nut to crack. Software can hit snags when trying to grasp complex language, or it can encounter bots or nonsense that isn’t filtered out. When used carelessly, sentiment analysis’ results can be absurd.
And that’s all before considering the difficulty of using any social media universe to represent a broader group of people. During the election, many polls were criticized for methodologies that undercount voters who had only mobile phones, noting that they likely undercounted young and less-wealthy voters. A social-media-centric view of any population likely brings its own distortions — for example, possibly undercounting the elderly or other groups who might be less likely to livetweet a presidential debate.
For news organizations, then, the question is whether this imperfect accuracy should keep the tool from being used. I don’t think so: All sampling technologies have problems, including the very best polls news organizations produce or write about. What’s essential is how results are presented — with the appropriate context and caveats about its limits.
Someone who has made headway at that is Alex Johnson at NBC News, who for the last year performed a number of Crimson Hexagon-driven sentiment analyses. Johnson wanted to find a way to try to say something about people’s online conversations and had some background analyzing data, so he spent time reading through a grip of white papers, statistical models, and documentation. He finds the technology “still pretty rough,” but thinks it adds value to NBC.
Johnson’s first problem was how to display results while being transparent about its inherent problems and setting it apart from normal polling. “The number one rule we have is we want to make it crystal clear that this is not a poll,” he says.
He experimented with a number of disclaimers through the election cycle. At some points, he linked to and tweeted a blog post he in which he describes his methodology. He tries to explain upfront that this is a new technology that only captures a segment of the population and he stays away from saying it is accurate to a specific percentage level. His guiding philosophy, which he picked up as a newspaper reporter, is that your piece should support your lede, which he considers in this case the analysis results. “Let people see how you did it and give people a basis to challenge you,” he says.
Some of Johnson’s most revealing findings are in trends in the conversations, which create linguistic maps around concepts or ideas.
Johnson’s brief analysis from this graphic: “A representation of key words in comments that said Ryan did better illustrates the degree to which his performance was defined in relation to Biden’s. Notice that the word ‘Biden’ is fully as prominent as the word ‘Ryan.’” Reporters could present this result as in keeping with an influential body of political science research that finds conservatives tend to define themselves “against” liberals.
Johnson also recommends running analyses over a long time-window — like trawl-fishing over a massive ocean. Long after an event, he finds fluctuations in feeling at pressure points, such as the Sunday talk shows, specific media ad buys, and other follow-up events.
Johnson also emphasizes that this technology only reads a specific userbase — those on social media. But even within that limited universe, a group-based analysis can be a powerful way to challenge those people representing — or claiming to represent — those groups. The key is to not let imperfect sentiment analysis take charge of an overall coverage strategy: It’s a conversation starter, not a conversation ender. As Simon Rogers, editor of the Guardian Data Blog — which worked across the Guardian newsroom to do a highly successful sentiment analysis of tweets during the London riots — says: “It’s when you combine traditional journalistic know-how with a manual check that makes something much more rigorous and trustable.”
Whether using existing sentiment analysis software — Crimson Hexagon, Topsy, Radian6 —or building your own tools with open-source software such as R and code from GitHub, the potential for new forms of human feedback exists. Nate Silver puts this idea succinctly in his book: “Data-driven predictions can succeed — and they can fail. It is when we deny our role in the process that the odds of failure rise.”
Much reporting about activity on social media end up being purely quantitative — think of the regular reports on how many tweets per second were generated at each of the election’s high points. As Lydia DePillis put it in TNR: “Really cutting-edge Twitter analysis means that interested parties can talk back.” When media outlets engage Twitter conversations, they encourage this participation to flourish, and even quirky tools can provide a placeholder for kicking things off. The media already does plenty of “sentiment analysis” — every time a commentator divines what voters do or do not really “care about,” or what Americans are or not “really thinking” about at any moment, as if this can be easily discerned with a quick read from the tea leaves. As Nate Silver showed, the gut, often self-interested, is far from foolproof. Even though it still has a lot of room for improvement, machine-learning sentiment analysis can, when used properly, bring more people into the conversation.
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According to the Chairoscuro Foundation, New York City’s disastrous abortion rate – 41 percent of all pregnancies in the city end in abortion – is largely the result of repeat abortions. The highest rate of abortion in New York City is in the Manhattan Chelsea-Clinton neighborhood, where 67 percent of pregnancies in end in abortion. Most shocking, in 2009, a full 56 percent of abortions were second abortions; 38 percent were paid for by Medicaid.
These statistics give the lie to the liberal notion that abortion can be safe, legal, and rare. Rare is obviously not a priority for groups that are happy to perform abortion on demand. And far too many women are using abortion as a method of birth control.
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The main slogan for this past August 29, 2012 event was “Towards the Buenos Aires of 2030;” and for now Megaciudades is the most important conference regarding Urban Planning and Sustainability taking place in the city on an annual basis.
In its third year, the event was organized by the German-Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and oriented towards the intelligent debate of this widely spoken but not always applied concept of “Sustainable Development.”
Megaciudades 2012 was a whole day of open forums and expositions, and succeeded in being an open space of debate, with the purpose of establishing a platform of information exchange between the city-involved professionals which attended this years’ edition.
There were four subjects analyzed:
- Urban Planning and Creative Cities held discussions by Ralf Amann from GMP Architekten and Jaime Kuck from Manaus. These discussions exposed the transformations behind the 2016 Olympic preparations and demonstrated something in which Brazilians really are experts: Reinventing their cities;
- Climate Change and Urban Management: The ventures of the Public Administration towards the reduction of gas emissions taken in different Argentine districts, and how they are working towards significant change district-by-district;
- Mobility and Energy were debated under the concept of Smart Grids; improvement of sustainable transportation and innovative solutions for energy supplies, especially in the case of Chilean cities;
- Management of Waste was the fourth and final point of discussion. The organization of a new scheme of separation of residues and recyclables (as presented in a last post for the case of Buenos Aires) was analyzed in a panel discussion with representatives of the government, the academia, and everyone involved in this newly applied process.
It is estimated that in 2030, 60% of Humanity will live in Megacities located mainly in the developing world; but surprisingly in many countries there is still skepticism on the public sphere about the efficacy of these type of events, that still are financed privately with almost no governmental intervention.
Wouldn’t it then be necessary to ask our governments to promote and invest in these types of events on a grand scale? Or should we leave the debate in the hands of the private sector? Which of the two sectors is akin to achieve actual success?
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ROI: Developing an accurate understanding of how the NBA game actually works
Two seemingly unrelated articles about how a good many NBA observers fail to “see” the game today, compared to previous generations:
In the 1960s, Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics won multiple MVPs and was generally considered the game’s best player. He had virtually no offensive game to speak of. I sometimes contend that if Russell played today, with his awkward offensive skills, ESPN’s public opinion makers would persuade the public to believe Russell was an ordinary player of questionable value. My hunch is he would be viewed today in the same light the public views Tyson Chandler or Marcus Camby.
LeBron James should be careful not to listen to criticism from his inferiors, people who never played the game like him and don’t really understand how to win something. Young man, keep that mess out of your head. Everything you are doing and saying is right.
Sure, James could hunt for offense a lot more aggressively — if he wants to suck the life out of the Miami Heat. Maybe his critics would be happier if he went 3 for 30 and ruined the flow for Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Since when does a refusal to overshoot when you aren’t knocking down shots qualify as poor leadership? And since when does a stat line of nine rebounds and seven assists qualify as a horribly passive performance? And since when is unselfishness a flaw?
I’ll tell you since when. Ever since the sublime talents of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant deceived star worshippers into thinking that NBA greatness is defined by lone wolfness. Ever since their stunning scorer’s mentalities seduced their admirers into forgetting that without Phil Jackson, and his relentless insistence on sharing the ball, neither won so much as one ring. Not one.
There is something off in the way James is being treated by his critics.
which are, in fact, intrinsically related to one another.
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(Update at 9.00am on 15 Frbruary 2011: Headline rewritten, and changes made in text. “kbs” pointed out (see comments) that I misread the 2001 figures. Apologies for being daft. Will try not to be daft again.)
In 2001, it was ranked 97th. The survey uses prices of goods and services such as food, transportation, housing, utilities, private schools and domestic help to calculate scores for each city, using New York as its base with a score of 100. To be fair, most S’poreans do not rent homes in prime districts or send their children to private schools.
And the strength of S$ in 2011 can distort figures. A kilo of bread would have cost US$2.86 in 2010, according to the Economist’s data, but last year cost US$3.19 – an 11% increase. But, 6% of this is due to weakening US$. In S$, the price of bread would have gone up 5%.
88 places in 10 years being number 9 is not shumething to crow about because
If we look at the data for the last 10 years, for example, the income of Singapore citizens at the 20th percentile level, grew by only 25%, from $1,200 in 2001 to $1,500 in 2011 (excluding employer CPF contributions).
In real terms, I estimate the annualized growth to be about 0.2%.
This is a far cry from the 2.2% real annualized growth for the last five years (including employer CPF contributions).
And the “new poor” continue to face the triple whammy of high living costs, low wages & purchasing power.
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Social Security recipients will see bigger payments this year for the first time since 2009. But the future of Social Security taxes for workers remains uncertain. The 2011 payroll tax holiday has been extended only through the end of February and is scheduled to increase in March under current law. Here's a look at the Social Security changes workers and retirees will experience this year.
A boost in monthly payments. Social Security payments for more than 60 million Americans will increase 3.6 percent in 2012, the first increase since 2009. The typical retiree will see an increase of about $43 per month, although a portion of the increase may be deducted to pay for higher Medicare Part B premiums. Since 1975, Social Security payments have been automatically adjusted each year for inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. Cost-of-living adjustments have ranged from 14.3 percent in 1980 to zero in 2010 and 2011.
Higher Social Security tax cap. The maximum amount of earnings subject to Social Security taxes has increased from $106,800 in 2011 to $110,100 in 2012. The Social Security Administration estimates that about 10 million high earners will pay higher taxes as a result of the increase in the taxable maximum.
Social Security tax holiday temporarily extended. The 2 percent payroll tax cut that workers received in 2011 was recently extended through the first two months of 2012 by the Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011. Nearly 160 million workers will continue to have 4.2 percent of their pay deposited into the Social Security trust fund instead of the usual 6.2 percent until Feb. 29, 2012.
However, higher-income employees who earn more than $18,350 in January and February 2012 must pay a 2 percent Social Security tax on the amount they earn between $18,350 and $110,100. "This additional recapture tax is an add-on to income tax liability that the employee would otherwise pay for 2012 and is not subject to reduction by credits or deductions," according to a statement from the IRS. "The recapture tax would be payable in 2013 when the employee files his or her income tax return for the 2012 tax year." Under current law, Social Security taxes are scheduled to return to 6.2 percent of pay in March 2012.
Higher earnings limits. Early retirees who work and collect Social Security benefits at the same time can earn $480 more next year before a portion of their Social Security benefit will be temporally withheld. Social Security recipients below their full retirement age (66 for those born between 1943 and 1954) can earn up to $14,640 in 2012, above which 50 cents of each dollar earned will be withheld from their Social Security payments. For retirees who will turn 66 in 2012, the limit climbs to $38,880, after which 33 cents of each dollar earned will be deducted from monthly payments. Starting the month you turn your retirement age, there is no penalty for working and collecting Social Security benefits at the same time. At that time, your benefit will also be adjusted to reflect your continued work record and any benefits that were withheld.
Maximum possible benefit grows. The maximum possible Social Security check will grow to $2,513 per month in 2012, up from $2,366 in 2011. To get this amount, a worker would need to earn the maximum taxable amount ($110,100 in 2012) every year after age 21.
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Israel Keyes was a different kind of monster — one that left ‘kill kits’ buried around the nation, and cases without any clues. His biggest unsolved mystery: How many people did he murder?
- Last Updated: 11:43 AM, December 30, 2012
- Posted: 10:47 PM, December 29, 2012
“You could see the adrenaline coursing through his body” as he recounted the murder, Feldis says. “This didn’t seem to be the case of someone who had never done this before.”
A KILLER’S TWO LIVES
Investigators had also found news coverage of the Currier case in Vermont on the same computer, but it took weeks for Keyes to confess to that killing.
He expressed great concern for the privacy and well-being of his friends and family, and though it sounds odd, it did not surprise investigators: Most serial killers have not only friends and family but a kind of love, however deformed and utilitarian, for them.
“In some respects, serial killers really aren’t that different from the rest of us,” says Jack Levin, professor of sociology and criminology at Northeastern University in Boston. “Most of us compartmentalize and draw lines between people we love and respect and people we don’t. Why do serial killers select strangers? Easy: to dehumanize. An organized serial killer” — as in the case of the fictional Dexter — “can live with a wife and children, but he reserves his thrill for those he doesn’t know.”
Levin says that in 99% of these cases, family and friends are shocked to learn the truth — serial killers, in daily life, present as utterly normal.
Keyes, as are most serial killers, was highly interested in control, and once he made plain his Achilles’ heel — keeping his girlfriend and daughter away from the media — prosecutors used that as leverage. He especially expressed concern about his daughter, in the near future, Googling his name, what she might discover. “We let him know that if he told us these things, we would be in a better position to keep the publicity under control,” Feldis says. “We tried to encourage that control.”
And that’s why the world has only just heard of Israel Keyes.
Once Keyes was convinced his family would be protected, he revealed himself to be a whole new kind of monster; for all he had in common with the typical profile of a serial killer, Keyes was an aberration, the kind of nightmare that we like to think lives only in horror movies or Stephen King novels.
Frank Russo, the assistant US attorney who worked on the case, has said that a national expert in serial killers told him that Keyes was among the top three organizational minds he’d ever come across.
“I don’t want to instill fear in people,” Feldis says. That said, “When you see Israel Keyes and talk to him about something unrelated to his criminal activity — you wouldn’t know he was a killer.”Follow @NYPostOpinion
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After the book, the Nasar interviews on NPR, the audiobook and the movie,
I believe most non-math majors will get more out
of the biography if they read (or listen to) the
book after seeing the movie, even if they had
already read the book first.
The story is important, it would be fun to share a condensed version with all the young people I know.
One thing we don't grasp about the new publication... why is What's-his-name's photo on the cover, rather than John Nash's?
I liked the movie and I like reading biographies, so this should have been a really good book for me. Unfortunately, I felt the need for a higher math education than I have to understand the first third of the book. Most of what's left is a detailed, play-by-play account of Nash's madness. The movie was very accessable, but the book is much more cerebral. The author used letters, diaries, and interviews to put together the facts, which are presented in a somewhat choppy method that does not draw one into the telling.
That said, I did read the entire book (minus the difficult parts that I skimmed) and did find his overall life interesting. I do not recommend this book to the casual reader.
I thought this was a very difficult book to read, especially in the first 100 pages or so. The parts I had the most trouble with were the passages almost all about these theorem's and describing them, and how so and so got to them, how they work, what they do, ect... I know this is a book about a mathematical genius and obviously is going to have text about math, but since I am not a genius and I like to read into every paragraph, it was difficult for me to get try to grasp what she was saying. Maybe I just read into everything too much and should focus on the bigger picture, move on and leave it as that, but I don't. After you get past these rough passages though the book really is wonderful. I would read it again. I have never seen the movie but it can't possibly beat the book. Sylvia Nasar has done a fine job of letting us glimpse into the extraordinary life of John Nash.
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If your child is starting a new school this year, it could seem like a daunting task.
Whether they're starting kindergarten or entering middle school of high school, you're still going to have to worry about the same things: Who will be their teachers? What should you pack for lunch? What kind of school supplies do they need? And so on.
According to Babble.com, one of the most important things that many parents forget to do before summer ends and school starts back up again is to prepare.
Fortunately, San Carlos has a lot of smart parents. If you have any back-to-school tips for parents whose kids are starting new schools, let us know what worked for you when helping your child make that transition. Leave your tips in the comments.
Want to blog for us? Simply click here.
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172 West 23rd Street,
No one has favorited this theater yet
This little-known theatre was showing motion pictures when it caught fire on February 5, 1922. As reported in the New York Times, the patrons left “hats, coats and even a Maltese cat in flight” at this small theatre located on 23rd Street near Seventh Avenue.
“Panic was averted by the presence of mind of the management and the employees of the theatre, whose efforts enabled the spectators to march out in an orderly manner while the pianist played The Star Spangled Banner”.
The only person injured was the projectionist, who was “scorched”. The cat was assumed to have been brought in by a patron as he had never been seen before.
The Lyric was still operating in 1924 when it was advertised running a week of Paramount pictures.
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
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PROFILE-Ecuador's Correa: from boyhood leader to firebrand president
* Combative Correa widely supported for social spending
* Critics call him authoritarian bully who weakens economy
* U.S. trained economist seen winning new term in office
By Eduardo Garcia and Brian Ellsworth
QUITO, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa held his first Cabinet meetings more than 35 years before he was elected.
As an 8-year-old boy in the bustling port city of Guayaquil, according to his brother, he would play head of state with his friends who gathered around him to serve as ersatz ministers taking his orders.
The innate charisma that he showed as a schoolboy has helped make Correa one of the Andean nation's most popular presidents, celebrated as a champion of the poor by supporters from windswept highlands to sweltering Amazon jungle.
Yet critics might see in those childhood games the authoritarian traits of a leader they now accuse of hoarding power: he somehow always managed to be the chief.
"I used to say to his friends, 'when you play cops and robbers, sometimes you're the cop and sometimes you're the robber,'" said Correa's brother, Fabricio, once a close ally who is now a fierce critic after a theatrical falling out.
"'But you guys are always the stooges and he's always the president,'" he said in an interview.
Despite polarized views on Correa, opinion polls show the country of 15 million people is almost certain to hand him a new term in a presidential election Sunday. That would allow him to continue his "Citizens' Revolution" that vows to fight grinding poverty and expand the reach of the state.
A savvy political operator, the 49-year-old Correa has built up solid support by boosting state spending on health and education.
His aggressive anti-American rhetoric and showdowns with Wall Street investors and oil companies have helped him build the image of a populist crusader battling elites in the name of the poor.
To detractors, however, Correa is a dangerous and impulsive authoritarian who brooks no dissent and persecutes adversaries while squashing free speech and free enterprise alike.
They say his political success has come from a vast expansion of presidential powers and indiscriminate use of government coffers swollen by rising global crude prices, higher taxes, and financing agreements with China.
A victory on Feb. 17 would give him another four years in office, extending his tenure to a decade, a remarkable feat in a country where military coups and violent protests had turned the presidency into more of a revolving door than a stable institution.
It could also give Correa a bigger leadership role in a coalition of left-wing leaders in Latin America as Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, for years the region's agent provocateur, struggles with life-threatening cancer.
Though Correa has said he is not interested in replacing Chavez, he is likely to continue replicating the Venezuelan's ferocious verbal bashing of the U.S. "empire."
He has canceled U.S. anti-narcotics flights from Ecuador, and in 2011 he expelled the American ambassador.
Last year, he set his government on a new collision course with Western powers when he allowed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to take refuge at Ecuador's embassy in London, saying he feared Washington wanted to persecute the ex-computer hacker for leaking thousands of secret U.S. cables.
HERO FOR THE POOR
Driving Correa's diatribes about corrupt media and immoral bankers is a profound anger over poverty, which he witnessed up close in 1987 while volunteering with a Roman Catholic organization in the remote Andean village of Zumbahua.
He spent a year living in a tiny room in a dilapidated building, playing guitar and sharing meals with the local Kichwa indigenous people while learning their language.
The malnutrition and lack of basic health care he saw in Zumbahua was a stark contrast to his own lower middle class upbringing.
"The time he spent here left a mark on him. He saw that these people were trapped in poverty. He would go around saying things were going to be different when he became president," said Pio Baschirotto, a 71-year-old priest who works in Zumbahua and is friends with the president.
Correa went on to study economics in Belgium, where he met his future wife, and in 2001 completed a doctoral thesis at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that argued against the free-market reforms that swept Latin America in the 1990s.
The father of three won the presidency in late 2006 on promises to tackle poverty by boosting the state's share of the OPEC nation's oil industry proceeds and hiking government spending on social welfare.
Since then he has doubled spending on education, linked remote villages to big cities by turning muddy dirt paths into proper roads, and expanded access to health care by building 20 new hospitals and revamping some 500 clinics.
"We've done a lot. ... Our roads are envied throughout the Americas, ports, airports, hydroelectric dams. For sure, things have changed," Correa said when he kicked off his re-election bid in November in front of thousands of supporters.
"But there's a long way to go and that's why we're here."
An avid cyclist, the usually tanned Correa is an effective campaigner while visiting poor rural areas, or dancing at local festivals.
Polls before the election show him taking between 50 and 60 percent of the vote. That is at least 30 percentage points ahead of his closest rival, banker Guillermo Lasso, who is one of seven candidates fielded by the fractured opposition.
Supporters say Correa's charm and heavy state spending have helped him put an end to the political turmoil that ousted three predecessors in the decade before he took office.
But critics say the key to Correa's longevity is that his allies drafted a new constitution in 2008 that expanded the reach of the presidency, made it easier for him to put allies in key posts and has allowed him to run for two consecutive terms.
He also bypassed Congress by calling a referendum on an overhaul of the justice system in 2011 that critics say boosted his power over courts. The opposition-controlled legislature would have likely rejected the reforms.
At the same time, he expanded the use of adulatory state media to burnish his image, began calling critical reporters "dogs" and "hired assassins," and sued two opposition newspapers for libel.
Business leaders say his expansion of state control over the economy and creation of onerous taxes has weakened the private sector while fostering corruption, an approach his rival Lasso calls "franchise socialism" because of its similarity to reforms in allied Venezuela and Bolivia.
Allies who helped him win the presidency quickly found there was no room for dissent or even disagreement. Within two years, Correa elbowed as many as 10 people out of his inner circle.
"We were like brothers. Sometimes neither of us was able to say who had said something first," said Alberto Acosta, a political mentor who said he fell out with Correa over the president's plans to expand the mining industry at the expense of the environment.
"I don't know him anymore ... he has become authoritarian, domineering and arrogant. He's a caudillo now," said Acosta, using a label often given to strongmen rulers in Latin America.
Ecuadoreans will also choose a new Congress in the elections Sunday. Correa's Alianza Pais party hopes to win more than 50 percent of seats, up from 42 percent now. That would let him pass laws without having to negotiate with the opposition.
One of his most bitter brawls was with his own brother, Fabricio. The two campaigned together in the election that swept Correa to power, and they had been close since childhood.
The president openly broke with him in 2010 following accusations that Fabricio's engineering firm had profited from government contracts that violated anti-nepotism laws.
The elder Correa denies the charges and says the relationship broke down when he complained about irregular contracting practices. He says he learned via the vice president that his brother had barred him from the presidential palace.
"He turned into a fanatic," said Fabricio. "He believes he is a messiah, and he always envisioned a totalitarian system because he believes that's the only way to help the poor."
The president has ready responses to such charges.
"They say we're obsessed with power. Yes! We're obsessed with the power to serve the citizens, especially the poor," he said last month when he celebrated six years in office.
"We're obsessed with the power to build more schools, more hospitals, more roads, more bridges."
Supporters and rivals alike complain that Correa's sharp temper and hostile attitude have led him to pick unnecessary fights and to implement policies based on confrontation.
His most notable showdown was his 2008 decision to default on $3.2 billion in global bonds, even though Ecuador had the funds to continue making payments. Correa insisted the debt had been illegally contracted under previous governments.
Ecuador later repurchased the debt at a steep discount in an aggressive operation that turned Wall Street's rough-and-tumble playbook back on the investors themselves - but also locked Ecuador out of global capital markets.
He also forced oil companies to sign contracts to give the state greater income, pushing out Brazil's Petrobras in the process, and bullied mobile phone carriers into paying more for their operating licenses, deterring potential investors.
"His biggest defect is his biggest virtue: he fights for what he believes without thinking about the consequences," said Correa's friend and former minister, Susana Cabeza de Vaca.
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I married my best friend. Since then she has been the best wife and mother I could ever hope for. I would write a long paean in her honor, but then I realized someone already wrote one about her:
When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls.
Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize.
She brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life.
She obtains wool and flax and makes cloth with skillful hands.
Like merchant ships, she secures her provisions from afar.
She rises while it is still night, and distributes food to her household.
She picks out a field to purchase; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She is girt about with strength, and sturdy are her arms.
She enjoys the success of her dealings; at night her lamp is undimmed.
She puts her hands to the distaff, and her fingers ply the spindle.
She reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy.
She fears not the snow for her household; all her charges are doubly clothed.
She makes her own coverlets; fine linen and purple are her clothing.
Her husband is prominent at the city gates as he sits with the elders of the land.
She makes garments and sells them, and stocks the merchants with belts.
She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs at the days to come.
She opens her mouth in wisdom, and on her tongue is kindly counsel.
She watches the conduct of her household, and eats not her food in idleness.
Her children rise up and praise her; her husband, too, extols her:
“Many are the women of proven worth, but you have excelled them all.”
Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting; the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her a reward of her labors, and let her works praise her at the city gates.
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hunting and gathering
R-evolution Gardens Newsletter
- evolving toward a sustainable future -
Standing in the community garden she was managing at the time Ginger looked down at pumpkins and flowers of late autumn, the sun was sinking and I shivered not yet realizing that the days of t-shirts were coming to a close. She looked over at me and announced, “We need our own permaculture farm.” Ok,” I said playing along, “It could also be an alternative energy demonstration site, a teaching center, and completely off the grid.” “I’m serious,” she countered “We can do this.” We only had to overcome the small problems of no money, no credit, no lucrative professional income, basically no hope. Having tackled impossible projects before, Gin and I have never let something as small as hopelessness stand in the way.
“R”-evolution had begun.
A year and a half later I’m sitting on my porch, a porch recycled from a deck that was torn down elsewhere, and I’m looking out at Ginger picking a giant basket of snow peas where there used to be only an entrenched population of blackberries. Over my head a copper pipe returns hot water from a recycled solar hot water panel on the roof, behind me the wood-fired cook stove sits idle, waiting for the winter when it will heat our home, our water, and our food. Next to the greenhouse, where beehives dispatch a swarm of eager pollinators amidst tomatoes and peppers, the sun pumps electricity into solar electric panels, underground through wires, and then here to the house where my computer is plugged in. Chickens roam a hillside across from me, eating the grass and clearing an area where we will soon plant raspberry bushes. The scene represents a tremendous amount of work in a very short time; it represents the generosity of our financiers; but most of all it represents the power of what can be accomplished with intention, and vision.
In less than fourteen months, and while we were both working, Ginger and I managed to construct a functioning off-grid homestead for around sixty thousand dollars, forty of which could have been saved had the county not forced us to build a wooden house instead of the simple and inexpensive yurt we had planned on. To make the best of things we built the house small and saved a huge amount by scavenging much of the interior from recycling centers. Unfortunately, incorporating sustainable living principles while simultaneously trying to satisfy county inspectors has been a chore that highlights the pressing need for planners to overhaul building codes to meet the needs of the 21st century. With these hurdles either mitigated or skirted, alternative energy has proven to be cheaper and more fun than hooking up to the grid. With a small house our energy needs are minimal and we have plentiful electricity to run lights, computers, power tools, and small appliances.
Our gardens are flourishing, and we are both surprised by how much of our diet we can supplement from the farm already. Ginger grows vegetables, the chickens supply eggs and meat, and I contribute a bit by fishing and hunting. We had originally planned five years for food independence, and now I’m thinking we can do it in less than three. Living here has been a revelation for me. Managing the gardens, animals, and renewable energy systems has brought into stark contrast the difference between my former self as an avid naturalist, an appreciator of nature, and my present self, a participant in the natural world, a citizen as opposed to merely a tourist. From this relationship I’ve gained a richness in my everyday life that I never knew was missing.
It’s becoming ever more apparent to all of us that if we are to have a future it will be one of decreased consumption, and increased reliance on alternative energy and local agriculture. When we conceived the farm this was the vision I wanted to promote, to teach and showcase a do-it-yourself approach to the art of living smaller and wiser. Now I am realizing that these practices are more than just a way to a way to preserve the planet we live on, they also create a lifestyle that is worth living for. I’m learning that thoughtful, responsible living isn’t a yoke that our generation is forced to suffer, but rather a door that will reintroduce us to joy of living our lives fully.
Beginning late this summer Ginger and I, working with local experts, will be offering a series of affordable sustainable living classes. Wood fired hot water, solar water heating, solar electricity installation, natural building, and wild edibles are just a few of the ideas as we begin the next phase of our homestead project. Look for schedules online by the end of July. We look forward to sharing what we’ve learned with the broader community. In the meantime, we are glad to give tours of the farm for those interested. Enjoy the vegetables, there is love in every bite.
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Number One Again! (Video)
Respected education journal Education Week ranks Maryland number one overall in the nation in its Quality Counts survey. Dr. Nancy Grasmick talks about achieving the top ranking for the second year in a row, and what's ahead.
The Maryland public school system remains firmly at the head of the class, according to an independent national report being released today.
Education Week, the nation’s leading education newspaper, looked at data in six critical categories over the past two years, and once again placed Maryland’s state education system at the very top of national rankings.
Maryland placed at the top of the list in Education Week’s annual “Quality Counts” tally, with the nation’s only B+ average. New York and Massachusetts followed closely with B grades. The majority of states received grades of C or less, according to the report.
“We have chosen as a people to invest in our public schools – in the future of our State – even when times are tough,” said Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley. “Today, Education Week, for the second straight year, has certified that Maryland has built the number one public school system in America. Even during these difficult economic times, we’ve continued to fully fund efforts to build new, state-of-the-art classrooms, integrate curriculum across all grade levels, and hire and retain the nation’s best educators. Now, for yet another year, Education Week has affirmed the importance of protecting these shared priorities.”
Maryland’s 2010 ranking is based on State education policies and student performance that reflect nearly two decades of work on a preK-12 curriculum; state accountability and standards; teacher effectiveness; and work on school readiness, high school reform, and preparation for college and the workplace.
“Our work did not end with last year’s ranking, and it doesn’t end today. Our commitment to our schools and the students and families we serve is undiminished,” said State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick. “The ‘Quality Counts’ report gives us one significant yardstick by which we can measure our success. We won’t rest until we know that all of our students are getting the education they deserve.”
Today’s announcement by Education Week continues Maryland’s long history of success in the annual review. Maryland has consistently worked to strengthen policies and improve student achievement, resulting in a ranking that inched higher year after year before gaining the top spot for the first time in the 2009 “Quality Counts” report.
“I’d like to thank the staff of the Maryland State Department of Education, members of the Maryland State Board of Education, and local system superintendents, administrators, and teachers for maintaining focus on student achievement,” Dr. Grasmick said. “With the support of the Governor, the Maryland General Assembly, educators, parents, and the public at large, we are able to continue to transform our classrooms.”
Dr. Grasmick gave special thanks to the business community, which has consistently supported Maryland’s education reforms. “Our businesses understand the importance of strong schools and prepared graduates,” she said. “For our State to remain competitive, we need a vital preK-12 education system.”
The new report finds that no other state has a more consistent record of excellence than Maryland. Results for the State were above average in all six of the broad grade categories, and ranked in the top seven in five of the six categories.
Also highlighted in the report is a special look at mathematics progress, using data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results and Advanced Placement scores. Maryland ranked second in the nation, just behind Massachusetts, in this segment of the report.
Most of the state-level data gathered by Education Week comes from a policy survey of the states conducted in the summer and fall of 2009. In addition, the publication draws on data from such organizations as the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Bureau of the Census, and the American Federation of Teachers.
For more information, see the Education Week website, www.edweek.org.
EDUCATION WEEK’S QUALITY COUNTS RELEASE
Maryland Public Education's #1 Flyer
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When it comes to the Boston Marathon bombing suspects' identity, religion trumps race in the media.
"Since the identification and apprehension (both dead and alive) of Boston Marathon bombing suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev (reportedly shot and run over with explosives strapped to him, amid unconfirmed reports he was clutching an 'ACME Co.' receipt) and [Dzhokhar] Tsarnaev (apprehended as a result of history's first heroic nicotine fit), there has been a rush to triumphantly point and laugh at liberal commentator David Sirota's preference that the bombers turn out to be like the cheese on his ham sandwich: white and American," Tommy Christopher wrote Sunday for Mediaite.
"Lucky for white Americans, Sirota was at least half-right: when perpetrators of horrific acts turn out to be white, there is some phenomenon that causes their whiteness to become completely irrelevant, even if they are actually from the place where whiteness gets its name. Until Friday, I always thought 'caucasian' was just a name that some fancy racist thought up to make white people sound better than 'negroids' and 'mongoloids,' but it turns out there's a real place called Caucasia, and the Boston bombing suspects are from it.
"Despite that fact, and despite the fact that their region of origin has been heavily reported as 'the Caucasas,' you would never know that these guys were Caucasian, let alone white, from the way cable news has been reporting on them. With the exception of Sunday morning's Melissa Harris-Perry show, the only cable news description of the suspects as 'Caucasian' came from Massachusetts State Police Col. Tim Alben, during a press conference.
"That's because David Sirota didn't count on the one possibility that could nullify a white American bomber: a white American Muslim bomber. . . ."
The issue of racial and religious profiling was one of the themes that followed the capture Friday of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and the death of his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Muslims with Chechen origins.
Andrew Rosenthal, editorial page editor of the New York Times, wrote Monday, "The Boston Marathon bombings are closer to the colloquial and legal definitions of terrorism than the Aurora shooting, but not the Oklahoma bombing, or the Arizona attack.
"The real difference is that Mr. Tsarnaev is a Muslim, and the United States has since the 9/11 terrorist attacks constructed a separate and profoundly unequal system of detention and punishment that essentially applies only to Muslims. . . . "
Jelani Cobb, associate professor of history and director of the Institute of African American Studies at the University of Connecticut, ruminated on the subject of collective guilt in writing Saturday for the New Yorker website:
"And though we think of ourselves as a nation of immigrants, many Americans are removed enough from identity-based communities to recoil at the idea that they'd be held accountable for someone else's crimes," Cobb wrote. "But recent immigrants know that, even in a country founded upon the premise of individual rights, there is no guarantee that a person will be treated as an individual. This isn't solely a dynamic about immigration. For those with long enough memories, the ambiguous description of a 'dark-skinned male' suspect brought to mind the 1989 Charles Stuart case -- itself a case study in collective suspicion and guilt in the city of Boston. . . ."
Sarah Kendzior, an anthropologist who recently received her Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis, wrote for Al Jazeera Sunday that Muslims are owed an apology:
"American Muslims have long had to deal with ignorance and prejudice in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. 'Please don't be Muslims or Arabs,' goes the refrain, as unnecessary demands for a public apology from Muslims emerge. This week made it clear that it is Muslims who are owed the apology. After wild speculation from CNN about a 'dark-skinned suspect', on Thursday the New York Post published a cover photo falsely suggesting a Moroccan-American high school track star, Salah Barhoun, was one of the bombers. 'Jogging while Arab' has become the new 'driving while black.'"
Kendzior added, "It is easy to criticise the media, and after this disastrous week, there is much to criticise. But the consequences of the casual racism launched at Chechens -- and by association, all other Muslims from the former Soviet Union, who are rarely distinguished from one another by the public -- are serious. By emphasising the Tsarnaevs' ethnicity over their individual choices, and portraying that ethnicity as barbaric and violent, the media creates a false image of a people destined by their names and their 'culture of terror' to kill. There are no people in Chechnya, only symbols. There are no Chechen-Americans, only threats. . . ."
In a flood of post-mortems on the Boston Marathon killings and subsequent manhunt, the Associated Press said, "We made mistakes because we didn't follow our own very good guidelines"; CNN President Jeff Zucker, whose network was faulted for wrong judgment calls, praised his team; and Callie Crossley, a local critic, said of the Boston media, "in an ever evolving fast-moving situation, I thought they were brilliant.
"I was with a group of friends not in business last night," Crossley, host of "Under The Radar" on Boston's WGBH-FM, told Howard Kurtz Sunday on CNN's "Reliable Sources." "I asked what they thought about the coverage.
"These are people who keep up with news and information. They said . . . what they most appreciated was a lack of hyping what was already a heightened situation. They said inform me, don't scare me. That was the highest compliment they could give local reporters here in town and I have to agree. . . ."
In a memo to Associated Press staffers, Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said, "There was much great work from AP staffers and we celebrate that. But we had some missteps, too. And that's what we want to talk about here today.
"Tom Kent, our Deputy Managing Editor for Standards, finished a thoughtful breakdown of where our standards served us well and where we fell short. Two issues stand out.
"We made mistakes because we didn't follow our own very good guidelines.
"And in one important case, we did not move quickly enough to clearly to fix that mistake. . . ." In particular, Kent said, "The AP routinely seeks and requires more than one source. . . ."
While CNN was widely mocked for its mistakes, including premature reports that a suspect had been captured (a mistake others made as well), and John King's statement that a "dark-skinned male" had been identified as the suspect, CNN president Jeff Zucker heaped praise on his team Friday:
"You have worked tirelessly, around the clock, to share these stories. And our audiences have responded, making it clear that they rely on us in ever increasing ways," Zucker wrote, according to the Hollywood Reporter. "In front of the cameras and behind the scenes, you have shown the world what makes us CNN. . . ."
Ken Bensinger and Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times: Boston bombings: Social media spirals out of control; Web sleuths cast suspicion on innocent people and spread bad tips and paranoia.
Charles M. Blow, New York Times: The Mind of a Terror Suspect
David Carr, New York Times: The Pressure to Be the TV News Leader Tarnishes a Big Brand
Stanley Crouch, Daily News, New York: From Boston, sorrow and hope
Mary C. Curtis, Washington Post: Understanding the bomber next door
Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune: After Boston marathon bombings, choose sadness, not fear
Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune: Backpack control as a way of making marathons safer?
Editors, the Aerogram: The 12 Best Tweets About CNN's 'Brown-Skinned Individual' Fail
Fannie Flono, Charlotte (N.C.) Observer: Senseless sacrilege of Senate gun control vote
Arturo R. García, Racialicious: Quoted: Sunil Tripathi's Sister, Sangeeta, On Redditors' False Accusations
Bill Grueskin, Columbia Journalism Review: In defense of scoops
Lucette Jefferson, Huffington Post: Boston Bombing Suspect Race: Were You Relieved? (TELL US)
Jackie Jones, BlackAmericaWeb.com: Media's Rush to Get It First Opens Door to Racial Profiling
Charles King, Foreign Affairs: Not Your Average Chechen Jihadis
John McWhorter, Daily News, New York: The terrorism truthers and the larger truth
Media Life Magazine: 46 million watch bombing suspect's capture
Courtland Milloy, Washington Post: False hope and folly in gun-control bill (April 16)
Phillip Morris, Plain Dealer, Cleveland: Boston's tragic week will only serve to make it stronger
Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Someday, today's gun laws will be absurd
Brendan Nyhan, Columbia Journalism Review: Fast and wrong beats slow and right
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Gun vote reveals new GOP divide
Andrea Plaid, Racialicious: Open Thread: The Boston Marathon Bombings, The Boston Manhunt, And The Race To Racism
Pro Publica: A Reading Guide to What's Going on in Boston (April 19)
Radio Ink: How To Cover a Story Like Boston
Mary Sanchez, Kansas City Star: Wasn't Sandy Hook Enough to open our eyes?
Ana Veciana-Suarez, Miami Herald: After the Boston marathon bombing, focus on the heroes
Ali Velshi, Quartz: Ex-CNN anchor: Twitter is merciless when media lag, ruthless when they're wrong
"There are likely some professors at the University of West Virginia red-faced today after a recent graduate made his TV debut by dropping a string of obscenities," John Landsberg wrote Monday for Bottom Line Communications.
"A.J. Clemente went on the air for the first time at NBC North Dakota affiliate KFYR-TV and almost immediately blurted out a string of obscenities that left him looking like he was learning disabled.
" 'Say hello to the most disastrous start to a television career in the history of moving pictures inside little boxes and/or flat screens,' noted the Awful Announcing site.
"Clemente, who must have missed the 'assume the microphone is always on' lesson in school, has already been suspended (UPDATE: He has been fired.)
"His co-anchor was so flustered by his actions she sounded worse than a high school broadcaster. Clemente's performance has gone viral around the country. . . ."
CBS Seattle: Station Facing Backlash After Firing Anchor For Cursing On Air On First Day (April 23)
The Prime Movers Media program, "the first intensive journalism mentoring and news literacy program targeting students within urban high schools," is sunsetting after nine successful school years, Dorothy Gilliam, the program's founder and director, announced on Monday.
The program, based at George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs, was established for its first three years with a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and supported in more recent years by a contract with the District of Columbia Public Schools.
"Financial support from George Washington University and the School of Media and Public Affairs, along with news organizations, individuals and smaller foundations has provided supplemental funding for the program," the announcement continued. "The completion of this year's contract with the D.C. Public School system (D.C.P.S.) left too large a gap without new sources of funding to sustain the program. Without new funding, it has become difficult to sustain and administer the Prime Movers program so the program will close at the end of this academic year.
"Prime Movers Media has brought 80 interns from the George Washington University together with 60 professional journalists to train more than 4,000 students in 28 schools in the Washington area. Along with the White House Correspondents' Association and AOL, Prime Movers Media has facilitated college scholarships for students to study journalism and mass communications."
Gilliam added that the program's legacy would continue as D.C. students study a mass media/journalism education curriculum that Prime Movers wrote for D.C. Public Schools. A branch of the program in Philadelphia co-founded with Acel Moore, former Philadelphia Inquirer associate editor and columnist, will continue.
According to the program's website, its genesis dates to 1997, when Gilliam learned "that none of Washington D.C''s public high schools had produced student newspapers.
"Believing that students should have opportunities to communicate and develop journalistic skills, she obtained Washington Post support to launch a project called the Young Journalists Development Program through which journalists from the newspaper served as mentors and coaches to help urban high school students learn about journalism and produce newspapers for their schools."
Gilliam started Prime Movers in 2004.
Alberto Arce, a correspondent in Honduras for the Associated Press, has won a National Headliner Award for news beat coverage or continuing story by an individual or team [PDF], the Press Club of Atlantic City announced.
In December, Arce wrote a first-person dispatch about his life as a correspondent. "Every Saturday morning, one of my taxi drivers pays about $12 for the right to park his cab near a hospital, about two blocks from a police station," it began.
"But it's not the government that's charging.
"An unidentified man pulls up in a large SUV, usually brandishing an AK-47, and accepts an envelope of cash without saying a word. Jose and nine other drivers who pay the extortionists estimate that it amounts to more than $500 a year to park on public property. During Christmas, the cabbies dish out another $500 each in holiday 'bonuses.'
"Meanwhile, Jose pays the city $30 a year for his taxi license.
" 'Who do you think is really in charge here?' Jose asked me.
"It is an interesting question, one I have been trying to answer since I arrived here a year ago as a correspondent for The Associated Press. Is the government in charge? The drug traffickers? The gangs? This curious capital of 1.3 million people is a lawless place, but it does seem to have its own set of unwritten rules for living with the daily dangers."
Arce added, "I am the only foreign correspondent here, with no press pack to consult on questions of security, or to rely on for safety in numbers. I fall back on instincts honed in war zones, but they are not always sufficient when you are covering a failing state. . . ."
"Anyone keen on the Supreme Court's on-going arguments over the legality of certain parts of the Voter Rights Act surely has not forgotten Justice Antonio Scalia‘s 'racial entitlement' remarks from earlier this year -- especially 'The Crisis,' the NAACP's flagship publication," Terrell Jermaine Starr reported Monday for News One.
" 'I think it is attributable, very likely attributable, to a phenomenon that is called perpetuation of racial entitlement. It's been written about, Scalia said of the Act during a hearing back in February. 'Whenever a society adopts racial entitlements, it is very difficult to get out of them through the normal political processes.
"The award-winning magazine pulled no punches with its response, using its cover to feature an illustration of Justice Scalia with a Confederate flag bandana wrapped around his mouth. The conservative's eyes peer ominously through his thinly-framed eye glasses, evoking worst memories from the era in which the original [Voting Rights] Act was born.
"The cover is very hard-hitting, but The Crisis' Editor-in-Chief, Jabari Asim, told NewsOne, 'we thought his comments were hard-hitting and deserved that kind of response. I think that voting rights is one of those principles that the Crisis, African-Americans, and the NAACP all hold sacred. The memory of people who died for our right to vote remains fresh in many of our consciences and I think in that instance when you dare to be that irreverent and that disrespectful of the lessons of history that's the kind of response you earn.' . . ."
James E. Causey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Report: Over half of black men in their 30s in Milwaukee County have been incarcerated
James E. Causey, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Buying black: Too much money flows out of the black community
George E. Curry, National Newspaper Publishers Association: Supreme Court Determined to Kill Affirmative Action (April 3)
Eric Deggans, Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times: Race-Baiter update: What I've learned after a summer of talking race and media everywhere from CSPAN to CSUN
Lewis W. Diuguid, Kansas City Star: Economic disparity still hampers black success
Lewis W. Diuguid, Kansas City Star: The complacency seen by King hasn't gone away
"Ann Curry was basically professionally tortured her last months as co-anchor of 'Today,' according to Brian Stelter's new book 'Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV,' " Tony Hicks wrote Thursday for the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times.
"MSN reported Thursday that an excerpt from Stelter's upcoming tell-all describes a boys club atmosphere at 'Today,' co-anchor Matt Lauer's 'growing indifference' to Curry and a 'general meanness on set' during Curry's time as co-anchor, according to MSN. The book says executive producer Jim Bell made a blooper reel of Curry's biggest on-air [gaffes], while people in the control room made ongoing jokes about Curry and her wardrobe.
"Insulting a woman's wardrobe -- who does such a thing? It's just not safe ...
"Curry's abuse also included giving her an undesirable office location and insults at the security desk.
" 'Many executives at the network never grasped how profoundly hurt and humiliated Curry remained -- not just by her televised dismissal but by all the backstage machinations that led to that fateful morning,' Stelter wrote. 'Curry felt that the boys club atmosphere behind the scenes at "Today" undermined her from the start, and she told friends that her final months were a form of professional torture.'
"The story also details the tricks the show used to pay off guests, how NBC tweaked Nielsen ratings, and the cutthroat battle against rival 'Good Morning America.' . . . "
Stelter is scheduled to appear on "Good Morning America" and "CBS This Morning," among other programs.
Ed Bark, New York Times: Ratings War Zone Is a Rough Place to Start the Day
Rachel Nolan, New York Times Magazine: Behind the Cover Story: Brian Stelter on the Drama at the 'Today' Show
Brian Stelter, New York Times Magazine: Waking Up on the Wrong Side of a Ratings War
Two candidates have been certified as presidential candidates for the National Association of Black Journalists: Bob Butler, reporter for KCBS radio in San Francisco and current vice president/broadcast; and Sarah Glover, social media editor at WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, former board secretary and past president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists. View all candidates.
When Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. completes three deals announced in the past two months, it will own more television stations across the country than any other company -- 134 stations in 69 markets, Lorraine Mirabella reported Saturday for the Baltimore Sun. Craig Aaron, president of Free Press, a group that advocates for diverse media ownership and criticizes consolidation, said he views several aspects of Sinclair's growth strategy as problematic. "One is this merged newsrooms in all but name," he told the Sun, adding, "I think it's violating the spirit of what local TV is supposed to be. . . ."
Gregory H. Lee Jr., executive sports editor of the South Florida Sun Sentinel and president of the National Association of Black Journalists, has been nominated to receive the 2013 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism, NABJ announced Monday. Suzette Heiman, a spokeswoman for the University of Missouri School of Journalism, said the school was not ready to announce this year's nominees.
Loop21.com, an African American-oriented news website, has eliminated the two positions in its New York office, CEO Darrell L. Williams told Journal-isms on Monday. "As part of its restructuring and expansion, Loop21.com has consolidated its staff operations into its California office," Williams said by email. "Additional staff have been added to the California office over the last few months and last week Loop21.com ended all remaining staff operations outside of California. This consolidation will significantly improve staff collaboration and coordination. Loop21.com will continue to work with freelance contributors and editors throughout the country." The site employs six full-time equivalent positions and is adding four to the California staff, he said. The editors remain in place.
Revolt, a Sean Combs-backed lifestyle cable network, is getting ready to launch in July, Brittney M. Walker reported Saturday for EURWeb.com. She added, "Like perfect Sean Combs fashion, it looks like it'll be quite exciting. The network will feature art, music, fashion, culture and film. . . " Comcast solicited proposals for independent channels as a commitment to the Federal Communications Commission to help launch minority-owned networks.
Gene Norman, who resigned as chief meteorologist at KHOU-TV in Houston in November, has joined the WIAT-TV weather team in Birmingham, Ala., as chief meteorologist anchoring the 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts.
Chris Redford, a crime reporter at KTBS-TV in Shreveport, La., was fired last year for defending himself online, but unlike his former colleague Rhonda Lee, the also-fired meteorologist with the short Afro who became the center of a media whirlwind in December, Redford did not want to talk about the situation. Now he does. In a Facebook posting Sunday, Redford disputed KTBS assertions that he had posted the offending comment on the KTBS Facebook page. "Since when does KTBS own Facebook?" Redford wrote. "I never posted anything but news stories on the KTBS Facebook page. The thing I put on my personal page was a comment in which I called some dude a moron because he asked if 'Bob Griffith still plays with hamsters?' I cannot tolerate anti-gay and hate-filled remarks. . . ."
Nia-Malika Henderson, national political reporter at the Washington Post, is joining the Post's video department to host one of the marquee shows on its upcoming political channel, a memo to Post staffers said on Monday. "Nia will continue to write for The Post and serve as a frequent political commentator on network and cable television," it said.
"Does steadily declining newspaper advertising mean the print medium is near death? Innovators at the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) say 'no,' " Wayne Dawkins, Mavis Carr and Joy McDonald of Hampton University wrote last week in Editor & Publisher. "Leaders at the Daily Press -- a medium-sized local daily where advertising revenue used to cover as much as 75 percent of production cost -- cite evidence that Sunday readership has trended up thanks in part to the paper's distribution of content across multiple platforms: print, online, and mobile. Surprisingly, many consumers still hold close to old conventions such as sectioned, broadsheet newspapers. . . ."
In Kenya, "Two investigative journalists have reported receiving death threats in Kenya shortly after airing a story suggesting foul play in a government official's death, according to news reports and local journalists," the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday. "Mohammed Ali and John-Allan Namu, investigative journalists from the private KTN television network received threats from anonymous callers and via social networking sites on Wednesday, according to Namu and Willis Angira, associate producer for KTN. . . ."
"Two Nigerian journalists and their employer have been charged with forgery in connection with their publication of a memo reported to be from President Goodluck Jonathan, according to news reports," the Committee to Protect Journalists reported. "If convicted, the journalists could face life terms. . . ."
Facebook users: "Like" "Richard Prince's Journal-isms" on Facebook.
Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.
A champion of diversity in the media industry passes away.
Allen H. Neuharth, who led the newspaper industry in championing diversity and made it possible for Robert C. Maynard to become the first African American publisher of a mainstream newspaper, died Friday at his home in Cocoa Beach, Fla. He was 89.
An obituary by Herbert Buchsbaum of the New York Times described Neuharth as "the brash and blustery media mogul who built the Gannett Company into a communications Leviathan and created USA Today, for years America's best-selling newspaper" and noted, "In an industry long dominated by white men, Mr. Neuharth led the way in the hiring and promotion of women and minorities, tying compensation to hiring goals.
"By 1988 the proportion of minorities in Gannett newsrooms was 47 percent higher than the national average. Women accounted for nearly 40 percent of the company's managers, professionals, technicians and sales agents and an unheard-of quarter of its newspaper publishers."
A February 1992 article in Black Enterprise magazine listing the "25 Best Places for Blacks to Work" said of Gannett, "total minority employment has progressed from 12 percent to 21 percent since 1980."
Neuharth even believed that black Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke, who forced the Post to return a 1981 Pulitzer Prize when it was disclosed that Cooke had fabricated her winning story in that highly competitive newsroom, deserved a second chance. However, the Gannett paper Neuharth had in mind for Cooke, who left the Post in disgrace, reportedly balked at the idea.
Neuharth's support for diversity "went from supporting individuals within the company to the Oakland Tribune, in particular when it mattered most," Dori J. Maynard, president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, said by telephone.
Michael Liedtke wrote in the October 1991 edition of American Journalism Review:
"Then-media tycoon Al Neuharth stood beside newspaper publisher Bob Maynard in mid-August to celebrate the salvation of the long-suffering Oakland Tribune, the two men hoped for a better ending than the first time they'd joined forces to rescue the newspaper.
"That was 1979, when the hard-driving Neuharth was chief executive officer of the ever-expanding Gannett Company. The newspaper firm had just purchased the Tribune and hired Maynard to edit it. Four years later, Maynard bought the paper from Gannett in one of the first leveraged buyouts of the 1980s and he and Neuharth parted ways.
"Now, together again, the duo takes a stab at a happier course. The plot remains the same — Neuharth provides the deep pockets, Maynard the journalistic savvy and community connections — and the flailing newspaper gets a handhold.
"But the story may twist with the allegiance of Neuharth, the self-professed 'S.O.B.' who two years ago retired from Gannett to become chairman of the nonprofit Freedom Forum. The Forum, at Neuharth's urging, committed $7.5 million of its $670 million endowment to save Oakland's paper.
"What remains unclear is what impelled Neuharth back into the Oakland game. Is he — as he and Maynard maintain — merely the generous bystander with nothing more on his agenda than the preservation of a 117-year-old paper? Or does he see the Tribune rescue as a chance to tweak noses at the Arlington, Virginia, offices of his former employer, which wound up swallowing most of the Tribune 's $31.5 million debt?
"Neuharth insists the reports of a feud are overblown. 'All the speculation that we are trying to poke each other in the eyes is not true,' he says. 'It didn't matter to me whether the Tribune's major creditor was Gannett or Joe Blow...
" 'It's really quite simple,' he says. 'We believe in the Maynards and we believe in the staff of the Oakland Tribune.' . . . "
The Loma Prieta earthquake, coverage of which won the Tribune a Pulitzer Prize for spot news photography in 1990, combined with a national recession and a troubled city economy to force Bob and Nancy Maynard to sell the Tribune in 1992. The pair had owned the paper for 10 years.
David Honig, president of the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council, told Journal-isms by email, "I'm originally from Rochester, NY. Gannett was based there in the 1970s, when I got to know Al Neuharth. I found him to be gracious, collaborative and insightful. As his obit in USA Today and his autobiography made clear, sometimes Al was not a very nice person. Al had little charm and no sartorial taste. But Al was way, way ahead of his peers when it came to diversity.
"Al, Doug McCorkindale, and I put together Gannett's 1979 'Partners in Progress' program – the first modern voluntary affirmative action program in journalism. It was highly effective because Al, with his can-do spirit and low tolerance for excuses, commanded his publishers and TV station general managers to observe it and exceed its goals and targets. Their compensation and bonuses depended on it.
"Lots of people who Al treated poorly are probably saying (to themselves) 'finally the bastard is dead.' But I will miss him."
Neuharth extended his commitment to diversity to his personal life. In 2010, Anne Straub wrote for Space Coast Medicine, Neuharth was father of six children with his third wife, Cocoa Beach chiropractor Rachel Fornes. All were adopted at birth and come from diverse backgrounds. Neuharth also had two grown children.
David Colton and Rick Hampson, USA Today: USA TODAY founder Al Neuharth dies at 89
Alex S. Jones, New York Times: Cash and Debt Concessions Save Oakland Tribune (Aug. 15, 1991)
Native American Journalists Association: NAJA statement on passing of USA Today founder Al Neuharth
Rosamunda Neuharth-Ozgo, Accuracy In Media: My Father Al Neuharth and Media Hypocrisy (April 27, 2009)
New York Times: Gannett Stressing Minority Groups (1988)
Mike Schneider, Associated Press: USA Today founder Neuharth dies in Florida at 89
"CNN's John King has taken to Twitter to further explain his erroneous report of an arrest in the Boston Marathon bombing," Erik Hayden wrote Thursday for the Hollywood Reporter.
King's defense of his report that law enforcement officials had identified "a dark-skinned male" as the suspect came a day before the Boston area was placed on lockdown as authorities sought — and eventually captured — a suspect who was not dark-skinned, but in fact was a native of the Russian republic of Chechnya.
" 'Source of that description was a senior government official. And I asked, are you sure? But I'm responsible. What I am not is racist,' the anchor wrote Thursday," Hayden reported.
Hayden's story continued, "The anchor's comments received widespread criticism on social media. Among many others, the NAACP, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart and MSNBC's Al Sharpton took issue with King's report.
" 'The fact that this information was false is only part of the problem,' said NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous in a statement Thursday. 'Our concern is that CNN used an overly broad, unhelpful and potentially racially inflammatory categorization to describe the potential suspect. History teaches us that too often people of color are unfairly targeted in the aftermath of acts of terrorism.' "
CNN has not commented on King's error, leaving it to King to respond. But King has not addressed the larger implications of identifying a suspect as "dark-skinned."
"People are less tolerant are less tolerant when mistakes aren’t acknowledged or the on-air speculation veers into ethnic or racial stereotypes, as the discussion of 'dark-skinned' or alleged Muslim suspects did this week, says Emily Bell, a journalism professor at Columbia University," Paul Farhi reported for Saturday's Washington Post.
" 'You're inviting a very visceral reaction when you wander into that territory,' she says. 'The unintended consequence is that it cast instant suspicion on a lot of innocent people and adds very little' to the public understanding of the story."
On the suspense-filled day after King's tweet of explanation, "In the waning moments of daylight, police descended Friday on a shrouded boat in a Watertown backyard to capture the suspected terrorist who had eluded their enormous dragnet for a tumultuous day, ending a dark week in Boston that began with the bombing of the world’s most prestigious road race," Mark Arsenault reported for the Boston Globe.
"The arrest of 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of Cambridge ended an unprecedented daylong siege of Greater Boston, after a frantic night of violence that left one MIT police officer dead, an MBTA Transit Police officer wounded, and an embattled public — rattled again by the touch of terrorism — huddled inside homes.
"Tsarnaev’s elder brother and alleged accomplice — 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the second suspect in Monday’s Boston Marathon attack — was pronounced dead early Friday morning at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, after suffering shrapnel and bullet wounds in a gunfight with police. . . ."
Nearly all of the news networks went live to the scene as the suspect was captured and news conferences were held. Univision and Telemundo continued to show telenovelas, and Black Entertainment Television and TV One likewise continued with their regular programming.
Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times: For Muslims, bad memories and new worries
Paul Cheung, Asian American Journalists Association: AAJA Urges Vigilance in Reporting on Boston Bombing Suspects
Eric Deggans, Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times: Why did media make so many mistaken assumptions about Boston Marathon bombers' race?
Rick Horowitz, Huffington Post: Lost in Boston's Carnage... (video)
Jennifer Ludden, NPR: Muslims Fear Backlash After Suspects' Faith Revealed (April 20)
Michael E. Ross, the Root: Describing a Suspect: A Few Tips for Mr. King
Gerry Shih, Reuters: Media, old and new, takes heat for Boston coverage (April 20)
Scott Simon and David Folkenflik, "Weekend Edition Saturday," NPR: Lessons Learned From The Media's Coverage Of Boston Bombing (April 20)
Adrian Walker, Boston Globe: The reckoning begins in Ashmont
Adrian Walker, Boston Globe: Three secular ministers preach healing
Jesse Washington, Associated Press: Across America, a Week of Chaos, Horror — and Hope (April 20)
Tim Wise blog: Terrorism and Privilege: Understanding the Power of Whiteness (April 16)
David Zurawik, Daily Download: Boston Coverage: Diane Sawyer Shines, CNN Struggles, Geraldo Rivera Sinks (April 20)
Figures showing a decline in advertising dollars for print magazines don't tell the whole story, according to the agency that prepares those figures for the magazine industry.
In fact, "Consumer Magazines are very powerful brands and are finding audiences and advertising through their brand extensions digitally via web, tablet, and mobile," Suzie Ross of Kantar Media messaged Journal-isms on Thursday.
"It's actually an exciting time for magazines as they reinvent themselves and evolve based on consumer interests/needs/behavior."
Ross, vice president for strategic partnerships and industry relations, was commenting on a report this month from the Publishers Information Bureau comparing advertising dollars and advertising pages for the first quarter of 2013 with figures for the previous year.
Journal-isms reported April 10 that Black Enterprise magazine sustained a 35.4 percent decline in advertising dollars and a 34 percent hit in advertising pages, that Jet magazine dropped 31.7 percent in advertising dollars compared with the same period a year before and that People en Español rose by 20.8 percent in ad dollars and 14 percent in ad pages.
Overall, "Consumer magazines' advertising woes continued in the first quarter of 2013, with ad pages slipping 4.8 percent versus the year-ago period on declines in nine out of the 12 top categories, according to numbers released today by MPA—The Association of Magazine Media," Emma Bazilian reported April 8 for Adweek.
Ross was asked to clarify the figures after Johnson Publishing Co., publisher of Jet, maintained that the decline in advertising dollars for the pocket-sized magazine should actually be much lower — 13.52 percent instead of 31.7 percent.
"There is nothing inaccurate in your column," Ross wrote. "The reported decline was correct, as was the comment about Jet having [fewer] issues in 2013 versus 2012.
"However, I should note that the PIB Press report you referenced does not reflect the concept of 'same store sales' and we provide our clients with information (such as number of issues published by publishers from one year to the next in a given period) that allows them to look deeper into the data and analyze it as they wish. This is not to say that PIB reporting is inaccurate — but you were wise to report the mistakes that many make when they use this data by quoting Mr. Barr," referring to Stephen Gregory Barr, Johnson Publishing senior vice president and group publisher. "The PIB reports that you referenced report . . . organic activity in a given time period — and provide year-over-year comparison so that the general idea of gains and losses is available.
"The Jet issue of 4/8 was not included in the Jan-Mar data because its an April issue and will appear in April's data (PIB data does not report by On Sale Date, but by Issue Date).
"What I would like to add is that declines in print really don't . . . tell the whole story and you are doing a disservice to the industry by highlighting print declines. Consumer Magazines are very powerful brands and are finding audiences and advertising through their brand extensions digitally via web, tablet, and mobile. It's actually an exciting time for magazines as they reinvent themselves and evolve based on consumer interests/needs/behavior. Kantar Media, the company that collects and reports PIB data, is actually working with the MPA [Association of Magazine Media] and PIB to capture the full magazine media footprint from an advertising perspective which currently includes both web and tablet. So stay tuned."
In the Bay Area, "KRON 4 reporter Stanley Roberts was attacked while he was attempting to film his 'People Behaving Badly' segment in Berkeley Thursday afternoon when his subjects took exception, resulting in a sprained back," Katie Nelson reported Thursday for the Oakland Tribune.
"Two suspects in the attack were detained and later arrested on suspicion of battery and felony vandalism. They were booked into the Berkeley City Jail, said Officer Jennifer Coats, spokesperson for the Berkeley Police Department.
"Roberts said he was filming outside of Amoeba Music located at 2455 Telegraph Ave. doing his 'normal schtick' for a segment about how squatters begging for money had become more rampant in the area.
"He said he had filmed three men from a distance at first and then walked up to them to get a closer shot.
"The men, who have not yet been identified by police, told Roberts they did not want to be filmed, but because they were in a public place, Roberts said, he told them he was allowed to do so."
Eventually, there was a scuffle, Nelson reported, during which "Roberts had his press credentials stolen and his $5,000 camera and $1,000 microphone broken before police arrived. . . ."
"Preston Davis, a pioneering television executive who served as president of broadcast operations and engineering for ABC, died April 15 after an illness, the Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday. He was 63," Mike Barnes reported Wednesday for the Hollywood Reporter.
"In 1993, Robert Iger, then president of the ABC Network Television Group, promoted Davis to lead broadcast operations and engineering, making him the first African-American president of any Capital Cities/ABC division in the history of the media company.
" 'Preston and I started at ABC around the same time,' Iger, now Disney chairman and CEO, said in a statement. 'He was a talented and tenacious leader who earned wide respect for his abilities and was revered for his impeccable integrity. When I had to choose someone to lead BO&E into the future, there was no question Preston was the right person, and he led that team to great achievements for the better part of two decades. Preston was a class act and a great guy who had a tremendous impact on everyone who knew him.' "
The story added, "Davis, who retired from the company in 2011, joined ABC in 1976 as an engineer in Washington, D.C. He moved into various positions of increasing responsibility involving field and studio operations in D.C., Atlanta and New York and was promoted in 1988 to vp television operations for the East Coast, where he directed studio and field operations, electronic newsgathering, telecommunications and the RF operations and engineering group. . . ."
"Lynne Duke, a journalist who brought an emotional clarity to the most trenchant stories, from the crack epidemic that terrorized a Miami housing project once known as 'the Graveyard' to the legacy of apartheid South Africa, died April 19 at her home in Silver Spring," Adam Bernstein reported Friday for the Washington Post. "She was 56.
"The cause was lung cancer, said her husband, Phillip Dixon, a former Washington Post city editor. Ms. Duke worked at The Post from 1987 to 2008, retiring as an editor in the Style section after earlier assignments reporting from Johannesburg and New York.
"Ms. Duke had once aspired to a career in dance and theater, and she brought the expressive qualities of those art forms to her journalism.
"Covering South Africa was a defining experience for Ms. Duke. She first visited for The Post in 1990, when Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 years. She returned to Johannesburg in 1994 for the nation's first multi-racial election and stayed on to cover Mandela's presidency. She also jumped around the region for breaking news, including the aftermath of Mobutu Sese Seko's dictatorial rule in what was then Zaire.
"Howard W. French, a former New York Times reporter in Africa and author of 'A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa' (2004), described Ms. Duke as a dogged competitor for whom the experience of working in Africa also provoked deep emotional discovery. . . ."
Jackie Jones, a former Post colleague, told Journal-isms, "Lynne was not warm and fuzzy. There were not a lot of hugs and kisses and stuff that lots of women friends do with each other, but if you wanted a frank opinion, a clear appraisal or someone who would listen and reserve judgment — until you stopped talking — Lynne was the one to call. . . "
"The Soul of the South Network, targeting African-American viewers, said Thursday it will launch in 30 markets May 27 after closing an initial round of funding for $10 million raised from the state of Arkansas and private investors," Alex Ben Block reported Thursday for the Hollywood Reporter.
"The new network will be distributed initially by over-the-air stations and on digital channels on the broadcast spectrum but also plans to air on cable and expects its stations to qualify under FCC must-carry rules (which mandate nearby cable systems must carry it) because it is local and offers unique news programming.
" 'Our distribution footprint covers at least 70 percent of all African-American households in the south and in Chicago and Philadelphia, which we call sister regions,' says Doug McHenry, the Hollywood-based producer of films including New Jack City and House Party and TV shows including Malcolm & Eddie, who is the new network's president of entertainment.
"By the end of this summer, Soul of the South expects to be in 50-60 markets with a high concentration of African-Americans, reaching 30-40 million households.
"At launch over Memorial Day weekend, the network will not have any original programming outside of an active news presence in its local markets.
The story added, "The lead investors in the Soul of the South Network include Richard Mays, a former Arkansas Supreme Court justice and civil rights attorney, who is chairman of the board; Edwin V. Avent, who is CEO; attorney Christopher Rankin Clark, who is executive vp business and legal affairs; and Matthew J. Gruber from Mississippi, who is vice chairman of the board."
Tom Jacobs is news director.
Black Network Plans 5 Hours of News (June 8, 2012)
Mike Reynolds, Multichannel News: Multiethnic TV Awards: BET's Lee to Competitors — Bring It On
The Chicago Tribune has decided to follow the Associated Press in its declaration that the word "illegal" should describe an action, not a person, when discussing immigrants who are in the country illegally, Joe Knowles, associate managing editor/editing and presentation at the Tribune, told Journal-isms on Friday. .
"We decided to follow AP style on 'illegal immigrant' and 'illegal immigration,' " Knowles said by email. "Where possible, we will be more specific ('in the country illegally' or 'in the country on an expired visa')."
Facebook users: "Like" "Richard Prince's Journal-isms" on Facebook.
Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.
Experts of color comment on CNN's inaccurate reporting about a suspect matching that description.
On a day highlighted by false reports that a suspect had been arrested in the Boston Marathon bombing, CNN's John King was singled out for reporting that law enforcement officials had identified "a dark-skinned male" as the suspect, and at least three news organizations demonstrated that it is possible to put people of color on the air as experts if one makes the effort.
"Eventually, of course, King's entire thesis turned out to be false. Federal authorities made clear that there was no suspect in the attacks yet. At the time, though, he appeared to have a scoop.
"King was the first to report that law enforcement officials had identified a suspect in Monday's bloody attacks.
" 'I want to be very careful about this, because people get very sensitive when you say these things,' he said. 'I was told by one of these sources who is a law enforcement official that this is a dark-skinned male.'
"He said that there had been a further description given, but he was refraining from sharing it with viewers.
" 'There are some people who will take offense for even saying that,' he said. 'I understand that.'
" 'We can't say whether the person spoke with a foreign accent, or an American accent?' Wolf Blitzer asked. 'That would be premature.' . . . "
"PBS anchor Gwen Ifill tweeted her disapproval of King's choice:
"Disturbing that it's OK for TV to ID a Boston bombing suspect only as 'a dark-skinned individual.' "
Ifill's concerns were later echoed by the Rev. Al Sharpton on his "PoliticsNation" show on MSNBC and by the National Association of Black Journalists, among others.
"Sharpton railed against King’s 'offensive, coded language,' " Noah Rothman reported for Mediaite. "He said that, in that moment, King turned every minority in the city of Boston into a terror suspect."
Media blogger Erik Wemple of the Washington Post called King's description of the suspect "useless information that borders on inflammatory."
NABJ issued a news release calling attention to its style guide and said, "NABJ in no way encourages censorship but does encourage news organizations to be responsible when reporting about race, to report on race only when relevant and a vital part of a story. Ultimately this helps to avoid mischaracterizations which might encourage potential bias or discrimination against a person or a group of people based on race or ethnicity."
King was not alone in reporting bad information. "Mistaken sources led CNN, Fox News, the Associated Press and the Boston Globe to report at various times this afternoon that a suspect had been identified and arrested in connection with the crime," Eric Deggans reported for the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times. Ironically, CNN reported, "JUST IN: Man sought as possible suspect is WHITE MALE, wearing white baseball cap on backwards, gray hoodie and black jacket."
Deggans continued, "Other news outlets, including NBC and CBS insisted that no arrest had taken place; eventually sources in the Boston police department and Department of Justice denied an arrest had taken place, issuing official statements to quell the furor.
" 'Despite reports to the contrary there has not been an arrest in the Marathon attack,' read a terse post on Twitter by Boston police, issued about an hour after CNN's initial report that a suspect has been arrested."
The misinformation prompted the FBI to issue what was described as a scathing statement in mid-afternoon: "Contrary to widespread reporting, no arrest has been made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack. Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate. Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting."
Meanwhile, NPR and the Spanish-language television networks Telemundo and Univision demonstrated how experts of color can be called upon to comment on such major stories as the marathon bombings.
The gender, ethnicity and political leanings of guests asked to comment on news events has been as much a diversity issue as the choice of journalists, particularly on the Sunday morning talk shows. A survey this month by Media Matters for America shows that apart from Melissa Harris-Perry's Sunday show on MSNBC, "No other program had a guest pool that was less than 82 percent white . . ."
Journal-isms asked the television networks and NPR whether they had used experts of color, and NPR, Univision and Telemundo responded affirmatively.
NPR spokesman Emerson Brown said that on Thursday, "Talk of the Nation" would feature Khaled A. Beydoun, adjunct faculty member and critical race studies teaching fellow at the UCLA School of Law and author of "Boston explosions: 'Please don't be Arabs or Muslims' " on aljazeera.com. In addition, "Tell Me More," which specializes in multicultural discussions, spoke with the Right Rev. Gayle Harris of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts about churches' plans to help people cope with the aftermath of the attack.
Univision said it spoke with Emilio Viano, an expert in transnational crime who is a professor in the Department of Justice, Law and Society at American University, and Judge Cristina Pereyra, its own legal analyst, who was running in the marathon.
NBC-owned Telemundo spoke with Eric Rojo, a retired U.S. Army colonel with field experience in vulnerability, site and risk management reviews, spokesman Camilo Pino said, along with Octavio Pérez, a retired U.S. Army colonel who worked with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Manuel Gómez, a former principal relief supervisor and special agent with the FBI. Gómez investigated terrorism and espionage cases as an agent in the National Security Division.
On "CBS This Morning," former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, now a CBS contributor, said terrorist attacks such as the one that rocked the Boston Marathon present presidents with a leadership dilemma.
A spokeswoman for the "PBS NewsHour" did not respond to a request for comment, but another PBS spokeswoman noted that "NewsHour's" first report was provided by Noreen Nasir of the show's production staff, who was near the scene when the explosions took place.
She added, "You can see Ms. Nasir's report at: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2013/04/explosions-rock-finish-line-at-boston-marathon.html (scroll down to the second video clip, after the still image she tweeted from near the Boston Public Library)."
ABC News spokesman David Ford likewise did not respond when asked about a diversity of news sources on the story, but supplied this information about its correspondents:
"Linsey Davis was our first Correspondent on the scene in Boston and has been closely following the stories of the victims and their families over the past two days (WATCH).
"ABC News Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas has been one of our leading reporters covering the investigation by federal authorities (WATCH).
"Senior National Correspondent Jim Avila has been contributing to our coverage, last night he reported on the search for answers as experts analyze shrapnel and fragments left over from explosion (WATCH).
"Our new Chief National Correspondent Byron Pitts filed his first piece last night on 'World News' on the new meaning to the injunction 'see something, say something' has for Americans in light of this week's tragic events (WATCH).
"On Monday, Alex Perez and Cecilia Vega reported on the increased law enforcement presence at sporting events, travel centers and malls (The bombings have dominated the news since Monday.
Eric Boehlert, Media Matters for America: This Is Bad, Even For The New York Post
Michael Calderone, Huffington Post: Boston Globe Editor: Marathon Coverage Shows Why 'Metro Papers Matter'
Max Fisher, Washington Post: 'Please don’t be a Muslim': Boston marathon blasts draw condemnation and dread in Muslim world
Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine: Viewers tune to NBC for latest on bombings
Jason Fry, Poynter Institute: Boston explosions a reminder of how breaking news reporting is changing
Prachi Gupta, Salon: Sloppy news coverage becomes news after CNN misreports arrest
Lauren Hockenson, 10,000 Words: Boston Marathon Tragedy Exposes Twitter's Reporting Flaws
Derrick Z. Jackson, Boston Globe: Runners and supporters share a bond of trust
Andrew Kirell, Mediaite: The 10 Absolute Worst Media Reactions To The Boston Marathon Bombings
Merrill Knox, TVNewser: Morning Shows Focus on Human Impact of Boston Bombings
Sam Laird, Mashable: 'Sports Illustrated' Cover Honors Boston Marathon First Responders
Christina Lee, Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, N.Y.: My heart is in Boston
Michael Malone, Broadcasting & Cable: Boston Stations Pull Off 'Incredibly Jarring' Shift After Bombing
Diana Marszalek, TVNewsCheck: How TV Switched From Celebration To Terror
John McDermott, Ad Age: Boston Marathon Bombing Makes Vine a News Platform
Phillip Morris, Plain Dealer, Cleveland: Terrorist-defying response to the Boston Marathon bombing? Follow Billy Iffrig’s example and keep on running
John Newland, NBC News: The man in the hat at Boston Marathon finish line: Carlos Arredondo didn't set out to be hero
Chris O'Shea, FishbowlNY: Time to Release Special Tablet-Only Edition on Boston Marathon
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: No. 1 goal: Find who did it
Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald: Americans stand defiant with Boston
Adam Serwer, Mother Jones: Arab American on Boston Marathon: "Everyone in This Room Is Holding Their Breath"
Spencer Soper, Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.: Rodale reporters switch gears at blast site
Farah Stockman, Boston Globe: The Marathon attack: the surreal and the stubborn
"In angry remarks following the defeat of a bipartisan amendment on background checks that presaged the broader collapse of an effort to pass more stringent gun control legislation, President Obama promised the fight would go on," Chris Cillizza wrote Wednesday for the Washington Post.
" 'I believe we're going to be able to get this one,' he said. 'Sooner or later we are going to get this right.' He added: 'I see this as just round one.'
"Is Obama right? Are we in the first round of a 10-round fight on guns? Or does what happened on the Senate floor Wednesday amount to a knockout for the forces pushing for more gun control measures? . . . "
Mary C. Curtis, Washington Post: Can we talk about gun violence?
Adrian Walker, Boston Globe: We can't let the gun lobby win
"Hours after a bipartisan group of eight senators introduced a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s immigration system, conservative radio talk show hosts took over two floors of a Capitol Hill hotel on Wednesday and denounced the proposal on the country's drive-time airwaves as nothing more than a reward for lawbreakers," Michael D. Shear and Julia Preston reported Wednesday for the New York Times.
"On a Florida station, WFTL, the host Joyce Kaufman called it 'pure amnesty.' Jim Sharpe, a talk show host on KFYI in Phoenix, promised that 'Arizonans are still not taking this sitting down.' On Denny Schaffer's show in New Orleans, callers demanded deportations.' . . . "
Clyde Hughes, Journal & Courier, Lafayette, Ind.: Still missing the target on immigration reform
Editorial, La Opinión, Los Angeles: Black Leaders Play Key Role in Immigration Reform
Ruben Navarrette Jr., Washington Post Writers Group: Hung up on border security
Pew Research Center: Unauthorized Immigrants: How Pew Research Counts Them and What We Know About Them
Peter Wallsten, Jia Lynn Yang and Craig Timberg, Washington Post: Facebook flexes political muscle with provision in immigration bill
Mackenzie Weinger, Politico: Marco Rubio's toughest crowd: Radio talkers
"More than 2,000 guests from around the world paid their last respects at the biggest such occasion since the Queen Mother's funeral in 2002.
"Thousands of members of the public and the armed forces lined the funeral procession route through London.
"PM David Cameron said it was a 'fitting tribute' to a major figure.
"Four thousand police officers were on duty in central London but, despite concerns about demonstrations, only a small number of protesters voiced their opposition to Lady Thatcher's policies and there were no arrests."
Jermaine Haughton, writing for Britain's Voice newspaper, which considers itself a spokesman for Britain's black community, wrote of Thatcher, "Upon hearing her name, some shudder with anger while others pound their fists with pride. What side of the fence are you on?"
Jon Lee Anderson, the New Yorker: Neruda, Pinochet, and the Iron Lady (April 10)
Richard Dowden, African Arguments: Africa: Mrs Thatcher and the Continent (April 8)
Violet Gonda, SW Radio Africa: Zimbabweans react to Thatcher's death (April 8)
Peter Hart, Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting: On Thatcher, What's the Difference Between PBS & Fox News? (April 9)
Linton Kwesi Johnson, Huffington Post: Thatcher and the Inner City Riots
New York Times: Under Thatcher, Some South Asians in Britain Embraced Militancy (April 8)
Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Not a 'quota woman' (April 10)
Noah Rothman, Mediaite: The Incredible Insensitivity Of Sending Martin Bashir To Cover Margaret Thatcher’s Funeral
Raphael Satter, Huffington Post: BBC Faces Controversy Over Airing Of Anti-Thatcher Hit 'Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead' (April 12)
Kunbi Tinuoye, the Grio: Black Britons have mixed feelings about Margaret Thatcher legacy
John Yearwood, Miami Herald: Humility, compassion under Margaret Thatcher’s iron-fisted persona
Gary Younge, the Nation: How Did Margaret Thatcher Do It? (April 9)
Dave Zirin, the Nation: Why Would Anyone Celebrate the Death of Margaret Thatcher? Ask a Chilean (April 9)
Bryant Gumbel closed his HBO program, "Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel," with this tribute on Tuesday:
"Finally tonight, a personal note. Like millions of Americans, I'm applauding last night's 66th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. But for admittedly selfish reasons, some of them obvious and some not so much.
"Since success has many fathers, there's praise aplenty on this anniversary -- for Jackie, his wife Rachel, and of course for Branch Rickey. But indulge me for giving the lion's share of my personal applause to a relatively forgotten hero named Wendell Smith.
"It was Smith, a sportswriter for the now-defunct Pittsburgh Courier who made black opportunity in the majors a personal crusade. It was Smith who brought Robinson to the attention of Branch Rickey. And it was Smith who co-wrote Jackie's autobiography and documented his exploits in the crucial days that led to greater integration of the game.
"More importantly to me, it was Smith, who in 1964 became a local sports anchor with WGN-TV in Chicago -- the first person of color in a position of authority ever seen on television by yours truly, who at the time was an impressionable sports-minded teenager on the south side of the city. Given my limited skill set, I knew back then that while I couldn't be a Jackie Robinson, I could become a Wendell Smith. Of such small occasions are big dream borne, and memories made, some of which still linger.”
Two columnists writing for the National Sports Journalism Center -- Ed Sherman and Eric Deggans -- argued that the "42" film, which finished first at the box office last weekend, does not give Smith his due.
Yvette Carnell, Your Black World: Why I Won’t be Going to See the Jackie Robinson Movie '42'
Eric Deggans, National Sports Journalism Center: 42 falls short in portraying integral role of sportswriter Smith in Robinson's rise
Marshall Fine, Daily News, New York: Wendell Smith plays 'Jackie Robinson of sportwriters' in '42' (April 10)
J.R. Gamble, the Shadow League: The "Jackie Robinson Day" Elephant In The Room
Stefen Lovelace, the Grio: Jackie Robinson changed baseball with his play, too (April 12)
Omar Mazariego, the Shadow League: Reel Talk: "42" Beats The Odds, Is Much More Than The "Typical Black Movie"
Darryl E. Owens, Orlando Sentinel: '42' reminds us Sanford, U.S. haven't crossed home on race
Kevin Powell, CNN: It's Jackie Robinson Day, but black boys no longer dream of playing baseball
David Protess, Huffington Post: Race in Baseball: A Fan's Journey From Ebbets to Wrigley
Ed Sherman, National Sports Journalism Center: Smith’s role in Robinson's rise created the 42 legacy
Lilly Workneh, the Grio: '42' tops box office: Are more feel good black films on the way?
"Don't look now cable operators, but multicultural viewers are increasingly using over-the-top services to access their favorite Tv shows and movies," R. Thomas Umstead reported Tuesday for Multichannel News.
"Nearly 85% of African-American, Hispanic and Asian-American viewers have access to services such as Netflix, Hulu and Roku, and 46% of all urban viewers use such services on a weekly basis, according to new data from Horowitz Associates' Focus Latino 2013 report.
"Hispanics are on the front end of that trend, with more than half (56%) using OTT services on a weekly basis, according to Horowitz. Further, among 18-24 year old Hispanics, OTT penetration is a whopping 96%, with viewers in the demo using such services an eye-popping 86% on a weekly basis. . . ."
New CNN President Jeff Zucker spoke before the Atlanta Press Club Monday, his first such talk since he began his new job "exactly three months ago today," Maria Saporta wrote for Atlanta Business Chronicle.
She added, "In a particularly sensitive exchange, Zucker was asked about the recent departure of two African-American CNN brands -- Soledad O'Brien and the Roland Martin -- and whether the network was committed to diversity.
Zucker said that CNN had just hired five correspondents and four of them were 'diverse.'
"Long-time television anchor Monica Pearson called out from the back of the room how many of them were black. Zucker answered that two of them were African Americans. . . ."
Zucker hired Michaela Pereira as a newsreader for his new morning show, promoted George Howell to full-time correspondent and hired Alina Machado. Howell and Pereira are black.
Terri Thornton, PBS MediaShift: CNN's Jeff Zucker Talks Social Media, Considers Native Ads
"An estimated 70,000 people have been killed in Mexico's brutal drug-cartel wars over the past six years," Reed Johnson wrote last week in the Los Angeles Times.
"Those costs are horrific enough. But there are also collateral damages, including a precipitous drop-off in tourism that has dented Mexico's otherwise robust economy; a chilling effect on the Mexican media, which faces constant threats, kidnappings and worse from the warring cartels; and frequent indifference or ineptitude from the country's legal authorities.
"That lamentable combination has led international press-rights groups to name Mexico the world's most dangerous place to be a reporter in years past -- even worse than Iraq or Afghanistan. Dozens of Mexican journalists have been among the drug violence's victims, and virtually all of their killers are still at large because the nation's legal system generally fails to identify, let alone prosecute, the assassins.
"Playwright Marcela Toledo dramatizes that disturbing situation in her first play, 'Silenced Screams,' which will premiere this weekend at the Arena Theatre of Cal State Los Angeles. The play is one of four works written and performed by MFA candidates in theater, film and television.
" 'Silenced Screams' takes place in a Mexico City newsroom and focuses on two newspaper crime reporters, Libertad and Hermes. Toledo, a professional journalist herself, has worked for newspapers, magazines and radio stations on both sides of the border. . . ."
Javier Manzano, who won the 2013 Pulitzer prize for feature photography on Monday, is the first freelance photographer to win a Pulitzer in 17 years, Veronica Villafañe reported for her Media Moves site. "Born in Mexico, Javier immigrated to the U.S. when he was 18. A great portion of his work has focused on cross-border issues. . . ."
"Newspapers are still better at engaging audiences than any other form of media, according to a new Newspaper Association of America (NAA) survey conducted by Nielsen, and print newspaper advertising remains effective," Laura Hazard Owen reported for paidcontent.org. "With newspaper ad revenue plunging, though, the picture isn't as rosy as this survey makes it appear -- and newspapers can do more, especially when it comes to social networking and mobile. . . ."
"Long the voice of black talk radio in Milwaukee, Eric Von has gone from the airwaves to cyberspace where he hopes to deliver a major punch in combating health disparities among African-American men," Tannette Johnson-Elie wrote last month for the Business Journal in Milwaukee. "The primary weapon in his arsenal: a newly launched website -- Brain Brawn & Body -- dedicated to the health and wellness of African-American men. . . ."
Michelle Johnson, an associate professor of practice in mulitmedia journalism at Boston University, has been named the National Association of Black Journalists' 2013 Journalism Educator of the Year, NABJ announced Wednesday. "Johnson has a legacy of being an effective team member and team leader. During her professional growth, Johnson reached back into the classroom to 'teach' as a NABJ Student Project mentor," NABJ said in a news release. It added, "Johnson's commitment extends to journalism organizations such as NABJ, including as past editor of the NABJ Journal; member of Boston Association of Black Journalists; founding national board member of the National Lesbian [&] Gay Journalists Association and co-founder of its New England chapter; and a member of the Online News Association." Johnson won the Barry Bingham Sr. fellowship last year from the Association of Opinion Journalists, awarded to an educator who has helped diversity.
While Nielsen ratings for the week of April 1-7 showed ABC's "Scandal" series drawing bigger crowds among African Americans than the NCAA Final Four games, and "The Voice" and several other shows outpacing basketball among Hispanics tuning into English-language programs, the following week showed different results. For April 8-14, the week of the championship final, the game was No. 1 among both groups.
April 18 is National Columnists Day, for reasons explained by Dave Lieber, then of the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas, in a 2009 column for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
"Al Jazeera has tapped veteran investigative journalist Ed Pound to lead the 16-person investigative unit at its new American cable channel, Al Jazeera America, the company said Monday," Keach Hagey reported for the Wall Street Journal. "Mr. Pound, 69 years old, joins Al Jazeera from his current job as communications director at Recovery.gov, a federal government website that tracks stimulus spending. . . ."
Afi-Odelia E. Scruggs, an independent journalist and former columnist at the Plain Dealer in Cleveland, was interviewed by Anna Clark for the Columbia Journalism Review. A Plain Dealer watcher, Scruggs said the paper "isn't what it was, that's for sure. Not that it was perfect; the paper hasn't covered poverty or minority affairs well at all. Still, the Plain Dealer is too big to ignore because it sets the news agenda for the region. Its future isn't clear. . . . "
In Boston, "WGBH general manager Marita Rivero will step down in June after 30 years in various roles at the Boston public broadcaster, WGBH said Friday," Chris Reidy wrote Friday for the Boston Globe. He added, "In a press release, WGBH said that Rivero is responsible for WGBH's signature programs and community initiatives, including the global news program The World on 89.7-FM, and Greater Boston, Basic Black and High School Quiz Show on WGBH 2. . . ."
On HuffPost LatinoVoices, Michele Serros, author of "How to Be a Chicana Role Model," explained "How Jonathan Winters Helped Me Find My Inner Latina Angst."
Dori J. Maynard, president of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, came to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas to speak about "Why Diversity Matters to White People" alongside Alicia Shepard, former NPR ombudsman and current visiting professor, Alexis Rosa reported Tuesday for the Rebel Yell, the student newspaper. Michelle Rivas, 20, "came into the lecture thinking it was going to be like the others she had previously attended. She thought she could sit there for the hour and leave with the extra credit. Instead, she left with a whole new perspective on why diversity is important to journalists. She now thinks more teachers and presenters should talk about touchier subjects to get students interested and aware. . . ."
A journalism conference, "Covering Suburban Poverty," is scheduled Sept. 26 and 27 at Hofstra University School of Communication on Long Island, N.Y., in cooperation with the National Center for Suburban Studies. "From 2000 to 2010, poverty grew almost five times faster in the suburbs of major cities than in the cities themselves, according to researchers at the Brookings Institute. USA Today has called the suburbs the new 'ground zero for poverty and
hunger.' " Application.
In Venezuela, "The opposition's decision to dispute ruling party candidate Nicolás Maduro's very narrow victory in last Sunday's presidential election has heightened concern about the effects of the Venezuelan media's extreme polarization," Reporters Without Borders said on Tuesday. "The demonstrations that have been held or will soon be held in various parts of the country are reinforcing the already considerable dangers for journalists and freedom of information. . . ."
Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday it "roundly condemns the draconian directive that China's media regulator -- the General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television -- issued yesterday banning the Chinese media from using unauthorized information from foreign media and websites. . . ."
The Committee to Project Journalists said Wednesday it "condemns a recent decision by the Nigerian government to ban the exhibition and distribution of a documentary film on corruption in the state's management of oil wealth, 'Fuelling Poverty.' In an April 8 ruling reviewed by CPJ, the federal government-run National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) called the contents of the 30-minute film by Ishaya Bako, 'highly provocative and likely to incite or encourage public disorder and undermine national security.' . . . "
In Brazil, newspaper photographer Walgney Assis Carvalho was killed Sunday in the municipality of Coronel Fabriciano, Vale do Aço, in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, press-freedom groups said Tuesday. "The fourth journalist to be murdered this year in Brazil, Carvalho was gunned down just one month after Rodrigo Neto de Feria, who worked for the same newspaper, Vale do Aço," according to Reporters Without Borders.
Facebook users: "Like" "Richard Prince's Journal-isms" on Facebook.
Journal-isms is published on the site of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education (mije.org). Reprinted on The Root by permission.
An African-American doctor is on trial for murder in Philadelphia.
Two years ago, a headline writer wrote this over a story by Lynette Holloway for The Root: "Abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell has been charged with eight counts of murder. Both sides of the abortion debate are having a field day with this case. But what happens to poor women of color facing unwanted pregnancies?"
Holloway wrote, "The grisly murders and gruesome discoveries inside Kermit B. Gosnell's West Philadelphia abortion clinic leave one wondering what would make mostly poor, minority women so desperate that they would utilize his filthy clinic, where body parts of dead fetuses allegedly were stored in jars that lined the shelves of the macabre scene."
She included this figure: "Overall, African-American women account for 36.4 percent of all pregnancy terminations in the United States, although blacks make up only 13 percent of the population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
Now Gosnell, himself African American, is on trial, and in the last two days the Internet has seen a dramatic rise in commentary asking why the Philadelphia case hasn't received national media attention.
"Obviously, conservatives believe the media is ignoring this story because it's about abortion, and the lefties who run our media empires hate stories that put abortion in a bad light," Kevin Drum wrote Friday for Mother Jones. "Alternatively, it could be because it's a Philadelphia story, and the national media doesn't usually give a lot of time to local cases like this. Frankly, I don't know — though I'll note that even the conservative media didn't give it a huge amount of coverage until fairly recently, when Gosnell's trial started. . . ."
Others say the Gosnell story — and it is a horrifying, grisly one — is also a story about race and the media.
When the case broke in 2011, Jill Filipovic, who blogs as "Jill" on the Feministe site, wrote:
"Gosnell's clinic hadn't been reviewed by the Department of Health in 15 years. Members of his staff were unlicensed and not properly trained. And Gosnell knew that he could get away with offering sub-par care to women who he thought were less likely to complain — young women, immigrants, poor women and women of color."
Filipovic quoted Lori Adelman, who wrote in January 2011 on the Grio, "buried deep in articles describing 'bloodstained furniture' and 'jars packed with severed baby feet,' is a less gory but equally as horrifying insight that, at Dr. Gosnell's clinic, 'white women from the suburbs were ushered into a separate, slightly cleaner area' than Gosnell's regular clientele, which was comprised primarily of poor minority women, including many immigrants. Gosnell reportedly treated these white suburban clients to a more pleasant and sanitary experience because he believed they were 'more likely to file complaints' about substandard care."
Irin Carmon wrote Friday for Salon, "I can't speak for big news organizations like CNN and the networks, but let's think about this question another way: How often do such places devote their energies to covering the massive health disparities and poor outcomes that are wrought by our current system? How often are the travails of the women whose vulnerabilities Gosnell exploited — the poor, immigrants and otherwise marginalized people — given wall-to-wall, trial-level coverage? . . . "
Laura Bassett and Ryan Grim, Huffington Post: Kermit Gosnell Trial Is A 'Peek Into The World Before Roe v. Wade': NARAL President Ilyse Hogue
William Bender, Philadelphia Daily News: Kermit Gosnell's son can't stand dad's name
Jill Filipovic, Feministe: What Kermit Gosnell tells us about late-term abortion (Jan. 20, 2011)
Joshua Gillin, Poynter Institute: Media coverage swells over the lack of media coverage for abortion provider Kermit Gosnell
Patrick Howley, Daily Caller: Black leadership group condemns defense tactics, media coverage in abortion-doctor murder case
David Knowles, Daily News, New York: Former worker testifies that Dr. Kermit Gosnell snipped the spines of moving babies following abortions at Philadelphia clinic
Kirsten Powers, USA Today: Philadelphia abortion clinic horror: Column
Joseph A. Slobodzian, Philadelphia Inquirer: Gosnell intern testifies on teen years at clinic
David Weigel, Slate: Kermit Gosnell: The Alleged Mass-Murderer and the Bored Media
Erik Wemple, Washington Post: Washington Post pledges Gosnell coverage
Cliff Brunt worked for the Associated Press for seven years when Associated Press Sports Editor Terry Taylor told him he would have to transfer to Indianapolis or take a buyout. He couldn't move, so he took a buyout. Now Blunt is a used car dealer, and this week he offered readers of the Indy Sports Legends website "the top 10 most important things I've learned since April 11, 2012," the fateful day Taylor called him with the news.
Brunt wasn't the only journalist of color offering a personal story in the last few days. To help inaugurate "Code Switch," a new NPR site, Eric Deggans, television critic for the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, recalled Wednesday how he had to "code switch" between his black boyhood neighborhood in Gary, Ind., and the white-dominated private school he attended outside of it.
" 'You guys doing anything today?' " Deggans began.
"That might sound like an ordinary, even dull question. But in my old neighborhood — mostly poor, entirely black '70s-era Gary, Ind. — that kind of question was grounds for serious ridicule. Or worse.
"The problem: I had dared use a word none of my partners ever let pass through their lips, unless they were making fun of a white person: 'guys.' . . ."
In collaboration with the Huffington Post, Terrell J. Starr, associate editor at NewsOne, wrote Thursday for Facebook, "I Found the Father I Never Knew I Needed On Facebook."
"Growing up on Detroit's west side, my neighborhood was rife with gang violence, drug abuse and semi-hopelessness," Starr wrote. "Manhood was measured by ghetto Darwinism: only the toughest young guns who dared not to fear the pistol-toting bullies, stray bullets or the temptation of the drug game survived." He had no idea who his father was then, he wrote, "but I knew I wanted him in my life."
Starr said he "ducked and weaved those travails by doing well in school, participating in after-school sports activities and being a pretty good kid."
In fact, according to the tagline, "Starr has a bachelor's degree in English from Philander Smith College and two master's degrees (M.S. in Editorial Journalism) and (M.A. in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a Fulbright Journalism Scholar (Ukraine 2009-2010) and a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Georgia 2003-2005). He is an expert in African diasporas in the former Soviet Union and lived in the region for four years. He is pursuing opportunities to write a book on his life."
Brunt listed these as his 10 most important lessons: 1. "Job titles don't mean much. . . ." 2. "The journalism business as we knew it is dead. . . ." 3. "There are some good people in journalism. . . ." 4. "I can create a website (with a lot of help).. . ." 5. "I'm not good at selling cars. . . ." 6. "I'm not the only one. . . ." 7. "We're not missing meals, so I have no right to whine. . . ." 8. "Terry Taylor is a good person. . . ." 9. "My readers and the athletes like my writing, even if it’s not for the AP. . . ." 10. "My wife is my biggest fan. . . ."
R.L.G., Johnson blog, the Economist: How black to be?
"Donna De Cesare had just walked into the AIDS ward at a public hospital in El Salvador one day in 1989 when a young voice greeted her," David Gonzalez reported Wednesday for the New York Times' Lens blog.
" 'What's up?' she recalled hearing. 'Finally, someone from my country!'
"She was taken aback. The voice was in English, with the rhythmic cadence of Chicano Los Angeles, where the young man had once lived. His name was Franklin Torres. Though he was born in El Salvador, he had fled during its violent civil war to what his mother thought was the safety of Los Angeles. Instead, he found refuge in gangs and drugs. Gangs led to his deportation, and back in El Salvador, drugs would claim his life.
"The unexpected encounter stayed with Ms. De Cesare, who had traveled to Central America to photograph the civil wars wracking the region. She would, in time, document the overlooked legacies of those bloody proxy wars, zeroing in on how witnessing unspeakable violence scarred young minds both in Central America and in the barrios of Los Angeles.
"This month, Ms. De Cesare released 'Unsettled/Desasosiego' (University of Texas Press), an urgent and moving work that chronicles those who grew up amid political wars, gang wars or both. It is a look back on lives that were lost, and some who triumphed, during her many years in the region. It is also, for her, a motivation to continue to examine these issues and to push for action through her bilingual Web site, Destiny's Children.
" 'We need to consider what we are doing as a society when we abandon so many children,' said Ms. De Cesare, who is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. 'We need to see these young people as they truly are — children who have been burdened with so much that is painful from an early age and whose fragile hopes and dreams are being thwarted.' . . . "
Lizzie Chen, KERA-FM, Dallas: UT's Donna De Cesare Trains Her Lens On Central America, Children And Civil War (April 5)
The prominence given immigration status in contrasting stories from the Boston Globe illustrate a bias against one group of unauthorized immigrants, but not another, according to the advocacy group Latino Rebels.
"Irish nanny Aisling Brady McCarthy has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a one-year-old girl she had been caring for in a Cambridge apartment, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.'s office said today," began a story Friday by John R. Ellement.
In the 12th paragraph, readers learn that "Brady, a native of Ireland who has been in the country illegally, faces deportation to Ireland if she is freed from state custody, according to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency."
By contrast, a Globe story by Maria Sacchetti from Sept. 28, 2011, begins, "Scituate police arrested an illegal immigrant from Brazil for motor-vehicle violations three months before he allegedly stabbed his former girlfriend to death in a brutal attack this week, reigniting debate over whether Massachusetts should participate in the federal Secure Communities program."
Globe editor Brian McGrory did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, Latino Rebels also pointed to a 2012 Hill+Knowlton Strategies online survey for the Latino Donor Collaborative that "showed that one-third think that more than half of the country's Latinos are undocumented and nearly 80% of non-Latino Americans think Latinos are involved in crime and gang activity."
Hill+Knowlton and the Latino Donor Collaborative tried to interest CNN in exclusively broadcasting the data in May 2012, Latino Rebels said, but CNN said online surveys did not offer the same credibility as those using other methods.
David Iannelli, president, global, of Research+Data Insights, disagrees. In fact, he told Journal-isms Friday by email, "Aside from the approach we take of (using demographically balanced panels, etc.) the methodological benefit of using an online approach for a survey on such a sensitive topic is that it neutralizes the problem of the socially-desirable response bias that tends to occur in telephone interviews where the respondent may offer what they believe is the politically correct response to be seen in a positive light by the interviewer. . . ."
Jacquellena Carrero, NBCLatino: The Immigration Line: Who's on it and for how long?
Juan González, Democracy Now!, Pacifica Radio: Immigration Debate "A Battle Over What America Will Look Like in 21st Century"
María Hinojosa with Juan Cartagena on "Latino USA," NPR: The Enforcement Taboo (audio)
María Hinojosa with Reps. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill., and Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., on "Latino USA," NPR: The Congressional Potluck (audio)
John T. Moore, Ventura County (Calif.) Star: Ridding our news pages of labels
"The Republican Party is struggling with its future," Charles M. Blow wrote Wednesday for the New York Times.
"Will it be a regional, Congressional party fighting a last-gasp battle for a shrinking base in a David and Goliath war against ominously expanding federal government? Or will it become a national, presidential party capable of adapting to a new American reality of diversity and expression in which the government serves an essential function in regulating public safety, providing a safety net and serving as a safeguard against discrimination?
"Senator Rand Paul is trying to find a balance between the two. The same week that a dozen defiant senators threatened to filibuster any new gun control legislation, Paul ventured across Washington to historically black Howard University and gave a speech aimed at outreach and bridge building.
"The man is mulling a presidential run after all.
"The speech was a dud. . . ."
Ta-Nehisi Coates blog, the Atlantic: The Conservative Black Hope (April 4)
Ta-Nehisi Coates, New York Times: He Wears the Mask (April 3)
Merlene Davis, Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader: McConnell should apologize to Judd, others battling mental illness
Charles D. Ellison, Philadelphia Tribune: Black Republicans Lost in GOP Rebranding
John McWhorter, Daily News, New York: Dr. Ben Carson's bad medicine (April 4)
Askia Muhammad, Washington Informer: Black Doctor Stepped in over His Head (April 3)
Adam Serwer, Mother Jones: Rand Paul Does Not Deserve a Gold Star for Speaking at Howard University
"Whenever it is that an icon passes from being human to being a saint is the point at which it's probably too late for a good movie," Wesley Morris, who won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism last year while at the Boston Globe, wrote Thursday for Grantland.
"All you get is the lessons learned and very little of the naturalism or idiosyncrasy or personality that made the person iconic in the first place. Or you get all that courtesy of a great performance, but then there's no filmmaking or storytelling to support it. You rarely get both acting and an angle, the way you did, say, with Walk the Line and Lincoln. It's usually that the subjects mean so much to the filmmakers that they can't bring themselves to take the subjects out of their historical packaging and play with them, lest they lose their value.
"That's the Jackie Robinson situation. . . ."
Not all shared Morris' view in reviewing "42," the Robinson film biography that opened Friday, but many did.
Journalists might have a special interest in the portrayal of Wendell Smith, the legendary African American sportswriter who also helped to desegregate baseball. Smith was inducted posthumously into the Hall of Fame of the National Association of Black Journalists in January. Andre Holland, the actor who plays Smith in the film, was present for the occasion, and La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, now president of the Baseball Writers Association, accepted the award for Smith.
David Germain wrote for the Associated Press, "The story of black baseball writer Wendell Smith (Andre Holland) parallels Robinson's, but the film burns up a lot of time trying to establish camaraderie between the two that never quite gels."
Zeba Blay, Shadow and Act: Review — '42' Is A Well-Intentioned But Watered-Down Telling Of Jackie Robinson's Story
Cal Fussman, ESPN: "I Was Allowed To Dream After That" — Henry Aaron
Dana Jennings, New York Times: The Superhero Who Leapt Color Lines
Jonathan Kim, HuffPost BlackVoices: Review: 42 — Which Side of History Are You On?
A. Stacy Long, Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser: Skeeter Barnes on Jackie Robinson movie: 'It's not just a baseball thing'
Roland S. Martin, Creators Syndicate: Dr. Phil! Help Me Fall Back in Love With Baseball
Eric Metaxas, Religion News Service: Jackie Robinson's faith missing from '42' movie
Wesley Morris, Grantland: Bill Simmons talks to Grantland's film critic Wesley Morris about the upcoming Jackie Robinson biopic '42' and discusses why some movie biographies work and why others don't. (podcast)
Mark Newman, MLB.com: '42' movie receiving rave reviews
Chris Oberholtz, Emily Rittman and Dave Jordan, KCTV-TV, Kansas City: KC rolls out red carpet for stars of Jackie Robinson movie '42'
Rob Parker, the Shadow League: Black People Shouldn't Waste Jackie Robinson's Legacy
Duane Rankin, Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser: '42' better get it right ... and inspire another generation
Alyssa Rosenberg and Travis Waldron, ThinkProgress: What '42' Misses About Jackie Robinson's Integration Of Baseball, And
About The Civil Rights Movement
Andrew Schall, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Wendell Smith: The Pittsburgh journalist who made Jackie Robinson mainstream (June 5, 2011)
A. O. Scott, New York Times: That Rookie at First Is in a New Position
Larry Stone, Seattle Times: As Jackie Robinson is celebrated, African-American participation in MLB dwindles
Jason Whitlock, Fox Sports: Looking for next Jackie? Won't happen
Jason Woullard, the Shadow League: In The Life Of Jackie Robinson: Branch Rickey
"The mass shootings last year in Colorado, Wisconsin and Connecticut reawakened Americans to recurring tragedies of gun violence and rekindled a national debate about gun control — one that public radio and television have chronicled and analyzed through ongoing programs and the package of special broadcasts that aired on PBS last month," Debra Blum wrote this week for Current.org, which covers public broadcasting.
"But along with news coverage and the occasional specials, pubcasters and documentary producers could be doing much more on the gun-violence issue, observers say, if more funding were available in the field.
" 'Philanthropy is really sparse on this topic,' says Vince Stehle, executive director of Media Impact Funders. 'There's some attention paid to it, and maybe a little more now, but it's not well-resourced.'
"Audiences have already demonstrated their interest in programs dealing with gun violence:
"A two-part radio series examining the crisis of gun violence in one Chicago school, 'Harper High School,' proved so popular when it aired on This American Life in February that the show’s distributor Public Radio International is arranging for rebroadcasts on other nonprofit and commercial radio stations. More than 1 million listeners have downloaded the programs from the TAL website, and so many listeners expressed an interest in helping the school that administrators set up an online donation page. . . . "
Natalie Neysa Alund, Oakland Tribune: Memorial service set for former Oakland Tribune freelance photographer gunned down Friday
Jarvis DeBerry, NOLA.com | the Times-Picayune: Murder of AmeriCorps volunteer challenges our indifference to killings
Mary Mitchell, Chicago Sun-Times: Michelle Obama and community come together for youth
Barry Saunders, News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.: Seeing the victims of crime can send a powerful message
"The Supreme Court hearing cases this year on same-sex marriage [has] thrust gay rights issues to the forefront again. One dominant voice continues to reflect the perspective of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in news: the white male," Sherri Williams wrote Wednesday for Quill. She added, "The absence of the voices of people of color, women and transgender people from news stories about LGBT issues implies that they don’t exist, said Daryl C. Hannah, director of media and community partnerships for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. . . . "
The Washington Post has hired Alice Rhee, who spent more than 15 years at NBC and MSNBC, as senior producer of shows as it staffs up in preparation for the summer launch of an online politics channel, Michael Calderone reported Friday for the Huffington Post. He cited a Post memo.
Dr. Shelley Stewart is the recipient of the National Association of Black Journalists' 2013 Community Service Award, NABJ announced on Friday. Dr. Stewart is a broadcast journalist, president and CEO of O2Ideas, and founder of The Mattie C. Stewart Foundation. His "InsideOut" is a 26-minute documentary that presents the stories of [prison] lifers, in their own words, and exposes the lasting and devastating effects that can occur when one drops out of school. It has been viewed in 47 states and Canada.
The American Society of News Editors is teaming with the American Press Institute to hold its Minority Leadership Institute June 23-24 in Washington, coinciding with the annual ASNE convention. The institute provides leadership and management training to 15 mid-level editors and business executives. The program was conceived by ASNE's Diversity Committee and first conducted in August 2012 at Unity.
"With Oprah Winfrey's OWN cable network gaining traction with African-American viewers, Bounce TV picking up advertisers on broadcast and Magic Johnson and P. Diddy backing new channels, long-time leader BET isn't ignoring its rivals," Jon Lafayette reported Thursday for Broadcasting & Cable. Louis Carr, BET's president of ad sales, "pointed to research on engagement with African-Americans that showed BET was the No. 1 among 400 media brands they were unwilling to give up. BET beat ESPN by 22%, TV One by 41% and OWN by 89%. BET's Centric network beat OWN by 7%. . . ."
"*Co-host of MSNBC's daytime show 'The Cycle' Touré joined HuffPost Live host Marc Lamont Hill Thursday and defended his network's all-white primetime lineup," EURWeb reported. The item added, "But Touré said that within MSNBC's modern era, there have only been five hosts to fit into three valuable slots — and the current lineup of Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell is 'brilliant' and 'extraordinary.' "
"While their English-language counterparts have struggled in the ratings so far this year, Univision and Telemundo are headed in the other direction," Rick Kissell reported Thursday for Variety. "The Spanish-language broadcasters recorded some historic highs in the first quarter, with Univision closing in on NBC in 18-49 and pulling ahead of it in the younger half of the [demographic.] And for the 2012-13 season to date, Telemundo, Univision and its sister network UniMas are the only broadcasters showing any growth in the 18-49 demo, according to Nielsen. . . ."
"More African Americans wear the union label than non-blacks, but the number of union members declined in 2012 compared with the year before," the NorthStar News & Analysis reported Friday. "The University of California Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education reported in 2012 that 13.1 percent of black workers in the United States were union members compared with 11.0 percent of non-black workers. . . ."
"The new president and c.e.o. of dual licensee Lakeshore Public Media in Merrillville, Ind., is James Muhammad, currently director of radio services for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. He begins work in his new post May 20," Dru Sefton reported for current.org on Thursday.
"Margaret Sullivan, the public editor of The New York Times, writes about technology writer Jenna Wortham's recent admission that she shares passwords for Netflix," Chris Roush wrote Thursday for Talking Biz News. Sullivan quoted Jeff Sommer, an assistant business editor who worked with Wortham to conceive the column idea. "The column is supposed to be experimental, and Jenna is deliberately on the frontier – that's the whole point. It's wonderful to have someone who's ahead of the curve. . . ."
In Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Winnipeg Free Press was honored Thursday "for bridge-building journalism that has helped Manitobans better understand the province's Muslim community," the paper reported. "Free Press diversity reporter Carol Sanders and faith writer Brenda Suderman received the Ansar and Ihsan Awards from the Islamic Social Services Association Inc." It continued, "Sanders used her speech to thank the Islamic community for their patience and understanding in the 104 stories she has written since 2004 that involved questions about their religion. . . ."
In Venezuela, "The late President Hugo Chavez appeared constantly on TV, and attacked media that criticized him," Juan Forero reported Friday for NPR. "Now, only one opposition TV station remains. The left-leaning president called Globovision part of a right-wing conspiracy. Though Chavez is gone, the station's end may also be near."
The Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday it "welcomes Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's announcement that he will withdraw legal complaints against journalists who 'spread wrong information.' The announcement was posted on the presidency's Twitter account and confirmed by Presidential spokesman Ehab Fahmy. . . ."
"In a return to old tactics, the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) in Sudan have resumed strict pre-publication censorship," the Committee to Protect Journalists reported Friday.
In Tunisia, Free Arabs, a new secular-minded website, "includes skits poking fun at Islamic legal opinions by dramatizing them far beyond their logical conclusions," John Thorne reported Wednesday for the Christian Science Monitor. He added, "Launched last month by Moroccan journalist Ahmed Benchemsi, it aims to sustain the spirit of intelligent irreverence that helped drive the Arab Spring. . . ."
The Nigeria National Committee of the International Press Institute declared Friday, "Detaining journalists while investigating their alleged professional infractions is a throw back to the best forgotten dark days of dictatorial regimes. The courts, not detention centres, are the proper place to take alleged offenders. . . ."
Reporting on Ecuador, Reporters Without Borders said Friday it "hopes for quick results from the investigation into journalist Fausto Valdivieso's murder yesterday in Guayaquil. The motive is not yet known but press reports quoted local sources as saying he had been the target of a murder attempt 24 hours earlier and had received threats. . . ."
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A look back at how the late film critic often saw the nuances in films about people of color.
Among the tributes to the likability, insight and journalistic skill of America's most well-known film critic, Roger Ebert, was praise for the way Ebert expressed his appreciation for diversity in his professional and personal lives.
Ebert, the Chicago Sun-Times critic who became more broadly well-known as half of the television team of Siskel and Ebert, died at 70 on Thursday after a long battle with thyroid cancer.
Ebert's appreciation of diversity was wide-ranging. He is survived by his African American wife, Chaz Hammelsmith Ebert. Oprah Winfrey's website posted a piece about their two dates in the 1980s, during which he encouraged the then-host of a modest local TV show, "AM Chicago," to go into syndication. As the cliche goes, the rest is history.
"Roger Ebert is one of my Asian American heroes, because he helped change the face of Asian American film after he famously responded to a (white) heckler during the Q&A after a screening of Justin Lin's Better Luck Tomorrow at Sundance in 2002," Joz Wang, who uses the pen name jozjozjoz, wrote Thursday on the website 8Asians.com.
She quoted from a transcript of Ebert's remarks:
"I was on a panel today with Chris Eyre, the Native American director. And he said, that for a long time, his people, American Indians, had always had to play some kind of a function, like they were the source of spirituality, or the source of great wisdom and they spoke to the trees and the wind and so forth. And he wanted to make a movie that allowed Native Americans to be people. People in some cases who are alcoholics or who are vigilantes, or in prison (music interrupts). And what I find very offensive and condescending about your statement, is nobody would say to a bunch of white filmmakers, 'How could you do this to your people?' This film has the right to be about these people and Asian American characters have the right to be whoever the hell they want to be. They do not have to 'represent' their people. . . ."
Wesley Morris, a black journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism last year while at the Boston Globe, added to that thought Friday on the Grantland site:
"Ebert did a lot of reading, particularly on social issues," Morris wrote. "No major critic did more for black movies than he did. He championed great filmmakers like Spike Lee and Charles Burnett. He lifted up directors like John Singleton and Matty Rich, finding the upside in some of their mediocre filmmaking without ever seeming to damn with faint praise, lower his standards, or lie. Their filmmaking might not have been spectacular, but he deemed it morally necessary.
"That Ebert married a black attorney named Chaz Hammelsmith in 1992 doesn't seem relevant to his racial sagacity and yet it does: He could see her radiance. Neither on television nor in print was there any kind of white guilt, just empathy and an uncanny sense of the nuances of racial politics.
"Talking to [Gene] Siskel about 1991's House Party II, Ebert observed that the dark-skinned kids were portrayed as troubled, bad, or stupid while the light-skinned kids were smart and virtuous, and worried that that dynamic just reinforced all the old intra-racial inferiority complexes. That was the sort of insight television producers were always bringing on Julianne Malveaux to make. To see a white critic express that and do so with that kind of concern only made you feel closer to Ebert. He and Siskel were not unfairly hard on Whoopi Goldberg, Eddie Murphy, or Richard Pryor, making them responsible for their bad choices and not the vagaries of Hollywood racism. There was no lament in the criticism, just disappointment. . . ."
Eric Deggans, television critic for the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, credited Ebert with being "the first arts critic who showed me just how far you could take this gig," who was "so cool he once dated Oprah and has Martin Scorsese working on a film about his life."
On the "She the People" section of the Washington Post website, Mary C. Curtis steered readers to Ebert's July 17, 2012, blog posting, "Roger Loves Chaz," and wrote, "Try to read this love letter from Roger Ebert to his wife, Chaz, and not cry."
"Wednesday, July 18, is the 20th anniversary of our marriage," Ebert wrote. "How can I begin to tell you about Chaz? She fills my horizon, she is the great fact of my life, she has my love, she saved me from the fate of living out my life alone, which is where I seemed to be heading. If my cancer had come, and it would have, and Chaz had not been there with me, I can imagine a descent into lonely decrepitude. I was very sick. I might have vegetated in hopelessness. This woman never lost her love, and when it was necessary she forced me to want to live. She was always there believing I could do it, and her love was like a wind forcing me back from the grave. . . ."
Angry Asian Man blog: Roger Ebert, Champion of Asian American Cinema
Roger Ebert's Journal, Chicago Sun-Times: A photo of a little girl, and memories of two beloved aunts (March 2011)
Editorial, Chicago Tribune: Two thumbs up
Adam Howard, the Grio: Roger Ebert dead at 70: Legendary film critic was a champion of black film
Oprah.com: A Date With Destiny
Caryn Rousseau, Associated Press: Famed Movie Critic Roger Ebert Dies At 70
"The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, whose reporters organized one of the industry's most active opposition movements against its parent company's plans for cutbacks, will trim home delivery to three days a week and create a new digital company, the owner, Advance Publications, said on Thursday," Christine Haughney reported for the New York Times.
The paper is also expected to cut more than one-third of the 165 Newspaper Guild members on its newsroom staff. However, the contract guarantees employment for those who remain through 2019.
"According to the announcement, the company is creating a new digitally focused media company called the Northeast Ohio Media Group. It will continue to print a daily newspaper that readers can buy on newsstands and elsewhere. These changes will start to take place this summer," Haughney reported.
It is expected that some of those cut from the newsroom staff will be assigned to the Northeast Ohio Media Group.
Debra Adams Simmons, the Plain Dealer's editor, told Journal-isms it was too early to discuss their fate.
"No staffing decisions have been made. The leadership of the new company was just announced yesterday," Adams Simmons said Friday by email. "The next step would be to decide what skills are needed and to identify the best talent to fill those roles. We currently have a diverse staff and I expect that to continue here and at the new company. You may have noticed three of the top positions in our market — the president of the media group, the general manager of the publishing company and the editor — are held by women, including two women of color. You often have said diversity in top positions breeds a more diverse workforce so I think we are well poised."
Robert L. Smith noted Thursday in the Plan Dealer story, "Many newsroom staff, while lamenting the end of a home-delivery era, expressed relief the changes were not more dramatic. Advance, a privately held company run by the heirs of S.I. Newhouse, has been drastically curtailing the print schedules at many of its newspapers across the land."
The Associated Press reported that the Plain Dealer has a weekday circulation of about 286,400 and that other Advance papers, such as the Times-Picayune in New Orleans and the Birmingham News in Alabama, have cut back their publishing schedules to three days a week.
"When the Associated Press Stylebook decided to no longer sanction using the term 'illegal' or 'undocumented' immigrant, we noted our policy as well," John Rosman wrote Friday for the Fronteras website.
He continued, "As a striking change as this is for journalists, we were curious if this decision impacted our audience. We sent out a query asking people what terms they used, and were surprised by the responses we got along the border and across the U.S."
Using Google Maps, the Fronteras site developed a map of responses and published "some of the voices that highlight the complexities of a term."
Meanwhile, "Editors at the Los Angeles Times are considering changes in policy regarding the use of the term 'illegal immigrant' in Times reports," Cindy Chang and Marisa Gerber reported in that newspaper.
They continued, "At the Los Angeles Times, 'illegal alien' was the preferred usage from 1979 until the newspaper's style guide changed in 1995, said Henry Fuhrmann, assistant managing editor in charge of copy desks.
"Since then, writers have been directed to use 'illegal immigrants' while avoiding 'illegal aliens' and 'illegals.' "
At the 17th annual American Copy Editors Society conference in St. Louis, Darrell Christian of the AP Stylebook team "said discussion about banning ['illegal immigrants'] was long and involved talks with interest groups, but no reasoning could be found for 'ease of use' to trump not offending people," Gerri Berendzen reported in a blog from the conference.
"But while groups asked for a ban on the word 'illegal,' Christian said it will continue to be used to describe 'illegal actions.' . . . "
Elsewhere, "The Americans for Legal Immigration political action committee, which is neither a traditional news publication nor a reliable source of independently verified information, said Wednesday that it will adopt the term 'illegal invader' in its communications to replace 'illegal immigrant,' ” HuffPost Latino Voices reported Friday.
Freddie Allen, National Newspaper Publishers Association: Immigration Isn't Just a Latino Issue
Rob Sachs and Kim Palchikoff with Hugo Balta and Jonathan Rosa, Voice of Russia Radio: AP's evolution on 'illegal immigrant' raises debate on language, race
Rinku Sen with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, "Democracy Now!", Pacifica Radio: Drop the I-Word: In Victory for Advocates, Associated Press Stops Using Phrase "Illegal Immigrant"
"Led by former FCC chairman Reed Hundt, a dozen former FCC officials, activists and others have written Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder asking him to change the name of the football team, suggesting broadcasters are breaking the law by using the name on the airwaves," John Eggerton wrote Friday for Broadcasting & Cable.
"In addition to the letter, Hundt wrote an op ed in the Washington Post on Friday saying that the FCC 'clearly has the authority to investigate whether broadcasters' use of derogatory names to describe sports teams and players comports with the public interest.'
"And he would like them to use it.
"Hundt told B&C that his first choice would be for Snyder to change the name, but if that didn't happen, for broadcasters not to use it on-air, and for the FCC to actively investigate whether its use constitutes indecency. 'The FCC chairman and commissioners ought to speak up right now. They don't have to say they have to regulate, but they ought to say what the right answer is. It's not their job to be silent.' . . ."
Meanwhile, Julius Genachowski, the current FCC chairman, announced last month that he was stepping down. In the Columbia Journalism Review, Tracie Powell wrote Thursday that journalists should care who succeeds him because:
"That person will likely decide whether Rupert Murdoch and other big media owners will be allowed to own both newspapers and TV or radio stations in large markets.
"With more newspapers reducing print schedules and relying solely on digital, the next FCC chair will determine ways to either make broadband more accessible and cheaper or whether to maintain the status quo, with rising prices and a limited number of competitors in the marketplace.
"The FCC is the only agency with a mandate to make the media more diverse, local, and accountable. A new chief could choose to use its enforcement powers to ensure diversity is reflected in the voices, perspectives, and owners in media.
"The new chairperson could also determine whether to make political advertising more transparent in TV ads and online. . . ."
In Denver, the National Conference for Media Reform opened Friday. The "Democracy Now! radio and television show reported, "Some 2,000 people are expected to gather to look at how media, technology and democracy intersect. . . . One of the major topics this year is media consolidation. As newspapers struggle to survive, billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch have expressed interest in buying Tribune Company, which includes the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is also weighing a bid for the Los Angeles Times in a market where he already owns two television stations. . . . "
Moni Basu, CNN: Native American mascots: Pride or prejudice?
The Washington publication National Journal published a piece Thursday that is called "Has Obama Done Enough for Black Americans?" online and "the Weight" in print.
It assumed added interest for this column because the Journal is one of a circle of Washington magazines not known for their diversity. The Journal also maintained a partnership with PBS' "Washington Week" with Gwen Ifill from 2005 to 2012, supplying panelists to appear on the show.
The piece's conclusions were not surprising, saying of many African Americans, "Thrilled beyond words at seeing a proudly black man in the Oval Office, they almost don't want to admit they want still more. But they know they have to be exceedingly careful in pushing [President] Obama to talk more about — and do more for — black Americans still reeling from a recession that hit them harder than anyone else.
"Wanting more is why so many blacks, from the barbershops and street corners to the think tanks and highest levels of academe, are investing so much in the belief that Obama has been liberated by his reelection to become more of a champion for his community. . . ."
Charles Green, editor of the Journal since 1999 responded to a question from a Journal-isms reader asking whether any African Americans worked on the story.
"Neither George Condon nor Jim O'Sullivan, the authors of the story, is African American," Green responded by email.
"We currently have two African Americans on our editorial staff," he continued in response to another question.
"To answer a question you didn't ask: I don't think the fact that both Condon and O'Sullivan are white detracts from the merits of the article about President Obama. The two authors reported on what black supporters and black critics of President Obama had to say on the issue of whether the president has focused enough on race during his presidency. I think the story airs both sides of the issue and is a very fair treatment of a sensitive subject.
"I hope you agree that it was a worthwhile piece."
Green said that of the two African Americans, one is a reporter and the other a copy editor. The editorial staff includes about 70 people. He said he did not want to name the black journalists without their permission, and they are not readily evident among the magazine's staff bios.
Green also said the publication has no staff openings at the moment.
Gwen Ifill, PBS: Embracing Difference: Telling Other People's Stories Well
Al Jazeera America made this announcement on Thursday:
"Al Jazeera America, the new US-based news channel set to launch later this year, today announced that Ali Velshi, CNN's former chief business correspondent and anchor of 'Your Money' and CNN International's 'World Business Today,' has joined Al Jazeera America to develop and host a daily primetime business program.
"Based in New York, the as yet-to-be named 30-minute magazine-style program will initially launch in a weekly format but is expected to move to a five-days-a-week schedule by year's end. The program will cover a variety of topics including employment, personal finance, healthcare and education and will feature a mix of field reports, studio guests and interactive discussions designed to highlight how economic developments in the U.S. and around the globe affect the daily lives of Americans. The program will draw upon the extensive global resources of the Al Jazeera Media Network and will employ specialists and other correspondents who will lend their expertise. . . . "
Velshi is Al Jazeera America's first on-air hire, Joe Flint reported Thursday for the Los Angeles Times.
The Qatar-based network announced in January that it had bought the struggling liberal channel Current TV from Al Gore for $500 million, and would use it to expand into American coverage. It received 5,000 applications for open positions within 24 hours of posting openings for the majority of its new positions, BuzzFeed reported at the time.
Thursday's release quoted Velshi: "I'm thrilled to be joining Al Jazeera America, an organization that puts quality, fact-based journalism first. It's a tremendous opportunity and I look forward to taking advantage of the extraordinary U.S. news-gathering capabilities the channel is building and working with such a diverse and talented group of colleagues to tell compelling stories that matter to Americans."
He told Brian Stelter of the New York Times, "I think the product will trump any preconceived notions that people may have going into it. They're very determined for this brand to make an impact and for this brand to be a meaningful provider of news.”
Flint added, "Al Jazeera America has not set a launch date but has said it plans to be up and running before the end of 2013." He continued, "Al Jazeera America is opening bureaus all around the country and has plans to compete on the domestic news front with CNN, MSNBC and Fox News."
"The four broadcast networks' Sunday morning political talk shows guests skewed right during the first quarter of 2013," Rob Savillo reported Friday for Media Matters for America.
"MSNBC's two Sunday programs featured far greater gender and ethnic diversity in its guests than the broadcast programs and CNN's Sunday morning political talk show."
Savillo continued, "Melissa Harris-Perry was the only show to host a majority of non-white guests — 39 percent of guests were African-American, 4 percent were Latino, 4 percent were Asian-American, and 1 were percent Arab-American. Up [with Chris Hayes] was still significantly more diverse than broadcast and CNN, with 37 percent of guests being non-white. No other program had a guest pool that was less than 82 percent white; Fox News Sunday was the least ethnically diverse, with 91 percent of guests being white." In addition, "MSNBC's programs were the only ones not dominated by white men."
"Broadcast Networks Hosted Republican And Conservative Guests Most Often.
"A report that examines national TV networks' coverage of unions and the labor movement over three years confirms what unions have long known: The media largely ignores labor, except to paint unions as a source of trouble in the American economy," the Newspaper Guild reported Tuesday.
" 'Even in stories about labor or unions, the main sources relied on are external to labor or unions,' writes Professor Federico Subervi in a summary of the report. 'Moreover, the discourse and framing continues to fault the workers and their representatives for any conflict or impasse, not the business, company or government.'
"Professor Subervi's report was commissioned by The Newspaper Guild-CWA. Subervi is the director of the Center for the Study of Latino Media & Markets at the School of Journalism and [Mass Communication] at Texas State University. . . . "
"Authorities in Ethiopia describe Eskinder Nega, a prominent columnist and government critic jailed since September 2011 on vague terrorism charges, as a dangerous individual bent on violent revolution," Tom Rhodes reported Friday for the Committee to Protect Journalists.
"However, in an opinion handed down in 2012 — publicized only this week by Washington, D.C.-based legal advocacy group Freedom Now — a United Nations panel of five independent experts ruled that Eskinder's imprisonment came 'as a result of his peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of expression.'
"The opinion from the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was issued after a judge in Addis Ababa sentenced Eskinder to 18 years in prison in July 2012, accusing him of writing 'articles that incited the public to bring the North African and Arab uprisings to Ethiopia.'
Rhodes continued, "The opinion, however, is not binding, and Ethiopian authorities have a notoriously tough hide when it comes to international criticism of their human rights record — despite being major recipients of Western aid . . ."
Nega's supporters in the United States and around the world have been pleading for his freedom for months.
Charlayne Hunter-Gault wrote last year on the Root, "Crying onstage in front of a crowd is not my thing, but a few days ago, as I stood next to Serkalem Fasil, I couldn't hold back my tears. It was a bittersweet moment because Fasil had just received the prestigious PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award on behalf of her husband, Eskinder Nega.
"He faces life in prison on charges of terrorism and incitement to violent revolt after writing an article discussing the implications of the Arab Spring uprising for democracy in Ethiopia. And Nega is not alone in being on the receiving end of an ongoing government crackdown on independent journalists in Ethiopia, many of whom are also being silenced by arrests and imprisonment. Many have fled the country to keep hope (and themselves) alive. . . ."
Marco Chown Oved, Radio France Internationale: Eritrean Journalist Relaunches Paper in Canada
Yamiche Alcindor, a national reporter at USA Today, has been selected for the National Association of Black Journalists' 2013 Emerging Journalist of the Year Award, NABJ announced on Friday. "Alcindor is presently a breaking news reporter at USA Today and has reported from the scenes of some of the biggest stories in recent memory. In 2012 she traveled to Sanford, Fla. to cover the Trayvon Martin story, to Tallahassee, Fla. to cover the Florida A&M University hazing scandal, and to Newtown, Conn. to cover the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. . . ."
Carlos Sanchez, managing editor of the Baton Rouge, La., bureau at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, has been named to lead the editorial coverage of the Monitor in McAllen, Texas, Jared Taylor reported Thursday for the Monitor. An El Paso native, Sanchez, 52, served for nearly a decade as executive editor of the Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald. He has also held newsroom positions at the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman; the Star-Telegram in Fort Worth, Texas; the Washington Post and other newspapers.
"Doris Truong, a multiplatform editor on the Universal News Desk at Washington Post, was named the eighth winner of the American Copy Editors Society's Robinson Prize during the national conference banquet Friday, Gerri Berendzen reported in a blog from the St. Louis conference. The award "recognizes substantial contributions to the craft of copy editing and excellence in overall copy-editing skills" and comes with $3,000. "I also set aside a portion of the prize money to issue a matching-funds challenge to the ACES attendees. Donations from that effort brought in about $3,000 for the ACES Education Fund," she told Journal-isms by email. Truong is immediate past national president of the Asian American Journalists Association and current vice president of the Unity: Journalists for Diversity coalition.
"This week marks Tiger Woods' 21st cover on Sports Illustrated. So it isn't exactly a novelty for the old/new world No. 1 golfer," Ed Sherman wrote Thursday for the Sherman Report. "Yet it still is Sports Illustrated. If the magazine is going to do a big cover piece, you figure you might make yourself available to spend a few minutes with the reporter. Right? Well, in the no-surprise department, Woods snubbed SI's Michael Rosenberg. . . ."
CNN President Jeff Zucker has "tossed out the repeats of 'Anderson Cooper 360' that have inexplicably been wasting an hour of primetime real estate the past year and a half, airing at 10 p.m.," Louisa Ada Seltzer wrote Wednesday for Media Life Magazine. "And this week h'es testing a new show in its place called '(Get to) The Point.' The program showcases a panel of diverse personalities, led by Donny Deutsch, who break down the day’s events. Think of it as a backdoor pilot of sorts. It's only scheduled to run for five days. If it draws good ratings and buzz, CNN could decide to develop the show into a primetime program and recruit more talent. . . . "
"For the first time in more than four decades of polling on the issue, a majority of Americans favor legalizing the use of marijuana," the Pew Research Center reported Thursday. "A national survey finds that 52% say that the use of marijuana should be made legal while 45% say it should not." Fifty-six percent of blacks said marijuana should be legalized, as did 52 percent of whites and 51 percent of Hispanics.
Maria Molina, a meteorologist for Fox News Channel, says she wanted to be a meterologist since 1992, when she was 5 years old and Hurricane Andrew hit her home in South Florida, Valerie Tejeda reported Tuesday for Latina magazine. "It was traumatizing to say the least. I learned how dangerous weather can be at a young age and since then knew that I wanted to forecast and warn people of severe weather events," Molina told Tejeda. Molina is the magazine's "Inspiring Latina of the Week."
"Earlier this week, we noted that Chris Hayes inaugural edition [of] 'All In' [on MSNBC] had brought a 45 percent increase in viewers aged 25-54 — a boost we interpreted as evidence that the network's bid to court younger viewers had paid off," Dylan Byers reported for Politico. "The second night's ratings suggest we jumped the gun. Viewership for 'All In' dropped 54 percent in the 25-54 demo, a net decline of 26 percent from the average March viewership for Ed Schultz's show, which previously occupied the hour. . . ."
"In a wave of censorship, Cameroon has indefinitely banned two TV programs for what regulators considered violent content and another three radio programs on vague charges of ethics violations, according to news reports," the Committee to Protect Journalists reported Wednesday. CPJ condemned the move, which includes the suspension of at least seven journalists.
In Mexico, "Reporters Without Borders condemns the harassment of community radio stations in the southern state of Oaxaca by the local authorities and international companies," the press freedom group reported on Friday. "The radio stations are opposing the proposed construction of a huge wind farm in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec by Mareña Renovables and Gas Natural Fenosa and are criticizing the failure to consult the local indigenous communities. . . . "
In South Africa, the University of Cape Town's "weekly student newspaper Varsity has issued a formal apology for printing a survey polling the most attractive race," Kieran Legg reported Friday for IOL News. "The survey documented the dating preferences of 60 people — 10 whites, 10 coloureds, 10 Indians, 10 east Asians, 10 'biracial' people and 10 Africans — and concluded that white people were considered to be the most attractive. African people were considered to be the least desirable." Lorne Hallendorff, president of the university's Student Representative Council, said that to draw conclusions from a poll of 60 people failed to meet any real statistical requirements.
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The 115th Brigade Support Battalion created multifunctional platoon-sized elements
to provide more flexible support to a brigade combat team in Iraq.
In order to provide the highest possible level of logistics support to the 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 1st Cavalry Division, the 115th Brigade Support Battalion (BSB) successfully experimented with a radical deviation in task organization from the structure outlined in doctrine. Soldiers from A Company (distribution), B Company (maintenance), and C Company (medical) were combined into three platoon-sized multifunctional elements within the distribution company, with each platoon having the resources and flexibility needed to accomplish any mission assigned to the battalion.
With this force structure, A Company was equipped to conduct a variety of complex and diverse missions. For example, less than a month into Operation Iraqi Freedom 06–08, the company was tasked to assist with the recovery of a wrecked Air Force F–16 fighter from a crash site west of Camp Taji. After the aircraft was recovered and the unit responsible for the sector where the crash occurred remained at the site to search for the remains of the pilot, the platoons effectively transitioned from wreckage recovery to logistics support operations.
Later in the deployment, A Company assisted the 2d Battalion, 8th Regiment (Combined Arms Battalion), in relocating a combat outpost in Tarmiyah after the original combat outpost was destroyed by a series of vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (IEDs). A Company performed multifunctional logistics missions, recovering 26 not-mission-capable Iraqi Police vehicles from Tarmiyah to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Taji while hauling and emplacing over 300 tons of barrier material to harden the new combat outpost.
When the mission required a reconfiguration of the 1st BCT’s area of responsibility, A Company supported the change by building multiple checkpoints and emplacing lookout towers, traffic control points, and serpentines, thus greatly enhancing the security posture of the land-owning units. Throughout the deployment, patrols delivered fuel to Iraqi Police stations, escorted detainees to the division holding area, transported graduates of the Iraqi Police Academy to their assigned police stations, and escorted provincial reconstruction teams to multiple meetings with key Iraqi leaders throughout the Green Zone and Baghdad.
This brief synopsis of missions highlights only a few of those the 115th BSB conducted using the multifunctional platoon configuration.
|A multifunctional logistics platoon returning from a joint mission with Iraqi Army soldiers just outside of the Taji Market. (Photo by 1LT Justin T. Bergen.)
Organizing the Platoons
The task organization of the platoons allowed any platoon of the 115th BSB to conduct the range of missions assigned to the battalion. Each platoon included transportation specialists, quartermaster water treatment specialists and petroleum supply specialists, wheeled vehicle mechanics, and medics. Similarly, the logistics platforms available throughout the 115th BSB were reallocated to better assist the platoons in their missions. Each platoon had an M1000 heavy equipment transporter system, five M1074/1075 palletized load systems, M871 trailers, an M969 5,000-gallon fuel tanker, and M931 bobtail tractors. Equipment in limited quantities, such as the single M172 lowboy trailer and the reverse osmosis water purification unit, were assigned to a specific platoon for maintenance but remained available to the other platoons and were used as missions dictated.
Task-organizing the platoons into integrated teams ensured cohesive bonding of personnel and arranged complementary skill sets for missions throughout the deployment, providing Soldiers with a single chain of command for all missions both on and off FOB Taji. Instead of drawing Soldiers from around the battalion to accomplish a mission, the 115th BSB rotated the platoons according to a schedule that provided each platoon with time for maintenance, service on the quick reaction force (QRF), and mission performance. By assigning a mission to one of these platoons, the battalion reduced its coordination requirements and expedited mission accomplishment. Working together daily brought the Soldiers together and allowed them to develop a high level of esprit de corps.
Each platoon had the personnel needed to complete a wide variety of missions. For example, during Operation Rapid Honor, A Company was tasked to provide class IIIB (bulk petroleum, oils, and lubricants) resupply and to retrograde three not-mission-capable vehicles from an Iraqi Police station back to FOB Taji. Under the system generally used in the Army today to perform these missions, a fuel platoon would have sent a fuel element, a transportation platoon would have sent three vehicles to load the not-mission-capable vehicles, a medical company would have sent medics, a maintenance company would have sent mechanics and a heavy expanded mobility tactical truck (HEMTT) wrecker, and a separate security element would have been tasked to provide an escort. By using a task-organized multifunctional platoon structure, the mission could be given to a single, integrated platoon. No other coordination was needed, and the mission could be conducted by a team that had spent weeks developing and implementing a single set of tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP) and standing operating procedures.
Platoon Soldiers were provided with an array of tools to complete their broad mission set. Their assigned weapon systems ranged from the M4 carbine to the M2 machinegun. Security platforms assigned to platoons used counter-IED equipment and TTP to mitigate the IED threats along the routes. To maintain communication and in-transit visibility, the platoons were outfitted with Harris radios, Blue Force Tracker, Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) system, Movement Control System (MCS), multiband inter/intra team radios, and the single channel ground and airborne radio system (SINCGARS). Platoon security platforms were outfitted with an assortment of other tools that provided personnel with further preparation for unforeseen situations.
Developing Multiskilled Personnel
Cross-training was an important benefit of the multifunctional platoon system. The merging of personnel with different military occupational specialties (MOSs) created a pool of knowledge and experience that could easily be disseminated during sergeant’s time training or during more formal training. Throughout the deployment, Soldiers of the 115th BSB received extensive training on their TTP in a classroom setting and, using a hands-on approach, learned how to operate their equipment. These methods of teaching greatly increased the Soldiers’ survivability on the road. Cross-training enabled A Company personnel to achieve 100-percent tactical combat casualty care (TC3) qualification and become familiar with equipment recovery techniques; assigned mechanics and operators were able to continually review preventive maintenance checks and services procedures for equipment. Soldiers were cross-trained on vehicles they normally would not operate. Cross-training also instilled in the Soldiers a deeper appreciation and understanding of the tasks performed by Soldiers with other MOSs.
The 115th BSB also looked for sources outside the unit to increase the knowledge and skills of platoon Soldiers. The Engagement Skills Trainer 2000, the high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle egress assistance trainer (HEAT), counter-IED training, fire team training, small kill team training, TC3 training, recovery training, jaws of life training, combatives, and enemy prisoner-of-war team training were just a few of the training events and resources that increased Soldiers’ survivability awareness and flexibility so they could meet the requirements of the mission-essential task list. While in theater, A Company also provided firefighting support for FOB Taji using nonstandard firefighting equipment. Regular, specialized training ensured that well-trained Soldiers were always on hand in the event of an emergency.
Forming for Movements
A Company not only had an unusual task organization, it used a unique movement formation for a logistics unit. Because the enemy situation was unknown and contact was likely, the 115th BSB settled on a movement-to-contact formation drawn from Field Manual 3–90, Tactics. A forward security element was formed within each convoy. The forward security element’s assigned task was to provide route clearance and security in advance of the convoy’s main body, thereby allowing for the safest possible passage of the main body.
The forward security element would move forward of the main body as far as 3 kilometers. Having a forward security element far in advance gave the patrol commander time to make decisions before the main body of the convoy was decisively engaged by the enemy or met an obstacle. Noncommissioned officers (NCOs) with combat experience were charged with operating in the forward security element and ensuring that accurate information was relayed to the patrol commander. The formation relied on the forward security element to accurately determine the security of the route before the main body arrived. The distance between the forward security element and the main body depended on METT–TC (mission, enemy, terrain and weather, troops and support available, time available, and civil considerations) factors.
Directly behind the forward security element was the convoy’s main body, which included all logistics platforms and the integrated security element. The task of the main body was to get to and from the objective as safely and expeditiously as possible and to conduct actions on the objective at the direction of the patrol commander. The largest and slowest vehicles were located as far forward as possible to reduce the likelihood of large gaps in the convoy caused by a slow vehicle’s inability to keep up or a large vehicle’s inability to navigate around an obstacle that would not stop smaller vehicles. The patrol commander was also located within the main body to provide centralized command and control. For accountability and rear security purposes, the assistant patrol commander rode in the trail vehicle. Having the patrol commander close to the front and the assistant patrol commander located at the rear guaranteed that if a convoy was separated for any reason, a senior leader remained with both elements.
The assistant patrol commander was responsible for the rear security element of the convoy. The task of the rear security element was to provide security to the rear and alert the patrol commander of any changes to the situation in the rear of the convoy, such as a vehicle breakdown.
For many missions, convoys traveled with an additional maneuver platform located between the patrol commander and the assistant patrol commander. This “flex security element” was available for use at the discretion of the patrol commander. If the forward security element needed reinforcement, the patrol commander had the option to call on the flex security element.
During movement, the assistant patrol commander aided the patrol commander by enforcing standards, guided by established TTP and the patrol commander’s established plan. At the objective, the patrol commander integrated his security platforms with those of the unit in command of the sector; this left the assistant patrol commander in command of his convoy’s security platforms while the patrol commander was overseeing the actions on the objective. This arrangement was key because command of security platforms during movement remained with the patrol commander but shifted at the objective to the assistant patrol commander.
|A multifunctional logistics platoon returning to Forward Operating Base (FOB) Taji following a barrier mission during the construction of FOB Condor. (Photo by 1LT Justin T. Bergen.)
Providing a QRF
The adaptability and potential of the multifunctional platoon system were quickly recognized by the 1st BCT. Shortly after arriving in theater, the 115th BSB was tasked with providing a QRF for FOB Taji. Using the maneuver and recovery elements assigned to each platoon, A Company was able to meet this requirement, completing 75 QRF missions over the course of the deployment. The BSB was especially well suited to provide a QRF because the platoon Soldiers were traveling throughout the BCT’s entire footprint providing logistics support. This made them familiar with all major routes in the 1st BCT’s area of operations.
The company’s three platoons were put on a 3-day rotation: QRF on day 1, missions on day 2, and maintenance on day 3. The availability of a QRF enabled the 1st BCT to use its combat power more effectively because it did not have to fix vital maneuver assets at static locations. The platoons performed the role of a FOB QRF by adjusting their TTP in preparation for a wide variety of missions, including escorting VIPs, establishing traffic control points, securing perimeters, and performing riot response and crowd control.
The strength of the multifunctional platoons lay in their inherent flexibility and the continuity provided by their structure. The task-organization of platoon personnel and equipment ensured increased flexibility to the 115th BSB and to its parent 1st BCT, 1st Cavalry Division. The continuity of the platoons enhanced unity of command and provided Soldiers a single, recurrent chain of command, which increased their peace of mind and their familiarity with their leaders’ expectations. Leaders were able to work more closely with their Soldiers, which helped them to better understand their Soldiers’ capabilities and how to employ the members of their team best. By working together as teams, each platoon was able to establish, rehearse, and implement drills and TTP. The teams formed tight bonds and developed a high degree of esprit de corps.
Task-organizing the battalion into multifunctional platoons also made tactical sense. Cohesive teams work together efficiently and confidently. A team with regularly rehearsed TTP is more effective than a team thrown together to accomplish a single mission.
Although the multifunctional platoon system offers many benefits, it also has some weaknesses. Junior enlisted Soldiers may not get the same mentorship and training in their MOSs that they might receive in an MOS-specific platoon. To minimize this problem, the 115th BSB took steps to ensure that each platoon had experienced NCOs from a range of MOS backgrounds. Mentorship and junior leader development were stressed throughout the deployment.
The multifunctional platoon system was extremely successful for the 115th BSB during Operation Iraqi Freedom 06–08. By the end of the deployment, platoon Soldiers were able to easily complete a wide variety of missions, due in large part to the innovative task organization of the logistics patrols.
Captain John F. Jacques is the logistics planner for the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, at Fort Hood, Texas. He served as the commander of the Supply and Distribution Company, 115th Brigade Support Battalion, during Operation Iraqi Freedom 06–08. He is a graduate of the Transportation Officer Basic Course and the Combined Logistics Captains Career Course.
First Lieutenant Justin T. Bergen is the S–3 for the 115th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, at Fort Hood, Texas. He holds a B.S. degree in history from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and is a graduate of the Airborne School, Pathfinder School, Transportation Officer Basic Course, and Unit Movement Officer Course.
First Lieutenant Sonya S. Standefer is the executive officer for A Company, 115th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, at Fort Hood, Texas. She holds a B.S. degree in sociology and criminal justice from the University of Scranton and is a graduate of the Transportation Officer Basic Course and Unit Movement Officer Course.
First Lieutenant Carl S. Miller is the S–4 for the 115th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, at Fort Hood, Texas. He holds a B.A. degree in history and political science from Stephen F. Austin State University and is a graduate of the Ordnance Officer Basic Course.
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Knowledge management has been around for over twenty years now. I still feel it was the precursor to enterprise 2.0 and social business. It had its own precursors like performance support. Here is a story of its midpoint. It was my favorite project because of the people we worked with. This is also one of the clearest cases I have seen of an organization moving to a knowledge-based business model and then aligning its knowledge management system to directly support this new model.
Ryder implemented knowledge management in 2000 to support its sales force and consulting professionals as it made the transition to more knowledge intense services such as linguistics outsourcing and supply chain and logistics consulting. This focus is what is needed to also transform to a social business.
In the 1990s, Ryder’s management began to notice important changes in the company’s markets. High capital requirements, large overhead, slim margins and fierce competition made the truck-rental business difficult. Yet many large companies were choosing to focus on their core businesses; an aerospace company, for example, might prefer to invest in R&D rather than in owning transportation and warehouses for its materials. Eventually Ryder decided to expand its solutions business to serve such customer needs. A key part of this strategy would be to move to a more knowledge-based business model.
Ryder realized that its own core competence lay in the knowledge it had acquired over the years in solving complex transportation problems for its clients. In 1996 the company sold its consumer truck-rental business. These days it focuses on two specialties: commercial truck leasing and what it calls "global integrated logistics."
Under the new model, Ryder salespeople don’t sell a straightforward commodity like truck leases; they solve transportation and inventory-management problems for clients on a global scale. For example, they devise ways to transport raw materials—by a combination of rail, sea, air and road—to manufacturing facilities in the most efficient, least costly manner. "The knowledge-based services we provide tend to command a premium in the marketplace, so it’s better for our shareholders for us to go in that direction," says David Baildon, Ryder’s group director for knowledge management. To exploit the opportunity inherent in its employees’ expertise, the company needed to make its collective knowledge readily available to all of them.”
This transformation required a major shift in the culture and focus of the organization as it sold off its retail truck leasing and its well-known yellow trucks. In fact, Ryder had to issue a disclaimer when one of the yellow Ryder trucks was on newspaper covers across the US hauling votes up to the Florida capital to be recounted in the last Presidential election. Their efforts in knowledge management continued past 2000 and the focus expanded to other business operations.
Why did all of this work? There were several reasons. First, there was extensive user involvement in the design. One of the design criteria was to make the system intuitive so that extensive training was not required. The sales force was dispersed and very busy so they would not come in for central training. We needed to be able to send it to them in the field and have them use it with only some phone support. They were used to email and the systems was Notes based so this helped.
To ensure this intuitive interface and functionality was in place we took a prototype on the road to demonstrate it to a subset of users. This had the added benefit of gaining support and identifying those who could articulate its benefits to their colleagues. In this context, a comprehensive internal marketing and communication plan was developed and implemented.
Second, the design fit within the workflow as it was explicitly designed to do this. It contained a knowledge base for best practice sales proposals and other related documents, a team workspace for sales teams, and Ryder’s first implementation of the then relatively new IM capability. The taxonomy supported searches into the knowledge base but also into the team workspaces so you could find the proposal you needed and the team that created it.
Third, because this system was aligned with the major business transformation going on at the time it had the attention and support of senior management. The COO and his direct reports regularly reviewed progress and communicated their support to the rest of the organization. Promotional videos were created and other means used.
Fourth, there was a set of balanced scorecard measures created to monitor success and knowledge sharing was built into the performance objectives of the key users. These were useful, but without support from senior management they would not have had any impact.
Fifth, and most important, the leader of the knowledge management effort, Dave Baildon, was well connected and well respected in the organization. He was able to recruit a team of experts representing each of the major communities supported by the system. This small group of about five provided direct support to the users and had the expertise to either fill gaps in critical knowledge or find the right person to do it. However, it was Dave’s energy and knowledge of how Ryder works that was the critical difference. He was able to pull together all these other factors to ensure success.
Many of the same factors and certainly this same dedication is need to make the transformation to a social business.
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Grades 2-5. Learn to play or become better. Have fun and enjoy this interesting game.
One McFarland Drive, Warwick, NY 10990 | Phone: 845-986-1047 | Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
Hours: Mon-Thu: 9am-8pm; Fri: 9am-7pm; Sat: 9am-5pm; Sun: 12pm-4pm
Grades K-2. Together we will read Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies. We will discuss the pictures and the story. Participants will make their own "bugmallows" similar to those in the story.
For children ages 4-10. A fossil adventure show and exhibit. Children will see some real and some replicas of dinosaur bones and fossils. They will get to take home a fossil of their own.
Join authors Carole and Gretchen for a discussion of their new books.
Carole has penned About Face, a memoir about life in the Peace Corps. Gretchen's new novel is The Book of Maggie Bradstsreet. It was sparked by a discovery of ancestors who played an important role in the witch trials of 1692.
The work of artist James van Gelder will be on display at the Albert Wisner Public Library from July 2 through July 31 in the Library’s gallery on the lower Level. The show 36 Views of Wawayanda features watercolor paintings created over the period of a year and depict the lake and the park in all seasons.
On July 14 the Library will host a “Meet the Artist” event from to 2 to 5pm which will include a watercolor demonstration by the artist from 2 to 3pm.
After the death of Princess Diana, HRM Queen Elizabeth II struggles with her reaction to a sequence of events nobody could have predicted. Starring Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen and James Cromwell. Rated PF-13; 103 minutes.
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When he is not working on his science fiction novel, watching movies or reading on his iPad, Stan Thomas can usually be found with a PlayStation 3 controller in his hand.
The 64-year-old retiree from Armadale, Victoria, started playing video games 18 months ago after watching Good Game on ABC2. Now, he happily admits to being hooked.
''There have been times when I've been up until three o'clock in the morning playing games because I get lost in the 'just one more mission' mentality,'' he says, adding that his gaming sessions typically span six or seven hours.
''For me, the big appeal in gaming is that it's interactive. The kind of games I like have a good storyline and an imaginary world where I can wander around, do things and get lost in it. I guess it's an escape in a sense,'' Thomas says. ''Watching movies and TV shows is passive entertainment; with games, I can actually take part and do things.''
He doesn't fit the stereotype of a typical ''gamer'': a male in his mid-to-late 20s sitting in a dark room, playing gory shoot-'em-ups for hours at a stretch while the rest of his life falls by the wayside.
The reality is that video-gaming is far more mainstream and ''grown up'' than many people realise. The new Digital Australia 2012 report, released by the Interactive Games & Entertainment Association, pegs the average Australian gamer as 32 years old, with an almost even split between male and female gamers - the latter making up 47 per cent of the market.
A few years ago the average gamer was a 28-year-old male.
The report, compiled from a study of 1252 randomly selected Australian households, also found older gamers were in on the action, with nearly half of respondents aged 51 and over saying they played video games.
''Gaming is now a legitimate form of entertainment, and it's not just for kids,'' says Natasha Brack of Activision, one of the world's largest game publishers.
''Over the last five years, gaming as an entertainment medium has started to be taken seriously, and it's now in the same dizzying heights as film and TV, publishing and music.''
Playing for keeps
For most kids, playing video games is simply a meaningless way to blow off steam. Kyson Faulkner-Dimond, 12, thinks of gaming as a lifelong pursuit.
Kyson spends most of his time and pocket money on gaming, although he's conscientious about fitting his schoolwork and sporting activities around it. He has his own gaming-themed YouTube channel, where he delivers a running commentary on the latest games he has played, and he hopes to turn gaming into a full-time career, either as a professional gamer or a game designer.
''Gaming is pretty much like having another life inside the game - I really like that,'' he says.
''Lots of people say I have no life, but then I say, 'Well, I've chosen to have many lives'.''
Kieran Cummings, 32, is closer to the gamer stereotype. He plays video games for several hours a day, and manages to fit about 20 hours' worth of gaming in at the weekends. ''I remember when I was in my early 20s, both my mum and my dad used to say, 'When are you going to stop playing games and do something?'''
Far from being a waste of time, Kieran says that many of the skills he's learned in gaming over the years have benefited his working life, and vice versa.
''One of the most beneficial things about gaming is being able to manage people and be managed by people - this is an important part of gaming,'' he says.
''In massively multiplayer online games, being able to lead people through a 25-man raid and co-ordinate all of them to take down a boss is a really neat achievement.
''There are also a lot of thought processes that go into gaming. You're using both logic and imagination. You're joining the dots. You also need to think on your feet and come to decisions fairly rapidly.''
Games they're playing
Stan ThomasBatman: Arkham City (M), Heavy Rain (MA15+)
Kieran Cummings World of Tanks (US: Teen), NBA 2K12 (G)
Kyson Faulkner-Dimond Diablo 3 (MA15+), Battlefield 3 (MA15+)
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Paul Ryan talks to firefighters in Oak Creek, Wis. (Morry Gash / Associated…)
GREEN BAY, Wis. -- In the aftermath of the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya, Republican vice presidential nominee Paul D. Ryan opened a town hall meeting questioning the administration's leadership, though he did not criticize the White House as strongly as his running mate, Mitt Romney.
Ryan called the violence "outrageous" and asked the crowd at a Green Bay community ice arena to pause for a moment of silence for the loss of four Americans, including the widely regarded U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.
"In the face of such a tragedy, we are reminded that the world needs American leadership," Ryan said. "And the best guarantee of peace is American strength."
Romney interrupted his campaign appearance in Florida to deliver a sharp rebuke of the Obama administration's handling of the situation in the Middle East and North Africa. The consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked by protesters outraged over a depiction of the prophet Muhammad in a video reportedly produced in the United States. Protesters also attacked the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.
PHOTOS: U.S. ambassador killed in Libya
The Cairo embassy initially issued a statement saying it condemned the effort of "misguided individuals to hurt the feelings of Muslims," the Los Angeles Times reported earlier Wednesday. But that was before protesters broke into the compound. Romney had earlier called it "disgraceful" to "apologize for American values" -- a statement he stood by Wednesday.
Ryan's trip to his home state had been billed as an opportunity for the Republican campaign to focus once more the nation's $16-trillion debt load and the jobs situation, issues on which Romney has staked much of his campaign.
The town hall opened by focusing on the economic front, with Ryan continuing the theme of leadership -- and what he sees as President Obama's lack of it. But the conservation quickly pivoted back to foreign policy after a question from the audience about the White House's relationship with Israel after reports that Obama declined to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- reports the White House said flatly Tuesday were not true.
"If you show weakness, if you show moral equivocation, then foreign policy adventurism among our adversaries will increase," Ryan said. "That is unfortunately the path we are on right now."
Obama has found several foreign policy successes during his first term, including the killing of Osama bin Laden and the end of the war in Iraq.
PHOTOS: Obama, Romney commemorate 9/11
Follow Politics Now on Twitter and Facebook
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Nobody tell Vince Cable but John Cleese, one of the Lib Dems most high profile luvie supporters, has come out strongly against multiculturalism and the Britain with its “strange” values which, along with Vince and his progressive chums, Cleese helped create.
In an interview to be published in next week’s Seven magazine Cleese says: “There were disadvantages to the old culture, it was a bit stuffy and it was more sexist and more racist. But it was an educated and middle-class culture. Now it’s a yob culture. The values are so strange.”
He added that he preferred living in Bath to London because the capital no longer felt “English”. “London is no longer an English city which is why I love Bath,” he said. “That’s how they sold it for the Olympics, not as the capital of England but as the cosmopolitan city. I love being down in Bath because it feels like the England that I grew up in.”
Being old enough to remember Monty Python the first time around I can remember the impact as it poked fun at the undoubted stuffiness of British society of the day. The sketches with Cleese, Barker and Corbet sending up the class system became classics because although truly funny they were oh so uncomfortably accurate. Monty Python was arguably one of the greatest comedy shows of all time.
Demolishing that which is pompous and self-satisfied is a worthy endeavour and to do it with humour is effective in a way dry analysis can never be. Unfortunately change for its own sake, no matter how humorously expressed, is irresponsible as it rarely works, usually it ends up as merely amusingly destructive. Once the pomposity has been punctured what replaces it? Unless there is a clear alternative any value untainted by the past will rush in to fill the vacuum.
With a Church weak at the knees with apologising for having any clear view at all we shouldn’t be surprised if the replacement social values are much less tolerant and open. The result of 60′s hedonism (and, “Yes I did enjoy it, I’m as much to blame as anyone else.”) is that we have a society where polite toleration has been replaced by the enforced conformity of political correctness. We have stuffy stoicism replaced by sentimental dependency, the stiff upper lip has been replaced by a flabby lower one. We have a society in which citizens bore their responsibilities being replaced by a society in which individuals demand their rights. An imperfect self-reliant adult society has been replaced by an even worse therapeutic childish society. Cleese and his friends did their work all too well.
There was something quintessentially British in Monty Python, it stood in a long tradition of poking fun at authority going all the way back to Chaucer. Yet I wonder if Life of Brian could be filmed today. We certainly couldn’t film Life of Abdul.
Tomorrow is Good Friday so for the next few days I shall be concentrating on things a wee bit more important than my latest rant. I shall be back on Tuesday, in the meantime here are a couple of links to views on Scripture from very different stances.
This Easter Try To Avoid The Gospel of Grayling by Brendan O’Niell of Spiked
How Easter Killed My Faith in Atheism by Leo Strobel in The Wall Street Journal
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After a series of lawsuits regarding fraudulent home repairs and remodeling, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is putting his foot down. In July, 2010, he signed two bills into law—Senate Bill 3545 and Senate Bill 2540—to protect disabled homeowners from falling prey to the unethical practices of so-called professionals.
Under Senate Bill 3645, individuals can now be charged with aggravated home repair fraud if the project was completed to assist a person with a disability, i.e. installing a wheelchair ramp. The penalty for projects under $500 has increased from a Class 4 felony to a Class 3 felony, which means a penalty of 2 to 5 years in prison along with a fine of up to $25,000. For second offenses, the charge changes from a Class 3 felony to a Class 2 felony, which could mean a 3- to 7-year prison stint and maximum fine of $25,000.
Senate Bill 2540 was created to extend the protection offered by the Home Repair and Remodeling Act, which stipulates that any victim of fraudulent home repairs can take legal action. This addresses remodeling transactions greater than $1,000.
Both laws passed with unanimous approval. Many thanks to Governor Quinn and the state legislature.
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Buying chocolates for Valentine's Day is a good idea, but why is buying chocolates with almonds even better? What fruit was banned by priests for being too sexy? And what turn-on food is known as "happy berries" in China? If you're planning a special meal for two, add these Top 10 Romantic Foods to your shopping list. Some you may know, while some may surprise you. According to experts, these foods can help excite your partner. The rest is up to you.
Chile peppers score near the top of love's leader board. Their ability to release endorphins can cause a boost in mood and surge in energy as good as a runner's high. Chile’s heat warms the body from the inside out, and has the potential for sending an urge to tear off clothing. Capsaicin, the compound that causes chile's burn, will make the tongue tingle with a need to be kissed and cause lips to swell with desirable plumpness. Most famously, chile was used as a key ingredient in the fortifying chocolate drink the great ruler Montezuma consumed to make his tongue dance and his pulse quicken in preparation for his daily visit to his beautiful concubines.
These tiny, nutrition-rich fruits are known as "happy berries" in China, where they are held in high regard for their aphrodisiac powers. It is in this nation that the berries are most often found, worked into both savory and sweet dishes and even used as the base of wine. However, as word of goji berries' nutritional prowess spreads, they are becoming increasingly available around the world. It is now known that goji berries offer a higher concentration of beta carotene than most fruits. Also, clinical tests have shown their potency for treating metabolic syndrome, a precursor to erectile dysfunction.
Why does eating chocolate make us so happy? It's a chemical thing. The "food of the gods" contains theobromine, a stimulating alkaloid similar to caffeine. Chocolate also helps the brain produce feel-good serotonin. Be sure to indulge in the dark variety — it contains incredible amounts of antioxidants, whereas milk chocolate is just that: milk and sugar with trace amounts of cocoa.
These mouthwatering mollusks are the classic aphrodisiac. And, there's research to support it: raw oysters are very high in zinc, which raises sperm and testosterone production, thus increasing libido. Like some fish, oysters contain omega-3 fatty acids, considered to increase one's overall well-being and even fight depression. They are also a source of dopamine. No wonder Casanova ate 50 raw oysters every day.
The egg is one of the most ancient fertility symbols. Eggs are high in B6 and B5, which help you balance hormone levels and fight stress. Raw chicken eggs eaten before sex are considered to enhance one’s libido. But we’re talking eggs of all sorts, fish or fowl. Think of the way caviar gently bursts in your mouth or the delicacy of little darling quail eggs.
Our love affair with this member of the Lily family dates back hundreds of years. Asparagus "stirs up lust in man and woman," wrote English herbalist Nicholas Culpepper in the 17th century. In 19th-century France, bridegrooms were served three courses of the sexy spears at their prenuptial dinner. Apparently for a good reason: asparagus is a great source of potassium, fiber, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C, and thiamin and folic acid. The latter is said to boost histamine production necessary for the ability to reach orgasm in both sexes.
Avocados are va-va-voom! But despite their voluptuous and feminine shape (here's a Rorschach question: without the pit, an avocado resembles a ... ?), they have been associated with male sexuality. In fact, the Aztecs' name for the avocado tree was Ahuacuatl, "testicle tree." And indeed, we can agree with the ancients who thought the fruit hanging in pairs on the tree resembled a dude's "crown jewels." But not everyone was cool with the idea. The Spanish, in fact, found avocados so obscenely sexy, that Catholic priests prohibited their consumption. Be sure to load up on the nutrient-rich fruit (guacamole, anyone?). While the creamy, cancer-fighting goodness packs in the calories, it's also high in folic acid, vitamin B6, potassium, omega-3 fatty acids and oleic acid, which fights "bad" cholesterol. Yes, the green-skinned delight is high in fat, but guys, you need fat for your body to make testosterone!
This shapely and nutritious fruit is a complete meal, loaded with potassium, magnesium and B vitamins. It also contains chelating minerals and the bromelain enzyme, said to enhance the male libido — maybe that’s why Central Americans drink the sap of the red banana as an aphrodisiac, while Hindus regard it as a symbol of fertility. A banana left on a doorstep indicates that a marriage is about to take place. Bananas made an early appearance in the Garden of Eden; according to Islamic myth, Adam and Eve covered themselves not with fig but banana leaves.
Said to be Cleopatra's favorite food, the sweet, purple fruits are sexy in both appearance and texture. For obvious reasons, they've been a synonym in erotic literature for female sexual organs. To the ancient Greeks, they were "more precious than gold" and many cultures associated figs with fertility.
We are nuts about almonds! Although they don't look particularly sexy (although almond-shaped eyes certainly do), they have been regarded as fertility symbols throughout antiquity. And we suppose, there's something about these dry little nuts that recalls, well, testes. The aroma of almonds supposedly arouses passion in females — or so thought the poets and scribes of bygone eras. French writer Alexandre Dumas, the author of The Count of Monte Cristo, dined on almond soup every night before meeting his mistress. And Samson wooed Delilah with these tasty nuts, which lower cholesterol and provide abundant doses of vitamin E, magnesium and fiber to improve your general well-being. So you can keep going, and going, and going....
MORE ON GAYOT.com
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By Michael Goldstein
By Dennis Romero
By Sarah Fenske
By Matthew Mullins
By Patrick Range McDonald
By LA Weekly
By Dennis Romero
By Simone Wilson
TWO WEEKS AGO, ROGER SNOBLE, CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in Los Angeles, repeated a falsehood that typifies the confused move by powerful transit leaders to slap 379 restrictive gates onto the regions honor-system subway.
(Click to enlarge)
In blaming L.A. residents, the MTA board has instituted the most punitive, expensive and dubious of three plans.
Spinning the massive $60 million gating project as the fault of Los Angeles residents, he strongly implied that the MTA has no choice.
We have the only open subway system in the world, Snoble said, referring to the fact that there are no turnstiles. On the regions subway and light-rail system, riders themselves decide whether or not to buy a ticket, with fare officials conducting only intermittent ticket checks along the lines.
An MTA spokesman notes that, at the same meeting, Snoble corrected his inaccuracy. Los Angeles is one among many, many honor-based subways in the world. Subways in Australia, Austria and Germany have used the honor system for decades. Snoble, the spokesman says, meant to say nation. In the U.S., about 20 above-ground light-rail systems in places including Salt Lake City, Portland, San Diego and San Jose follow the honor system.
Despite his error, repeated as fact by the Los Angeles Daily News, Snobles message was clear: The Los Angeles approach stands alone, and, naturally, it isnt working out.
What followed was the 10-1 vote two weeks ago by the MTAs politician-controlled board to dramatically refit some of the most architecturally beautiful subway entrances in the world with turnstiles.
Now, the really unique thing about Los Angeles is that its honor system is going to be dismantled the blame to be placed on Angelenos themselves.
For years, the MTA, operating from its gleaming downtown skyscraper, considered L.A.s 5 percent evasion rate costing about $5.5 million each year an acceptable loss. Ticket revenue, after all, amounts to only $341 million of the transit bureaucracys massive $3.13 billion budget the other roughly 90 percent of which comes from local, state and federal handouts.
But now the MTA has officially declared the cost of bearing Angelenos honor far too burdensome. Yet in trying to blame Los Angeles residents, the powerful board has now swung the pendulum far in the opposite direction, instituting the most punitive, expensive and dubious remedy of the three choices it considered.
The big winner is defense contractor Cubic Corporation, which lobbies large cities to erect costly ticketing gates that are installed and operated for a very steep price by one of its subsidiaries. In Los Angeles, MTAs estimated price tag for gating its system has soared in four months from $31 million to $46 million the price of the fat contract won last month by Cubics subsidiary. Ten million dollars is earmarked for the modification of dozens of subway and rail stations whose beautiful, open-air designs will be difficult to adapt to turnstiles.
The contract award encompasses 379 turnstiles, potentially covering almost every rail station in the city, and includes $12 million to pay for a decade of maintenance.
Yet Cubics lobbying doesnt pay off in every city it targets. When it recently applied pressure to transit officials in Vancouver, B.C., insisting they needed gates on their honor-system light rail which operates both below and above ground and has a 5 percent ticket-evasion rate, just like L.A.s the Greater Vancouver Transit Agency didnt buy into it like MTA board members did. Vancouver transit officials were politically pressured by British Columbias transportation minister to go with gates, but its local transit agency in 2005 conducted a study of 14 rail systems globally, and found that the numbers didnt add up.
We realized wed be spending $20 million to recover $4 million annually in maintenance and operations, says Drew Snider of the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority. We decided it was more economical to have [inspectors] checking tickets and doing law enforcement.
Cubic stands to make a fortune by pressuring big cities to gate their subways and light-rail lines. In Vancouver, the firm didnt take no for an answer. It hired power broker Ken Dobell, a former deputy prime minister of British Columbia and former CEO of a Vancouver transit agency, to push for the turnstiles sought by Cubic. That effort failed and this week Dobell took a huge dive, pleading guilty on March 11 to illegally using his influence to push companies who sought contracts from government agencies he once oversaw (Cubic was not named).
THE MTA DIDNT STAND UP TO CUBIC like the transit agency in Vancouver did. The MTA board, made up of politicians like Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke and others, instead dramatically sweetened the pot and handed the deal to the huge contractor. Heres how:
Last November, a $400,000 study conducted by the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton suggested three options to the MTA. The most modest option would have seen 157 gates erected, only on the Red and Purple subway lines, whose designs can more easily accommodate turnstiles than other lines. At a cost of $12 million, that option would have thwarted about half of the cheaters.
Find everything you're looking for in your city
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city
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From the LA Times:
In an effort to allay any fears between the immigrant community and federal authorities, officials with the 2010 Census met with consuls of several Latin American countries to ask for support in their communities to spread the word about the importance of being counted.
“It is vital that every person living in the United States takes part to assure accurate representation and funding for vital services”, said Marycarmen Moran, promoter of the 2010 Census, adding that the consuls agreed to do all they can to make the census a success.
This cooperation is needed because Latino immigrants, mainly undocumented, have expressed concern regarding the confidentiality of the information obtained during the process, according to consulate officials.
“The immigration status of the individual is an issue that has generated some fear among immigrants”, said Eddie Bedon, Ecuador’s Consul General. “The Office of the Census has assured us that the confidentiality of the information will be safeguarded, and the census is being conducted irrespective of immigration status”.
“For Ecuador,” Bedón continued, “the information gleaned from the census will be very important. The statistics regarding the number of Ecuadoreans who live and work here will help us meet their needs, and defend their rights and interests”.
William Jarquin, Consul of El Salvador, also affirmed that his government is committed to working with the census. “For Salvadorans it is extremely important because we need to know just how many of us are out there”.
Pablo César Garcia, Consul General of Guatemala, said: “Immigrants need to understand that when they cooperate with the Census, they are helping to create statistics that will then be used to obtain more community investment because, based on these statistics, the city of Los Angeles will receive more [federal] funds for education and health”.
In addition to the consuls from Guatemala, El Salvador and Ecuador, at the meeting with Census officials were also present consuls from Argentina, Uruguay, Spain, Bolivia, México and the Dominican Repúblic, among others.
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“I know of no elite and no tribunal which can take upon itself to judge what a film will unleash in its immeasurable course. The only jurisdiction to which a film should be subject concerns its style and its expressive power. The rest is a mystery and will always remain so.”
- Jean Cocteau
My latest post for TCM’s Movie Morlocks is a compilation of quotes from Jean Cocteau about classic films and their stars. From my post:
“When Jean Cocteau’s name surfaces most of us think of the visionary artist, poet and director who made films such as BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (1946), BLOOD OF A POET (1930), LES PARENTS TERRIBLES (1948) and ORPHEUS (1949). Cocteau is all these things and more but he also happens to be one of my favorite film critics. I hesitate calling Cocteau a critic because it’s a term I’m not particularly fond of. Cocteau was first and foremost a film fan. A genuine cinephile and a champion of the cinematic arts. His affection for the medium and the people who made the movies he loved is self-evident in the many journals and letters he left behind. He wasn’t ashamed of expressing his outright devotion to the cinema. His passions and prejudices shine like beacons on the printed page pointing readers towards great films and great performances. Cocteau is one of a handful of writers that inspired me to start writing about film and I often return to his work for inspiration.
Today I thought I’d let Jean Cocteau takeover and share some of his most insightful and interesting comments about classic films and their stars. These quotes were compiled from various sources including Past Tense: The Cocteau Diaries Volume One, Opium: The Diary of a Cure and the essential Art of Cinema.”
Make your way over to the Morlocks to read Cocteau’s thoughts on films like Orson Welles’ MACBETH and Robert Wiene’s THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI as well as many actors including James Dean and Bridgette Bardot.
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Internships & Funding
By upcoming deadline:
The application was posted on May 13, 2013 and is due September 8, 2013.
This museum, in Lowell, MA, has a few different internship positions available. They take interns on an as-needed basis.
You can help affect policy and change in your local community with an internship with City Hall Fellows. No deadline has been listed yet.
Located in Salem, MA, these internships are targeted for history, art history, architectural history, theater, and literature students. They have positions for interns during any time of the year, and their application deadline is rolling.
A competitive summer scholarship program in American history for outstanding college sophomores and juniors based in New York City. This is a great opportunity to conduct primary-source research and work closely with eminent scholars. History students Madalyn Baldanzi `08 and Kevin Kim '11 have participated in the program. Application deadline has passed.
Multiple internships are available at this estate run by the US Forest Service. Application deadline has passed.
Take a look at their letter and flier to the history department here. No deadlines listed.
The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is always looking for volunteers.
This year's research theme at Columbia University has not yet been announced. The application deadline has not yet been announced.
Intern at the largest antebellum plantation in North Carolina. No deadlines listed.
There are two different kinds of internships are available here. One is more policy and the other more journalism. You can apply on their website. Deadline has not yet been announced.
Johns Hopkins University's Center for Talented Youth has many opportunities for History students. You can read more on the program and apply here. Their application for 2013 is not up yet, but in the past they've accepted applications until January and conducted interviews through May.
The Library of Congress may have opportunities for you!
Swarthmore history students have participated in this internship program in the past. Summer internships are not yet posted.
The project has multiple internships available. They will provide an opportunity for primary and secondary source research and editing historical documents. There are also web and digital internships available.
- Missouri State Archives Internship in African American History, deadline for summer 2013 has not yet been announced. However, 2012's deadline was April 2.
- Missouri State Archives 2013 Supreme Court of Missouri Historical Society Internships, deadline has not yet been announced. However, 2012's deadline was April 2.
This museum in NYC has a number of internships and other opportunities throughout the year. Most occur during our semesters, but can be taken back to your communities. Deadline for summer has not yet been announced.
The NCPTT's internship page provides links to opportunities with a number of agencies, including the National Park Service. The page does not seem to be updated, but check back if you're interested. Here's 2012's internship page, as reference.
The internship page at the National Council on Public History website is regularly updated and provides you with the resource of having many internships listed on a single page.
Swarthmore history students have participated in this internship program with the Smithsonian Institution in the past. The application deadline for the summer has passed, but they have internships in every season.
Sponsored by the Native Nations Institute, these internships aim to encourage Native Americans and Alaska Native students to learn more about issues and take action on issues affecting tribal communities. The application deadline for the summer has passed.
The New York Historical Society hires a variety of interns for the summer.
The Nixon Presidential Library and Museum hires interns on a semester-by-semester basis.
The NC Museum of History hires a few interns each summer based on need. Their deadline for summer has not yet been announced, though there is a deadline listed of November 1.
Regularly seek counselors for their summer camp, which has a different theme each summer. Positions are seasonal and contractual. Counselors report to the Summer Camp Director. Questions and applications can be directed to Jenn Reifsteck. The application deadline for summer 2013 has yet to be announced.
A variety of internships are available at the PHMC, located in Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Swarthmore history students have participated in this program in the past. They have not yet announced their deadline, though last year's deadline was January 20.
Senators are often looking for interns. Udall offers internships in every season, in both Colorado and D.C. Application deadline for fall 2013 is July 31.
Senators are often looking for interns. Udall offers summer internships in every season, in both New Mexico and D.C. Application deadline for summer 2013 is has passed.
One of the first British settlements in America, St. Mary's City, in Maryland, is often looking for interns in a variety of fields. Application deadline for summer 2013 has not yet been announced.
Large directory of Smithsonian's many internship opportunities.
This conservancy aims to preserve the SS United States and often has internships available in DC, NYC, and Philadelphia.
Large directory of a variety of internships available to students interested in conservation work.
The Tudor Place in Washington, D.C., is always looking for volunteers. There are not any internship opportunities at this time.
This organization scours the internet for resources for young historians and presents history in multimedia formats. They have a few internships available which may involve archival research, writing, editing. The application deadline for 2013 has not yet been announced.
Valley Forge National Park in Valley Forge, PA, often offers multiple internships for students interested in public history and education. These are non-paid. The application deadline for summer 2013 has passed.
War News Radio generally hires students for the summer. No application deadline has been announced yet.
Application deadlines have passed:
This program is paid and is looking for undergraduates and graduates to be their summer interns. The application deadline for the summer has passed.
The CIA has a number of very competitive internships available to undergraduates. The applications need to be filled out nine to twelve months before the desired start date. Summer 2013 has a deadline has passed.
The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is always looking for volunteers. They also have some internship opportunities. Application deadline has passed.
Close to Washington, D.C., Mount Vernon hires six interns a summer. Some can be from a remote location. Deadline is has passed.
The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum always welcomes volunteers, but also hires interns all year long, but their summer internship application deadline has passed.
The History Programs Office at NASA is hiring interns for Summer, 2013. The deadline has passed.
Located in Chicago, The Newberry Library is looking for a variety of interns. Deadline for summer internships is has passed.
Examples of projects past interns have assisted with: the Smithsonian National Museum of American History's interactive web feature based on the U.S. citizenship exam and with the Smithsonian Archives and Gilder Lehrman Institute's web redesigns. Based in Philadelphia, they are looking for two American history interns this summer [pdf] and two HTML interns this summer [pdf]. Deadline to apply has passed.
The House has internship opportunities throughout the year, including in the summer. Feel free to contact them via email or by phone: 717-783-3866 with any questions or interest. Summer intership application deadline has passed.
The Scott County Historical Society in Minnesota is currently seeking interns, and the application deadline is has passed.
Located in Washington, DC, this Smithsonian Institution preserves American History through sound recordings. Swarthmore students have interned here in the past. The application deadline has passed.
The Supreme Court is seeking interns! Application deadline for the summer has passed, but they have internships for every time of year.
This historical society in Minnesota has paid internships available for the summer in Scandia and Stillwater, MN. The application deadline for summer 2013 has passed.
Walking through the city, you'll see them all the time. This page dedicates itself to cataloging all historical markers, so feel free to bring a camera and document where you've been and where you're going and what's happened there before.
This journal has no submission fee, but offers cash awards for the best writing. Run out of Stanford University, you can submit here.
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Wyoming Sets Record For Problem GrizzliesWyoming Game & Fish Department, Bear Hunting Magazine
Wildlife officials in Wyoming have captured a record number of problem grizzly bears so far this year, many of which were involved in livestock depredations.
The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has captured bears on 38 occasions as of August 27, 2010. (The captures exclude Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.) Of the captures, four bears were killed because they posed a threat to human safety while the rest were relocated.
Wyoming Game and Fish officials say about 100 cattle, sheep, llamas and horses have been killed in Wyoming outside the parks.
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Video: Bath salts have dirty, dangerous secret
Transcript of: Bath salts have dirty, dangerous secret
LESTER HOLT, anchor: The federal government raised new alarm this week about so-called bath salts . Not the kind you use when soaking in a tub, but powerful and dangerous synthetic drugs that can lead to death. Yesterday the Drug Enforcement Agency banned the drugs. NBC 's Mara Schiavocampo has more tonight.
MARA SCHIAVOCAMPO reporting: A late night visit from Granite City , Illinois , police brought a nightmare home for Nancy Hodge and her daughter Amanda .
AMANDA: They asked me if I could come down to Gateway Regional Hospital to see if it was my brother, to identify him.
SCHIAVOCAMPO: Twenty-six -year-old Jeffrey was in a coma, hospitalized after being found combative and psychotic on a neighborhood street. He would die three days later, devastating his family. The cause bath salts , a methamphetamine derivative that was widely available to anyone, including children. But don't let the name fool you. These aren't actually bath salts , but a powerful designer drug that can cause hallucinations, psychotic breaks and suicide.
Mr. GARY BOGGS (Drug Enforcement Agency Special Agent): Young adults are not really fully aware of the dangers when they take these drugs and what the potential side effects, both short-term and long-term, are.
SCHIAVOCAMPO: And the effect of the drug on users may not end with one night's high.
Dr. MARK RYAN (Louisiana Poison Center): Some of them were sent to psychiatric facilities and some of them were sent to long-term care because their symptoms either had not resolved or weren't resolving. So we don't know if some of the effects from some of these substances may be permanent.
SCHIAVOCAMPO: In 2010 , there were 303 calls to poison control centers nationwide about bath salts . In just the first half of this year, there were more than 12 times that number of calls.
Dr. RYAN: These drugs, because they are so new and they've never been tested, and large numbers of people haven't taken them, it's truly a Russian roulette .
SCHIAVOCAMPO: So this week the DEA took emergency action, making the sale and possession of bath salts illegal to prevent an imminent threat to the public safety.
AMANDA: I love that picture of him.
SCHIAVOCAMPO: That's little comfort for a grieving family who lost a young brother, son and father of two far too soon.
Ms. NANCY HODGE: The kids just don't understand about it. You know, it's bad.
SCHIAVOCAMPO: Mara Schiavocampo, NBC News, New York.
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Myasthenia Gravis is a very rare (one in 10,000) autoimmune neuromuscular condition that occasionally affects children. Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome (LEMS) is at least ten times less common than MG. Congenital Myasthenia, a genetic condition that manifests at birth or in early childhood, is even rarer still (one or two in a million).
Consequently there are very few myasthenic children in the UK.
As parents, we have often struggled with the frightening path of finding a diagnosis for a seriously ill child and then with learning how best to support our children to grow and blossom into the inspirational young people that they are.
In August 2009 a group of eight families from across the UK met for the Myasthenia Gravis Association (MGA) Children’s Weekend. Families reported feeling isolated in dealing with this rare condition, and the weekend proved so beneficial that families decided to:
- - stay in touch by creating a low-cost web-based support network and information exchange;
- - to reach out to, and make links with, other families living with myasthenia;
- - and to create opportunities to meet as a group ongoing.
For more information about the support network or to get in touch with us to join our network please email email@example.com
In September 2009 the MGA gave permission for creation of the MGA National Children's Branch. The new branch officers are:
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togo and mali: joining forces to resist mining
Friends of the Earth Togo / ADT Togo organized an exchange of information with Friends of the Earth Mali / Guamina, including a visit to communities living near to Mali’s Sadiola opencast goldmine. One community member described these mines as “‘hell on earth' for our village.”
From 28 June to 4 July, representatives of the Mont Agou communities travelled to Sadiola to find out how local people have been affected by the mining, and to share experiences on how to lobby and campaign against the mining contracts.
On their return, the group that visited Mali shared their experiences with communities in Agou, and showed a film about the impacts of mining and the realities of life for people in Sadiola.
The visit and subsequent activities have made communities living around Mont Agou much more aware of the potential impacts of mining, and confident that they know how to resist it. They learned about the ways in which minerals are exploited, and the international and state actors involved. Local people’s lobbying capacity has been strengthened, and a network of mining-affected communities in Mali and Togo has been set up.
“These communities can from now on defend themselves. The Agou community representatives saw the impacts of gold mining in Mali and the suffering of the local people. They now have the necessary tools to make their own case, and not to give in to the demands of the corporations and politicians” said Ekue Assem, from FoE Togo.
FoE Togo and FoE Mali have committed to work together in 2009, on climate justice and extractive industries. They are planning to visit Guinea Conakry, where bauxite is mined, to collect witness statements, and film and photograph affected communities. If possible, they hope to identify another group to work with within Friends of the Earth Africa. They will also organize workshops to strengthen communities’ advocacy capacity in Mali.
Read FoE Togo’s report of the project here: www.amiterre.tg/programmemine.htm
with thanks to our funders: the dutch ministry of foreign affairs (dgis)
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So you want to sell a product with cellular in it, but you have no details on cellular carrier and agency certifications? Here’s the skinny. Disclaimer, these details were correct as of this writing. These details change continuously; consult an expert when you need to start making decisions to ensure you have the most up to date information.
First we need some definitions:
1) Government agencies. The Federal Communications Commission in the US and Industry Canada in Canada. In Europe, each government has an agency that cares, but as long as they’re part of the European Union, there is only one set of tests that you need to pass. Typically, the test report is requested the first time the product is imported for sale in a particular country. You care because each of these agencies has the power of law to prevent you from selling your product. This is enforced by fine and injunction.
2) Industry test enforcement entities. Mainly we're referring to PTCRB, which oversees device certification for member carrier networks. This does not currently include Verizon or Sprint, though it may soon apply to Sprint’s LTE offerings. You care because without passing PTCRB testing none of the member carriers will allow more than a handful of your devices on their network. PTCRB enforces Idle Mode, Intentional Radiator RSE, receiver flatness, and SIM interface tests with pass/fail requirements. They also perform TIS & TRP testing and document the results, however, PTCRB itself does not currently have a pass/fail criteria. TIS/TRP requirements are currently enforced only by certain carriers, namely AT&T and Rogers.
3) Carriers. The carriers are the ones who actually enforce PTCRB and/or their own carrier specific testing and requirements. Carriers will insist you comply or they won’t let any meaningful number of devices on their network. This applies for both MNOs and MVNOs as the MVNOs are held responsible by the big carriers for compliance of their customers’ devices.
Now that we’ve covered who’s involved, we’ll move on to the actual requirements. These are only the main test items.
Radio and Electronics Performance & Compliance Measurements:
1) Total Isotropic Sensitivity (TIS) - this is a swept measurement integrated over a sphere of the device’s radiated receiver sensitivity. The device is placed in an anechoic chamber and then the device, antennas or both are rotated in order to take measurements from every direction (30 degree steps). The measurements are then integrated to get a single number. For cellular modules with a known tested receive sensitivity, this measurement is a reflection of antenna performance and device electronics implementation.
2) Total Radiated Power (TRD) - this is the same integrated sweep described above, but it is a measurement of the radiated transmit power of the device. This is correlated mainly to antenna performance.
3) Radiated Spurious Emissions (RSE), aka Intentional Radiator - this is a measurement of the radio emissions from a device while it’s transmitting. The goal is to ensure that the device is only radiating on the frequency it’s supposed to and that any emissions on other frequencies meet or exceed the relevant agency requirements.
4) Part 15b, aka Idle mode emissions, aka, Unintentional Radiator, Radiated Spurious Emissions - this is the same measurement as RSE but done when the cellular device is synced to the network but with no connection active. Note that PTCRB limits follow ETSI limits, not FCC limits.
5) SIM testing - for devices with SIM cards, there are electrical requirements associated with the SIM card holder and electrical interface including ESD, electrical interface and protocol implementation.
6) Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) - this is a measurement of how much RF energy is absorbed by nearby human tissue in the normal use-case application of the radio device. Basically, if your device’s antenna is closer than 20 cm to a human under normal usage, you care about this, but it’s pretty hard to fail under normal circumstances.
There are also a whole host of network protocol tests, but these are largely covered by the assumption that your device is using a pre-approved cellular module. We’ll mention any major exceptions by carrier.
Failures: There are literally dozens of ways to fail the above items and it’s a major balancing effort to manage the tradeoffs of device requirements, device cost, development cost, time to market, mechanical details, antenna choices and environmental details to bring a product to market. Experience is key in ensuring product success.
U.S. Carrier Requirements
Each carrier has its own unique requirements that change, so it’s important to talk to your carrier to get the updated details BEFORE you start your product development. These details can dramatically affect your business case.
All U.S. carriers require your device to be FCC approved. Most cellular modules have an FCC ID and grant that defines how the module can be used. If your product uses the cellular module the way the grant states, you can simply re-use the FCC ID of the module and no further FCC testing is needed. If the product doesn’t comply with the existing FCC grant, your device will need FCC testing at the device level and you’ll get your own
FCC ID. The FCC testing is the easy part. It’s quite common to do FCC testing for cellular M2M devices, often because there are multiple transmitters in a device and/or the device is used close to human tissue.
T-Mobile primarily cares about PTCRB certification. It doesn’t currently enforce TIS/TRP. PTCRB certification normally runs around $25,000 and you pay a third-party lab for that testing. PTCRB tests occur on all bands supported by the device regardless of what bands your carrier may use. T-Mobile uses slightly different bands than most North American GSM carriers so this can be confusing when you have to test on the 850MHz band even though T-Mobile doesn’t use that band.
AT&T requires PTCRB certification, minimum performance for TIS/TRP and its own network certification. If you use an AT&T approved cellular module, the AT&T carrier certification is almost automatic. This is the exact same PTCRB testing done for T-Mobile or any of the GSM carriers. But if your device is 3G, there is some additional testing.
Verizon doesn’t do TIS/TRP and they rely on your FCC compliance for RSE conformance. The main testing for Verizon is associated with how your device behaves on its network. Things like how often you try to associate on the network; do you disconnect form the network properly; does your device respond to network commands properly, etc. Many of these factors are built into the cell module’s firmware but many others are not. This is just one example where reusing known-tested firmware from an experienced integrator can make a big difference (6 months and $100,000 type of difference) in your product development. Testing for Verizon can range from $15,000 to free depending on the deployment size and how much Verizon believes in your product. Verizon will choose to subsidize testing based on the business case. This testing can be done by Verizon’s own test lab or a number of third-party labs.
Sprint does its own TIS/TRP testing and has quite aggressive requirements for performance. They also do network protocol testing for network control of the device called OMA testing. Sprint testing is free the first pass through Sprint’s own lab. Sprint also has partner third-party labs that charge for testing.
With all certification testing, you should expect to pay for pre-scans and other outside lab services regardless of what the carrier may or may not charge for testing. Waiting to use “free” test services often results in months of extra development time waiting in line for those resources. There are several very cost-effective third-party labs, many of which are certified test partners for various carriers. Using an outside lab and spending a few thousand bucks to keep your project moving as quickly as possible is money well spent. The longer projects drag on in calendar days, the more overhead those projects consume so it’s easy to pay $3,200 for a pre-scan and easily make that money back in not having to pay overhead costs for project management, meetings, accounting, etc. over the several months of waiting to get into a “free” lab.
There are a wide array of factors affecting what testing your new cellular device will need. Some key decisions to make early are what your geographic market is and what carrier you want to use in that market or markets. These are key business decisions that interact with hardware choices, test requirements and fundamental business cases. Your most cost effective path will be to pull in an expert who deals with these issues all the time and let them help you get your product off to a solid head-start. There is no substitute for experience and frankly it’s a lot cheaper than learning the hard way.
Chris Anderson is Chief Solutions Technologist for Spectrum Design Solutions and Pat Frank is an RF Engineer with the company. Spectrum Design Solutions is a division of Digi International (www.digi.com). For more information, visit www.spectrumdsi.com.
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A young man had been to Wednesday night Bible
Study. The Pastor had shared about listening to God
and obeying the Lord's voice. The young man couldn't
help but wonder, "Does God still speak to people?"
After service he went out with some friends for coffee
and pie and they discussed the message. Several different
ones talked about how God had led them in different ways. It was
about ten o'clock when the young man started driving home. Sitting in
his car, he just began to pray, "God.. If you still speak to
people speak to me. I will listen. I will do my best to obey."
As he drove down the main street of his town, he had the strangest thought, stop and buy a gallon of
milk. He shook his head and said out loud, "God is that you?" He didn't get a reply and started on toward home. But again, the thought, buy a gallon of milk. The young man thought about Samuel and how he didn't recognize the voice of God, and how little Samuel ran to Eli. "Okay, God, in case that is you, I will buy the milk." It didn't seem like too hard a test of obedience. He could always use the milk.
He stopped and purchased the gallon of milk and started off toward home. As he passed Seventh street, he
again felt the urge, "Turn down that street." This is crazy he thought and drove on past the intersection.
Again, he felt that he should turn down Seventh Street. At the next intersection, he turned back and headed down Seventh. Half jokingly, he said out loud, "Okay, God, I will". He drove several blocks, when suddenly, he felt like he should stop.
He pulled over to the curb and looked around. He was in semi-commercial area of town. It wasn't the best
but it wasn't the worst of neighborhoods either. The businesses were closed and most of the houses looked dark like the people were already in bed.
Again, they sensed something, "Go and give the milk to the people in the house across the street." The young man looked at the house. It was dark and it looked like the people were either gone or they were already asleep.
He started to open the door and then sat back in the car seat. "Lord, this is insane.
Those people are asleep and if I wake them up, they are going to be mad and I will look stupid."
Again, he felt like he should go and give the milk. Finally, he opened the door, "Okay God, if this is you, I will go to the door and I will give them the milk. If you want me to look like a crazy person, okay. I want
to be obedient. I guess that will count for something but if they don't answer right away, I am out of here."
He walked across the street and rang the bell. He could hear some noise inside. A man's voice yelled out,
Who is it? What do you want?" Then the door opened before the young man could get away.
The man was standing there in his jeans and t-shirt. He looked like he just got out of bed. He had a strange look on his face and he didn't seem too happy to have some stranger standing on his doorstep. "What is
it?" The young man thrust out the gallon of milk,"Here, I brought this to you."
The man took the milk and rushed down a hallway speaking loudly in Spanish. Then from down the hall came a woman carrying the milk toward the kitchen. The man was following her holding a baby. The baby was crying. The man had tears streaming down his face. The man began speaking and half crying, "We
Were just praying. We had some big bills this month and we ran out of money. We didn't have any milk for our baby. I was just praying and asking God to show me how to get some milk."
His wife in the kitchen yelled out, "I ask him to send an Angel with some. Are you an Angel?" The young man reached into his wallet and pulled out all the money he had on him and put in the man's hand.
He turned and walked back toward his car and the tears were streaming down his face. He knew that God still answers prayers.
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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first book in the Harry Potter series, published in Britain on June 30, 1997. The Film of the Book was released in 2001, starting a movie franchise. Since First Installment Wins, the plot of this book will be much more familiar to non-fans than any of the others.Harry thinks he's a normal kid, living a sucky life with the Dursleys, his social-climbing Muggle Foster Parents who hate him and all that he represents. On his eleventh birthday, Gentle Giant Hagrid shows up and tells Harry not only that he's a wizard, but a wizarding celebrity due to having survived an attack by Lord Voldemort ten years ago, somehow rendering the evil wizard MIA. It's then off to Hogwarts, where Harry befriends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, forming the iconic Power Trio. The three begin to suspect that someone is planning to steal the mystical stone of the title, which could be used to restore Voldemort to full power.Retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States because the American publisher worried that kids would think a book with "philosopher" in the title would be boring. Of course, this was before Harry Potter was the reliable franchise it is now.
Tropes exclusive to this book or at least especially prominent:
Above Good and Evil: Voldemort. "There is no Good or Evil, only Power and those too weak to seek it."
Cultural Translation: Changing the title from Philosopher's Stone to Sorcerer's Stone is not strictly an example of this, as the words "philosopher" and "sorcerer" don't mean anything different in the US than they do in the UK. The thinking was that the word "philosopher" would evoke "serious impenetrable text" rather than the intended "magical adventure".
Vernon: Get the mail, Dudley. Dudley: Make Harry get it. Vernon: Get the mail, Harry. Harry: Make Dudley get it. Vernon: Poke him with your Smeltings stick, Dudley.
Deus ex Machina: A rare instance where this is pulled off convincingly and smoothly. Since Harry's mother died to protect him from Voldemort, her love had a lasting effect on him that gave him protection against physical contact with Voldemort, as Dumbledore explains. It's forgivable because The Power of Love was meant to be symbolic and double as a moral message.
Did Not Die That Way: Harry lived in the knowledge that his parents have died in a car crash for 10 years, when it is revealed to him by Hagrid that they have in fact been killed by the Big Bad.
Among other things, this is the only book that deviates from Harry's third-person-limited POV after we're in his head for the first time. During the troll scene, we're briefly in Ron's head as he decides to do Wingardium Leviosa, and when Harry's broomstick is acting up during the Quidditch match, we stay on the ground with Ron, Hermione and Hagrid.
The attempt to kill Harry by knocking him off his broom mid-Quidditch match is hard to take seriously after reading the following books, in which Harry gets successfully knocked out mid-flight several times and securing his landing is always rather trivial. For those keeping count, that means Cormac McLaggen came closer to killing Harry than Quirrell did.
Some of McGonagall's early behavior, such as reading a map in cat form openly long enough for Vernon to see her doing so is very uncharacteristic for her in later books.
Molly's seeming ignorance of the platform number before the Weasleys find it. One could chalk this up to Rowling's initial concept of traveling to school involving many different forms of transportation, with the train being one of them and Molly not having used it for her children in a long while.
Or she was making sure the kids remembered it. Or else just taking care not to arouse nearby Muggles' suspicion.
In terms of foreshadowing strictly inside the plot of Book 1 itself, when Hagrid explains the professors who arranged for the traps to protect the Mirror of Erised, and likewise the Philosopher's stone, Quirrell is among those listed. Later, when they are proceeding through the traps to get to the Philosopher's Stone to prevent who they think is Snape from getting it, they enter Quirrell's trap room and discover a knocked out Troll, which gives away an early clue that Quirrell was the one who released a troll into the castle on Halloween, and that it is in fact Quirrell, not Snape, who was searching for the Stone.
Harry tried asking Dumbledore what the latter sees in the Mirror of Erised. When returning to bed, Harry realized that Dumbledore wasn't being truthful with his answer, and then telling himself that it was something personal for Dumbledore.
Generation Xerox: The departure for Hogwarts. In this book, Ginny is shown crying about how she has to wait to go to Hogwarts and wants to go now as she sees her brothers off at the train station. In Deathly Hallows, her and Harry's daughter, Lily, is shown doing the exact same thing when she sees her brothers off to Hogwarts.
Handshake Refusal: Harry refuses Malfoy's handshake when they first meet on the Hogwarts Express, rejecting him in favor of his future best friend Ron.
McGonagall's summarily dismissing Harry's concerns about the Stone. Even if his concerns were far-fetched, the fact that eleven-year-olds knew about a top secret item should have alerted her to the presence of a major security leak, and the possibility that someone else could have learned about the item. At the very least, she should have demanded to find out everything they knew, and where they learned it.
Innocuously Important Episode: On first reading, about half the chapters appear to be self-contained bits of either character development (the troll attack, the Mirror of Erised) or just some fluffy fun (Hagrid and Norbert). All of them suddenly become important during the climax, and a few even show up again later in the series.
Ironic Echo: When Hermione mentions that she has no fire to use on the Devil's Snare, Ron shouts at her, "Are you mad? Are you a witch or not?" Hermione repeats this line to him, with the word "wizard" in place of "witch" in Book 7.
I Thought It Meant: In-Universe; after the Remembrall retrieval incident, Harry hears Professor McGonagall ask another professor if she can "borrow (Oliver) Wood for a moment". Harry expects to be hit with a piece of wood for getting into trouble.
While the series wouldn't bring them out in full force until later, they would end up using bits from this book, besides the use of magic, to denounce it. Some more ridiculous than others.
The line "There is no good or evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it" is called "standard Witchcraft, and standard Illuminist doctrine"; we're told that "since a child's inherent nature is evil, he will find such philosophy more appealing than the Gospel of Jesus Christ". Ignored is the fact that the character putting this "philosophy" forward is the villain. And starting from the point that a child's nature is inherently evil.
When students are paired off to practice levitation, "Harry's partner was Seamus Finnigan (which was a relief, because Neville had been trying to catch his eye)" — to Cutting Edge, an eleven-year-old boy's not wanting to be paired off for a laboratory-style class with the school klutz is a suggestion of homosexuality.
"Harry was eleven (11) when he was admitted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The number eleven is considered sacred to the occultist, as it is the first primary number." Er, no, the first prime number is TWO. Followed by y'know, three, five and seven. Which makes eleven the FIFTH prime number and HOLY SHIT! FIVE IS THE FIRST PRIME NUMBER! SATAN! Not to mention the fact that all English children start Secondary School at that age.
Neville:You can't go out, you'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble... I won't let you do it. I'll — I'll fight you!
Ron:Neville, get away from that hole and don't be an idiot—
Neville:Don't you call me an idiot! I don't think you should be breaking any more rules! And you were the ones who told me to stand up to people!
Ron:Yes, but not to us.
Motor Mouth: This is what Hermione has in her first appearance.
Mr. Exposition: Hagrid is essentially this because of how often he accidentally lets slip the crucial information that the protagonists and the audience need to know.
Muggle Security-Guards Are Useless: Not only is the guard at the train station justifiably ignorant of Platform 9 3/4, but he dismisses an eleven-year-old who's bewildered and alone as a "time waster". Isn't reuniting lost children with their escorts a part of his job?
My Parents Are Dead: This is the point at which Harry's first conversation with Draco goes from bad to worse. Harry also dismisses the possibilty that the Mirror of Erised is clairvoyant on this basis.
Naďve Newcomer: Harry, understandably much more so here than in later installments.
One Person Birthday Party: After Harry's 11th birthday is forgotten by the Dursleys because of the flood of letters from Hogwarts, Harry sings the "Happy Birthday" song to himself.
Only Smart People May Pass: Some of the obstacles the staff placed in front of the stone. They weren't all considerate enough to warn you in advance, however — if you don't already know how to deal with Devil's Snare, you have about ten seconds to figure it out before it crushes you. Snape's potions-in-bottles puzzle is the closest fit (although why he felt the riddle had to rhyme is anyone's guess). The only real aversion to this was Quirrell's obstacle, fighting a troll, which, luckily, the Trio didn't have to deal with (again).
Open Secret: Dumbledore assures Harry that his confrontation with the Big Bad is a complete secret, which naturally means the whole school knows.
Plot Tailored to the Party: The obstacles protecting the Stone employ the use of each of the trio's strengths: Harry's flying skills, Ron's chess-playing skills, and Hermione's logic. Plus the troll that all three of them stopped earlier in the story, but which turned out to be Already Done for Them.
Harry meets Draco Malfoy while shopping for robes before meeting him on the Hogwarts Express.
He also meets Quirrell in the Leaky Caudron.
Pun: Diagon Alley (for "diagonally", reflecting its kinked medieval shape).
Red Herring: Snape not only in this story, but he also turns out to be the ultimate one in the series.
Right Behind Me: Happens to Ron when he's complaining about Hermione after the Charms lesson.
Sadist Teacher: Snape, who is a complete Jerkass to most students (especially Harry) and is absurdly biased towards Slytherin House. However, he's a mere precursor to some genuinely evil Sadist Teachers introduced in Books 5 and 7.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: Harry Potter gives a whole speech to this effect prior to the climax of the first book: "If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the house cup?"
Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi(I show not your face but your heart's desire.)
Second Episode Morning: The morning after he learns the truth, Harry decides it must have been a dream before he opens his eyes. Then he finds himself still in the hut, with an owl tapping on the glass.
Serial Escalation: The Hogwarts letters that Vernon suppresses from Harry before he gives up and (unsuccessfully) takes the family on the run: On Wednesday, Hogwarts sends one letter to Harry in Privet Drive. On Thursday, they send three; on Friday, twelve, on Saturday, twenty-four; on Sunday, even though there is "no post on Sundays," they come spewing down the chimney; and finally, on Monday morning, the owner of the hotel where the Dursleys (and Harry) stay to hide from the letters mentions that there are roughly a hundred of them at the front desk.
Talk About The Weather: Quirrell starts muttering about the weather whenever someone asks him about his turban.
To Be Lawful or Good: Hermione starts off as a well-meaning but often painfully lawful student, always mindful of the rules (no matter how ridiculous) and scornful of Harry and Ron for breaking them. Circumstances push her a bit in the direction of good as it becomes clear that quietly following the rules is not enough. The time Harry and Ron broke school rules in order to save her life from a troll probably helped lead her to that conclusion.
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||Baton Rouge Press
On the evening of March 3, 2001, Rebecca Didier's life was changed in the most profound way. As so it was with her 22 year-old daughter, Kasey. On that night, an automobile accident left Kasey a quadriplegic. Little did Rebecca know that she would represent the voice and illustrate the resolve of her daughter's will to survive in a remarkable book titled, Kasey: From a Butterfly to an Angel.
your Signed copy today!
Buy your copy!
Kasey Joy Kidder Memorial Site
Kasey Joy Kidder
The publication depicts a remarkable story of a young lady’s journey back home, and the epitome of a Mother's love. The innumerable daily decisions and the execution of every task, were made as the result of both mother and daughter’s unwavering faith in God. Kasey’s valiant hold on life gave new meaning to Karl Marx’s quote: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs."
Recognizing the need to encourage paraplegics and quadriplegics around the world, Rebecca Didier has a special outreach to this population. What's abundantly clear is that, Kasey: From a Butterfly to an Angel serves as inspiration to both the 'abled' and 'differently abled.'
Writing this unique and captivating read had to be a tremendous undertaking. Still, the author's rise to the call to respond has enabled her to communicate authentically, ingeniously, tirelessly and effectively. Kasey: From a Butterfly to an Angelis a tribute to her daughter's entire life, and her last 21 months in particular. With personal calm, and the Peace that surpasses all understanding,
Mrs. Didier successfully manages all of the complex issues associate with caring for a quadriplegic. I strongly recommend that you read truly one of the greatest books ever written. Be inspired by the miracle of a quadriplegic's life, an amazing community of people, a family's story of love, faith, tragedy and triumph.
Kasey: From a Butterfly to an Angel will pierce your heart and alter your mind as you discover that your own ability is unparalleled.
Kasey: From a Butterfly to an Angel by Rebecca Didier
Paperback, 288 pages
Size: 9” x 6”
List price: $20.00 (Includes shipping and handling)
"A Mother's Letter:
A Life is represented by two dates, separated by one dash. Look at this date, my child was only twenty-two years old. Where she lived, what she did, who she was is contained in that dash.
The important thing to know is that at the end of her life she came to know Jesus. She was relying on Him and witnessing for Him, so she made her short life count...For all eternity. What will your dash represent? Make your life count. Let Jesus show you the way to his father.
Kasey, your dash of life December 4, 1979 - November 27, 2002 has so much meaning. We all were sent to earth by Jesus to do his will. God sent you from heaven to earth into my life and deep into my heart, then you journeyed back to heaven with your spirit and soul into your heavenly Father's arms. I will make my journey here on earth as meaningful as yours, so my soul can Journey back to heaven to be with Jesus and you.
KASEY - A RARE, BEAUTIFUL SOUL
I AM SO IMPRESSED WITH KASEY'S STORY.. IT WOULD BE SUCH A BLESSING TO MANY IF YOU COULD SHARE HER STORY IN THE FORM OF A MOVIE... KASEY IS A RARE, BEAUTIFUL, SOUL WHO GAVE MORE TO OTHERS AND TOUCHED SO MANY HEARTS LIKE A BEAUTIFUL ROSE...
PLEASE CONTINUE TO SHARE HER STORY WITH OTHERS, SO MORE PEOPLE CAN SEE THE BLESSING FROM GOD.
HE HAS A PURPOSE FOR EACH OF US, AND KASEY FULFILLED HER DESTINY AND HER LIGHT WILL ALWAYS SHINE !!
GOD BLESS YOU..
Word of Mouth
I read Kasey's book and it brought a whole new meaning of life to me. I am 21 and I couldn't imagine this happening to me. I was never a person to drink and drive or ride with anyone that has been drinking due to past experiences, but now I can promise you the thought won't come across my mind!!
It's such a sad but inspiring story. I read the book in 2 days because I couldn't put it down. In case you are wondering, I am the babysitter of the Mason's and thats how I learned of your story and asked to buy your book. I have a cousin that was injured really bad and his life has been totally changed from being a football star, marine, to being someone that will not be able to do any of the above. He wasn't as bad as Kasey but he can't see and he has some issues with his brain. He was also told he would never make it and he did.
He also had spinal cord injury and was told he wouldn't be able to walk are talk and God proved the doctors wrong and he do both. Y
ou have inspired me to write a book as well on our experiences with Jason. It's wierd to know they had some of the same doctors. His brain surgeon was Dr. Landreneau and he seemed to become part of our family! We also had Dr. Peters he is our whole family's ENT.. We love him!
Well thanks for your inspiration and sharing your story... Keep your hopes high and God by your side and we will all make it through anything God brings us... The one think I always remember is if God brings you to it, he will bring you through it... and it looks like he has!!!
My prayers are still with your family and friends and may God keep sending strength to y'all and may Kasey keep sending butterflies to y'all :)
- Ashley Lambert
I heard about this website from a country station, I think it was 101.5. They had played this pretty song, and they said that it was dedicated to you.
As soon as I got home I logged onto this website and cried as I was reading it. It does make you think twice about what you are doing and if it is the right thing. I have been baptized twice, one in a Catholic church and the other at my dad's. I know that I still do not follow Jesus like I should, and I know that I abuse the love he gives to me everyday. From reading this I am going to try my best to get back on the right track. I am deeply sorry for your loss, and I wish I could do something for you.
I am 16, and I know that I have my life ahead of me, but as of now I am going to watch what I do. All my wishes!
- Erica Ingram
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|
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Could you have a USS Bismarck.
My understanding is that Otto von Bismarck was actually a pretty decent guy as far as statesmen and politicians go. The fact that the Germans happened to have a ship named after him during the Nazi rule is no reflection on him, any more than it would be a reflection on John F. Kennedy if fascists came to power in the U.S. and continued to use his name on CV-67.
Yeah, but the guy went around starting wars for the sole purpose of forcing the German states into joining into one German Empire under the control of Prussia. In other words, he was guilty of what we today refer to as the crime of aggressive war.
the sort of guy the Federation ought to be naming a starship after.
- USS Liberty
-class - not named after the ship attacked in the infamous incident, but just after the idea
- USS Mandela
-class - after former South African President and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela
- USS Bhutto
- after former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was, if Ron Suskind is to be believed, undergoing a fundamental change in political philosophy towards a pro-democracy POV at the time of her assassination, attempting to bring peace and democracy to a very troubled state; this name was actually given to a ship in the TNG novel Greater Than the Sum
wherein it was a Saber
-class, though it was destroyed
- USS Gandhi
and USS King
- named after Gandhi and Martin Luther King, respectively; these would need to be either science vessels or dedicated diplomatic aide vessels, though, since it would be pretty disgusting to name ships that engage in combat after dedicated pacifists
- USS Malcom X
-class - lotsa people hate him, but few activists were as forceful in their insistence for equal rights for African-Americans
- USS John Adams
-class - My personal favorite Founding Father
- USS Sabato
-class - named after Ernesto Sabato, famed Argentine novelist and the chairman of the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons in Argentina, one of the first post-conflict truth commissions and THE first truth commission to publish its findings to widespread public consumption and influence in the form of Nunca Más
, investigating the Argentine military dictators and their crimes against humanity during the Dirty War
- USS Alfonsín
- this one is probably semi-controversial, but this is named after Raúl Alfonsín, the first democratically-elected President of Argentina after the military dictatorship lost power in the early 80s; in my view, this man saved Argentine democracy and set Argentina on the path towards bringing the perpetrators of the Dirty War to justice (even if he had to stop it from actually happening during his term to keep the military from staging a coup)
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=3040191&postcount=87
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|
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Pets: Lost pet cases increase in summer, and having resources to find owners helps considerably
flickr photo by anxiousnut
Over the past couple of weekends, we’ve noticed that folks in our neck of the woods have decided to celebrate with warm weather festivities with fun gatherings and — surely much to the dismay of many pet owners — fireworks.
Our pets are disturbed by the noise enough to want a little extra TLC, so we do that and crank up the white noise machine in our bedroom a little higher to mitigate the cracks and booms, and that works reasonably well.
But after years of experience in caring for other pets, I know that some have a much lower threshold for reactivity to the noise created by fireworks.
In fact, the July Fourth and New Year’s Eve holidays keep me busy with extra precautions to buffer the sounds that always seem to accompany them and to provide comfort to noise weary dogs and cats who are on edge, and you can click here to read my top tips to help pets cope during these periods.
Previously, I’ve discussed how these two holidays are not only difficult in that respect, but they are the top two periods of the year when pets become missing because they become frightened and bolt — and all too often it ends up being through an open exterior door or through the fault of an unwieldy dog-walking tool — resulting in the escape of the pet. By clicking here, you can gain the necessary information on how to help your pet come home quickly and safely and to help prevent it from happening in the first place.
But, quite often I am contacted by people who find a lost or stray pet, and they really don’t know how to proceed so that the pet can be reunited with its family. I frequently find pets that have gotten separated from their people, and I’m glad to report that in most cases, I can get the two reunited quickly.
The problem is, although pets have a defined language, they cannot speak ours, so we need to arm them with the best tools so that they have a voice of sorts. The voice comes in the form of identification tags and microchips. Those are two crucial steps to help the person who finds your pet if they are lost.
And if you’re out and about, you’re probably a lot like me: Only too happy to take a little time to stop and check a pet’s collar to see if there they are wearing an identification tag with their human’s contact information so they can be notified. But if there is no tag on a pet, it’s nearly impossible to connect the dots, so to speak.
If you find yourself in this position and live in Washtenaw County, there are resources and some tips to remember.
First, and foremost, it's important to remember that there's a distinction between a pet being a "stray", and simply "lost." It's best to err on the side of caution and assume that the animal does belong to someone else and is just "lost."
Having said that, you can contact the state or city police closest to where the animal was found or the county sheriff and see if there is a report of a pet being missing. Ditto for Animal Control and local veterinarian offices — in the latter case, many pet owners will let their vet know first.
Humane Society of Huron Valley has a great online resource, their Lost and Found page. You can fill out a report for a found pet that will be listed on their website.
Here are numbers for who to call and other helpful resources:
- Humane Society of Huron Valley: 734-661-3545
- Ann Arbor Police: 734-994-2911
- Ypsilanti Police: 734-482-1025
- Washtenaw County Sheriff: 734-973-4911
- Animal Control: 734-794-6140
- Check online sources like Petfinder.com or Pet Amber Alert
A veterinarian can check to see if a pet has a microchip, but it’s always best to call ahead of time. Never take an unfamiliar pet to a veterinary clinic.
In the case that you find an injured domesticated animal, call the HSHV Emergency Rescue line at 734-661-3512. (For injured wildlife, click here.)
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http://annarbor.com/pets/stray-lost-dogs-cats-pets-how-to-find-owners-hshv-washtenaw-ann-arbor/
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|Updated: 2/21 10:39 am
||Published: 2/21 10:32 am
Students on the culinary team at North Pulaski High School in Jacksonville are getting their utensils ready.
They're gearing up for the Pro Start competition in Little Rock next month.
They don't have to leave campus to cook up their island-themed dishes. They can do it conveniently while in class.
A lot of high school students have jobs, but these students are not working an after school gig. They're on campus at North Pulaski High.
"Simply Delicious," a full service restaurant, is open to the public and run by students.
It's a part of the school's Culinary Arts program.
Director Teresa Perkins says students get class credit and tips, but most of all: "I try, first of all, to teach them work ethics. Because our kids today are usually
lacking in work ethics when they come into the high school because they are not used to working."
However, being a part of this program, students get ready for the real world.
"I plan on joining the military and this class teaches me teamwork, which will help me with my military career," explains Ashley Rotten.
This is the only student-run restaurant in the state, allowing them to do everything from planning the menu and washing dishes to cooking and serving the food.
"My kids can leave here and work at any restaurant in the state," Perkins says.
Some students want to take their training and put it into action, and they don't have to be trained.
"I plan on opening my own restaurant/slash cupcake store," says Student Manager Brandee Brice.
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http://www.fox16.com/news/story/PCSSD-Student-run-Restaurant-is-Simply-Delicious/8HMvWlPtiUah159a3TK3OA.cspx
|
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I am new to the forum and to using html in general, but out of necessity am in need of help and advise. I am working with Excel vba to create a macro that can fill an online form, click on the search button and save the results back to Excel. With help I have done this in the past for simple websites, but can't seem to manage this time around.
The website is www.scopus.com, but it behind a firewall. I was able to save the html script and a picture of what the webpage looks like and where the search should be entered. Also I saved the webpage as an mhtml file.
What I can't seem to work is finding the right syntax for directing vba to the input box. I believe that I have isolated the needed elements in the form:
|
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.webdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?259444-html-and-vba-macro&p=1202906
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|
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|
The Wall Street Journal announced that Google will be updating their search algorithm in the coming weeks/months.
There are some important changes that could affect the lead generation industry that you should know about.
First, what is “Semantic Search?”
Semantic search is basically understanding the context in which you ask a question. This is how Siri for iOS works also.
Example – Lets say if you are talking to your friend about a future trip to Las Vegas. Your friend already knows you love good steaks, so the first thing out of their mouth is “you must check out this steak restaurant at the Palazzo!”
The semantic aspect of this is that your friend has known you for years and knows your likes, dislikes and your budget potentially. They use their own experience to quickly rattle off a handful of things you can do in Las Vegas.
Implications in search.
Most likely you are not having a conversation with your Google page. You enter in short search queries in hopes of researching various topics. EG – “Things to do in Vegas.”
With the new search algorithm Google may recommend a list of things to do and may push down other organic results. It may also determine that a restaurant ad is more relevant to you rather than a flight advertisement.
How does this work?
Google being Google does not release much detail but they say it is based on “attributes” from your personal search history, various websites and other common searches. Google is trying to become skynet in someways.
Why is Google doing this?
Lots of reasons!
- Google is battling Facebook. They know Facebook’s search is horrible. Most people still need to get info from Google. By making search potentially more context based, it may increase usage of sites like Google+ (this is a really convoluted way to get more users)
- This user flow is really tailored towards mobile users. Making Google a 1 page website and offering multiple types of results for one search is key to increasing user interaction.
- This user flow is also great for a voice based mobile device. Imagine calling Google and getting this information read to you? At the end of the call it will ask you to connect to X advertiser. Return of the click to call lead gen model!
- SEO has created a sea of garbage websites. Google knows no one goes past page one of the search results. Making page 1 more relevant is key for them long term. Creating content for Google via SEO and not users is counter -intuitive long term. They are hoping this allows them to be more useful. Creating a pivot this large is pretty scary. It is like transitioning everyone on Earth from gas to electric cars. You have already built a huge infrastructure around gas, the switching cost is pretty high.
What does this mean for lead generation?
Google is no longer agnostic. They are your competitor and friend at the same time.
Head terms are going to be affected the most. In the WSJ article an early alpha tester said it could change up to 20% of your search traffic. This is huge.
It is hard to say if this is going to affect long tail terms in the short term but if the system learns fast enough, this should have an equal affect for head and long tail terms.
From a PPC perspective, it should technically drop the number of impressions you get. It should technically increase your CTR if your ads are highly targeted. From a conversion perspective, it really comes down to how your ad groups are structured. If they have specific term groups but general landing pages there is an argument to be made that your C2C will actually drop, but that is not a new statement.
What will be the effect on Google’s stock price?
In the short term I can see this potentially lowering revenue. If such a massive portion of your revenue comes from advertising and linking to your index, presenting information before the click should technically reduce revenue. In the short term I would say there is a dip in their stock price and long term I could see massive growth based on the mobile usage. Most likely analysts will jump on this and push the stock lower to create a lucrative short environment knowing full well that the long term is positive.
This is assuming that they don’t launch any new revenue models like the “speak to connect” ad model. Given that mobile usage of Google is increasing fast, the attention should be really on how can you get in front a mobile user with semantic search. Without knowing more about Google’s Semantic Search, it will be hard to recommend anything at the moment. I strongly suggest contacting your Google Rep for more info.
Thoughts? Comments? If you have an inside line to Google what are you asking them?
|
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|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://absolutevariety.com/tag/wsj/
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|
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- What is Business Aviation?
- Flight Department Administration
- Aircraft Operations
- Professional Development
- News & Publications
- Products & Services
International Fallout From EU-ETS Continues
February 13, 2012
Delegates from 26 nations will meet in Moscow later this month to discuss ways they will combat the European Union’s recently implemented Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). It is the latest rumbling in a growing series of international protests over the program.
Participants in the February 21, 2012, meeting have already signed a joint declaration in New Delhi last year decrying EU-ETS as illegal under the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. The Chicago Convention grants each signatory “complete and exclusive sovereignty over airspace above its own territory.”
In contrast, EU-ETS taxes carbon emissions for the entirety of a flight landing in or taking off from Europe, no matter the destination. That means the EU is collecting carbon taxes on flight segments over other countries.
In a more direct challenge to EU-ETS, China announced last week that its airlines will not cooperate in any way at all with the emissions trading scheme.
“Such charges can easily be considered as an arbitrary scheme EU has developed to rip off non-EU countries as there has been no mention of how the money the EU charges will be used and how it will benefit the campaign against climate change,” claimed an editorial on the website of the newspaper China Daily. “We can see no sincerity and earnestness in this scheme to help fight against climate change. Rather, we see the hypocrisy and condescending manner of the EU lording it over the rest of the world…We must fight against it.”
The Chinese refusal to participate sets up the possibility of a trade confrontation with the EU, which has promised large fines or even banning from its airspace flight operators who refuse to cooperate.
Other nations continue to threaten retaliation against the EU over ETS. The U.S. continues to mull “appropriate action” in response to EU-ETS, and Russian officials have threatened to enact a tax on European flight operators.
ETS supporters have said protesting countries should instead work on their own plans to lower emissions, making them exempt from EU-ETS. “Instead, they're taking the gunboat approach rather than the diplomatic approach to getting a global solution,” John Hanlon, leader of the European Low Fares Airline Association, told the French news agency AFP.
The 26 signatories to the New Delhi letter agreed last year to lodge a protest over EU-ETS, with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which they – along with many aviation groups, including NBAA – believe should govern global efforts to reduce aviation emissions.
EU climate change officials have been highly critical of the pace at which ICAO is formulating policy on emissions trading.
“If ICAO agrees a global deal, we will be so happy to modify our legislation – but they have been unable to agree a deal for the last 20 years,” declared EU Climate Change spokesman Isaac Valero Ladron, quoted by AFP.
But with mounting protests from around the world, Andrew Herdman, director-general of the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines told Reuters, “We’re now at the stage that it’s absolutely clear that a whole host of foreign governments are not going to allow the EU to do this.”
|
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Government regulations for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) grants can be overwhelming for new grantees, and this problem can be magnified when there is a language barrier involved. This was the case in a Spanish speaking U.S. territory. Although the Technical Project Officer (TPO) was well qualified to monitor the project, it became clear during a site visit that something was getting lost in translation.
Action was taken by the Las Vegas Site Office Manager to assign a TPO with Spanish language skills who could communicate with the grantee counterparts. The TPO frequently contacted the grantee to help them better understand the required reporting documents, as well as help EERE understand the needs of the grantee.
The improved communication with the grantee’s personnel was highly beneficial. The project finished ahead of schedule, and close-out proceeded with no problems.
|
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http://www.eereblogs.energy.gov/lessonslearned/post/2012/07/20/Finding-the-Resources-to-Assist-EEREe28099s-Diverse-Range-of-Grantees.aspx
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|
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A while ago, a friend of mine asked for my thoughts on a question she had, and I thought I’d post my answer here:
How do you explain or convince traditional writers of the value of transmedia writing? For example, if I’m dealing with a comic book writer who is dead set on creating a single narrative and who doesn’t want to even remotely consider transmedia, how do I explain the difference and/or even the similarity in what he is doing with the comic and what needs to be considered for transmedia?
It seems to me that everything is rooted in a strong narrative, which is what a traditional writer will also say. So maybe there is no discussion to be had at all, but then again — there is! Or do comic book writers naturally do what transmedia writers do? By this I mean: they develop characters, plot, and narrative. And that’s all they need to do. So if I have such a writer, is it even worth my while to ask him/her to consider transmedia or would I simply hire different kinds of writers to take that particular story/IP across other platforms?
First of all, not every story/property needs to be or deserves to be or should be made a transmedia property. Many—many!—stories are perfectly fine as traditional, mono-media properties, and are in fact better. While John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars has spawned tons of fan art and creations, I would never want it to be a transmedia property—I think it would ultimately take away from the experience of the main part, the novel. I’ve even made the same argument about The Hunger Games—that the world is so structured around the story of Katniss that actually creating new stories in that world would feel much less compelling.*
What you’re asking is actually a couple different questions: You want to explain to someone the value of transmedia, and you want to know if a traditional writer actually needs to do anything different when writing for transmedia.
The first one is pretty easy to address: it’s what all of us are trying to do to the people who have money and contracts—“You want to hire me to do this as a transmedia project because x, y, and z.” The x, y, and z are sometimes trickier to convince people of, but they’re there: extending stories can deepen engagement, reward loyal fans, draw in new fans, and ultimately make you more money. I also like the arguments of “finding interesting/different ways to tell stories is awesome,” and “you can elicit emotions in interactive storytelling that you can’t in monomedia.”** For a writer, I also love the idea of using transmedia to give the audience all the stuff you love but which doesn’t fit into the primary narrative (more background about the world and characters, other side-stories going on, etc.).
The second one is interesting.
As you point out, to some extent, planning for transmedia is something a writer (especially of genre fiction, where world-building is often a huge aspect of the writing process) does already—though she calls it something else. I’ve had people argue that in fact a “Storyworld Bible” is nothing more than some strange combination of a continuity bible, a setting document, and “ideas you haven’t used yet”—nothing that’s actually new.
Because when I’m writing a story, a lot of my early planning is developing a world rich enough to carry the story (somewhat structured around the story I’m telling, of course). And a world truly rich enough should be rich enough to carry multiple stories. If I’ve developed some piece of history—some past event that effects the main story I’m telling—then that past event could be another piece of a transmedia property.***
But, planning for transmedia does ask some new things of the writer. For instance, making sure that there is enough material to go around. But more than that, good transmedia not only demands places to tell stories, but the hooks between them. Something needs to draw me from one story to the next, make me interested enough to seek out the other pieces or interact with the story myself. And those need to be written in to every piece of the property. There should also be space built in for the audience to play in, to explore and make their own, and that shouldn’t just be shoehorned in either.
Now, you seem to be asking about property of which you control the IP and could in theory just hire other writers to write other pieces. That suggests that as a sort of “transmedia producer,” if you will, it could be your responsibility to make sure those hooks and holes are in there, rather than the writer’s. But, it still falls on the writer to understand why those should be there, and how to include them. And if I’m the creator of an IP, as writer, I’d probably want more control over the world and where all the other pieces go. I’d want to make sure it all fits with the themes I’m writing about, or my vision of the property. But other writers might be much more willing to let it go once they’ve done their part—which is when it falls to you.
So yes, writing for transmedia requires different skills, even if you’re just writing one monomedia piece of a transmedia property. An understanding of transmedia is vital, and you have to know how and where to place the hooks and things that will make the property a unified experience.
And that’s just assuming a franchise-like understanding of transmedia. To really get at the guts, the innovative and fun parts of transmedia, you need to go deeper—writing for interaction, writing pieces that tell story through immersion and the environment (in-world websites, messages from characters, diaries and newspapers and songs and legends), etc. All that definitely requires a different kind of writing and world-building**** than “just” writing a comic.
So I guess what I’m saying is, if you’re in charge of the IP, and you have a good grasp of transmedia, and you can do some world-building on your own, then maybe you’re writer doesn’t need to understand transmedia all that much. But it will fall to you to tell her where she needs to add hooks and generally edit and oversee the property, and the result probably won’t be as strong. Far better to have everyone involved both understand and love the idea of transmedia storytelling.
Because to really get at the core, to really do the interesting stuff, you need to stretch your ideas beyond just franchising into more stories. Come up with something new and fun. Start with an idea of what the whole property could look like, try new things, and build the story and experience around that.
*The marketing transmedia for the film, of course, worked because it was building the world and giving the audience a place in it, heightening immersion without telling other stories. So yes, you could do that.
**See Andrea Phillips’ A Creator’s Guide to Transmedia Storytelling for her bit on Guilt (and for a generally very good introduction to transmedia and why a creator might want to do it).
***It’s not necessarily true, though, that it should be. Again, not all stories should be transmedia. Actually telling the past event in another story could take away from the experience of the first/main story.
****Albeit a kind of writing and world-building that some writers will already be good at—such as gamers and tabletop roleplayers.
|
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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|
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According to a contract released last week, South Carolina taxpayers will now be on the hook for the same price to pay for Clement’s services defending an illegal voter ID law:
South Carolina taxpayers will be on the hook for a high-powered Washington attorney’s $520-an-hour rate when the state sues the federal government this week to protect its voter ID law.
That litigation could cost more than $1 million, according to two South Carolina attorneys who have practiced before the U.S. Supreme Court.
S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson has more than five dozen staff attorneys to handle the state’s legal affairs, but Wilson hired a former U.S. solicitor general to litigate the voter ID case at a rate of $520 an hour, a contract obtained last week reveals.
South Carolina’s taxpayers aren’t just paying this unnecessary and unnecessarily high fee, they are paying it to defend illegal voter suppression. Voter ID laws are popular among conservative lawmakers because they disproportionately disenfranchise students, low income and minority voters — all of whom tend to be more likely to cast votes for left-of-center candidates than the electorate as a whole. Accordingly, these laws exist for the purpose of shifting the electorate rightward.
Such manipulation of the electorate isn’t just disturbing, it is also illegal because the federal Voting Rights Act prohibits state laws that which are either passed specifically to target minority voters or which have a greater impact on minority voters than on others. If the courts pay even the barest heed to the law, they will strike South Carolina’s voter ID law down in a heartbeat.
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<urn:uuid:e5ad2717-2831-42d6-b57e-fa9b74759152>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/01/30/414614/haley-hires-lawyer-voter-suppression/?mobile=nc
|
s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2013-20/segments/1368710006682/warc/CC-MAIN-20130516131326-00007-ip-10-60-113-184.ec2.internal.warc.gz
|
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|
If it could be demonstrated that there are natural moral laws such laws could rationally convince
everybody (everybody who is thinking rationally that is), not just followers of one particular belief. Also
any theory of divine command has to answer the following questions: Is something morally good
because God says so, or does God say so because it is morally good? In the first case this would
mean that God could theoretically decide any action to be morally good, so it becomes really a
question of power? In the second case the action is morally good whether God agrees or not. So
where does this moral goodness come from?
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By Joel Hall
Before this month, about 45 homebound seniors in the county were on a waiting list to receive complimentary hot meals from Meals On Wheels, an arm of the Clayton County Aging Program.
Those seniors will no longer have to wait as a result of a $20,000 grant from the Mary Allen Lindsey Branan Foundation.
The competitive grant, administered once a year to a deserving philanthropic agency in Georgia, will help the county's aging program purchase hot meals for seniors who are unable to prepare meals for themselves.
"A lot of people think Meals On Wheels is a federal program, but it's not," said Mike Twomey, chairman of the Clayton County Aging Program Advisory Board. "We do all of the fund-raising for Meals On Wheels. We get very little county funding.
The meals, assembled at the Clayton County Jail, and purchased for $2.54 each, are delivered by volunteers to about 250 non-ambulatory seniors in the county once a day, Monday through Friday. Twomey said the grant will provide the aging program with the financial backing to ensure more county seniors are eating at least one nutritional meal per day.
"[Meals On Wheels] literally feeds our elderly population that is homebound," said Twomey. "We should never have a waiting list. Grants like these eliminate that."
Tamara Patridge, assistant vice president of Wachovia Nonprofit and Philanthropic Services, the group which administers the grant, said the aging program beat out hundreds of other applicants from around the state for the grant.
"They are doing a great service for the citizens of Clayton County through this program," said Patridge. "If there was any way through this grant that we could help them, we wanted to do that."
Named after a deceased Atlanta resident and long-time Wachovia Bank customer with "extreme charitable intent," the Mary Allen Lindsey Branan Foundation only awards grants to charitable programs which prove their merit, Patridge said.
"It is need-based, so we take everything into consideration," said Patridge. "Had we not felt that [it was deserved], we would have not awarded them the money."
"We were really proud," said Twomey. "They have very stringent guidelines. It was a significant win to us.
"It makes a very significant impact ... the most significant impact that we've ever had," said Twomey. "It should end the waiting list for the last fiscal year."
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High earners paying more tax as reliefs cut
A CAMPAIGN to ensure the highest income earners in the State pay their fair share of tax has been largely successful, a new report by the Revenue Commissioners has shown.
An analysis carried out by the Revenue on the 2010 tax year shows the average effective tax paid by the highest earners increased from 5 per cent in 2006 to its stated target of 30 per cent four years later.
It meant this group of 387 individuals earning more than €400,000 paid an additional €53 million in tax in 2010, almost double the amount of tax they would have paid that year had the new restrictions not been in place.
Six years ago, analysis by the Revenue of the tax returns of the 400 highest earning individuals showed a substantial majority were paying zero tax or tax of 10 per cent or less.
They were availing of a plethora of tax reliefs – including property-based reliefs, artists’ exemptions and patent fee exemptions – to reduce their effective rate to a minimum.
The previous government introduced changes in the Finance Acts from 2006 on to limit the use of these tax reliefs and exemptions to this group of high earners. The restrictions were also applied, on a tapered basis, to those earning €250,000 or more.
In 2010, minister for finance Brian Lenihan introduced far more stringent restrictions to the reliefs, making individuals earning more than €125,000 subject to them. He also reduced from €250,000 to €80,000 the amount of specified reliefs that could be used without restriction. The result was a significant increase in 2010 in the number of individuals captured by the restrictions and the amount of additional tax collected.
An additional €80 million in tax was collected compared with 2009, and the number of individuals captured rose to 1,544 from 452 the previous year.
However, nearly 600 people earning more than €125,000 but less than €400,000 still had an effective tax rate of 20 per cent or less, with some 18 paying less than 5 per cent.
The major categories of relief include investments in hotels and holiday cottages, with 540 people claiming almost €125 million in relief under these headings. Another major category is dividends from stallion stud fees, patents and mining operations.
Some 55 people claimed a total of just over €20 million in exempt income as artists, writers and composers.
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This last week I got a call from a good friend of mine. She came home from a day of work to discover that her home had been broken into and she had been robbed. She was calling me to find out if Components could help her out with updating her security system. Yes! The sad thing is that she has an alarm system. In the course of our conversation I asked her if she had turned on the alarm system when she left? Her answer was probably not. She also told me that it wouldn’t have mattered much because they came in through the window and she didn’t have contacts on the windows. My heart broke for her and I was grateful that she wasn’t home when this all happened and that the worst thing that happened was that her pillow case got used as a bag to help empty out her house.
Friends, there are a few little “tricks” that I would like to share with you (maybe again for some of you) that will help you protect your family and your hard earned belongings.
Trick #1 – The first level of protection is an alarm sign in your yard and window decals in each of your windows. This lets a potential intruder know that you may possibly have an alarm system armed and that it would be a safer bet to target a house that doesn’t have these notifications.
Trick #2 – Have an alarm system installed in your home or business. Even if it isn’t armed, it’s there and when a potential burglar looks in your windows if he sees one he won’t know weather it is armed or not – why risk it! Alarms can be as simple as contacts on your doors and windows that will let you know when the door or window is open. You can add a glass break sensor that would alert you if a window was broken. Motion sensors will pick up movement (don’t worry if you have pets – there are sensors that are designed to work with pets!) You can even have security cameras put around or in your home to record activity. We have some great options if you would like to go that route.
Trick #3 – USE YOUR ALARM! It’s no good to you if you don’t use it! With today’s technology, it is so easy to arm and disarm your alarm system – even from your phone or tablet. There just isn’t a good enough excuse NOT to arm your system.
Trick #4 – Have your alarm system monitored. Yes, your alarm system can deter a would be burglar with just a loud siren, but let’s face it – burglars are pretty savvy and they know that the odds of your neighbor running over to see what’s going on is not very likely. Having the police dispatched immediately could save your life and your property. Really, a monitoring service is a very small price to pay to help protect your family and your belongings!
I’m always so sad when bad things happen to good people and so I hope that these few tricks will help you keep your home, business, family and belongings safe and sound! Please allow us at Components to help you with determining how to best put together your security system. We would so rather hear from you before something happens at your home.
Components Electronic Systems
1528 West San Pedro Street Ste. 3
Gilbert, AZ 85233
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|Thursday, Jan 24, 2013 - 1:30 PM
"Super Why! and the Little Mermaid"
Pig feels different from his friends, which makes him very sad. The Super Readers dive into the story The Little Mermaid to talk with someone whose tail sets her apart from kids on land. As the Super Readers explore the ocean floor with The Little Mermaid, Pig slowly begins to see why being different can be special and the journey to the depths of the sea teaches him a lesson he can use right in his own backyard. D
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now browsing by month
How many times in the past few months have we heard the pat answer “the job creators aren’t creating jobs due to uncertainty”. This has become a fine “whine” so to speak. The dictionary defines an entrepreneur as” the owner or manager of a business enterprise who, by risk and initiative, attempts to make profits.” So, now we have entrepreneurs (also known as job creators) who want the profits but none of the risk?
Job creation is slow due to one essential fact-global demand is insufficient right now to cause businesses to hire. Of course, entrepreneurs are using their business acumen and initiative to try to gain an upper hand while h economy is slow. “Lower my taxes permanently, lower my risks, give me certainty”. You don’t get a risk premium on your investment without the risk, entrepreneurs. It has always worked that way and it always should.
Market volatility is driving investors crazy, everyone seems
unhappy with almost everything (government, Wall Street, you name it). It is
enough to make me think people need to take a deep breath, exhale, and pause
for a moment.
We did not name our business Capstone by random assignment
or dart throwing. A capstone is a crowning achievement, a finishing touch if
you will. If you
have carved out a meaningful life, our belief was that careful management of
your assets could improve your life (expanding your freedom and allowing you
time to allot to chosen goals).
It seems like people in the U.S. are currently concerned
only about jobs, money, taxes, and real estate. These are not the items which
comprise a meaningful life in and of themselves. The World Database of
Happiness shows the United States ranked 20th in happiness. The World Health Organization ranks us 37th
in health care. We rank 14th in education, according to a recent
OECD study. We are at best in the middle of the pack for homicide rates around
Shouldn’t we put some of our focus on improving these areas?
Wouldn’t that help us lead more satisfying and meaningful lives? There is still
a lot of wealth in our country and a pretty decent standard of living compared
to most around the globe. Perhaps a deep breath and a grateful nod to our
abundance could be useful every once in a while?
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A federal prosecutor in the German state of Hesse has announced plans to seek three-month prison terms for a mother and father who homeschool their six children, even though the family already has paid fines for violating the nation’s Hitler-era homeschooling ban and made plans to move.
The news comes from the Netzwork-Bildungsfreiheit, a German homeschool advocacy group, just days after court officials confirmed, as WND reported, a teen in another German state who was taken to a psychiatric hospital because she was homeschooled has been returned to her family.
Joerg Grosseleumern, a spokesman for the German advocacy group, said a prosecutor, unsatisfied with fines the family already has paid, is demanding the 90-day terms in custody for Juergen and Rosemarie Dudek.
He said that’s possible because in the state of Hesse, a family’s failure to follow the mandatory school attendance laws violates not only administrative regulations, but the criminal code.
“We want to inform you that again a homeschooling family in Germany is under severe pressure,” he wrote in his alert. “The Dudek family … is threatened to be sent to prison because of homeschooling their children.”
“It is embarrassing the German officials put parents into jail whose children are well educated and where the family is in good order,” he wrote. “We personally know the Dudeks as such a family.”
He cited a report from a local newspaper that confirmed the prosecutor, Herwig Muller, is appealing the verdict of fines against the Dudeks.
The newspaper said the fines were imposed in May, but the prosecutor wants – and has applied for – jail sentences of three months each for Rosemarie and Jurgen Dudek. Muller also said he will not allow probation for the parents of six children.
The newspaper reporter, Harald Sagawe, said the parents were fined because “they did not send their children to school, for religious reasons.”
He continued, “The parents, Christians who closely follow the Bible, teach their children themselves. Two years ago the court had also dealt with the Dudeks. That case, dealing with the payment of a fine, had been dropped.”
At that time, the family also had submitted an application for approval of a “state-recognized private school,” the newspaper said, “which, according to experts, has no chance of success at any rate.”
That request, however, has been pending before school officials for the entire two years, a fact Judge Peter Hobbel criticized in imposing fines.
Jurden Dudek told the newspaper he’s horrified by the idea the prosecutor wants to see him and his wife behind bars.
“It is a terrible thing, to lock up a family that hasn’t done anyone any harm,” he said.
Arno Meissner, the chief of the government’s local education department, said he will enforce the mandatory school attendance law against the family as soon as he can, and he said he resented the judge’s interference in administrative processes.
“We will enforce the compulsory school attendance against the family as promptly as possible,” he said. He said he will notify the family of the requirements, set a time limit, then open a criminal case.
Not even the announcement of the family’s plans to move will settle the issue, he said.
And he confirmed his department will take nothing from the judge in the case.
“His duty is to make a judgment when the prosecutor brings a charge and to stay out of administrative matters,” Meissner said.
The homeschool organization said the German official in charge, the minister of education for Hesse, is Karin Wolff, and she can be reached at
Hessisches Kultusministerium, Luisenplatz 10, 65185 Wiesbaden, 06151/17120.
She also can be reached via e-mail, the group said.
Practical Homeschool Magazine has noted one of the first acts by Hitler when he moved into power was to create the governmental Ministry of Education and give it control of all schools, and school-related issues.
In 1937, the dictator said, “The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of inoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing.”
Officials with the Home School Legal Defense Association, the pre-eminent homeschool advocacy organization in the world, are actively involved in a number of cases. Estimates are that there are about 400 homeschool families in Germany – virtually all of them either forced into hiding or in court.
WND has reported that in the case of the teen who was taken by police to the psychiatric ward that a German appeals court has ordered legal custody returned to her family.
The court ruling said it was appropriate for a judge to order police officers to take Melissa Busekros, now 16, into custody at the time in late January, but new information now reveals that she no longer is in danger.
Wolfgang Drautz, consul general for the Federal Republic of Germany, has commented on the issue on a blog, noting the government “has a legitimate interest in countering the rise of parallel societies that are based on religion….”
Drautz said schools teach socialization, and as WND reported, that is important, as evident in the government’s response when a German family wrote objecting to police officers picking their child up at home and delivering him to a public school.
“The minister of education does not share your attitudes toward so-called homeschooling,” said a government letter in response. “… You complain about the forced school escort of primary school children by the responsible local police officers. … In order to avoid this in future, the education authority is in conversation with the affected family in order to look for possibilities to bring the religious convictions of the family into line with the unalterable school attendance requirement.”
Michael Farris, founder of the HSLDA, has said he believes the German treatment of Christian homeschoolers is the “edge of the night that’s coming” for believers.
“Germany is the only Western democracy taking this incredibly hard-line approach, but there are growing clouds on a number of national horizons,” Farris told WND.
“The philosophy that the government knows best how to raise children is really becoming a worldwide phenomenon,” Farris said. “I think Germany represents the edge of the night that’s coming.”
Related special offers:
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Feeding Bully Breeds
Keep your bully dog in top-notch shape with these expert tips on grooming and nutrition.
Page 2 of 4
At the opposite end of the spectrum are the couch potatoes. These dogs guard the house from their favorite comfy chair, keeping one eye lazily open in case immediate action is called for. Because bully breeds in general tend to be fairly active, this second group consists primarily of senior bully dogs. One of the formulas that is lower in protein and fat is good for this less active companion. Those particularly inclined to become overweight might benefit from a senior diet specifically formulated for weight control, although dogs should not be switched automatically to a senior diet based on age. Age in dogs can often be relative, and your bully could be 8 years oldor 8 years young! Because senior formulas frequently run particularly low in protein and fat, it is best to check with your veterinarian before switching to this type of food.
Most bully breeds fall somewhere in between these two groups. For these, a full day might include a couple of games of fetch, a good brisk walk, a few turns around the inside of the fence and a car ride while joining its owner in running errands. This fortunate dog has an average activity level: active but not to an extreme. A mid-range formula would be suitable for this companion dog. If your bullys activity level is seasonal thanks to an owner who loves to swim but hates to ski (or vice versa), changing to a performance diet during active times is fine. Its easiest to stay with the same brand and type of food to avoid digestive upsets.
Canned food is an alternative to dry, but because of its high moisture content, it can become cost prohibitive. A large dog will need quite a lot of canned food to sustain its nutritional needs. Nevertheless, for dogs that just don't seem to do well on dry diets, it is a viable option. These wet foods will have lower protein to fat percentages due to their less concentrated form. Adding ten percent to the ratio listed on a canned product will give you a rough comparison to kibble. Frozen dog food, if available in your area, is another possibility.
All dogs are different, and what one dog thrives on, another may not, so experimentation is usually necessary to find just the right diet for your bully breed. Be sure to introduce new foods gradually because sudden changes can disrupt digestion and bowel health.
The Natural Diet Option
Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
In The Natural Dog (Plume, 1994) written by Mary L. Brennan, D.V.M., the author states, theres only one way to be absolutely sure that your dog is getting the best: Make it yourself. Homemade diets using raw muscle meat, organ meat, minced vegetables and other natural ingredients have gained tremendous popularity in recent years. Why? In the wild, raw meat was the standard fare for canines before we domesticated them, so it is closest to their natural diet, points out Dr. Brennan. The feral (wild) diet also included the organ meats, stomach contents and other parts of a prey animal. This explains why many natural diet proponents believe it is important to supply a variety of raw foods to ensure nutritional completeness.
Give us your opinion on Feeding Bully Breeds
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The slide above is from Noah Brier’s Brand vs. Utility presentation, which reminded me of a post I wrote a long time ago in my young blogging days on a concept I called ‘The Expectation Gap”. I’ve left the article as is, therefore, it is slightly out of context, but the core concept still shines through. Also I wanted to showcase my ever greater skill as manipulating the English language….. Yes, I’m well aware it is a futile endeavor…
Without further ado:
The essence of conversational marketing is of course to get people talking. To ignite conversation around a given service or product. To seed the conversation and amplify it, you need the right people to say right things about your product. For example you want the camera buff to evangelize your new digital camera to his friends for he is a trusted source of information regarding cameras. At least within his network. However, how do you get the camera buff to crank up the volume of your message, to amplify it.
The key is in managing the expectation gap. To explain this concept I will use 4 scenarios at a local pizza shop.
1. You are hungry so you walk into a pizza shop you’ve never been to before. You are expecting a decent slice of pizza, but you’re primarily just trying to get a quick fix. The expectations are relatively low, but the pizza isn’t bad in fact it is slightly better than anticipated. You go back to the office and might mention it. The expectation gap was too small to register.
2. Now this time you walk into the same pizza place and are BLOWN away by the flavor. When you get to the office this time you tell everybody about this transcendental pizza experience. The expectation gap was huge, therefore the quality and volume of amplification is equally exaggerated.
3. Now if you get a slightly subpar pizza it’s also not a talking point as the expectation gap was insignificant.
4. The final scenario is if your best friend, whose pizza taste you agree with, raves about a particular pizza joint and you decide to give it a shot. However, the pizza was so bad you ended up throwing it away. Due to the hype, the expectations were astronomical and subsequently the negative expectation gap was equally as large. You now go back to your friend and curse him out for making you endure such a terrible gastronomic experience, and vow to never heed another recommendation from him. In addition, you tell everyone else you know how bad it was. Finally, your friend, the evangelist, loses confidence in his recommendation and stops promoting the shop. The repercussions are severe.
The greater the expectation gap, the more conversation, good or bad, is catalyzed around the product.
The key to conversational marketing is optimizing the expectation gap, not simply hyping a product to unrealistic levels. In today’s world if the product under delivers word travels fast. As marketers we need to find the balance between building positive buzz around our products and not over-hyping.
Create as great a gap as possible between expectations and delivery to catalyze conversation.
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The Chemistry Club is an organization of undergraduate students, run by the club president and vice president, and supervised by the chemistry club faculty advisor. The purpose of the chemistry club is to raise public awareness and to stimulate interest for chemistry and the sciences with chemistry demonstrations and through interactions with children of all age groups and adults.
All upcoming meetings and shows are posted on their website.
Note: You must be logged in to add comments
2007-10-19 12:42:24 The Picnic Day show is a really fun event... everybody should go at least once, especially if you have kids you can bring along. —JabberWokky
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She isn't even ten yet, and already a huge responsibility falls on the small shoulders of the Netherlands' Princess Catharina-Amalia.
On April 30, the youngster will be styled as the new Princess of Orange, and become the heir to the Dutch throne when her father is inaugurated as Willem IV of the Netherlands. Her future, and that of her father, has been brought sharply into focus following the abdication of her grandmother, Queen Beatrix.
CLICK ON PHOTO FOR FULL GALLERY
Even the hypothetical birth of a male sibling wouldn't change the order of succession, given that women have had equal rights to the throne in the Netherlands since 1983.
The future Princess of Orange was born on December 7, 2003, in The Hague, receiving the name Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria. She would later be baptized on June 12, 2004, in Amsterdam's St. James' church.
Since then, her parents Maxima and Willem-Alexander have tried to give Amalia and her two younger sisters, Alexia and Ariane, as normal a childhood as possible. However, both are aware of the role that their daughter will have to play in the future, so the presence of their eldest child at official functions is becoming increasingly common.
As delicate as the balancing act is, Amalia's increasing profile is the perfect training for her new royal role as the Princess of Orange.
HELLO! Online presents the little girl who will soon be heir to the Dutch throne.
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We talked about the significance of understanding the CIBIL and CIBIL credit report in our last write-up. In the past, it was a fairly widespread trend among people- swindling pecuniary institutions after getting credit support. At that time, there wasn’t any central database of financial history-so it was nearly impossible for the banks to track down defaulters. In this logic, the modern-day computing technologies and agencies like CIBIL are serving lenders to reduce their debts by identifying economic offenders. People commenting in our last article have been asking whether it is possible to remove their name from CIBIL defaulters list.
In reality, CIBIL doesn’t have a defaulter list. They barely evaluate the financial disposition of people using the data supplied by different banks and works out a score. Usually, the score will be higher if you have not dodged from paying your loan installments or credit cards bills- they may also mull over your spending style and check loan accounts in which you’re sited as the guarantor. Given that the CIBIL score has been prepared by using a widely general data, there are possibilities for minor inaccuracies-but the negative grading, if any, will permanently damage your eligibility for vital banking services. Therefore, it’s the duty of each everyone of us to check CIBIL status and report the errors in any degree to the concerned authorities.
CIBIL has been providing the credit score report to concerned individuals since a long time. There is a fixed charge-450 rupees for this report, and it will be sent to the requested address within a few days. Recently, they’ve simplified the procedure for conveying the CIBIL score by embracing email reporting feature. That means, now you can check your CIBIL status online right inside your email inbox though a simple verification technique. Again, it costs 450 RS for the enrollment and report generation. The procedure is given below.
Go to this web page and join up with CIBIL by filling your personal information, identity proofs and location.
You’ll be taken to a secure payment gateway after registration- pay the amount and keep the docket number safe for future use.
Next step is the identification of the registrant. The CIBIL web application will inquire certain things, randomly generated using the facts provided during registration. Carefully select the answer the defines you and your whereabouts – it will help them to recognize your credit history correctly.
Finally, print or download the online payment confirmation generated after the three-step substantiation. Your CIBIL TransUnion Score will be emailed to the registered address within four business days.
All private and public sector banks checks CIBIL status of the applicant before granting them any credit-related instrument. Anytime tomorrow you would also be under the necessity of a CIBIL report for dealing with your financial affairs-so why not apply for it today?
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containing multitudes since 2004
Too bad Houdini couldn't make Arbuckle's legal problems disappear!
he may be able to pull a deck of cards outta my ear but hes no Mable Normand..
Arbuckle didn't have legal problems, he had an image problem thanks to Hearst.
Arbuckle had legal problems, to be sure. The ambitious, ethically challenged prosecutor pressured witnesses to perjure themselves. He refused to allow Arbuckle's only accuser to testify because of her criminal past. Had she done so, the case would have fallen apart. Another witness, who later recanted and fled the country, testified that the "victim," Virginia Rappe, on her deathbed, had alleged "Roscoe killed me." On the basis of this testimony, the judge allowed Arbuckle to be charged with murder, and the People v. Arbuckle moved forward. Long story short, Arbuckle endured no fewer than three trials. And, although the last jury is said to have exonerated him (a legal rarity), Arbuckle's life was wrecked. The expense alone was tremendous. Arbuckle owed his attorneys $700,000 (about $10 million in today's dollars) and lost his house and cars defending himself. Not to mention the damage to his reputation, career, and well-being. It took over a decade for Arbuckle's fortunes to reverse. Tragically, he was enjoying a comeback with Warner Brothers when he died of a heart attack, in 1933. (As a footnote, he died in his sleep at New York's Park Central Hotel, where Albert Anastasia would be executed so memorably, while sitting in a barber chair, twenty-four years later.)Hearst's role in the destruction of Arbuckle is not to be denied. In 1925, Arbuckle and his wife vacationed at San Simeon. Hearst had hired him to direct a film with Marion Davies. Of the scandal, Hearst told Arbuckle, "I never knew anything about your case, Roscoe, than I read in the newspapers." The Arbuckle incident unfortunately coincided with the scandal-ridden death of director William Desmond Taylor and the fatal overdose of drug-addicted actor Wallace Reid. Hollywood decided to crack down on wayward celebrities, before the government stepped in and did it for them. Arbuckle became the first actor to be blacklisted--a ban that was lifted only nine months later. But, "public opposition [to Arbuckle] remained pervasive" for years, despite the total discrediting of the evidence against him. Regarding Mabel Normand. Her career also ended due to scandal, following the above-mentioned murder of William Desmond Taylor, in 1922, the year after Arbuckle's infamous party.
Poor Arbuckle. He was a talented man. And even today most people remember him as a rapist, when that was very likely not the case.
You spelled "Fatty" wrong. Dude was framed.
Post a Comment
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Curious about a magazine, but want to sample it before you buy it? Want to keep up with your reading without adding to the landfill with a subscription of your own? The Juneau Public Libraries have subscriptions to over 250 different magazines. Whatever your interest, take a look on our shelves or in our catalog. The newest issues of every magazine are displayed for browsing in plastic covers and are not available for check out. Older issues are housed separately and may checked out for a month at a time. And, just as with books, you can place holds on magazines and have them sent to the library that is most convenient for you. Here are a few of our newly-added titles.
Sound off on the important issues at
The words "groovy," "trendy," and "hip" are often used to describe Readymade, a crafty, home decorating magazine with flair. Look here for ideas for sewing your own ties and making lights out of trash cans. Are you crafty but not groovy? Try Piecework, Threads, Bead and Button, McCall's Quilting, Interweave Knits, Knitter's Magazine, Woodcarving, Fiberarts, Knit Simple, Family Fun (for kid-friendly activities), Ceramics Monthly, Belle Armoire, Beadwork, Artist's Magazine, Knitscene, Somerset Studio, Ornament and Watercolor Magic.
Geeks of a certain variety will be fascinated by Make, a hefty quarterly which aims its projects at readers who keep old cell phones, computers and soldering irons on hand because they could be turned into something cool eventually. Twisted technology projects include reconfiguring robot dogs to sniff out toxic waste, building rail guns, and outfitting your yard with a monorail. There really isn't anything else like it in our collection.
Find a progressive outlook on life in Ode and Punk Planet, which both feature articles on a wide range of topics. Ode focuses on people who are making positive changes to the world: for instance, the psychiatrist who advocates treating depression with good nutrition instead of medication, and advocates of edible landscaping. Punk Planet devotes itself to music, politics and culture, and features writers from all walks of life.
Pages is dedicated to readers of all ages who want to keep track of upcoming popular non-fiction and fiction, with interviews of major writers, such as Laurell Hamilton, and regular features like big-screen books, promising debuts and new releases. For more literary offerings, check out Bookmarks, New York Review of Books, Publisher's Weekly, School Library Journal and The New York Times Book Review.
There are several magazines to which we've subscribed, but which we haven't received yet, so look for these to turn up in the next few months:
Americas en Espanol spotlights the huge variety of cultures in the Americas, with articles on archeology, art, culture, and literature from locales such as Trinidad, Venezuela, Peru and Mexico. Other magazines in languages other than English already at the libraries are People en Espanol, Paris Match, Der Spiegel, Vanidades, Selecciones and Letras Libres. Magazines in English, but with a multicultural and international appeal include Filipinas, Transitions Abroad and Faces (for kids).
The Economist is a weekly magazine that covers current events, science and technology, and business and finance, with an eye towards the information businesses need to succeed. Other business-oriented titles include Fast Company and Home Business.
Paste will be a great resource for the latest in music and movie reviews across genres when it arrives. In addition to reviews, it contains in-depth artist interviews of the well-known and the up-and-coming, and will include either a CD or a dvd of samples every month. Another new music magazine is Vibe, whose focus is on the hip-hop and R&B community, with articles, interviews and reviews.
Keep an eye out for Taste of Home, an ad-free magazine (like Cook's Illustrated) with tons of recipes for homestyle cooking to fit nearly any budget and time frame. While you're waiting, take a look at Cook's Country, which has a similar approach to recipe choice: simple-to-prepare, homey food that just about everyone (even kids) will love.
Come to the downtown library at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday to hear "Philosophy Through Film," a presentation by Chris Grau, associate professor of philosophy at Florida International University. See our Web site (www.juneau.org/library) for more details.
As always, placing a hold on our material is easy. Call the Juneau Public Library at 586-5249. If you have Internet access, your library card and a PIN, you may place your own holds by going to our Web site (www.juneau.org/library) and looking at our catalog or at the In the Stacks column on our site. The columns are hyperlinked to the catalog. Simply click on the title you want, and you will be ready to place a hold.
Juneau Empire ©2013. All Rights Reserved.
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DDESS Schools in the News
FoodPlay comes to West Point
by Kathy Eastwood
West Point, NY | December 8, 2011
With obesity and diabetes in both children and adults becoming epidemic in the nation, it's no wonder many organizations are concerned and doing something about it.
One organization, FoodPlay, is playing a positive role––traveling around the country to get its message of how important good nutrition and exercise is across to children.
FoodPlay is an Emmy Award-winning nutrition media company that tours the nation's schools and provides special events using live theater, comedy and interaction with children to teach them about good nutrition and exercise. Read the full story.
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has fought against same-sex marriage throughout the United States, launched a website on Thursday that preaches understanding and compassion for the gay and lesbian community.
The website "Love One Another: A Discussion on Same-Sex Attraction" at www.mormonsandgays.org outlines the church's position on "same-sex attraction" and provides readers with a host of videos from "church members who are attracted to people of the same sex, and conversations with the loved ones of gay spouses, children, or grandchildren who are dealing with the effects of same-sex attraction in their own lives."
The website comes at a time that some same-sex marriage activists believe the LDS Church is toning down its opposition to same sex marriage.
Though the church's doctrine, that sex should be reserved only for a married man and woman, has not changed the church says, many outside the church say the church is subtly but unmistakably growing friendlier toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, including voicing support for some gay rights.
Some pointed to the less public role in same-sex marriage ballot initiatives in 2012, a marked departure from earlier ballot initiatives fights -- like Proposition 8 in California -- where the church vocally supported the move to get same-sex marriage banned.
Gay rights activists see Mormons softening attitudes toward their community
"What we do know is that the doctrine of the Church---that sexual activity should only occur between a man and a woman who are married---has not changed and is not changing," Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said in a news release from the church about the new site.
"But what is changing and what needs to change is to help our own members and families understand how to deal with same-gender attraction," he said.
The new website echos Oaks that this is not a doctrinal change but does recognize that people who are gay can be practicing members of the church.
"Reconciling same-sex attraction with a religious life can present an especially trying dilemma," reads the website. "Anyone who lives in both worlds can attest to its difficulty. But with faith, love and perspective it can be done. Every human being, Latter-day Saints affirm, has worth and dignity as a child of God."
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I have had an eating disorder for two years and have been in and out of treatment since. On your show, the character Marley has an eating disorder for two days and then magically recovers. If someone has an eating disorder the disease does not just go away.
The point of my letter is to let you know that eating disorders aren’t a joke. I’ve been in treatment for two years and have missed out on so much of my life. I have fainted and been hospitalized many times. On your show Marley faints and then goes back to everyday life. I understand that it is very hard for anyone without an eating disorder to understand, but as a show, you have an obligation to thoroughly research any type of medical condition you write into your script.
- A. (female, age 14)
I am writing to you to address your episode on eating disorders. I speak from experience. I am 11 years old going on 12 and I am currently battling Anorexia. I have had an eating disorder for almost a year now and I personally am very mad about the way you portrayed the disease. I love Glee, and watch it all the time, but not I am having doubts. First off, if you really develop an eating disorder it would most certainly take more than two days to recover. Second, if Marley really did faint in music class, the teachers would send her to the hospital. After reading this, I hope you make dire changes to your show from now on. How appropriate that I am writing in February which is the National Eating Disorder Awareness Month.
- M.S. (Male, age 11)
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One of America's most popular entertainers long after her mid-'40s commercial peak, Dinah Shore was the first major vocalist to break away from the big-band format and begin a solo-billed career. During the '40s, she recorded several of the decade's biggest singles -- "Buttons and Bows," "The Gypsy," and "I'll Walk Alone" -- all of which spent more than a month at number one on the Hit Parade. After launching a television variety series in 1951, Shore appeared on one program or another, with few gaps, into the 1980s.
Born in rural Tennessee, Dinah Shore was performing on Nashville radio while still a teenager. Her professional career later took her to New York, where she sang with Xavier Cugat. After failing auditions with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey however, she decided to simply become a solo singer. Shore signed to Bluebird, and recorded several hits during 1940-41, including "Yes, My Darling Daughter," "I Hear a Rhapsody" and "Jim." Her first million-seller came in 1942 with the prototypical blues crossover nugget, "Blues in the Night." Later that year, she moved to Victor and hit big with "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" and her first number one hit, 1944's "I'll Walk Alone." Shore also began appearing in films, including 1944's Up in Arms and 1946's Till the Clouds Roll By.
The late '40s proved to be her most popular era for recording. Between 1946 and 1949, she hit big with several songs, including "The Gypsy," "I Love You for Sentimental Reasons," "Anniversary Song," "I Wish I Didn't Love You So," "Buttons and Bows" and "Dear Hearts and Gentle People." Though her records didn't chart as high during the '50s, Dinah Shore enjoyed even more exposure with her top-rated variety show, The Dinah Shore Chevy Show. For many, Shore's opening and closing every show with "See the USA in your Chevrolet, America's the greatest land of all" practically defined the '50s. Her Chevrolet sponsorship lasted until 1963, but she returned in the '70s with a new format, the daytime talk-show. During the 1980s, she began performing once again, but returned to television once more with a series that ran for two years. She died of cancer in 1994. ~ John Bush, Rovi
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Facebook says its app recommendation engine, which runs on your data, has become a major way for developers to get to the millions of users who visit the App Center each month.
"We built the App Center to give the growing audience of app users a central place on Facebook to browse apps. However, given the multitude of apps that use Facebook, recommending the right apps to the right people is a tough challenge. We needed to build a system that could handle large-scale data and traffic, respond quickly, and incorporate user feedback in realtime," the post said.
In addition to outlining how Facebook's engineers make the recommendation run off user data, the post gives a glimpse into Facebook's search engine potential -- something Facebook has made clear it wants to pursue.
Engineers base app recommendations on a mix of factors such as a user's demographics, friends' activities, and past Likes or interactions. This, combined with techniques like real-time updates, allows Facebook to harness data and bring up apps you're more likely to use, engineers say.
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Camina, Haz Ciudad started as a project to recover space for pedestrians. It was inspired by a modern development that happened here in Mexico City in an area called El Puente de los Poetas. Amazingly, there was no pedestrian infrastructure at all, the whole place seemed to be designed for cars. A group of citizens decided that couldn’t be, so they painted a sidewalk in an area where lots of people walked but had no safety. But the sidewalk was erased, and the people who painted it were really mad.
With our first painted bike lane [which is 5km and ends at Congress in Mexico City] we were trying to make a political point. We didn’t have any expectation of how long it would last. But the bike lane is still in place.
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Talk:Chrysostomos II (Demetriou) of Nea Justiniana
I'm confused about His Beatitude's last name. There are a few hits for "Chrysostomos Englistriotis," (mostly German, from what little I can tell) and the French wikipedia page lists that as his last name as well. However, the English, Greek, and Russian wikipedia pages say he was born as "Herodotos Dimitriou" ... but the only hits for that seem to be pages copying wikipedia. The Church of Cyprus website does not seem to list any surname, nor does the Orthodox Research Institute. I will change the List of Patriarchs to point to this page, but it would be nice to have a definitive source. The earliest online source I can easily find is this, but there doesn't seem to be a definitive precedent for a last name there, either.
However, my husband seems to have unraveled this article at Cyprus Mail to indicate that Englistriotis is probably not the last name of Chrysostomos, but of another bishop (Nikiforos of Kykkos, with a brother archimandrite, Alexios). So we're guessing that his last name is Dimitriou. Any takers? —magda (talk) 18:36, September 12, 2007 (PDT)
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