text:
An insider's view of what is really happening in the Harris County Criminal Courts
Monday, May 21, 2012
Guest Post: Lykos and Judicial Activism
41 comments:
PLEASE send this to the Chronicle: firstname.lastname@example.com. They need an author name and contact so they can validate if they choose to run it. They probably won't but it beautifully explains the situation.
- May 21, 2012 at 3:08 PM
Police and prosecutors have great discretion in deciding what crimes to prosecute. The chief of police could order his police to arrest every traffic violator when the officer had the right to take the driver into custody. And, prosecutors could push for the maximum fine in every case.
But that would be nuts.
And, police and prosecutors have great discretion in deciding how to best use their limited resources in manpower, court space and, yes, jail space. A prosecutor might believe it is better to concentrate on violent crime rather than small drug crimes. And, a police chief might decide to issue tickets rather than arrest every traffic offender because it takes cops off the street to book people who run red lights.
The question is who decides. Like it or not, Pat Lycos is the elected district attorney of Harris County at least until December 31 at least. She gets to set the prosecution priorities in Harris County. The question is how she sets priorities.
Some years ago, Johnny Holmes (yes, that Johnny Holmes) decided that there would be no probation offers in auto theft cases after his wife's car was stolen. And, he stopped offering probation in burglary of habitation cases when a friend's home was burglarized.
Were those legitimate exercises of discretion. Yep. But I don't know if I like the reasoning.
A case can be made that filling prisons with folks from dirty crack pipe cases is a waste of resources. A real good case. Another case can be made that busting users of small amounts of crack is worthwhile under the broken window theory of law enforcement.
Setting police and prosecution priorities is NOT ignoring the law. It's deciding where to use the available resources. No reasonable criminal justice system can prosecute every violation of the law. One need only look at the Katy Freeway to see that the police don't strictly enforce the speed limits even though speeding is a crime in Texas. If they stopped every speeder, the Houston Police Department wouldn't be able to do anything else.
You and I may disagree with Pat Lycos's discretionary calls. And, they may be a reason for voting against her. But, she did nothing wrong, illegal or immoral.
- May 21, 2012 at 3:25 PM
Dear anonymous guest: How cute that you still use Patsy's "title."
I'll take any effort to oust Patsy, and I appreciate your effort on this issue. But you have way better "activism" ammo than that. Like her refusal to seek the death penalty on a number of beyond serious cases, which has been heavily criticized here.
Don't forget when she didn't charge that idiot who locked his babies in a hot car while shopping for guns for an hour. And, I know it's been a while, but don't forget Justice Medina's wife...
- May 21, 2012 at 3:31 PM
@Anon 3:25 - A better analogy would be a chief of police ordering officers to no longer stop, cite, or arrest people for speeding less than 10 miles over the limit, or for changing less than three lanes without signals. Doing so would limit the ability of officers to best police their area.
- May 21, 2012 at 3:43 PM
Judicial activism should not be tolerated, regardless of party affiliation.
So... I guess the anonymous poster will be voting against Texas Supreme Court candidate Don Willett, who claims that he is the "judicial remedy to Obamacare."
Am I right?
I didn't think so.
(Link, for those who don't know: http://www.donwillett.com/articles)
As for a few other issues I have with the post:
When politicians and judges ignore the clear letter of the law and the absolute intent of the legislature they subvert the will of the people.
You think the legislature doesn't subvert the will of the people? Do you think the majority of Texans are for abortion, or against it? Compare that with the legislature's recent actions.
We the people elect the legislature.
This is Texas. We elect the judges, too.
And we elected President Obama--yet his policies are targeted by those who would use the court system to subvert them.
Anyway, I think Lykos needs to go. Anderson isn't the way to go either, so I'm hoping Fertitta keeps intake low, which helps keep our taxes lower. We can no longer afford a return to the Holmes/Rosenthal era of locking everyone up and denying them a fair bail.
And there are plenty of reasons I dislike Holder--reasons that show that he and Obama are closer to Cheney in ideology. Hell, they make W look liberal. Arguing to the supreme court that a prosecutor should have immunity when they manufacture evidence to get a conviction? Why aren't you guys singing that guy's praises? That's your dream job--just decide who you think is guilty then make stuff up to get him convicted and you'll be immune! Even Scalia took him to task on that one.
This anonymous guest post is more of a pre-textual complaint to get rid of someone because of selfish, personal reasons, not a substantive issue that signals the real need for a regime change.
- May 21, 2012 at 3:46 PM
I agree with your guest post with the exception of addressing Lykos as "Judge". Historical titles are inappropriate for career politicians, especially those still seeking validation as does Lykos. She is no more a Judge than is one of the custodians of the building. in fact, when she was schmoozing all the current staff while running for DA, she wanted to be known as "Pat" and wanted "all those kids over there" not to worry about her firing them. What did she do immediately after taking office? Demands to be called Judge and started firing people right and left. Such a liar!
- May 21, 2012 at 5:08 PM
Lykos does nothing wrong or illegal in failing to prosecute small quantities of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, etc.cases. What? I guess all those cases upholding such prosecutions were just plain wrong. Moreover,
I guess that oath of office which she took which requires, in part, that she preserve, protect, and defend the laws of Texas was just a meaningless group of words, given lip service, in order to get that new wood floor, a trip to Hawaii, a fat pay check, and a chauffeur among other goodies. Johnny Holmes' practice, however, in refusing to offer probation in auto theft and burglary of habitation cases (assuming that he did) would have been clearly discretionary as it would have been for a judge or jury and was not a violation of his oath of office.
While we are on violation of that oath, however, let's take a gander at DIVERT, another area in which Lykos has gone off the reservation. The Legislature has specifically provided that those charged with DWI may not avail themselves of the benefits of deferred adjudication community supervision. Notwithstanding this prohibition Lykos implemented DIVERT, a program virtually indistinguishable except in name only from deferred adjudication community supervision. Charges filed against a successful DIVERT participant are not available for use in enhancing a subsequent DWI and may be expunged, both contrary to law.
Clearly DIVERT is illegal, not having been enacted by the Legislature and contrary to the specific provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Lykos' claim that the statutes addressing pretrial services and intervention programs support DIVERT is without merit, there being no substantative statute governing these programs. Moreover, once charges are filed and a guilty plea is entered, as in DIVERT, there is no longer authority for a pretrial diversion.
Lykos, as has always been her wont, again in this instance in essence has told the Legislature that she is wiser than their collective body and that she need not be governed by the laws which they enact if they are inconvenient to her narcisstic agenda and not in harmony with her philosophy (making the Chronicle and County Judge and Commissioners happy) . The obvious danger to Lykos remaining in office is what offense(s) will be next to be "unlawfully" subjected to her knife.
Calvin A. Hartmann
- May 21, 2012 at 5:17 PM
Anon 5:08 according to Pat, people on this blog call her a WHORE. If anyone did that, I am sure they meant it in the best possible way.
- May 21, 2012 at 5:59 PM
According to the TDCAA's top lobbyist, in an effort to win the War on Copper Theft, the Texas state legislature managed to make the theft of a single penny (coin) a state jail felony.
According to the U.S. Mint, even modern day pennies are 2.5% copper. Certainly enough to constitute a "trace" amount.
So I'm curious... if elected DA, would Mike Anderson prosecute penny-thieves to the full extent of the law? Or would he use his prosecutorial discretion to focus limited taxpayer resources on other priorities?
And please don't bother arguing about "legislative intent" or some such crap. Mike has repeatedly claimed in multiple public forums that the LAW is the LAW and you follow it AS WRITTEN and it isn't a prosecutor's job to decide which laws to prosecute and which laws to ignore.
So until the legislature (possible) amends the law and addresses this, would a DA Anderson pursue these charges?
- May 21, 2012 at 6:28 PM
To 6:28,
Theft under $50.00 is a class C, a night in the city jail, but great PC to search the suspect and get the crack pipe out his pocket and send his ass to jail where he will not be allowed to rape, rob, and steal...
A cop in the real world
- May 21, 2012 at 8:19 PM
Hilarious! You sure got him good!
- May 21, 2012 at 8:50 PM
Murray: Attempting to "translate" the letters to prove I am not a robot sometimes reminds of the days I was attempting to translate Ceasar's Gallic Wars in Latin class many years ago. ---
The answer to the penny question, intended to be an analogy to the trace drug question and suggest the absurbity of such prosecutions, to me is quite simple applying "crap" (the law). The rule that a penal statute is to be strictly construed does not apply to the Penal Code, and the provisions of the code are to be construed according to the fair import of their terms, to promote justice, and effect the objectives of the code.(See Objectives of the Code).[Please do not tell Lykos that -she will go even more wild). There is no such caveat or luxury to be applied to the Controlled Substances Act. Sorry that the answer had to be "crap" - by the way under the Code it also could be argued, for example, that the theft of an empty aluminum can is a state jail felony. I can not answer for Mike but I suspect that his answer for a penny theft is not to file a state jail felony under the above formula, but a Class C is still available in Justice Court.
Calvin A. Hartmann
- May 21, 2012 at 8:56 PM
I voted for Mike Anderson yesterday not because I'm a Republican or I think Lykos is mean or a crappy administrator or she is weak on crime (actually tend to agree with Anon 3:25)or because she had wood floors put in her office. I did it because I felt there was something fundamentally *wrong* with any employee of the DA's office taking the fifth in an investigation of their own office.
- May 21, 2012 at 9:17 PM
The Liecos drug policy just rewards "bogarts":
Don't Bogart That (crack pipe)
Lyrics: Lawrence Wagner
Music: Elliot Ingber
Don't bogart that (Crack Pipe) my friend - Pass it over to me
Don't bogart that (Crack Pipe) my friend Pass it over to me
pack another one, Just like the other one
You've been holding on to it
And I sure will like a hit
Pack another rock of crack
Just like the other one
That one's burned to the end
Come on and be a real friend
Knock, Bam! "POLICE - "DON'T MOVE M.F'S WHO HAS THE SHIT?" Officer 1 to Officer 2: " Damn we only got one. This guy over here who calls himself Bogart only blew what he had left in my face. "Alright arrect the stupid one for smoking too slow...dumbass! Don't you know who's DA?
- May 22, 2012 at 12:09 AM
- Michael said...
There are plenty of reasons for the citizens of Harris County to show Pat Lykos the door next week. The fact that she chooses not to prosecute people for possession of less than a hundredth of a gream of a controlled substance is not one of them. The fact that the legislature enacted such an idiotic statute is not persuasive, nor is the fact that every law enforcement personnel in Harris County is outraged at losing another petty crime to roust suspects in the poorer parts of Houston.
- May 22, 2012 at 12:50 AM
To 9:17pm - Yes there is something fundamentally WRONG with a prosecutor in the HCDAOs office taking the Fifth in a Grand Jury investigation into the HCDAO. And Lykos rewarded her pet prosecutor by assigning her to the prestigous Appellate section. They deserve better, and so did the Grand Jury.
By the way, if Clint Greenwood hasn't voted yet, will somebody please take him to Montgomery County around 6am tomorrow. As we all know from the Rachel & Clay recusal circus, it will take Clint 10 days to get back to Harris County and he will miss the election!
Just Sayin'
- May 22, 2012 at 1:57 AM
Anon 9:17 - Hallelujah - God is Good!
- May 22, 2012 at 6:33 AM
Can anyone explain why the DAs office is paying a temp agency to place interns at the office. Seems like a real waste of taxpayer money.
- May 22, 2012 at 7:44 AM
which relative of lykos, polland, or emmett owns the temp agency?
- May 22, 2012 at 8:21 AM
Jimmy, Rachel, David...somebody better get those Lykos campaign signs off of the jury assembly building property by 9 or I'm filing a complaint...this is bullshit
- May 22, 2012 at 8:48 AM
I voted for Pat Lykos in 2008 and I am a former prosecutor in Harris County. I will not make that mistake twice.
When I was at the office, there was a rule - if you are stopped for suspicion of DWI, you (as a current ADA) had to give a breath sample.
Now, under the constitution, you were not required to blow. It was a known rule and it was a good rule.
While Rachel Palmer was well within her constitutional right to take the 5th, it didn't mean she should (from the office's perspective).
The fact she has been rewarded is insulting to every other ADA.
My vote is for Judge Anderson.
- May 22, 2012 at 8:53 AM
Re : Small crack : As long as you can prove the defendant knew the substance was cocaine the amount is irrelevant for the purpose of deterring cocaine use. The legislature could not make it illegal to use cocaine since impossible ever to prove unless filmed it. So they did next best thing and made it illegal to possess it. They didn't care as much if someone possessed it but they didn't want anyone using it and only way to deter use was to prevent possession. So whether you just used a bunch and only have a trace remaining in possession or whether you used some and have a bunch remaining, you are still a user and that is who the legislature and most citizens want arrested. If you want to legalize cocaine use and possession then convince the legislature. Don't fool people into thinking small amount possession is insignificant.
- May 22, 2012 at 11:49 AM
Early voting is 7am - 7pm through Friday. Vote at any early voting location in Harris County. No lines yet. Don't wait till Friday. Early voting locations:
After Friday, no voting till primary day on Tuesday May 29th, and then you can only vote at the polling place for the voting precinct where you are registered. In other words, don't wait, vote now.
- May 22, 2012 at 12:00 PM
I'm as shocked at a DA refusing to prosecute petty drug cases as I am at a defense attorney encouraging a DA to prosecute shitty drug cases.
- May 22, 2012 at 12:03 PM
Excellent point Miranda. My guess is that nobody cares, except to the extent that they can use the issue to get rid of Lykos.
- May 22, 2012 at 12:35 PM
The totalitarian Republican control of this County will be it's downfall.
- May 22, 2012 at 1:49 PM
The office policy on trace cases makes sense. It should be continued regardless of who is in the big chair on six.
- May 22, 2012 at 1:53 PM
I'm sure many of ya'll have seen this, but it's awesome. It's a reaction to Lykos' assertion quoted below, and clearly states what the problem with the trial was.
"Absolutely not, the black prospective jurors were struck by
the defense, so there's nothing we could have done to
prevent what actually occurred with respect to jury
selection," Lykos said.
Says Chip--
"Mrs. Lykos, you really must tell the public the truth. You failed to challenge Mr.
DeGuerin's peremptory strikes of both black jurors on the panel. There is no valid
excuse. Your failure to challenge these peremptory strikes amounts to abject
incompetence or a desire to seat an all-white jury. By publicly proclaiming, "there's
nothing we could have done to prevent what actually occurred with respect to jury
selection," you really meant to say: "We chose not to enforce the Constitution of the
United States." Harris County's top prosecutor decided not to enforce the law of our
Even a non-prosecutor like you is familiar with Batson. Lest you forget your public
persecution of two very fine prosecutors relative to this constitutional maxim. You were
wrong then and you are wrong again. Mr. Curry, in case Mrs. Lykos has forgotten this
constitutional principle, please enlighten her. (By denying a person participation in jury
service on account of his race, the State also unconstitutionally discriminates against the
excluded juror. Moreover, selection procedures that purposefully exclude black persons
from juries undermine public confidence in the fairness of our system of justice. Batson
It matters not that Mr. DeGuerin could have postulated race-neutral reasons for his
strikes. (I assure you Mr. DeGuerin did not need any help from you.) As the elected
advocate for this complainant, Chad Holley, you owed him a duty to fight for a fair and
impartial jury. Your failure to demand a race-neutral reason for the exclusion of all black
jurors reveals your true identity - you are nothing but a political grandstander. You are
IVI3.com Mail - Tell The Truth https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=a506f79dfc&view...
1 of 2 5/21/12 7:47 PM
not a prosecutor. You never have been and you never will be.
It is time for you to do the right thing - tell the truth. As you cannot not tell the truth, it is
time for you to resign and restore honor to the remaining assistant district attorneys of
Harris County that strive to honorably serve the public - black, brown, white and all. It is
time for Harris County to enjoy a district attorney, Mike Anderson or Zack Fertitta, who
will prosecute for all citizens and not politicize for self- promotion.
- May 22, 2012 at 1:59 PM
Only two potential jurors were black? In a whole venire? Even in smaller county court panels I've never seen such a thing in Harris County.
Now, if only two were shallow enough in the panel to potentially get seated, well, the prosecutor not only needed to make a Batson challenge, he needed to shuffle.
- May 22, 2012 at 4:42 PM
From what I understand there were many blacks but most couldn't be fair because they had seen the tape on TV. After all of the fallout since the verdict, you probably won't be able to get any next time. At least nit in this county
- May 22, 2012 at 6:27 PM
I thought that the officer was entitled to a jury of HIS peers. If that's true...WHY are you guys making such an issue of an all white jury?
Assuming or even declaring that an all white jury is somehow incapable of reaching a fair and unbiased decision just because they are WHITE is RACIST.
Shame on you for disparaging these fine jurors who volunteered their time to listen to this case and render the verdict THEY chose to render based on the evidence THEY heard.
- May 22, 2012 at 8:29 PM
To 6:27 pm : I heard there were 12 or so black people on the original panel and most were struck for cause (for non lawyers that means because they couldn't follow the law) before the defense got to use their peremptory strikes on the 2 who remained. Normally the prosecutor would try to rehabilitate those struck for cause including those who said they had formed an opinion of guilt from viewing the tape. They at least should have been told that they would be qualified even if they had already formed an opinion of guilt IF they could set aside that opinion during the trial and let only the trial evidence determine their ultimate decision in the case. And they should have been told that if they can't do that, they will be disqualified. That gives the juror an understanding of how the system works and how they can be qualified even if they already saw the tape and formed an early opinion. I wonder if that was done by the prosecutors in this case. If it wasn't, it would have made DeGuerin's job too easy in getting rid of them for cause.
- May 22, 2012 at 11:53 PM
11:53, the problem is that lots of judges in this county (the state, actually) don't understand the law on disqualification. They think any indication of bias should get them booted. Or, at least, will get defense-oriented jurors booted as a general rule in criminal courts. The reason I'm voting against all but one Democratic civil judge is because they do not understand, or do not care about, the law with respect to rehabilitating jurors. As a group, they exclude defense-oriented jurors and will bend over backwards to explain why they are keeping a plaintiff-friendly juror.
Knowing the law isn't all that matters in a court room.
- May 23, 2012 at 7:30 AM
Anon 8:53,
IF you really are a former HCADA AND you voted for Pat Lykos over Kelly Siegler in 2008 then any comment you might have on the issue in 2012 is without merit.
- May 23, 2012 at 7:59 AM
Anon 7:59,
Check with anon 8:53 to see who her dumb ass thinks Dick DeGuerin would rather try a case against:Pat Lykos' surrogate Clint Greenwood, Mike Anderson or Kelly Siegler.
Better not run that rhetorical by Dick he will shit his pants if he thinks he might have to face KS again.
- May 23, 2012 at 8:29 AM
After Kelly lost the primary last go 'round, most of us here probably voted for Lykos in the General Election. I would imagine that's probably what Anon 8:53 is talking about. Too many people jump to conclusions...
- May 23, 2012 at 11:30 AM
7:30am (Rage) : I am 11:53pm and agree partially with your comment but I think Ruben understands the distinction because I have tried cases w/ him when I was a prosecutor when the issue was handled the proper way. If Greenwood/Bily didn't attempt the line of questioning I suggested in my comment to rehabilitate those black jurors I think he really missed the boat. If he tried it and Ruben nixed it then shame on Ruben.
- May 23, 2012 at 5:58 PM
Anon. 8:53: You voted for Mike Anderson now. That's what counts! Please get all your friends and family to the polls for Anderson, Guiney, Vinas, Magee, and Patrick.
- May 23, 2012 at 10:53 PM
Would someone please explain why some people spell Lykos with a "c" instead of a "k"? Is there some significance to that, or do they really not know how to spell it after all this time?
- May 23, 2012 at 11:10 PM
Because that might be the closest to mucus???
- May 24, 2012 at 6:46 PM
Part of the reason that is given for the use of a 0.010 gram (10 milligram) standard for residue cases is that this allow the defense to request a retest of the evidence. The question that should be asked about this amount is just how many times do you want it re-analyzed. Only a sloppy, incompetent lab would use that much material for analysis in a residue case. The greater concern for me is that this standard was created outside the law and that it is an arbitrary standard. As long as we are getting arbitrary, why not just do away with all those MJ cases, even if it is a usable amount? If small amounts of crack are not punishable, then why are small amounts of MJ?
Then we are told that DWI is a huge problem. So much so that we now routinely have No Refusal weekends and mandatory blood draws through search warrant. A magistrate is kept on stand-by, and multiple agencies provide large numbers of officers, deputies, and troopers to enforce the law, all at huge cost to tax payers. Then the importance of all this law enforcement effort and the true seriousness of DWI is brought home through the DIVERT program. Makes you wonder if anyone ever bothered to think this through.
I also find the comparison of Lykos to Holder appropriate. Both have made up law to suit their own needs and agenda. Both swore to uphold the law as top law enforcment officials, yet both seem to have total disdain for that law. I guess that's why both are also held in such high esteem.
- May 24, 2012 at 10:28 PM


text:
A public elementary school in Queens, New York, is one of the first in the nation to adopt an all-vegetarian menu, the Associated Press reports. Menu items include things like black bean and cheddar quesadillas with salsa and roasted potatoes, tofu wraps and vegetarian chili. Cheese pizza is also served.
The school started out serving vegetarian lunch three times per week and has now completely eliminated meat from its menus. "We discovered early on that our kids were gravitating toward our vegetarian offerings, and we kept expanding the program to meet the demand," principal Robert Groff told the AP.
Parents, do you think your kids would go for a vegetarian menu? What is your child's favorite thing to eat at school?
Photo: Bernard Hoffman / Time & Life Pictures/Getty Image

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Clean and reinstall those GHC packages!
November 18, 2011
For those of you who are as lazy as me about fixing and reinstalling broken GHC packages, I've ripped off the well-known and loved ghc-pkg-clean script and made it recursive. No promises of termination:
function ghc-pkg-supercleaner() { b="0" for p in `ghc-pkg check $* 2>&1 | grep problems | awk '{print $6}' | sed -e 's/:$//'` do echo unregistering $p; ghc-pkg $* unregister $p; cabal install $p; b="1" done if [ $b == "1" ]; then ghc-pkg-supercleaner fi }
3 Responses to "Clean and reinstall those GHC packages!"
November 18, 2011 at 8:08 pm
For me, it gets stuck in an endless loop recompiling the text package over and over.
November 21, 2011 at 1:52 am
Have you tried cab? It can do recursive removal of packages.
Hopefully the next version of cabal-install should prevent package breaking by default.


text:
Devon & Jones® Men's Crown Collection™ Stretch Broadcloth Untucked ShirtDress Shirts & Sweaters
43.5000 — 54.0000
The Devon & Jones® Men's Crown Collection™ stretch broadcloth untucked shirt is made of 3.2 oz/yd2 / 108 gsm, 66% cotton, 29% polyester 5% spandex broadcloth. This shirt features patented pucker-free taped seams; specially fused collar, cuffs and placket for total garment performance; dyed-to-match pearlized buttons; specially constructed adjustable collar for up-to an extra inch of stretch; straight collar with built-in collar stays; bias cut back yoke; designed to be worn untucked, identified by side gusset at hem; slim fit.
Pricing & Options
Customize your product based on the available color options and decorating methods. If you need more information, simply add this product to the Wish List and we will get back to you with answers.


text:
I get the feeling Im not wanted here. You think Im rude, Ill give you rude.
I think youre all bitter about me for some reason, perhaps because you all ended up as housewives whose biggest kick is making cakes. While Im young, in university, and will probably end up with an MBA and a seven figure salary.
I happen to have a different opinion than you on a number of things. Does that make me a bad person? Apparently so.
What bothers me the most though, is your hypocrisy. On one hand you claim you dont have time to make real cakes, yet you can make your own butter. Youre all poor and cant afford waste, yet you can throw away egg yolks because theyre too high in cholesterol. This coming from a cake forum! Heres an idea. You dont like cholesterol? Dont eat so much fucking cake. And the store-bought vs. home made vs. cake mix thing? Your fucking taste buds are dead or something! How can you be critical of store bought cakes, when the cakes you make are from a mix. That gives you no authority to say that your cakes are better, because guess what, a cake from a mix is not your cake. Its not special. Thousands identical to it have gone before. And the store bought cakes? Not all are frozen. All the grocery stores in my area make them FROM A MIX. And the decorating? You think you can do better? Ive seen the gallery. Stores have a professional on staff who can make a perfectly smooth base and do a bit of decorating in a matter of minutes.
The caker thing? Well, I was trying to be nice and save you some embarrassment. When I said I couldnt explain what caker meant, I could have, but I held back because I knew the definition would offend you. So heres what it is:
It comes from the Italian term manja cake, which means like eat cake or cake eaters. It gets its meaning from people who, when having any sort of get together, will always serve a dessert, something sweet, or a CAKE. But it means more than that. And for your information, being Canadian or being white dont have anything to do with it. Its your bland, middle class, hick, person who reads supermarket tabloids, makes their buttercream using shortening, uses tide laundry detergent, watches sports on TV but doesnt play, has a husband with a small penis and/or beer belly, is addicted to coffee/pepsi, cooks their steak to well done, owns, or wants to own a truck, wears makeup brands like covergirl or NYC, has taken a wilton class, uses wilton products, cover every available surface in their home with tacky trinkets, and finally, eat to many fucking sweets so that they, and their families are all lard asses.
Oh, by the way, 99% of the cakes in the gallery look like they were made by a retarded kid who doesnt have motor skills.
I get the feeling Im not wanted here. You think Im rude, Ill give you rude.


text:
You can forward ports with ssh like this:
$ ssh -L 8080:localhost:80 user@remotehost
This will log you in to
remotehost as
user, and port
8080 on your local machine will be tunnelled to port
80 on
remotehost. If remotehost can see a machine that you can't (for example, if it's on an internal network), you can even do this:
$ ssh -L 8080:internalhost:80 user@borderhost
This will log you in to
borderhost, and
localhost:8080 will be directed to
internalhost:80, even though you may not be able to see
internalhost directly yourself.
What I didn't know until I read Nico Golde's blog today, is that you can do this interactively, with an existing session. Tilde (~) is the default escape character, and ~C (note that's an uppercase C) gets you a shell session within ssh itself:
$ ssh user@remotehost
user@remotehost$ ~C
ssh> -L 8080:localhost:80
Forwarding port.


text:
26/11/2012 § 3 Comments
A lovely little rabbit hole I discovered in the New York Public Library Digital Archives: a collection of butterfly cigarette cards that inexplicably swap out the insects for jazz babies, giving new meaning to the term social butterfly. If you'd like to see the whole set, hop here.
§ 3 Responses to Flapperflies
i love digital archives- great find.
These are quirky and beautiful and amazing! Thanks for sharing 🙂
ps. I hope that you are starting to adjust back to normality after Sandy x


text:
Favorite svn commands
Recently I switched from Windows to Linux, or more specifically Ubuntu 7.0.4. With a couple of minor issues, everything is working great so far. One of the main reasons for changing was to be faster and better at what I do, and I think linux can help me achieve some that.
One common thing I feel makes linux developers faster is knowing commands and not requiring GUIs. GUIs take a long time to load and refresh compared to just opening a file in vi or vim. On windows I loved SmartSVN and would recommend it to anyone; in fact I have had to install it on linux until I have been converted. At the same time I have enjoyed learning the svn commands, which by the way are 100 times easier than cvs commands. Most cvs commands require options to be effective (cvs update -Pd). Not so with svn.
Here is a list of favorite svn commands I have come to love. Also included are recommendations from friends.
- svn help
. For example svn help update
- svn status. List modified or uncommitted files
- svn update. Get the latest code and update your modified files
- svn commit filename -m "Commit Message". Commit the file. filename is optional
- svn diff. Do a diff on locally modified files.
- svn diff -r M:N. Performs a diff on the revisions M and N
- svn merge -r M:N. Revert back to a previous version
- svn log -v. Gives you a verbose log of everything that has happened
- svn st | grep "?" | awk '{print $2}' | xargs svn add. Handy command for those who go days without committing and need an easy way to commit uncommitted files.
- svn propedit svn:ignore. Tells subversion to ignore certain files or directories.
- svn revert filename. Takes the filename out of source control. Handy when commnd #9 adds files you didn't intend to add.
Finally, don't be disappointed if you are a windows developer. You can use svn in cygwin the same way.


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So, the rumors of a Kanye West/Bon Iver (Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj) collaboration are, in fact, TRUE. Yeah. They're true. For those of you expecting to hear Vernon spitting rhymes, you might be a little disappointed. The track (one of TEN, apparently) opens with Vernon, and ends with Vernon. I find the song to be more on the obnoxious side and listening to it brings me flashbacks of the opening scene in Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video (no idea why) but his beautiful howler's croon shines, as it always does and as weird as it sounds over a hip hop medium, I'm happy for the guy! Let's just hope he makes it to the studio soon, to stop collaborating and to start recording a new record. (PLEASE.)
YO BON I'M REALLY HAPPY FOR YOU AND I'MA LET YOU FINISH BUT — alright, I'm not even going to take it there.
Download Kanye West's 'Monster' featuring Bon Iver and company here!
And I know we keep saying that we'll be back, and we have something in store, but we will and it's true – we're just fighting time, we're always just fighting time – and sleep, (yeah, sleep) – The Sheep has been sleep-grazing through time for the last 2+ months, while I've been hunting the Earth for a cure. Let's just say that my hunting skills are a bit lack-luster compared to the power of the Sheep's *big* hoof hitting the SNOOZE button. We miss you though, and we hope you feel the same. 😦


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The Midwest is known for its front-porch folksiness and down-to-earth pleasures. But take a world-view of the region, and you find that some of its attractions are as exotic and unique as anything on Earth. This, for instance, is the land of Serpent Mound, Jesse James' hideout cave and Sears Tower. Just try finding those anywhere else. And because we live here, we can savor these treasures easily and often.
We asked travel writers Robert Cross (R.C.), Toni Stroud (T.S.) and Alan Solomon (A.S.) where they'd go on a two- or three-day weekend in each of eight Midwestern states. Here are their backyard picks:
(800-2CONNECT; www.enjoyillinois.com)
Even if your own neighborhood is within commuting distance, Chicago still has plenty of exotic enclaves worth exploration. The city displays its perennial tourist favorites, of course: Michigan Avenue, museums, etc. That's the beginner's tour. Branch out and take a look at Pilsen for a touch of Mexico. Venture into artsy Bucktown/Wicker Park. Or try Little Italy and Chinatown. Both offer glimpses of old cultures and food that's out of this world. --R.C.
Pack a fishing pole, some hiking shoes and a hearty appetite to head for what was once Black Hawk country. Near Oregon, on a bluff above the Rock River, visit the 50-foot-tall American Indian statue--most people think it's Chief Black Hawk--in Lowden State Park. At White Pines Forest State Park, also near Oregon, sleep in a log cabin and rise for the Paul Bunyan Breakfast at the park's restaurant. Work it off on the 13 miles of cliff-top and canyon trails at Starved Rock State Park, near Utica. --T.S.
Don't know if it's the beauty of the place or the revelation that it's here at all. It's safe to say Shawnee National Forest and its wonders--Garden of the Gods and Giant City, to name two--are mysteries to most of Chicago, but here they are, at the Foot of Illinois, waiting to be discovered by you. These are big rock formations, the kind that don't belong in the flatlands, amid deep forests whose insides feel forever untrampled. And--surprise--they're right down the road. --A.S.
(800-671-9800; www.enjoyindiana.com)
Quite a nifty metropolis they have going down there in mid-state. Indianapolis has more big-league credentials than most capitals, starting with NFL and NBA teams. Its downtown comes complete with a large park, a first-class art museum and a children's museum so big it has a wing just for dinosaurs. Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians sheds light on indigenous cultures. And Indianapolis Motor Speedway has a museum too. Any way you look at it, the word for Nap Town is varroomm.
There's more to South Bend than Notre Dame, but that's the place to start. Its statue-topped dome is covered in 23-karat gold leaf. Then, test your sports prowess in interactive exhibits at the College Football Hall of Fame or trace the history of American transportation--including a Conestoga wagon--at the Studebaker National Museum. Sit down to heartland cuisine at the historic Studebaker mansion, now Tippecanoe Place restaurant. Dessert? Tour South Bend Chocolate Factory.
Railroads and highways sank the riverboat traffic, and the floods did the rest, all but finishing most of the small Indiana Ohio River towns. The plus-side for us is today, below the bluffs, we have a string of time-capsule villages, most struggling but all fascinating in their way, each--if you ask--with a story to tell. Special among them, a survivor: Madison. The entire town center is a National Historic Landmark District, and it should be. Come see . . .
(888-472-6035; www.traveliowa.com)
People heading west often pause for a spell in Galena, where Illinois rolls toward the Mississippi. A good stop for antiques and charm, Galena is, but just about 15 miles west and across the bridge, there's another don't-miss town, Dubuque. It has the fine National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium and other riverfront attractions. A short steep-incline railway takes people to the blufftops. And still more views can be had from overlooks in Eagle Point Park. You might even see Galena.
Just north of Marquette, just across the Mississippi River from Prairie du Chien, Wis., Eastern Woodland Indians began building low earthen mounds about 2,500 years ago. About 200 of these ceremonial constructions are preserved in Effigy Mounds National Historical Park. To see them, climb a trail to the cliff tops 350 feet above the river. There among the aspens, boxelders and sumacs are mounds in geometric forms and others shaped like bears and birds.
The book, then the movie, made the Bridges of Madison County famous beyond Iowa, and that's mostly good. There are covered bridges in other places, of course--Vermont is one big covered bridge--but in this uncutesy part of the Midwest, the romance and sweetness of the old structures seem most pure. Only five of the original 19 are left (a sixth, Cedar Bridge, burned in 2002). And if cuddly stuff isn't your thing, John Wayne's birthplace, in Winterset, is open for tours.
(888-784-7328; www.michigan.org)
Get to Traverse City and leave it immediately, because this is not a city kind of weekend. The goal is farther north: picturesque Leelanau Peninsula. The town of Leland does a pretty good imitation of a fishing village, despite the gift shops. Other towns are a bit quieter and the loop road that links them weaves past farms, vineyards, wineries and an Indian reservation. A few fine restaurants are sprinkled along Grand Traverse Bay. Slightly south, the Sleeping Bear Dunes still doze.
Whoever has the biggest boat wins in Grand Haven, where it's all about the waterfront: the people-watching, the multi-colored musical fountain, the boardwalk and the 1839 lighthouses--two on the same pier. Head inland to Grand Rapids for the Frederik Meijer Gardens, nice place for a light lunch, and on to the covered bridges in the hinterland east of town. Finish your West Michigan triangle at Battle Creek's Cereal City for a Kellogg's factory tour that's Tony the Tiger grrrrreat.
If you accept that Lower Michigan looks like a mitten, then it's the Michigan thumb--from Bay City to Port Huron--that sticks into Lake Huron and sticks in my mind as a nice place to be. The other side has better beaches-- hey, it is terrific over there--but towns like Port Sanilac feel less like upscale-casual resorts than like neighborhood taverns with boat docks. Add lighthouses and good fishing, and we have a mood here that makes you want to linger one more day . . . and another . . .
(888-TOURISM; www.exploreminnesota.com)
Remember childhood? Fishing on a lake, musty old cot-tages, boat trips, inner tubes, combination grocery stores and bait shops, fireflies and big mosquitoes? In and around Voyageurs National Park, people can't help thinking about long-ago summers. French-Canadian voyageurs hauled pelts through the boundary waters to make a living and feed the public's hunger for modish furs. But that was three centuries past. Maybe life for the voyageurs was no picnic then, but for Voyageurs National Park lovers, it is now.
I haven't been to Minnesota, but I can dream. On my way to Bloomington's Mall of America--it has a Ferris wheel, bowling alley, walk-through aquarium and Chapel of Love--I'd make a few detours in southeastern Minnesota: at La Crescent, to drive the Apple Blossom Scenic Byway; at Winona, to see its Tiffany stained glass windows; and at Rochester, to take the Mayo Clinic's 1 1/2-hour facility tour and its separate artwork tour. Then again, maybe the mall calls for its very own weekend.
What makes the Brainerd Lakes area so fine is it has everything we want from Minnesota in one convenient package: lakes, fish, loons, trees that smell good, friendliness, mosquitoes in season--plus just enough civilization to make it comfortable and keep you from getting bored out of your skull. Lots of golf. Big casino over at Mille Lacs. Resorts, some of them nicer than we deserve. And if you need a little solitude by a lake--there are 500. One can be yours alone.
(573-751-4133; www.visitmo.com)
Let's leave the Cardinals out of this. St. Louis has its virtues too. The Gateway Arch, of course. And the adjoining Jefferson National Expansion Memorial reminds everybody that this is where Lewis and Clark started their tour of appraisal. Union Station with its stores, hotel and restaurants keeps the downtown lively. Forest Park offers a terrific zoo, and art, history and science museums. Ethnic neighborhoods still thrive. As local tourism officials say, "There's more than meets the Arch."
If you pull yourself away from the theaters that run Broadway-caliber shows morning, noon and night--no reason you should, but if you do--you'll have time for: a lakeside interlude, a spending spree through cute boutiques, a bargain-priced buffet anywhere in town or a visit to a theme park that hasn't lost its theme. No, you're not in Las Vegas, you're in Branson. Which is kind of like Vegas, except the biggest temptation you'll face is whether to take dulcimer lessons.
There are something like 5,600 recorded caves here, most of interest mainly to bats and albino fish. But 20 Missouri holes in the ground--many of them along old Route 66--have been designated "show caves." Meramec Caverns is a hoot: Jesse James' Hideout meets Lassie. Onondaga Cave is merely spectacular. People do get married in Bridal Cave, and, up in Hannibal, Tom Sawyer got lost in Mark Twain Cave. There are more--and something to remember in Muggy Mizzou: Caves are cool.
(800-BUCKEYE; www.consumer.discoverohio.com)
Cleveland is just up the road, and Akron is just down the road, but in between, the National Park Service has carved out a bit of pastoral beauty that follows a 19-mile stretch of the Ohio & Erie Canal towpath. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park is laced with bike paths and trails, while kayakers enjoy a selection of lakes and streams. A few historic buildings and canal locks preserve the old-time atmosphere, and a restored demonstration village and vintage Hale Farm evoke the pioneer past.
Iowa doesn't have the only earthen mounds. In fact, many such sites that have survived or been restored are in southeastern Ohio. For example: Serpent Mound, the 1,348-foot-long granddaddy of mysterious earthworks, rests on a cliff above Ohio Brush Creek, outside Locust Grove. Northeast of Cincinnati, the hilltops at Ft. Ancient State Memorial bristle with stockade-style mounds. And the 65-foot-high Miamisburg Mound, a conical construction, sits in the Dayton 'burbs.
Theme parks are typically overpriced and overhyped and overloaded with filler. Then there's Cedar Point. They don't give anything away here either: A summer day's fun for a family of four, assuming two short kids, can set Pop back $183.96 plus parking, food and fridge magnets. But the place has 16 roller coasters, including three of the planet's absolute best (Millennium Force is awesome) and others providing ample tingles. It's madness. It's worth it.
(800-432-TRIP; www.travelwisconsin.com)
Two wildly different exercises in architectural excess can be found in Spring Green. Taliesin, open for tours, is Frank Lloyd Wright's idea of a country homestead--beautiful, low-slung buildings with great views of hills and pastures. Nearby House on the Rock is a sprawling complex with collections of everything from exotic toys to antique cars, mechanical orchestras to model ships. Both are monuments to obsession and eclecticism.
Beer made Milwaukee famous, but a party atmosphere keeps the place going. There's CajunFest, Scottish Fest, PrideFest, Polish Fest and mega-popular Summerfest. There's Juneteenth Day, Bastille Days and the Garfield Ave. Blues, Gospel & Arts Festival. Other big to-dos celebrate Italian, Russian, Irish, Mexican, African and Arab cultures--all in a city that offers an Old World feel, a pretty lakefront park, Harley-Davidson factory tours, a hip new art museum and a Chicagoan's best reason to ride Amtrak.
The American Club, in Kohler, is inseparable from the porcelain empire that spawned this luxury-class resort: No visit is complete without checking out the parent company's urinal collection. But it's the golf course collection that's the draw here--four beauts, topped by Whistling Straits, home of this year's PGA Championship. If you can manage to get a tee time (be flexible), it'll be closest you'll get to British Open-style links golf without a passport. The rooms? Some are a little tight, but the plumbing works.
24 great weekends--all in our own backyard
The Midwest is known for its front-porch folksiness and down-to-earth pleasures. But take a world-view of the region, and you find that some of its attractions are as exotic and unique as anything on Earth. This, for instance, is the land of Serpent Mound, Jesse James' hideout cave and Sears Tower. Just try finding those anywhere else. And because we live here, we can savor these treasures easily and often.


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"This Congress cannot and should not leave for vacation until they have made sure that tax increase doesn't happen. Let me repeat that: Congress should not and cannot go on vacation before they have made sure that working families aren't seeing their taxes go up by $1,000 … I expect all of us to do what's necessary to do the people's business, and make sure it's done before the end of the year."
These aren't my words. They were spoken urgently by President Obama little more than a week ago.
He's not alone. Both Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have recently insisted on a one-year extension of the federal payroll tax holiday. On the Senate floor November 28th, Reid called for passage of a one year extension saying, "We need to assure those families that they can rely on that [payroll] tax cut next year as well." On the House floor December 7th, Pelosi supported the President's one-year extension declaring, "We can't go home without the payroll tax cut …"
House Republicans agree.
That's why we passed a bi-partisan bill December 13th that includes the full year tax holiday for families and small businesses – just as the President asked. Since the clock is ticking it also includes reforms to continue unemployment benefits for a full year, pay local doctors fairly to treat Medicare patients for the next two years, job creating provisions and cuts to wasteful spending to pay for it all.
Yet President Obama and Congressional Democrats who just last week insisted on a full year extension have suddenly changed course and are now fiercely opposed to the House's goal to do the same.
What changed? Why the reversal in principles? In a struggling economy where Main Street faces a litany of uncertainty it's puzzling that the President and Congressional Democrats are suddenly embracing a more short-term stop-gap policy. Settling for a meager two month extension guarantees this fight occurs again in February – and possibly every few months thereafter. How does that help boost President Obama's struggling economy or restore consumer confidence?
A review of recent history reveals that Senator Reid wasn't always so opposed to bringing Democrats back from their holiday vacations to finish their work. In September of 2008 he proposed bringing the Senate back to work to pass the largest bank bailout in American history, proclaiming "We're going to get this done and stay in session as long as it takes to get it done." This past summer he abruptly canceled the traditional July 4th recess to try to muscle through an increase in America's staggering debt limit. President Obama joined him, declaring that members of Congress should "cancel things and stay here."
Let's get this straight: Senate Democrats will willingly cancel their vacations to bail out Wall Street Banks and drive the United States deeper into debt, but now won't interrupt their long Christmas vacation to ensure a full year tax holiday for American workers?
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi is similarly hypocritical. Holding the House gavel in the summer of 2010 she had no problem recalling House members from their August recess to ram through a debt-cringing taxpayer funded bailout to labor unions and government workers just ahead of the mid-term elections.
But now she refuses to appoint Democrat negotiators to sit down with Republicans to make sure hard-working Americans won't wake up New Years Day with smaller paychecks. Why are handouts to government workers a higher priority than helping all American families who work?
As the White House and Congressional Democrats careen wildly from position to position depending upon the political winds, it's no surprise Americans continue to lose confidence in Washington to act responsibly and in the best interest of the nation.
Given the inconsistency between the words and deeds of President Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress, hardworking taxpayers deserve to know "why the change"?
They don't care about the messaging war or whose political fortunes are prevailing this week. Main Street small businesses face confusing payroll changes, doctors' offices face another funding cliff in two short months, and workers don't get to vacation until their jobs are done, all deserve a straightforward answer from President Obama and Democrats in Congress.
Why the change? And what are you doing these days that's more important than sitting down with House Republicans to solve this problem now?


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The upgrades made in the offseason by a Broncos team that likely will be picked by many to make it to the Super Bowl include cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, a first-rounder who was traded from the Cardinals to the Eagles and who never completely lived up to the potential that got him selected so high.
It was Denver's willingness to point out the problems with Rodgers-Cromartie's game that helped win him over.
"They told me about my flaws. Nobody had done that, and it impressed me," Rodgers-Cromartie told the Bradenton Herald on Friday. "They told me what I needed to work and how they would get me better instead of telling me about what I could do."
One thing helping Rodgers-Cromartie get better is the presence of Peyton Manning.
"Practice is a lot of fun because every day you are going against the best and getting thrown at by someone of Manning's caliber," Rodgers-Cromartie said. "He interacts with everybody and doesn't think he is bigger or better than anybody. But he is the hardest working man on the field."
The defensive back, who currently is expected to be the other starter at corner across from Champ Bailey, says he has held his own against one of the all-time greats.
"I got him a few times, and he got me," Rodgers-Cromartie said. "But we are all getting better because of him."
Rodgers-Cromartie spent three days this week helping make kids better — at basketball. Yep, at a time when plenty of players are hosting youth football camps, Rodgers-Cromartie returned to his hometown to help local boys and girls hone their skills on the hardwood.
Come September, we'll see if he can display a higher level of skills at a fairly high altitude. The real question is whether he'll be able to help shore up a secondary that failed the Broncos at the worst possible time last season.


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As someone remarked in a comment to an earlier post, one of the hard things about raising money for conservation is the fact that donors want plenty of bang for their bucks. A new museum wing named after dear old dad gives a donor a real sense of satisfaction. Artifacts in a locked vault, not so much.
Donors also need to feel a kind of proprietorship when they give to a worthy cause. They should be able to point to a specific need they met and say, "This is where my money went." A check written to a museum for something vague, like "collections management" or "routine conservation costs," doesn't provide that sense of ownership.
This is a real dilemma for those who work in historic preservation. Many of the most pressing needs are for services that the general public might not notice, but folks with money want to leave their mark on something visible, something with sex appeal. How, then, do you encourage people to donate to things like collections care?
The Boston 1775 blog mentions a way to do it, in the form of an interesting program at the American Antiquarian Society. Here's the deal:
"The Adopt-A-Book Catalog features a variety of items acquired by AAS curators in recent months. All will be offered for 'adoption.' That is, you may adopt any item by pledging the stated amount. In return AAS will permanently record the adopter's name 1) on a special bookplate attached to each item, and 2) in the AAS online library catalog."
The genius of this approach is that it visibly ties donors' contributions to specific items in the collection, giving the donor the same sense of ownership and appreciation as they would get by writing a check for something with more pizzazz. Old books need TLC; donors want people to see where their money went. Everybody goes home happy.
In fact, this approach works for many kinds of institutions that have high ongoing costs. Almost anybody can find an exotic animal they like, even if they'd never think of mailing a check to the local zoo for food and veterinary care. If people are willing to "adopt" books and zoo animals, then you can find folks who will adopt specific artifacts, manuscripts, and deteriorating monuments.
Those working in preservation, museums, and archives can learn a lesson here. Don't solicit money for abstractions; make those abstractions concrete. Set different levels for the objects under your care, with higher levels of support tied to the most spectacular items.
This isn't just a fundraising gimmick; it reflects the reality of the situation. Budget lines aren't numbers on a page. They stand for actual, tangible, irreplaceable pieces of history. When you tell donors that their money ensures the protection of these pieces, you're telling them the truth.


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OpenMBTA is a set of tools, many of them open-source, for delivering public transit schedules and real-time data to commuters in the Boston metro area. OpenMBTA is being actively developed for Bostonians by Bostonians, with a lot of help and encouragement from our first-rate public servants at the MBTA.
OpenMBTA for Android
You can get OpenMBTA for Android for free by clicking here.
OpenMBTA for the iPad
You can get OpenMBTA for the Apple iPad from the iTunes App Store for free by clicking here.
OpenMBTA for the iPhone
You can get the OpenMBTA iPhone app from the iTunes App Store for free by clicking here. The current version is 1.3. The new version introduces a new scrolling schedule view and multitasking support.
OpenMBTA will show you today's scheduled and real-time arrival times for MBTA buses, subway trains, commuter rail lines, and ferries. (Real-time information is available for certain buses and subway lines.) It also shows you the latest service delay announcements from the MBTA.
This application is under continual development. If you find any bugs or have a good feature or user interface suggestion, please let us know on the Support & Feedback Page.
OpenMBTA for Mobile Browsers
A beta version of OpenMBTA for mobile web browsers is now available. Visit this URL on your mobile browser to use it:
To save typing, you can also visit:
OpenMBTA is an open source project
Most of the code for OpenMBTA is open source. Developers based in other metro areas who would like to adapt the source code for OpenMBTA to produce free iPhone apps for their own public transit systems are especially welcome to use the code base.
Source code:
- iOS client: http://github.com/danchoi/openmbta.
- Android client: https://github.com/hyoun98/openmbta-android.
- Back-end server: http://github.com/danchoi/openmbta2.
A Google Group has been set up for OpenMBTA project development: OpenMBTA Google Group.
The iPhone client is written in Objective-C. The Android client is written in Java. The data backend is written in Ruby, using Ruby on Rails, and uses the PostgreSQL database.


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Jan 07, 2003 | ISBN 9780739302187
351 Minutes
Sep 06, 2002 | ISBN 9780736697873
896 Minutes
"A whodunit with substance and suspense…Price is known for terrific dialogue, and there are moments when you feel as if you are listening to [his characters] speak, not just reading words on a page…It's the most interesting kind of mystery–one in which the villain is not so easy to spot even when we know who committed the crime."
–Anne Stephenson, USA Today
"Engaging…provocative…Price has a fine ear for the subtle tension between sentimentality and real devotion, and he understands the way that chronic black poverty plays into the needs of 'the selflessly selfish.' If this is a novel that raps the knuckles of a helping hand, it's nonetheless one to grab on to."
–Ron Charles, The Christian Science Monitor
"It's a tribute to Price's originality that [his] characters become as distinct and real as they do…Well-intentioned Ray [is] enigmatic and fresh…Price has a great way with dialogue, [and] a better-developed-than-usual sense of structure. Samaritan unfolds on twin time tracks, [and the] carpentry works…Price's revelation of the culprit is absolutely consistent with his characters and thematically right on the money…Anyone who thinks fiction or literature too small a shelf to include the other stands to learn a lot from Richard Price."
–David Kipen, San Francisco Chronicle
"Giving new meaning to the term "inner city," Price yields up not just the familiar, blanched moonscape of urban blight but the inner lives and jackhammering hearts of those who pace and patrol it."
–The New Yorker
"A dream of a book…a supremely suspenseful novel (with a denouement that will leave you marveling at how artfully the author kept us from guessing the perpetrator's identity), but to call it a thriller would be selling it short. Part police procedural, part high-wire psychodrama, part social study, it's a wholly engrossing hybrid that packs an emotional wallop…."
–Tom Sinclair, Entertainment Weekly
"Dazzling…The perfect pace of a superb storyteller is but one of the gifts Mr. Price brings to Samaritan. Razor-sharp dialogue is another, as well as his urban-poetic descriptive flair. It all makes for an extraordinary novel, with the gritty plot of a hard-edged thriller and the cosmic concerns of a streetcorner Dostoyevsky."
–Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal
"A whodunit only in format, Samaritan is that rarity, a novel of race relations written with authority, panache and heart."
–Dan Cryer, Newsday
"Powerful…Wise…The novel is alive because writers like Price are crafting books like Samaritan, about a guy who discovers the hard way what a complicated transactions charity can be…For all the homework that went into Clockers, Price was never a dealer or a cop. But he has been what Ray is in Samaritan, an intruder in other people's lives. His fellow feeling with this character goes deep. What he knows about Ray you don't learn by researching the streets. Instead, you prowl your own heart. It's one more beat that Price knows how to walk with authority."
–Richard Lecayo, Time
"Without dictating Price's fiction, reality inspires his imagination, provoking a finely detailed and immensely readable inquiry into what might be called the double nature of benevolence…Where a typical crime novel would traffic in surprises and twists, Price has always eschewed the formula. The wisdom and impact of his recent books derive from his insight into just how unspectacular crime can be. The perpetrators in Price's fiction act less out of passion or greed than drudgery and shattered hope…On the narrative journey from mystery to resolution, Price demonstrates his usual gifts for dialogue, detail and empathetic portraiture…When a novelist stays that close to the ground, there is no confusing illusion with actuality…Wrenching."
–Samuel G. Freedman, Chicago Tribune (front page)
"Price is renowned for in-your-face fiction: violent, fast-paced, yet morally complex…He's also demonstrated a flair for believable dialogue and visual detail…[Samaritan is] another of Price's first-rate urban morality plays–a compassionate, politically savvy whodunit that reads like Dostoevsky circa 2003…He proves himself to be one of our best chroniclers of big-city experience."
–Paul Evans, Book
"A full-to-bursting package held together by a strong, suspenseful plot… Unknowability is the key to Ray Mitchell, the essence of what makes him such a fascinating saint…Ray is preternaturally alert, alive to the mental states of those around him. Price, through Ray's alertness, gives even minor characters a real, if temporary, being. And yet–and here's the miracle–because it's Ray's alertness, the novel, though various and populous, feels centered on his character and therefore strong. Price does this in few words. It's not a function of I.Q. It's not articulate. It's more like a prickling of the flesh…A demographic epic filled with little people who command true human feeling…"
–Mark Costello, New York Times
"Price's seventh novel ranks with the best of the others…His books have the gutsy appeal of the classiest hard-boiled mysteries: fast pace, tripping idiomatic dialogue, unpredictable plot swerves, zingy sex, and genuine suspense…But [Samaritan] also possesses philosophical breadth, clearheaded social commentary, and a fine facility with language…Price's vivid documentation may tease us into thinking we are in Dempsy, New Jersey, but in fact we are in existentialist territory… So quirky a mix of virtues makes [Price] unique…Terrific."
–Lynne Sharon Schwartz, The New Leader
"[Samaritan] hurtles along like the PATH train that traverses Price's urban landscape, weaving back and forth, before and after the severe beating of Ray Mitchell [whose] complexity is matched by the detective investigating the crime…Price's dialogue rings true throughout, and his sense of place is solid and of the moment."
–Ellen Rubin, Elle
"Price is not just a gifted writer but also one who thinks long and hard about human behavior…We know from page one that we're in good hands, with masterful detail, vivid scene-setting, and acutely observed, naturalistic dialogue. The crime-solving framework pulls us forward but is unencumbered by the pedantic detail of a police procedural, and the depth of the characterizations is magnificent: [The main characters] and the considerable supporting cast are fully imagined beings who surprise us but never test our credulity. Enmeshed in this taut storytelling is a meditation on the complicated nature of giving, and a caution that, with ill-considered charity, we can hurt others even when we think we're doing them a favor. Superb."
–Keir Graff, Booklist (starred and boxed review)
"Richard Price is, without a doubt, one of our greatest living novelists. His voice is comic, skeptical, and at all times, deeply humane. Samaritan is a masterpiece, a novel that is actually about–surprise of surprises–the world we live in now. Violent, tender, hilarious, and heartbreaking, it is a world that, in Price's hands, is so ably rendered that even its smallest truths attain the power of universal myth."
–Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River
"It seems to me that Richard Price has taken his gifts for rendering human speech and for describing the jittery uncertainty of life at the bottom, and created a narrative filled with the sweet despair such as would come from angels looking down on us and watching us suffer."
–Scott Spencer
"The great literature of the world is derived from the mean streets, and no American writer knows them better, or can drive a story line harder, than Richard Price. Samaritan burns, not only with stylistic eloquence but with relentless certainty–from each richly evocative scene, each amazingly felt character, to the next. Price writes the way an architect builds, sketching out his plan, thinking it over to the most minute details. Thus the foundations of Samaritan are so fundamentally valid that its presentation is a masterpiece of the form. Price has artfully concealed a haunting treatise on the nuances and ambiguities of human decency, compassion, and generosity in the guise of a superlative thriller. Samaritan is Price's best book to date."
–Thom Jones, author of The Pugilist at Rest
"One has come to expect from Richard Price, the most brilliant of sardonic ironists, an eye for revelation in the commonplace, even a kind of modern social history. But Samaritan is also a subtle story of seduction and abandonment, of the dangerous luxury of responsibility, and the risks that are inevitable when one is capable of love."
–Susanna Moore, author of In the Cut
"The mastery of urban melodrama that Price demonstrated in literate blockbusters like Clockers (1992) and Freedomland (1998) keeps growing and deepening–as evidenced in [this] story of a neighborhood and of conflicting ways of life…A virtuoso alternation of advancing action with detailed flashbacks shows how…this mystery raises troublesome ghosts from the past, while also introducing a boldly drawn gallery of involved and potentially guilty characters…A ferocious admixture of bleak wit and sorrowful compassion…The story positively vibrates with Price's trademark virtues of pinpoint observation and punchy dialogue…And the killer climax and ironic denouement couldn't be improved upon. Magnificent stuff. If Elmore Leonard broke out of genre and were 30 years younger, he'd be Richard Price."
–Kirkus (starred review)
"Richard Price's Samaritan is gripping, ambitious, and resonant entertainment, everything you hope to find in an American novel and so rarely do. This is the work of a fiercely honest writer at the top of his game." –George Pelecanos, author of Hell to Pay
"I read Richard Price for the cool, spare sound of his writing, his words, the language he has in his bag that fits so exactly in his settings. The characters talk the talk; the main one, Nerese Ammons, a gem, 20 years a cop in the NY-NJ iron triangle, lays open the plot, scene after scene, at a beautiful pace. Richard Price has written a terrific novel." –Elmore Leonard
"Samaritan blew my mind . . . I don't think anyone ever sent me a book in hopes of a comment that was this good . . . An absolutely riveting story. The reader is hooked from the first page . . ." –Stephen King
"The mastery of urban melodrama that Price demonstrated in literate blockbusters like Clockers (1992) and Freedomland (1998) keeps growing and deepening–as evidenced in [this] story of a neighborhood and of conflicting ways of life…A virtuoso alternation of advancing action with detailed flashbacks shows how…this mystery raises troublesome ghosts from the past, while also introducing a boldly drawn gallery of involved and potentially guilty characters…A ferocious admixture of bleak wit and sorrowful compassion…The story positively vibrates with Price's trademark virtues of pinpoint observation and punchy dialogue…And the killer climax and ironic denouement couldn't be improved upon. Magnificent stuff. If Elmore Leonard broke out of genre and were 30 years younger, he'd be Richard Price." –Kirkus (starred review)


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Which one of themis it ?
Somebody is dressing up
and pretending to bea superhero, but who ?
Has to be one of theguys in my class
'cause onlythey knew The Coon
would be on the rooftopof Walgreens.
No, stop.
Can't think about thatright now.
I have to focus.
Tomorrow is the most importantday in The Coon's life.
Everything The Coonhas lived and fought for
comes down to tomorrow.
How is it that nobodycame to Coonicon '09 ?
This is just...this is fucking ridiculous !
Got everythingyou need here, sir ?
Okay on beverages,buffet items ?
Yes, it's fine.
Great-- hey, I just want tosay that the Airport Hilton
really appreciates yourcontinued business.
What do you mean,"continued" ?
You don'tknow who I am.
Aren't you that little boywho had his Ginger Pride Rally
and his AIDS benefithere before ?
No, I'm not that kid !
Oh, oh really ?My bad.
I'm actually relieved.
That kid was kind ofa douche bag.
You're a fuckingdouche bag !
Get out of here !
Coonicon '09
Everything The Coon has lived and fought for comes down to today.


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An estimated 95 percent of Louisiana's 2 million coastal residents had fled ahead of Hurricane Gustav by Sunday evening in the largest evacuation in state history, Louisiana's governor said.
More than 200,000 people have left New Orleans, leaving an estimated 10,000 people in the city Sunday night, Gov. Bobby Jindal said, citing New Orleans' police chief.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had demanded an evacuation of the city, which still is recovering from 2005's Hurricane Katrina. Forecasters warned Gustav -- a Category 3 storm Sunday night -- could hit Louisiana with devastating effect late Monday morning or early Monday afternoon. Read full article »
CNN's Matt Sloane and Susan Roesgen contributed to this report
All About National Hurricane Center • Hurricane Katrina • Natural Disasters • New Orleans • Mississippi


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Equine Couture
In business since 2002, Equine Couture offers a full line-up of equestrian riding apparel, horse blankets, saddle pads, stylish garment, helmet bags, totes and leg wraps. Equine Couture is aimed at creating a quality, innovative product for you and your horse, while keeping costs down. Check out the line-up of fashionable products offered at Dover Saddlery.


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Man Sized Action were one of a handful of bands taken under the wing of Reflex Records, Husker Du's in-house record label during the early and mid-80s. Responsible for issuing Husker's "Statues" 7" and first proper studio album, Everything Falls Apart, Reflex released both of MSA's albums, Claustrophobia and Five Story Garage. Crisply produced by Bob Mould himself, Claustrophobia is a lost, noir-wave treasure, brimming with jagged post-punk, often skirting the periphery of hardcore. Tippy's sweet, clangy guitar lines often outshine Pat Woods four-parts spoken/one-part sung vocals, but the real wow-factor for me is the band's spot-on approximation of the unrelated Middle Class,' especially their little known classic, Scavanged Luxury ep. In fact, "Private Eye" and "Yea" almost strike me as plagiaristic, but when the results are this white hot I can hardly complain. Wire's Pink Flag, and Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures also seemed to have been vying for space on this quartet's collective turntable. If you enjoy this, check out The Verge's Habitual 7" ep I shared a few moons ago. Recorded in the same year but a good thousand miles away in Albany, NY, The Verge were operating on an identical wavelength as Man Sized Action.
As a further aside, I have it on good authority that this particular copy of Claustrophobia was previously owned by the late Kristen Pfaff of Hole and Janitor Joe. R.I.P. Kristen. For what it's worth, your record is in good hands.
01. Pressure Relief
02. Bubble Bursts
03. Who's Kiddin' Who
04. Don't Wanna
05. Private Eye
06. Self Respect
07. My Life
08. Looking At You
09. Yea
10. Claustrophobia
VA - Big Hits Of Mid-America LP Volume 1, 2, 3, 4 - Mainly from my birthplace, Minneapolis, MN...Features the bands: The Gestures, The Chancellors, The Castaways, The High Spirits, The Underbeats, The Asc...
3 minutes ago


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bass house Breaks & Breakbeats electro house future house house music ibiza Live DJ Mix live radio show shanghai sun son aka coco ariaz Tech House tech house music universal grooves radio show
Twenty third live radio show program from the international DJ and producer, Sun Son AKA Coco Ariaz, with the weekly "Universal Grooves Radio Show" at House Beats Radio Station (www.housebeatsradiostation.com ).
A massive rocking selection of House, Tech House, Future House, Electro House & Breaks promo tracks from Recording Labels and music producers from all the world, plus classic dance tracks "Throwback classic track", "Bootleg of the week" & "Promo track of the week" sections into a 120 minutes of Live DJ Mix radio show. Always live and direct radio show from The Red Room Studios in the city of Shanghai, China.
Every Tuesday at:
- 15:00 PM to 17:00 PM (GMT) (UK Time)
22:00 PM to 00:00 AM (Shanghai/China Time)
Connect with Sun Son AKA Coco Ariaz on:
- http://www.cocoariaz.com
Download at:


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Is your house a winter wonderland or a nightmare before Christmas?
Maybe it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around your house, but what seems festive to adults can become lethal to children. Bridget Boyd, MD, pediatrician and Loyola University Health System pediatric safety expert, has tips to make sure your holiday doesn't become a nightmare before Christmas.
"Christmas is a wonderful time of year, but it can quickly turn tragic if we're not careful," Boyd said. "Sometimes in our attempts to make Christmas extra special for our kids and grandkids, safety can get lost in the mix."
According to Boyd, safety is an important part of all Christmas activities, including decorating and gift-giving.
When picking out the perfect natural Christmas tree, the fresher the better.
"Think about the movie 'A Christmas Story' and don't get a tree like that. A fresh tree will have fewer needles falling off. Dry trees are a fire hazard, and if you have small children or pets they could ingest the needles that have fallen off the tree," Boyd said.
She also suggested making sure that the bottom of the tree is cut off before bringing it into the house and that the tree stand is always filled with water. Place the tree away from fireplaces and portable heaters as this is a fire hazard.
When trimming the tree, make sure the bottom branches have kid-friendly ornaments that won't break, are free of sharp edges and do not pose a choking hazard. Also avoid using decorations that look like candy or food, especially if there are small children in the home.
The lights on the tree should be designated for indoor use. Test them to make sure all the bulbs work before placing them on the tree. When leaving the house or going to bed, turn off all lights as a safety measure.
The tree is not the only Christmas plant that can be dangerous for children. The following plants can cause stomach issues if ingested:
- Jerusalem Cherry Plants
- Mistletoe
- Holly Berries
- Poinsettias
- Amaryllis
Shopping for infants and toddlers can be difficult since many toys are labeled appropriate for ages 3 and up. Though it may limit the options, Boyd said following age-appropriate guidelines are important for keeping kids safe.
"Age labels are monitored closely and should be taken seriously. Choking and strangulation hazards can mean life or death to a child," Boyd said. "When opening gifts also watch out for ribbons that could be a strangulation hazard. Try to keep older children's gifts away from younger children so there is not accidental ingestion of a small part."
If a child is under the age of 2, they are more than likely going to put whatever they are given in their mouth, so avoid items with paint, chemicals or small parts. Also, button batteries are extremely dangerous for small children.
"Go to the emergency room immediately if a child has placed a button battery into their body. This includes swallowing as well as shoving up the nose or in the ear," Boyd said.
Still, gift-giving safety is not just about swallowing hazards, it is also thinking about the entire well-being of a child.
"When thinking about what gift to give, try to find something that encourages the child to use their imagination and get up and get moving," Boyd said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children spend no more than two hours in front of a screen each day. This includes video games, computers, phones and TVs.
"So many young kids want cell phones, but is that really the best gift to give a child? Think about what is age-appropriate. There will be plenty of time to give phones and videos games in the future," Boyd said.
If you do give an electronic gift, Boyd said supervision is key – especially if it involves the Internet.
"Unfortunately, cyber predators and cyberbullying are becoming more common and pose a very real risk to children. If your child does receive a computer for Christmas, make sure you supervise their internet use. The best place for a computer is in the family room," Boyd said. "There should be no screens – including computers, TVs or phones – in a child's or adolescent's room. Screen time can interfere with sleep as well as distract them from participating in healthier activities for body and mind."
It is also a good idea to check consumer websites such as recall.gov and saferproducts.gov periodically to ensure gifts are safe and have not been recalled. She also suggests checking out the American Academy of Pediatrics website for more safety information.
Explore further


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I've used use IDimager for many years & now decided it was time to try Photo Supreme. So far I've found it powerful and easy to use but there are a few things I can't figure out how to do:
1) When I select a number of images to view in the Light Table and then view them I only see 6 images. That's not enough for me: IDI let me view 30 at a time and I need to see lots of images on the screen at once. I know the arrow keys scroll left or right through the images but that's not what I need. I'm guessing that PS lets me adjust this but I can't find a preference for it anywhere. How do I control the number of images I can view on one screen in Light Table?
2) When most applications (including IDI) open they restore the window position and size to what it was when it was last closed. However every time I reopen PS it opens maximized. I then have to click the restore window icon, but it restores to a big window that's almost full screen instead of the size it was when I closed. I then have to drag a window corner to configure the window the way want I want. I know this sounds minor but it bugs me to have to do this all the time. Can PS be configured to restore the window to it's configuration when it was last closed?
Questions from IDimager User
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US's 'Cyberwar' Strategy: Making The Public Less Secure In The Name Of 'Security'
from the adding-up-wrongs-to-make-a-right deptThe US government seems to be responding to "cyber Pearl Harbor" by heading out on bombing runs of its own. All the concern for the safety of the American public displayed in Congress during the CISPA push seems to have been nothing more than the empty words we expect from our representatives. Americans and American companies are now being caught in the crossfire -- some of it "friendly."
The US government is waging electronic warfare on a vast scale — so large that it's causing a seismic shift in the unregulated grey markets where hackers and criminals buy and sell security exploits, Reuters reports.I'm not sure how increasing user vulnerability helps win a cyberwar, but no doubt any home team casualties will be written off as sacrifices for the greater good. Even more troubling than the government's willingness to sacrifice security for security (??) is the fact that it's unwilling to share this information. What good are those provisions in CISPA and President Obama's recent cybersecurity executive order about the government sharing cybersecurity info with companies, if the government hoards the information for their own hacking purposes? More details from the Reuters report.
Former White House cybersecurity advisors Howard Schmidt and Richard Clarke say this move to "offensive" cybersecurity has left US companies and average citizens vulnerable, because it relies on the government collecting and exploiting critical vulnerabilities that have not been revealed to software vendors or the public.
"If the US government knows of a vulnerability that can be exploited, under normal circumstances, its first obligation is to tell US users," Clarke told Reuters. "There is supposed to be some mechanism for deciding how they use the information, for offense or defense. But there isn't."
Top U.S. officials told Congress this year that poor Internet security has surpassed terrorism to become the single greatest threat to the country and that better information-sharing on risks is crucial. Yet neither of the two major U.S. initiatives under way - sweeping cybersecurity legislation being weighed by Congress and President Barack Obama's February executive order on the subject - asks defense and intelligence agencies to spread what they know about vulnerabilities to help the private sector defend itself.Is it any surprise the public distrusts the government? It claims to be fighting a cyberwar in order to make us more secure and yet, when it goes on the attack, it values its own secretive efforts over the security of the public.
When a U.S. agency knows about a vulnerability and does not warn the public, there can be unintended consequences. If malign forces purchase information about or independently discover the same hole, they can use it to cause damage or to launch spying or fraud campaigns before a company like Microsoft has time to develop a patch. Moreover, when the U.S. launches a program containing an exploit, it can be detected and quickly duplicated for use against U.S. interests before any public warning or patch.
As the government purchases more of these exploits to help fight its cyberwar, the lines on the battlefield are continuously redrawn and obscured. Buying exploits from independent hackers leaves them free to sell to other high bidding countries when not using the exploits themselves. This arms race also creates a perverse set of incentives. As the demand for new exploits increases, security companies and contractors that used to release information to those affected are now keeping their discoveries to themselves to preserve "market value."
The Reuters report also notes that this new breed of security contractor is offering up, among other things, keys to criminal botnets. Endgame, a heavily funded tech startup with close ties to the intelligence community, is more than willing to hand over control of thousands of zombie computers for the right price.
Some of Endgame's activities came to light in purloined emails published by hackers acting under the banner Anonymous. In what appear to be marketing slides, the company touted zero-day subscriptions as well as lists of exactly which computers overseas belonged to specific criminal "botnets" - networks of compromised machines that can be mobilized for various purposes, including stealing financial passwords and knocking websites offline with traffic attacks.So, we're engaged in a cyberwar that's going to help us by hurting us, is that it? I understand that no one wants to be outgunned when facing the enemy, but what's being detailed here looks like a whole lot of collateral damage in the pursuit of unattainable goals. The same exploits will be used on both sides of the battle, and with end users and the companies they rely on being cut out of the loop, it will be the civilians who fare the poorest. We'll just be asked to pretend the government's saving us from something even worse.
The point was not to disinfect the botnet's computers or warn the owners. Instead, Endgame's customers in the intelligence agencies wanted to harvest data from those machines directly or maintain the ability to issue new commands to large segments of the networks, three people close to the company told Reuters.
Filed Under: cybersecurity, cyberwar, hacks, security, us government, zero day


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The Public Relations Strategist — Current Issue | The Public Relations Strategist — Spring 2011 Issue
March 21, 2011
By Andre Manning and David B. Rockland, Ph.D.
Placing measurement at the forefront of PR practice is an evergreen topic. Every year, a trade magazine proclaims that this is the year of measurement. And every year there are conferences and summits that lay out a great agenda for measurement going forward. Yet, as professionals, we still find ourselves putting measurement on the to-do list.
In fact, if you look at how many agencies pitch new business to prospective clients, the priorities are usually in this order: credentials, strategy, tactics, budget and then maybe measurement of results. Usually, as time is running out, someone tells the measurement person that he or she will have to make the pitch fast and create slides on the spot.
However, 2010 saw what may be the beginning of a change. First, in June, the measurement industry gathered in Barcelona and voted seven principles into existence. For once, the profession had reached a consensus on what works and what doesn't. While the principles don't solve every problem, they do specifically refute using advertising value equivalents (AVEs) and false multipliers — common practices that equate the value of public relations with the cost of advertising and that support the notion that earned media is always at least twice as valuable as paid media. Neither is true.
Then, in November, PR leaders gathered in London and answered two questions: If we don't use AVEs, then what are the right metrics? And, since social media is the hottest thing going on in public relations, and the Barcelona Principles specifically address its measurement, how do we make sense out of all the different approaches that the approximately 300 suppliers of social media measurement are pushing?
So it appears that 2010 was the year that the profession got its act together under the leadership of the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communications, which put on the Barcelona and London events in partnership with many other groups, including PRSA.
Principles in action
When OneVoice (a combined agency of Omnicom companies that handles Philips' business globally) pitched Philips, we did something a bit different with measurement. Instead of putting it on the back end as an afterthought, we opened the pitch with the concept of measurement. We said, "We're going to show you a lot of smart ideas and cool tactics in a few minutes. But before we start, let's first show you how we are going to be accountable through a global measurement system."
Now, having worked together for almost two years, we've learned a few things that will help you consider how to implement the Barcelona Principles:
We have found that by embracing measurement, the communicators at Philips and OneVoice have developed the right tools to manage how we work together and, perhaps more important, how we work with our partners in other parts of the Philips organization, its advertising group and other agencies.
These suggestions aren't difficult to implement and are relevant to the communications professional, irrespective of whether they are on the client or agency side. It's about putting a system in place that doesn't cost too much and only measures what matters. At the same time it should create a culture of working together toward continual improvement in communications performance to drive brand marketing and corporate reputation.
The PR practitioner who says, "We got 500 hits, which generated 250 million impressions with an AVE of $2MM!" is a thing of the past. That same person is probably also saying that social media is just a fad and we can ignore it. The Barcelona Principles set the standards. The future is about smart measurement, proper budgets, the language of business and consistency across an organization in how we approach traditional and social media. Let's plan on bringing that level of professionalism to the entire industry as we move further into 2011.
Andre Manning is the head of global marketing and communications at Royal Philips Electronics. He has held positions of progressive responsibility in communications at Philips throughout his career.
David B. Rockland, Ph.D., is partner/CEO and managing director for the research and change communications businesses at Ketchum.
Samra Bufkins, MJ, APR says:
I teach public relations in a state university and spent four years as the Accreditation chair for the Dallas PRSA chapter. In the APR study program we emphasize developing measurable objectives as essential to the planning process. Writing measurable objectives is possibly the most difficult thing a PR pro can do, but it's arguably the most important. I use the APR Study Guide as the text for this portion of all my classes, undergraduate and graduate. I'm amazed that every PR syllabus and every PR textbook I've reviewed has measurement near the very end. Even the revered text by Cutlip, Center and Broom waits until nearly 400 pages in to address measurement and evaluation. Until we get measurement and evaluation out of the back chapters of the book (where it's easily blown off at the end of the semester) and up front where it belongs, measurement will continue to be on the back burner of public relations. I've reorganized my classes to address evaluation in the first weeks, so that the students are constantly thinking "what business objective do I want to accomplish with this _________?" After all, how on earth can you write a measurable objective in the planning process if you have no idea what you want to accomplish or how to measure it?
Marc Marton, APR says:
OK, so, how do we implement Barcelona if it's so different from the past, other than to lead with measurement in a pitch so that it's properly budgeted for?
Marc Marton, APR says:
And how do you score coverage?
Hellen Judith Icumar says:
I do get the feeling that this article applies more to Royal Phillips Electronics. what would be more general for both a business enterprise, development agency and a parastatal?
Gary James says:
In 2011, I was a judge along with a half dozen colleagues for a PR association with over 200 members. There were 75+ entries, ranging from the simplest "event" to complete public relations and marketing communications plans. We read every summary, look at the backup materials and did our job. We had to eliminate "budget" as criteria or we would have had no "golds" as 99% of the entries answered the budget question with "proprietary" information. In addition, some of the "measurement" tools were to google the name of the event or organization, or google their press release, and then offer this as results. No. Really. Of course your press release will show up when you google it! And the tragedy of this is 1) these were major, well-known agencies in that marketplace and 2) many of us were struggling indies that know better and were frustrated and jealous that 3) these agencies are doing quite well thank - you. So, until the client wises up and can see the wizard behind the curtain, we'll continue to see the absurdity of examples such as this. I'm all for the "Barcelona Principles" and hope for the best, but I'm also in my mid-50s and don't see anything changing soon.
See Depth says:
There is a way to score coverage by analyzing both the quantitative values (number of media hits, for example) as well as the qualitative values (what makes something valuable: key messages, mindshare, tier 1 spokesperson, customer or analyst credibility, etc. etc.). You have to allot for these values as well as which PR campaigns are driving actual business. Awareness is a value. Credibility is a value. But clicks, conversions and sales are real value as well - so allotting for all of these is a way to "score" what your PR campaigns are doing, and evaluate which campaigns are more successful than others and why. Repeat what works, pivot from what doesn't. We just opened for beta if you'd like to try our SaaS platform for doing just this. SeeDepth.com - we'd love your feedback! Works beautifully for corporate teams and PR agencies who want to understand what's working and why.
Editor's Note: Please limit your comments to the specific post. We reserve the right to omit any response that is not related to the article or that may be considered objectionable.


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"This work is a remarkable achievement. It renders esoteric thought in so lucid a manner as to give the serious reader entry into the depths of human wisdom. It uncovers a range of possibility once thought to be more mythic than real. It offers us once and future knowledge, now more necessary than ever before."
—Jean Houston, author of A Mythic Life