text:
Trucks made as much news as cars at the Detroit auto show -- but no automaker made more news than General Motors.
Chevrolet won both the 2014 Car and Truck awards claiming honors for the Corvette Stingray and redesigned full-size Chevrolet Silverado pickup, the first time the bowtie brand has won both honors the same year. Ford did it in 2010 with the Fusion Hybrid and the Transit Connect truck.
"I'm really proud of the whole global product development team, starting with design through engineering and powertrain," said new GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra, who took over Wednesday with the retirement of outgoing Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson. "They've worked really hard. They've sweated the details of each and every aspect of those vehicles."
Company executives said the resurgence at Chevrolet shows how far GM has come since the bankruptcy and government bailout five years ago. GM sold 9.71 million vehicles in 2013, up 400,000 from 2012, and is looking to keep the momentum going and improve on its nearly 18 percent market share in the United States. Fifteen new or refreshed vehicles are scheduled for U.S. introductions this year and around 17 new or updated vehicles in China.
GM has posted 15 straight profitable quarters -- making billions -- and is paying a 30 cents per share dividend on common stock March 28, its first dividend since emerging from bankruptcy.
"Today's General Motors is designing high-quality, world-class vehicles for our customers and delivering consistently solid financial results," Akerson said in a statement. "The board understands that our investors should share in this success and is pleased to announce a quarterly dividend for our common stockholders."
Polishing its halo vehicle, Chevy debuted the racetrack-ready 2015 Corvette Stingray Z06 -- whose all-aluminum 6.2-liter supercharged V8 puts out at least 625 horsepower and 635 pound-feet of torque. The X06 has either a seven-speed manual transmission or an eight-speed full automatic with paddle shifters.
General Motors North America President Mark Reuss said the Z06 rivals "the most exotic supercars in the world."
Chevy sold 4.98 million vehicles worldwide in 2013, a record.
"We're right in the middle of 32 new products between 2013 and 2014," Barra said at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. "My hope is as we continue to get more of these award-winning products out into the marketplace that we will get attention and continue to win customers."
Barra said she hopes consumers who ordinarily bypass Chevrolet and General Motors will come into a showroom "because I'm confident if they get to the showroom, they're going to see a lot of vehicles they'll like."
The other finalists for 2014 car of the year were the Cadillac CTS and the all-new Mazda3 compact. The Silverado beat the all-new Jeep Cherokee and Acura MDX for 2014 truck of the year.
The winners are determined by a jury of 48 automotive journalists from the United States and Canada.
Ford's F-150 slims down
The F-150 pickup may look the same outside but it will get better mileage.
The secret sauce for Ford is high-strength aluminum alloys.
The F-150 unveiled at the Joe Louis Arena at the North America International Auto Show weighs in around 700 pounds less than the current F-150, the world's best-selling light-duty truck, but Ford says it's just as tough.
"A lot of people are surprised we took such a big step with this product," said Ford executive chairman Bill Ford Jr. "I think people probably thought, 'Well, you're the leader already -- you're going to play it safe with the new truck.' We are adding lots of new to the vehicle. The market's never seen a vehicle like this."
After 30 years on top of the light truck segment, Ford says it knows who buys F-Series pickups and understands what they want, and that not innovating would be a bigger risk. The F-150 is a favorite among contractors from mega-corporations to the local landscaper and kitchen and bath remodeler.
The 2014 F-150 has a new 2.7-liter EcoBoost V6 engine that sports start-stop technology that saves gas by not idling. The engine block is made of a weight-saving composite aluminum graphite and the body and truck bed are aluminum alloys.
"We have all-new cabs and boxes, five interior trim choices, a host of technologies new to the full-size pickup truck segment, an all-new engine and upgrades to existing powertrains. We also have an all-new chassis," project chief engineer Pete Reyes said in a statement.
Optional engines include a new 3.5-liter V6, 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 and the 5-liter V8. The new F-150 pickup begins production in the fourth quarter of 2014 and should reach showrooms late this year.
More highs and lows for Tesla Motors
Tesla sales are soaring as engineers iron out the technological kinks.
The Palo Alto, Calif., company said it sold and delivered 6,900 Model S electric cars in the fourth quarter of 2013, about 20 percent, or 900 more vehicles, than forecast. The sales surge, despite a federal investigation into two Model S fires in Kent, Wash., and Smyrna, Tenn. blamed on road debris, bring full year sales to around 22,400.
On the same day it announced higher sales, Tesla recalled more than 29,000 NEMA 14-50 240-volt charging adapters for the sedan because they can overheat and catch fire. Tesla will replace the adapters and has sent out a software update for the cars.
In a report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla blamed the overheating problem on defective or improperly installed wall receptacles, the Detroit News reported. Tesla began an inquiry after a fire in Irvine, Calif., but said there was no safety problem with vehicle itself.
"Tesla does not believe the improved adapters are required to address the issue, but is including this measure to ensure confidence in all Tesla-branded products," the company said in a release.
The software update will instruct the car's on board charging system to detect unexpected power fluctuations that could increase electrical resistance and automatically reduce charging current by 25 percent. Replacement adapters also will have a thermal fuse to stop overheating.
Tesla Roadsters and Model S sedans have been driven nearly 200 million miles in the past six years and the company said it remains the only automaker with a perfect safety record or no deaths or serious permanent injuries.


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pyMenu 0.4 is in development: what it is and what it used to be
One of the most widely used menus for eCFW on the PS Vita is about to receive a full update, lots of new features, improved code, optimizations, and much more will come with pyMenu 0.4 and you're about to see what it can offer, but first we'll do a walkthrough of all the version pyMenu has had and how it has evolved from being a very simplistic menu, to a full fledged XMB replacement.
pyMenu 0.1: The beginning
pyMenu was created in June 2012 as an entry to the VHBL Menu Contest and competed against yMenu (which was also created for that contest). Most of the work in pyMenu had gone to installing the pspsdk and modifying the python interpreter to be able to load homebrews in VHBL. The little time I had and the time the SDK + interpreter consumed left me with very little time for the actual menu. pyMenu was a pioneer in being written in a language other than c/c++, python to be precise and many thought it was not doable, and even told me to give up. Anyway, the first pyMenu release, having little time as I said, ended up being a mod of psptools, a homebrew I had previously created. This particular version of pyMenu greatly lacked in features, having only two options in the main menu: Game and Savedata.
pyMenu 0.1 only had two features: Game and Savedata. The first one to boot homebrews, the second one to install them.
pyMenu 0.1 help menu, looks old and noobish
pyMenu 0.2: improving what was already done
For pyMenu 0.2 not much was added, it followed the same simple design that pyMenu had inherited from psptools. The mayor feature brought by this version was the ability to extract and view eboots icon0 using regex, which was not the best way to go as it failed with some eboots and was generally slower than most methods out there.
pyMenu 0.2 also included a lite version of psptools that allowed you to fix missing files/directories, fix stuck pixels and test out the psp buttons. Another feature this version of pyMenu got was an early version of the file browser, but this was never publicly released.
pyMenu 0.2 biggest feature was extracting and displaying icon0.png, the icons were shown in the upper left corner as back then I didn't know how to move images around until I came across some psp2d samples. The code that extracted the icons used regex, which means there was always a possibility of failing, in pyMenu 0.3 new code was made by qwikrazor which is faster and more precise and also allows extracting pic1 (we are yet to implement pic1 though)
The help menu looks nicer in pyMenu 0.2
alas, a very early version of the file browser, note: this version of pyMenu (dubbed 0.2.3) was never publicly released, only one copy existed and that was in my vita's memory stick, had that stick been formatted, we would have never seen this version.
pyMenu 0.3: reviving a dead menu and turning it into a mayor homebrew
Not only pyMenu lost the menu contest, but it also earned very few popularity, most people didn't like the simplistic nature of the menu, the style of only showing one item at a time was confusing to most people and the lack of features doomed the menu.
Soon people forgot that this menu existed, and that made me abandon the project.
Then some day I found a user mode exploit and was able to run pyMenu with VHBL and released some photos, then people started noticing the menu and I decided to finish the file browser, but instead of releasing pyMenu 0.2.3 I decided to port the browser's menu style into the rest of pyMenu, and so development of pyMenu 0.3 began.
As the project advanced, new features were added, but I also had a lot headaches in getting some of them to work: the music player was constantly crashing, I couldn't get isos and csos to boot, and the biggest of them all: extracting icon0 from iso/cso seemed like a really hard task, until another developer, qwikrazo87, decided to learn python and helped out with the icon0 code. To know how pyMenu 0.3 was going I made thread with some preview images, where I also asked for beta-testers, the overall feedback from users was very positive, everyone wanted to test the menu and everyone seemed to like how it was going. A few weeks after that, pyMenu 0.3 was finished.
pyMenu 0.3 was a huge update, bringing new features never done by other menus before such as Music, Picture Viewer, Plugins Manager and a File Browser with full copy, cut, paste, delete support.
in 0.3 my overall knowledge of psp2d allowed me to do more advanced stuff that I couldn't do with 0.1 and 0.2, this led to the creation of a new menu style dubbed complete menu.
the file browser was finished and improved to provide a full-fledge browsing experience, it can also load known files (txt, mp3, png, jpg, pbp, iso, cso, etc)
pyMenu 0.3 was rich with features, including a plugins manager for ARK and CEF, ability to load isos/csos and view their icons, playing mp3 files, etc
pyMenu 0.3 featured it's own Blue Screen of Death, many users found it funny to see the BSoD on their Vitas.
pyMenu 0.4: the future of the project
While I thought pyMenu 0.3 was going to be the last version, some users started showing critical bugs, and others started asking if some features could be added. Other devs also showed interest in the project and wanted to contribute to it. That's when development of pyMenu 0.4 began. The project has been in development for quite some time, and has been kept a secret by people involved in it, be it developers or testers, the existence of pyMenu 0.4 never came out of its private forum.
pyMenu 0.4 is yet another huge leap in the project, it involves reviewing, rewriting and improving code, as well as adding features such as the theme system and submenu system. The ram usage has also been improved greatly, as well as the overall speed, some critical bugs have been fixed and already existing features have been improved to provide a better user experience and make pyMenu a complete replacement for the XMB.
The overall generic menu has been improved graphically.
The system options allows you to do system-related tasks such as configuration, changing themes, changing the menu's language, etc
An On-Screen Keyboard has been coded for pyMenu and will be implemented for various uses.
The file browser is the first one to incorporate the OSK and the Options Menu
The new submenu system allows the user to change the Game menu independently of the system menu, so in a sense, pyMenu 0.4 is a collection of menus that you can change dynamically
One of the best menus in the submenu system is PC Menu, which uses a PC-like arrow to move around and select the games
There is no release date and frankly I don't know if it'll be released soon or not, there's still lots of bugs to fix and lots of features to correctly implement.
As always we are open to users feedback, is it going in the right direction? is there a feature you'd like to see? is there something we should change? Let me hear your thoughts.
pyMenu 0.3 can be downloaded here

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Our selection of bags are hand crafted genuine leather products made of the finest craftsmanship around. These products offer both style and function whether it be in your busy professional or personal life.
Length: 43cm
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Shoulder Strap(Adjustable): 140cm
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- Products are made to order so please allow 10-14 days for delivery.


text:
Could Apple be considering creating a $200 'mini' version of the iPad to compete with Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire? Analysts say that Apple is considering a low-cost version to be launched early next year.
Analyst Brian White of Ticonderoga Industries toured China and Taiwan and spoke of rumors he'd heard along his trip. The "mini" refers to the low price, not the size of the device which will still be the same as the iPad 2, AppleInsider reported.
"We believe this lower priced iPad could be priced in the mid-to-high-$200 range," White wrote in a note to investors. "We expect this will be followed by a much more powerful, feature rich standard-priced iPad 3 in (the second quarter of 2012)."
U.S. & World
Like White, we also believe that a cheaper iPad would do well for Apple in developing countries where $200 is more like a month's wages than a day at the grocery store. But we have to consider that the current iPad 2 is estimated to cost approximately $325 to make, so a $200 price is a lot to whittle down. Amazon is selling its $199 Kindle Fire at about a $10 loss on each unit, according to Inc.com, so Apple would have to be willing to also take a loss.
Amazon makes money by selling books, ebooks or otherwise, but Apple still makes its big money selling its hardware. If Apple wants to compete with Amazon, it too will have to change its business strategy and realize the true profits may lay in the apps and downloads, rather than the devices.


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Growing hostility between the federal government and Texas lawmakers came to a point Monday in the form of a resolution urging Congress to reimburse the state for border security costs last biennium.
The non-binding resolution, SCR 6, "respectfully urges" Congress to repay Texas $221.6 million for "bearing the financial burden of the federal government's responsibility to secure the Texas-Mexico border" during the current biennium. The resolution passed the Senate Agriculture, Rural Affairs and Homeland Security unanimously, with aye votes coming from members of both parties, and will be considered next by the Senate.
"We are invoicing the federal government," said Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, who authored the bill and chairs the committee.
The $221.6 million is the amount appropriated for border agents' salaries, weapons, vehicles including aircraft and boats, and similar security costs for the 2012-13 budget cycle. If Congress obliges and repays Texas, the money would be put into a general fund to be used for public and higher education, water infrastructure and roads, said Estes.
State Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, said she expects Congress to "put (the resolution) on the back burner and maybe chuckle a little bit."
"It never hurts to ask," said Campbell, who co-authored the bill.
U.S. Rep. John Culberson, a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, said he backs the resolution but said it should be sent to President Barack Obama rather than Congress.
"The president of the United States is responsible for enforcing the law and he is deliberately ignoring a public safety crisis on the border because he is too busy pandering for votes," Culberson said. "I'd encourage the Legislature and the Governor to withhold moneys collected within the boundaries of the state to cover these costs until the president fulfills his obligations to secure the border."
Campbell supported the Congressman's idea to hold the federal government hostage for the $221.6 million, but said she would have to look into the legalities.
State Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, voted in favor of the bill but said he disagrees with Culberson.
"I wanted to make sure the resolution was written in a way where it was partisan politics, and I think (Culberson) goes too far," Uresti said. "You know what the response from the federal government would be, 'Well then we are going to hold money that we owe you until you do certain things', and I don't want to go down that road."
Uresti said the resolution is primarily about making sure the border is safe and that terrorists, drug cartels and human traffickers are kept at bay, not about immigration.
State Sen. Juan Hinojosa of McAllen was the other Democrat on the committee who voted in favor of the bill. However, he also expressed doubt the feds would pay up.
"I look at the federal government's bank account and they are bouncing checks all over the place," Hinojosa said. "They don't seem to pay much attention to these resolutions."
Numerous resolutions have been approved by past Texas Legislatures calling on the federal government to provide resources for border security without responses.
The Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not return requests for comment. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, said the Congressman (who chairs the Homeland Security Committee) does not comment on state legislation but has "been outspoken on the fact that it is the federal government's responsibility to secure our borders."


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October 16, 2009
Last Call!
Today is the final day that the Quilt Festival is accepting new links! If you've been thinking about it, but haven't done it yet - hurry up!! Don't miss out on this opportunity to expand your community :)
A few of you have asked, if the links will still be accessible after this week is over - Of course!! The links will be permanent on my blog, feel free to take your time going through them - I know I will.
My plan is to close the linky tonight as I go to bed, and tomorrow work on awarding prizes - by random number generator. Hopefully I have a way to get in touch with everyone that has entered. (Just in case you don't know I'm on mountain time in the US)
Be sure to visit the sponsors - they have been a great support to me this week, and have lots to offer all of us!
Blessings ~
Subscribe to parkcitygirl
Shop with Amy
Email me
24 comments:
- Allie said...
Thanks for putting this all together Amy! And thanks to all the great sponsors!
- October 16, 2009 at 10:27 AM
- Deborah said...
Thanks for hosting this festival! I've had lots of fun 'meeting'new friends, enjoying new blogs and being inspired by all the great projects and people involved.
- October 16, 2009 at 10:30 AM
- Heather said...
As if you have NOTHING else to do....would you mind sending me that website that has inexpensive "backing" fabric on it? Was it the same website where I could find some white fabric for my curtains?
I'm enjoying all the pictures and tweets. Maybe sometime I can participate :D
- October 16, 2009 at 10:45 AM
- Purple Paisley Patch said...
Thanks for organising this great event, it's fantastic to be able to see so many gorgeous creations from all over the world. I'll definitely be entering the next festival, I need to finish a quilt, I keep putting off the actual quilting - I'm scared! LOL Have a great weekend. Kelly :-)
- October 16, 2009 at 10:58 AM
- Emily said...
I just wanted to let you know that I decided to join, albeit last minute. My quilt is up. Thanks for organizing this. It was a HUGE undertaking I'm sure! :) U R awesome!
- October 16, 2009 at 11:03 AM
- Unknown said...
Thanks so much for all the work and hours that you've put into another great festival.
- October 16, 2009 at 11:27 AM
- Amy said...
Thanks Amy - it's been fun getting to know some new folks!
- October 16, 2009 at 11:29 AM
- Jocelyn said...
Thanks so much Amy for putting this all together. It was fun in the Spring and it's even better this time. Your efforts are appreciated.
- October 16, 2009 at 11:35 AM
- Lesly said...
Huzzah! You're awesome for organizing such a HUGE event - it will take me ages to work through the list. I'm barely off the first page! Can't wait for the spring event!
- October 16, 2009 at 12:01 PM
- Lisa @celebrate CREATIVITY said...
Wow, how will I ever get through all these links? This is what you can real enabling-lol. Love it! Off now to check out some new sites.
Enjoy your day!
- October 16, 2009 at 12:02 PM
- Lis Harwood said...
Thanks Amy and all the sponsors and a massive thank you to the participants, it's been great visiting all your work and having your thoughts on mine, hooray, isn't it brilliant to be a quilter?!!
- October 16, 2009 at 12:04 PM
- arlette said...
Ok, count me in, in the festival, arlette0521.blogspot.com, I'll put the quilt pic later on, I'd like to have new blogger friends!!!
- October 16, 2009 at 12:34 PM
- Carin said...
Thanks for your hard work, it is wonderful to be able to go and see all the beautiful quilts!
- October 16, 2009 at 12:57 PM
- Diana said...
This was such a wonderful idea! Thank you so much for hosting it (and us).
- October 16, 2009 at 3:16 PM
- Sandra Schwab said...
Thank you, Amy, for putting all of this together! I had (am still having, in fact) a lovely time visiting everybody and admiring their quilts. I'm a quilting newbie myself (with about 1/3 of my very first quilt done) and the Bloggers' Quilt Festival offered a wealth of inspiration.
- October 16, 2009 at 4:10 PM
- Diane said...
Hi Amy, I'm new to blogging so I hope I did this right! I'm loving going through all the quilts,only about half-way through-- amazing bunch of quilters out there. I'm from PA, by the way. thanks for this opportunity to connect and be inspired.
- October 16, 2009 at 4:17 PM
- Terriaw said...
Oh my goodness, look at those hundreds of links to beautiful quilts! I would say you ran a pretty successful festival! Thank you so much for all your work this week.
- October 16, 2009 at 5:29 PM
- macharde said...
I'm excited about the Perfect Ten quilt you have displayed. I was looking for an idea for some quilts I plan to make for patients at the VA hospital and this pattern would work VERY well with the fabric I have. BTW - you should win a prize for the speed with which you mail ordered fabric! Thanks. Mary Ann
- October 16, 2009 at 5:31 PM
- A Gal Who said...
I love fabric so much that I think about it all day at work and design quilts in my head as I work in medical records for 27 doctors.
- October 16, 2009 at 5:44 PM
- AnnieO said...
I haven't gotten through all the wonderful quilts, but maybe about 120 or more. It's been really fun leaving comments and having quilters new and experienced to share this Festival with. Thanks, Amy! Oh, and you answered my question about when winners will be drawn, but ---duh---I could have read the button that said October 9-16 :)!
- October 16, 2009 at 9:06 PM
- wishes, true and kind said...
Thank you, Amy and sponsors! It's been so much fun and very inspiring!
- October 16, 2009 at 11:15 PM
- Erin Barnes said...
Amy, Once again thank you for putting on a great quilt festival. This was a great idea. I loved seeing so many wonderful quilts.
- October 17, 2009 at 1:23 PM
- Letterpress said...
Just wanted to say thanks--like so many others. I ended up sick this past week and I've had the best time sitting in bed with my laptop, going to a virtual quilt festival.
Many thanks--
Elizabeth E, #115 (in Fall 2009)
- October 17, 2009 at 1:40 PM
- Kit Lang said...
Congratulations to all the winners - and many thanks to the sponsors for giving us the opportunity to win these wonderful prizes; and to you, Amy, for hosting it.
I'm very glad that it was a roaring success -it must make all that hard work worth it! :)
- October 18, 2009 at 3:35 PM


text:
NOTE: In Miromaa the term "Tag" is equilavent to "marker" which is used in Lexique Pro, Toolbox and Shoebox
The following instructions are to assist you with importing a text file with recognised standard format markers into Miromaa
An example of what that text file may look like is:
\lx mowane
\ps noun
\ge kangaroo
Some handy, but lengthy, reference documents which can be used to assist you in understanding standard format markers are:
Here is a PDF document with larger images of some of the screen shots below for reference:
Keep in mind that if you are importing a text file into Miromaa we expect that you are probably a bit more advanced in using Toolbox and Lexique Pro than the "average Joe".
Now with our instructions/steps below we are going to try and make it as easy and graphical as possible with images.
We also want to acknowledge the huge input which Dr Christina Eira from the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages(VACL) provided us with on developing the import feature.
Thank you Christina.
- About Importing into Miromaa
- How to get to the import area
- Importing your text file
- Now lets look at the Import screen
- Entering your selections
- Finish the Import
- What if something went wrong?
- New Linguist screen feature
About Importing into Miromaa
If you or someone else has done work on your language using either Toolbox, Shoebox or Lexique Pro you may be able to import all of that data directly into Miromaa without having to re-enter it.
How it works is by creating a whole new Miromaa Dat file, it does not import into a current language Dat file, we dont know whether that is a high priority feature to have yet. All of the scenarios that we have come up with all revolve around creating a new Dat file, so that is what we have built here.
Now, because the type of text files have a million and one combinations available for field names (markers/tags) you will have to be aware that there maybe some limitations on how you bring data in, in other words you may have to compromise a bit with it, I emphasise 'may', because a lot of the time it is perfect. We have tested the Import feature with a wide mutitude of text files and it works great. Neverless we have produced what we feel is a very powerful and flexible Import feature into Miromaa to handle the majority of text files. Do not be afraid to have a few goes to get your import settings correct.
I am sure someone has got something that does not work or some situation that needs to be handled differently, I am sorry about that, please let us now using the contact miromaa form.
We hope you can see the value in what we have produced and get to use it to the best of your ability. We will continue to fine tune the Import feature and screen over the next coming weeks, updates will be available as normal.
How to get to the Import Area
The import area is only accessible via the LOGIN screen
Importing your text file
This is pretty easy, just go to the top left hand corner and choose [open file], navigate to where your text file is saved and then select this. How you do this in XP or Vista is slightly different, we expect that you have good skills in file management with Windows already so this should be pretty easy.
Now lets look at the import screen
Far Top Left Hand Corner
- [open file] - for bringing in your text file to prepare for import into Miromaa
- [import] - you are finished preparing and are now ready to create your Miromaa Dat file (only press this button at the end)
After you have selected your text file from the [open file] button Miromaa will then analyse the text file and will give you a summary of the markers and their frequency in appearing in a record. Lets look at this more closely for an explaination.
Remember we use Tag instead of 'marker' (why - 3 letters versus 6 letters, its shorter).
Tag: \lx, Min: 1, Max:1. - 'Min 1' tells us that \lx appears at least 1 in every record and 'Max 1' tells us that the most times it appears in that record is once.
Tag: \ur, Min:0, Max: 1. - 'Min 0' tells us that there are some records where '\ur' is not present and the most that it appears in others is once.
Tag: \sd, Min:1, Max: 2. - The 'Max 2' tells us that there are some records where \sd actually appears twice as a field.
You may easily have a text file where you may have a marker appear 9 times, this summary will at least tell you this and later you will see the benefit of this. As Miromaa has fixed fields and 9 custom fields it means that not everyting can go where you want it exactly, maybe. What we have done, and you will see this below, is make it so that you can combine data into one or more fields.
Left Middle
This here is where your original text file appears so that you can vie it in further detail if needed, you can copy/paste but you can't CTRL+F or use the find command in it.
This is the area where we will provide a reference guide for using the import feature.
Right Middle
- Miromaa Label - The name of the fields in Miromaa where you can import data into it.
- Default Export Tag - By default this is what Miromaa is set to when exporting to this type of text file, you may have customised your own exports which won't be reflected here, this column is a guide only and cannot be edited, this is how we do it with our language and is suggested only.
- Your Selection - This column is in white which means that it can be edited and this is where you enter your marker and any special commands for the import of that respective field.
- Suggested Import Marker - If you are predominately a Toolbox/Lexique Pro person this column is a suggested guide to where you may be placing your field within Miromaa.
- MDF Field Name - Just as it says, a description of that field.
NOTE: that you can resize the internal bars and the outside window by hovering your mouse over, wait for your mouse to change to the 2 headed arrow to change then click/hold and resize that area to your choice
Entering your selections
This can be easy or it can be tricky, it just depends on what your text file looks like with the markers that you use.
If Miromaa analysed your text file and found that you have Max:1 for appearing records do the following:
So in the [your selection] column place your marker in the corresponding Miromaa field, have a look at the image above for an example.
That's the easy way.
If Miromaa analysed your text file and found that you have Max:2 or greater (eg. Max:3, Max:4 etc) for appearing records, you can do the following:
In the [your selection] column you can place your marker in the following various ways:
Example 1:
This means that the first occurance of that marker will appear in that field and the second occurance of that marker will occur in the other field.
Example 2:
\tag(1) \tag(2)
entering 2 markers into the one field like this means that the first and second occurance will merged into the one field seperated by a space.
Actual example - \sd(1) \sd(2)
N.b. you can also do this \tag(1) \tag(2) \tag(3) etc, this will merge those occurances into the one field.
Example 3:
\tag(1) ; \tag(2)
By adding the " ; " in between seperated by a space on either side means that the field will show the merged markers with " ; ", easy hey.
Actual example - \sd(1) ; \sd(2)
Now you can enhance this further by replacing " ; " with anything you like eg. \tag(1) and \tag(2), the word and now will appear in the merged field.
Actual example - \sd(1) and \sd(2)
Example 4:
This is a shortcut where the above in Examples 2 and 3 you specified which occurances will go where, here in this example you are specifying that all occurances will appear in that merged field.
Example 5:
This is a shortcut similar to Example 4 but in this Example, you are specifying that all occurances from the second onwards will appear in that merged field. You can use any number to start merging occurances from. This can be useful if you want to put the first and second occurances in one field, \tag(1) ; \tag(2), and the rest into another field, \tag(3,;).
Why the two options, well we have gathered samples of peoples text files where some markers appear up to 9 times for that record, that is way to much for Miromaa to show in its fields when merging, so you may have to experiment and break them up and move some occurances to custom fields as a suggestion.
Seperators can be anything without a space, any combination of characters or symbols.
If you enter a \tag that is not recognised it will treat this as text and place this into that field for all records
Semantic Domains and Parts of Speech
Within Miromaa these two bits of information are stored in there own seperate table for easy drop down access when using Miromaa.
All the same tag shortcuts can be used as they are above, however, this section treats just \tag differently. This is because these are stored in another table and each may be used in any number of entries. If you simply use \tag, then Miromaa will add each occurance to the table if it does not already exist, and link it to the entry.
Miromaa also allows sub lists of Semantic Domains and Parts of Speech where other programs do not. To overcome this, Miromaa would export these by separating the Semantic Domain or Part of Speech and their sublist by an underscrore, "_", so when importing, Miromaa will search for an underscrore, and create a sublist accordingly.
Example 6:
If we have in our file to be imported something like: \sd Semantic Domain_Sub Semantic Domain
Then simply using the tag \sd as your selection will create this Semantic Domain and Sub Semantic Domain and assign them to the entry.
Example 7:
If you have worked with another program to do something like this, but havent separated them by an underscore and used a second \sd tag, for example:
\sd Semantic Domain
\sd Sub Semantic Domain
Then you can accomplish the same outcome as Example 6 with: \sd(1) _ \sd(2)
Finish the Import
Now that we think we are happy with our selections we can click the [Import] button and see what happens, the steps are as follows:
click [Import]
1. Please enter your language name or the name that you want to give the Miromaa Data file for this import
Here I entered the language name "Awabakal" and "Body" because it is only words on the body.
2. Choose the location wher you will save the date file, by default Miromaa chooses C:\Program Files\Miromaa 3\ we recommend not save it here but instead create a folder on your desktop, in My Documents or somewhere else.
Click on picture to Zoom in.
Note that the data file has been given the language name with DAT added. You can rename this later on if you wish.
3. The import will commence, you will no that this is happening as you will see the animated import window working away, you need to be patient here because some computers can take a while to do this, it is a very complicated import that is happening, a text file with 7000 records is not uncommon and could take tens of minutes to complete expecially if you have a older computer. Once it is done you will see this:
click [OK], then this the last one here is time information on how long it took, thats all.
4. Miromaa will then close the Import window down and return you back to the Login screen with the new data file loaded, please use the Username Admin and Password admin to login, once in you can see how it went and do whatever you want to do.
What if something went wrong?
Visit here for your choices http://www.miromaa.org.au/support.html
Don't be afraid to play and try alternatives, if it went wrong just delete the Miromaa Dat file and Multimedia folder that it created and start again.
New Linguist Screen Feature
Now to enhance all of this new import ability which Miromaa now has we have also created a new Tab in the linguist area titled MDF, this tab now shows you that particular record which was just imported so that you can see how Miromaa handled the import of that particular record and also you still have information that may not have been imported kept within the MDF tab.
The MDF record tab is also editable, any changes you make will be saved here.
Down the track we may add further features or ability with exporting to this area, so we will need your feedback on this.


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In a recent encounter with a former student, Lewis Mandell, a professor of finance and managerial economics at the University of Washington, was asked: "What do you know about annuities? I'm thinking about buying an annuity."
"I was really embarrassed," Mandell said. I told him "you attended an entire semester of my investments course and know annuities are often laden with fees and that buying one at the bottom of an interest rate cycle might be a risk. You're a smart guy, are you sure you want to buy an annuity?"
"Yes," the physician replied, "I took your course and realize those things. My concern is—what do I do when I get stupid?"
Scientists no longer view cognitive impairment in old age as simply a misfortune that strikes some who suffer from a random event such as Alzheimer's or a stroke. There is increasing evidence that cognitive decline in old age is natural and inevitable. In fact, the rate of decline in old age does not appear to be slowed by education or intelligence, and is unaffected by solving crossword puzzles or reading Russian novels. Our brains, like the rest of our body, lose their ability to respond quickly and precisely over time.
In a series of academic studies on cognitive aging, Timothy Salthouse, director of the University of Virginia Cognitive Aging Laboratory, tests mental functioning by asking respondents to perform tasks such as naming a synonym to a random word, detecting patterns or recalling a list of words. Coming up with a synonym is an example of a task that requires crystallized intelligence, or the ability to process a stimulus (the word) and relate it to an item in memory (the synonym). Tasks requiring processing and some knowledge or experience tend to peak in the late 50s. The other tasks require speed, reasoning and memory. These skills test fluid intelligence, which tends to peak in the 20s. Einstein's so-called magic year occurred when he was 26 years old.
Like the synonym task, financial decision-making requires both the ability to respond to a stimulus and to place it into context through knowledge. Recent academic studies find that respondents make their best financial decisions when they are in their mid 50s. Sumit Agarwal, a senior financial economist at the Federal Reserve, and his co-authors found that effective financial behavior, such as limiting credit fees and interest rates paid on home equity loans, peaked in the late 40s and early 50s. Studies of investments confirm this financial performance peak in late middle age. George Korniotis and Alok Kumar, professors at the University of Miami, find that risk-adjusted investment returns decline with advanced age. Investors over 70 underperform by about 2% annually compared to younger investors.
A recent study using data from the Texas Tech Financial Literacy Assessment project shows that the decline in our ability to make basic financial decisions mirrors the results on investment and credit performance. The study found that the ability to understand financial concepts and apply them appropriately peaks in the early 50s and declines by about 2% per year after age 60. The rate of decline is no different at older ages, and a score at age 90 is about half what it was at age 65. Like other research on cognitive aging, this study found no increase in the dispersion of scores later in life, indicating a gradual decline among all older respondents rather than a few seriously impaired subjects dragging down the average.
While financial abilities decline with advanced age, confidence in one's ability to make financial decisions does not. In fact, respondents in their 80s believe their financial knowledge is slightly higher than do respondents in their 60s. This inability to assess a decline in skills with age is not limited to financial decisions. Results from a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Alabama find that subjects over age 65 do not perceive their decline in driving ability despite clear evidence of reduced visual acuity and reaction times. In fact, older drivers who had multiple crashes were no more likely to rate their driving ability as worse than average.
This lack of awareness is a problem for a financial advisor managing the assets of a client who begins making questionable financial decisions. Eric Park, a financial advisor in Washington, Mo., describes the position of serving as a fiduciary to a client making questionable choices as a challenge. "Because of restrictive privacy laws, we find ourselves dancing around those issues. At the end of the day, every ethical planner has to ask himself how much legal exposure am I willing to withstand to protect [my]client. A planner who breaches privacy laws could very well find himself losing licenses, getting fined and even being subjected to monetary penalties or jail time."
Planning for Decline
Notes Mitzi Lauderdale, an attorney and financial planning professor in Lubbock, Texas: "Planning for incapacity or partial capacity is crucial. Documents such as a durable power of attorney, medical power of attorney, will, trusts and advanced medical directives should be implemented well before any capacity concerns arise."
Park believes that a power of attorney may not be necessary if a client has someone they can trust when an advisor begins to recognize cognitive decline. An HIPAA release can be combined with a medical power of attorney giving the advisor a right to disclose medical information. "Power of attorney gives people the power to do things. We don't even need that," he says. A waiver gives an advisor the ability to contact "a family member or attorney to make them aware that the client is about to give half their money to a charity you've never heard of. They may then be able to secure a legal remedy by getting the court to appoint them a guardian to protect the client."
According to Lauderdale, "client engagement letters can be particularly useful to facilitate and document further communication on how and when an advisor will respond when the client experiences diminished capacity." An attorney-in-fact, through a durable power of attorney, can give a guardian the ability to make decisions on the client's behalf. The attorney-in-fact should be given only to "a trusted family member or friend and should not be the RIA or broker/dealer," states Lauderdale. She recommends that the advisor encourage a client to sign documentation giving the advisor permission to discuss financial affairs with the attorney-in-fact. "The key is to have informed consent during times of capacity so that documentation is in place. There may be some pushback from clients as they fear losing independence and giving someone else permission to go against their wishes."
In Park's view, documentation that spells out a plan to deal with cognitive impairment is an essential part of the planning relationship. "We need to have somebody we can contact," he contends. "These contacts may not have the same privacy requirements. They can go to court and get an order to freeze an account or get a mental competency hearing in order to eliminate a tremendous amount of potential liability. We almost don't have an account where there isn't somebody else we can contact."
Advisors can perform a valuable role in recognizing reduced cognitive ability and preventing financial calamity if they have the tools to provide assistance. Without the appropriate legal authority, they are often powerless to help. Lauderdale notes that "when one's capacity is diminished beyond their ability to fully understand the facts related to their person and to make rational decisions with the facts as they understand them, they no longer have legal capacity to make decisions for themselves. This is challenging for planners because they are still your client and you are still supposed to follow their lead. While planning decisions still may be in the best interest of the client, a client may no longer have capacity to direct the transactions."
In order to avoid possible lawsuits from family members disappointed that a parent receiving professional financial management has squandered their inheritance or made them responsible for covering the expenses of an aging parent, a planner needs to be particularly cautious when recommendations are not being followed. Lauderdale notes that "if a client is making decisions that are not in their best interest and especially if they are not suitable, you must document decisions that are against your recommendations to protect yourself. When capacity is clearly lacking, an attorney-in-fact, via a durable power of attorney, will stand in the shoes of the client to make decisions on their behalf. The POA must have been executed prior to incapacity."
Diminished mental capacity can also lead to family conflicts when a client becomes more vulnerable to financial requests from family members. Harold Evensky, a financial planner in Coral Gables, Fla., finds that older clients will often bring a trusted child with them and he asks for permission to speak with either or both of them in the future. Evensky says that it is "relatively rare that we would talk to the child." Being given responsibility for addressing concerns about an aging parent's cognitive decline is "quite a burden on them, but that's part of the reality we deal with. There may be a responsible child and a spendthrift child that's had drug or mental [problems], and then we rely on the responsible child to help manage the issue."
Childless retirees, or those who have not identified a trusted younger guardian to help maintain their financial welfare in old age, can plan for diminished cognitive capacity early in retirement by making choices that reduce decision-making burdens later in life.
Professor Mandell believes that all of us need to acknowledge that cognitive decline is an important part of the retirement planning process. His encounter with the former student who asked about annuities underscored that point. By considering investment options that provide income without significant investment management input, and that lock up wealth to prevent losses from financial mistakes, the questioner was modeling a more informed approach that reduces the negative impact of cognitive aging.
"Here was a very smart guy who takes a course on investments and is smart enough to realize his cognitive ability is going to decline. He wanted to make sure that he was not going to screw up managing the assets that he and his wife will depend on for the rest of their lives."
Michael Finke is a professor and coordinator of the doctoral program in personal financial planning at Texas Tech University.


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Digital Production
The Gnomon Workshop offers the most comprehensive set of Digital Production tutorials anywhere. The broad scope of the tutorials contained in this section range from foundational understanding of the software tools all the way to the professional application of these tools and concepts used by artists working in the film and game industries.
Entertainment Design
The Gnomon Workshop is widely regarded as the global leader in training tutorials for the designer working in the entertainment industry. With tutorials ranging from foundational drawing and design concepts to process tutorials from some of the top concept and character designers in the world, there is surely something here to inspire.
As the tattoo industry has seen an explosion in popularity over the last few years, the need training in this field has also grown. In these video tutorials, some of the top tattoo artists in the world share their techniques and their take on the art of tattoo. The tutorials range from absolute beginner level to advanced color and blending techniques used by some of the world's best.
The Gnomon Workshop offers professional training on most of the software applications used in today's digital pipelines. There are foundational titles to introduce users to the software and tools, as well as advanced production titles that discuss application tools and processes vital to the production of digital assets and media.
Professional Training for Artists
The Gnomon Workshop seeks out the most highly-regarded traditional and digital artists and technicians currently working in the entertainment and design industries. Our instructors have shared their practices working at such top studios as Pixar, ILM, Blizzard, and many more.Instructor GalleriesInstructor Interviews
In this lecture, Vitaly Bulgarov walks you through his process for creating highly detailed organic-mech characters using Xsi®, ZBrush® and Photoshop®. Vitaly explains his 2D/3D concept design process, then shows his process for creating clean detailed meshes within Xsi, as well as the sculpting process in ZBrush. Finally he shows how to add character and life to the hard surface and make a presentation of the final high-poly model using ZBrush and Photoshop.
Duration: 140 minutes
Format: SD 1024x768
As a 3D character modeler for video games and game cinematics, Vitaly Bulgarov worked at Blizzard Entertainment on the cinematics team for Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and the World of Warcraft franchise. As a concept designer for films, he's created robotic designs for ILM, Dreamworks, Paramount, Lightstorm Entertainment and more, on projects including Transformers: Age of Extinction, RoboCop (2014), Terminator: Genisys, Ghost in the Shell, and the upcoming Alita: Battle Angel (2018). After transitioning from games and movies into industrial design, Vitaly has also worked on next-generation wearable products at Intel's New Devices Group as well as on surgical robotics at Intuitive Surgical. For the past 4 years, Vitaly has been working as the chief designer at Hankook Mirae Technology, the company responsible for building the first-ever four-meter tall mecha/robotic suit and currently developing a new humanoid and a quadruped robot. He also consults and works for Boston Dynamics, Panasonic, Microsoft, as well US military projects.
"When I came across Vitaly's work for the first time I was really impressed by his notion of design, shapes and form. In addition to Vitaly's mechanical design, which is one of the best that I have ever seen, his creative organic design has an extremely strong style, which make his work very unique. I am very proud to have Vitaly on my team."
Try a Class on Campus
Gnomon specializes in computer graphics education for careers in the entertainment industry.


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Take Admission & Certification Tests Graduate Admissions & Entrance Exams Undergraduate Admissions & Entrance Exams Exams for Credit Certification Exams General Educational Development (GED) Placement Exams Other Exams Test Preparation
The high school equivalency exam, a test of basic skills in Science, Social Studies, Mathematical Reasoning, and Reasoning through Language Arts. Successfully completing the GED exam gives the examinee a "Utah High School Completion Diploma," which allows students to apply for admission at university, college, trade and tech school programs, and to apply for employment where a high school diploma or its equivalent is required.
State GED website: gedtestingservice.com
National GED website: www.ged.com
- Cost: $30.00 per test. There are 4 tests to complete the GED, for a total fee of $120.00. Each test may be taken on a separate day if preferred.
- Where: USU Testing Services, University Inn 115.
- When: Mondays and some Thursdays, starting as early as 9:00 a.m. The registration site, www.ged.com will not allow candidates to make appointments which will extend beyond closing time, 5:00 p.m.
- Register: www.ged.com You will be required to set up an account with an email address and password and input your biographical information (name, birth date, address, etc.)
- Scores: Can be accessed through candidate's MYGED account online approximately 3 hours after completion of exam. The account history may be accessed through the www.ged.com website. Official credentials (score report and diploma) will be sent to the test taker within a week of completing/scoring of the final exam.
- Notes: Must be 16 or older to test. Those who are still of high school age are required to meet with an adult education counselor before registering for the exam. More information on this policy available on the GED website.


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Hi Pep !
Not a lot of pep know that I am a big collector of "basketball cards".
When I am saying "Big" I mean selling and buying in the 5 figures… x,xxx. (This is a lot for basketball cards)
I understand the basketball collector market cards very well and I lost but also made some x,xxx back in 2006 before I discovered the domain world.
I think domains are not so different than collecting basketball cards but of course every industry and every market have his own rules.
I still have some of my collection and today you benefit from that. 🙂
Today, I want to announce on a contest on my blog – Its called "Lebron ?" Contest.
You need to do – leave a comment on my blog with the team you think "King James will transfer on Thursday".
I need to do – Give you 2003 TOPPS LEBRON JAMES RC PSA 10 for free… to the first person who will put a comment with the right team.
* Only one comment each person (you must include your real name and email in the comment) !!! The prize will be shipped to the lucky winner on August because I am not at home at the moment and the card is there…
What you can do with the prize ???
1. Sell it on eBay for $50 to $100.
2. Keep it for 10 years and sell it higher.
3. Give it to the next generations in your family. 🙂
So what do you say, Lebron ?


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My weekend has consisted of two of my favorite things: running and art! Okay...so I would be lying if I said running was one of my fave things - it's not so much the actual running as it is the feeling you have after you finish a long run that I love!! Curtis and I ran in the Cowtown races this weekend - I did the 10K and he ran his first full. It truly was exhilarating!! This was my first time to run for a cause of my choosing - I ran for a little boy that used to go to one of the schools I've subbed at this year. He is autistic, so we were running for a cure for that, as well as for him, and the home/organization where he is now! It was a great feeling to run with purpose while thinking of this sweet little boy and his precious family! We also watched a movie called The Spirit of the Marathon - VERY INSPIRING, if you haven't seen it, do - it will inspire you too!
As for art...I am feeling like being creative lately and I have so many ideas for paintings in my head - just not enough canvas. I have been thinking about just buying a roll of canvas, but then I'd have to learn how to stretch it, etc.? Have any of you ever done this? How hard is it? My art has been mainly inspirational this year so far - I think God has had to work some things out in me...therefore, that is what has come out in my painting lately!
Anyway...its weekends like this that I love - just doing the things I love to do!


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The vinaya was traditionally not taught to those outside the bhiksu(ni) community. There was a fear that people would use those precepts against the community.Aemilius wrote: I have often wondered what kind of karma one acquires when one so eagerly discusses the points of vinaya and at the same time one is never going to commit oneself to following it even in the slightest!? I'm not claiming that I have never done it myself, but I would like to be careful about that, karma is easily created and it will last for milennia, I also feel a certain heaviness in this topic.
There is a good reason behind this policy that monks must get married, the answer lies in the history, maybe they don't like to tell that kind of unpleasant and nasty things anymore? I.e. the causes that led to this new and I would say healthy practice (of monks having to marry).
But times have changed. Things are more transparent then they used to be.
Your fear of karmic retribution is wise, but in this case there is no intention to harm others, but rather to foster a healthy community and proper training and certification methods.
In the case of Korea and Japan, there were numerous factors at work. The first is that when the vinaya tradition died out there was no actual mechanism in place to forbid marriage. In such a scenario you might have traditions forbidding marriage of tradition and doctrine, but no actual legal mechanism exists in place to prevent it. In the case of Japanese sects it started with Saicho when he decided that he would ordain "Bodhisattva monks" without the Vinaya, having concluded the Sravakayana-vinaya was unsuitable and unnecessary for superior Bodhisattva practices. Legally monks in Japan were forbidden to marry until the Meiji period, but then things rapidly changed under government influence and this hereditary system of temple ownership development passing from master to disciple or father to son.
This system was pushed on the Taiwanese Buddhists, but they actively resisted.
It was some success in Korea.
I can't speak for Korean Buddhism as I have no experience with it, but in Japan being a priest for the most part is a hereditary position you inherit from your father for the purpose of maintaining both the temple and the graves of the local community where it is situated. Whether you really give a damn or not about Buddhism isn't really an issue -- it is a family duty that is required to be filled. Nothing more.


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Union meets with Golden Guernsey workers
Waukesha plant closed Jan. 5
The union representing nearly 70 laid off Golden Guernsey workers met with its members Thursday morning in Pewaukee, but not many details were shared.
It's been nearly two weeks since workers found themselves suddenly out of a job.
"Our union's doing everything it can, and I'm real encouraged by the efforts of our business agent and their stewards, and all that. They're doing everything they can," former Golden Guernsey worker Dave Geiger said.
Geiger put in 25 years at Golden Guernsey before its owner, OpenGate Capital, shut it down, earlier this month.
Workers told WISN 12 News there's uncertainty about insurance and two months pay.
Some said they've been locked out, unable to get inside the plant to get their tools and belongings.
Gene Gowey, the business representative for Local 695 said it's being worked on.
"Management has had some conversation with me. They understand that those issues are there. So far, we're trying to very carefully work through that so everybody's rights and privileges are respected. And hopefully that will all be taken care of in the near future," Gowey said.
Several of the employees left the meeting once it wrapped up and headed straight to another meeting with the Department of Workforce Development to find out what options are available to them.
Darrel Mundt is one of them, but he said he's hopeful a buyer will step forward.
"If another company came in and purchased us, they could, actually I really feel they could stay with the Golden Guernsey name," Mundt said.
For now, he's looking for work after 35 years with the dairy.
The plant shut down Jan 5. WISN 12 News asked the union representative why it waited until Thursday to meet.
"They shut the plant down, but there was no indication if they were going Chapter 7, Chapter 11 or Chapter 13, and quite frankly, I'm not gonna call union's membership in and say, 'Here we are. I'm sorry. You can ask me questions.' I'm gonna stand there and say, 'I don't know the answers.' I wanted to make sure any meeting I had was a meaningful meeting, and when they asked a question, they had an answer," Gowey said.


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CAFR is now in the 'NONE OF YOUR F%!#@_G BUSINESS' category for Rahm Emanuel's Board of Education... CPS officials 'erasing history' as part of Internet (and paper) coverup of the history and business of America's third-largest school system
Chicago Public Schools officials have been slowly and meticulously erasing the public record of the history of important CPS actions since Rahm Emanuel became Mayor of Chicago in May 2011. Among the documents that have been removed from the CPS website are the "Action" agendas from the Board of Education meetings prior to 2003, staff racial ethnic surveys, and hundreds of press releases and notifications of press conferences that were held prior to 2011. After May 2011, CPS officials instituted a blackout on the give-and-take of press conferences with reporters between CPS officials and the city's media. Instead, the vastly expanded CPS "Communications" office has been issuing press statements and refusing to answer most follow up questions from the city's remaining education beat reporters.
Since the Chicago Board of Education appointed Barbara Byrd-Bennett (above speaking to the Board during the December 19, 2012 Board meeting) as its second "Chief Executive Officer" in as many years since Rahm Emanuel became mayor, CPS officials have escalated the purging of public documents from the Board's Internet records. Violating a tradition that dates back decades, Byrd Bennett in January 2013 ordered CPS not to post or publish the CAFR, which constitutes the only reliable version of CPS finances available to the public. Critics suspect that the order to keep the FY 2012 CAFR from the public is based on the fact that CPS officials have been melodramatically escalating the claims of a massive "deficit" during recent years. When the CAFR is published, the lie of the previous year's "deficit" claims is exposed. The FY 2012 CAFR, which cover the audit of the school system's finances for the fiscal year between July 1, 2011 and June 30, 2012, will be the first to scrutinize the finances of the school system whose Board and officials were appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt. Additionally, the members of the Chicago Board of Education have continued to practice of sealing the minutes of their executive sessions, which take place at each of the monthly meetings of the school board. This becomes more important during an era when the mayor and his aides repeatedly claim that they are opening up a new era of what they call "transparency" in Chicago political affairs.
A major example is the decision by CPS to hire almost all out-of-town executives since the Emanuel era began in May 2011. While a great deal of attention was paid to the highly publicized announcement (in April 2011) by then Mayor-elect Emanuel that he was bringing in Jean-Claude Brizard to from Rochester New York to head the massive Chicago school system, no public attention (except here at Substance) has been paid to the regular appointment of officials from Cleveland, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Detroit, Memphis and elsewhere to top Chicago public education executive positions.
Since there has been little or no discussion of major personnel decisions -- including the hiring of more than 40 executives at salaries ranging from $100,000 to $250,000 per year -- on the public record since the Emanuel administration took over the nation's third largest school system in May and June 2011, the public is kept in the dark about the criteria used by CPS to vet key personnel. There has also been no public discussion of how CPS establishes both job titles and salaries for the system's top officials. Most since May 2011 have been hired from outside Chicago, adding an additional expense to the hirings. Dozens of officials hired since Emanuel became mayor have been awarded "relocation expenses" on top of their often unprecedented salaries as they arrive in Chicago from out of town. Brizard's $35,000 relocation expenses when he moved to Chicago from Rochester in 2011 was the beginning of a policy which had never existed before.
Additionally, the seven members of the Chicago Board of Education have routinely approved budget decisions based on figures which have later proven to be false and deliberately misleading. The current example of that is the fact that CPS officials have been publicly utilizing a talking point that claims CPS if facing a "debt" of $1 billion next school year, when in fact the actual budget figures (based on projected expenses and projected revenues) show that for the past 20 years CPS has deliberately created a fictional "deficit."
This month, January 2013, for the first time in history CPS officials are refusing to public the annual audited financial report (the CAFR, of Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) in January. Traditionally, the CAFR is presented to the members of the Board in December of each year and released to the public in January. The CAFR, which shows the audit of the fiscal year that ended the previous June 30, has always been the most reliable document revealing the actual state of CPS finances (and debunking earlier claims of "deficits" ranging as high as $1 billion (the final year of Ron Huberman's time as CEO). The CAFR for Fiscal 2012 (the fiscal year that began July 1, 2011 and ended June 30, 2012) has not been reported to the public this month for the first time in history.
instead of clear information and press conference where CPS officials have to answer questions in an open forum, CPS has created a culture of cynical secrecy, with carefully leaked media talking points given to selected reporters, while the public in general is denied access to basic information about how CPS policies are developed. With the latest change in the ability of the public to participate in the monthly meetings of the Chicago Board of Education, the denial of basic public access to the information and meetings of the third largest school system in the USA has become more severe as 2013 begins.
By: Rod Estvan
Many good observations
I think that George Schmidt's article on the failure of CPS to release its annual Comprehensive Annual Financial Report up to now was very interesting. I have to assume that unless the CAFR appears soon the Bond rating agencies will get even more alarmed than they are already regarding the overall fiscal situation of CPS.
I would speculate that one reason we are seeing increasing numbers of administrators brought into CPS from outside of Chicago is that they are intended to be transient not career employees. These new hires may not expect to be at CPS for very long. This makes a lot of sense if we begin to think that the central office as we have known it is disappearing.
The costs for central administration will be shifted where ever possible to contract employees and project based hires. This doesn't mean necessarily that the actual costs will decline dramatically, but the costs are likely to become more obscure as part of larger service contracts.
Rod Estvan
By: George N. Schmidt
CAFR lie no accident -- Byrd-Bennett, Rahm sabotaging education in third largest city in USA
While I hadn't thought about Rod Estvan's take on the refusal of CPS officials to release the CAFR as required, it's deeply disturbing. A couple of people said "What?" and I have just told them to look up the CAFR at cps.edu or call and make a FOIA request.
But the sabotage of the city's public schools by Rahm Emanuel's appointed Board and appointed administrators doesn't stop by removing key history from the official record and covering up the facts from public access to the annual audit.
Every time Byrd Bennett or someone echoing Rahm talks about "crisis" there should be screaming from Howard St. to 135th St, "Liar! Liar!" But this year's version of the Rahm script is much more dangerous than last year's, when Rahm's millions and minions were hiring the "rent a protesters" and "rent a preachers" to try and lie to the public. This year it's straight out of the playbooks developed by dictators like Nicolai Ceausescu (Romania, before 1989) and elsewhere. Erase the facts and replace them with careflly staged spectacles and regularly repeated lies.
Within a couple of days, we will have a complete story at Substance of the "churning" of top administrators at CPS since Arne Duncan went to Washington four years ago. Arne Duncan, followed by Ron Huberman, followed by Terry Mazany, followed by Jean-Claude Brizard, followed by Barbara Byrd-Bennett, followed by ????
And that's just the four year list from the job of "Chief Executive Officer." When you go through the "Chief Education Officer", "Chief of Staff," and all the other "Chiefs..." it's the same expensive patterns. If Rahm learned corporate welfare while serving as Chief of Staff in the White House during the bank bailout, he is today pioneering hack bureaucrat welfare on the CPS payroll. In most other towns, this would be a scandal. But here, it's not even "news" (except here). The churning is mayoral policy.
As I'm reporting, most of the top hirelings under both Brizard and now under Byrd-Bennett have been out of towners who need a GPS (probably paid for by CPS) to find their way from Bogan to Bowen, while all of them are receiving "relocation expenses" at a time when Byrd-Bennett keeps prattling about that phony "billion dollar deficit" and using that lie to justify what she is calling her "underutilization crisis".
The damage is already severe, and if Rod's theory proves true (and CPS outsources management further -- both by sourcing it to out-of-towners or hiring contractors to assassinate the public schools of Chicago), there will have to be more and more corrections made every time someone at the top lies or simply screws up because of ignorance.
I am assuming that Byrd-Bennett herself is lying. It's part of her history going back to Cleveland, long before she became a Broad Foundation factotum and then part of the crew of the Death Star that was aimed at Detroit before she was plucked by Rahm for here. The others may be more pathetic, but they are equally expensive mercenaries that Chicago taxpayers should reject.
Last year, Rahm bragged that he had "reduced administration" by "$400 million" which was just one of many lies (I heard him repeat it at a number of media events, usually those corporation thingies he hangs out to show off his prowess). But there was a massive departure from administration -- because Rahm's regime (then under Jean-Claude Brizard) sabotaged middle management.
The formula was simple: The ability to cash in accumulated sick days was ripped away from the senior administrators and principals, some of whom had worked without using sick days for decades because it was a cash benefit. When CPS announced mindlessly that it was "losing money" by allowing the accumulation of sick days (dutifully prattled back in the echo chamber of the Sun-Times) and then announced that it would not allow the cash out for "non union employees" the die was cast. Hundreds of principals and middle-level people, many of whom were not replaceable, were gone.
The only word for what Rahm Emanuel is trying to do to CPS is sabotage, as a prelude to privatization. Anyone who wants to see the "public school system" that Rahm's team has in mind can drive around Detroit, as our friends have, and see the ruins of a public school system. That's the main qualification Barbara Byrd-Bennett brought to Chicago and the danger her hypocritical prattlings, reported as "news", bring to the nation's third largest school system.
By: Valerie F.Leonard
The CAFR Probably is Not Done Yet
George, I have included a link to the Official Statement (O.S.) from the last CPS bond issue (December13, 2012). (The bond issue was meant to refinance outstanding bonds at a lower interest rate.) The O.S. has a blank page indicating that the audited financials for FY2011 should be inserted in that space. Apparently, the CAFR was not completed as of the date of the bond issue. The O.S. indicates that the audited statements were not done at the time of the bond issue. CPS has 210 days after the close of the fiscal year to get the statements done.
You will see summary financial information from FY2012 which has been estimated. Further in the document, there is only a comparison for FY11 with FY10. You will also see the approved FY2013 budget.
While CPS has financial challenges, I agree with you that the situation is not as dire as they make it out to be. The O.S. makes mention of the fact that the FY 2012 revenues are understated by $194 million due to the fact that $194 million was received between the time the 2012 budget was published and the time FY2012 ended July 31, 2012. While the financial statements in the O.S. don't show the $194 million in 2012, the FY 2013 budget does include this amount in the revenue projection. The O.S indicates that an adjustment will be made when the audited statements are done. As a result, when the CAFR does come out, the FY2012 revenues and fund balance could be $194 million greater than shown in the official statement. CPS had an estimated operating deficit of$114.5 million at the end of FY2012. When you add the $194 million back to the revenues, the deficit should disappear, and you should expect to see an operating surplus of around $79.5 million for FY2012 after the audit is completed. This number could vary, as other adjustments may be necessary during the audit. It is not clear whether the FY 2013 budget will be revised.
Check out the O. S. at http://www.cps.edu/About_CPS/Financial_information/Documents/OS_2012B.pdf Also, we know these statements are accurate to the best of their ability, as they don't want to be sued by bondholders.


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PHU-111 Key Features and Benefits:
- Authoring tool makes it easy to lay out forms documents and create corresponding digital version.
- The barcode scanner integrated into the smartpad helps automatically sync the paper form with its digital version
- Customers can still fill out familiar paper forms (A4 or letter size) on the electronic clipboard.
- Secure, biometric eSignatures can be included with the digital document.
- Handwritten data can be captured and converted using handwriting recognition.
- Organizations benefit from archiving and accessing digital documents.
Working with Wacom Clipboard
Watch the video ::before ::after
Wacom Clipboard Product Overview
Watch the video ::before ::after


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back order(redirected from back-ordered)
back order
1. noun An item that is not currently available for sale but can be ordered. No, that dress is sold out, but we can make it a back order for you.
2. verb To order an item that is not currently available for sale. No, that dress is sold out, but we can back order it for you.
back-order something
[for a merchant] to order something that is not in stock and make delivery to the customer when the goods become available. The store didn't have the replacement part for my vacuum cleaner, so the manager back-ordered it for me. The shop had to back-order some of the items on my list.
back order
An item not currently in stock but to be sold or delivered when it becomes available, as in We don't have the shoes in white, but we can make them a back order. The verb back-order means "to obtain such an item," as in The furniture store is going to back-order the sofa for us.


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ROCK HILL, South Carolina –August 6, 2012 – 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD) announced today the immediate availability of Cubify® Tags, another new app designed specifically for printing on its Cube® 3D printer. Cubify Tags makes it possible for anyone to design their own tags and pendants and 3D print them at home.
Simply choose a shape, then drag and drop characters and letters onto it for a unique, inspired design. These colorful tags and pendants make a personal statement and can be worn as necklaces or used to personalize everyday items from luggage, backpacks and key chains to cool tags for the family pet.
"We are thrilled to bring another intuitive and fun app to Cubify. Boys and girls of all ages can instantly make and print their unique creation to wear, give as gifts and exchange with their friends," said Cathy Lewis, Vice President of Global Marketing for 3D Systems. "Our enthusiasm continues to build with each amazing new app we introduce to our growing Cubify community."
Be the first to register and start making your custom tags on Cubify today.
About 3D Systems Corporation
3D Systems is a leading provider of 3D content-to-print solutions including 3D printers, print materials and on-demand custom parts services for professionals and consumers alike. The company also provides CAD software and plugins, and affordable consumer create-and-make printers, apps and services. Its expertly integrated solutions replace and complement traditional methods and reduce the time and cost of designing new products by printing real parts directly from digital input. These solutions are used to rapidly design, create, communicate, prototype or produce real parts, empowering customers to create and make with confidence.
More information on the company is available at www.3DSystems.com.
To experience our entire range of 3D content-to-print products and services please visit www.printin3D.com, www.production3dprinters.com, www.3Dproparts.com, www.zcorp.com, www.toptobottomdental.com, www.quickparts.com, www.alibre.com, www.bitsfrombytes.com, www.bespokeinnovations.com, www.botmill.com, www.cubify.com, www.myrobotnation.com, www.freshfiber.com, www.The3dStudio.com, www.freedomofcreation.com, www.sycode.com, www.paramountind.com, blog.3dsystems.com, or via email at [email protected].


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I'd like to supplement my breastfed 3-month-old with formula, but it seems to be giving her diarrhea. Is she allergic? What can I use as a supplement?
There are several reasons a child could develop mild diarrhea from a formula based on cow's milk. There could be an intolerance to one of the proteins or perhaps, rarely, to the lactose. (Breast milk contains lactose so babies are very rarely lactose intolerant. That tends to develop after age 2.)
In general, soy formula results in firmer stools, and most kids who don't tolerate cow's milk will tolerate soy, though there are some–perhaps 20 percent–who overlap and will keep the loose stools on soy. Most of those kids do well on a hydrolysate formula, such as Nutramigen. Thankfully, most of these intolerances or allergies will get better with age. Kids who can't take cow's milk as an infant will usually be able to as they get older. Lactose intolerance is an exception to this–once it sets in, it often continues.
I'm in favor of formulas that have the amount of DHA and ARA recommended by the World Health Organization. Because you are nursing, your baby is getting DHA and ARA from your breast milk. You can be sure your baby is getting a rich supply if you eat one serving of salmon a week (it doesn't take much).


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"Reilly could write about lawn bowling and make it funny, informative, and entertaining."–Los Angeles Times
"[Reilly] knows and delivers a good story when he sees it . . . readers can't help but be touched by the sheer ingenuity of many of these games and the sheer courage of many of the participants."–Booklist


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Vestas said it had decided to sell the two wind farms as project development and ownership was not part of its regular business model.
Lukerg Renew paid Vestas EUR 109.2 million for Gebeleisis and EUR 17.6 million for Hrabrovo.
These deals are not the first between the two companies. Back in April, Lukerg Renew signed an order for 36 V90-2.0 MW turbines from Vestas for another Romanian project.
Today's acquisitions from Vestas are just the latest in a series for Lukerg Renew in Romania and Bulgaria. These have included an operational 40MW project in Bulgaria acquired in February 2012 and an 84MW project currently being developed in Romania the joint venture bought in December 2012.


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Ouya, a $99 Android Game Console, Plays the Kickstarter Game
The creator of a new video game console is looking to change the way both players and developers interact with games on the TV — provided there's room for another console on the market.
Created by game industry vet Julie Uhrman and designed by Yves Behar, the Ouya is an open-sourced console running its own user interface and game store on top of an Android OS. It's built with a Tegra3 chipset for HD game play, and comes with a compatible, Ouya-branded controller.
Boxer8, the name of Uhrman's start-up company, is launching a fundraising campaign today on crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The Ouya expected to cost $99.
Unlike traditional game consoles, the Ouya won't have an optical drive. It will be built with one gigabyte of RAM, 8GB of flash storage and an HDMI port for connecting directly to the TV, in addition to both wireless and Bluetooth connectivity. The controller is designed with two standard analog sticks, eight game-play buttons and a touchpad.
Uhrman's end goal is to develop a system that not only provides easy access to games and uninterrupted connectivity for players, but is also an open platform for developers and hackers. Any publisher can develop a game through the console's built-in software development kit, and developers choose the pricing model, as long as the initial download is free. Hacking the device won't result in a voided warranty.
So game players will have access to online games, Android apps and games created specifically for Ouya, all as part of a free-to-play model, says Urhman, the former head of digital distribution at IGN. When asked about specific titles — for example, whether there will be titles to sate the appetites of hardcore gamers — Urhman said it was too early to discuss partnerships with publishers, given that the start-up is still in the fundraising stage.
You might think: Do we need another console? Some analysts have been predicting the slow phase-out of the game console for a while now, as more games shift to the cloud and become available online and on mobile devices. Services like OnLive, which allows consumers to stream games to their TV, or to a PC or Mac, have spurred further discussion about the demise of the console.
And this year at E3, electronics giant Samsung announced plans to build an online gaming service, powered by Gaikai and Nvidia, directly into its "smart" Internet-connected TVs.
On the flip side of that, many Internet-connected TVs don't yet have the chipsets needed to smoothly run graphics-heavy games. As more games migrate to the cloud, gamers used to the processing power of a console may find themselves waiting for technology to catch up.
Ouya, in the meantime, is hoping to position itself as the go-to device for online gaming.
"Ultimately, we believe that the console is going to go away," Uhrman said in an interview. "We think it's all going to the TV. That's why our focus is also on the platform and the controller, which, for the most part, has been an afterthought."
Boxer8 is looking to raise $950,000 on Kickstarter to produce the initial batch of Ouyas. Current investors include former Digg CEO Jay Adelson, and Hosain Rahman, the founder of Jawbone.
Update: In just eight hours and with 29 days left to go in its campaign, the Ouya has surpassed its fund-raising goal of $950,000, with more than eight thousand backers throwing money behind the new game console.


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This two-day music and food fest in downtown Springfield is much anticipated. Highlighting a six-band lineup on the Media Stage is Jimmie Vaughan and the Tilt-a-whirl Band featuring Lou Ann Barton on Aug. 27 at 9 p.m. presented by Downtown Springfield, Inc., Miller Lite Live and Sangamon Valley Roots Revival. The Illinois Central Blues Club Challenge begins at noon on Saturday with four hours of music by two solo/duo acts and six bands. Saturday, Aug. 27 from 1-6 p.m. families can sing karaoke, marvel at Chris Camp, The Whip Guy, and have a great time together at other free activities and entertainment. Besides the barbecue competition menus, a variety of other vendors serve food, drinks and desserts. Those tickets are $1. Admission gates are located at Fourth and Washington, Sixth and Washington, Fifth and Adams, and Fifth and Jefferson. Visit www.downtownspringfield.org for complete details.
Old Capitol Blues & BBQs
Friday Aug. 26, 5pm-12am
Saturday, Aug. 27, 12pm-12am
Neuhoff Media Stage - Fifth and Adams
Illinois Central Blues Challenge - Fourth and Washington
Kids Zone - Old State Capitol Plaza south and lawn
$5, Kids 12 and under free


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Program outline
Each team plays the role of elves, Santa's little helpers tasked with preparing gifts and decorations in the lead up to Christmas. Their goal is to accumulate goods by building relationships with other groups of Elves, while using their cunning to gather vital information. The game takes place over 4 game days, each day starts with the groups of Elves trading and ends with them returning to Lapland, to be rewarded by Santa. As the game progresses, the groups of elves develop relationships with other groups of elves and share gained knowledge.
Learning and development outcomes
A quick and clever activity where teams negotiate and trade to maximise their returns. Although this is a competitive exercise, the most successful teams are those that collaborate with others to build win-win outcomes while at the same time focussing on their own bottom line results. During a review process, winning strategies are shared and pertinent learnings are applied to the workplace.


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General purpose polypropylene economy packaging tape suitable for sealing parcels, boxes etc.
The strong and durable clear packaging tape is easy to use for any packaging need.
At a length of 66 m and 48 mm wide these tapes last a long time and hold fast on cardboard, plastic, fibreglass, whatever the purpose, these tapes hold it together.
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Saving your money for next purchases
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Form Factor: Ear hook, In Ear
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The Beneteau Antares 10.80 is an ideal boat for family cruising or a spot of fishing with friends. Two good sized cabins, a spacious heads and a comfortable saloon, powered by twin Volvo KAD300's. New Windlass 2020. Lying Cardiff.
firstname.lastname@example.com - 01248 363400 - 07771 692412
Twin Volvo 285hp inboard diesel engines with shaft drive with approximately 610hours.
Electric trim tabs.
4 batteries in total all charged by shore power and engine alternator.
The large forecabin has a double "island" berth with polished wood cabinetry.
There is a starboard side bulkhead private access door into the large head which has a hand basin and a marine WC and a hot/cold shower.
There is a second private cabin with two full size single berths and locker storage.
Companionway steps lead up into the saloon and there is generous seating on the portside.
The galley opposite has a stainless steel sink with hot/cold pressurized water supply, a two burner gas stove and oven, a microwave oven and a fridge.
The helm is located on the starboard side and has full instrumentation for the two engines including EDC (fly by wire) gear/throttle levers.
There is a double co-pilot seat opposite the helm.
Patio doors lead out into the cockpit and steps lead up to the Flybridge.
Heating throughout.
Anchor and chain.
Electric windlass.
Forward, spring and aft mooring cleats.
Full set of cockpit covers.
Sun awning.
Boarding ladder.
Snap Davits.
Warps and fenders.
VHF radio.
Navigation lights.
Instruments repeated on flybridge.
Manual and electric bilge pumps.
Small rib and 5hp outboard.
The Company offers the details of this vessel in good faith but cannot guarantee or warrant the accuracy of this information nor warrant the condition of the vessel. A buyer should instruct his agents, or his surveyors, to investigate such details as the buyer desires validated. This vessel is offered subject to prior sale, price change, or withdrawal without notice.
Hen Dy, Port Penrhyn
Gwynedd, LL57 4HN
United Kingdom


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The Pioneer
Sautéed wild mushrooms add earthiness to this cheeseburger recipe. You don't have to hunt your own meat and gather your own mushrooms like a pioneer. The name refers to the fact that this exciting combination of flavors takes the bacon cheeseburger in a new, pioneering direction.
The Waldorf
This cheeseburger takes its inspiration from a Waldorf salad, which consists of apples, walnuts, grapes and mayonnaise on a bed of lettuce. The burger includes the walnuts, but replaces the grapes with dried cherries and calls for curly endive rather than leaf lettuce.
Recipes © Copyright Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board. Other material Lifestyle Direct, Inc. All rights reserved. Photos are copyright of their respective owners.


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Tesla sold more cars in last quarter of last year, than in 2017
PALO ALTO, California - Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Friday told employees that while 2018 was the most successful year in Tesla's history, the growth in employment in the company, which last year exceeded 30%, will be trimmed back this year.
In fact the enlarged workforce of approximately 45,000 will be reduced by 7%.
The good news is Tesla almost sold as many cars in the last quarter of last year as it did in the whole of 2017.
Model 3 also became the best-selling premium vehicle of 2018 in the U.S.
"This is truly remarkable and something that few thought possible just a short time ago," Musk said in an email sent to the company's employees on Friday.
"Looking ahead at our mission of accelerating the advent of sustainable transport and energy, which is important for all life on Earth, we face an extremely difficult challenge: making our cars, batteries and solar products cost-competitive with fossil fuels. While we have made great progress, our products are still too expensive for most people. Tesla has only been producing cars for about a decade and we're up against massive, entrenched competitors. The net effect is that Tesla must work much harder than other manufacturers to survive while building affordable, sustainable products."
"In Q3 last year, we were able to make a 4% profit. While small by most standards, I would still consider this our first meaningful profit in the 15 years since we created Tesla. However, that was in part the result of preferentially selling higher priced Model 3 variants in North America. In Q4, preliminary, unaudited results indicate that we again made a GAAP profit, but less than Q3. This quarter, as with Q3, shipment of higher priced Model 3 variants (this time to Europe and Asia) will hopefully allow us, with great difficulty, effort and some luck, to target a tiny profit," said Musk
"However, starting around May, we will need to deliver at least the mid-range Model 3 variant in all markets, as we need to reach more customers who can afford our vehicles. Moreover, we need to continue making progress towards lower priced variants of Model 3. Right now, our most affordable offering is the mid-range (264 mile) Model 3 with premium sound and interior at $44k. The need for a lower priced variants of Model 3 becomes even greater on July 1, when the US tax credit again drops in half, making our car $1,875 more expensive, and again at the end of the year when it goes away entirely."
"Sorry for all these numbers, but I want to make sure that you know all the facts and figures and understand that the road ahead is very difficult," the Tesla CEO told his employees. "This is not new for us, we have always faced significant challenges, but it is the reality we face. There are many companies that can offer a better work-life balance, because they are larger and more mature or in industries that are not so voraciously competitive. Attempting to build affordable clean energy products at scale necessarily requires extreme effort and relentless creativity, but succeeding in our mission is essential to ensure that the future is good, so we must do everything we can to advance the cause."
"As a result of the above, we unfortunately have no choice but to reduce full-time employee headcount by approximately 7% (we grew by 30% last year, which is more than we can support) and retain only the most critical temps and contractors. Tesla will need to make these cuts while increasing the Model 3 production rate and making many manufacturing engineering improvements in the coming months. Higher volume and manufacturing design improvements are crucial for Tesla to achieve the economies of scale required to manufacture the standard range (220 mile), standard interior Model 3 at $35k and still be a viable company. There isn't any other way," Musk said.
The CEO had a message for those about to lose their jobs, and to those that will remain behind.
"To those departing, thank you for everything you have done to advance our mission. I am deeply grateful for your contributions to Tesla. We would not be where we are today without you," he said.
"For those remaining, although there are many challenges ahead, I believe we have the most exciting product roadmap of any consumer product company in the world. Full self-driving, Model Y, Semi, Truck and Roadster on the vehicle side and Powerwall/pack and Solar Roof on the energy side are only the start."
Tesla is building a factory in China in a further bid to rteduce the cost of cars. The plant in Shanghai is expected to be operational later this year.
Other automakers expanding into China with electric carmaking plants include Genetral Motors, Nissan and Volkswagen.