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Affordable home site in the Gator Circle area of Cape Coral. Purchase now while prices are still low. Seller will pay title insurance at closing. Same seller has hundreds to choose from and will discount for bulk sales.
Gator Slough Canal (140' wide)at a low, low price. Cul-de-sac street off Gator Circle. Great tool free access to Ft. Myers, and I-75. Same seller has hundreds of home sites to choose from and will discount for bulk sales.
Welcome to Sunny SW Florida! Cape Coral is a fast growing community with lots of career opportunities. This is a standard size building lot in a good up and coming neighborhood. Owner looking for offers!
Welcome to sunny SW FL and specifically Cape Coral. This lot is across from a big grassy lawn in a great neighborhood. Just minutes movies and entertainment. Retail shopping and fine dinning nearby. Seller is motivated.
Motivated SELLER! Great waterfront lot on 120' canal in area of newer homes.
Time magazine named The Protester its 2011 "Person of the Year" because, for decades till recently, most protests "seemed ineffectual and irrelevant." That's just silly. You can always find resistance and, depending on how you judge, it's often relevant. The spirit of protest is indomitable and inspiring. Eruptions hap...
What may have been unique this past year was something else: a collapse of the conventional fountains of authority and respect. In the Arab world that meant governments. But in the West, it meant big business and finance. The brilliance of Occupy Wall Street was that it didn't go to Washington. The Tea Party did; it di...
Think back to the torrent of best-selling business bios and takeover epics like Iacocca or Barbarians at the Gate that began around 1980. Business was the hero; government was the "problem" because it impeded business's freedom (even if business icons like Lee Iacocca demanded and relied on public money). Pro-business ...
It wasn't the crash of 2008 that led to their fall from grace, nor exposure of the greed and stupidity that required a massive public rescue. It was their graceless reaction to the bailouts: no apologies, remorse or gratitude -- even faked; just more arrogance, bonuses, takeovers, foreclosures. Wall Street begged to be...
But there were other factors in the decline of authority. I doubt it has ever shocked people to learn that their era's main deciders were incompetent. But someone had to do it and you hoped for the best. What's often been lacking is a sense that there are other plausible ways to reach decisions. That sense of an altern...
In its early years, flame wars and other epidemics of egomania obscured its potential for collective, lateral decision-making. But now there's Wikipedia and it works. You don't need the Encyclopaedia Britannica and its stable of authorities. Or at least: you needn't defer to them; they've become another resource. The d...
Take theatre critics. Seriously. They were once models of authority, the Great Dictators of culture. Have a look at Sheridan Whiteside in the 1942 film, The Man Who Came to Dinner. He rules. When I began writing for theatre I was stunned by their power. You'd work for months or years on a script, then they came one nig...
But I recently attended a panel on Theatre and the Internet. The Globe and Mail critic, Kelly Nestruck, said a newspaper online is not that same paper in print. Online a critic's word isn't final; it can be the beginning of a discussion. That affects him too; sometimes he changes the "stars" he gives a show as a result...
This also alters the nature of the product. The artists can make changes, perhaps based on the discussion. If you were a novelist and had a book online, wouldn't you be tempted to improve it, maybe years later? Now you can. What happens to a contemporary classic in this situation? It lacks the authority it once had as ...
Whose authority has also declined? How about Time magazine? The newsmag style used to sound authoritative and serenely confident. Now it sounds inane. "Everywhere, it seems, people said they'd had enough.... They dissented; they demanded --" Everywhere? Like out my window right now? And "it seems"? Seems to who(m)? Who...
The power of authority diminishes when you can hear credible, contesting voices. Print tends to be monotonal and univocal, unlike the oral tradition that preceded it. But the Internet, though it often lacks actual speech, is oral in the sense of interactive, like a Socratic dialogue. In oral mode, less is often more be...
I recently noticed Emily Dickinson's brief lines about the force of the spoken: "Could mortal lip divine/The undeveloped Freight/Of a delivered syllable/'Twould crumble with the weight." That's 101 characters -- less than a full tweet and far less than a column or book but to my ear it sounds authoritative. What else i...
Not a turning point for democracy and progress, 2011 leaves us a less friendly and more dangerous world.
Is it a huge surprise that American multitudes say they don't know what John Kerry and the Democrats stand for? How would they know? And who bears responsibility?
Meanwhile, in some areas, ABC added a digital channel, also sent out on the Web, for those who take their convention coverage neat. No figures are forthcoming for that.
Apparently no figures exist for C-SPAN's wall-to-wall coverage in 2000 or 2004, either.
Meanwhile, cable-news networks totaled 4.7 million on Monday night, up from 2.7 million in 2000.
There may well be, as Lewis and Carter wrote, “a sharp decline in public interest in … scripted political events.” But the networks may still be guilty of self-fulfilling prophecies.
Second point regarding the coverage of what Dan Rather is pleased to call the convention as “infomercial”: Missing from every single newspaper account of network thinking about public obligations is an accounting of the profits made by the networks, their owned stations and affiliates, from the broadcast licenses they ...
Meanwhile -- third point about what the candidate and his supporters say and when they say it -- it's not as though Kerry has been exactly quiet. The pundits may roll their eyes at Kerry's prolixity, but the networks aren't exactly giving Americans more than a nibble. Take the gigantic question of foreign policy. Georg...
Kerry went on in this vein for 3,500 words. And the night of this speech, how many did America's still dominant news channels convey? ABC: 28 words. NBC: 42 words. CBS: 43 words.
The Peter Parker Spider-Man will be back in black this April for Symbiote Spider-Man, a five-issue limited series set before the web-slinger learned his updated costume was a living extraterrestrial creature, Marvel Comics announced Friday.
Scribe Peter David (The Incredible Hulk, Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider) and artist Greg Land (Ultimate Fantastic Four, Uncanny X-Men) team for the all-new, in-continuity tale that will revisit the classic era of the alien costume, set post-Secret Wars, pitting Spider-Man against famed foe Mysterio.
“Venom may be my day job and favorite Spider-Villain, but my favorite fictional character of all time is the one and only Spider-Man – and far and away, this is one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever had the privilege of working on in my five and a half years here at Marvel,” said editor Devin Lewis.
Mysterio’s involvement coincides with the trickster super villain’s big screen debut in this summer’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, the Marvel Studios-produced blockbuster starring Tom Holland and Jake Gyllenhaal.
“He never fought Symbiote Spidey! Or did he?!” Lewis teased of the classic Spidey foe, whose fishbowl-shaped figure can be seen ominously looming over New York City.
David has a long history penning Spider-Man — including issues that saw the superhero suited up in the symbiote costume that would go on to turn against him and emerge as archfoe Venom — famously scripting the death of Jean DeWolff saga and writing numerous issues of various Spidey titles, including Amazing Spider-Man,...
Symbiote Spider-Man #1 releases in April.
The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits last week held near a six-year low and U.S. manufacturing activity rose this month, suggesting the economy is starting to find firmer footing.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits climbed 13,000 to 336,000, just above the level expected by economists in a Reuters poll, Labor Department data showed on Thursday.
Despite the increase, the four-week moving average for claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, fell to its lowest level since November 2007. That backed the widely-held view that U.S. economic growth will accelerate in the second half of the year, and hinted at a stronger pace of hiring in August.
"The trend in the data has been signaling some recent improvement in the labor market," said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.
Separately, financial data firm Markit said its preliminary index on factory activity rose in August to 53.9, its best showing since March. A reading above 50 indicates expansion.
"Hopefully the faster growth of new orders seen during August will translate into increasingly strong production gains," said Markit chief economist Chris Williamson.
The U.S. economy has grown at a lackluster pace in recent months, hurt in part by the impact of federal budget cuts.
An index of leading economic indicators published on Thursday by the Conference Board rose 0.6 percent in July, supporting the expectations that growth would accelerate in the remainder of the year.
The generally upbeat data fueled small gains in U.S. stock prices. Yields on U.S. government debt were little changed.
The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring the labor market as it mulls plans to draw down a major economic stimulus program in which it buys long term bonds to keep borrowing costs low.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said last month that the central bank plans to start scaling back on the program this year, and many economists expect it will begin reducing monthly bond purchases in September.
The claims data was collected during the same week the Labor Department surveys employers for its monthly employment report, and the trend hinted that hiring may pick up during August.
At 330,500, the four-week average was about 5 percent lower than it was during the employment report's survey week in July, when employers added a lackluster 162,000 jobs to payrolls.
Still, economists are wary of the claims report's predictive power for hiring. Employers now appear to be laying off workers at roughly pre-recession levels, yet the pace of hiring has appeared to slow since the spring.
"The pace of layoffs may continue to ease, but there is little indication that firms have become more inclined to hire," economists at RBS said in a note to clients.
The claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid rose 29,000 to about 3 million in the week ended Aug 10.
Train services from Kings Lynn to London have been disrupted this morning thanks to engineering works.
Work at Hitchin overran and continued this morning, meaning no direct trains running from Kings Lynn to London Kings Cross until 10.30am.
Customers were advised to travel to Cambridge and change there for services to London Liverpool Street, but were warned this would take longer than the usual service.
Normal service is expected to resume at 11am.
The exploits of a pioneering First World War pilot who completed a string of aviation “firsts” and coined the term “joystick” have been chronicled in his newly-emerged archives.
Major Robert Loraine was a leading figure in the earliest days of flight and served in the Great War, completing one mission despite having been shot through the neck.
He cut a particularly dashing figure at the time, combining his aviation career with another one as a successful London and Broadway stage actor.
His archives - including flight log books, photographs, aviation maps and newspaper cuttings - have emerged for sale at the Oxford Book Sale, later this month, where they are expected to sell for £25,000.
The items are understood to have spent most of the intervening century held by his family. The collection has now been assembled by Jim Hine, 60, an amateur historian, who bought the documents when they came up for sale as individual lots. He is now offering the complete collection for sale.
Loraine was born in New Brighton, on the Wirral, and started out as an actor. He volunteered for service in the Second Boer War (1899-1902) before returning to the stage.
He took up aviation in France in 1909, flying some of the first aircraft ever built. The following year, he was credited with becoming the first person to fly across the Irish Sea - one of the first ever flights across open water - although he actually had to ditch in the sea about 200ft from the shore, leaving him to ...
The same month he also piloted one of two Bristol Boxkites in British Army manoeuvres on Salisbury Plain, during which he sent the first radio message from the air in Britain while flying over Stonehenge. What he said is unknown, as no one seems to have written it down.
At around that time, he also became the first person to land on the Isle of Wight. On this flight he flew through a rainstorm - becoming the first pilot to do so.
The Oxford English dictionary of the time credited him with the first use of the word ‘joystick’ in 1909 which he used in his diary to describe aircraft stick controls.
During the war, he climbed the ranks of what was then called the Royal Flying Corps. He earned the Military Cross in 1915 for shooting down a German Albatross biplane.
On one flight, he was shot in the back but managed to land the plane - despite the bullet exiting through his neck. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1917 but a year later his military career was brought to an end when he was shot in the leg.
The X-rays of his injured leg - which are part of the archive - are thought to have been carried out by Marie Curie, who had a mobile unit where he was treated.
The married father-of-three had not entirely abandoned his acting career during the war and he ran a drama society in his squadron. Following the onset of peace, he went on to star in a handful of films and Broadway shows, before dying in 1935, aged 59.
Mr Hine, from Ilminster, Somerset, said: “He was a really gung-ho character, larger than life. He was very fastidious and I think people under his command in the war thought he was a bit of a bully - but I think he was trying to get things right. He wanted to come back alive.
“He was able to get so many firsts because it was the very early days of flying. The Wright brothers were literally flying for the first times just a few years before - it was real seat of the pants stuff.
“It was cutting edge. He wasn’t just doing these amazing feats - he was doing it in a tiny plane, with just a pair of goggles - that’s it. He was so exposed on all sides in these aircrafts. It was very serious stuff.
“He really was very brave. These planes were very susceptible to engine failure and if you ditched into the sea there was no chance of getting picked up.
“When he flew from Bournemouth to the Isle of Wight that is when he flew through the rainstorm.
“He knew it was bad weather but he just took off. Another man was killed in that storm attempting the same thing.
“Using the radio in flight is a brilliant tale - we have a photo of the plane going over Stonehenge, very likely the moment he was sending the message.
The archive - believed to be the most extensive in the world on Lorraine - includes his flight log books, the photo of his the flight when he sent the first radio message and trade catalogues of the planes he bought. It also features maps of the French battlefields and guide books on how to fly in combat.
A Special 4-Week Yoga Gathering Full of Healing and Support Grief and loss easily get stuck in the body/mind/spirit, causing discomfort and pain. We invite you to step into a supportive community to enhance our awareness, movement and breath to grief’s holding places and therefore create an opening for change. Our gath...
The graveyard of failed enterprise resource planning projects is littered with critical analyses by the Government Accountability Office and agencies’ inspectors general.
From the Veterans Affairs Department’s late, lamented Core Financial and Logistics System to the Interior Department’s bungled Financial and Business Management System, agency officials have spent plenty of time explaining to Congress and the public why millions of dollars were wasted on yet another doomed project.
But what often is overlooked by auditors and headline-hungry congressmen are the successful ERP projects—and there have been quite a few in recent years.
Slowly, agencies are learning from past mistakes. One such success story is the Transportation Department’s implementation of the Oracle Federal Financial 11i e-Business suite.
Starting in 1997, DOT began moving from an internally developed legacy system to a commercial application with no customization. A year ago, Trans- portation was named as a center of excellence for the Financial Management Line of Business initiative.
Officials said they succeeded by changing business processes to fit the capabilities of the software, instead of changing the software to match the agency’s “unique” needs, said Larry Neff, Transportation’s deputy chief financial officer. Neff has been involved with the implementation of the Oracle product, named Delph...
An ERP system connects all back-end management systems, including financial, human resources and procurement, and gathers and presents data in a usable way.
The move to the new system was gradual, which turned out to be crucial in making sure it went smoothly across the agency.
“We realized it was not going to be perfect at first, so we didn’t try to do all the business process reengineering up front,” Neff said.
Transportation did things right, said Wayne Bobby, a vice president in Oracle’s public-sector group. DOT stuck with its vision, implementing the same software for all Transportation agencies.
“Some things went easy, but some were like pulling teeth, like getting some of these agencies to come on board,” Bobby said.
Today, the system produces financials for the entire department or for individual agencies.
Transportation brought Delphi into production at its smaller agencies first to gain experience with implementation be- fore deploying to its larger agencies. The Federal Railroad Administration was first on board in 2000. The last arrival, the Federal Aviation Administration, went live in late 2003.
By the time the implementation team, led by then-deputy CFO Tom Park, deployed Delphi throughout Transportation agencies, they had performed the process 14 times.
“We had 14 sets of books on a single instance of the software, a real key to the economy of scale,” Neff said.
Managing change and cleaning data from legacy systems were the biggest challenges in putting the system in place. Change management also was important to keeping the project on track. And the buy-in throughout all levels of the organization was critical to spurring business managers to change, Neff said.
A key to change management was fostering support from the business line owners. Transportation and Oracle worked closely with the business units to ensure that the requirements the business owners submitted actually met their business needs.
For example, the team created two or three test labs for each agency implementation to determine if the software worked. The business managers then signed off on the system or requested changes. The teams kept testing the system until the business managers were satisfied.
“It took six to nine months after they converted until they got over the shock,” Neff said.
Even with all the collaboration and change management, Transportation officials faced delays. Data clean-up forced the department to push back FAA’s implementation.
Neff also said another success factor was requiring the vendor to maintain the software. So whenever there are upgrades, the vendor adopts the change throughout the product. Otherwise, “we’d have to go through and rewrite a lot of it, which gets very expensive over time,” he said.
While the technical aspects of an ERP implementation are challenging, Neff said agencies shouldn’t overlook the people factor.
He said that in the early years of implementation, Transportation and other departments using Oracle set up an informal group that would meet to share solutions to problems and war stories.
When the system was newly implemented in each agency, Transportation provided desk-side help for about six weeks.

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