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Parents spend an estimated $5-billion a year on youth sports, and it's growing. Millions of kids play 'club' or 'travel' sports, which require travel to different cities, hotel rooms, rental cars, and meals at restaurants.
Now, at least three local investor groups are working to build large youth sports facilities in the Tampa area to tap into the youth sports market.
IF YOU BUILD IT...
A youth soccer facility is planned in the Brandon area, a baseball and softball complex near Riverview, and an indoor facility for volleyball, basketball, and wrestling near Tampa's Westshore District.
Bob Gries, former owner of the Tampa Bay Storm arena football team, is leading the Westshore project.
"We want to do something that will be a signature facility for the Tampa Bay area," said Gries, who now lead Gries Investment Funds.
DOLLARS AND SENSE
Local government leaders say there is little public money available for facilities, but some are helping push the projects if funded by private money.
"If you look at these facilities throughout the country, they are revenue-producing generators," stated
Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagen.
In fact, organizers of the Big South volleyball tournament in Atlanta say the three-day event draws 58,000 people, including players, coaches, parents, siblings, vendors, and college coaches looking for recruits.
Organizers say the event has an economic impact of more than $20-million on local hotels, restaurants and other businesses.
Right now, investor groups are being formed to fund the projects. Gries says he hopes to raise $20-million to build the indoor facility. One possible location is near Tampa International, just west of the Veterans Expressway on land owned by the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority.
Gries says the facility could host large tournaments that could draw 10,000 out-of-town players, coaches, and family members.
He says hotels in the Westshore District, often with vacancies on weekends, could be full of tournament participants and their families if the facility is built.
"Youth tournaments in any sport bring just enormous business," added Gries.
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The current debate in our house revolves around the actual usefulness of caller ID on our phones. I wouldn't classify myself as a Luddite, but I have to ask: does it truly serve a purpose? The idea behind caller ID is that you can read the name of the caller while the phone rings, and then decide whether to answer it.
Before I launch into that, let's go back to the early 1980s: pre-caller ID, pre-voice mail, even pre-answering machines. I made the following conscious decisions, long before the advent of caller ID: If I didn't feel like answering the phone on any particular night, I didn't. If I didn't even want to hear it ring (they still had real bells), I unplugged it. It was that simple. It involved no technology beyond pulling a plug. Many people may still do that, because only about 40 percent of Pennsylvania households have caller ID service. Congratulations on choosing the "less information is more" route to happiness.
The reality of "phone as intrusive know-it-all" crept into polite society years ago with the advent of call-waiting, that clever option that enabled you to never miss a call because you were already on the line. A total nightmare.
We have call waiting because we use our home phone for business, too, and have to be available for callers. But I still feel horrible asking people to hold while I answer call waiting, even worse when I ignore the insistent call-waiting beep occasionally. I even hate being the second caller on someone's line, so that my call arrived as the intrusive beep.
We continued down this path of being perennially accessible when we plugged in answering machines and checked them diligently for the hundreds of urgent calls we may have missed while we were working, playing, sleeping, showering or otherwise occupied. But I'll admit to a grudging thankfulness for answering machines. Yes, I leave messages for people. I'm even grateful for certain messages I receive from time to time. An answering machine somehow seems like an assistant that will help keep track of my life. At least it sits there quietly until I activate it.
But this caller ID business is something else. (Small disclaimer: if the month has an "r" in it, chances are we are buying new phones in our house. It's a man/husband thing I can neither understand nor explain.) Caller ID claims to save time and your sanity by providing information, but it does nothing of the kind.
In ancient times, we sprinted to the answering machine when the phone rang in order to screen the call before we'd actually commit to picking it up. That changed with caller ID. We now sprint to the nearest ID device to check out the name before the answering machine kicks in and intercepts the call. Does that sound convenient?
These days, scores of baby books probably list "unavailable" under baby's first word, which is caller ID code for "telemarketer." First phrase for many toddlers is possibly "out of area," another sales-call red flag.
I can confirm that we shout "unavailable" and "out of area" several times a day to answer a family member not near a phone who calls out, "Who is it?" Or, we'll stand over the phone and report, "It's Texas calling again," or "Florida" or "Nova Scotia." Note to all of the above: quit calling us; we'll never, ever answer.
But, good news: Those days are coming to an end. As of Jan. 29, the Federal Trade Commission will require outbound telemarketers to display phone numbers and even the company name for caller ID devices. Telemarketers object partly because establishing what is essentially a "call back" number for consumers to return their calls is very expensive. Note to the industry: Don't worry about us. No one in our house will call you back.
Renee A. James of Allentown is a freelance writer and works at Rodale Inc. Her e-mail address is email@example.com
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Sigmund Freud wrote that the aim of life is death, but you couldn’t prove that by Abe. Sometimes when I go to see him I do feel as if I’m looking Death in the face; but rest assured, meeting up with cheap Death is not Abe’s aim, not by any means. This man is not going gently into that good night. This is what I witness. This is what I see.
Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night
Mark Edmundson, The Death of Sigmund Freud: The Legacy of His Last Days, Bloomsbury, 2007
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PROTIP: Press 'i' to view the image gallery, 'v' to view the video gallery, or 'r' to view a random entry.
“Stop Posting” is an online expression commonly used on discussion forums and imageboards in response to another participant’s spam or post that is deemed uninteresting or irrelevant to the thread topic. The phrase has since evolved into a reaction GIF series featuring various subjects grimacing in frustration or pleading out of desperation.
“Stop posting” is a commonly used phrase that has its root in Usenet newsgroups and discussion forum, where a participant may spam or flood the same post repeatedly and derail conversations. The earliest known instance of “Stop Posting” image macro appeared on October 21st, 2005 via Subchat Forum where forum member Flatbush41 told another user AIM:
The same image has been since re-used on popular imageboards like 4chan and other forums including FARK, Newgrounds and eBaumsworld, as well as several non-English language forums. The Google Insights data indicates that the meme began to see significant spike in popularity with the circulation of this particular animated GIF file beginning sometime in late 2008:
In October 2009, a Facebook Page called “Stop Posting Crap Every 2 Seconds” was launched. Another notable derivative emerged sometime in 2009, featuring a kitten’s paw placed over a person’s hand and the caption that read: “it’s time to stop posting.” The image also spawned a spin-off instance featuring Pinkie Pie following the emergence of of Bronies and My Little Pony fandom on 4chan imageboards in late 2010.
There are no videos currently available.
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A highly refined aesthetic, a rich history at the crossroads of Asia, and the materials and sensual possibilities afforded by a tropical environment have all led to the creation of Java style. The pavilions of a 500-year-old mosque, the linked colonnades of the kraton, or palace, of Java's sultans, neoclassically styled verandas of a colonial administrator's villa, the cloistered courtyard of an 18th-century Chinese mansion, public buildings that form part of the greatest flowering art deco outside Europe: all these are the settings of Java Style.
This book is a celebration of the architecture, interior design, furniture, and lifestyles that make up Java's unique visual culture, and of the creative possibilities afforded by Java's rich collection of antiques and art objects.
Peter Schoppert is a writer, publisher and multimedia producer who first came to Southeast Asia in 1978. In 1984 he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study social change in Singapore, and he has made the island city-state his base ever since. He has written on Southeast-Asian art and culture for regional and international magazines, and has contributed to a number of books on Southeast Asia, including Borobudur: A Prayer in Stone. For several years he was the Editorial Director of one of the region's leading book publishers. Peter runs nusantara.com, a popular Internet site dedicated to Southeast-Asian arts and heritage.
Soedarmadji Damais is Director of the Jakarta History Museum and Chairman of Paramita Jaya, the Jakarta Museum's Association. He has studied architecture, languages, literature and history in Indonesia, France, the Netherlands, Mexico, Great Britain and the United States. He has written widely on Indonesian art and textiles, and was contributor to Pusaka: Art of Indonesia.
HOW TO BUY
EDM's books are available at all leading bookstores worldwide and from many online retailers, in both print and electronic forms. Please note that single copies of our books are not available for purchase on this website.
1. To buy our printed books
EDM's books are available at your local bookstore. Our titles are available at all leading bookstores around the world and at major online retailers including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Asia Books, Book Depository, Angus & Robertson, Kinokuniya, Periplus, MPH and WH Smith.
2. To buy our ebooks
Our ebooks are available for purchase at all major e-retailers inlcuding Kobo, iBookstore, Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
3. To order in bulk
EDM is able to personalise its existing titles with your company logo and other distinctive features. Please send an email with your enquiry to email@example.com and check our great corporate gift ideas here.
If you would like us to publish your book, please visit this page to learn more about our custom publishing options and email firstname.lastname@example.org with any queries.
Tara Sosrowardoyo started his career in photography in 1977 as a stills photographer in the Indonesian film industry.
A joint or sole contributor of images to many books, Tara has also been featured in publications worldwide such as The New York Times, Time, GEO, Asiaweek, Newsweek, Marie Claire, and The New Yorker. He has shot multiple TIME (Asia) magazine covers and many portraits of influential figures in politics, business and the arts in Southeast Asia.
Tara has participated in numerous photography exhibitions in Indonesia and abroad. He has held solo exhibitions at the Victorian Arts Centre in Melbourne, Australia (1995); Gedung 28 in Jakarta, (2002); Valentine Fine Art gallery in Kuala Lumpur (2003) and at Zinc Gallery in Kuala Lumpur (2010). Tara is based in both Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.
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Diana Nyad ended her second attempt at swimming from Cuba to the Florida Keys without a shark cage this morning, after lasting 29 hours in the ocean and being "surrounded by dolphins and a beautiful Caribbean sunset."
"We are sorry to report that Diana IS out of the water," read several posts from her Twitter account early this morning. "Realizing the conditions of 5 to 10 knot winds and less than ideal currents, Diana herself decided to end the swim."
The 61-year-old was blown 15 mph off course because of strong currents, according to Tweets on her page. One Tweet said that she was strong but disappointed.
"It's hard because I felt like I had it in me," several Tweets quoted her as saying. "It felt like this was my moment. I don't feel like a failure at all. But we needed a little more luck."
Nyad Was Going 'Strong' on First Day of Swim
A Tweet around 9 a.m. said that she had arrived in Key West and was awaiting customs. If Nyad had completed the swim, she would have broken her 1979 Bahamas-Florida record and become the first person to travel the strait without the aid of a shark cage.
An Australian swimmer completed the swim from Cuba to the Keys in 1997 but used a cage.
The long-distance swimmer was going "strong" Monday on the first day of what was expected to be a nearly 60-hour, 103-mile trek from Havana, Cuba, to Key West.
"If I go unconscious, that's one thing," one Tweet read at 12:13 p.m. ET Monday. "But no one is going to make me get out of the water; that will never happen."
At the Hemingway Marina in Havana Sunday, before starting the nearly journey, Nyad played "Reveille" on a bugle, thanked those who had come to cheer her on and then entered the water wearing a black swimsuit and blue swim cap.
"The adrenaline's flowing now," she said Sunday, looking out at the water. "I think this is my day."
Nyad told ABC News last month that an approaching birthday had sparked a desire to attempt a feat she had failed to complete when she was 28..
'One Day a Light Bulb Went Off'
"Turning 60, for the first time in my life, threw me into kind of an angst of worry and regrets over what I had not done through the course of my life," she told ABC News in July. "I decided to reach out for something that would take commitment, that would take everything in me. ... One day a light bulb went off."
In 1978, she attempted the crossing inside a steel shark cage for nearly 42 hours before having to stop because of sea currents.
In 1979, she set a world record for open-water swimming without a cage when she swam 102.5 miles from the Bahamas to Florida.
She then retired but said the unfinished Cuba swim stayed with her. As she neared 60, she said she considered returning to the sport of competitive endurance swimming.
"I started training and I found it was in my heart and it was in my body," she told The Associated Press.
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I love finding different tips and tricks online, but I often find that many of them are most useful days, months, even years down the line. What's the best way to save and organize all this cool stuff so I can actually find it when I need it?
Lost in the Web
You have a lot of options to choose from, and it really depends on how you want to organize everything. Some methods are also better if you want offline access—say, for a collection of camping recipes—while other work great if you don't mind just saving the links. Either way, the real trick is organization so you don't have to sift through everything you've ever read. Here are a few different ways you can save all that stuff.
Use a Read It Later Service with Tagging
If the type of content you want to save is mostly reading material, then your best bet is to use one of the read it later services services like Readability or Pocket that support tagging. Both services have browser extensions (Readability, Pocket) that allow you to quickly save links, and the next step is organization.
Create a tagging system you'll actually use. In Readability, simply click the "Add Tags" link, and in Pocket, click the pencil icon. For example, if you're collecting a bunch of camping-related links, create a camping tag, then maybe separate those even further with tags like "gear" or "recipes" so you can instantly find what you're looking for.
The benefit of this system is two-fold. First off, Readability and Pocket both work in every operating system, and on pretty much every mobile device so you can save web pages from anywhere. Second, they both offer offline access, so if, for example, you're going camping, you don't have to worry about finding an internet connection so you can read the links you save.
Use a Notebook System Like Evernote or Springpad
If tagging everything in a read it later service isn't doing the trick for you, a notebook app like Evernote or Springpad might do the trick. These services allow you to create personal notebooks to store links, ideas, and any other reminders you might need.
To use this effectively, you'll want to do two things: create a notebook for each type of link you want to save (for example, a "Camping ideas" notebook), and then tag your links with relevant information as you add them in so you can cross reference if need be. We've walked your through getting the most out of Sprinpad before and the same basic tenets apply to Evernote as well.
However, if you want to use either of these services when you don't have an internet connection, you'll need to take the additional step of copying the relevant information into a note before you go offline. Neither service saves links for offline reading the same way the read it later services do, so you need to actually copy the text you need.
Organize Your Bookmarks So They Actually Make Sense
If webapps and organizational systems are more than you really need, your browsers handy bookmarks feature is still a useful tool to save relevant links as long as you organize them as you go along.
In Firefox, you can do this by tagging your bookmarks, which is built into Firefox itself. When you drop in a new bookmark, add a relevant tag, and it'll organize everything automatically. On Chrome, you can use an extension like Bookmarks Tagger, SuperSorter, or Stashmarks to do the exact same thing. Of course, you can also just make new folders for each type of link you're saving as well.
When all is said and done, it's about picking a system that you'll actually use. The key is that you organize as you save all your links so you're not stuck digging through thousands of animated GIFs when you're looking for that PC build tutorial you saved a year ago.
Have a question or suggestion for Ask Lifehacker? Send it to firstname.lastname@example.org.
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Many Vermonters Likely to See Higher Health Care Costs
White River Junction — The ages of YendaMe Malia’s five children span 10 years, from toddler to “tween.”
Fortunately, all are in good health. But with a family as large as hers, visits to the doctor are routine. “Having as many children as I have, they get injured quite a lot of the time,” said Malia, 34, of White River Junction. “And it’s covered. Thank goodness for the insurance because, otherwise, I’d be stapling (their wounds) at home.”
She also gets sick herself occasionally. But despite having to support her family on an income of less than $1,000 a month, Malia can still afford to get the care she needs. That’s because her children are insured through Vermont’s state-run health insurance program Dr. Dynasaur. For herself, Malia has the Vermont Health Access Plan, or VHAP, which covers low-income adults. Malia has plenty of financial worries — mortgage payments, bills, etc. — but health care isn’t one of them.
Next year, VHAP and its sister program, Catamount Health, which has no upper income limit, will be scrapped when the state establishes its new health insurance exchange that is part of the Affordable Care Act.
When that happens, roughly 19,000 people who are enrolled in those two programs will have to buy insurance through the exchange, a kind of online shopping mall of health plans. In most cases, enrollees will have to pay significantly higher premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums that could cost thousands of dollars more than they pay now, according to Peter Sterling, executive director for the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security, a nonprofit organization that helps people enroll in state-run insurance programs.
Most of the 38,600 people on VHAP will be covered by the expansion of Vermont’s Medicaid program, but around 10,000 of them won’t meet Medicaid’s income thresholds and will be buying their insurance through the exchange, Sterling said. Of the 11,400 people on Catamount, 9,000 will enter the exchange.
In his budget address on Thursday, Gov. Peter Shumlin proposed offering some state assistance for those people to help offset premium increases, making Vermont one of only two states to do so.
But even if Shumlin’s budget is approved, Sterling is still worried that low- and middle-income Vermonters will be burdened with additional expenses they can’t afford. Any increase in costs may convince people that they can no longer afford health insurance.
“If we raise the cost of health care for this population, we’re going to increase the number of uninsured,” Sterling said. “What happens if you have $600 more out of pocket? That’s an enormous increase. They would go into medical debt.”
These changes are news to Malia. “I haven’t heard anything,” she said. “They don’t inform us of anything really until it changes.”
If the exchange were rolled out today, Malia’s income as a personal care attendant for children with autism is still low enough to qualify for Medicaid. She is looking for more clients and said she would consider other kinds of jobs to bring in more income. Ironically, if she earns too much money, then she may no longer qualify for Medicaid and could find herself with costlier health insurance.
Should this happen, Malia said, she would likely forgo care. “I wouldn’t go to the doctor,” she said. “Right now, I can’t even afford the gas for my truck, so I’m taking the bus to take my child to child care.”
Sharon Irwin, a 35-year-old Hartland resident, is also enrolled in VHAP. Irwin’s husband works at the Upper Valley Food Co-op in White River Junction while she stays home to raise their 3-year-old child. She was unsure how she would be affected when the exchange goes into effect next year. If her out-of-pocket costs go up significantly, however, she and her husband would likely cut out preventive care. “We would definitely skimp on things that we didn’t feel was an imminent health threat,” she said.
Without state assistance, an individual on VHAP could see premiums and out-of-pocket costs rise more than $2,000 annually to buy a plan similar to the one she has now, according to estimates provided by the Vermont Campaign for Health Care Security. If Shumlin’s plan is approved, that same person would see an increase of less than $500. Those earning $28,728 a year and enrolled in Catamount would pay up to $4,600 more for health insurance than they do now, according to the Campaign’s estimates. Shumlin’s plan would cover all but $600 of the extra expense.
The money to help people pay the higher costs would not come from additional taxes, said Shumlin’s spokeswoman Sue Allen. The $10.3 million he’s seeking to offset increases to premiums and out-of-pocket costs would be funded by a combination of money already coming into the system, through savings and federal subsidies.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Shumlin said he hoped to ease the burden on low-income Vermonters as much as possible. “Really our challenge is, we’re sitting here with a system that’s mandated by the feds that is less generous than Vermont’s current system,” he said. “We didn’t feel it necessary at the higher income levels to plug the entire hole, but we did feel we had to plug most of it because obviously we’re not going to ask Vermonters who are already struggling to pay for health insurance to suddenly have the federal government pull the rug out from under them. We want to keep folks insured in Vermont as we move to single-payer.”
Now it’s up to lawmakers to fix the problem and make sure that they give uninsured Vermonters and those on state programs a reason to get health coverage, Sterling said. “No one should pay more than they are paying now,” he said in a statement responding to Shumlin’s proposal. “Anything else is a major reversal of the progress Vermont has made on health care reform and jeopardizes Vermonters health and financial security.”
Chris Fleisher can be reached at 603-727-3229 or email@example.com.
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Offenders' work is praised
HMP Hewell staff and two prisoners worked alongside students from the Forge Short Stay School on Easemore Road to create a flower bed as part of the programme which sees offenders putting something back into society.
Headteacher Roger Satterthwaite said it had been a very important partnership for them with a beneficial impact on the school.
Memorial plaque to victims of IRA bombing in Warrington is back on Bridge Street
from the article on This Is Cheshire:
A plaque put up to mark the Warrington bombings has been returned to the River of Life memorial on Bridge Street.
The plaque, which was damaged and stolen earlier in the year, has been recovered and returned.
It forms part of the River of Life which remembers the victims of the IRA bombings in 1993.
Sweeping to say 'I'm sorry'
from the article in the North Devon Journal:
....Dylan, who works as a butcher at Turton's in the High Street, said: "We were bored so we went and stood on the boat and pretended to be fishermen for a laugh.
"I don't know why we cut the ropes but we soon started floating out into the harbour so we jumped off and walked away.
"At the time it didn't occur to me how dangerous it was and what the implications could have been.
Littlehey inmates refurbish bicycles in 'payback' scheme
from the article on BBC News Cambridgeshire:
Inmates from HMP Littlehey in Cambridgeshire have been refurbishing run-down bicycles recovered by police, before they are donated to charities.
Chief Constable Simon Parr said the scheme was part of a "restorative justice agenda" enabling prisoners to provide a community service.
Baltimore's oldest black cemetery finally restored, with help of inmates
....After decades of neglect, interrupted occasionally by well-meaning but ultimately fruitless cleanup efforts, the cemetery in South Baltimore was officially rededicated Monday, due in large part to the labors of an unlikely group: state prison inmates.
As part of a program to put those serving time to work on meaningful projects, more than 40 prisoners have worked on the four-year effort to transform the cemetery's 34 acres.
Cause – Restorative justice can be fun!
The morning began standing in a circle with about 15 grimacing faces with heads hanging low to the ground. Interspersed among these glum beings were about five overly positive adult volunteers excited to get an early 8 am start in the garden. What a combination of folks; those who were forced to be here by their probation officers and those who were volunteering their precious time to offer growing food as an alternative to picking up trash, so these, seemingly ungrateful, teenagers could earn mandated community service hours.
May 31, 2012 Community Service
Helping the community, building connections
Recently, we shared the article “Give prisoners the chance to help the community” by Erwin James in which he describes prison as consisting of “enforced idleness” and working to “create model prisoners instead of model citizens.” Erwin describes the benefits of programmes allowing prisoners to do something for the community. Referring to his own participation in a Braille unit when incarcerated for murder, he says, “...it was the first time in our lives that we had experienced the satisfaction that can be gained from helping other people.”
I thought about Erwin’s article as I read about prisoners making trauma bears in the Australian state of Victoria. The programme – a partnership between Prison Fellowship Australia and the prisons – teaches prisoners how to sew and stuff the soft toys that are used by emergency service personnel to comfort children in trauma situations. The prisoners may also pay for the materials to make a soft toy for a loved one. Programme volunteers describe the paradox of watching the men who have caused harm work to create the soft toys. As described in the article, “Masculine hands clenched tight ready to harm or reaching out to thieve and finally bound for prison now develop something creative and productive that brings joy to traumatised children and their loved ones.”
Martin Luther King and making amends
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”
This quote by King is helping recovering drug addicts find the wisdom behind restorative justice in the Brooklyn courts.
“Martin Luther King Day has really become a day of volunteer work, and encouraging people to do volunteer work,” said Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jo Ann Ferdinand, supervising judge of Brooklyn Treatment Court (BTC).
Nonviolent drug-offenders and criminal defendants in the BTC receive lesser sentences for successful completion of treatment and courses. Besides basic drug rehabilitation, the BTC mandates that the drug offenders volunteer their time and “give back to the community” that they harmed.
HMP Hewell wins accolades at Malvern Autumn Show
from the article in Bromsprove Advertiser:
A Malvern horticultural show was awash with autumnal golds recently as judges registered their approval of HMP Hewell, which was awarded ‘Best in Show’ for its edible garden.
Prisoners at HMP Hewell produced a show garden to illustrate both the negative and the positive aspects of life behind bars, and the real benefits of Restorative Justice Programmes by creating a productive vegetable plot for this year’s Malvern Autumn Show on September 25 and 26.
Dec 31, 2010 Community Service
Giving time instead of doing time, offenders save the city $65,000
A 90-foot mural painted by Seattle Community Court defendants on a cement wall beside the Lake City Community Center was dedicated last Friday (Oct. 15). Now a gray expanse that had been a frequent target of graffiti has become a bright, stylized depiction of salmon rollicking in a stream past familiar Seattle city landmarks, cedar trees, and a winsome bear.
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A devil worshiping bastard.
Dude belonged to several Satanic cults.
One of the 'Founding Fathers', Ben Franklin was a well-known author, statesman, poet, musician, and inventor. Franklin was responsible for some of the most important features of the Constitution. Some of his accomplishments include:
* Inventor of Floam
* Paula Abdul's first dance instructor
* Amish Rake Fighting (scored 27 kills, 83 maims in first season)
* Known to place 'whoopee cushions' under Madison's seat during meetings
* Porked 1275 women during his lifetime
* Was able to leap tall buildings with a single bound
* Often dressed as a pregnant nun and walked through the streets shouting, "Come and get it, fellas!"
* Once walked into Congress after a night of heavy drinking and opened fire with his AK-47
* Liked to play with puppies
* Held regular staring contests with his neighbors
* Tried to have Hillary Clinton drawn and quartered
* Had girly-hippy hair
* Advertises on the $100.00 bill with a frowny face
* Prone to depression and extreme violence
* A Taoist-anarchist
* Hated tuna casserole
Benjamin Franklin was a bad-ass.
To scour the internet to prove a worthless point in a vindictive manner.
He said they didn't ship to Oregon. I looked it up on the internet and Benjamin Franklined his ass.
Man, if only there was cocaine back then...
And so Benjamin Franklin rose his arm above Madison's head.
"You must be this tall to be president"
Followed by tears, tiny tears.
Oh, and John Adams screams like a girl.
When you are "founding" out that you are the "father" of a child age 3 or younger
I went to my ex's house, and she Benjamin Franklin'd me. I owe $5,000 in child support
A douche bag who likes to play in thunder storms with kites with keys tied to them.
also the old frowning guy on front of the 100 dollar bill.
Benjamin Franklin sucks dick
The founder of the University of Pennsylvania.
Penn was founded in 1740 by Benjamin Franklin and became the nation's first
university when the School of Medicine opened in 1765.
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Saving someone’s life often brings with it the nickname ‘God’. In case of Dr AS Soin, Chief Liver Transplant Surgeon in Medanta Medicity, it is invariably so every time a patient, getting gift of life through transplant, comes to greet him . He loves the nick name ‘Liver Uncle’ given to Him by children savouring life due to him but feels really embarrassed when equated with G-word.
In fact, the surgeon, having the distinction of doing more than 1500 liver transplants so far, highest number when putting together all done in different hospital units, has transcended even his ‘Liver Uncle’ nickname. Call him Liver Grandpa if you want. Eleven of the scores of small children who got liver transplant at his hand are married now and four of them are even blessed with children. Looking at an invitation card, sent by Devyani, whom he transplanted when she was a small baby and who was wedded on this 8th of February, Dr Soin exudes: “It is a great feeling knowing that the children whom you pulled from the jaws of death are living and procreating too. I look forward to rest of them to getting hitched too. I wanted to join Devyany’s marriage bash but this is one ‘Grandpa’ who has no option to relax and regale, what with always someone else in line needing urgent help for life.”
Equally touching is his donning the mantle of Santa Claus not long ago. In fact he ‘manipulated’ the swap transplant of three children simultaneously, so that the children could have the feeling of getting gifts of life straight from God. On 25th December, he did the chain liver transplants, on Tejshree, Aneesh and Ansha, which started in the wee hours and ended, after marathon surgery of 20 hours, just at the dead of the night. They were on the verge of death because their livers had failed but now would live long to call him Liver Uncle and invite him when they marry.
He says: “I look forward to getting gifts from them.” Gifts he gets in droves from more than hundred children whom he transplanted in the preceding two years. They write him letters, they send paintings and ‘thank you’ cards. The little fingers of those children keep touching his heart through these gestures. One painting depicted the child in the lap of Liver Uncle. In one stroke he even gave Midas Touch to Medanta Medicity, Gurgaon, getting the distinction of being first in the world to consummate chain liver transplant. But he loves blessings from patients extricated from the jaws of death more than such rating as being global first. The credit of doing first successful liver transplant in India also belongs to Dr Soin.
After taking advanced training in liver transplant in Cambridge University, this AIIMS alumnus could have lived there happily because he had his own house there and wife also appointed as a doctor. He himself got faculty position in the University. “But I wanted to give back to my own country what I received here,” he said.
He came back to become faculty in AIIMS. In the decade starting 1980, India had not even one single facility for liver transplant. It was impossible to make it a reality in a government hospital, so he headed for Indraprasth Apollo. And, lo and behold! On November 6, 1998, the country had the first successful liver transplant.
But now he longed to have the atmosphere of academics too. He then joined Sir Ganga Ram hospital and did about 600 liver transplants with success rate of more than 92 per cent. After this landmark, this ‘restless’ liver crusader again started looking for greener pastures. He says: “The facility for liver transplant in Gangaram was not for more than 150 in a year. Then I tumbled upon Medanta Medicity, which has immense potential for creating new milestones.”
In the meantime, his wife supported him whole heartedly. He says: “But for her patience and emotional support, I would not have been able to establish such hallmarks. In the early years of establishing liver facility in India, when I was yet to create my team, I had to contend mostly with about 20 hours of work at a stretch. I would get stuck up in hospital for days. But my wife, though sometimes complained sweetly, kept supporting me as a true friend would do.”
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Cause of Choice: Taco Bell Foundation and Boys & Girls Clubs of America
Horatio Alger: Now a builder of high-rises and arenas, she began her life in a small adobe home with no indoor plumbing.
Match Made in Heaven: Her restaurateur husband shops for all of her clothes. Her construction company builds all of his restaurants.
First Job: A neighborhood yard work business with her brother. The money went to charity. Her mother's view was that work was "an investment in your character, not in your bank account."
Armed with her mother’s philosophy of empieza pequeño, pero piensa muy grande (“start small, but think big”), Linda Alvarado began her career as a laborer for a groundskeeper in college, moved into construction management, and formed her own company, Alvarado Construction. She started out pouring concrete for sidewalks and erecting small bus shelters. Now, with more than 35 years of experience in the construction industry, she builds high-rises, hotels, sports arenas, convention centers and more as a commercial general contractor, construction manager, developer, designer/builder, and property manager.
Alvarado sets tall standards in what was, to put it mildly, a man's world. Her Denver-based company has offices in several states and executes multi-million dollar projects across America and internationally. When then-candidate Obama claimed the Democratic nomination in 2008, he was in an Alvarado-restored convention hall. And when the Denver Broncos take the take the field at the 2001 Mile High, they’re playing on turf that she helped lay. The sports connection doesn’t end there: Alvarado’s co-ownership of the Colorado Rockies makes her the first woman and first Hispanic owner in the history of Major League Baseball.
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From the Urban Dictionary:
1. An applicant lacking even basic job skills
2. Someone supremely un-self-aware or lacking any relative sense of what he/she does or doesn't know.
HR sent me another Palin for the marketing manager job.
(v) to abandon one's principles for short term gain
Tom, a devout vegan, palined when he consumed a happy meal solely to obtain the collectible toy it contained.
1. Pejorative term that refers to an incompetent, impractical, irrelevant or incapable person who has been appointed to a position of great importance.
2. A person who holds authority disproportionate to his or her requisite ethics and qualifications. Derived from John McCain's controversial 2008 Vice Presidential pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
John was recently made principal, but everybody thinks he's a Palin who can't do the job.
My new boss is such a Palin - he took my deserved place because the CEO is his personal friend.
Update from the comments:
"My English teacher actually redlined something on a paper and made a nasty comment about a "Palinesque" sentence. It was a run-on, but that was uncalled-for."
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According to the Raleigh News & Observer, Wal-Mart, after 16 months of trials at two experimental stores, is ready to make the leap to LED to reduce energy bills; beginning in January, the retailing giant will install freezers equipped with LED lights at all of its new Sam's Club and Wal-Mart locations. Analysts say that this could herald in wider consumer use of the technology, as Wal-Mart has in the past been a pioneer of new technology use. Lower LED prices could also fuel a boom.
"This will bring much-needed attention to a technology that's been available but hasn't necessarily caught on the way it should," said Joel Makower, founder and executive editor of GreenBiz.com, a group that provides resources for businesses on environmental responsibility. Meanwhile, GE unit Gelcore, a supplier of LED lighting for refrigerated display cases to Wal-Mart, has inked a deal with LED manufacturers Nichia. EC
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Fears that California governor Jerry Brown and the new Democratic supermajority will go on a spending and tax-raising spree may be overblown. Brown has called for “prudence” in tax policy, and state leaders have deflected renewed pressure from public unions to reverse spending cuts. There’s still plenty to worry about, however, as The Economist reports:
Prop 30, or something like it, may have been necessary to stanch California’s budgetary bleeding. But it leaves the state with the highest top income- and sales-tax rates in the country. Most of its revenues will come from high earners, which will do little to ease California’s business-unfriendly reputation. . . .
Borrowing costs are high, and the credit rating dreadful. An over-reliance on income- and capital-gains taxes on the wealthy makes revenues highly volatile: when the Dow sinks, so do revenues.
Despite Democrats’ apparent omnipotence, there may be some opportunity for the long-sidelined (and scarce) Republicans in the state government to help address some of these problems:
Some items on Mr Brown’s to-do list, including pension reform and a softening of environmental rules, will alienate some of his party allies. Republicans could stem their slide into oblivion by working with the governor on such issues. Whether they choose to is another question; as the party has shrunk it has hardened, and after its latest reversals it may turn out to have calcified.
Whether or not they take this opportunity may help answer a big question with important ramifications for America’s future: Can the GOP become relevant again in California, with smart ideas, outreach to minorities, appeals to strivers and entrepreneurs, and policy ideas that make sense in the post-apocalyptic landscape of a deep blue dystopia?
If not, will smart Democrats craft an alternative to the “death by public union” liberalism that is strangling what ought to be America’s most dynamic state?
Only time will tell, but the recent signs from California have not been promising.
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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Election rules are just quackery
THINGS are not always what they seem. There is an old saying, "If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck".
Not so, insofar as Manitoba elections are concerned. Last week I found a one-page colourful piece of literature in my mailbox. It had a picture of the Manitoba premier, prominently displayed, and a less flattering and less prominent picture of his opponent, the leader of the Opposition.
The text of the pamphlet urged me to support and vote for the NDP government and to protect my future by not supporting the Conservative party, which would do drastic harm to Manitoba. The pamphlet looked like an election pamphlet, was delivered like an election pamphlet and read like an election pamphlet.
But if you think the duck analogy applies, you are misinformed and lack political sophistication. You see, the missive is not an election pamphlet because the Manitoba legislature declares that it is not.
The cost of a pamphlet urging you to vote for a political party or candidate which is printed, published and sent to you outside of a campaign period is not included in the election expense limits which parties are bound not to exceed and which are specified by law.
The election campaign period, also defined by statute, begins on the date the election is called and continues until polling day. It is said of the parliamentary system that the legislature can legislate a man to be a woman. The Elections Finances Act is proof of this assertion.
When I was in politics, I always believed the election campaign starts when the votes are counted and the results announced. Every move we made was made with the intention that our actions would commend themselves to the public with the hope that we would be re-elected. For all practical purposes, we never stopped campaigning.
What's more, we tried to behave reasonably. We raised as much money as we could and there were no rules as to how much we could spend and how much citizens could donate to support a political party.
As a matter of fact, there was no mention of the term "political party" in any legislation. The party system was a natural outgrowth of the parliamentary system, and this natural development was conducive to a healthy democratic system. One did not have to hire a lawyer or consult experts to find out how to participate in the process. When the government made the move to finance election campaigns and limit and regulate contributions to political activities, everything changed. If money is to be given to parties and candidates and financial contributions are to be regulated, this cannot be a accomplished without detailed legislation.
The result is The Elections Finances Act, a statute 68 pages long containing 100 sections, which attempts to define the indefinable and which puts the parties and candidates to work trying to figure out how to circumvent the law.
The act purports to limit the amount a party can spend during an election campaign.
But the leaflet I got last week was not published and sent during the artificially defined election campaign. Accordingly, the cost of the pamphlet would not be included in the election expense limits. So is this one home free?
Not so fast. The geniuses writing the legislation probably knew the limits could readily be avoided by spending heavily a week before the designated campaign period actually began, so they passed another section limiting the amount that could be spent in the year preceding an election. But this is an additional limit and does not affect the amount that can be spent during the "campaign period." If this begins to be confusing, hold on. You ain't read nothing yet.
The legislation prohibits anonymous contributions of any appreciable amount. But it does not and cannot prevent a wealthy and generous contributor from spreading around any amount of money to trusted friends and letting them make the contribution.
If you pass the hat around at a public meeting and it happens to contain several 1,000-dollar bills, the organizers of the meeting must, by law, try to determine how they got there. If they cannot identify the donor or donors, they are required by law to turn the money over to the minister of finance.
I suppose the same thing is supposed to happen if the party finds a healthy wad of cash in its mail box. I leave it to the readers to form their own opinion as to what would really happen in these circumstances.
If you pointed out some of the futility of these statutory provisions to their advocates, they would quickly try to remedy the situation. Regulation begets regulation and the phenomenon of the comic strip Spy vs. Spy would prevail. The legislators and those being legislated would be in a perpetual state of trying to outwit each other with increasingly diminishing success.
The ultimate futility of the existing legislation is that none of the restrictions applies to entities other than political parties and registered candidates. A group for good government claiming to be unassociated with any political party could donate, spend and advertise as much as it pleased, unaffected by the legislation. An attempt to close this "loophole" has already been made by other governments which have passed legislation banning third-party participation in election campaigns if money is spent. It is ironic that in the so-called attempt to preserve the integrity of the democratic process, we are forced into making laws prohibiting public participation.
We have an alternative. We can go back to the days when there were no special laws governing election financing and election spending and rely on the integrity of the candidates, the parties and the intelligence of the voters.
Or we can try to have these matters regulated by legislation, which will inevitably result in more and more rules designed to perfect the imperfectable and which will ultimately prove futile. The Harper government has taken one small but proper step by indicating the intention to discontinue political party financing. It still has a long way to go.
Sidney Green is a former NDP cabinet minister.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 13, 2011 J11
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Homes that are powered partially or completely by alternate energy sources are on the rise. People are seeing the need to find alternate methods to become energy efficient. With recent global incidents more people are seeing the need to become less dependent upon the fossil fuels that come from the Middle East. Even further is the desire to be self-sufficient and off the grid when it comes to energy. While at one point in history this was a wild dream it is becoming a reality to more and more people as the research in alternate energy makes gains. Continue reading
Whenever we get too busy or stressed, we all tend to make poor food choices that will actually increase stress and cause other problems. Learning how to eat healthy, even in stressful times, helps keep us healthy and better equipped to deal with life’s turbulent times. Here are 4 simple methods to help keep up your healthy eating habits and keep the tension down. Continue reading
I love lemons! Lemon meringue pie is my always my requested birthday desert. I love it in my tea, and adding a bit to ice water is a bit of heaven.
But lemon has a whole bunch more uses that just that. Lemons are versatile in and out of the kitchen. Here are 7 great uses, other than eating, for that lemon you have been given. Continue reading
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Elizabeth Phillips has been principal of Public School 321 in Park Slope for 13 years, having started there as a teacher. Ms. Phillips has become one of the most outspoken critics among principals of how the city and the state are collecting data on student achievement and then using it to evaluate schools and teachers.
During a tour of her school, Ms. Phillips, 62, said that good teachers were the key to learning, and that her main job was to support her teachers. P.S. 321, with 1,407 children in prekindergarten through fifth grade, is a high-achieving school with an active core of parents. This interview was edited and condensed.
Q. What impact do you think public criticism from principals and parents is going to have on future tests?
A. I think itís going to have an impact because itís not a workable system. We are sworn to secrecy so we canít reveal questions to the press, or the public or even to other colleagues. But kids donít have those same limitations, and you have eighth graders blogging about it. With social media, I think youíre going to see more of this.
Honestly, in the 13 years Iíve been a principal, Iíve never seen such bad tests. Never. Not every part of them. There were parts that were fine, but enough of them that it truly is an outrage to think that a teacherís job would depend on them.
Q. How do you define a good teacher?
A. I donít know a single good principal who has trouble recognizing a good teacher. You do need a system where you can get rid of incompetent teachers, but it should also be one where you can improve teachers and also recognize quality teaching. If you have principals who have been teachers themselves who have spent time in the classroom, they know.
Iíll go into a first grade room. If I look in those book bins that those kids have on their table, I can see right away if the kids are well matched to their books by reading with three kids in the room. Thatís without looking at the teacher. But it isnít a uniform measure. Thatís in first grade.
In fifth grade itís going to be more about the quality of their talks about the books, more than whatís in their book bins.
Q. Do you think the administration has been supportive of principals and teachers?
A. No. Thereís a gotcha mentality. I donít think that it necessarily started out that way. I know thereís a problem in this city and in the country with a lot of kids not getting a high-quality education. But I think that separating the school problems from all the other social problems in the country ó you have poverty, you have homelessness, you have kids hungry ó thatís going to have an impact on them. We canít pretend it doesnít.
I also think that having an administration run by people who arenít teachers or were never teachers, is a problem.
I also think this administration believes in just shaking things up, that itís good for people to feel disequilibrium. I think that was a very deliberate policy and I did discuss this with Joel Klein.
I think the teacher bashing has a huge impact on whoís going to go into or to stay in teaching.
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Allah Baksh, a people’s obituary: JKCCS
This release was put out yesterday by the
JAMMU & KASHMIR COALITION OF CIVIL SOCIETY
On 24 October 2012, the news of the death of former Deputy Inspector General [DIG] Allah Baksh broke out. Politicians, government officials, business groups, and certain elite sections of the Kashmir valley shamelessly competed with each other in offering condolences.
It is a shocking phenomenon which JKCCS condemns as Allah Baksh was notoriously known for his involvement in the 21 January 1990 Gaw Kadal massacre when he was the Deputy Superintendent of Police [DSP]. The Gaw Kadal massacre was one of the first massacres in the post-1990 armed conflict in which reportedly more than 50 civilians were killed. For this massacre an FIR was registered against the dead and surviving civilians [3/1990 Police Station Kralkhud] but no one was held accountable for the massacre itself.
No enquiry was conducted. Instead, Allah Baksh was mysteriously rewarded with the Director General of Police’s Commendation Medal, 1991, President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service, 1992, and by being promoted within a short period of time from DSP to DIG. Post retirement the benefits continued, for example with his appointment as a member of the Jammu and Kashmir State Public Service Commission. This encouraged many police officers towards killing for awards and rewards. A pattern of impunity and unaccountability was set, which led to scores of other massacres.
JKCCS considers Allah Baksh to be a person responsible for one of the most gruesome massacres in the last 22 years. Allah Baksh should have been subjected to a thorough investigation for his role in the massacre.
Allah Baksh will be remembered in the history of Kashmir as a killer.
Adv. Parvez Imroz
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Many Changes Coming in Bus Services
Local bus services in the region's two biggest jurisdictions are taking a hit because of the economy. In Montgomery County, Ride on is scheduled to cut some service in two weeks. The county also is holding a hearing in Rockville at 6:30 Tuesday night on a second round of cuts that would occur in July. See those details here.
A week from today, Fairfax County will begin a series of hearings on proposed cuts in its 2010 budget that include reductions in the Fairfax Connector service. The proposals include cutting more than a dozen routes and reducing the frequency of the buses on others. See a full list at this link.
Metro, of course, is in the midst of its own budget struggles, and we should have a clearer picture this Thursday on how that will work out for bus riders. The transit authority staff made many proposals for bus cuts, and the board has been struggling to figure out ways around them.
Separately from all that, watch for a round of Metrobus changes coming on March 29. This isn't strictly economics. Several times a year, Metro revises schedules across the region, cutting a run, adjusting a schedule, or even adding a service.
See the full list here. But these are a couple of highlights:
* Welcome the S9, an express on 16th Street NW between Silver Spring and McPherson Square. Buses will run every 10 minutes during the morning and evening rushes. People who have waited in long lines for who knows how long at stops dowtown and along 16th Street to board already crowded buses can't wait to see this. The new service is the result of a study in which transit officials worked with riders to plan something that would ease the chronic problems of erratic schedules, bus bunching and crowding.
* Gone as of March 29: Route 98, linking Adams Morgan and the U Street NW Corridor. Metro and the District Department of Transportation have been working together on this. Coming in April is a new Circulator bus route that also will link the Adams Morgan and U Street entertainment areas, but it won't mimic the route of the 98. Both Metro and DDOT tell me they believe there still will be adequate Metrobus service in that corridor.
* A longer day for the NH1, the National Harbor Line: Service will be extended so that the last bus leaves Southern Avenue Metro station at 10:39 p.m. The 10:39 p.m. bus also will serve the employee entrance at the rear of the Gaylord National Resort. The last bus from National Harbor also will serve the employee entrance at about 11 p.m. The idea is to allow riders to transfer at Southern Avenue to the last Green Line train going toward Greenbelt.
* REX, the Richmond Highway Express service, will be modified: During peak hours, the schedule for arrivals and departures at King Street Station will be adjusted by up to five minutes.
Posted by: sea1943 | March 23, 2009 1:59 PM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.
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Mark Rothko was once at a party in New York when Andy Warhol walked in, with his entourage of superstars. Warhol heard Rothko complain bitterly to the host: "How could you let them in?" The two great American artists were not exactly drinking buddies - so it's a strange twist that a Warhol exhibition should open in London this week, coinciding with a retrospective of his antithesis, Rothko.
- Andy Warhol
- Other Voices, Other Rooms
- Hayward Gallery,
- SE1 8XX
- Starts October 7 2008
- Until January 18 2008
+44 (0)871 663 2501
- Venue website
Rothko thought Warhol represented the worst things about America: consumerism, celebrity, superficiality, you name it. But the two artists may have had more in common than you might think. In the early 1990s, New York's MoMA put on a great display of abstract paintings from the 1940s and 50s. At the end, some curator put Warhol's Orange Car Crash Fourteen Times (1963). It was totally right. Warhol's tragic subject matter, held in a saturated field of colour, shared the pathos and power of the abstract expressionists, but with less introspection, and more interest in others.
This was abstract reportage, and its compassion, its determination to bear witness, was almost unbearable.
Other Voices, Other Rooms was a novel by Warhol's favourite writer, Truman Capote. The Hayward's Warhol retrospective has adopted this as its title, as if to underline the artist's readiness to listen to, and look at, other people. It features Warhol's films, screen-tests, videos - and his Polaroids, which it rightly hails as works of art in their own right, even though they were actually used by Warhol as aids for painting portraits. They are strangely compelling images: one of the great humanising threads running through his factory-like output is his fascination with portraiture. The Polaroids provide a fascinating insight into this man who wanted to capture the world like a camera.
The Polaroids are, however, the most difficult of his works to reconcile with any lofty view of Warhol's output. In the early 1970s, he started to do society portraits. His subjects were stars and high-society types, from Chris Evert to OJ Simpson, Grace Jones to Joseph Beuys. Sitting for Warhol simply meant letting him take Polaroids of you. These were converted into silkscreen templates, printed on to canvas and painted over in lurid smears of bright colour that take the contrasts and saturations of the photographs as their starting point. In the Polaroid, Capote has bright blue eyes; in the painting, these become electric circles of sky blue within a pink face.
Just to make that observation is to home in on how precisely and intelligently Warhol's portraits work. Capote's eyes are not just eyes - they are the eyes of the great Truman Capote, whom Warhol revered and whose book In Cold Blood looks unshakingly into the worst elements of US life, just as Warhol did when he painted the electric chair. There's an emotional choice in the decision to heighten his eyes: a man becomes a myth, a face becomes an image.
The fact that Warhol liked famous people does not mean - as is usually assumed - that he worshipped celebrity for its own sake. In his book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, he gives celebrities this advice: you shouldn't value your fame in itself; you should "always have a product that's not just 'you'". An actress should count up her performances, a model her photographs. This way, "you always know exactly what you're worth, and you don't get stuck thinking your product is you and your fame". This is the opposite of the famous-for-being-famous ethic he often gets the blame for.
In the Polaroids, it's noticeable that no one is "just" a celebrity. These people do things: there are artists Warhol sincerely admires (Robert Rauschenberg, Max Ernst), pop stars, sports heroes. And many of the portraits are far from flattering. The camera does no one any favours, producing oddly lumpen, gross images of bright, damaged flesh - the raw facts, the rude material. Warhol said he deliberately miscast his films because the wrong person is always funnier and stranger. In these Polaroids, the stars, famous as they are, look miscast in their own lives.
Warhol's quest for the ungainly, even the freakish, reaches its fascinating climax in these Polaroids. Warhol thought himself ugly. He also thought of himself as a mirror. In front of the camera, as if in front of the mirror, he tries out disguises: drag, wigs, lipstick. He even poses as himself, plain Andy Warhol. The more you look at his work, the more you feel there really was such a person, who was not just an empty mirror but a dark, reflective lake - with hidden depths that have still not been fully charted.
'Andy nearly drove me crazy' - How Warhol, and others, saw Warhol
Warhol on Polaroids
"Mr Land invented this great camera called a Polaroid. And it just takes the face of the person. There is something about the camera that makes the person look just right. They usually come out great. I take at least 200 pictures and then I choose. Sometimes I take half a picture and a lip from another picture. Sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's easy."
William Burroughs on Warhol
"He's really a science-fiction character. He's got a strange green colour. His films will be the late-night movies of the future."
Truman Capote on Warhol
"When he was a child, Andy Warhol had this obsession about me and used to write me from Pittsburgh. When he came to New York, he used to stand outside my house - just stand out there all day waiting for me to come out. He wanted to become a friend, wanted to speak to me, to talk to me. He nearly drove me crazy."
Warhol on Capote
"I used to write to Truman every day for years until his mother told me to stop it. She did. She called me up and said it. She was really sweet." (Capote: "She was drunk.")
Warhol to Muhammad Ali
"Could I have some pictures of you not talking?"
Jimmy Carter on Warhol
"I think that [Warhol's] painting of me, based on that photograph, was superb. It kind of grows on you ... The first one was frowning and scowling and worrying because I was broke, I had lost some primaries, I didn't know where I was going to go next, and the fact that [US artist] Jamie Wyeth and Andy Warhol were willing to help me kind of turned the tide."
Warhol on Warhol
"I'll paint anybody. Anybody that asks me. I just try to make people look good."
Warhol taking a Polaroid of Joseph Beuys
By Maria Anckarsvard
Other Voices, Other Rooms is at the Hayward, London SE1, from tomorrow until January 18. Details: haywardgallery.org.uk
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The common managed care practice of hiring utilization review personnel whose credentials and experience fail to match those of the organization's providers will also be challenged. UR personnel have suggested different diagnoses and different kinds of treatment when they've never seen the patients and when they don't know the situation," Maderer said.
Although accounting for only two paragraphs in the complaint, the allegations that MCC's managed care practices violate New Jersey's law against the unauthorized practice of psychology could, if sustained, have a profound impact on the way treatment decisions are made. The NJPA and the individual psychologists will ask the court to decide whether the termination of providers without cause because of an assessment that they were not managed care compatible actually has a direct effect over the control and delivery of treatment afforded to patients. If it does, the argument goes, then MCC's practices are in fact the unauthorized practice of psychology.
"Managed care companies are making decisions about psychological and medical care and they're not just managing the benefit," said Wahler. "They are actually providing the care and they're not qualified to do so."
The constant fear, Wahler said, is that practitioners want to provide the services they believe are in the best interests of their patients, but fear they may be "dumped from a panel for no cause with no recourse." She said that the seven psychologists who joined the suit face an additional risk- concerns that other managed care organizations may blackball them as a result of the litigation.
Wahler said that the purpose of the suit is not to eradicate managed care, agreeing that its techniques have resulted in many positive changes. All of health care needs to be cognizant of controlling costs, but the solutions that [managed care] has come up with are far more dangerous to the health of people in this country than overutilization."
Russ Newman, Ph.D., J.D., executive director for professional practice at the American Psychological Association in Washington, agrees that "nobody until now has looked at the issue of termination without cause." Acknowledging that such terminations are customary business practices in many industries, he questioned whether patients' interests can be served when the "no cause" deselection process is applied to health care.
"The question is, is there a uniqueness to the patient/therapist relationship that is medically impacted by termination without cause?" said Newman. "Even if the court were to determine that it is an appropriate practice, the question is can one misuse [it]?"
Courts have tended to view managed care agreements as business arrangements, Newman said, applying traditional contract theories to their interpretation. But when courts have viewed a body of dispute as a health care relationship- for instance medical malpractice litigation- then they apply principles that require greater accountability. He sees a shift in the legal system away from a contract-oriented view of managed care.
"Is what's happening in the health care system simply the creation of a financial or business arrangement in order to then separately, but in that context, provide services, or do these business arrangements and managed costs strategies actually influence the health care that is being provided?" Newman asked. "I would argue that managed care is, in fact, the provision of health care."
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Friday, January 25th, 2013
According to the Washington Post, a new proposal by the Washington DC State Board of Education would, among other things, eliminate the current requirement that students take a course in American government in order to graduate from high school. Instead, students would be required to take courses in world history (1 unit), United States history (1 unit), and Washington, DC history (0.5) units, and then would have the choice to fill their remaining 1.5 units of social studies with classes such as economics, financial literacy, global studies, or government/civics.
The Post‘s Valerie Strauss disagrees with the Board’s proposal:
In the you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff category: The public school system in the nation’s capital may let high school students graduate without taking a high-school-level course in how their country’s government works.
The D.C. State Board of Education is proposing changes to graduation requirements from the system that would actually get rid of the current requirement that students take a U.S. government class, my colleague Emma Brown reported here. If approved, they would have to rely on the information they received in elementary and middle school.
Under the proposed changes, high school students in the District would take more physical education, art and music, and be required to write a thesis before graduating. They would also be permitted to earn some of their credits — proposed to go from 24 to 26 — outside the classroom, including study-abroad programs as well as off-campus arts and sports programs.
Civics education advocates are, Brown reports, unhappy with the proposal to drop the U.S. government requirement, and it is said to be open for discussion.
The real question is why it is a consideration.
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Arabs across the Middle East have been grieving the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, which for some mark the end of an era.
For many, Arafat was the Palestinian cause
Others have expressed fears that Israel could take advantage of any Palestinian power vacuum.
Tunisia, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Yemen and Jordan have announced three days of national mourning along with Egypt.
Mr Arafat's body is expected later on Thursday in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, for a military funeral.
In a statement, the Egyptian presidency honoured Mr Arafat as "a historic leader who led his people with courage in all the stages of the national struggle".
In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees met news of Mr Arafat's death with wails of grief and volleys of gunfire.
However, it was in Jordan that Mr Arafat's death was felt particularly hard and many were angry the funeral would not be taking place in the kingdom.
Shops were closed and the Koran blared from loudspeakers as hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees mourned the death of their leader.
Jordan has the largest community of Palestinians in the diaspora - most of the 1.8 million refugees there still live in camps.
"His funeral should have been here among his people," said Aouni Shatarat, from Mr Arafat's Fatah faction in the Baqaa camp.
The camp's usually busy market was quiet as shopkeepers closed their shutters in a mark of respect.
Youths took to the streets, holding up banners with images of Mr Arafat as news of his death filtered into Jordan.
Some Palestinians praised their late leader for remaining steadfast despite the two-and-a-half-year Israeli siege of his West Bank compound.
"Arafat remained faithful to his principles and did not sell out the cause," shopkeeper Abdul Latif Ahmed said.
Peace 'up to Israel'
In Cairo, Arab League spokesman Hossam Zaki said Mr Arafat was "the embodiment of the Palestinian question" and that his passing would not open all the doors for peace in the Middle East.
"This is false and the answers never really lie with the Palestinians as much as with the Israelis," he said.
Some Arabs fear a Palestinian power vacuum
Both Israel and the United States have long said that Mr Arafat stood in the way of any chances of peace.
Iran urged Palestinians not to let Israel take advantage of any vacuum following Mr Arafat's passing.
"What is important now is for the Palestinians to stay
united and understand the sensitivity of the situation to
confront the plots of the Zionist regime," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
That view was echoed by Yemen, with the presidency urging Palestinians "to unite during this difficult time to rob the enemies of Palestine of the chance to stir up differences".
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Budapest, Not Prague
If, in general, the contemporary American reader has been acquainted with the city of Budapest through literature, it's very likely that that acquaintance had something to do with Arthur Phillips's very successful novel Prague. And as the title of that book about expatriates in the Hungarian capital during the Eastern Bloc's transition to capitalist democracy suggests, it's probably more likely that people in general are better acquainted with (or have a rosier picture of) the capital of the Czech Republic. (The book is so named because its characters can't shake the suspicion that their counterparts in that other city are living the life while they wallow.) You don't, anyway, hear much talk of recent graduates taking off for summers of "self-discovery" in Budapest. But those who do manage to find their ways to that city should find more than enough to discover, if not in themselves than in the place itself. Even if its self-discovery scene may not be nearly as famous as the one in Prague, the Paris of the Danube certainly does rival its Czech counterpart in its grandiosity and its atmosphere of tarnished Old World mystery.
And maybe it's the very sense of Budapest's relative contemporary shabbiness that makes it seem somehow more distinguished -- or at least more mysterious. After its fall from imperial glory as a result of the First World War, the city and its people were then marked by an interwar alliance with the Nazis and, later, a communist dictatorship. And now, at the same time as the linguistically isolated Hungarians seem to be turning increasingly inward and away from the rest of Europe, they also seem somehow less inclined to cover the bullet holes in the walls of their capital's past. You get that feeling, anyway. Budapest is the kind of place that you can imagine would make for the brilliant setting a dramatic crime. Or at least that's the kind of dramatic fantasy you can indulge in reading Vilmos Kondor's Budapest Noir -- even, maybe, if you haven't been acquainted with the city outside of literature. That and you'll want a good cup of coffee.
The expats in Prague circulate in and around the famous Gerbeaud Cafe, but crime reporter Zsigmond Gordon prefers the Abbázia or the New York or the Sztambul -- or the Balaton if he can remember to ask the staff not to add sugar to his cup of black. Certainly though, the café culture nostalgized by the characters in Phillips's book is very much alive on the streets of the city trekked by Gordon in Budapest Noir. Two, however, are dead: it's October of 1936, and on the heels of the reports of Prime Minister Gyula Gömbös's death in Munich, Gordon gets tipped to the location of the body of a girl, "very lovely and very dead," in a street known for its familiarity with prostitutes. From Gordon's reaction to the tip it seems apparent that the area also isn't unfamiliar with young female suicides. But the situation surrounding this very dead girl appears different. Not only does she have a Jewish prayer book in her purse, but her very lovely face is the same one that Gordon has seen in a photograph that he'd come across earlier in the day -- a nude photograph he'd come across in the desk of a section head in the homicide unit of the police department.
For his part, Gömbös had been in Germany learning the tricks of fascism in order to implement them in the emerging autocracy of his Unity Party back home. The historical record reflects that Gömbös had been obliged to officially recant his anti-Semitism by Miklós Horthy, who was regent and military commander of the kingdom of Hungary between the two world wars; but it's clear, at least from Gordon's perspective, that a Jewish person wouldn't have been welcome in any significant economic or political position in Gömbös's Hungary. Now Gömbös is dead -- and not by any foul play -- but in the position jockeying following his death, what if it should come out who had been involved with that Jewish prostitute...? "And as long as we're on the subject," as Gordon's girlfriend Krisztina puts it to the him, "if you want my opinion, the question is not how she died, but how a Jewish girl -- probably from a respectable, bourgeois family -- ended up becoming a prostitute in the first place." And why was it (as it turns out it was) that the girl should have had such a strong preference for the coffee beans bought from Meinl over the ones from Arabia?
From there, the Budapest of Budapest Noir becomes a blur of grand avenues and guarded back alleys, stylish cafes and seedy watering holes, of illegal boxing matches, newsrooms, pornography studios, underground political meetings... and speculation. Well, "a blur" maybe doesn't do justice to the lucidity of the author, or to Paul Olchvárym, his translator, but a crime reporter's beat in Budapest in 1936 does sound like quite the trip. And the day to day of Gordon and Krisztina isn't so unlike in Isherwood's Berlin. If it weren't for the exploitation and impending continental disaster, the picture of the party in interwar Budapest might have an absolute draw. Like The Berlin Stories, Budapest Noir conjures a disconcerting but powerful nostalgia, one which is made all the more potent in the case of the latter for the relative air of mystery surrounding the city in which it takes place (for non-Hungarian -- or non-European -- readers, anyway). And with all that on offer, really, who needs a summer in Prague?
Then there's to-do over the coffee: it's not just which variety of bean or which cafe might be favored by Gordon or by the very dead girl or by anyone else high or low, but that certain imports from Africa make certain partnerships with the Italians (Mussolini) important, and then there's the war in Abyssinia, and the big German market... (There's also the archivist who needs to be paid off with packets of a specific type of Egyptian tobacco, but, okay, that's really not much more than a beautiful touch.)
To be sure, fiction like Budapest Noir, especially of the type and quality that garners praise as being "classically" noir, is, to at least some degree, written as entertainment. And, to be sure, Budapest Noir is thrillingly entertaining. But it does, as well, call attention to an eerie political symmetry between its time and the present. Consider: that at the same time as we can read in Budapest Noir about Gordon and his cohorts sitting in their cafes reading in the international and domestic press about Gömbös and Horthy and the consolidation of political power in interwar Hungary, we could also search most contemporary international and domestic media outlets (from our laptops at our own favorite cafes, of course) and easily turn up information on a Hungarian political situation with a startlingly similar disposition. Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz (a.k.a. the Hungarian Civic Union) may not have any interest in the coffee trade, but their efforts to concentrate the influence of that one party in an impenetrable central field of power aren't unprecedented either.
Since a narrow majority in the Parliamentary elections of 2010 gave Fidesz more than two-thirds of the seats in the Hungarian Parliament, Orbán and his supporters have used their legislative machine to pass hundreds of new laws and to amend the constitution in order to secure the ruling party's supremacy and authority. Orbán is not, as Gömbös was in the 1930s, an outright advocate of fascism. But his efforts to establish the autocracy of his party appear no less driven and ordered than were the plans of Gömbös when those plans were curtailed by the earlier prime minister's death in 1936. In the present era, however, Budapest has found it much more difficult to secure economic and political support within Europe (or elsewhere). The European Union has even begun implementing punitive measures against the Orbán government in response to measures it has passed (often without regard for constitutional or parliamentary procedure) to limit the independence of the judicial branch of the government. Orbán's government has also been widely criticized for actions that have impeded the freedom of the press. But, are we paying enough attention where the press is freer?
Should it go without saying that it's easier to read about the political situation in Budapest during the week of the funeral proceedings for Gyula Gömbös in 1936 than it is to confront the looming reality of a similar political edifice in the present? The benefit of hindsight can distance and romanticize the situation of the 1930s into just the intriguing backdrop for a peculiar crime. And, of course, the edifice of fiction is at work too. A crime novel like Budapest Noir and a story of true crime (even a distant retelling) aren't one and the same. It certainly goes without saying that there's real crime on the streets of contemporary Budapest, whether or not it's tangled up in the political intrigues of the day. And we have authors like Vilmos Kondor to thank for imbuing the city with the mystery that makes all manner of heinousness imaginable. Well enough, sure, but that doesn't mean that all of it is necessarily better left alone.
And Kondor would seem to agree. Budapest Noir isn't an allegory. Okay. But all its classic noirishness isn't just pulp, either. "Do you remember who stopped off in Budapest a couple of weeks back for a friendly chitchat? The German minister of foreign affairs... and not quite two weeks ago our interior minister ordered a ban on public meetings," Gordon reminds his grandfather in a discussion about the future of the Unity Party. "And Hitler's speech at the end of September? That if Germany had colonies and raw materials, then it could allow itself the luxury of democracy? The luxury of democracy? Opa, democracy is not a luxury." Budapest Noir isn't an allegory, but neither is it without noteworthy historical and political bearing.
Maybe, though, that's simply the kind of thinking that had all those young people from the West rushing the stage of the former Eastern Bloc countries as soon as the iron curtain lifted.
Something... American? But Zsigmond Gordon did hone his skills as a reporter in the United States before returning to walk the crime beat in his native city. And Budapest Noir only helps to spin a web of mystery and curiosity and conspiracy around the place. Who knows: maybe there even exists a gin soaked madam like Kondor's Red Margo waiting in Budapest right now to spill the secrets of the highest echelons of the Fidesz in exchange for a kiss. Or an archivist to be paid off in exchange for his sharing some important but buried secret? Maybe I've had too much coffee.
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Podcasts & RSS Feeds
Most Active Stories
Mon April 2, 2012
GM extends summer shutdown at Volt factory
GM is planning to extend a production slowdown for its extended-range electric car, the Chevy Volt.
Last month, Michigan Radio's Tracy Samilton reported that GM was halting production of the Volt for five weeks in March and April to reduce inventory, in part because of lower-than-anticipated demand.
The car has been highly praised, but it’s expensive. Even with a $7,500 federal rebate, the Volt still costs about $32,000. Meanwhile, people can buy a highly fuel-efficient regular car for much less – including GM’s own Chevy Cruze, which costs about $19,000.
Additionally, the Volt facility was scheduled to be shut down for two weeks in July---a common practice for car factories---but GM has now extended that period to three weeks, again citing a need to reduce inventory.
But according to the Associated Press, "a spokeswoman says the company sold a record number of the electric cars in March and may cancel the extra week if strong sales continue."
-John Klein Wilson, Michigan Radio Newsroom
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America's moral leadership is gone; we have subverted our own liberties -- we have panicked in an unmanly manner. Taken together, these failures and transgressions are a heavy load on the collective national psyche. We are now a people whose timidity in acknowledging their failings is fear by another name.
Under international law, in an armed conflict the United States can kill members of the armed forces of the enemy, or civilians while they directly participate in hostilities. In Afghanistan, the United States is still clearly in an armed conflict. But where else does the law of armed conflict apply?
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High Speed Services for Internet Access (As of 12/31/06)
We summarize here information from the fifteenth semi-annual data collection, thereby presenting a snapshot of subscribership as of December 31, 2006.
High-speed lines connecting homes and businesses to the Internet increased by 27% during the second half of 2006, from 65.0 million to 82.5 million lines in service, following a 27% increase, from 51.2 million to 65.0 million lines, during the first half of 2006. For the full twelve month period ending December 31, 2006, highspeed lines increased by 61% (or 31.3 million lines). The presence of high-speed service subscribers was reported in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands.
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Today, China is the world’s largest car market with more than 12 million cars sold in 2011. Volvo Cars’ new plants will be a welcome addition to meet the large demand – in last year alone, the company’s sales in China increased by 54 percent.
In Chengdu in south-eastern China, a complete car factory is being built with a capacity of 120,000 cars a year.
“We are installing the production equipment in June and after tests and running adjustments, production is scheduled to commence in the second half of 2013,” says Lars Danielsson, Director of Production in China.
In Daqing in north-eastern China, a second factory is being ¬prepared in parallel and an engine factory is being planned.
The goal is to sell 200,000 cars in the Chinese market in 2015.
The objective is for the cars that leave the factory in Chengdu to have the same quality standard as those that leave Torslanda or Ghent.
“There should simply not be any difference, we follow Volvo Global Standards – and this also applies to our suppliers,” says Lars Danielsson.
There are carmakers from around the world in China so both international and Chinese suppliers are there. The new factories are being built to a high environmental standard.
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Huntsville is among the most vulnerable parts of the country to looming federal budget cuts in military as well as non-military spending, according to a report released Monday by Wells Fargo Securities.
The report examines parts of the country that would feel the most pain from $85 billion in cuts that are set to automatically start taking effect March 1 without a bipartisan deal on sequestration. Actual cuts may be around 13 percent for defense and 9 percent for other programs because lawmakers delayed their impact, requiring savings over a shorter period of time.
"The District of Columbia along with its neighboring suburbs in Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland are particularly vulnerable due to the multitude of defense agencies and contractors located in the region," said the report by Wells Fargo economists Mark Vitner and Michael Brownsaid.
Defense spending has been estimated to account for 9.8 percent of the combined D.C., Virginia and Maryland economies in 2010, the report noted.
The report also cited Huntsville, home to Redstone Arsenal, and St. Louis as areas vulnerable to defense cuts.
"Both have outsized exposure to the aerospace industry and will see growth slow if the military purchases fewer fighter jets, missiles and helicopters," the report said, noting that smaller towns that host large military bases are probably the most vulnerable.
Georgia, for example, is home to three areas like that, including Columbus, Warner Robins and Hinesville, according to the Wells Fargo report. As for larger metro areas, Navy towns like San Diego and Norfolk-Virginia Beach also could be affected. Hawaii, home to the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet, also could see layoffs and reduced income growth, the report said.
"In addition, Alaska with its Air Force, Army and Naval operations would also be disproportionately impacted from defense cuts," the report said.
While nondefense cuts will be spread out more across the country, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia ranked at the top for states with a high level of exposure to nondefense spending reductions, which could affect areas ranging from biomedical research to homeland security.
"Cuts in nondefense outlays would likely trigger significant furloughs, layoffs at civilian contractors and generally less business for supporting services, including law firms, caterers, airlines and hotels," the report said.
The Wells Fargo report noted that while the impact of budget sequestration could be severe, there is some reason to believe that at least some of the cuts may be partially reversed in the months ahead.
"Regardless of the political outcome, we still expect some moderate impact on state economies from the pullback in government spending in the short term, as agencies hold off on major spending commitments and put hiring on hold," the report said.
In Maryland, the so-called budget sequester negotiations have added uncertainty to the state's own budget, which state officials say is otherwise in better shape than it has been for years since the recession. Gov. Martin O'Malley noted the uncertainty of the budget sequester when he unveiled his budget plan in January. O'Malley, a Democrat, increased the state's Rainy Day Fund from 5 percent to 6 percent of the state's $16 billion general fund. Altogether, the governor's budget proposal leaves the state with about $1.1 billion in reserves to help adjust to federal cuts.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
|High School Sports||@DecaturPreps|
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Indiana officials launch RV carbon monoxide education campaign
Thousands of NASCAR fans and RVers will have started to arrive in Indianapolis for the legendary Indianapolis 500, scheduled for Sunday, May 30. The Marion County Health Department in Indiana is reaching out to them in advance of the race to warn them about the dangers of carbon monoxide in their vehicles.
WIBC-FM reports that officials will hand out 10,000 informational handouts to RVers parked near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway warning them about the potentially deadly gas.
The health department's Jeff Laramore told the news provider that many RV owners aren't aware that they need specialized carbon monoxide detectors in their vehicles.
"Because of the way they operate, they typically require a different type of detector than the ones usually found in a person's home," he said.
He added that the invisible, odorless gas can be omitted from generators and can reach dangerous levels inside RVs.
The campaign was launched following an incident at the speedway in 2008. One person was killed and three others were hospitalized when an RV parked near the racetrack filled with carbon monoxide during the Brickyard 400 race.
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Delehant, William Edward
The following data is extracted from Muskogee and Northeastern Oklahoma.
William Edward Delehant, organizer and promoter of the Cardinal Drug Company of Muskogee, conducting both a whole-sale and retail business, has long been recognized as a dynamic force in the commercial circles of Muskogee. Starting in business here with an extremely limited capital, he has steadily developed his interests and the scope of his activities until his position in commercial circles is one of prominence and leadership. He has ever been a man of broad vision in relation to business affairs and his life record should serve as a source of encouragement and inspiration to others, showing what can be accomplished through individual effort. Mr. Delehant was born in Buffalo, New York, on the 6th of April, 1873, and is a son of Michael Vincent and Bridget (Maloy) Delehant. The father devoted his life to the milling business, operating a flour mill for an extended period.
William E. Delehant supplemented his public school training by study in the University of Buffalo at Buffalo, New York, from which he was graduated in 1892 on the completion of a course in the department of pharmacy. He afterward devoted two years to service in the United States Marine Hospital at Buffalo, New York, filling the position of hospital steward. He next went to Helena, Montana, where he remained for five years and during that period was engaged in the retail drug business.
On leaving the northwest he came to Oklahoma, settling in Muskogee in March, 1906, and through the intervening period of more than fifteen years he has resided in this city, more and more largely leaving the impress of his individuality and ability upon the commercial history of this part of the state. On the 6th of January, 1907, he organized the Cardinal Drug Company and is now sole owner of the business conducted under that name. He purchased a retail drug store at a cost of fifteen hundred dollars, making there on a cash payment of one hundred and fifty dollars. He bent every energy toward the development of the trade and the up building of the business and soon was enabled to discharge all of his indebtedness and to extend the scope of his activities. After a time he established a second store and then a third and is now the owner of three fine and well appointed drug stores, owning all the fixtures and carrying a large stock of drugs and druggists' sundries.
He has likewise established a wholesale store and his business represents an investment of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The wholesale department, situated at Nos. 110 and 112 North Main Street, occupies a building fifty by three hundred feet, two stories in height with basement. One of the retail establishments is situated at Main and Broadway, a second at Okmulgee and Second streets and the third at 317 West Broadway. The company today employs fifty people. Thus Mr. Delehant has constantly broadened his business and is today one of the foremost druggists in his section of the state. He was formerly President of the Muskogee Retail Druggists Association and he is a member of the executive board of the Oklahoma, Pharmaceutical Association. He is likewise a member of the public relationship committee of the National Association of Retail Druggists and is constantly studying the trade from every possible standpoint in order to further the interests and promote the favorable conditions under which the drug trade is carried on.
On the 25th of June, 1908, Mr. Delehant was married to Miss Josephine Madge McNerney, a native of Ohio. Their residence is at No. 1517 West Okmulgee and is one of the attractive homes inthe city, erected in 1920. Mr. Delehant is fond of baseball and athletic sports and turns to these for rest and recreation. He belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, to the Town and Country Club and to the Sequoyah Club, all of which expresses his appreciation for the social amenities of life. He also belongs to the Rotary Club and to the Chamber of Commerce and is in full sympathy with their efforts to extend trade relations, to improve business conditions and to uphold the civic standards of the community. His life has been fraught with successful accomplishment and his course has been marked by a steady progression that has taken him out of humble surroundings and placed him in the field of large opportunity.
Source: Muskogee and Northeastern Oklahoma
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Robert A. Lewis East Lyme
In baseball a switch-hitter is a player who can bat from either side of the plate. Some psychiatrist say this condition ensues because the player cannot decide which side of the plate is best suited to his game.
In a political contest a switch-hitter might be a person not sure if he or she should be in business or politics. The voters in Connecticut have several candidates fitting this billing, however the two of local and immediate concern are Senate candidate Linda McMahon and congressional candidate Paul Formica. Here we have two Republican Party candidates who have had success in business, and to which they should continue to devote their talents.
The opposition Democratic Party candidates are, for Senate, Chris Murphy and, for Congress, Rep. Joe Courtney. Both gentlemen have experience in their field. They have ably represented Connecticut in the House of Representatives. They have earned your support. Show it at the polls Nov. 6, pulling the lever for President Obama, Murphy and Courtney.
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranians rallied Friday to denounce efforts by Bahrain's Sunni rulers to forge closer ties with Saudi Arabia, a pact the Shiite powerhouse Iran claims would go against the will of the tiny island nation's majority Shiites.
Iran's anger is directed at archrival Saudi Arabia, which has been acting as a protector of Bahrain's ruling Sunni dynasty. It was set off by efforts earlier this week by Gulf Arab states to outline closer political and security ties among their nations.
Though a decision on a Gulf Arab pact was postponed at a meeting in Riyadh on Monday, the gathering itself upset Tehran, which summoned Bahrain's top diplomat in the country late Thursday to relay its concerns, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Bahrain has been rocked by an uprising in which the Shiite-led opposition seeks to overturn the wide-ranging powers of the ruling Sunni dynasty. At least 50 people have died in the unrest since February 2011.
Bahrain's rulers and their patron Saudi Arabia accuse Iran of encouraging the protests, claims that Tehran has denied. Iran and Bahrain have occasionally summoned each other's envoys since the beginning of Bahrain's unrest.
Last year, Saudi forces led 1,500 Gulf troops into Bahrain to help prop up the Sunni dynasty against the uprising, now in its 15th month. The result has been a virtual melding of the two countries on the ground — with the Saudi and Bahraini flags often displayed in unison at the airport and some security checkpoints.
Opposition groups in Bahrain, however, have strongly denounced the calls for tighter bonds with Saudi Arabia and possibly other Gulf states.
Friday's government-backed march followed midday prayers in Tehran, led by cleric Kazem Sedighi who said a Saudi-Bahraini pact would be an "ominous conspiracy" aimed at the "annexation" of Bahrain by Saudi Arabia.
"Bahrain and regional nations, as well as the Muslim world and the Iranian nation will never accept the conspiracy," Sedighi said.
State television said similar rallies took place in other cities and towns in Iran, with thousands participating.
Many nationalist and hard-line conservatives in Iran consider Bahrain, which gained independence from Britain in 1971, as a rightful part of the Persian country as it was before it fell under Britain during colonial times.
Until 1971 and under the Western-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi who was toppled by the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran kept two empty seats in its parliament for supposed representatives from "Bahrain province."
On Sunday, about 190 lawmakers — more than half the Iranian parliament — issued a statement condemning the Gulf Arab union plans.
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"Sangeetha", You have 31 posts with an invalid display name. Please see the rules on JavaRanch display names here. Display names must be two words: your first name, a space, then your last name. Fictitious names are not allowed. Please edit your profile so that your display name complies to the naming rules. You should also be aware that accounts with invalid display names get deleted without warning, and are not eligible for book give-aways. 31 posts is not acceptable and your account is likely to be deleted if you don't update your display name soon. thanks, Dave.
I did a quick search and it appears you have changed your display name from one that is valid to one that is invalid. Please change it back soon since it would be unfortunate if your account was deleted over a misunderstanding
Ko Ko Naing
Joined: Jun 08, 2002
Originally posted by Sangeetha: Can any one help out how to open an Excel file and write on it through servlets... Thanks, Sangeetha
U can use the traditional way by applying java.io package... I've never tried on servlets. But I am currently doing client-server Swing-based application... I have to use the simple traditional technique to access files such as CSV, EXCEL... Just an opinion...
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http://www.coderanch.com/t/357384/Servlets/java/Writing-infor-Excel-file-servlet
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Reforming the State’s baseline environmental law is a priority for Governor Jerry Brown and the Democrat-dominated Legislature. The California Environmental Quality Act, commonly called CEQA, has regulated industry and development in the State since 1970. Because of the State’s continuing economic woes and the demand for jobs, some Lawmakers are hoping to reform CEQA. A last-minute bill sponsored by Senator Michael Rubio to do that failed in the last legislative session. Now, with the Governor’s blessing, Rubio is again taking the lead in carrying reform legislation. Vic Bedoian reports from Fresno.
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http://pacificaeveningnews.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-looming-battle-over-ceqa.html
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ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WUSA) - The same regulatory board that approved BGE and Pepco billing customers for lost revenue during storm outages is now considering reversing itself in the wake of a 9 Wants to Know probe.
Click here to see the WUSA9 story that sparked outrage and exposed the billing for time customers were without power.
In July, WUSA9 exposed a little known Maryland Public Service Commission mandate that automatically bills Maryland customers for a portion of the revenue utilities lose during the first 24 hours of a storm blackout.
Although the billing could be under a dollar a customer, the story sparked outrage among consumers who were without power for days on end.
When pressed by 9 Wants to Know at a July hearing, PSC Chairman Douglas Nazarian said he had no regrets about approving the automatic billing called Bill Stabilization Adjustment (BSA) and declined to acknowledge the outrage expressed by consumers.
Click here to see our story where Nazarian said he has no regrets about charge.
"I heard a lot of people didn't say one way or the other," Nazarian said. "I heard a lot of different messages today and we're taking them all back."
Nazarian lauded his January decision allowing the billing because it restricted the charges to the first 24 hours of an outage from the previously allowed seven days.
Thursday, the commission quietly posted a notice on its website announcing the hearing to consider reversing the measure.
"The commission received numerous comments from citizens asking it to prevent the companies from collecting the BSA surcharge for even the first 24 hours," the hearing notice states. "In response to these requests, the commission will re-examine."
The hearing is scheduled for September 24th and won't prevent Maryland consumers from seeing additional charges next month for the outage caused by the late June storm.
To follow our ongoing probe into Pepco and the Maryland Public Service Commission, follow Twitter.com/russptacek and Facebook.com/russptacek.
If you know about utility misdeeds, corruption, or government waste, e-mail us at firstname.lastname@example.org.
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<urn:uuid:661c862e-93ac-4207-9aa6-20e3b7146277>
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http://www.wusa9.com/investigation/article/216169/455/Will-Regulators-Reverse-Pepco-BGE-Storm-Billing
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Children's resource fair in SS
Allegheny County Department of Human Services and Allegheny County Juvenile Court welcome area families and individuals to attend the "Children's Services Resource Fair" on Fri ., July 30 from noon until 5 p.m. in the Circuit Center and Ballroom of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Building at 5 Hot Metal Street on South Side. Admission is free.
"A resource fair is an excellent way to share information and showcase the abundance of programs and services available to families with children and youth living in our county," said Marc Cherna, director of Allegheny County Department of Human Services.
The fair will feature more than 80 resource tables of useful information for families of children and youth. There will also be a variety of children's activities offered by the Andy Warhol Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Reading is FUNdamental Pittsburgh.
"The fair is also an opportunity to learn more about the role of juvenile probation and the various programs and services available for delinquent youth," said Russell Carlino, director of Allegheny County Juvenile Court.
For more information about the Children's Services Resource Fair, contact Alexis Miller at 412-350-6697.
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<urn:uuid:e0e861bc-de0a-4812-b6d6-2ba243ba539a>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.sopghreporter.com/story/2010/07/27/news/childrens-resource-fair-in-ss/9995.html
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Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Several years ago at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Leslie Martin was strapped to a table and hooked up to an IV through which a series of chemicals--a sedative, a paralytic and finally a poison--flowed into his veins in order to draw the life out of his healthy, 35-year-old body. He remained very much himself even during his final moments, a sort of death row class clown, telling his lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, "You're fired," just after he received the fatal dose.
Following the execution, Smith fielded confused questions about whether Leslie's remark had been in earnest. Smith explained that it was just a running joke between them, one thing that remained humorous to Leslie when everything else was being taken from him.
William Lynd faces a similar fate in Georgia Tuesday. Lynd had the distinction of being the first person executed in the United States in seven months--a period in which there was a de facto death penalty moratorium while the United State Supreme Court considered, and rejected, convicted murderer Ralph Baze's argument that his own execution by lethal injection in Kentucky would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. With several more executions lined up in death-penalty states across the country, it is important to once again focus the debate on the stark reality that the death penalty extinguishes the lives of breathing, joking, flawed and thoroughly human beings. Even if the means of taking those lives were as gentle as touching the forehead of the condemned, the ultimate challenge to our humanity would be just as vivid as a gallows, a guillotine or a firing squad.
When representing people facing the death penalty, I have filed motions challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection. I have also filed motions seeking to compel the state to provide a public execution for my clients or to mandate that the jurors who decide their cases be forced to witness the execution process themselves.
While I certainly believe that people should not be made to suffer unnecessarily, I believe we should also be uneasy with the suggestion that an execution can be a peaceful medical procedure. We are talking about taking people's lives and it is incredibly dishonest to conceal the actual violence of the act of taking someone's life against their will.
Methods of execution that force us to confront the brutality of what we are doing more honestly express both society's rage against crime and the brutality of its consequences. For instance, there was the misery of Allen Lee "Tiny" Davis's execution in a Florida electric chair, when blood poured from his head and his contorted face could be seen through the poorly fitted mask as he struggled to stay alive, breathing ten breaths after the electricity stopped. Or the flames that sometimes shoot from the orifices of people in the electric chair. Or the extended "cut down" procedures necessary for inmates with bad veins who are being killed by lethal injection. Or the humiliating bowel releases of people hanged in the public square.
As our country resumes executions following the Baze decision, we must be mindful of the fact that extinguishing the life of a healthy person who wants to live cannot be done without violence. Whether William Lynd is led kicking and screaming to the gallows in a public square or goes to his death quietly, without any expression of pain as he succumbs to the poison flowing unseen in his bloodstream--he has not died peacefully. And we should know that--no matter the manner of execution--he never will.
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The Addictions Unit is currently involved in conducting research aimed at improving services and outcomes for patients. In addition, some studies are being conducted to further understand the genetic, biological and psychological factors that contribute to the development of addiction. Patients attending the Addictions Unit may be asked to participate in one of several ongoing studies. For example patients could be asked to participate in a medication trial, a brain imaging study, or a follow-up study aimed at measuring the outcome of our inpatient detoxification program or the effectiveness of our outpatient addiction treatment program. It is important to note that anyone invited to participate in a study will be given extensive information on the objectives of the research as well as the risks and benefits of participating, and they will be asked to sign an informed consent form. Patients are free to refuse participation, and refusal will not affect treatment in any way.
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http://muhc.ca/addictions_unit/page/research
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Thu September 27, 2012
Morning Edition 9/28/12: GOLD FEVER AND THE BECHTLER MINT DOCUMENTARY WORLD PREMIERE
North Carolina has staked its claim as the state where the real first gold rush took place. The documentary entitled "Gold Fever and the Bechtler Mint" was filmed in Rutherford County and other locations across the state, and was produced and directed by UNC-TV's Scott Davis. The movie tells the story of the Bechtler Mint during the years when North Carolina was the major gold-mining state, and of Christopher Bechtler of Rutherfordton, who, in 1832, minted the first one-dollar gold coin in the nation - 17 years before the U.S. Mint.
The 30-minute documentary will debut in Rutherfordton, NC, this Saturday evening at 7 p.m. at Rutherford-Spindale High School, and admission is free. The documentary will then air on UNC-TV statewide on Tuesday, October 2nd at 9 p.m. and again on Thursday, October 4th at 9 p.m. Don't miss this interview about just one of the many fascinating historical stories in Rutherford County, NC.
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http://wncw.org/post/morning-edition-92812-gold-fever-and-bechtler-mint-documentary-world-premiere?ft=1&f=161176028,161370570,161483027,161586631,161750991,161891342,161987867,162161031,162479966,163309287,163553687,165644169,166086371,166396357,166574349
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en
| 0.948657
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The combined system
Years of research and development culminated in the creation of the Caffitaly System: a combined system comprising coffee machine and capsules, with both components are protected by international patents. Each Caffitaly System capsule contains 8 grams of ground coffee surrounded by two filters and protected by the innovative, airtight structure of the capsule.
Hot water is forced at high pressure into the coffee capsule and is distributed by the upper filter, flowing uniformly over every grain of coffee and passing through the second filter into the coffee cup as a full-bodied espresso with an intense aroma.
The Caffitaly System is a semi-open system, created to offer partners the opportunity for involvement in any phase of the production cycle, from the selection of green coffee to packaging in capsules: an opportunity targeting leading companies in the coffee market who wish to approach the portioned coffee segment by choosing the best quality in terms of product, service and system.
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Search Engine Reputation Management
Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) is one of the hottest areas of growth within the broad field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
The purpose of SERM is to ensure that when a random searcher looks for data about a person, product, or company — they find only positive results.
This can involve the use of legal challenges or blackhat methods to remove negative results from the SERPS, but more often it involves ranking a large number of URL’s on the first few pages of the search results.
Think about that for a moment. To “win” at SERM, you have to control the first few pages of search results for a keyword. Compare that to SEO, where we normally content ourselves with gaining one good spot in the SERPS.
SERM is often accomplished by building hosted pages on authoritative domains like Squidoo and Hubpages, because pages on those domains are easier to get to page one of the SERPS. The hosted pages are built and promoted, until all of the “negative” search results are crowded out of the first few pages of search results.
Ashwin Ramesh, founder of OrganicApex and one of the leaders in the Search Engine Reputation Management field, believes that we have only just seen the tip of the iceberg with SERM and that spending on SERM will increase more than fifty times it’s current level in the next five years.
What do you think?
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There's a strong feeling of gravitas coursing through "Incendies," the third and most widely acclaimed feature directed by Quebec director Denis Villeneuve ("Polytechnique"). You can sense it from the very first scene, in which Radiohead's haunting elegy 'You and Whose Army?" plays on the soundtrack while a group of young boys stare emptily into the camera and anonymous figures shave the kids' heads. The mystery of this event carries over into subsequent ones, as Villeneuve develops a curiously poignant story that has tremendous power so long as its details remain vague.
Based on the play by Wajdi Mouawad, "Incendies" essentially amounts to a globe-trotting detective story. Grown twins Jeanne and Simon Marwan (Mélissa Désormeaux Poulin and Maxim Gaudette) learn from their mother Narwal's newly unwrapped will that their family is a lot larger than they thought. Per their mother's instructions, each sibling receives an envelope, one revealing that the father they always assumed dead still lives, and the other revealing that they have a brother. Despite Simon's insistence on burying the past, Jeanne follows their mother's posthumous instruction to deliver a pair of concealed notes to their unidentified relatives. The daughter heads to Narwal's origin--somewhere in the Middle East--to track them down.
While its early scenes apparently take place in Quebec, and the main characters speak French, much of "Incendies" evades a specific geopolitical setting. As Jeanne begins uncovering aspects of her mother's history, the tale takes on an allegorical quality. Played by Lubna Azabal, the late Narwal becomes as much a heroine in the story as her children, with the woman's series of misadventures taking place in flashbacks whenever Jeanne uncovers new information.
Villeneuve's screenplay avoids naming Narwal's specific nationality, as well as the devastating war that draws her away from her family and eventually turn her into a tortured prisoner of war. As a result, "Incendies" emphasizes the personal impact of all wartime strife on subsequent generations. "Sometimes, it's better not to know," one Middle Eastern veteran tells Jeanne when she gets a little bit closer to uncovering her father's identity.
But Jeanne insists, and eventually her brother can't help but tag along. Since the flashbacks are based solely on the information that the pair comes across, Narwal's experiences develop at a piecemeal rate. Faced with an invasion, she parts with her first child and rides a bus into the desert, which stops suddenly when a masked terrorists show up and blows everyone but her to bits. She then becomes politically active, enacting revenge on those responsible for her troubled existence with a sudden assassination that lands her behind bars. At that point, Narwal's story grows murkier, but the drama maintains a Biblical potency that defies the need for specifics. The themes, however, stand strong.
Villeneuve draws intense, measured performances from his trio of leads, emphasizing the siblings' constant, wide-eyed expressions as they keep digging for more information and begin to sympathize with their dead mother's grief. This dreary scenario works so well in abstraction that most of the plot twists detract from its power. There's too much happenstance involved in Jeanne and Simon's quest, particularly once the big reveal arrives. The sins of the father are visited upon his children (and vica versa) with provocative results that move audiences to keep thinking about the narrative long after it ends. But the climax is a little too clever and far-fetched--an unnecessarily neat finale for a movie that works fine when dealing in broad strokes, some of which are nothing short of masterful.
HOW WILL IT PLAY? After its acclaimed debut at last year's Telluride Film Festival, "Incendies" went on to land an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. Positive word of mouth has been boosted by strong reception at festivals around the world, which should lead to a great reception for the movie at arthouses around the country and increase the attention given to Villeneuve's next project.
criticWIRE grade: B+
Sony Pictures Classics opens "Incendies" in New York on April 22.
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Social Media Relationship Stalking (we all do it)
This semester in my digital media class, I learned a lot about social media. I learned about how much social media has grown in the past few years. I learned how businesses can use Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms to promote their products and services. I learned how nonprofits can use those same tools to increase support for their causes. I learned about new emerging social tools, such as Foursquare, that might have as much influence as Facebook in a few more months. And much, much more.
New Product Launch: Me!
But one of the most important things I learned was how to use social media to develop my own personal brand. Yes, I, as a person, am a brand. This was very valuable to me since I will be graduating in twelve days, and I will need to sell myself to employers. Not only can prospective employers look into my Twitter and Blog to learn about me, but they can also see how I use these tools. If they see that I am using them effectively, then they know that I can be an asset to their company.
My Twitter Brand
I joined Twitter about two years ago, and I first I didn’t get what the big deal was. Then, a lot of my friends started joining, and we used it to talk back and forth. Then I started following CNN to keep up with the news and some of my favorite celebrities, like Ashton Kutcher. I was more of a passive user, only reading what others were saying.
When my class started, we were assigned to post “professional tweets.” Then, I became an active tweeter. I was posting interesting stories about social media, advertising, celebrities, or anything I thought was worth sharing.
Soon, my follower base increased, I was getting retweeted, and tweeters were mentioning me. That’s when I realized I was using twitter professionally. I was a source that people could go to to get industry news. I can use my Twitter as an example of my work to show that I understand the communications industry.
Blogging Like a Pro
For many jobs that I have looked at and/or applied to, they ask for a writing sample. What better way to show off my writing skills then to send them a link to this blog?
This blog (you should know because you are reading it!) has a theme. I talk about social media and the digital world as a whole. And, go figure, this is the career path that I would like to continue on. Showing that I am aware of what is going on in this industry will be impressive to prospective employers.
Not to mention, when my name is put into a Google search, my blog and Twitter are some of the first things to come up! How’s that for SEO?
Social media is huge. And it’s free. So why wouldn’t nonprofits use this platform to engage with supporters, tell their stories, and attract even more supporters? Social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, help nonprofits gain an audience that is more open to causes as opposed to advertisements. Many major non-profits have recognized these great opportunities that social media can give them.
Here are some examples that have made great use of social media:
- Goodwill: This organization, which provides job training and employment opportunities for the disabled, uneducated, and others challenged with life’s difficulties, uses Twitter in a way that other organizations do not. Goodwill uses lists that make it easy for monitoring its bloggers and other advocates. Some of the lists include one for green news, another for veterans, and one for thrifty bloggers. This also allows followers to scan through the lists and find information that is relevant to their interests.
- Invisible Children: Three young men started this organization after filming the sad situation of children soldiers in war-torn Africa. The footage is uploaded onto YouTube and has receieved thousands and thousands of views. Through the YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter efforts, President Obama has signed assigned with its cause.
- Make-A-Wish Foundation: This organization makes wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses a reality. The foundation recognizes that it doesn’t have to have an ordinary Facebook page with just a like button and a few pictures. Its page is filled with rich content, such as videos. Also, it uses different tabs for different causes of the organization. Features like those make the page interactive and interesting.
I know it seems like every nonprofit has a Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook account, but these platforms have much more of an effect if they are used in a creative and innovative way. Don’t miss out on an inexpensive way to connect and share news with supporters and to gain more supporters for your organization.
Now that every business (large or small) and their dogs have a Twitter, it’s definitely worth taking a look at some Twitter do’s and don’ts so that, well, people want to follow you. Just having a Twitter account doesn’t make your company “social media savvy.” If you are the person behind your company’s tweets, you have to tweet with a purpose. Be interesting, be silly, be serious, be informative. Do whatever reflects your company best. Scared? Don’t be. Here are some tips for next time you are getting your tweet on.
Do be creative
There isn’t just one way to use Twitter. Have fun with it, and do something that others aren’t doing. Looking through Amazon’s feed, it looks pretty basic-some promotional tweets, company announcements, the usual. But they do something different. If you tweet the name of a book at Amazon, they will try to tweet back to you the current price range.
Do respond to followers’ tweets
Social media is awesome because it allows two-way communication to happen between the company and its customers. If your company isn’t going to interact and talk to the audience, then your Twitter account is about as good as those e-blasts that have a “do not reply to this email” clause at the bottom. A good example is Whole Foods. This company responds to any questions, problems, or compliments that followers tweet about.
Do make your tweets worth readng
AKA: don’t be boring or lame. PETA doesn’t use social media to yell at all of us carnivores for eating cheeseburgers or thinking circuses are fun. Instead, they tweet interesting stories, like the story of two pit bulls saved from neglect by the organization. And you’ll see some shocking stats.
Don’t take complaints in a tweet lightly
If someone came into a store, you wouldn’t ignore a complaint, so don’t do it on Twitter either. If you are going to maintain a Twitter you have to be prepared to monitor it and deal with consequences. A transportation company, called FirstGroup wasn’t prepared. Customers complained via Twitter about bad conditions on a bus, among other things. The company didn’t react. But the customers did. They took their complaints to other outlets, like Facebook and YouTube as well, to express their dissatisfaction.
Don’t use bad grammar or spelling
This is an obvious one, but it still needed to be said. You are a company, a brand. Why lose all credibility by forgetting a comma or using the wrong “their?” In a world of smartphones and iTouches, it’s more common to make these typos. Take all but 20 seconds to read over your tweet before publishing it. You’d be surprised of the errors you can make using only 140 characters.
Just like how you get annoyed of overbearing salespeople who won’t leave alone while shopping, people will get annoyed if just one tweeter is clogging up their timeline. Remember: You aren’t the only Twitter accounts that your followers are following. Though they aren’t technically a company, the cast of MTV’s Jersey Shore is a brand that they are trying to maintain an image for. I thought it would be fun to follow them, but I realized they were tweeting constantly that I just had to unfollow them. Don’t be the Jersey Shore (for that reason and for others).
What are some other Twitter do’s and don’t that I forgot? Write them in the comments section!
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"The landscape of any Tennessee Williams play is the human heart, and I have a cast of people with heart." – Emily Mann, Director of the new Broadway revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire" with an all-Black cast
Like Hollywood, Broadway has historically been reluctant to cast African-Americans in mainstream classics, especially those originally created for white thespians. But, unlike "Tinseltown," the "Great White Way" has moved much more forcefully in recent years to open up new avenues for black actors
The latest example is a new all-black revival of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "A Streetcar Named Desire," set to open April 22 at Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre. Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski first screamed the immortal line, "Hey Stella" in 1947 when "Streetcar" originally premiered on Broadway. The other leading members of that original cast included Kim Hunter, as Stanley's wife, Stella; Jessica Tandy as Stella's delusional sister, Blanche DuBois; and Karl Malden as Blanche's scorned suitor, Mitch. The story centers around the emotional unraveling of Blanche, a Southern belle hiding a tawdry past, who moves into Stanley and Stella's New Orleans apartment causing all manner of conflict and tragedy.
In this first all-black Broadway revival, Blair Underwood is cast as the brutish Stanley; Daphne Rubin-Vega plays his wife, Stella; Nicole Ari Parker is Blanche; and Wood Harris is cast as Mitch. Five-time Grammy winning jazz trumpeter, Terrence Blanchard has composed original music for the play.
The revival is being co-produced by Stephen Byrd, founder of Front Row Productions and his business partner, Alia Jones. Byrd and Jones are the African-American producers who brought the all-black revival of another Tennessee Williams masterpiece, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," to Broadway in 2008. That play, which won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Play, starred Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose, Phylicia Rashad and James Earl Jones.
From 1890 to 1910, most of the blacks on Broadway were featured in African-American minstrel shows, playing to all-White audiences. In the 1920s composers such as Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle popularized the Black Broadway musical. But it wasn't until the 1935 production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess that African Americans really hit it big on Broadway. The momentum has continued to build.
In the 1970s we saw Broadway plays like Purlie, Raisin, Ain't Misbehaven, and The Wiz. With the 80s came shows like Dreamgirls and a number of plays by the great August Wilson, including Fences and Jitney. And since the 90s productions such as Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk, The Color Purple, Fela and Sister Act have attracted mainstream audiences.
While these productions have resulted in more work for black actors, Stephen Byrd and Alia Jones are still a rarity as full-time African American Broadway producers. Black superstar entertainers such as Alicia Keys (Stick Fly), Will Smith, Jay-Z and Jada Pinkett (Fela), Whoopi Goldberg (Sister Act) and Oprah Winfrey (The Color Purple) are making inroads as Broadway producers, but there is obviously room for many more.
We want to congratulate Stephen Byrd and Alia Jones and their award-winning director, Emily Mann, for bringing this new all-Black revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire" to Broadway. We can't wait to see the usually debonair Blair Underwood in a T-shirt screaming, "Hey Stella."
Marc H. Morial, former mayor of New Orleans, is president and CEO of the National Urban League
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Segregation at UCL is no exception to the rule
Last week Student Rights were contacted by a number of students who raised concerns about planned segregation at an event featuring Hamza Tzortzis at University College London (UCL).
UCL’s attempt to claim that it only became aware of attempted segregation on Sunday is a disgraceful deflection, given that students had been writing to them to complain about this prior to event.
However, what is more concerning is the portrayal of this as an isolated incident, when segregation on our campuses is actually far more common.
This even includes events featuring Tzortzis at UCL, with the audience at an event attended by our researcher Rupert Sutton at the School of Pharmacy in October 2012 seating women at the back of the hall and men at the front.
During 2012 Student Rights also logged several events which were advertised in this way, with a speech given by Dr Khalid Fikry at London Metropolitan University in June pronounced “FULLY SEGREGATED!!!”
In January the same was true at London South Bank University, where an event encouraging non-Muslims to attend was advertised as “100 Per Cent Segregated”.
Promotional material for November’s talk by Abu Usamah At-Thahabi at Brunel, which saw protests from students after Thahabi’s views were exposed by Student Rights, also declared “all our events are always segregated to the best of our ability”.
It can also be seen that this is not simply something done by rogue campus groups, with even the umbrella organisation the Federation of Student Islamic Societies involved.
Despite claiming in February 2012 that “sincere efforts, meanwhile, exist in raising female participation in student societies”, in December 2011 the organisation held an event advertised as including “Full Segregation”.
The fact that segregation is not mentioned in the promotional material of all events should not be taken mean that it does not happen at them either.
In November 2012 a student asked Kingston University Islamic Society on Facebook “are these [events] segregated?” and was cryptically told “please find more information...in the event we created, and rest assured regarding anything else”.
To suggest that what happened at UCL this weekend is a one-off therefore ignores the consistent use of segregation by student Islamic Societies around the country.
Whilst this may be portrayed as voluntary by those who enforce it, the social pressure put on female students to conform to obey these rules should not be underestimated.
One student who attended stated on Saturday highlighted this, saying "I regret not joining my male friends in openly opposing this violation of gender equality in public premises. However, I was genuinely fearful of the repercussions".
Here at Student Rights we would like to see universities coming clean about why they allow such practices in public spaces, and are glad to see that despite its claims of ignorance, UCL has issued a robust response, barring IERA from campus in future.
A statement released by the university today reads:
"An organisation known as the Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA) booked a room at UCL for a debate on Saturday evening (9 March). UCL was notified during Friday by some individuals planning to attend the event that the organisers intended to segregate the audience by gender.
This was directly contrary to UCL policy. We do not allow enforced segregation on any grounds at meetings held on campus. We immediately made clear to the organisers that the event would be cancelled if there were any attempt to enforce such segregation. We also required the organisers to make it explicit to attendees that seating arrangements were optional, and guests were welcome to sit wherever they felt comfortable. We also arranged for additional security staff to be present to ensure that people were not seated against their wishes.
It now appears that, despite our clear instructions, attempts were made to enforce segregation at the meeting. We are still investigating what actually happened at the meeting but, given IERA’s original intentions for a segregated audience we have concluded that their interests are contrary to UCL’s ethos and that we should not allow any further events involving them to take place on UCL premises".
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ain't no free lunch!"
The abbreviated version of a quote from
John Ruskin (1819-1900)
|Let's put this simply: no Masonic organization that I
have ever heard of - EVER - offers free money for scholarships,
"foundation laying grants", or whatever (and, most
especially, it doesn't offer by e-mail a MEMBERSHIP!) by pulling e-mail
addresses out of a hat.
Everyone by now should be aware of e-mail
scamming and the use of Freemasonry's name and reputation seems SO very
attractive to thieves that this is liable to occur. Be smart! If you
think someone is giving away money if only you'll provide your name,
address, age, sex, and bank account information, you really are naive -
and you really should take more care.
An example of a scam
2010 foundation laying grants
Saturday, July 31, 2010 4:52 PM
The Freemason society under the jurisdiction of the all Seeing Eye, Master
Brenner has selected you to be a beneficiary of our 2010 foundation laying
also an optional opening at the round table of the Freemason society after
These grants are issued every year around the world in accordance with the
the Freemasons as stated by Thomas Paine in 1808 which is to ensure the
freedom of man and to enhance mans living conditions.
We will also advice that these funds which amount to USD1.1million be used to
lot of man through your own initiative and also we will go further to inform
open slot to become a Freemason is optional, you can decline the offer.
FILL THE INFORMATION BELOW
Send your details to Mr. Macolm Spears
Mrs. Jennifer Anderson
Grand Lodge Office Co-Secretary's.
Why is this a scam?
Oh, lots of reasons.... Here are ten right off the top. There
are lots more!
Do you HONESTLY think that the Masons can pull names out of
a hat and give them a MILLION DOLLARS?
There's no such thing (person, place, group, or website) as
"masonrygrantbeneficiary.org". The domain name is unused. So
they've got an e-mail address at an domain that doesn't exist. How
There's no such entity as "The Freemason society". We have
lodges and grand lodges - and the bodies associated with Freemasonry, while
having their own names which might sound strange to the non-Masonic ear, do,
nevertheless, have addresses! Real, honest-to-gosh addresses which they're
not afraid to share.
If somebody's giving away a million dollars, wouldn't they
know you already?
Are you really so well-known for your charity involvement
that someone would be ready to hand you a million dollars? REALLY? Think
Thomas Paine was not a Mason. He wrote a treatise about
Freemasonry but he himself was an atheist and ineligible for membership. (See
Freemasonry doesn't offer membership through an "open slot"
system. It's just so ludicrous. Please read our section
here on how one becomes a member;
Do organizations with enough spare cash to toss a million
dollars at somebody they don't know ask them to reply to an AOL address? Too
cheap to have their own domain? (Wait: we already answered that above,
didn't we? <Sigh....>)
Why would an organization with a phone number ostensibly in
Malaysia be passing out US Dollars? Isn't that a bit odd - and likely a
violation of that country's laws!
What's a "Co-Secretary's"? Bad grammar from someone whose
native tongue is not English or, perhaps, is simply grossly uneducated - and
hardly a person to be sending out covering letters (e-mails) on behalf of
somebody who's passing around million dollar packets;
We could go further but you should get the picture by now.
Plainly and simply, this - and all such offers like it - are bogus. Don't be
misled through greed or giddy excitement. Hit the delete button on an e-mail
like this and move on.
In a nearly duplicate copy posted with a multiple-thousand
collection of other scam e-mails
here, their copy came from FREEMASON ORG. (email@example.com).
The domain freemason.org is owned by the Grand Lodge of California and has been
for many years. eircom.net is an Irish broadband provider. What are the odds, do
you suppose, that the Grand Lodge of California has millions of dollars to give
to people - non-members - by e-mail but in order to collect, you've got to get
in contact with someone who uses an internet provider in Ireland?
I know: you think that because you don't know anything about the
Masons this might have been true. You were hoping.... But honestly: have you
been SO well recognized for your charity efforts that somebody would be throwing
money at YOU directly and not your oh-so-well-known charity?
See this page for
other e-mail scams involving Freemasonry.
Last updated: 2 August 2010
don't miss these:
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The Vitamin Angels Programs team recently went to Vietnam for ten days to monitor Vietnam’s national vitamin A campaigns with our field partner, the Vietnamese National Institute of Nutrition (NIN). Read what Eva Haase, Vitamin Angels Program Coordinator, said about the trip:
As the Program Coordinator, I am responsible for key aspects of grantee relationship maintenance and for technical support and educational materials for field use. Understanding how to create effective, quality support materials means that I have the opportunity to engage with our more than 70 field partners to improve the quality of information used in health services, in particular giving vitamin A to children. So it goes without saying that a monitoring visit to Vietnam’s national vitamin A campaigns with our field partner, the Vietnamese National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), was a welcomed opportunity and a great way to celebrate my upcoming one-year anniversary with Vitamin Angels. Since 2008, Vitamin Angels has been working to provide vitamin A to the children and women of Vietnam’s 63 tinh (provinces), this year reaching 3.1 million children and 700,000 lactating mothers. Outside of NIN, Vitamin Angels is the only source of high-dose vitamin A for Vietnam’s program. Together, NIN and Vitamin Angels are able to reach infants and young children targeted by the national vitamin A campaigns held annually on the first and second days of June and December at Commune Health Centers throughout the country.
Vitamin A needs are based primarily on birth records and ongoing health services, and are reported from the smallest administrative units—the hamlets and communes—to the larger ones, the districts, provinces, and regions, and finally to NIN. This is an one example of the “bottom up” approach adopted to advance availability, access and use of micronutrients, especially vitamin A, among at-risk populations in need. At the same time, NIN along with the provinces and districts collaborate to create annual health service plans, training materials, and information and education communications. Families of infants and young children are alerted to the bi-annual vitamin A campaigns through public service announcements broadcasted on television, over the radio and on loudspeakers that, through at least one channel or another, reach every hamlet in Vietnam.
To increase household awareness of the campaigns, a network of 110,000 trained Volunteer Nutrition Coordinators, fluent in local languages and Vietnamese and who live and volunteer in the hamlets they serve, hand deliver written invitations to every household under their care. Imagine, firsthand touching the households of nearly 7 million children with a handwritten invitation to improve child health and to reduce child mortality by at least 24%! Families turn in their invitations when they arrive to receive vitamin A for their young children and the names are collected and verified against the commune’s master list. If a child does not appear for vitamin A supplementation, the Volunteers are deployed to deliver the health service to the child at home. This means that NIN can confidently report reaching the same children with vitamin A distribution-after-distribution, year-after-year. As a result of these national and household-level efforts, vitamin A supplementation rates for children were greater than 90% in the districts we visited. Deworming medicine, which has a mutually beneficial relationship when coupled with the vitamin A, was also given to all eligible children during the vitamin A campaign. Overall, we confirmed that the Vitamin Angels’ vitamin A is being managed skillfully to reach our intended beneficiaries, children 6-59 months, with essential micronutrients. But, I am inclined to simply chalk it up to being one more reason to love what I do.
Special thanks to The $10 Club for their generous donation to procure 100,000 IU vitamin A capsules for this project and to all of our donors who are making this projects and others around the world possible.
Learn more about our international vitamin A campaign Operation 20/20>>
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Every moment offers us the gift of transformation. We can choose to respond to life by tightening up, hardening, resisting or we can choose to soften, relax into the moment. The first doesn’t seem like a real choice. Our bodies naturally tend to tighten when a blow comes at us. It seems only natural to protect against harmful infiltration. Softening into the moment feels wrong, silly, stupid.
Dealing with trauma often seems to me the ideal training ground for personal and spiritual transformation. We are buffeted by internal and external activation every day. We have no where to flee to get away from incoming danger, Our internal world is more akin to a pinball machine than the usual image of a calm, relaxed monastic experience.
One of the people in the SEOC shared this quote from Pema Chodron who writes, “We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.”
What do you think?
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Here is a chronology of major developments in the prosecution of insider trading cases:
MAY 12, 1986
The Securities and Exchange Commission charges Dennis B. Levine of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. with making $12.6 million in profits from illegal trading on inside information since 1980.
Levine is arrested and charged with obstructing justice on suspicion that he attempted to destroy records. He is released on a $5-million bond.
Levine pleads guilty to four felony charges and agrees to cooperate with the government's investigation. In settlement of civil charges, he agrees to pay $11.6 million.
The SEC charges Ira Sokolow and Robert Wilkis, former investment bankers at Shearson Lehman Bros. and Lazard Freres & Co., with exchanging confidential information with Levine. They settle with the SEC. It is alleged that Wilkis made about $3 million from insider trading. Sokolow agrees to give up $120,000 in profits.
David Brown, an investment banker at Goldman, Sachs & Co., resigns during SEC investigation.
Ilan Reich, a takeover lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, resigns during government investigation.
Litton Industries sues Shearson Lehman and Levine, charging that Levine's insider trading made Litton pay more than necessary to take over Itek Corp. The suit seeks $30 million in damages.
Sokolow and Brown plead guilty to criminal charges of passing stolen information to Levine.
Reich is indicted by a federal grand jury in the Levine case.
Reich pleads guilty to two criminal counts for his role in the Levine case.
Sokolow is sentenced to a year and a day in prison for his role in the Levine case.
The SEC stuns Wall Street with the announcement that speculator Ivan F. Boesky agreed to pay a $100-million penalty to settle charges of trading on insider information supplied by Levine in 1985 and 1986. He also agrees to cooperate with investigators and to plead guilty to a single, unspecified criminal charge.
Reports disclose that an investment fund managed by Boesky sold more than $400 million worth of stocks before Boesky's settlement was announced. The reports infuriate traders whose holdings plummet in value in the aftermath of the announcements about Boesky.
In the first lawsuit filed against Boesky by a shareholder, Angelo Oriolo of Pennsville, N.J., claims he was hurt financially in 1985 when he sold shares in General Foods, a stock that was the subject of takeover speculation by Boesky.
FMC Corp. of Chicago announces a lawsuit seeking more than $260 million from Boesky and others, including Brown and Goldman, Sachs, Sokolow and Shearson and Levine and Drexel. FMC claims it was victimized by insider trading associated with FMC's $2-billion recapitalization.
Wilkis pleads guilty to four felony charges, and Randall Cecola, a former junior financial analyst at Lazard Freres, pleads guilty to two criminal counts of filing false tax returns.
JAN. 8, 1987
Investor Carl C. Icahn drops his $7.19-billion bid for USX Corp. Wall Street investors say they believe that Icahn was unable to raise the money because of pressure on his financial adviser, Drexel Burnham, from an insider trading investigation.
Reich is sentenced to a year and a day in prison and five years' probation.
Michael Davidoff, the former head trader for Boesky, pleads guilty to one count of securities fraud and agrees to cooperate in the government's continuing investigation.
Aetna Life & Casualty is reported to have refused to renew a policy insuring securities accounts held by Drexel Burnham Lambert customers for up to $9.5 million per account.
Wilkis, formerly of Lazard Freres and E. F. Hutton, is sentenced to a year and a day in prison in connection with the insider trading charges. Wilkis, who cooperated with the investigation, also is sentenced to five years' probation.
Cecola is sentenced to six years' probation.
Insider trading charges are filed against Richard Wigton, a vice president at Kidder, Peabody; Timothy L. Tabor, a former Kidder vice president, and Robert M. Freeman, a partner at Goldman, Sachs. They are charged with swapping inside information, which was used to trade stock for Kidder, Peabody's own account. Prosecutors decline to say whether the case is linked to the Boesky investigation.
The SEC charges Martin A. Siegel, a top merger specialist at Drexel, with taking part in insider trading schemes involving Ivan Boesky. Siegel pleads guilty to two felony counts and agrees to give up $9 million in assets. He is thought to be the informant in the arrests of Freeman, Wigton and Tabor.
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Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Money now or money later?
I could start by saying 'only write for money', but here I am writing for nothing so I won't bother with that line.
This is what most people believe is the relationship between writers and money: an author writes a book, a publisher pays an advance for said book, and then the publisher pays royalties for the book when it sells lots of copies. Frabjous day! Everyone is happy. To members of the general public, this model often seems to involve a six-figure advances that is spent like a lottery win. To real-world writers, it means the publisher might give you a couple of thousand and you'll slave for weeks eating only toast. (More money and more weeks for an adult book.) If you still think authors earn a lot, read Danuta Kean's excellent breakdown of author's pay and publishers' costs. It's a bit old (2006) but things have only got worse since then.
The royalty/advance combo is not the only model, though. Many books are written for a flat fee, and some for a strange combination of flat fee and royalty. Which you are offered (or can negotiate for) often depends on the type of book you are writing. Typically, a novel or a trade adult non-fiction title attracts a royalty. Children's non-fiction, some types of children's fiction, licensed character books (that's books about pre-existing characters such as Ben Ten or Angelina Ballerina) and some types of adult non-fiction are written for a flat fee. Academic books are often written for nothing (but then, academics generally have an income, and may have been paid by their institution/the state to do the research - if writing the book is part of your paid employment, getting a good deal on the book is not really the point unless you are especially greedy).
Which is best, flat fee or royalty? It depends on what you want. If writing is your main or sole source of income, flat fees are usefully predictable. You know how much you will get, you know when you will get it, and you don't have to wait ages to be paid (well, not big ages anyway). But if your book becomes a bestseller you won't get any extra money - unless you have managed to negotiate a clause in the contract to that effect. On the other hand, if the book bombs you still get the same fee. It's not your problem.
If you have other sources of income, or you are not the sole earner in your household, royalties might work better for you. Negotiating a big advance gives the same kind of security as a flat fee, but with the benefit that if your book sells well and earns out the advance you will get extra money, long after you have finished writing the book. I still see royalty payments on old books as a nice bonus when they come in - which is stupid, because they are not a bonus at all, they are normal income for work done! But if your book doesn't earn out the advance and sales are disappointing, not only will you not earn any extra but your publisher will have a much harder time persuading acquisitions to take your next book. Why take a book they expect to make another loss on? It becomes a hard sell. At best, you will get a much smaller advance. At worst, they'll just say 'no thank you'. The 'no thank you' is likely to follow you around the publishing world as Neilsen BookScan tells everyone else just how poor your sales were.
If you get a royalty, sales figures matter to you. You will be more willing/likely to do some publicity. You may trail around bookshops, schools, literary festivals (if you're lucky/famous), and do guest appearances on writing courses. If you get a flat fee, why bother? You aren't going to get any more money, and the publisher probably won't pay you to make appearances and might not even pay expenses. You might feel it will boost your public profile and so is worth doing for that reason. Or you might feel you'd rather get on with the next book and earn money for your time instead.
If you get a flat fee, it is usually considered 'work for hire' and you sell all rights in the book. It is no longer your copyright, you can't do anything else with it. It's like an old car you've sold, or a partner who's dumped you/you've dumped - you can't do anything with it, but it's also not your problem if it breaks. You don't have to change its tyres or wash its socks - you don't have to update your book or check its Amazon rating. If you get a royalty, you're likely to find your royalty cut if you don't do essential updates (in non-fiction - novels don't generally need updating).
Personally, I mix flat-fee and royalty projects. It's swings and roudabouts. I have lost out on flat fee books - one book I wrote for £3000 has sold hundreds of thousands of copies in many languages, but I get no more money. And I have lost out on royalty-based deals - one non-fiction book I did for a small advance on the assurance that it was going to sell well and earn lots in royalties did not sell well because the curriculum changed the following year. The publishers could not foresee that, but I should have thought about it. So: enough flat-fee work to cover the bills and some higher risk royalty-based work to provide jam and holidays. Just as well I'm not that bothered about jam.
STOP PRESS: Go and visit Book Maven at her blog birthday party!
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Guderian, Heinz Gunther
From Normandy to the Ruhr: With the 116th Panzer Division in World War II
Bedford, PA: Aberjona Press, 2001
Translated from the German
Pages: xiv + 607
Top Ten Award Winner
See also other edition(s):
See also more books from:
Heinz Gunther Guderian
See also more books on the same topic(s):
Autumn campaigns in Northwest Europe, September - December 1944
Battle of the Bulge, December 1944 - February 1945
D-Day, 6 June 1944
D-Day, 6 June 1944: German defenses
Germany: Biographies and memoirs of soldiers and SS
Germany: Unit histories of divisions
Normandy campaign, June - August 1944
Normandy campaign, June - August 1944: Biographies and memoirs
Northwest Europe campaign, 1944-1945: Biographies and memoirs
Northwest Europe campaign, 1944-1945: Ground unit histories
Northwest Europe campaign, 1944-1945: Unit histories
One-Hundred-Sixteenth Panzer Division
Operation Market-Garden, September 1944
See also references to this book:
Reference in news archive October 2001
Feedback from visitors
Feedback from Dan K on Thursday, 6 March 2003
Rates this book:
If you collect unit biographies then this is a must have. Written by a member of the unit since it was formed I found this book a joy to read.
It starts off with the units that were formed to make the 116th. Then the chapters go into where the unitfought and against who. It also mentions who commanded the units and their ultimate fate, whether killed, prisoner or transfered.
The last chapters of the book mention where the 116th Panzer Div ended up, with it's units fragmented all over WesternGermany and their ultimate fate too.
There are not too many photos, but the maps at the end of the book make following the history easy. The book is well researched to augment the authours memory. There is also a well spacing of quotes from diariesand radio records etc to make this one of the best books I have read in the last few months. No wonder it was in the top 10 for 2001.
Send us your feedback if you've read this book and have some thoughtful words to contribute about it.
We welcome and encourage your thoughtful feedback about this book. Unfortunately, due to a few hooligans,
all feedback must be manually reviewed and approved
before it is displayed. We'll take care of that as soon as possible. Please be patient. Thanks.
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The NYS Department of Transportation has abandoned previously announced plans to “take” six houses in South Nyack and demolish the South Nyack bridge as part of the Tappan Zee Bridge construction project. ‘€œI am pleased that the state listened to our concerns and was able to help preserve our historic community,’€ said South Nyack Mayor Patricia DuBow.
In addition to saving the homes — some of which had historic value — the village is no longer faced with reduced revenues which would have occurred if the homes had been taken by eminent domain. South Nyack estimated these properties to be worth about $1.2 million in rateables.
A press release from the Village of South Nyack says the NYS Thruway and the DOT altered the initial design to limit construction East side of the South Broadway overpass. This was possible because project engineers were able to reduce the depth of the new bridge structure and align the new bridge landing more easily with the existing highway.
It’s not clear why this option wasn’t initially considered, however concerns raised by South Nyack officials in their Draft Environmental Impact Statement response about the South Nyack bridge as well as the opportunity to hold down construction costs may have been factors in the state’s decision. Officials believe that work which would have impacted historic properties and two parks adjacent to the construction site would have delayed their DOT plans to build a new bridge.
What seems like good news for some is a disappointment for others. Some of the six were looking forward to being bought out by NYS rather than live through new TZB construction so close to their homes.
- Bridge Project No Longer Affects Village Properties, 5/25/2012
- South Nyack DEIS Comments, 3/26/2012
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Editor's note: CNN.com has a business partnership with CareerBuilder.com, which serves as the exclusive provider of job listings and services to CNN.com.
Over the course of this current recession, we've witnessed large corporations tumble, small shops shutter and layoffs affect workers of all walks. You can safely assume that most people are concerned about financial security right now, and working fathers are no exception, a recent CareerBuilder survey finds.
Achieving an appropriate work-life balance has always been challenging for working parents.
Thirty-one percent of working dads would leave their jobs if their spouses or significant others earned enough money to comfortably support the entire family.
Although that's a sizable percentage, it's a slight drop from last year's 37 percent and a significant drop from 2005's 49 percent.
The CareerBuilder survey, "Working Dads 2009," included 797 men who are employed full-time and have children 18 years of age or younger living at home.
Although working dads are reluctant to walk away from their paychecks, they're willing to explore alternative solutions that offer more quality time with their families. Watch fathers compare themselves to their dads »
For instance, given the chance to spend more time with their children, 30 percent of surveyed fathers would take a pay cut. Of those willing to take a pay cut, 40 percent would consider a reduction of 10 percent or more.
Balancing professional and personal
Achieving an appropriate work/life balance has always been challenging for working parents, but it's especially difficult in today's economy.
And fathers are aware that too often their personal lives take a backseat to work responsibilities.
Thirty-nine percent of surveyed dads spend two hours or less per workday with their children, and 14 percent spend an hour or less. As a result, they're missing out on some milestones. Half of working fathers admit to missing a significant event in their children's lives in the last year due to work; 28 percent missed more than three.
Even at home, when they're nowhere near their desk, fathers are forced to split their time between family and the office. Laptops and smartphones make it difficult for dads to escape the e-leash and leave work at the office. Thirty-one percent of fathers bring work home at least once a week, compared to only 25 percent last year.
Working dads, like so many employees in today's workforce, are facing heavier workloads and longer hours as businesses struggle to do more with less. If you're feeling pulled in opposing directions by your job and family, talk to your supervisor. Employers are more willing than ever to help employees strike a work/life balance that benefits both the individual and the company. Yet, nearly half of working fathers don't take advantage of the flexible work arrangement they have available to them.
Help your family and your career
Working dads can't shirk their professional duties or their personal responsibilities, so finding the right balance can seem impossible.
Here are some tips to help you enjoy time with your family and still move your career forward.
Don't reserve your open dialogues only for your boss. Make sure you're talking to your family about what's happening at work so that they understand why you might need to stay late this week or bring home work more than usual.
2. Keep a master family calendar
Have one calendar that lists every family member's schedule to prevent double-booking or missed events. When you're planning vacation time, consult the calendar so you can make sure you're taking time off when your family needs you.
3. Clock out for a few hours
Even though technology's made it easier to stay in touch with work 24 hours a day, you don't need to be. Put down the BlackBerry and step away from the e-mail until your children are asleep. The work will still be there in a few hours.
4. Make an appointment ... with your children
If you need to meet with your boss or a client, you have no trouble setting up a meeting and putting it on your calendar. Why not prioritize your family in the same way? Pick a time to take your children to the zoo or go for a bike ride -- then put it on your calendar. That way you've set up quality time that others have to schedule around.
5. Bring the family to work
If your work environment is family-friendly, take advantage of it and arrange a potluck or activity that allows employees to incorporate their families. Since most children are home during the summer months, your co-workers are probably just as eager to spend as much time with their families as possible.
Jason Ferrara is the vice president of corporate marketing for CareerBuilder.com and a father of two. He is an expert in the state of the job market, employment trends, hiring practices and workplace issues.
Copyright CareerBuilder.com 2009. All rights reserved. The information contained in this article may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority
|Most Viewed||Most Emailed||Top Searches|
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COVINGTON -- The time is ripe for students who want to get a head start by taking college courses while still in high school.
Jeff Meadors, a member of the Newton County Board of Education, was recently promoted as college-wide coordinator for Dual Enrollment/Move On When Ready with Georgia Perimeter College.
He said this is an exciting time for preparing high school students for college.
"We are in a position to do a lot of good work for students at both the college level and the high school level," he said.
Meadors previously headed up dual enrollment and Move On When Ready at GPC's Newton Campus. Now he will coordinate Dual Enrollment at all the college's campuses, including Decatur, Clarkston, Dunwoody and Alpharetta. He works closely with the administration at the Rockdale Career Academy and the Newton College and Career Academy.
Students in 11th and 12th grade who meet certain academic standards can be eligible to enroll part-time in college -- dual enrollment -- or full-time -- Move On When Ready.
Meadors said GPC, which has the largest program in the state, has about 846 high school students enrolled, and about 10 percent of those are in the Move On When Ready program.
As a result of recently passed state legislation, high school students from public and accredited private and home schools, can take dual enrollment or Move On When Ready classes tuition-free. Meadors said tuition and most fees are paid for through the Georgia Student Finance Commission or through the FTE funds from the students' high school. The only out-of-pocket expense would be for books, he said.
Another change to take place came as a result of House Bill 326, which preserves students' 127 lifetime HOPE Scholarship credits until after they graduate high school. In other words, dually enrolled students will not use HOPE Scholarship money while in high school, Meadors said.
Meadors said House Bill 149, the Dual Enrollment Rule, has helped ease the transition of college credits into high school credits.
"One of our greatest challenges and one of the most important things is academic advisement." Meadors said. "We don't want to be the piece of a puzzle to keep students from graduating."
Under the Dual Enrollment Rule, a three-semester-hour GPC course returns to the high school as a 1.0 Carnegie Unit, he said.
This is important, Meadors said, because students need to know what they need to graduate for End of Course Tests and Carnegie units.
Other changes could be on the horizon, he said, that would provide incentives for schools based on the number of students in Advanced Placement classes and dual enrollment, for example.
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U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
Advanced Manufacturing Office
Updated State Incentives and Resources Database Web Site
October 27, 2009
The State Incentives and Resources Database on the State & Utilities Partnerships Web site has been upgraded and rereleased. The Web site now contains 2,751 entries where commercial and industrial managers interested in reducing the energy consumption of their businesses or facilities can access an online library of energy incentives, tools, and resources. The database features information on incentives available at the state, local, utility, and non-profit levels, including rebates, waived fees, tax credits, and loans. The site also offers such resources as analysis tools, education and training programs, and energy audits.
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Jake Sorofman works at rPath. He can be contacted at email@example.com.
The Amazon -- the river, that is -- is both impressive in scale and among the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. It's both fertile ground for innovation and a nexus back to which much of the earth's evolution can be traced. In the world of science, its significance is vast.
Similarly, its namesake in Seattle -- the erstwhile bookseller -- has remarkably and unexpectedly emerged as a veritable Amazon to the world of computing. Its public cloud offering -- Amazon EC2 -- is challenging a lot of thinking these days. In the world of IT, its significance is vast.
What's most remarkable about Amazon isn't that it appeared out of nowhere as an infrastructure vendor. What's most remarkable is that it has done so with impressive competence and grace.
EC2 is a juggernaut, and it seems to get better with each turn.
Witness a recent announcement. Amazon has added monitoring, dynamic scaling and elastic load balancing to its suite of offerings -- all elegantly delivered in the same pay-as-you-go model as its compute and storage services. Today, EC2 may well be the truest expression of cloud.
But don't get me wrong: this isn't meant to be a love letter to Amazon as the silver bullet for all compute requirements. Amazon is just a darn good example of what a cloud should be.
For cloud to mature into a mainstream and potentially transformative alternative to traditional computing, there must be many players -- each contributing their own unique value to the marketplace. Luckily, we've seen innovators like Rackspace, GoGrid, BlueLock and private cloud infrastructure like Eucalyptus deliver their own unique pieces to the cloud puzzle. We'll also see major platform vendors like IBM, EMC, and Oracle/Sun with their own cloud offerings.
Ultimately, enterprises will adopt multiple clouds as a blended fabric of compute resources where applications dynamically seek out the appropriate resource based on price, location, capabilities, service levels, etc. Each cloud will play a unique role as part of this connected fabric of providers. In this sense, you can think of EC2 as necessary as today's guiding example, but insufficient as the sole solution to all of our computing needs.
Amazon is doing an impressively good job of delivering compute, storage and management tools as a cloud-based service. But this is all about infrastructure, which is only half of the story. The other half of the story is about applications.
What folks are beginning to realize is that there is a hidden cost to virtualization and cloud. Removing the friction from application deployment yields an explosion in the number of systems that need to be managed and maintained. Cloud may remove the barriers to application delivery based on the swipe of a credit card, but it doesn't obviate the need to maintain these systems. Virtualized and cloud-based models simply shift the burden from a physical to a virtual medium -- while catalyzing the growth of units that need to be maintained.
As a result, the management burden compounds, actually adding cost and risk.
At the heart of this problem is the way many organizations think about the creation of system images for deployment into virtualized environments. Today, image provisioning tools typically create static system snapshots that are fundamentally unmanageable.
Like gremlins and bamboo, these images proliferate rapidly, forcing IT organizations into the uncomfortable tradeoff of ignoring the gremlins in their midst or throwing people at the problem.
In my experience, neither answer is particularly satisfying.
For instance, rPath (the company I work for) automates the creation and maintenance of complete, self-contained and manageable systems that run across traditional, virtual or cloud environments. rPath captures all of the dependencies within the stack and manages the system and all of its components under strong version control. This provides complete system transparency, control and allows updates and patches to be automatically delivered to the running system -- wherever it's running. This enables fully encapsulated systems that are self-healing, self-describing, free to run anywhere, but centrally controlled wherever they land. It's a scalable solution to an application delivery challenge that is poised to explode in the age of virtualization and cloud.
The reality is that -- as IT infrastructure becomes virtualized and organizations tap into the cloud -- it becomes even more critical to fully control deployed systems. The alternative is new cost and risk that may actually wash away the benefits of this new computing model itself.
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SEO and Social Media?
The acronym “SEO” may produce responses of “huh?” and “S-what?” and when you hear that it stands for “search engine optimization,” the question mark will most likely still be there. Fear not. J.O. is here to answer your questions and help increase your social media traffic in one blog.
Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website in the various search engines’ “organic” or “natural” search results. In English: when a user searches a keyword, your page will be higher on the list in search engines like Google and Bing and, therefore, be more likely to receive attention.
Your business’ website may not need help in this area but, most likely, your Social Media pages do; especially Facebook. Here are a few tips to help SEO your Facebook presence:
- Talk “About” Yourself - Take advantage of the “about” section to include a few critical keywords. Keep it concise, so that users can read in a few sentences what your company has to offer. By including your keywords, search engines will be more likely to notice your Facebook page when searching for keywords other than the brand name.
- Keyword Wrapping - Wrap those keywords in your “info” page with supporting details. When a user sees a page on any search engine, a small section of text is included, showing how the keyword is used. Many searchers use this section of text to choose which link to click, instead of just blindly clicking the first link that Google or Bing pulls up. By including supporting details around your keywords, you increase the likelihood that searchers will choose your link to click.
- Don’t hesitate to tag these pictures - Always tag images and videos with keywords. Often, search engines will offer “web,” “video,” and “images” sections in the results. By tagging images and video, you increase the chance that your page will pop up under all sections.
- Content is King - Regularly post content with links that are relevant to your main keywords. Post with your keywords and phrases, but also include links that use them. This will increase the times that the search engine sees those keywords on your page, and will therefore increase your relevancy in the results.
- Post more than a little “Bitly” - Post full URL’s. There has been a trend to use URL-shorteners, which are a huge help with platforms with limited characters, like Twitter. However, many links include keywords in them, like the title of an article, and by shortening the link, you lose those keywords. Keywords that appear in links really boost your SEO.
By making your Facebook more search engine friendly, you will increase traffic to the site, which should translate to more web page traffic and increased brand awareness.
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It is my considered opinion that the United States of America, the marvelous nation that held out such great promise for the entire world, is in a state of decline. Some of the signs are obvious to everyone, some are not as obvious. The most serious threat to the U.S. is barely on the radar screen, but it has grabbed hold of American thought, American budgets, and American destiny. I am refering to the take-over of the U.S. by what I call "war corporations" or "greed corporations." Those that have followed my writings, speeches, and media interviews through the years know of my use of these terms. Today they are not only real, they are now dominant masters. These corporations and the influential individuals related to them have taken hold of our elections, our media, and have forged the very thought process of the American people. We have now been convinced that we absolutely have to be on a war footing at all times.
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it compromises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. . . . known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." -James Madison, "Political Observations," 1795.
Socialism. Socialism. Socialism.
I do not support socialism or communism, and I am not an admirer of Karl Marx. How could I admire anyone who said that Russia was the last place in the world that would have communism, as Marx did?
I've lived in various parts of the U.S., and have traveled extensively in Europe and North America. Now back in the Milwaukee area, I am once again reminded of the poetic majesty of autumn here. If I ever write a poem [highly unlikely], it will be about autumn in this area. I've written before about our timidity and inferiority complex in Milwaukee. But there is so much to celebrate about the area. And I think it is about time that we establish a regional organization to set up a sort of Hall of Fame for people from this area or people with strong ties to this area.
I offer the following people who might be considered as nominees. You could add many others, I'm sure. Think of us honoring these people in a Hall, say in a beautiful area like the end of Wisconsin Avenue, across from the Art Center on the land that should be lowered so the sweep of Lake Michigan can be viewed as one drives east on the main street of Milwaukee. Here is my initial, quickly offered list:
It appears to be more and more common for people to be in denial about many things. Often it is amusing to watch people go through life totally unconcerned or unable to acknowledge what is obvious in their lives or themselves. But it can also be very damaging and hurtful, not only to themselves but others as well. Many revolve around simple ignorance or prejudice. And this ignorance and/or prejudice can be cloaked in oh-so-proper language and actions. But it is still ignorance and prejudice.
Why is it so difficult to realize and acknowledge that all people are not born the same when it comes to sexual preference or gender identity? Considering the horrendous avalanche of bigotry that gays, lesbians, and trans-gendered people have to deal with, do you think anyone would choose to have to be confronted with that?
When the U.S. space program was launched, every American, including school chidlren, were told that NASA was set up in 1958 for "peaceful space exploration." Since then we have all been lied to over and over about our "peaceful missions" in space. The U.S. never joined with other nations to declare space a peaceful place for the good of mankind. And the other nations are still waiting for the U.S.
On January 31, 2000 NASA launched the space shuttle Endeavor from the pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida. What was Endeavor's primary mission and objective? To carry out a military operation. Endeavor spent 11-days in orbit, its primary purpose was a topology mapping of the Earth. It provided high-resolution three-dimensional maps of 80% of the Earth's surface. NASA has received over $200 million for the shuttle flight from the Pentagon. Most of these maps were classified "TOP SECRET" and put under the control of the military. But there are more dirty tricks afloat.
Soon the people will vote in the U.S. There are dire predictions for the Democrats. It might be hoped that Republican victories might actually get rid of the stalemate now in Washington in which the GOP has sabotaged everything to enhance their chances for election success. On the other hand, it may just be another step down the road toward the end of democracy in the U.S., already in jeopardy.
We are currently witnessing an upheavel in France. The plethora of strikes and stoppages is presented as a protest against the right-wing government''s attempt to raise the retirement age from age 60 to 62. That is only a small part of the protest. The right-wing government now in power made promises that are not totally different than what the right-wing is promising in the U.S. The people voted for no new taxes and more services. What they got were fewer services and an adjustment in their way of life that has them now realizing what a mistake they made in electing this current administration. However it is likely that the strikes and protests will lose steam and France will eventually succomb to the right-wing plan that was never hinted at but is now come to fruition. France is about to change for the worst. It should be noted that 70% of the French people support the strikes. No matter.
Though not a particular fan of Bill Maher, I recently checked out the DVD of the Movie "Religulous" which features him. The film was released in 2008. It is marvelously reflective on the mumbo-jumbo and hocus-pocus of the major world's religion. Mr. Maher is quite adept at making reflections on the mythological claims of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that might cross the mind of the "common man." He is equal in his probing questions of the three major faiths, and he goes to some of the key places revered by these religions. And he talks to key leaders of them as well. Yes, at times it is irreverent, but frankly, the fairy tales that are supposed to be believed are open to irreverency.
The dismissal of Juan Williams by National Public Radio has created quite a storm in the media. This dismissal comes following key dismissals by other major news outlets [Hearst dismissed the longest working member of the Washington press corps when she said that Israel should get out of Palestine]. What is so amazing about the outcry from right-wingers is that every major contender for the Republican nomination for President, except Romney, now works for FOX. What if every leading Democrat worked for one broadcast network? Can you hear the screaming from the right-wing? Juan Williams had several run-ins with NPR management, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Imagine, a major media outlet in the U.S. insisting on professional journalism principles!
*The upheavel in France is not about raising the age for Social Security from age 60 to 62, though that is what is being portrayed in the American media, especially the right-wing contingent. The main group of people in France will have their retirement age extended from 65 to 67. And the President of France promised during the election campaign that he would not raise the retirement age. Factor in also that in the U.S. we openly debate these sorts of issues in legislatures, not on the street ...though there are exceptions. But that is the French way. The strikers will calm down and the proposal will take effect. To a certain extent, it is much ado and much news coverage for a change that is coming to France.
*It is interesting to watch the right-wing try to convince us that the overwhelming political position of the media in the U.S. is liberal. That is simply not true. What the right-wing wants is a media that kow-tows to the clout of money and influence of the big corporations. And the big corporations already own much of American media. I am old enough to remember when the media in the U.S. was farther to the left. Today it is not. And in today's world, the major media would not dare anger the commercial enterprises that own them, and that buy their advertising space and time. The New York Times, the newspaper of record in the U.S., can afford to take a middle ground because it is not quite as beholden to big corporations. But the N.Y. Times is not liberal, it simply is not right-wing. And that is enough for the right to try and discredit it. We have in the U.S. a right-wing, unprincipled, lacking journalistic profesionalism, self-serving, deceitful, and narrowly focused media [e.g. Rush, Glenn, Washinton Times, Murdoch, etc.]; and another conglomerated media that represents many political viewpoints, shares a wide spectrum of political perspective, and tries to do a relatively honest job of reporting without being beholden to the commercial interests of the right. The right-wing media gets audiences because of its "big news" sensationalism. Getting audience numbers is no indication of principle or accuracy. If you want audience numbers, simply put pictures up of pornography, blood and murder, pedophilia, etc. Getting audience ratings is no evidence of journalism...none.
*It appears that there will be the usual mid-term election result on Tuesday. Whether it will be a landslide, remains to be seen. But as attention has been brewing and hyping, anything short of the Republicans taking back both houses of Congress will seem tame indeed. As Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has openly stated, "I see my job to prevent Obama from being re-elected." Hmmm. That seems a rather strange objective. If it is seen as an acceptable one, then we are in for a rocky two more years of Republicans blocking any legislation from going forward if it is supported by the President of the United States. To hold the U.S. hostage by its own elected officials is indeed a sort of treason. But polarization in American politics has become a sort of Halloween horror. We can do better than this. But it depends on an informed electorate. Good luck on that.
*It is interesting to note Karl Rove's ongoing criticism of Sarah Palin. Rove, always a sinister figure, seems to have broken ranks from many Republicans and tea-partiers. Wrong. Rove is looking out for himself. He makes his living as an extreme right-wing consultant. Palin represents a threat to his business. And American politics is becoming more and more about business. Everything is for sale in American politics, including one's long-standing political party affiliation. It is Rove's way or the highway...or better...it is Rove's way of making money or it is no way.
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Sungai Wang Plaza (Chinese: 金河廣場) is one of the most popular shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur. Situated in Bukit Bintang in the Golden Triangle area, Sungai Wang Plaza offers an alternative to some of the popular shopping malls around in the area such as the Berjaya Times Square, Lot 10, Starhill Gallery and Pavilion KL. [...]
KL Travel's tag archives
The National Art Gallery of Malaysia is one fine example of an exhibition center that displays the finest collections of contemporary Malaysian art. Also known as the Balai Seni Lukis Negara in Malay, the National Art Gallery was established on August 28th, 1958 by the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Established about [...]
The Islamic Arts Museum (Malay: Muzium Kesenian Islam) is one of the largest and most popular museums in Malaysia featuring exhibits from the Muslim world. Located on the eastern side of the Lake Gardens, the Islamic Arts Museum is the first of its kind in Malaysia. It’s truly a magnificent monument that incorporates the largest [...]
St John’s Cathedral was opened in 1883, making it the oldest church in Kuala Lumpur. The St John’s Cathedral is also one of the few pre-war churches that has been well taken care and preserved until today. The historic value of the St John’s Cathedral, therefore, is invaluable. Aside from being the most visited church [...]
Chow Kit Market is one of the biggest and most popular street markets in Kuala Lumpur. The market is located in a sub-district called Chow Kit in the midst of Kuala Lumpur. The Chow Kit district was named after a tin miner and municipal councilor called Loke Chow Kit. The Chow Kit Market, also known [...]
The Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque or Blue Mosque is one of the prominent mosques in Malaysia. Aside from being the biggest mosque in the country, the mosque is also the second biggest in Southeast Asia after Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque is located in a park [...]
One Utama or 1 Utama is a popular shopping mall in Bandar Utama, a suburb in the northern part of Petaling Jaya and is located just opposite Taman Tun Dr. Ismail. 1 Utama is also popularly known as “One U” for short or sometimes as “O U”. One Utama is a massive shopping center with [...]
Batu Caves is a well known tourist destination in Kuala Lumpur due to not only its unique 400 million years old limestone hill but also as a Hindu shrine for the Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia. Located in Gombak district, about 13 kilometters (8.1miles) north of Kuala Lumpur, Batu Caves is a vast cavern [...]
The St. Mary’s Cathedral is an impressive building that has over 100 years of history. The construction of the church started in the 1890s when a decision was made to erect a new building to house the growing congregation during that period. The church is located at the famous Dataran Merdeka or Independence Square. One [...]
If you are a fan of heritage buildings and are planning to get to know more about the beauty as well as history of heritages buildings in Malaysia, the Badan Warisan Malaysia (The Heritage of Malaysia Trust) is definitely your best bet. Founded in 1983 for the conservation of Malaysia’s architectural heritage, Badan Warisan is [...]
The Malaysian Tourism Information Complex is housed in an impressive heritage building that was built during the colonial period in 1935. The Malaysian Tourism Information Complex is also known as the Malaysia Tourism Centre. This massive colonial mansion is situated at Jalan Ampang which is close to KLCC. The site at which the mansion is [...]
Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman is a popular bazaar-style shopping paradise that particularly caters to silk lovers, antiques collectors and some rare handicrafts as well as paintings enthusiasts. Named after the first king of independent Malaysia, and commonly known as Jalan TAR, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman is one of the busiest roads in downtown Kuala Lumpur. [...]
The Kuala Lumpur Craft Complex or Kompleks Budaya Kraf is one of the few tourist destinations that are not only attractive but also visually stimulating. The attractions of the KL Craft Complex lie in its various exhibition areas that showcase locally made colorful handicrafts. In fact, the items on display or sale are authentic unique [...]
The Aqualia KLCC is a newly added attraction in the KLCC area. It’s a phenomenal underwater aquarium that equates the Underwater World Langkawi which is considered one of the largest and most sophisticated aquariums in Malaysia. The Aqualia KLCC is a gigantic masterpiece that occupies as many as two floor levels within the Kuala Lumpur [...]
THINGS TO DO
Embark on a frenzy shopping trip!
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Explore the best spa resorts and massage treatments in Malaysia!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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Malaysia Best Hotel Rates
Malaysia Holidays Places
Malaysia has some of the best aquariums in the world. Make sure these aquariums are in your travel itinerary.
These are some breathtaking waterfalls in Malaysia that you have to visit. Discover these beautiful waterfalls here.
Discover the most famous highland retreats in Malaysia that you must not miss when you are holidaying in Malaysia.
Malaysia has some of the world best delicacies. Find out here the most popular heritage food that are the favorite of all Malaysians.
Looking for a paradise in Malaysia to relax? Discover here Malaysia best islands that you don’t want to miss.
The tropical fruits in Malaysia are some of the best in the world. Discover here these must-eat tropical fruits when you are holidaying in Malaysia.
Visit these popular national parks in Sarawak. See the pictures and discover the best wildlife sanctuaries in Malaysia.
Find out here where most tourists visit in Kuala Lumpur. Plan your travel itinerary here. Discover the best tourist attractions in KL.
Discover Kuala Lumpur most famous heritage and historic buildings. Find out their pre-war history and attractions here.
Discover here the popular mosques, temples and churches in Kuala Lumpur that should be in your travel itinerary.
Discover here where to see the most popular museums in Kuala Lumpur. Find out in these museums the most exotic exhibitions in Malaysia.
You can find some of Malaysia's best Muslim food in Penang. Discover here the Penang best Malay and Indian Muslim cuisine.
A young and vibrant metropolitan city bustling with energy. The Malaysia capital is truly the epitome of a modern Asian city.
A rich heritage and a mystic, spiritual core as well as fine beaches and good food.
A an archipelago of over 100 islands. Langkawi is a modern-day legend with fine beaches,forests and mythical places.
A beautiful state in Borneo with lush tropical rainforests teeming with an incredible diversity of marine life.
The largest and most popular hill station in Malaysia. Dotted with lush tea plantations, farms and fresh produce.
The site of both the first settlement on the peninsula in the 1400s makes Melaka the birthplace of Malaysia.
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January 08, 2013, 3:12 PM — Companies that license their patents under fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms, but then seek import or sales injunctions against competitors, may often be
acting outside the public interest, according to a policy paper from two U.S. agencies.
The paper from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office doesn't take a firm stand against patent injunctions when companies have committed to FRAND licensing, but in some cases, seeking an injunction may harm competition and consumers, it said. Injunctions can degrade the ability of standards-setting organizations to "mitigate the threat of such opportunistic actions" by the holders of FRAND patents, the paper said.
With the policy paper, the DOJ and USPTO are wading into a growing controversy in the mobile industry. Last Thursday, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission settled an antitrust case with Google, with the company agreeing to stop seeking injunctions on mobile and Web patents that its subsidiary Motorola Mobility had committed to license on FRAND terms.
Motorola had asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to bar some products, including Microsoft's Xbox and Apple's iPad and iPhone, from being imported into the U.S. over patent disputes, but the FTC found that Google engaged in "unfair methods of competition" and "unfair acts and practices," in violation of U.S. law.
In some cases, product injunctions, or exclusion orders, may be incompatible with a patent holder's FRAND commitment to a standards-setting body, the policy paper said. A patent holder may, for example, wield an injunction "to reclaim some of its enhanced market power over firms that relied on the assurance" that the FRAND patents would be available for reasonable licenses, the paper said.
But injunctions may still be appropriate in cases where the target company refuses to take a license or pay royalties on a FRAND patent, or when the target company is outside U.S. jurisdiction, the two agencies said. Those two exceptions line up with exceptions the FTC allowed in its antitrust settlement with Google.
The two agencies recommended "caution" in the use of injunctions in FRAND patent cases, but also advocated for patent holders receiving payment.
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On Monday, Dillman spoke at the Forrester IT Forum but gave no hint of the looming changes.
Dillman's presentation, billed as an insider's take on the future of IT, offered few insights into what's coming down the pike.
Dillman did, however, give attendees a glimpse of the extent to which Wal-Mart brings its suppliers into the loop, a management practice some say will be Dillman's legacy at the world's largest retailer.
After joining Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart in 1991 from Hewlett-Packard Co., Dillman catalyzed the radio frequency identification movement by mandating the use of RFID by Wal-Mart's top suppliers.
Like founder Sam Walton, who is said to have "never trusted computers," Dillman understood the importance of bringing suppliers into the fold. In her era, that meant making suppliers part of Wal-Mart's ultra-sophisticated Internet-based operations.
Wal-Mart makes proprietary data available to suppliers -- 583 terabytes of its data warehouse. In any given week, more than 411,000 queries come in from suppliers -- more than 21 million a year. More than 17,000 suppliers have access to information such as Wal-Mart's daily sales, shipments, returns, purchase orders, invoices, claims and forecasts.
Access to that data gives companies such as Gillette the ability to "identify opportunities" to promote its products. As a result, Gillette increased sales of a product by 19%, said Dillman.
Walton may not have been an advocate of technology, but his philosophy of a common systems approach to retail made Wal-Mart the largest retailer in the world, with sales of $312 billion in 2005. The company's IT infrastructure follows the same philosophy, Dillman said. The key is centralized information systems.
"The cost advantages are huge," said Dillman, who referred to the central IT repository as "tribal knowledge. "When one country has a great idea, we bundle it into every system."
These types of executive moves are not uncommon at Wal-Mart, which has a practice of exposing high-level executives to various areas of the business.
"Wal-Mart has always been very definitive about putting business ahead of IT, and the fact that they feel that they can interchange people between business and IT roles speaks to their level of commitment to this concept," said Nikki Baird, senior analyst, consumer markets at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. Baird said moving Dillman from an IT-specific role into a broader business function role and moving Ford, a line business person, into an IT role seems obvious.
Naming Ford as the new CIO says more about where the company has been, Baird said. "Wal-Mart has been a tremendous force in supply chain efficiencies, and technology has played an important role in that -- everything from RFID to retail link."
Wal-Mart also announced a number of other promotions and senior leadership moves. Lawrence Jackson was named president and CEO of its global procurement division. He previously was executive vice president of the retailer's people division, responsible for all human resources functions for the world's largest private workforce. Susan Chambers, previously executive vice president of risk management and benefits administration, was named executive vice president of the people division, responsible for human resources functions and the Office of Diversity.
Shamus McGillicuddy contributed to this article.
Let us know what you think about the story; e-mail: Kate Evans-Correia, News Editor
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If the Rooney Road slash collection site wasn't so popular, it might not be in this predicament.
The 8-acre recycling operation is closing permanently on Oct. 31 because Jefferson County is not renewing its lease after four years. County officials say the operation has become an eyesore and is not an appropriate use of Open Space land.
The closure leaves no other locally cheap and accessible place for excess brush, and there is no firm relocation plan. The companion service, a household chemical collection station at 151 S. Rooney Road, will continue to operate.
Homeowners pay a drop-off fee of $6.50 per cubic yard, which is considered to be a screaming deal compared to other sites. A-1 Organics comes along periodically with heavy machinery and grinds the raw material into mulch, which is available for a small fee to the public. Some of the mulch is taken away.
The slash recycling site and the household chemical collection station are on adjacent lots near the regional soccer complex. They are funded and operated by a consortium of local governments led by the Rooney Road Recycling Center Authority, consisting of Arvada, Edgewater, Golden, Jefferson County, Lakeside, Lakewood, Morrison, Mountain View and Wheat Ridge.
For the last few years, the low-key recycling center has provided a low-cost, convenient and consumer-friendly outlet for tree-trimmers, landscapers and homeowners to unload the results of their labors.
On a recent Thursday at 4 p.m., there was a constant stream of trucks and SUVs dropping off material. Three out of four were landscapers or tree-trimmers; one was a homeowner. They were all disappointed to hear the site was shutting down because it is so much cheaper and more convenient than the county landfill, and all were frequent visitors.
"This reduces the motivation to clear the underbrush," said one landscaper.
In 2011, the slash recycling facility processed 87,487 cubic yards, or 71 million pounds, of materials. The average customer count per day through July 2012 was about 95, or about 3,000 customers per year, said Chris Naber, environmental coordinator with the city of Golden.
Located at I-70 and C-470 south of the Rooney Road Sports Complex, the mound of deadwood can be seen from the highway, which some say constitutes a prominent eyesore.
After the early-season wildfires, the site accepted in one week what it usually sees in a month. It became kind of an emergency management outlet.
"After a nasty hailstorm or a late snowfall, we see a pretty significant increase," Naber said.
‘Not an allowed use’
The slash facility may be popular, but processing so much trash vegetation is not a welcome activity on land that belongs to the Jefferson County Open Space Division.
"Back in 2008 they were really needing a site, and they came to Open Space and asked if they could use it on a temporary basis. We agreed and extended it for a couple of years, knowing full well it's not an allowed permanent use," said Tom Hoby, director of Jeffco Parks and Open Space. "It's certainly environmental and helps with fuel reduction, but it is not an allowed use.
"It's definitely a little counterintuitive. When we were created by the voters, the enabling resolution requires our funds be used for park, recreation or open-space purposes. The definition is, center around those types of uses, whereas the slash site is light industrial. It's not really park and open space," Hoby said.
The other problem is aesthetic.
"It's a good location from an access standpoint,” Hoby said. “But we've heard from a lot of people it's not such a great location being right there at C-470 and I-70. Open Space spent $80 million on the Front Range mountain backdrop. This is in the base of it. So it's counter to preserving the views along the Hogback.”
The Open Space Division generates a lot of material from its forest management operations but sells most of it in various forms to individuals for firewood.
Slash turned into mulch
The Rooney Road Recycling Center has been collecting slash for at least 10 years. But before 2009, the site was on the north side of the chemical collection station building. After a fire, it was moved to the south side of the building to a larger site, where it was safer for people and operators.
It's been difficult to find another suitable home, said environmental coordinator Chris Naber.
One advantage of the recycling center is that the debris is re-used as mulch. Jefferson County is thinking of buying an industrial incinerator for a slash collection site at Shaffers Crossing, but it means reducing the product to ash rather than making something useful like mulch, Naber said.
And the Shaffers Crossing facility would never be a substitute for a collection center conveniently located close to the population center, Hoby said.
"We had discussed potentially doing a land swap and removing the Open Space designation for another piece of land. One of the member jurisdictions was willing to give 20 acres for the 8 acres we wanted. I can't say why that fell through," Naber said.
"The unfortunate part of it is, $1 per cubic yard of the fee went to the Rooney Road Recycling Center. It was a source of revenue to help keep the cost of running our household chemical program down," Naber said.
Contact Vicky Gits at firstname.lastname@example.org or 303-933-2233, ext. 22.
Rooney Road Recycling Center, 150 S. Rooney Road, near the Rooney Regional Soccer Complex
Accepts tree branches, limbs and tree debris, loose pine needles, leaves, grass clippings, hay and straw, clean wood waste. No trash or manufactured wood like plywood or particle board.
Commercial: One small truck bed, $14; full size, $21 (approximate)
Residential: $5.50 to $6.50 per cubic yard, or a small truck bed for $11 to $13
Open seven days a week
7 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. through Oct. 31.
No appointment necessary
Sheriff's Office remote collection sites
In the summer months, the Sheriff's Office offers various opportunities to drop off slash at collection sites in the mountain communities. For information, visit http://jeffco.us/sheriff/sheriff_T62_R247.htm.
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A sound vision - recording a CD release
Did you know that every note of every performance in the Glyndebourne Festival is recorded? This commitment to preserving our audio history is a testament to the legacy of the late John Barnes, who died in 2008, and central to the New Generation Programme’s new media ambitions. John’s dedication to sound recording at Glyndebourne has left us an extraordinary musical archive which goes all the way back to the 1960s. Today, his invaluable work is continued by Audio Recording Executive Sébastien Chonion.
"John Barnes’s legacy to Glyndebourne is inestimable" says Sébastien "I feel honoured to be part of the team that will continue to ensure that his dedication to music is recognised."
It is clear that Sébastien shares that dedication. Making an effective recording of a performance is not like producing a regular CD, for example, which might involve two or three principal studio sessions. As much editing material as possible is required (hence the nightly recording during the Festival) and the position of the microphones is critical. Interestingly, less really can mean "more" in this last respect.
"A battery of microphones may give a complete sound picture but the effect will be distorted." says Sébastien "You actually want to reduce the number of microphones. You need to get to the essence of the sound, to reproduce, as far as possible, the effect of listening to the performance in the audience."
Recording, of course, is only the beginning. Once Sébastien sets to work on post-production he is faced with the task of editing several recordings together and enhancing or ‘cleaning’ the sound quality, where required. Real performances mean surplus noise that becomes intrusive in playback. Even something as innocuous as a video monitor in the wings makes its presence felt as a mild but constant hum. Thanks to the technology at his disposal, Sébastien can deal with this, just as he can deal with the odd cough, sneeze or dropped Programme book in the audience. The process, though, takes much skill and is a delicate balance.
"Editing on a computer is far easier than it used to be but you have to be careful’ he says "You still want this recording to play like a live performance. You want to have it perfect but avoid becoming sterile."
Sébastien compares it to playing an instrument but he is also a sort of virtual conductor, after the fact - teasing the best out of the orchestra and singers by seeking out their best work amongst the recordings. Delicate and precise edits are required and a seamless transition is achieved through what is known as a ‘cross-fade’. In the past, this would have to be done manually by splicing two sections of tape together along a diagonal line, but the computer aids matters considerably these days.
The improvement of historical recordings presents new challenges. Tape hiss needs to be removed and this is a delicate operation because too much correction can remove elements of the music itself. ‘As always, it’s a balance,’ says Sébastien, ‘You want to freshen it up but it is imperative to keep the piece authentic.’
Anybody who has heard the wonderful recordings released so far on Glyndebourne’s own CD label will certainly appreciate John and Sébastien’s efforts. They are admirable proponents of John Christie’s legacy – Not the best we can do, but the best that can be done anywhere.
Words: Richard Joyner
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The company that operates the Block Island Ferry in Point Judith has filed a request with Rhode Island regulators to raise passenger ticket prices by about 8 percent next year on traditional, "slow" ferries to account for rising fuel costs and upgrades to its fleet.
Interstate Navigation would also eliminate a same-day travel discount and a discount for Block Island residents, but it also plans to offer much lower rates to transport vehicles.
The New London-based company operates the main ferry service connecting Block Island to the mainland, with both traditional and fast ferries to Point Judith in Narragansett and Newport.
"I understand why we had to spend significant dollars improving our vessels and terminals in order to compete in this tourist-driven market," Interstate Navigation vice president Joshua Linda said in written testimony to the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission. "Our recent efforts have been directed toward entering the fast ferry market, which is something for which our summer tourist customers have shown a clear preference."
In the rate filing that was submitted to the PUC last month, Interstate Navigation says its newer fast-ferry service to Block Island from Point Judith has subsidized losses in its traditional, slower service that have amounted to $500,000 annually over the past four years.
It has requested the rate change to increase revenues for the traditional service. If the PUC approves the proposal, annual revenues would go up by $1.3 million, or 13.2 percent.
Under the proposal that would affect traditional ferries only, adult one-way trips would increase by 95 cents to $12.20 and child tickets would go up by 45 cents to $6.15. However, rates for vehicles would be slashed, with the one-way price for a car dropping from $49.80 to $32.70 and the price for a truck going from $60.10 to $39.45.
A $4.20 discount for same-day, round-trip tickets would be eliminated, as would the $7.80 discount for island residents who qualify for the commuter rate. Islanders would also lose their discount vehicle rates.
"From a cost-allocation rate-setting point of view, Islanders should not get this discount," Walter E. Edge Jr., a Providence consultant hired by Interstate Navigation, said in testimony. "It costs no more or less to sell Islanders a ticket and carry them on the vessel than it costs for any other passenger."
But Interstate Navigation has proposed creating a weekday discount of up to 25 percent between May and September to encourage travel during off-peak times.
The company has requested that the new rates go into effect before Memorial Day next year.
Interstate Navigation's expansion of its fast ferry service is set to continue. The company says in the filing that it intends to eliminate its traditional ferry from Newport to Block Island and replace it with a fast ferry that it purchased for $440,000 and is refurbishing at a cost of $1 million. Tickets for the new service would cost $25 each way.
Interstate's current rates were determined in 2007 as part of a five-year plan that was extended to a sixth year. As part of that plan, rates were frozen in the first two years and increases in subsequent years were restricted.
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New Zealand Herald falls victim to XSS prank
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The New Zealand Herald's website had spinning photos and backward text on Friday morning after it evidently was the victim of an amusing cross-site scripting attack.
Lynch describes himself on his LinkedIn profile as working for deviantART, a social network for artists. He couldn't immediately be reached for comment, but it appears the batch of code, named "eyewonder.js," wasn't specifically intended to target the newspaper website, but rather is a general script designed to manipulate elements on a Web page.
Cross-site scripting, abbreviated as XSS, is one of the most common coding flaws in Web pages but can also have much more dangerous impacts than what visibly affected the New Zealand Herald. An XSS vulnerability can be used to steal data from a website or cause other malicious code to run.
The newspaper, which is owned by APN Holdings NZ Limited, could not immediately be reached for comment.
It may be coincidental, but a hacking conference called Kiwicon is due to kick off tomorrow in Wellington. Kiwicon's blog mentioned the New Zealand Herald's hack this morning, along with two other security-related incidents: a wi-fi outage on an airport bus and payment system problems in Wellington.
It's not unheard of for hackers to show off their skills during conferences by attacking infrastructure or even the computers of other conference attendees. Kiwicon runs until Sunday.
Posted by Anonymous at 16:55:25 on November 16, 2012
Posted by Anonymous at 9:18:48 on November 19, 2012
Posted by Indeed! at 17:22:28 on November 16, 2012
*runs away in shame*
Posted by Satan at 9:02:15 on November 17, 2012
Posted by Anonymous at 10:54:32 on November 17, 2012
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this is my first post on cheeseforum. I have been reading all the information everyone has posted over the years but never felt game enough to contribute.
I have just completed 4 years of commercial cheesemaking in my own factory, that has now ended. My new adventure is cheesemaking classes. I really want to use shop bought milk, mostly homogenised and pasteurised as most people can only obtain this type of milk.
So after reading about everyones disasters I have reused a recipe we used to make which is based on Carole Willmans "Home Cheesemaking" recipe.
When making cheese in small quantities I use a small portable gas camping stove, large 10 litre bain marie tray, metal rack to keep the smaller bain marie tray/ stock pot off the bottom of the waterbath pan.
* 10 litres good quality pasteurised and homogenised cows milk bring to 37C
* add 2.5ml Calcium Chloride in 50ml unclorinated cooled boiled water. Stir in for 1 mins
* add 150ml Multiple Strain Thermophile (C starter) I had set this the night before as a liquid culture. Stir 1 minute
* cover with lid, leave 30 mins
* add rennet at 2.5ml in 50ml unclorinated cooled boiled water. Stir 2 mins
* Cover with lid, leave 30 mins
* cut curds 1.5mm cubes and leave undisturbed for 5 mins.
* stir very slowly and gradually increase speed over the next 30 mins also increasing temperature to 42C over that 30 mins.
* (I found the water bath needed to get to 55C to get that increase)
* Maintain the 42C temp and keep slowly stirring for another 50 mins (the curd is quite small at this stage but thats ok)
* PH 6.1 - 6.2 at the end of this step. I used strips and it indicated this was correct
* Remove all whey (you could use this for ricotta) I used a fine colander over a sterilised bucket to catch the curd
* Put curd back into the warm bain marie over the water bath and maintain 42C (you may have to cool down water bath).
* turn mat of curds every 15 mins x 4 times (so over an hour long period) drain any whey
* PH should be 5.7 and the ph strip indicated this was correct
* have a pot of water ready with 80C water.
* test a small piece of curd in the water and if after a few minutes it starts to stretch then your ready
* cut curds into 2cm cubes and sprinkle with a few tablespoons salt
* throw half the cubes into the water and you may need to heat a little to keep the temp at 80C
* using a slotted spoon scoop up half the curd and (using rubber gloves) knead the curd into a stretch and knead movement
* The curd should become smooth and pliable. You can take the curd out of the water to do this but dip back in if it starts to break
* Form a neat ball and drop into ice cold water
* continue with the rest of the curd.
I left the balls in the cold water for an hour until I had cleaned up then added some salt brine to the container until the next day.
I am not sure how to keep the mozzarella fresh, it does need to be used quickly.
The flavour is good but using fresh cows is best.
Let me know if you have any questions. I have photos on my facebook page but can put them on here when I get the hang of it.
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| Dec 13, 2010
When you decide it is the right time to buy a car, you may have your eye on a beautiful set of wheels but the truth is that you may not be able to afford it. If you want to know what the difference is between a smart consumer and one that is not rational, you should know that it has to do with how realistic their perspectives are. The unwise consumer will spend more than he or she has on a new car just because it’s a nice car. What follows are months and months of financial stress and, in some cases, bankruptcy and repossession of the car. If this is something you want to avoid, you need to look into used car financing.
If you are choosing used car financing, it’s because it’s a smarter decision to pay less now, save money, and then to buy the car of your dreams when you are in a better financial situation. Even a good used car can be a little expensive, and this means that you will need to make sure that you have chosen a payment plan that fits your lifestyle. The last thing you want to do is buy a car that is in bad shape only because it is less expensive. This kind of decision can only lead to greater payments down the road for a vehicle that you don’t particularly like.
If you are ready to start making that used car financing decision, you are going to want to first figure out what’s reasonable for your lifestyle. This means that you have to know what your household monthly income is. You also have to know what kinds of expenses you have. This means that you have to consider loans and debt, as well as utility bills and future expenses that are not yet an issue. This is the most realistic away to figure out what you can pay. This is also the best way to get approved for a loan that you will truly benefit from.
When you are looking for used car financing options, you are going to want to take your business online. This may certainly sound counter intuitive to many consumers who are used to the major lenders and banks, but the truth of the matter is that you will find the best payment plans this way. You should also keep in mind that the way to find the best financial deals is to keep all of your options open. This means that you will have to get used to thinking outside the box.
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Female Grocery Store Employees Were Sexually Harassed, Some Forced to Quit, Federal Agency Charged
PITTSBURGH – A Brownsville, Pa.-based grocery store will pay $95,000 and provide significant equitable relief to settle a federal sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.
The EEOC charged that Country Fresh Market, LLC knowingly permitted the flagrant sexual harassment of women who worked in the meat department by the department manager at the company’s Brownsville store. The unwelcome harassment included physical touching and repeated sexual advances and comments.
Not only did company officials fail to take prompt action to stop the harassment, one company official threatened employees with termination for complaining about the abuse. Two women were forced to quit their jobs because of the intolerable situation, the EEOC said in the lawsuit.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits sexual harassment. Title VII also protects employees from retaliation for opposing sexual harassment or discrimination. The EEOC filed suit in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (Civil Action Number 2:11-cv-01211) after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement through its conciliation process.
In addition to the $95,000 in monetary relief to the four class members, the three-year consent decree resolving the case includes injunctive relief barring Country Fresh from engaging in sexual harassment, sex discrimination or retaliation. Country Fresh must create and enforce a harassment and retaliation policy which includes complaint procedures and requires company officials, managers and supervisors to actively monitor the work environment to make sure it is free from harassment or retaliation. The grocery market is required to train all company owners, managers, supervisors and employees on Title VII and post a notice regarding the settlement. Country Fresh is also mandated to report to the EEOC regarding its investigation and handling of any future complaints of harassment or discrimination as well as its compliance with the consent decree.
“Employers must make sure that company officials, managers and supervisors take swift action to stop workplace harassment,” said Spencer H. Lewis, Jr., district director of the EEOC’s Philadelphia District Office, which oversees Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia and parts of New Jersey and Ohio.
EEOC Regional Attorney Debra M. Lawrence added, “This settlement is designed to protect all Country Fresh employees from the indignity of sexual harassment and to ensure that no employee is retaliated against for exercising his or her federally protected right to oppose this or any other form of discrimination.”
The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.
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|—||Karoly having realised that something is wrong with his science is trying to fix it, while Steve McIntyre and Miranda continue to ignore that the hockey stick has been undebunked. Stalagmites, boreholes, glacier length, ice cores, lake sediment and coral studies have all backed up the hockey stick, while McIntyre still clings onto one bristlecone pine proxy record like a polar bear clinging onto the last piece of ice of his global warming affected territory.|
“CLIMATE alarmists love to brand skeptics Nazis and Holocaust deniers who should be prosecuted. Yet when skeptics use an attention-grabbing billboard accurately to point out that the Unabomber was a climate alarmist, with views akin to Al Gore’s, all hell breaks loose.”
Next week on Miranda’s blog, skeptics just want to debate the facts so why won’t alarmists engage?
I wonder why Miranda hasn’t actually named any “alarmists” who call “skeptics” “Nazis”. The best I could find on Google were “alarmists” calling skeptics “Nazi deniers” a term I hadn’t heard before but means someone who did not believe the Nazis were a threat. Saying someone has their head in the sand is nowhere near as offensive as calling someone on par with murderous anti-Semites (and climate change deniers often do compare “alarmists” with Nazis) or a terrorist.
“The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a large group of experts that synthesizes climate research into massive reports on the state of the science. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2009 that Lovelock, who is known for formulating the Gaia hypothesis in the 1960s, considered those reports “too optimistic, constrained by ‘consensus’ (a word that makes his teeth itch) and wedded to computer models.” Climate experts, in turn, distanced themselves from Lovelock’s doomsday rhetoric. The IPCC’s chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, told Agence France-Presse in September 2009 that Lovelock’s predictions were “highly improbable”; RealClimate.org, a blog written by climate scientists, noted in 2006 that Lovelock’s claims weren’t supported by scientific research.
AFP labeled Lovelock a “scientific black sheep.” The London Independent said in 2006 that Lovelock was “going out on a limb” and that his claims were “far gloomier than any yet made by a scientist of comparable international standing.” And The Washington Post reported in 2006 that “the warming that Lovelock fears will occur is far more dire than that projected by many other scientists,” and that his “dire talk no doubt occasions much rolling of eyes in polite circles, particularly among scientists in the United States.””
“In July, Hadley took a call on his 2GB program from “David” proclaiming to be a neighbour of Flannery’s. Flannery owned a waterfront home, the caller said, detailing its precise location and highlighting his apparent hypocrisy on sea level rises. The story took off: Andrew Bolt took to his blog with further details of the house (including a Google map) and its value, The Daily Telegraph went to print with a story, and after promising an “intelligent article” on the issue of sea level rises, Flannery claims, The Australian’s Ean Higgins wrote a piece rehashing the Hadley revelations.”
“The carbon price agreement will create a Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), an independent body that will have $10 billion worth of funds to allocate as loans or equity investments. These are not grants, but will help renewable energy projects to get off the ground where they are unable to find finance. Half the $10 billion will be for strictly renewable energy, while the other half will be available to renewables or “clean” gas/renewable hybrids, but not for “clean coal” carbon capture technology. The other significant move is to create the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), which will administer $3.2 billion of existing renewable energy projects.”
|—||I doubt the post-climate apocalypse world will still be using our forms of currency|
|—||Something tells me that if they did avoid eating meat because of the carbon released from cooking it Miranda would still make fun of them.|
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Opponents of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau introduced legislation this week that could prevent the CFPB from enforcing or implementing regulations without a constitutionally confirmed director in place.
The bill also would block the CFPB from using Federal Reserve funds to support enforcement actions that require the approval of an official CFPB director.
The move comes on the heels of a controversial appellate court decision that invalidated President Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board.
Early on, legal analysts said the NLRB decision, which was handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, could fire up opponents of the CFPB since a similar case is pending against the consumer agency over the president's recess appointment of CFPB leader Richard Cordray.
U.S. Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas; Mike Johanns, R-Neb.; and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., quickly rolled out legislation in response to the NLRB decision.
The bill, which is titled the The Restoring the Constitutional Balance of Power Act of 2013, is the lawmakers first attempt to use the D.C. Circuit Court's NRLB decision to curtail Cordray's power at the CFPB and to prevent regulations and decisions that he made about mortgage and financial services rules — including the qualified mortgage definitions — from taking effect.
"The Restoring the Constitutional Balance of Power Act of 2013 prohibits NLRB from undertaking or enforcing any decisions that required the approval of a quorum of board members since the President's overreach," said Sen. Cornyn. "The legislation also blocks CFPB's next transfer of funds from the Federal Reserve to carry out any actions that require the approval of a director."
But in the legal community, it's still unknown how far a judicial discrediting of Cordray's recess appointment would impact the CFPB's power since the agency is a legislative creation, designed under the umbrella of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Right after the ruling, Alan Kaplinsky, a partner at Ballard Spahr, said "We are still researching what the impact of a ruling would be on these final (mortgage) regulations," Kaplinsky told HousingWire. "I think some of them may be valid even under an acting director, and some of them may not be valid."
After signing onto the bill, Sen. Johanns added, "These agencies have been operating under a ruse for more than a year. Any decisions or regulations made by the people who have no right to be there are invalid. This legislation forces them to stop functioning as if they legitimately hold office and recognize the reality that the President overstepped his constitutional authority."
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REASON FOR TREATMENT:
Chris was not the first in his family to be diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. His grandmother, father, uncle, and two cousins have all succumbed to the disease. While looking for possible treatments for ALS worldwide, Chris's sister has turned to Beijing Beijing Puhua International Hospital hospital, and within a month from the original consultation the siblings have decided to come to China, hoping that Cell Therapy treatment will help Chris's battle with the disease.
CONDITION BEFORE TREATMENT:
Chris began noticing the first symptoms in 2004, when his left shoulder muscle began twitching. In 2007 weakness in his legs and arms started to bring a serious discomfort, walking and lifting objects became a struggle. Having family history of ALs, Chris undergone genetic testing, and the diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis were made.
Over time, as the disease progressed, Chris lost the ability to walk unassisted and started using a wheelchair constantly. He could use his arms minimally. He could not eat, dress and clean himself anymore.
Upon admission to Beijing Puhua International Hospital hospital, atrophy was noted in muscles of four limbs. Muscle strength was at a low level of both upper and lower limbs, fingers and toes on both sides. Tendon reflexes in four limbs and abdominal reflex could not be elicited. Chris could not cooperate with the movement coordination examination. Chris now needs aid in all daily activities, including feeding, dressing and personal care.
METHOD OF TREATMENT:
Cell Therapy implantation, Daily IV of medicines, neural nutrition and protection as well as Physical Therapy sessions, Traditional Chinese Medicine, massage and acupuncture.
AFTER THE TREATMENT:
After the treatment Chris's condition has improved significantly. His mental status is good.
While in the hospital, Chris's condition stabilized and no further deterioration was noted. Chris reports on more power in his trunk and upper limbs muscles. Muscle strength in all fingers increased as well, which makes it easier for him to control his wheel chair.
Chris has also reported on stronger voice, and easier breathing.
While leaving the hospital, Chris expressed his desire to come back for another treatment in our hospital, and seeing further improvements and slower deterioration upon return to native Australia.
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Remembering Chris Toll
Poet Chris Toll died on Sept. 27 at the age of 64.
Published: October 10, 2012
On Sept. 27, 1905, the scientific journal Annalen der Physik received a paper from Albert Einstein that included the famous equation E=mc2. On Sept. 27, 1954, The Tonight Show featuring host Steve Allen debuted on NBC. On Sept. 27, 1964, the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy issued a report stating that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. On Sept. 27, 1997, the Mars Pathfinder probe sent its last transmission. And on Sept. 27, 2012, father, poet, and indelible human being Chris Toll died of natural causes in Baltimore. He was 64 years old.
Now, these events might appear a happenstance selection, united only by the coincidence of date. If there’s a thread that aligns them in the mythical time of cosmic consciousness, Toll would have seen it—and been able to express it in his heartbreaking, elegant economy. “My poem comes from far away/ and it’s going far away—,” he wrote in “This Is How We Make a Broken Heart,” published by the local ’zine Artichoke Haircut. “I’m just in the middle/ like a lonesome TV station/ with no employees.”
“Poetry has really been his life,” says Kate Pipkin, who met Toll in the early 1980s in a poetry class taught by Andrei Codrescu at the Maryland Writers’ Association. Toll had originally come to Baltimore in the early 1970s to enter Johns Hopkins University’s graduate writing program after graduating from Catholic University in 1970. His two sons, Joshua and Benjamin, were born and raised here. Toll blossomed into a stalwart presence in Baltimore’s literary community for the next four decades.
He recruited Pipkin to launch the literary magazine Open 24 Hours in 1981. It was a low-tech affair—folded and stapled sheets of 8 1/2-by-11 inch paper. These were the days when readings took place at the Red Door Hall on St. Paul Street, the Maryland Writers’ Association home base, and the Station Building at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where poet Joe Cardarelli taught. And Pipkin recalls that such vibrancy inspired Toll to launch the magazine, which published Codrescu, Ted Berrigan, Gerard Malanga, Anselm Hollo, and locals such as Tom DiVenti, Dyane Fancey, and Susan Gossling.
The submissions process was that both Pipkin and Toll had to agree on the poem. “It wouldn’t be unusual for us to go back and forth over whether to include one poem,” Pipkin says. “And it may have been by somebody nobody had ever heard of. The magazine was serious and irreverent at the same time.”
One of those unknowns was a then recent college graduate named Rupert Wondolowski. Open 24 Hours published one of his early works, and Wondolowski—co-owner of Normal’s Books and Records, The Shattered Wig Review co-founding editor, and City Paper contributor—moved to Baltimore in 1984 to hit the tail end of the 1970s/early 1980s poetry community and take part in its 1990s rise. And Toll was there, listening to poets, working on his own poems, talking to anybody who started up a conversation with him, lending his laser-sharp editing and proofreading eye to just about anybody who asked, and acting as a witty, friendly beacon during life’s storms.
Wondolowski recalls a birthday he spent with Toll. “It was this beautiful occasion where Chris came over and a new [Bob] Dylan album had just come out,” Wondolowski says. “That was always something that we would celebrate. We sat there and listened to it and he commented on each track and picked out which lines, to him, were the good ones. He would say [that] Dylan always would leave one really bad line in to leave oxygen in there.”
Toll’s tastes ran from poetry to music, from highbrow literature to lowbrow movies. He had varied interests and could to talk about them with originality. At the Oct. 1 memorial of his life at the Ruck Funeral Home in Towson, a packed house heard the emotional memories of his sons, Josh and Ben; Benjamin’s wife; Toll’s older brother and younger sister; DiVenti; Wondolowski; Publishing Genius’ Adam Robinson, who published Toll’s The Disinformation Phase last year; and Barbara DeCesare, who co-curated the Benevolent Armchair Reading series with Toll in recent years.
Tears alternated with smiles as people spoke, and the stories brought to life a singular man. Toll liked traditions: He patronized the same pet store in Indiana every year when visiting his sister at Thanksgiving to buy the toy he knew his beloved cats liked. He hit the same Towson Thai restaurant every Christmas Eve, catching a matinee movie the next day. His sons talked about how, when their father finished a poem, he would keep a copy of it in a pocket, close to his heart.
The power of his poetry remains, as do examples of his extraordinary empathy. In separate conversations with his sons, each said they got their compassion from him, his seemingly endless capacity to recognize the weight of day-to-day life. Benjamin became a psychologist, saying that he sometimes works with people who are really sick and going through a lot, and feels his dad gave him the ability to listen to them and help in any way he can. Josh is a lawyer who does pro bono work with indigent people in Washington, D.C.
Such work is a continuation of the compassion their father expressed through his poetry. “I know there is a bit of a melancholy streak that runs through my dad’s work,” Josh Toll says. “My dad was so attuned to other people’s suffering. . . . I know I’m really lucky to have such a thoughtful dad—he would write me a four to five line e-mail that just animated my life. And I know I’m going to miss that so much.”
> Email Bret McCabe
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141. Being questioned concerning the God whom they worshipped, they replied that they worshipped a God visible and invisible; a God visible under the Human Form, and an invisible God, under no form at all; and I learned from their discourse, and likewise from the ideas of their thoughts which were communicated to me, that the visible God was our Lord Himself, and they also called Him Lord. To this it was given me to reply, that on our Earth also, an invisible and a visible God is worshipped; and that the invisible God is called the Father, and the visible, the Lord; but that both are One, as He Himself taught, saying, that no one had ever seen the form of the Father, that the Father and He are One, that whoso seeth Him seeth the Father, and that the Father is in Him and He in the Father; consequently, that both Divine [Essences] are in One Person. That these are the words of the Lord Himself, see John v. 37; x. 30; xiv. 7, 9-11.
142. Afterwards I saw other spirits from the same earth, who appeared in a place beneath the former: with these also I conversed; but they were idolaters, for they worshipped an idol of stone, like a man, but an unhandsome one. It is to be observed, that all who come into the other life, in the beginning have a worship which is like their worship in the world, but that by degrees they are removed from it. The reason why this takes place is, that all worship remains implanted in man’s interior life, from which it cannot be removed and eradicated except by degrees. On seeing this, it was given me to tell them that they ought not to worship what is dead, but what is living; to which they replied, that they knew that God lives, and that a stone does not, but that they thought of the living God while looking on a stone resembling a man, and that otherwise the ideas of their thought could not be fixed upon and determined to the invisible God. It was then given me to tell them that the ideas of thought can be fixed upon and determined to the invisible God, when they are fixed upon and determined to the Lord, who is God visible in thought under the Human Form; and thus that man can be conjoined with the invisible God in thought and affection, consequently in faith and love, when he is conjoined with the Lord, but not otherwise.
143. The spirits who were seen on high were questioned whether on their earth they live under the rule of princes or kings. To this they replied, that they do not know what governments are, and that they live under themselves, distinguished into clans, families, and households. They were questioned whether they were thus in security. They said they were secure, since one family never envies another, nor desires to deprive another of anything. They were indignant at being asked such questions, as if they had been charged with being at enmity, or with needing protection against robbers. What, said they, does anyone need but food and raiment, and thus to live content and quiet under one’s own management?
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Hahn said: "This will always be implemented proportionately, especially in countries where certain regions have a great deal of independence and autonomy through their constitution".
"It's not necessarily the case that all programmes will fully come under the penalties or sanctions," he added.
The comments were made at the opening session of the EU's 'Open Days' in the European Parliament. Hahn was grilled by numerous regional representatives who questioned whether regional and local authorities should be held responsible for the alleged misbehaviour of national governments.
Liverpool City Councillor Flo Clucas said: "If we want to have macroeconomic conditionality and we're not involving regions in the design of programmes as we should … then that I think will create problems."
"With this [proposal] unfortunately I think what we're seeing is the stick and not the carrot," she added.
A 'sword of Damocles'
Hahn faced criticism from numerous other regional and local officials for his broader sanctions proposal.
Michel Delebarre, mayor of Dunkirk, went so far as to say that the Commission was "placing a sort of sword of Damocles over the regions by threatening to suspend structural funds for local authorities of member states not respecting the Stability Pact."
Danuta Hübner, a Polish European People's Party MEP and chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development which will have to approve the proposal, said: "I have always been against this approach and I continue to be."
The controversy goes to the heart of whether Brussels can assert more influence over member states' budgetary policies.
Hahn defended his proposal saying that in the context of the sovereign debt crisis "at European level there has been a call on the Commission to take action, and react, and if necessary introduce penalties and sanctions because we have been told that we are 'all bark and no bite'."
Hahn stated this was part of the Commission's efforts to increase its control over excessive deficits in all EU countries, including non-euro members.
"The basic idea was to have an opportunity … so that we would have something similar to what we have in the eurozone which would apply to all states," he said.
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Businesses receiving the Odessa Development Corp.’s 2009 annual report may notice something different on the cover.
Instead of a photo featuring the oil or natural gas industries, a picture of a row of wind turbines fronts the brochure. Christi Callicoate of CVA Advertising, who put the brochure together, said the photo was meant to highlight the recent construction of Duke Energy’s Notrees Wind Farm, which has 95 wind turbines, with 11 of those in Ector County. The remainder are in Winkler County.Posted:02/21/2010
Maybe we’ve reached the point where the petrochemical complex that has been a part of the Odessa scene for the past half century has become more of a liability than an asset.
A letter to the City of Odessa by current owner Flint Hills Resources seems to shovel dirt in the face of a notion that the facility could be resurrected and once more be an economic force for the community.
The Flint Hills letter was in response to a letter sent by the city asking the company to enter negotiations on the possible restart of the petrochemical facility.Posted:02/10/2010
Flint Hills Resources officials have said the company intends to demolish the 53-year-old facility in a letter sent in response to a letter from the city of Odessa asking Flint Hills to enter negotiations on the possible restart of its shuttered petrochemical plant.Posted:12/19/2009
THE POINT — Summit coal-fired plant seems close to becoming reality.
It seems as if the Permian Basin has been pursuing energy’s version of the Holy Grail, clean-coal technology, for a long time. Now there are a number of reasons to believe that vision is within reach.
Is the Summit Power Group Inc.’s planned $1.7 billion integrated gasification combined cycle coal power plant, which is designed to capture 90 percent of the carbon dioxide it produces, the end of the rainbow?Posted:12/15/2009
Economist Ray Perryman told a group of around 200 Tuesday that Texas was the last state to go into the recent recession, and it will be among the first to recover.
He said during his 22nd Annual Perryman Economic Outlook Conference at Odessa Country Club that nationally the recent recession was the worst since the Great Depression, but things never got as bad in Texas as they did during the 1980s.
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View from the Hermitage. Even the legislation
should be with emotion
The 15th meeting of the International Advisory Board of the State Hermitage has been held recently.
The Council was created on the initiative of UNESCO. Initially the project included a number of activities that allowed the Museum to get to know how western colleagues were solving problems connected with the market. The project is finished, and, according to UNESCO, it became one of the most successful projects in Russia. The activities conducted within the framework of this project draw attention of the Russian Government, the World Bank and MacKenzie Company to the Hermitage. In fact, what happened was that the Museum has assimilated the experience of those forms of activity that it has never had before. A very important role in this was played by the International Advisory Board.
Usually when international organisations support some type of activity, they create a supervisory board. In our case together with the colleagues sent by UNESCO we ourselves chose museum workers who would become advisers of the Hermitage, and not advisers of UNESCO at the Hermitage. Now I will explain what the difference is.
When similar councils are created, usually what happens is that foreign
principles and ideas are being imposed on. This was the situation in our
country for the past
The council was helping us to reconsider the Western experience, but
did not demand from us taking
The Hermitage learnt how to live under market conditions, combining government and private sponsorship. Now our colleagues from the Former Soviet Union countries come to us to adopt our experience.
This year we have discussed many global issues: what will be in the East Wing of the General Staff building, how the Museum will live in the 21st century, we have also discussed the project that we are doing together with Rem Koolhaas - Hermitage 2014.
I will not talk about all the details. I will give an example. The Hermitage is a unique museum. This is a monument of the Russian statehood and history. History lives in its walls, this can not be found in any other museums over the world. History left even the walls of the Louvre long time ago. However, we do not show our history in exhibitions well enough. For instance, everyone knows that Catherine lived in the Winter Palace. But how can we narrate this? The Hermitage is not like Tsarskoye Selo or Peterhof where one can see how the emperors lived. The Hermitage is a big artistic museum. We discussed with the members of the Advisory Board how to show the history here, and we came up with ideas during discussions.
We were discussing whether it was worth displaying oriental cultures of the 19th century in the General Staff building. Being an orientalist, I am all for it, but not all the colleagues share my point of view. The representative of the British Museum was surprised: how can not the Orient be displayed? He said: in the Winter Palace your emperors lived, and in the General Staff building the policy of the Russian Empire was forged. This policy was aimed at the East to oppose us, the English.
Immediately the entire scheme becomes clear: we have the imperial Winter Palace, we have the New Hermitage - an artistic museum, and we have the General Staff building where there was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance where Gorchakov and Witte worked. And next to them there is Palace Square, the 1812 War Memorial. All these should be shown to visitors as a whole without turning the Hermitage into a domestic or history museum. During the discussions with our colleagues it becomes clear how to achieve this.
A separate working session was dedicated to the Hermitage centres. Our Dutch and Italian colleagues spoke at this meeting. Together with the members of the Advisory Board we spent one day in Vyborg where the exhibition Catherine the Great is being prepared to open the Hermitage centre.
Vyborg is the city that preserved its historic core. It can be an example of interpretation of the national history and culture, we should only think over how to do it. We visited several local museums, discussed what role could be played by the Hermitage centre. Nowadays many people take a great interest in Swedish and Finnish history, but they forget some of the Russian history. The historical context of the life of Vyborg is that it stood between Novgorod Rus and Sweden. When talking to foreigners, we can see information gaps. It should be explained to them that this was the territory where the Russians fought against the Swedes, and that a big imperial war took place here.
Our talks and meetings with the members of the Hermitage Advisory Board are important for the task that we are now setting to solve. On September 18th in Novgorod, that celebrates its 1150 years anniversary, the joint meeting of the Presidium of the State Council and the Council of Culture and Art under the President of the Russian Federation will be held. A serious discussion is being prepared at the state level; it will be discussed that the upbringing of people should be built on the emotional base, on the respect to the cultural heritage monuments.
Russia is a country of boundless spaces. You can understand this especially
when living not in Moscow or St Petersburg, but somewhere in Siberia or the Far
East. Politics and economy may exist anywhere at any time. But there
are things that stay invariable. The framework of Russia is in its
museums and churches, its
We often worry that the upbringing nowadays is no good. It is important
to foster the feeling of respect to the national history in people, especially
in young generation. This feeling will make possible the acceptance of all
even negative parts of our national history. If once we did something
wrong, it does not mean that we should make a show of our feelings and beat
the chest. We did a bad thing when we signed The
The feeling of respect to the national history should not be turned into conviction that we are the best. In different periods we could be good or bad, but we should speak boldly of our history and evaluate it objectively. Then we will not have to repent continuously or assure that we are the best.
Veliky Novgorod is an absolutely fantastic city from the point of view
of education and sense of its own history. This is just here where the
Novgorod is a place of amazing Russian churches and astonishing literacy that is a result of openness to the world. As soon as the archeologists began excavating Novgorod, they started to find birch bark letters. There are no other excavation sites in the world where so many proofs of intersection between the East and the West are found. This is what brings up and educates people. Of course, nowadays even in Novgorod some people aim to put concrete slabs on top of the excavation sites. However, this causes rejection and protest among people; that also educates them. Even nature around Novgorod, Pskov, Pushkinskiye Gory and Yasnaya Polyana is necessary to make people feel normal and feel human. When Vaganova was asked why she would not move her school to Moscow, she answered that it was because her girls passed great architectural monuments on their way to school. This principle works nowadays as well.
People are educated by the historical and cultural surroundings. If they understand that one must not destroy an ancient building, because it is ancient, that one must not foul excavation sites, that archeological monuments are sacred things and not things that can be sold, then we will preserve and gradually restore the feeling of national dignity.
It should be like this in every historical city. How can this be done? - By endlessly explaining even obvious things. If people do not understand that a skyscraper can not be placed in the centre of the city, it should be explained to them again and again. Eventually they will understand that, though may be not everyone. If we unite our efforts, many things can be stopped and proper order can be introduced. Human energy is strong, it accumulates and multiplies.
I do hope that it will be possible to introduce special strict rules
for monuments; the rules that will be followed. We struggle for the regulations
for Palace Square. Veliky Novgorod, Pskov,
Museum-reserves are a special case. They combine in themselves nature,
history and architecture. But they are the most vulnerable, and, as it turned
out, they are easily accessible; their borders are not protected
by any laws. Even the most determined directors of
The 1150 years anniversary of Novgorod gives hope. I am a member of the celebration preparation committee. There are talks on the roads, an aerodrome and on monument preservation. It was in Novgorod where for the first time the word "Russia" was uttered. The Monument to the Millennium of Russia together with the St Sophia Cathedral is a symbol of statehood. This is an example for educating people. On September 18th in Novgorod we will return to the discussion of how to preserve historical cities and territories, of the fact that there should be parameters that must be observed. In a place where everything is born out of ensemble, the regulations should be even stricter.
There is a certain economy in preservation of historical monuments, and a normal one. This is an educational tourism that gives people pleasure and can bring money. For our country it is vitally important. We have everything necessary, and we will survive the crisis. What is really scaring is to loose the sense of national dignity once and for all. Historical cities of Russia are the best medicine. People sacrificed their lives for Novgorod, Pskov, Moscow, Leningrad and Volgograd.
Outside observers watch closely whether we have national dignity. If we have it, no one will dare to lay their hands on us. If we loose it, everyone will try to bit off a piece.
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I write briefly to you this morning regarding the gifts of Christ that come to us through His life, atonement, and resurrection.
I speak in the words of those who knew Him personally, and who have seen Him face to face, about the gifts He offers to those who know and are among the believers.
Let’s start with Isaiah, Jacob’s, Nephi’s, and Lehi’s dispensational poetic Prophet. We find him in Isaiah chapter 6 or 2 Nephi 16:
“[F]or mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”
Hebraic language does not have the facility to articulate good, better or best, so Holy, Holy, Holy, or Holy spoken or written three times is the most Holy one can get. Like Woe, Woe Woe, is the greatest warning a Prophet can give of impending doom.
“The Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.”
Which temple is Isaiah speaking of? Is this the heavenly temple in the most holy place? In this most holy place what did he see? His train filled the temple. Now we are not talking about a choo choo train, the ones we find encircling our Christmas trees on Christmas morning. We are talking about the train that most mother’s on this blog directed when their daughters were married in the temple.
This imagery of the train is associated with the fact that all of us that were given to Christ by the Father and assembled reverently behind Him. It represents all of us who desire with all of our hearts to follow Him–who believe in Him. Believe it or not, we are the gifts given to Christ by the Father and will fill the temple at this time. This is a small look into the fact that we are the gift He most desires from the Father.
Then Isaiah spoke, “Wo is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”
What gift is Isaiah speaking of now? The glorious gift of remorse and repentance. Giving us great insight into that which we can feel as we approach the throne of God. We must be undone when we approach His grace and His love for us. Repentance isn’t easy; it undoes us, we feel totally undone by His grace and power to heal us. His atonement is so universal so all-encompassing that it appertains to everything He ever created or graced His name with. He atoned for everything He ever created; for everything is in need of His grace and His Atonement.
Now let’s turn to Jacob chapter 5. Now remember, we are the Olive trees, and it grieveth the Lord that He might lose us. So what does He do? Verse 47:
47 But what could I have done more in my vineyard? Have I slackened mine hand, that I have not nourished it? Nay, I have nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and I have dunged it; and I have stretched forth mine hand almost all the day long, and the end draweth nigh. And it grieveth me that I should hew down all the trees of my vineyard, and cast them into the fire that they should be burned.”
Who is it that has corrupted His vineyard?
He digged about us, turned over our soul, and harrowed us up.
A harrow is a large cylindrical structure, which tears up the ground with the sharp projectiles that extend from its every surface as it goes over us.
Most of us have felt the effects of being harrowed up by the Lord on occasion.
He grafts in new branches.
Abraham, Noah, Joseph of Egypt, Joseph Smith, Spencer W. Kimball, Neal Maxwell, and the entire population of the early restored church, were grafted from England and Europe to Kirkland, to Missouri, to Nauvoo, to Winter Quarters, to the Great Salt Lake Valley, to countless missions all over the globe and settlements all over the Western United States. How many of us were grafted into this place, this congregation by the voice and hand of the Lord?
He prunes us.
The analogy of the currant bush used by Elder Hugh B. Brown comes to mind. Brother Brown prepared and wanted to become a General in the Canadian Military. But the Lord pruned him to become a General—Authority to the church and the world. His will had to be swallowed up into the will of the Father. Are we like-wise prepared to be so pruned?
He dungs us.
In other words he covers us with manure, often up to our eyeballs so that quite often we can see nothing else but the work, the diapers, the children, and the church responsibilities we are inundated with. Far too often we feel in the thick of very thin things, overwhelmed by underwhelming tasks, things and responsibilities that have been poured out upon us. Sometimes it is like having manure up to our necks; the smell can be so strong that far too often that is all we can smell and all we can think of. Only after emerging from the deluge of this grueling gift, we see we have been delivered, prepared, tempered, and anointed.
Verse 51 of Jacob 5:
And the Lord said: Yea, I will spare it a little longer, for it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard.
He will not lose us, for we are His, and He loves us as He loves a part of Himself.
Now let’s turn to Proverbs chapter 8.
As we read here, it seems that we are allowed to go back and read from some of our premortal journals to remember our once close kinship with our Lord and Savior.
In conclusion, I will quote from these sources:
22 The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.
23 I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.
24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth:
26 While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world.
27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
28 When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:
29 When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth:
30 Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him;
31 Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.
32 Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
I testify to you, we all were there; we all were brought up with Him. We are His delight. Do not count yourself as less than this. Remember, those whom He loves He tries our faith and our patience. We are the gift the Father gives to Him. We are all He has. Let us be the best of gifts.
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Pete The Moose Dead Since September, Park Owner Admits Covering Up Death
IRASBURG, Vt. -- The owner of the game park where Pete the Moose lived has taken responsibility for covering up the death of Vermont's favorite animal, the state's fish and wildlife commissioner said Saturday.
Pete, whose life in captivity helped prompt the state to pass new wildlife laws and who received a gubernatorial pardon last winter, died in early September at the Big Rack Ridge in Irasburg while being tranquilized during hoof trimming. But state officials insisted he was alive until Friday, even issuing a photo taken Thursday of a moose it identified as Pete.
The moose in the picture turned out to be a different animal, prompting Pete's Facebook fans to start accusing the state of a cover-up. But Commissioner Patrick Berry said park owner Doug Nelson has since admitted that he delayed telling state officials about Pete's death.
"I did talk to the Nelsons yesterday evening and expressed my frustration with what had happened, and I was happy that they decided to take ownership of the issue," Berry told The Associated Press. "The whole issue of Pete the Moose has been such a lightning rod, my guess is they were just concerned about what would happen (if word got out about the death)."
Nelson didn't return a call seeking comment Saturday. But his son, Richard Nelson, told WCAX-TV that the family misled the state.
"The blame goes to us," he said. "We're the ones that didn't say Pete died."
"We said we would take care of Pete, and then a few weeks later, geez, Pete died," he said. "And so we were mortified, and we said, `Oh, we'll just sit on this one.'"
Pete, who was adopted as a calf after dogs attacked his mother and a sibling, rose to fame in 2009, when state officials said they didn't want native wild animals mixing with the elk at the game preserve, out of fear that chronic wasting disease could spread to the native animals. Animals other than elk on the preserve were ordered hunted and killed, but after a public outcry, lawmakers crafted a compromise.
In it, the animals at the Big Rack Ridge preserve were designated a "special purpose herd," oversight of which was transferred from Fish and Wildlife to the state Agency of Agriculture. That meant that preserve owner Doug Nelson owned the animals.
But lawmakers reversed themselves earlier this year, saying wild animals in the state can't be privately owned and are legally a public trust, owned by all Vermonters. Under that legislation, the native deer were ordered removed within three years, but Pete was allowed to stay.
Berry said it was "tremendously frustrating" to have been accused by Pete's fans of causing or covering up Pete's death.
"Most of the people who have been fans of Pete the Moose have never fully understood the story," he said. "It's not a good idea to trap wildlife behind a fence and feed them beer and doughnuts. This is a good example of what happens when you don't keep wildlife wild."
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Re: Jere Robings' Dec. 10 commentary, “Spiral toward despair�:
Mr. Robings’ heartbreaking story of his grandson raises many issues, and one can only hope this young man finally gets the sort of serious, structured help he needs. But one point Robings makes needs some further thought.
Robings writes of the boy as a seventh-grader trying marijuana — "you know, that harmless drug that some want legalized." But it was under our present marijuana laws — and indeed, because of our present marijuana laws — that this child had easy access to the drug. The only way that will ever change it to replace our failed laws with a system that works.
Consider: If you walk into any store that sells cigarettes, you'll see a large red and yellow sign saying, "Under 18, No Tobacco: We Card." Have you ever seen a drug dealer with a sign like that?
Because tobacco merchants are licensed and regulated, we have some control over them and can take away their license if they sell to kids. And that's why, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teen use of cigarettes is dropping twice as quickly as teen marijuana use.
No one wants to see 13-year-olds smoking marijuana. Until we replace the failure of prohibition with common-sense regulation, kids will continue to have easy access.
— Bruce Mirken, San Francisco
(The writer is director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, based in Washington, D.C. — Editor)
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Since October 2008 is has been clear that the Government intends to implement a 2-tier filtering regime. The first, mandatory tier, would involve URL blacklist filtering according to a blacklist specified by ACMA. The second, optional (as in opt-out) tier, would be used to filter additional material not on the ACMA blacklist that the Government thinks that Australians should be protected from.
By definition, the second tier of filtering will not use a blacklist, or at least, not an ACMA blacklist. The Government has not talked about a second ACMA blacklist. Instead, the sort of filtering performed by the 2nd tier would be more like the filtering already done in schools, corporations, and by dedicated ISPs that already offer clean feed services. It is not clear what parameters bound the operation of this second tier and how much control individuals will be given over the filtering decisions made by the second tier.
Let's suppose that an ISP grants the user some control over what is blocked on their feed. webshield already does this, for their customers. Products like Netsweeper also have a category list and any ISP that used Netsweeper could potentially offer a configurable filter to their customers.
How would configuration work? Presumably, the adults in the household could select which categories get blocked by the filter. Here's a document that lists the categories that Netsweeper uses. And here is a definition of category 23 pornography.
This category contains URLs that reference, discuss, or show pornography, pictures, videos, or sexually oriented material. This category includes nudity, soft and hard-core pornography, sadomasochism, bestiality, child porn, fetishes, stories, adult magazines, toys, or any sexual related purchase. This category excludes sex education sites.
Which is fine. What is unclear is why Netsweeper classified (on December 21) "The Porn Report Book" as class 23, pornography?
This is a site which is about a book which is about pornography. It is not a site that contains pornography itself.
Worse, here is a page which offers a review of "The Porn Report". On December 21, Netsweeper classified this page as:
Journals and Blogs Arts & Culture General News Pornography
In other words, Netsweeper has decided that a site advertising "The Porn Report" and a site offering (an unflattering) review of "The Porn Report" are themselves pornographic.
What are the implications of this?
Anyone subject to a Netsweeper filter who was interested in educating themselves about the role of pornography in Australian society would be denied access to the site that promotes the book if they have the "pornography" classification switched on - which they surely would, otherwise, why are we having this debate?.
Not only that, anyone in this unfortunate condition who wanted to read reviews of the book, would have their access to some reviews of the book blocked by the same filter.
Promotional websites and book reviews are critical elements that help to sell books. It is an obvious consequence of this inadvertent censorship, that publishers of the Porn Report will lose revenue due to lost sales from a large portion of the Australian population. Furthermore, the voting public won't be as educated about the issue of pornography as they otherwise could be.
What are the publishers of "The Porn Report" meant to do?
Do they prostrate themselves on bended knee before Netsweeper and the other vendors and ask them to remove the "Pornography" classification from the site? Possibly, but why should it be their responsibility to do that? And even if the filter vendors deign to reclassify the site, that doesn't solve the problem. The publishers simply won't know where all the reviews of the book are and whether they have been blocked. Whose responsiblity is it to locate every last blocked review and get the classifcation fixed? Is it the publisher? Why?
This is why filtering for pornography is so unlike any existing censorship mechanism. It doesn't scale to the volume of material and doesn't deal with the contingent and transient nature of publishing on the Internet
So here we have a very real example of how the opt-out filtering policy will place a very real restraint on the trade of people who have conducted serious studies about the role of pornography in Australian society. Furthermore, such a filter will directly interfere with the quality of social and political discourse within this country.
This is quite simply unacceptable for a democracy. The Government should not be setting up a censorship mechanism that censors by default and is fixed by exception.
What a joke.
Readers are invited to discover for themselves what other sites Netsweeper regards as pornography using this test site.
Classifications reported by Netsweeper were accurate as at 21 December, 2008. Subsequent results may vary, presumably in response to the level of community outrage.
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Many people look to traditional savings accounts and Certificates of Deposits as a way to set some money aside and gain interest. However, money market accounts offer benefits of both CD’s and saving accounts. If you’re looking for a great place to park your money, money market accounts may be for you. Check out great MMA rates below.
Money Markets & Money Market Rates
Advantages of Money Market Accounts
One of the most obvious advantages of choosing a money market account over savings accounts is that they generally yield more interest. There are plenty of other benefits to money markets as well. Some of these include:
- Liquidity: Most banks offer you an ATM card and checkbook for your money market account making funds easily accessible. With CD’s you have to wait until maturity before your money is available to you, which is one reason people opt for money markets over CD’s. If you’re in between investments and need somewhere to keep your cash, money markets allow you to withdraw funds when your next opportunity arises. It’s important to remember that most banks do have limits on the number of transactions you can have on your account, so don’t mistake it with a checking account that earns interest.
- Interest Rates: The reason people open savings accounts of any kind is to hopefully gain some interest. Money markets offer higher rates than regular savings accounts, so your money isn’t just sitting wasting away. The interest is accrued daily and dividends are paid monthly.
- FDIC Insured: Money Market Accounts are eligible for FDIC insurance, so you will be covered for up to $250,000. So even if your bank fails, your money is protected.
Disadvantages of Money Market Accounts
Money Market Accounts are not without fault. Just as checking accounts, CD’s, and savings accounts have flaws, so do money market accounts. Some of these disadvantages include:
- Minimum Deposits: Banks will require you to open your account with a minimum balance and maintain a certain balance for the duration of the account. Since the goal of opening these accounts is to earn interest, you should be striving to maintain a decent balance already, so the minimums shouldn’t be a deal breaker.
- Transaction Limits: While one of the pros to these accounts is the ability to withdraw funds and write checks through them, there are limits to what you can do. The Federal Reserve limits the number of transfers and withdrawals you can have each month to just 6.
- Opportunity Cost: Money Markets are a pretty safe bet for your money but the interest they yield isn’t as much as you might find investing in the stock market or other investment opportunities. If you’re looking for big gains from interest, this may not be your top choice. But remember, the potential payout of other investments comes with higher risks.
Money Market Rates
Over the past few years, there has been a significant decrease in the interest rates for money markets so shopping around for the best rate is a necessity. The easiest way to find the best money market rates is to simply ask. Check with your bank or credit union to find out their rates. Rates will vary based on the amount you have in your account and how long you have your money in the account among other things. Rates are also influence by how much banks feel they can make off of loaning the money in your money market account. Since banks aren’t loaning out money as much as they used to, you’ll notice that rates are lower than they were back in 2008. Most banks float around 1% Annual Percentage Yield.
Money Market Accounts vs. Money Market Funds
Misinformation can be very detrimental to people thinking of opening a money market account. One of the most common mistakes is confusing money market accounts with money market funds. Money market funds are a type of mutual funds that invest in short term (less than 13 months) investments such as CD’s, corporate paper, or U.S. Treasury issues. Money Market Accounts are a form of saving accounts that will earn you more interest than a regular savings account with the ability to have more control over when you can have access to your money.
Money Market Accounts are a great combination of checking accounts, traditional savings accounts, and CD’s. Go to your bank and ask about their CD rates, fees, and account minimums to determine if a money market account will work for your needs.
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Since I'm a list maker at heart, I love the idea of a chore chart to help keep children on track in regards to their daily chores. The problem? Charts can be tricky for the 4 and under crowd who are not yet reading but still want to feel like the big kids. I've used this chart in the past for my older children but it wasn't suitable for my little ones.
My solution was creating a chart with Audrey (3) and Oliver (2) in mind. I kept with the same color scheme as the older children's chart but the daily tasks are more simple and are things I want them to get in the habit of doing on their own. They are: making their beds, getting dressed, clearing their dishes from the table, brushing their teeth and putting away toys. I realize that some of these tasks will require my help (brushing their teeth and helping Oliver get dressed) but for the most part, they are capable of accomplishing them with minimal parental interference.
Audrey + Oliver love adding stickers to the page when a task is complete. Another good alternative would be laminating the chart and using a dry erase marker to track progress.
I have high hopes this chart is going to help ease some of the morning rush chaos once school rolls around. Do you have toddlers in your home too? I turned our chore chart into a PDF printable just for you!
-Download the Modern Toddler Chore Chart here.
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MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- A new report from the Equal Justice Initiative says that of the 34 U.S. states with the death penalty, Alabama is the only jurisdiction where judges routinely override jury verdicts of life to impose capital punishment.
Since 1976, according to the report, Alabama judges have overridden jury verdicts 107 times. Although judges have authority to override life or death verdicts, in 92 percent of overrides elected judges have overruled jury verdicts of life to impose the death penalty.
"No capital sentencing procedure in the united States has come under more criticism as unreliable, unpredictable, and arbitrary than the unique Alabama practice of permitting elected trial judges to override jury verdicts of life and impose death sentences," the Montgomery-based organization wrote.
The organization claims that judicial override of jury recommendations "is the primary reason why Alabama has the highest per-capita death sentencing rate and execution rate in the country." Last year, according to the Equal Justice Initiative, Alabama, with a population of 4.5 million people, imposed more new death sentences than Texas, with a population of 24 million.
In a New York Times report today, 2 coastal Alabama judges were referenced, with Judge Ferrill D. McRae, who retired in 2006 after 40 years on the bench in Mobile, saying he thought judges need the discretion to override juries because judges have experience with many cases.
The Times report also notes a case presided over by Charles C. Partin, who sat in Bay Minette. In that case, Partin argued that the defendant was probably not mentally disabled, though the jury may have factored that in its thinking when it rendered a recommendation of life in prison. “The sociological literature suggests that Gypsies intentionally test low on standard I.Q. tests,” Partin wrote in the 1990 sentencing order.
The "Gypsy" case, according to Press-Register files, involves John Lionel Neal,
John Lionel Neal, 43, first convicted of capital murder in 1990 in the murder of 77-year-old Wilma Underwood, who was killed during a burglary of her Foley home.
Neal's fingerprints were found in a pocketbook in Underwood's ransacked house. Her television set was later found in Neal's Covington, La., home, officials with the case said. Neal was arrested in Detroit and placed in the Baldwin County jail on May 29, 1987.
Neal's first conviction and death sentence were overturned, with an appeals court faulting the jury selection process.
Then, in the spring of 1994, a second jury found Neal guilty and recommended he be executed. However, in 2008, an agreement was reached to decrease Neal's sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole after lawyers continued arguing on his behalf.
That agreement came as Neal's lawyers planned to argue in a pending hearing that Neal is mentally retarded, which a state evaluation had supported. A 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision deemed the execution of mentally retarded individuals as cruel and unusual punishment.
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Commenting on the findings, Emmanouil Schizas, ACCA senior economic analyst, said: 'Two worrying trends emerge from the SME Finance Monitor findings. First, UK SMEs are becoming less profitable; second, fewer are applying for new or renewed loans and overdrafts. ACCA’s own analysis of loan applications confirms that in the past a small number of cash-rich, profitable and growing businesses used to drive a disproportionate share of the demand for finance, but no longer do so. While some of these larger SMEs might be sitting on piles of cash and seeing out the difficult economic conditions, declining profits could affect everyone’s access to finance in future.
'Of the few SMEs who are seeking new finance, even fewer take advice prior to applications, which could make a big difference in securing finance: asking for the wrong product, or the wrong amount of money, can get in the way of success. For the first time since these surveys began, one in five applicants for new finance didn’t get a facility straight away but needed to provide additional clarifications and assurances and negotiate with the bank. Businesses need professional advice to navigate this process.
'The Monitor also reveals that, in more than half of UK SMEs, owners' private finances and those of the business are overlapping through cash injections or the use of personal banking accounts. While this has often been necessary, the overlap needs to be managed carefully with the use of appropriate financial advice.
'Building financial capabilities in-house is at least as important as taking advice. The SME Finance Monitor has consistently shown that SMEs’ access to bank lending is more secure when they have financially trained staff running their finances, produce regular management accounts, avoid unauthorised overdrafts, and can negotiate good credit terms with their suppliers. Businesses can’t achieve all of this by dropping their accountant a line a week before they see the bank.'
On SME awareness of Funding for Lending Scheme:
Emmanouil Schizas said: 'Early findings suggest that Funding for Lending Scheme could help address some of the problem of discouraged demand for finance among SMEs. Although only a quarter of all SMEs are aware of the scheme, this is still better than the awareness rates most established access to finance schemes have achieved so far. Among businesses hoping to borrow in the future, awareness is even higher. The SME Finance Monitor findings even suggest that seven per cent of the SMEs classed as 'Permanent Non Borrowers' (the businesses that have not borrowed in the past and show no appetite for borrowing in the near future) could be enticed to borrow now as a result of the FLS - especially micro-enterprises. This is equivalent to over 110,000 businesses that would otherwise not be looking for loans or overdrafts.
'It's hard to define discouraged borrowers, but we do know from the Monitor data that there are plenty of SMEs who aren't looking to borrow in the near future despite having an identified need for finance. Nearly half (45 per cent) of these SMEs thought they would be turned down by the bank, which is unrealistically high – even if all of this demand were for entirely new funds, only 37 per cent would end up with no facility.
'Finally, the Monitor findings suggests that about two-thirds of businesses aware of the scheme are not aware of what their banks are doing about it. We hope individual banks will do their part and continue to actively market their offering. In the meantime, the British Bankers Association (BBA) has prepared an excellent resource for business, which can be found on the Better Business Finance website, and outlines what each of its members is offering under the scheme.'
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Now you can hear the world around you, and your music.
We're going into production!
"I don't get super excited about too many things but the Bipo, wow, I had a grin on my face the entire ride....they grab the helmet like an Egyptian politician grabbing power."-5chw4r7z
"These are just, the coolest things ever." -lady at FedEx
"A really brilliantly simple idea."-Complex
Music for your Ride
Thanks for checking us out! This all started a couple years ago when, while starting out on a long bike ride, a car pulled up playing some catchy pop song. That was it. For the rest of the ride I was stuck humming that song. I searched around for what I assumed would be a myriad of options for cyclists to listen to music while riding, but nothing existed. I hacked an old pair of running headphones, popped them in my helmet and went off enjoying my soundtracked rides. When people kept asking me where I got them, I knew I was on to something.
Typically, the purpose of an earphone is to introduce perfect audio directly into your ear. On a bike though, you have to be aware of what's going on- traffic, doors, hazards, etc. By removing the headphones from your ears and shifting them into the helmet, you get the right balance of environment and music. By playing the music into the air vents, the sound disperses and loses its directionality. It literally becomes part of the background.
Attaching to your Helmet
Now this was the tricky bit. Helmets come in a wide range of shapes and sizes. To make a new helmet or special headphones seemed silly, especially when you probably already have both of these things. So that was our task: attach Apple Earphones to existing vented helmets. Why Apple Earphones? The same shape that keeps them in your ear also makes them like little grappling hooks in a vent. Plus, it seems like you can always find a spare pair lying around somewhere. In addition, Apple's production is so consistent, we knew that we could make a quality part that would always work.
A Bipo is a pair of machined aluminum clips, and a silicone band. The clips are designed to be as small as possible but still hold the band, and hold onto the Earphone. They are held in place by a thread locked set screw(and we supply you with the allen wrench). The band then keeps everything in place, without pulling on the wires. The band keeps tension in different ways depending on the shape of your helmet- you can see some of these in the video above. The band also holds down the wires across the surface of the helmet, keeping everything clean and kempt.
What else do you need?
Well, a vented helmet...and a music player. Since Bipo just interfaces with the Earphones, the rest is up to you! If your helmet can do it, the Apple Shuffle clips nicely to the rear headstrap area. A wire wrap with a clip finishes everything perfectly. We've also tested a Shuffle or Nano on a shirtsleeve, shirt collar, and so on. If you wear your player in an armband that usually works as well. If you ride with your phone, the Jabra Clipper allows you to stream music from your phone to your Bipo enabled headphones- super slick.
If you're not sure that Bipo will work with your helmet, check to see if your earbuds can "hook" into any of your vents. If they can, you're pretty much set.
What about Apple's new EarPods?
We've got you covered. Bipo uses a set screw to secure itself to your headphones. It is designed to accommodate the slightly varying dimensions between the models of Earbuds, as well as the new EarPods. We have found the the Earbuds sound a little better in this application, and are a little more versatile in vent placement.
Risks and challenges Learn about accountability on Kickstarter
From early on the biggest problem has been that Apple Earphones are small and slippery. We went through many iterations before we found a reliably produceable solution that was easy to attach and strong enough. This current design accomplishes that.
My business partner and I run a small design firm where we help clients design products and get them to production. We were able to work with our local manufacturing contacts to source all the components within the Cincinnati area. All the molds, casting, and machining will happen within 20 miles of our downtown studio.
With their help we’ve gotten all of our parts and prototypes to production spec, orders are ready to be placed. Since we've done this legwork, we have very good control over the final product. We've budgeted enough to make sure that we have the resources to get everything perfect.
Bipo provides background music, thats why it works. An easy test is to turn up your iPod and hold the earbud about 3-5 inches away from your ear. That's how loud it will be. It isn't HiFi, and is not the best way to experience your buddy's demo reel he asked you to try out. It is however loud enough to hear over the wind and general traffic sounds.
In many states this is illegal, and many feel unsafe. Even with the volume turned down you can block the sound of a car, or a critical mechanical sound from your bike.
Absolutely! Just pick your tier and pledge the the multiple that you would like to receive.
pledged of $25,000 goal
seconds to go
Funding Unsuccessful This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on December 20.
Nov 20, 2012 - Dec 20, 2012 (30 days)
Pledge $1 or more
Urban Helmet Love! If you have a helmet without vents we haven't forgotten about you. We'll keep you in the loop as this project moves forward and when we've got something you'll like- you'll be the first to know.Estimated delivery: Dec 2012
Pledge $10 or more
One Band. Have a set of first gen Earbuds? The ones with the little nubby thing on top? You're in luck. The Bipo bands work perfectly with those.Estimated delivery: Mar 2013Add $5 to ship outside the US
Pledge $25 or more
One Bipo. Put some air in the tires and charge the iPod, you're about ready to go. Two machined Aluminum clips, one Silicone band, a couple locking set screws and allen wrench. Rock on.Estimated delivery: Mar 2013Add $5 to ship outside the US
Pledge $50 or more
14 backers Limited (486 of 500 left)
Bipo LE. Laser etched serialization and red anodization.Estimated delivery: Mar 2013Add $5 to ship outside the US
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|• November 3, 2006|
The 75 men who boarded two charter buses bound for Granville, Ohio Friday are driving into Wabash College football history.
They will continue a Wabash tradition that began in the fall of 1884 when Wabash played and won the first intercollegiate football game in the state of Indiana.
They will play in the 1,000th football game in school history.
"I hope the players and coaches realize the historical significance of Saturday’s game," said former sports information director Jim Amidon. "I hope they understand and value the moment, and that they long-remember playing in the 1,000th Wabash football game."
"It’s special — a special opportunity," echoed Head Coach Chris Creighton.
Should the Little Giants defeat the feisty Big Red of Denison, they’ll capture for Wabash its 575th all-time win, which ranks among the top 10 in NCAA Division III.
They will also continue the Wabash tradition of pursuing championships.
In 1886, Wabash beat Franklin and Hanover to win the state’s first collegiate championship. Now, 120 years later, Wabash hopes to defeat Denison to capture at least a share of — and possibly an outright — North Coast Athletic Conference Championship, which would be the team’s second straight title and third overall.
Wittenberg University, which hosts Allegheny College Saturday, needs a win to keep pace with Wabash. Should the Tigers defeat Allegheny, they have only a season ending game at Hiram standing in the way of a co-championship with the Little Giants. And because Wittenberg, which already has lost to Ohio Wesleyan, defeated Wabash head-to-head, the Tigers would earn the league’s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament field.
Wabash enters the Denison match-up with a good head of steam. The team pounded Oberlin two weeks ago and last week dispatched Wooster in a hard-fought 20-10 home field victory.
Wabash’s defense, which has played well in three straight games, will be tested by Denison running backs Fred Lee and Jon Berg, both of whom topped 200 yards in last week’s win over Kenyon, Denison’s second win of the year. Lee has rushed for 738 yards and eight touchdowns, while Berg has 554 yards and three scores to his credit.
Where Denison appears vulnerable is quarterback. Injuries have created a bit of a revolving door at the position, where three players have earned starts this year. All have struggled, completing just 46.6 percent of their passes and combining for 16 interceptions in 193 attempts.
Defensively, the Big Red defense allows 24.5 points per game, but just 322 yards per game. They’ve also gotten good pressure on the quarterback and average almost three sacks per game.
Wabash is likely to do what it has done over the last few weeks: rely heavily on the arm and strong legs of quarterback Dustin Huff (pictured above right).
Huff is averaging more than 280 yards passing per game and is the team’s second leading rusher. Twice this season he’s led the team in rushing, scoring four times, and he’s tossed 25 touchdown passes.
He’ll no doubt keep his eyes on steady receiver Mike Russell (left), who leads the team with 42 catches and 11 touchdowns. Billy King, too, is likely to get plenty of touches after a strong second-half effort last week against Wooster. King leads the team in rushing with 422 yards and three touchdowns, and has 13 receptions.
Kickoff is slated for 1:00 p.m. The game will be broadcast on WNDY Radio beginning at 12:45 p.m. with the pre-game show. The broadcast can be heard over the internet, as well.
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Professional Doctor of Physical Therapy students' perspectives on the use of an Integrated Standardized Patient Examination
Date of Award
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Teaching and Leadership
Gerald M. Mager
Assessment, Standardized patient examinations, Physical therapy, Doctor of Physical Therapy, Integrated Standardized Patient Examination
Curriculum and Instruction | Education
The purpose of this study was to examine students' perspectives and experience with the ISPE. The Integrated Standardized Patient Examination (ISPE) provides students with an opportunity to apply and perform competencies that have been taught in an extended patient encounter. This study investigated the following questions: (1) What do students experience in an ISPE? and (2) How do they construct meaning and learning from an ISPE?
Two data collection approaches, survey instruments and interviews, were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data from a class of 30 students who had just completed their first year in a Doctor of Physical Therapy program. Using data obtained from a self-efficacy questionnaire administered prior to and following the ISPE a deliberate sample of ten students was selected to participate in interviews. The interview data were analyzed to develop individual portraits of each participant. Descriptive statistics generated from individual students' responses to the pre- and post- ISPE self-efficacy questionnaire were also analyzed as the portraits were developed. Descriptive and narrative data from an anonymous "Student Feedback" survey provided useful background data for the individual portraits and permitted a mechanism to analyze the congruence of the data conveyed in the portraits with that of the class as a whole.
Faculty are challenged to provide students with opportunities to develop reflective practice skills to assess and take ownership for their own professional development needs. There is evidence that participation in the ISPE and related activities supported and, in many instances, altered students' construction of their self-assessments and promoted ownership of their unique learning needs. The experience of receiving feedback from multiple sources coupled with engagement in an intentional self-assessment process appeared to facilitate students' engagement in self-assessment and in identification and ownership of their strengths and areas needing further development. Implications for academic programs that may consider using the ISPE are included.
Surface provides description only. Full text is available to ProQuest subscribers. Ask your Librarian for assistance.
Recker-Hughes, Carol, "Professional Doctor of Physical Therapy students' perspectives on the use of an Integrated Standardized Patient Examination" (2008). Teaching and Leadership - Dissertations. Paper 9.
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Posts Tagged ‘Nona Gwynn Press’
UPDATE Aug 12: listening now to NPR’s MarketPlace and they’re talking about Russia’s motives concerning Georgia – that Putin wants to control other resources besides oil and gas – he also wants control of GRAINS. See notes on Ceres and Demeter at the end of this post!
~original post starts here~ ~
Like most bellybutton-gazing Americans I’m way behind on the history of the region now ignited.
So far, the best background info I’ve found is Russia Today’s August 11 article, ‘Georgia vs South Ossetia: roots of a 100-year conflict’ here:
NPR is reporting at noon that Russia has opened a second front. Saakashvili is saying that ethnic cleansing is going on, Wake Up, World. McCain is urging Bush to dispatch Condi Rice to the region ~like Bush couldn’t think of it himself in this macabre political farce in which innocent people pay with their lives.~ And the DOW is up, btw.)
Bush is flying back to the US now from what was “likely his last trip to Asia while in office.” That Bush would think to open his gob about anyone else using force to impose ‘peace’ has to be a clue that this is political theater, dahlink – hiding the real deal made behind the scenes.
Perhaps it’s more instructive to listen to what they DO and not to what they say.
So last evening (just for curiosity’s sake) I consulted my set of The Century Cyclopedia, 1898 edition, and looked up ‘Abkhazia’ in the Book of Proper Names finding this entry from 110 years years ago:
“Abkhasia: A region, not an administrative division, on the southern slope of the Caucasus, having an area of about 3,000 miles. It was permanently subjugated by Russia in 1864. Population: about 80,000.”
No entry for Ossetia, South or North in 1898.
The entry for ‘Georgia’ says that the area is “almost identical to the ancient Iberia” and that it was conquered by Alexander the Great (who may be understandably rolling over in his tomb with the current goings-on) but that Georgia “soon after his death became an independent kingdom. It was at its height about 1200, and had a flourishing literature. It was sub-divided in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and was annexed by Russia in *1801. The Georgians are a very handsome race, of the purest Caucasian type.”
Well, that’s a time capsule from 1898 for you, antique racial comments and all!
*1801: asteroid Ceres was discovered Jan 1, 1801 – notably the date that Ireland was united with Great Britain thus creating a useable natal chart for the UK. Ceres, Roman goddess of the grain and Earth Mother, is now considered in Mundane Astrology to be a significator of national security, ecology, food resources, and of course, as The Mother archetype, of nurturing and safety.
Ceres’ Greek counterpart is Demeter whose origin is Indo-European. Demeter has been associated more with the Earth Mother, and Ceres primarily with grain. The ‘Cerealia’ on April 19 was the chief festival of Ceres. (‘New Insights into Astrology,’ Nona Gwynn Press.)
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I just received a notice that the Polish Genealogical Society of America (PGSA) is having a program on Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 2 PM. The program will take place at the Social Hall of the Polish Museum at 984 N. Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago, IL.
It is an open program in which participants will share genealogical knowledge among and between those who are in attendance.
There is no speaker or unique topic for this program.
Please click on the link that follows to see the program notice provided by the PGSA and all of the details about the program.
This is a great opportunity to meet and work with fellow Polish genealogical researchers in the building that has an incredible historical connection to those Poles that came to Chicago starting in the 1870s.
You can also vist the home page for the PGSA at their web site to get a better understanding of the society itself. Take a look at Polish Genealogical Society of America (PGSA) Website.
Check it out!
Schaumburg Township District Library
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In fact, all that incoming governor García Padilla is obliged to do under the law is send a letter to Washington stating the results. It can be argued that even if Fortuño won, he would have faced difficulty explaining why statehood should be considered when the option won only a plurality and not an absolute majority (over 50%) of the votes.
It is conceivable that Pedro Pierluisi, the island's incumbent resident commissioner (non-voting member of Congress), who is not only pro-statehood but a member of the Democratic Party with ties to Obama, might be able to argue the case, but that seems dubious given the absence of power of his office. Pierlusi was running again as running mate to Fortuño (who is staunchly Republican). He was re-elected to Resident Commissioner. A recent paper published by Latino Decisions in anticipation of Tuesday's vote states that "lawmakers are not likely to accept the outcomes of a status plebiscite that was not authorized by Congress."
For his part García Padilla has already announced that he will hold a Constitutional Convention in Puerto Rico in 2014 and seek a new plebiscite that would be approved by Congress.
Still, the incoming governor would do well to address the dissatisfaction with the current status that has been expressed by a majority of Puerto Ricans. Certainly the trend over the last several years has been disenchantment with Commonwealth. But it remains to be seen what Statehood supporters really want.
While Fortuño became infamous for implementing hardline budget-cutting policies applauded by right-wing Republicans like Grover Norquist, he was also constantly seeking Federal funds from Washington, whether it was from the Stimulus or making sure Puerto Rico would be covered by Obamacare.
Given the tendency of many statehooders, including their last governor Pedro Roselló, to align themselves with the US Democratic Party, it seems they might be in search of not so much family values and cutting government jobs than equal rights and entitlements as US citizens. Now that the island's economy is in its sixth year of recession, the ambivalent status of Commonwealth doesn't seem enough to guarantee the island's future. It's this tricky equation that seems to best explain Fortuño's unexpected defeat and statehood's increasing popularity.
Of course Puerto Rico's desire for a stronger safety net through statehood is precisely what would be met with great opposition in the increasing cost-cutting atmosphere of the US Congress. In the end, the island's fate is entirely up to the deciding power of that legislative body, not its own.
Maybe what Puerto Ricans should be focused on is not statehood, commonwealth, or independence. It's self-determination, the real, unrestricted right to control its own destiny.
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U.S. President Barack Obama has unveiled details of his proposed legislation for gun-law reform Wednesday, in the wake of the deadly shootings in Newtown, Conn. in December.
The proposal comes after a month of consultation after the December shooting, which left 28 dead, 20 of them children.
It contains three main planks:
- A ban on assault weapons
- A limit on high-capcity magazines
- Expanded background checks for the purchase of a new weapons
The legislation also includes changes to mental health services and school safety.
The New York Times reports that Obama will introduce the legislation by next week.
“In the days ahead, I intend to use whatever weight this office holds to make them a reality,” Obama said. “If there’s even one life that can be saved, then we’ve got an obligation to try.”
Politically, there seems to be much support for changes to gun-control legislation after Newtown and other deadly public shootings in the U.S. At the Wednesday press conference, Obama was surrounded by children who had written to him after the Newtown shooting and by survivours of gun violence.
But, the pro-gun lobby already appears to be gearing up to fight. On Tuesday, the National Rifle Association released a new advertisement that targets Obama’s family. It asks: “Are the president’s kids more important than yours?” and then goes on to call Obama an “elitist hypocrite” as it asks why Obama’s daughters get an armed guard at their school, while all other children in the country do not.
This ad has drawn criticism for including references to the presidents’ children. “Most Americans agree that a president’s children should not be used as pawns in a political fight,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told Politico. “But to go so far as to make the safety of the president’s children the subject of an attack ad is repugnant and cowardly.”
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AUBURN, Mass. – After Saturday’s snowstorm, Auburn Fire Chief Stephen M. Coleman Jr. wants to remind home and business owners to make sure all their doorways are shoveled out.
Coleman said firefighters run into a number of circumstances when people’s secondary exits are blocked by piles of snow. Many residents use their back door as the primary means of entering and exiting their home, he said, and the front door is often reserved for guests.
“People don’t consider that the outer storm door typically swings outward. So as soon as you’ve got snow, which becomes ice, and you push that door, it doesn't open," he said. "Consequently, your secondary means of exit is cut off. It's happening in almost every neighborhood - front or back doors are snowed in, making getting out quickly next to impossible.”
Coleman also reminded residents that, in addition to keeping all exit paths clear, residents should have working smoke detectors and an exit plan.
“Keeping all exits free of ice and snow not only makes the home safer in case of fire, it minimizes slips and falls,” Coleman said.
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The personalised reading app allows users to filter social channels, adding news sources such as Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader, plus topics such as "iPhone 5".
In addition to a complete re-design, new features include a "local news" topic, which aims to deliver news based on the user's location.
Those behind the app, which acts as "a personal filter for the internet", have also been working on its algorithm, which aims to surface the the most relevant content based on factors such as tone, length, subject, author, sharing activity. For example, if a reader spends time reading long-form features rather than short articles, the app will surface more long-form articles.
In a release, News360 explains how it does this. "We don't just organise your Facebook and Twitter feeds in a pretty frame, nor do we serve you articles just because your friends or followers liked them. We analyse your actions within your social cloud to understand your personality, and make predictions about the types of content you'd enjoy."
For more on News360 see our interview with chief executive Roman Karachinsky.
Read our list of 10 seriously smart RSS readers, social magazines and aggregator apps (which includes News360).
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It's a matter of great shame that despite 66 years of independence, anything imported is still regarded as the benchmark of quality. The Indian manufacturing sector isn't entirely to blame, though. The protectionist policies adopted by the Indian Government after Independence have mollycoddled the industry, much to the detriment of the consumer. It's hard to deny that when your average Indian buyer has to put up with poor manufacturing quality, rampant cartelisation, lack of choice, dismal after-sales service, and ridiculously high prices when compared to the same goods sold elsewhere in the First World.
Seeking out means to import goods is a natural tendency, especially given the convenience of electronic transactions and the online shopping. However, helping yourself to a smorgasbord of quality imported goods available at fraction of the price you'd otherwise pay here—that too right from the comfort of home—sounds too good to be true. That's actually the case too. If it really were this easy, not only would the local manufacturers and supply chain have met their (rightful) demise, but that would also have driven the country into the worst forex deficit.
What's the Catch?
To prevent a total and utter meltdown of the nation's economy, there's a limit to how much you can spend importing goods. Technically, you are only allowed to import Rs 2,000 worth of swag duty free. If you thought that was meagre, you probably will not be chuffed to hear that the amount includes shipping charges as well. There is, however, a means to import goods worth more.
You are allowed to import items worth up to Rs 10,000 provided they are marked as gift or commercial samples and their price is marked as zero in the invoice. This doesn't apply to online retail purchases, as they neither are gifts nor commercial samples. Virtually all online websites based in Europe, America, and rest of the civilised world will squarely refuse to honour any requests to wrongly declare commercial goods as gift for obvious reasons. Hong Kong-based websites, however, are open to such practices. Just remember that you'll essentially be committing an economic crime if you take that route.
Online duty calculators such as this are the best means to gauge what sort of damage will your shipment cause to your wallet.
Penalties and Import-Export Code
Having said that, it's impossible to stay within the Rs 2000 limit in this day and age. What's the damage if one decides to brave the import duties, you ask? For starters, you may attract customs duty of up to 40%, and an additional duty of 2%. Non-electronic items such as music and movie media are levied a duty of about 25%, where as electronics and toys attract a 35-40% duty. We're just getting warmed up here, because in addition to the import duties, you are also liable to be charged with a maximum penalty of 25%.
That's the government essentially penalising you for overshooting the permissible import limit without possessing an Import-Export Code (IEC). If you're about to ask how to go about getting one, don't bother because "persons importing or exporting goods for personal use not connected with trade or manufacture or agriculture" or, in other words, an average Joe who wants to import gadgets off Amazon.com isn't allowed to bear an IEC. This means, technically, you cannot import anything worth more than Rs 2000 (shipping included) unless you get it done through a government-authorised importer or a Clearing and Forwarding Agent bearing an IEC.
Choosing the Right Shipping Method
Choice of shipping method solely depends on the urgency and the cost of the items being imported. If you're importing something expensive, or if you want it delivered quickly, you're better off opting for courier services from FedEx and UPS. You may end up paying through your nose, but this shouldn't be a concern if receiving the parcel safe is your prime objective.
What's more, since these services have dedicated customs liaisons, the probability of your shipment getting stuck in red tape is next to nothing. Just hand over the duty charges to the courier guy and forget about the headaches of wrestling with the Indian bureaucracy. Although cheaper shipment options neither guarantee the security of your shipment, nor do they ensure timeliness of delivery, they still make good sense if you want to try and dodge the duty net. Speaking of which, let's see how you can go about saving money without breaking any rules.
Beating the System (Legally)
Does that mean there's no way I can import stuff without facing a hefty fine and penalty? Unfortunately, that is the case for very expensive and/or large goods, but those shipping smaller, cheaper items can minimise the damage. You see, while the Rs 2,000 import limit holds true, it is applied on a shipment to shipment basis.
In simple terms, nothing can stop you from breaking your order down into multiple shipments of value under the import limit. Yes, you may end up spending more on shipping charges that way, but it's still significantly cheaper than paying the duties and penalties you'd have to bear otherwise. If you plan to order say Blu-ray movies worth Rs 10,000 from Amazon, it's better to split them into multiple shipments amounting lower than Rs 2,000 each.
Your choice of shipping and the appearance of goods also has a great bearing on the probability of being levied a hefty duty fee. Ideally, avoid expensive shipping modes as that will proportionately raise the duty. Moreover, the Indian customs works in arbitrary fashion. I have personally found that expensive goods shipped with expensive shipping options invariably get slapped with a heavy duty/penalty. However, when I shipped the same through a cheapest shipping option, the whole package just slipped under the radar unmolested.
The size of the package also affects the chances of attracting duties. Ideally, opt for individual sellers on Ebay.com or websites where you can deal with small-time sellers, who can entertain requests to strip the original factory packaging off your goods. While this may make them liable to damage, you can strip sturdier items of fancy packaging and make them look smaller and reduce the chances of being slapped with heavy import duties. Just remember that all inbound shipments are scanned manually in an X-ray machine before they are flagged for further inspection. By making your package look innocuous and cheap, you simply reduce the chances of it being considered dutiable.
How to Pay the Duty?
This generally depends upon the hipping mode you have chosen. If you opt for regular mail, your friendy neighbourhood postman doubles up as the duty collection agent. After the Customs department has appraised your shipment for duty, the postman shows up at your doorstep with the delivery and a receipt bearing the breakdown of the duties and penalties (if any) levied. Just pay off the guy and you can claim your parcel.
It's the same affair with commercial courier entities such as UPS (not to be confused with USPS: The US Postal Service) and FedEx. The only difference is that you are informed in advance of the duty estimates and delivery dates. Oh, and I also forgot to mention that there's a considerably lower chance of your package getting lost and/or destroyed in transit.
Certain online websites such as Amazon.com and Ebay India (through the Global Easy Buy provision) have an agreement with Indian Customs allowing them to collect the duty in advance. By paying the duty at checkout itself, takes away all the hassles of post payment in addition to many delays and heartburn caused by the Customs appraisal department sitting on your package for what's usually an inordinately long time.
When Things Go Wrong
Those who have done this long enough will have experienced a lost parcel or two. In reality, the chances of shipments being misplaced are next to nil. I personally haven't been deprived of a single package despite having imported goods amounting to a ridiculous amount of money over many shipments. So where do these parcels go if they haven't been misplaced? Nothing to blame except bureaucratic red tape and lazy and/or callous government employees here. More often than not, such parcels languish in the customs clearance department awaiting appraisal from the authorities.
The packages that get flagged during the scanning process are taken aside for evaluation of contents for deciding the duties/penalties to be levied. After the duties have been determined, the packages are held until action from the importer—and that would be you. You are supposed to be sent a letter asking for documents regarding the proof of purchase, invoices, and in some special cases (very expensive items) a written undertaking explaining the compulsions for import along with proof that you aren't doing that on a commercial basis.
In most cases, this letter has either been lost or someone has forgotten to dispatch it in the first place. If your shipment has a tracking option, you will see that in such cases the very last update will show that the parcel has arrived at the Customs department. It cannot be tracked any further because it's in the domain of the Indian babudom. To see in which part of the system it is stuck, you will have to contact the Foreign Post Office designated to your city. Those from Bombay are in luck because I have managed to get all the requisite info after my many dalliances with the Indian Customs.
You can contact the Customer Service Department on 022 - 2261 1791. All you need to know is the tracking number for your shipment, which means that the really cheap shipping methods devoid of tracking option will be impossible to locate, unless you can convince the customer service rep to look up your name. The person on the line should be able to pinpoint where your package is stuck and what should be done to get it moving again. Readers outside Bombay simply need to contact the Foreign Post Office for their respective city.
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They're Just My Friends
Description: Based on a true story, "They're Just My Friends" revolves around the life and times of Punchin' Pat the New York City Kid, a product of the mean streets of the Bronx. After the death of his father, Pat attempts to find a sense of community in all the wrong places, aligning himself with local Italian-American gangsters. While training to turn pro, Pat begins a romance with neighborhood girl Gina that inflames the racist, Howard Beach neighborhood street gang, the Guido Boys. It isn't until Pat lands in jail that he finally realizes the mistakes he's made. Fortunately, Pat's physical talents and the connections he's made on the outside--including father-figure and member of the Lodge, Mr. Frank Gibbs--deliver him from prison and give him the chance to reevaluate his life.
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CHAPEL HILL – The Town Council will consider a proposal tonight to ship its solid waste to Waste Industries’ transfer station in Durham.
The move is in response to a decision by the Orange County Board of Commissioners to close its landfill in June.
Under the proposal, the town would in April begin sending some of its solid waste to the Waste Industries transfer station at 210 Stone Park Ct., near the Durham Freeway and Ellis Road exit, and begin hauling all of its solid waste there on July 1.
Putting the plan into action is expected to cost about $358,600 in additional personnel and operational expenses.
Town officials said the extra money is available in the town’s fund balance, or rainy day account.
If council approves the deal, the town would enter into a three-year contract with Waste Industries for use of its transfer station. It would also have a couple of one-year extension options.
The town would pay Waste Industries $41 a ton to handle the more than 14,500 tons of solid waste generated by Chapel Hill residents each year.
Waste Industries ships garbage from its Durham transfer station to a landfill in Sampson County.
In addition, the town would replace four of it collections trucks, two of which were already budgeted, with larger trucks to improve efficiency and safety.
The town will purchase the trucks through its Vehicle Replacement Fund using lease financing. The total cost of the lease purchase is $860,000 of which $286,150 has already been budgeted, leaving a total principal amount of $573,850.
One of the trucks would be powered by compressed natural gas, which officials say would save $50,000 in fuel costs of the life of the vehicle and leave a 3.8 percent smaller carbon footprint than biodiesel and produce 60 percent to 90 percent less smog producing pollutants than diesel options.
The move by the town to ship its waste to Durham is a temporary one that will give the council time to consider building its own transfer station, possibly at a proposed site on Millhouse Road.
“It is just the beginning,” said Lance Norris, director of the Public Works Department. “Solid waste disposal is important to Chapel Hill and Orange County, so there has to be an open discussion and process.”
Virginia-based SCS Engineers, hired by the town in March to review the town’s solid waste management programs, recommended that the town site and build its own facility, possibly partnering with Carrboro and Orange County.
Bob Dick, an SCS vice president, said earlier this month that the town is better off building its own transfer station even though it might cost more over the long run. He said the town would retain “flexibility” and the ability to “control your own destiny” if it builds its own transfer station.
SCS also recommended that the town begin talks with Orange County to develop a new interlocal agreement for recycling and organic management services.
In other business tonight, the council will consider approving a draft bus advertising policy transit officials erroneously used to make decisions in administering the town’s transit advertising program.
The draft policy allows religious, political and social issue ads but restricts ads that are false, misleading, deceptive or disrespectful.
The town suspended its bus advertising policy in October, deciding not to accept any new ads in the wake of transit officials’ discovery that they have erroneously used a draft ordinance to make decisions about bus ads.
The policy has been a source of controversy every since riders complained about an ad posted by the Church of Reconciliation over the summer urging the U.S. to end military aid to Israel.
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Area of Study & Practice
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Interdisciplinary Studies
- Public Policy
Criminal Justice Policy: Crime, Politics, and the Media
This course will focus on various changes in criminal justice policy that occurred in the last 30 years (e.g., changes in sentencing law and policy, increased incarceration rates, and the "war on drugs") and seek to identify the factors that brought about those changes. To what degree were these changes responses to changes in the rates and types of crimes experienced in the U.S.? To what degree were these changes prompted by political campaigns and strategies, or by a media produced sense of crisis? Readings will include legal materials which will probe and analyze statutory and administrative changes, as well as interdisciplinary readings. Each student will prepare six short (4-5 page) papers responding to the course readings, and will take part in a group presentation on a topic selected by class members.
Please note that course organization and content may vary substantially from semester to semester and descriptions are not necessarily professor specific. Please contact the instructor directly if you have particular course-related questions.
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FRANKFORT, Ky. (3/15/13) – As St. Patrick's Day approaches, the Kentucky State Police is reminding drivers not to get behind the wheel if they've been drinking. The agency recently partnered with the HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers®, a multi-state program that promotes the use of sober drivers during celebrations such as St. Patrick’s Day. The HERO Campaign was inspired by the tragic loss of Ensign John Elliott, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, who was killed in a collision caused by a drunk driver.
“Before choosing to drink, choose a sober designated driver. We want people to enjoy their celebrations. More importantly, we want to ensure that the driver, their passengers and everyone on our roads arrive home safely,” says Tpr. Michael Webb. “Drunk driving is always preventable, and life is too precious to be lost in a senseless tragedy.”
According to NHTSA, on average, every 51 minutes a person is killed in a drunk-driving crash in the United States and the majority of these crashes involve drunk drivers who have blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) of .15 or higher, almost twice the legal limit of .08 BAC.
“We are cognizant of planned activities across the state and will have increased patrols on the roadways in an effort to remove impaired drivers from the road,” adds Webb. “When a person chooses to drive while intoxicated, they risk the safety and well-being of others. Make no mistake, if you are caught driving impaired, you will go to jail.”
In 2012, state and local law enforcement made 28,254 DUI arrests in Kentucky. Additionally, there were nearly 5,000 alcohol-related crashes resulting in 145 deaths.
Webb encourages citizens and retail liquor establishments to visit the Kentucky Hero webpage to find out how they can become involved in the program at http://kentuckyheroes.org/.
Information provided by Dennis J. Thomas
Photo provided by SurfKY Graphics
Copyright © 2012 SurfKY News Group, Inc. all rights reserved. SurfKY.com is an eNewspaper providing local news FREE to Kentucky 24/7. Read Statewide Kentucky News, Sports, Obituaries and more from the following Kentucky Counties: Calloway, Christian, Daviess, Fayette (Lexington), Henderson, Hopkins, Logan, McCracken, Muhlenberg, Warren, and Webster Counties as well as the Kentucky Lakes Area.
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