text:
As hard as they might try to bend the facts (or just plain make them up), sometimes even Fox News anchors must contend with the harsh reality that not everyone thinks Barack Obama is an evil socialist. But somebody forgot to tell Gretchen Carlson that, and she got the shock of a lifetime when she learned that a poll conducted by Fox News found that 44% of registered voters said that President Obama was going to win the 2012 election.
She finds this information "staggering," and she desperately pleads, "Is anyone else stunned at this result right now?" Is she really that shocked to hear that a lot of voters assume a sitting president will win a second term, especially when both the potential GOP candidates have serious weaknesses. Or is she freaking out because she can't accept that Fox News couldn't somehow twist and spin these numbers into something she found more palatable? Either way, deep breaths, Gretchen. Deep breaths.
[Via Buzzfeed]


text:
Book Kyoto Guesthouse Roujiya
Our guesthouse opened at the end of Jun 2010! Roujiya will make you feel right at home in the heart of Kyoto. Roujiya is a cozy and modern (yet distinctly Japanese) family-owned guest house in the heart of Kyoto. We are situated in a quiet area just a short walk from Nijo Station and close to...... - Many historic sites, including Nijo Castle - Huge market for local people - Delicious restaurants for local people - The biggest 100 yen shop in Kyoto When you use a bicycle, you can go anywhere in Kyoto city! We offer a bicycle rental in our guesthouse. We have a good connection for trains (JR, subway, Hankyu line, Keifuku line), so you don't have to take a bus (it is too crowded around the touristic area) . Roujiya offers a sense of calm, community, and harmony - just what life in Kyoto is all about! We offer fun and inviting lodgings in the heart of a tranquil Kyoto neighborhood - not a round-the-clock party. We aspire to provide guests with a uniquely Kyoto-style ambience, and peaceful relaxation is the order of the day. Our evenings are calm and restful. So we have curfews and bedtimes, because of being in a traditional area where neighboring buildings are mere inches away, we ask guests to keep noise levels down, especially after dark. If your picture of a great time in Kyoto involves staying up late into the night and partying hard, we strongly suggest that you to seek accommodations elsewhere. No curfew. No lock out Lights-out(23:00). In addtion we don't offer the children fare. Check in 16:00 Check out 10:00 Available hours. 8:00-11:00, 16:00-22:00 You could leave the baggage between 8:00 and 11:00 without any contact. If you'd like to do so in an outside hours(11:00 to 16:00), there are lockers in the Nijo Station(both JR and subway) , BiVi(shopping mall near the Nijo Station) and Omiya Station(Hankyu Line). Only two people are running. So thank you for your cooperation. We don't accept credit card. We require full payment upon check in time. Cancellation Policy The cancellation charges are as belows: 3-7 days before Check In date 50% of room charges 1-2 days before Check In date 70% of room charges Actual day of Check In or No-show 100% of room charges
- Internet
- In public areas: free
- Laundry service
- Bar
- Air conditioning
- Safe box
- Hairdryer
- Shared Bathroom
- Shower

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Submitted by AGORA moderator on
Tens of thousands of people marched to Spain's parliament on Saturday to protest the conservative government's new law that aims to restrict abortion, allowing the practice only in cases of rape or serious risk to health.
The rally was organized by dozens of women's groups and entities that fight for reproductive rights.
Reproductive rights
Protesters carried banners saying, "Because I decide," "Allow mothers to decide," and "Mothers and fathers in freedom."
The previous Socialist government made abortion before the 14th week widely legal. But the ruling Popular Party has long sided with the Roman Catholic Church on moral and social issues and made changing the law one of its main promises in the 2011 vote that brought it to power.
The law needs parliamentary approval where the Popular Party has a large majority.
"I am fighting for the rights of our children because I am 60 years old already and this no longer affects me directly," protester Pilar Rubio said.
'I am fighting for the rights of our children because I am 60 years old already and this no longer affects me directly,'
- Pilar Rubio, protester
Cristina Bermejo, 31, said she felt the introduction of the new law would set Spanish society back 40 years.
"In the rest of Europe, where previously many viewed us as an example of freedom and civil rights, now, they are questioning us, asking what on earth we are doing," Bermejo said.
A separate protest against Spain's new abortion law also took place near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
Among the protesters was Anne Hidalgo, Socialist candidate for mayor, and Inna Shevchenko of the Ukrainian branch of the feminist group Femen.
Source: CBC News, February 1st, 2014, http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/spain-abortion-law-spurs-rally-march-to-par...


text:
You are a citizen of Merch, a peaceful village surrounded by a deep, dark forest.
This night, you must venture forth into the wood, to find treasure and terrible secrets. You will learn that this is difficult, for while the forest holds many treasures and many secrets, it jealously guards them behind horrible monsters and dark veils of enchantment. The forest is home to wolves and hungry bears, elves and malevolent spirits, and stranger things that lurk in caves below the forest, or in the deeper sky above it.
...and of course, once you find what you are looking for, you must return home alive and with your mind intact. You will learn that this is nearly impossible. The wood will do its best to turn you about, to twist your path back on itself, to drive you mad or drive you ever deeper...and ultimately, over the edge of the forest and into darker places beyond.
Welcome to Tingalan, a game of survival and horror.
Greetings ADRIFT community.
I am pleased to announce that I have finished a very ambitious game, which is now available for you to play.
It's still getting uploaded to the ADRIFT site, but I've decided to post a download link to the .blorb file here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4rZa ... EVUb2k5MFk
The game has an old school pulpy manual here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4rZa ... DRSSm9iaXc
You may want to read it, though technically you can play just fine without it. The game has many mechanics that differ substantially from a typical ADRIFT game, and the manual is a work of art in its own right...truthfully, I'm actually even happier with how the manual turned out than the game itself.
Some notes in no particular order
* By design, this game is quite difficult. You will probably die many times before you realize how to stay alive. The game is built to have a considerable amount of replay value, it will be very different every time you play it.
* By design, this game does not conform to ordinary mapping conventions. Tingalan is a fairy-wood, and the map does not operate like a normal map. It's a puzzle, and so far none of the playtesters have solved it In general, it's quite hard to retrace your steps.
* If you get stuck, try singing
* There is a scoring system, but you may find that trying to maximize your score works against many other factors of the game. You "win" by getting home alive, and you are "scored" by the treasure you find. The high score is 38.
* There is no joy in Tingalan...
* The trees won't help you at all...


text:
940 W Dove Road, Southlake, 76092
Click for Map
Price $11,490,000
Beds:8 Baths:10.3 Garage:6
Broker : Briggs Freeman Sotheby's Int'l
Agent : Caroline Summers
All information is from sources believed to be reliable and is subject to change of price, rental, commission or other conditions, prior sale, lease or financing or withdrawal without notice. No representation is made as to the accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footage are approximate and all information should be confirmed by customer.


text:
This was published 7 years ago
Sydney's new transport friend not far off
''We have waited too long,'' said Gladys Berejiklian, squinting into the sun by the Neutral Bay ferry wharf.
In her hand was the fount of delay: a small black card she promised would ''change the way we use public transport''.
So long as you don't mind waiting longer still for the revolution. Sydney's electronic ticketing system first promised for the 2000 Olympics - and recently slated for 2014 - will now be fully operational sometime in 2015, the transport minister said.
''We are taking our time,'' she confessed today, while announcing the long-awaited Opal smartcard's first trial will start on the Neutral Bay loop on December 7. The full ferry network will remain out of the loop until the end of next year.
Trains will join the trial from mid-to-late 2013 and buses in 2014. The light rail system, which was previously not included in the rollout, will join sometime in 2015.
Ms Berejiklian called this a ''progressive rollout'' - the fact the pace was not more progressive was due to Sydney's ''clumsy and complicated'' system, she said.
''You know what, the previous government promised it for 15 years and nothing happened,'' she said.
''We know how important it is not just for convenience but also to make sure that our public transport system is efficient and becomes world class. It's something we should be proud of.''
That the Opal will help deliver such pride is not immediately apparent.
First friend
The adult card is black with bright lettering, like a 1980s corporate foyer. The multicoloured ''o'' somehow represents the different modes of transport. If you squint it almost looks like an ''a'', promising to be ''a pal'' – the first friend you might ever make on public transport.
Unfortunately, concession cards – in grey, gold, green and blue – will not be available until some time next year.
As part of the Opal trial, public transport users will travel free after paying for eight journeys in a single week. The maximum daily fare will be capped at $15 from Monday to Saturday and $2.50 on Sundays. Fares will otherwise remain the same.
The Opal name was uniquely Australian, Ms Berejiklian said, in an unintended slight to opal producers in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Turkey, Indonesia, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Ethiopia and Mars (where NASA has discovered opal deposits).
The tortured history of Sydney's smartcard suggests there will be problems to come. ''I'm not expecting this to be smooth sailing from here on in,'' Ms Berejiklian said.
She ''tapped'' her demo card on an Opal machine repeatedly for the media at Neutral Bay wharf, where there were more people waiting for sailing craft than for any old ferry.
The card worked well eight times in succession. On the ninth tap a red cross appeared on the screen and an ominous bell tolled.


text:
Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers. Whether you use it at home, at school or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you'll ever need, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools.
Enjoy the simplicity of Ubuntu's intuitive interface. Fast, secure and with thousands of apps to choose from — for everything you want to do, Ubuntu has what you need.
A whole world of apps
Ubuntu offers thousands of apps available for download. Most are available for free and can be installed with just a few clicks.
Office software
Create professional documents, spreadsheets and presentations on Ubuntu with LibreOffice, the open source office suite that's compatible with Microsoft Office. That means you can open and edit files like Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations and share them with other users quickly and easily. You can also use Google docs directly from your desktop.
Web browsing
Renowned for speed and security, Ubuntu and Firefox make browsing the web a pleasure again. Ubuntu also includes Chrome, Opera and other browsers that can be installed from the Ubuntu Software Centre.
Ubuntu comes with Thunderbird, Mozilla's popular email application, so you'll have fast desktop access to your email. No matter which email services you use; Microsoft Exchange, Gmail, Hotmail, POP or IMAP, email just works.
Ubuntu is full of free apps to help you enjoy, manage, edit and share your photos — whatever you use to take them. With fantastic support for cameras and phones, you won't need any extra drivers to get up and running.
Organise your photos
With Shotwell, you can quickly and easily import, organise, edit and view your pictures. And you can share your favourite snaps on all popular photo sites and social networks.
Edit and illustrate
Edit your photos or create professional illustrations and designs with tools like Gimp and Inkscape, available in the Ubuntu Software Centre.
Watch all your favourite content on Ubuntu with apps for playing, managing and sharing your videos. Edit your movies with PiTiVi and then watch them in Movie Player — or add VLC and OpenShot from the Ubuntu Software Centre, for compatibility with even more file formats.
From Sudoku to shoot-em-ups, we've got loads of games that'll keep you busy for hours. There are thousands of games available for Ubuntu, including titles from the Unity and Steam platforms. Pick from critically acclaimed titles such as Dota 2, Civilization V, Kerbal Space Program, Football Manager 2018 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel.


text:
John Raoux / AP
An FBI investigator walks to the apartment where a man was shot by an FBI agent, on May 22, in Orlando, Fla.
Dead Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and another man — who was killed by the FBI on Wednesday — murdered three people in Massachusetts after a drug deal went wrong in 2011, law enforcement sources tell NBC News.
Sources say that what began as a drug ripoff ended in a triple homicide when Tsarnaev and friend Ibragim Todashev realized their victims would later be able to identify them.
Todashev was killed by a federal agent while giving a statement on his role on Wednesday in Orlando, Fla.
The man who was shot, Todashev, 27, allegedly attacked an agent with a knife while confessing to the slayings. He was not suspected of having played any role in the bombing that killed three people and injured scores more in April, but he did confess to being involved in a brutal Boston-area slaying two years ago, investigators said.
AP Photo / Orange County Corrections Department
In this May 4, 2013 police mug provided by the Orange County Corrections Department in Orlando, Fla., shows Ibragim Todashev after his arrest for aggravated battery in Orlando.
Law enforcement officials said Todashev was being questioned as part of the FBI's effort to find and talk to anyone who had any contact with Tsarnaev, the older bombing suspect killed in a shootout with police.
The shooting occurred in the early morning hours on Wednesday, the FBI said in a statement.
"The agent, two Massachusetts State Police troopers, and other law enforcement personnel were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual," the statement said.
"During the confrontation, the individual was killed and the agent sustained non-life threatening injuries," according to the statement.
It's not clear who shot Todashev, officials say, because -- while he was being questioned by an FBI agent -- officers from the Massachusetts state police and the Orlando police department were also present in the house where the interrogation was going on.
Todashev, they say, had spent some time in the Boston area, where he was a mixed martial arts fighter, and knew Tsarnaev there. Investigators say he confessed to the agent in Florida that he played a role in a triple murder in 2011 in which three men were discovered slain in an apartment in Waltham, Mass.
Brendan Mess, 25; Raphael Teken, 37; and Eric Weissman, 31, were found with their throats cut in September of 2011, and their bodies were covered with marijuana. No suspects had been arrested in that case.
A spokesperson for the Middlesex County District Attorney's office, which is investigating the three deaths, said that the office does not discuss ongoing investigations. Relatives for the three men did not immediately return requests for comment.
Officials say FBI agents were questioning Todashev on Tuesday. He was cooperative at first, they say, but later that night, he attacked the agent with a knife. Officials say Todashev became violent as he was about to sign a written statement based on his confession.
A man officials say knew the bombing suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was shot and killed in Orlando, Fla., when he allegedly attacked an FBI agent who traveled to Orlando to interview him. NBC's Pete Williams reports.
The officials say Todashev had some connections with radical Chechen rebels, but they say it's not clear whether he had any role in radicalizing Tsarnaev.
A friend of Todashev told NBC News affiliate WESH that he was being questioned along with the man who was shot due to their connections to the mixed martial arts community in Boston.
"They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they're going to bring him back. They never brought him back," friend Khusn Taramiv, 27, told WESH.
Todashev was arrested for aggravated battery on May 4, 2013 after getting into a fight over a parking spot with another man at Premium Outlets in Orlando, according to an Orange County Sheriff's Office arrest affidavit.
Todashev said that he pushed the other man after he "got into his face," according to the affidavit. The man's son then "came at him swinging," Todashev told police. The 5'9", 160-pound Todashev admitted to police that he was a former mixed martial arts fighter, according to the arrest affidavit.
"This skill puts his fighting ability way above that of a normal person," the arresting officer wrote in the affidavit.
Todashev was transported to the booking and release center without incident, according to the affidavit. His Miranda warning was read but not invoked, the document says. He was released May 5 on a $3,500 surety bond, according to the Orange County Corrections Department.
The man was born in Russia and had U.S. citizenship, according to the affidavit.
A spokesman for the Orlando Police Department referred all questions regarding the shooting to the FBI.
An FBI incident review team was dispatched from Washington, D.C., and was expected to arrive in Orlando within 24 hours, FBI Special Agent Dave Couvertier said on Wednesday morning.
Todashev was also arrested in downtown Boston in 2010 following a fender bender involving his van and a car carrying two women. Todashev had to be restrained by witnesses after he aggressively confronted the women, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office told NBC affiliate WHDH. Witnesses said Todashev was clearly the aggressor, and there was physical contact between everyone involved.
However, authorities say there were no injuries and no charges were pressed.
Todashev had been in the country since 2006.
- Judge agrees to delay in case of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev
- Boston bombing survivor Marc Fucarile determined to leave hospital
- Injured marathon bombing survivors' graduation walk a 'milestone' in recovery
NBC's Andrew Rafferty contributed to this report
This story was originally published on Wed May 22, 2013 4:53 PM EDT


text:
Leg caps are designed to make the movement of furniture items with a smooth gliding experience, anti-moisture, avoid scratch when placed on different surfaces such as tiles, carpets, parquet floors, and cemented floors and so on. The leg tips are constructed from rubber that ensures smooth sliding when moved across the room. As a result, the annoying sound is eliminated.
1. PROTECTOR - Used for rough furniture feet, makes it more smooth, so that prevent your floor surface from scratching, and keep furniture balance, items on desk or cabinet do not slide easily.
2. EASY TO USE - Compared with nail pads, has the advantage of easy install and do no harm to your furniture. More maintainable and last longer than stick-on pads.
3. ANTI-MOISTURE - This feet cover can keep furniture feet away from water, isolated water, keep furniture feet long lasting.
4. HIGH QUALITY - Rubber material furniture feet cover is very dense and has good tensile strength, resists impact deformation very well.
5. REDUCE NOISE - This leg cap can greatly reduce the noise, you could no more worry about suffering a harsh sound when moving the furniture.
6. ANTISLIP - The bottom of rubber leg cap anti-slip thread surface will be effective anti-skid than the original rubber feet.
7. APPLICATION - These leg caps can be used on home, office, hotel, restaurant, apartment, garage. Suit for furniture legs. Typically used on tables, desks, hallstand, chairs, cabinets, sofas, benches, armchairs, folding chairs, stools, and so on.
8. GREAT MATCHING - The pure color leg cap suitable for decorating most of furniture, make your furniture and room more beautiful and feel more comfortable.
Available Inner Diameter:
28mm/1 1/10"
30mm/1 1/8"
32mm/1 1/4"
35mm/1 3/8"
Product Name: Leg Cap
Material: Rubber
Color: White
Package Included: 12 x Leg Caps
1. Variability of 1-2mm is possible due to the measurement process.
2. Please check your furniture leg dimension to fit the furniture feet cover before buying this item.
3. If mind the smell, you can leave them in an air circulate place until the smell is over before using it.
|Does Not Apply
|Package Content
|12 x Leg Caps
|Net Weight
|Product Name
|Leg Cap
|Variation Theme
- Allegra K Women Gilding Shiny Star A-Line Dress Dark Pink S
- $31.09
- Free Shipping
- Allegra K Women's V Neck Printed Belted A-line Dress Beige...
- $27.09
- Free Shipping
- Allegra K Women's V Neck Printed Belted A-line Dress Beige...
- $26.09
- Free Shipping


text:
2. Facebook's sorry IPO
When Facebook went public it was a huge event for the technology industry, and a simultaneous bubble-bursting of social media stocks that had been a long time coming.
Those of us who lived through the original dotcom boom saw the signs. It's the oldest tradition in the technology book: if you build it they will come, and as long as the VC money is flowing then party on. When an online coupon-clipping concern like Groupon gets a $15bn valuation, you know something's amiss.
Facebook's IPO wasn't helped by problems with NASDAQ's servers, which faltered under the demand for shares. This caused some very uneven trading, and when the $38 initial share price started to drop the system couldn't handle the share trades. NASDAQ is currently facing a lawsuit over the whole issue.
As the days went on, Facebook's stock price fell and fell, leaving more and more investors wondering just how they'd managed to come up with a $100bn valuation for the social network. Other companies that went for an IPO in the same way also suffered – although LinkedIn, which had lowballed its initial sales price, and which returns a healthy profit, still looks good.
Facebook's share price looks to have bottomed out – for now – and is slowly rising at time of going to press – for now – but a lot of fund managers and some private investors such as Mark Cuban took a bath. The madness of crowds always has victims.
That said, from a purely capitalistic viewpoint (as Eric Schmidt would put it), Facebook and its founders made out like bandits. The IPO price was in line with secondary trading market prices and all the shares sold at price. A lot of people got very paper-rich and Mark Zuckerberg was happy: he kept control of the company.
But I suspect that Facebook's problems with the IPO will continue to hurt the company. It's a quoted firm now, with responsibilities to shareholders and a need to bring in ever-larger profits. As we've seen with the botched attempt to monetize Instagram and Facebook data, the effects of going public may be felt for some time to come.
1. Apple's crap Map app-flap slap
There really could be only one pick for the number-one spot on this list. The Apple Maps fiasco has done more to hurt the company's image than anything else this year, leaving their reputation – and those of some of its supporters – in the dust.
At the start of the year Apple was riding high. The loss of cofounder Steve Jobs had been handled better than many in the industry had expected, and Tim Cook looked like a safe pair of hands to take the company forward. Apple was on its way to being the most valuable in the world in dollar terms, and was beating the competition like a red-headed stepchild.
But Jobs' legacy included an unpleasant fight with Android. Jobs had been annoyed at Eric Schmidt's apparent betrayal of accepting board membership at Apple at the same time that Google had been working on a smartphone alternative to the iPhone.
War was declared, red in tooth, claw, and lawyers letters over Android. In addition, Apple decided with iOS 6 to block parts of Google's game plan by dumping its mapping application.
This might have worked if Apple had a remotely comparable product.
Google has ploughed millions into its mapping division, and by any reasonable standard it has the best free mapping information out there. If you want to know where to go and what your destination looks like, Google has the data.
Mapping is a key function for smartphone users. The free turn-by-turn navigation offered by Android is crippling simple GPS firms such as TomTom and is increasingly becoming a must-have app for users. Not a true killer app, but close.
When iOS 6 with Apple Maps launched, there was initially little fuss. Apple's policy of only letting friendly reviewers get advanced access to kit held up well, and virtually none of Cupertino's chosen few even mentioned the mapping function in their glowing reviews of the new operating system. But then users actually tried it out and the results were plain to see.
Apple's Maps app simply didn't work correctly. Sure, it could get you from point to point – just about – but the level of detail included was poor and mapping information was frequently wrong. The list of cock-ups grew day by day as people realized that the application just wasn't fit in any meaningful way.
Even the Australian police warned against using it for fear of getting lost in the desert.
True, companies such as Microsoft have made a good business plan of copying the competition with services and software that are not as good but just good enough. But for Apple, this approach just didn't work. Apple's key selling point has been that its devices and the software they run "just work". It's one of the reasons Apple has done so well in the smartphone arena and has dominated the tablet market.
Breaking that covenant by putting out such a lousy piece of software hurt the company more than it would like to admit. Apple apologized, and fired some of the people involved, but the damage was done. Apple's whole argument that it has to tightly control the hardware and software of its products to ensure quality was exploded once it became clear that it was pushing a duff product to suit its personal peccadillos.
Google, meantime, was sitting pretty. Globally, Android has far outpaced the sales figures of iOS, and Google announced work on an iOS 6 mapping app while expressing concerns that Apple wouldn't allow it. Eventually Cupertino did, and the results were depressing for Cook & Co: over 10 million downloads of the application in 48 hours and a significant uptake in iOS 6 upgrades once Google's mapping was available.
It would be wrong to attribute Apple's plummeting share price solely to the Maps fiasco – the stock market has been on a little bubble of its own and many fund managers got aboard Cupertino's bandwagon too late – but it had an undeniable effect. Users are now souring on Apple, and the rot may yet continue.
2013 is going to be a very interesting year for Apple – and for Google, and for RIM, and for HP, and for Facebook, and for many, many others. ®


text:
Editor's Note: Sally Zelikovsky of San Rafael, a leader in the local Tea Party movement and a delegate at the Republican National Convention in Tampa Bay, Fla., is reporting her observations for the Independent Journal this week.
Given the mood of Republicans for victory at all costs, having Cheap Trick's "Surrender" blaring on the PA when we entered the floor for the second night of the convention couldn't have been more appropriate.
It also seems, now that the business of the convention is behind us, the silly hats have come out of hiding — from floppy elephants riding atop one's head in a sea of red, white and blue, to conventional straw hats with elephant beanie babies surrounded by buttons and pins from elections past. Convention fun is just beginning.
What you might not see in the news is the diversity and youth in attendance. Although President Obama captured the youth vote in 2008, with nearly 50 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds being under or unemployed, I'm not sure Obama will be able to maintain this monopoly.
Many of us were moved Tuesday night by a concerned stay-at-home mom who took to the stage and spoke to a country teetering on the edge. With reassurance in her voice only a mother could have — wiping away the anxieties of a near broken society while giving the nation the pep talk it needs to persevere — Ann Romney looked directly into the camera, and with blinding confidence about the ability of Mitt Romney to fix this country, bluntly stated: "This man will not fail."
It came from deep within, from a place of profound love — love of country, love for her children and grandchildren, and love for Mitt Romney.
Many of the women in the crowd were choked up. She touched several nerves. With Ann in the White House, those of us who gave up careers, choosing instead to "stay at home" and raise our children, will become role models for a new generation of women. And those of us who chose to work while raising our children or have to work because of a failed economy, can do so knowing that a Romney presidency will usher in an era of economic prosperity.
Everyone in the audience could relate to Ann Romney — the mother, wife, daughter and grandmother. A woman with dreams for herself, her husband and her children and grandchildren. Here was a woman who worked every day of her life to raise sons to be good fathers, husbands and citizens while battling MS and cancer. Like all moms, her job was 24/7. Like all moms, her job was thankless.
People didn't know whether to cry or cheer — so they did both. Cheers for hope. Tears for fear — fear that we might lose this country. And tears for all of the good Republican men who love their wives, daughters and mothers, but are maligned every day as warmongers in a make-believe "war on women."
Ann Romney reassured working moms, stay-at-home moms, welfare moms and middle-class moms that they can trust Mitt to fix this economy.


text:
It's time for another installment of Pot Psychology, the advice column in which everyone's problems are solved with an "herbal" remedy. (Remember, kids: Don't do drugs!) In this episode, my friend till the end, Rich, helps me dole out advice on stuff like lactating, cream pies, and male virgins. Got a burning question? Send it to email@example.com with "Pot Psychology" in the subject line. (Please keep them short; they're verrrry hard to read when stoned.)
P.S. No animals were drugged in the making of this video.


text:
"America's Got Talent" judge Piers Morgan was chastened Thursday night when "American Idol" runner-up Lauren Alaina told him his show had rejected her—twice.
Neither time did she make it past the first round of auditions, either, she said.
As guests on "The Tonight Show," the CNN host and erstwhile talent judge chatted with the 16-year-old about her second-place finish to friend and fellow country fan Scotty McCreery on "Idol."
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
"It's a real shame for you," said Morgan. "I thought you were the better singer, to be honest."
"You want to hear something funny? I tried out for your show, and I didn't make it," Alaina said.
"Really? No!" said Morgan, stunned.
"Twice," Alaina said. "I got second place, and you denied me," she joked.
Morgan confirmed Friday via Twitter that Alaina had been passed over by "America's Got Talent." He added that his producers said she was actually rejected not twice but three times.
However many times she was rejected, Alaina seemed on Jay Leno's show to have no hard feelings, especially not with her near-triumph on "Idol." But Morgan was thoroughly embarrassed when she told him.
"This is a scandal," he said. "This is awkward."
Alaina for her part had a tongue-in-cheek message of encouragement for other contestants dumped from a show: "For all of the people who try out for 'America's Got Talent' and don't make it, try out for 'American Idol!'"
Selected Reading: Los Angeles Times, Access Hollywood


text:
Hello again. It's been a long time.
Lots has happened since our last post. Jewish Climate Initiative, after helping initiate the Jewish Climate Campaign and going to that shindig at Windsor Castle, lapsed through lack of funding.
Michael went off to develop algae for biofuels and pharmaceuticals; David's still doing Israel-US tech cooperation. Yannai works on health and nutrition education in Israel's Department of Health and I joined a new Israeli company that is designing and developing Ecocities. (More on that, no doubt in future posts.) All stuff in the general environment/energy/climate space, but not as JCI.
We're back to blogging again here because of the climate. Really, there's no choice. In Israel, it's going haywire. Here I am writing this in the middle of winter with cloudless blue skies outside and temperatures well into the 70's. We've just had the driest ever November following the hottest ever summer, following seven successive years of drought. Things are starting to look catastrophic
As Ehud Zion Waldoks reports here the Kinneret, Israel's major fresh water lake will, unless something dramatic changes, reach the lower black line in summer 2011. That's the level at which further pumping from the lake becomes dangerous, risking irreversible damage through salination.
A few weeks ago Israel suffered its worst ever forest fire. It claimed 43 lives, destroyed 5 million trees and ruined the Carmel, one of the most beautiful areas of the country. (Contribute to the rebuilding effort.) It was started by some careless kids, exacerbated by years of neglect of the fire services, but enabled by the unprecedentedly hot and dry summer and fall that turned the forest into tinder waiting for a spark.
From this perspective, climate change denial emanating from air-conditioned think tanks and newspaper offices in the US and UK starts to look rather quaint. Israel has joined the Arctic, the Himalayas, Russia, Pakistan the Sahel and a host of other spots in the world where the daily evidence of dangerous climate change is before your eyes.
As Martin Heidegger (no, I'm not a fan) is supposed to have said: "Maybe the apocalyse has already happened."
This situation needs a response. Also, we believe, it needs a Jewish response.
The only regular activity of Jewish Climate Initiative which still takes place is that Michael Kagan and I meet each Friday morning to learn Talmud tractate Ta'anit for an hour or two. Not much. Yet this is starting to seem as signficant as anything we did in JCI before. For Ta'anit is the accumulated wisdom of the Jewish people over 2000 years on what you do in the Land of Israel when the weather starts to go crazy.
Tractate Taanit opens with the articulation of a need for rain. For a first century farmer in the Land of Israel, that need was total. Livelihood, food, family, life itself hung in the balance every single year. As the summer waned and autumn began, no matter how successful last year's harvest was, each inhabitant of Israel felt the existential vulnerability associated with the experience of living in this land. All of life's needs, every desire for survival and flourishing were condensed and focused on the longed for appearance of rain-bearing clouds in the late October sky. Scouring the heavens for Clouds of Longing was an annual experience.
We're back. Back to the situation of living in this land and longing for the clouds. Sure, a lot is different too. We're mostly not farmers anymore, we can import butter if it vanishes from the supermarkets, Israel has world leading research universities, more tech. companies quoted on NASDAQ than all of Europe put together, etc. Yet for all of our technological sophistication (and I'm basically all for it) our well-being here still depends in big ways on the appearance of those longed for clouds. And that with all of our ingenuity, those clouds are outside of our control.
Across the millenia, Taanit speaks with eery immediacy to our lives here today. It defines our predicament and offers a repertoire of responses. It can give us wisdom and hope for how to face and overcome a situation that people in this part of the world faced and overcame before.
We hope to bring out some of that on this blog over the coming months.


text:
Research might show that most people don't believe in ghosts, but that doesn't mean that they'll line up to buy a home they believe might be haunted. A Realtor.com survey reported that 30 percent of people asked would reject buying a home with a shady past. Of the people who would consider buying a "haunted" home, three-fourths said they'd hope for a price reduction.
An agent from FC Tucker Co., Diane Brooks, says half of her clients don't mind if a home is near a cemetery, figuring that cemeteries are beautiful and will be well manicured.
U.S. & World
Most states require sellers to disclose a home's physical issues, but only some require a home's psychological issues be revealed.
"Let's say you think your house is haunted. If you find out there was a horrible murder, or someone's body was left in the attic, that could matter. That property could be stigmatized. And that could materially affect the value of the house," said Ilona Bray, real-estate editor of Nolo.
There are, of course, the people who specifically seek out homes with a haunted past, and often agents will stress a "haunted" home's historical significance. 12 percent of people surveyed said they would pay full price for a home with such a reputation.
Read the full story on Realtor.com.
Copyright LXTVN - LXTV


text:
so let's start with the soup d'jour.
broccoli cheddar. it really is so delicious.
and it's actually pretty healthy for those of you who are into low fat and veggies. which i like the idea of but was skeptical that it could happen.
and you know what else is so good? an immersion blender! it's rocking my world. whoever invented this is the jam...this whole time i've been hand mashing soups or trying to stick boiling hot soup in a blender. it was dumb. like eating soups filled with canned cream of whatevers.
josephine says: The traditional broccoli cheese soup usually has loads of cheese and very little broccoli. And it's probably made with poor quality cheese or high sodium canned cheese sauce. That yellow/orange mystery stuff?you know what I'm talking about. Your thighs are still upset with you still to this day from eating velveeta.
jami says: i mean, i do enjoy queso dip now and again. don't tell anyone. except the entire inter web. although i will say, i never buy the stuff. it's like doritos...if it's at a party, i'm going to eat them.
2 tablespoons butter
2 lbs. fresh broccoli, chopped into 1-inch pieces
(I measure 8 cups total. If using stalks, simply peeled and chopped into ¼-inch pieces)
- -Fresh bunch broccoli usually comes with stalks. Do not throw those stalks out. You can use a vegetable peeler to peel the tough skin off and cut them into pieces or chunks. They make the broccoli flavor of this soup more concentrated.
3 minced garlic cloves 1 ½ teaspoons dry mustard powder
pinch cayenne pepper(optional)
salt and black pepper to taste
3 cups water, divided(I only need 2 cups total)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups chicken stock (homemade is the best!)
2 oz. baby spinach (2 loosely packed cups)
3 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 3/4 cup)*
1.5 oz. parmesan cheese, grated fine (about 1/3 cup)
- -do not substitute sharp cheddar cheese with extra sharp cheddar cheese because extra sharp is too dry. Also, if you don't have Parmesan cheese on hand or you don't like it for some reason, you can totally omit it. I have done it. It still tasted great!
Heat the butter in a soup pot, and then add broccoli, onion, garlic, dry mustard, salt and cayenne, if using. Cook, stirring frequently, about 6 minutes.
(i'm currently dreaming about this le crueset number)
Yields about 6 cups of soup
josephine says: When I first encountered this recipe on American's Test Kitchen on PBS, I was thrilled and skeptical. This particular broccoli cheese soup sounded like it had tons of veggies, but I wondered if it would meet the expectation of that savory taste we all want. So I followed the recipe and made it. I felt like I could finally have broccoli cheese soup without feeling guilty and eat as much as i wanted. Yes, it is that good! It has tons of fresh veggies, but it is so rich and savory without loads of fat and sodium. It is so good for you, so give it a try.
jami says: being precise scares me. i want to throw some pepperjack in here just for kicks. no one can stop me!
You'll need two rimmed baking sheets for this recipe.
- 2 2/3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
- 1 1/3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- 16 slices hearty white sandwich bread
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 1. PREHEAT BAKING SHEETS Adjust oven racks to middle and lower-middle positions. Place 1 baking sheet on each rack and heat oven to 450 degrees.
- 2. ASSEMBLE SANDWICHES Combine cheeses in bowl. Brush one side of each slice of bread with melted butter. Flip 8 slices over, top with ½ cup cheese mixture, and compact cheese lightly with hand. Cover with remaining bread slices, buttered side up, and press down gently.
- 3. BAKE SANDWICHES Remove hot baking sheets from oven and place on cooling rack. Arrange sandwiches on 1 sheet. Return to middle rack of oven, and carefully place second sheet over sandwiches, rim side up. Bake sandwiches until golden, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove top baking sheet and transfer sheet with sandwiches to cooling rack. Serve.


text:
I expected the Samsung SyncMaster S23A550H to be a worthy successor to the Samsung PX2370. I was wrong, and while the S23A550H wasn't a bad monitor, it failed to live up to the performance and smart design of the best TN monitor to date. It stands to reason then that I went into the SyncMaster S23A350H's review with low expectations.
Does the S23A350H benefit from the fact that I didn't expect much from it, or is it just another S23A550H?
Design and features
The 23-inch Samsung SyncMaster S23A350H (SA350H line) is one of several new LED-based monitor lines released by Samsung this year. A few months ago we reviewed the S23A550H. The S23A350H has a similar design, but looks more like a traditional Samsung monitor.
A soft, rounded motif permeates the S23A350H's design, without the sharp angles of the Samsung PX2370. As with the S23A550H, Samsung has abandoned going ultrathin with the S23A350H's design. Its initial depth is about 0.8 inch, but the back of the panel extends another full inch to include the connection options, and at its thickest the S23A350H measures about 1.8 inches.
Other S23A350H measurements are more or less on par with the previous models, with a 0.9-inch bezel, 22-inch panel width, and 3.3-inch distance from the bottom of the bezel to the desktop. VESA support is not included and the monitor's frame is tinged with maroon, a detail it shares with the S23A550H. Unique to the S23A350H however is its washboardlike grooved back.
The S23A350H has a typical-looking foot stand, measuring 10.1 inches in diameter; however, the back of the stand includes a hook that acts as a cable router, which, unlike the cumbersome cable router on the S23A550H, works smoothly. The slightly oval foot stand is also stable enough to keep the monitor from toppling if knocked around a bit, although it doesn't prevent wobbling in the slightest.
As with the S23A550H, Samsung made the decision to do away with DVI on the S23A350H, and gives it only HDMI and VGA as options. We understand that people use their monitors for more than just connecting to their computers, but since the display comes only with VGA cables and doesn't include cables for HDMI or a DVI-to-HDMI adapter, most people will need to invest in at least one additional cable. The Dell S2330MX offers only HDMI and VGA as well, but Dell smartly included an HDMI-to-DVI adapter, something we wish Samsung would have done at least.
The onscreen display (OSD) array is located horizontally along the bottom right side of the bezel, to the left of the power button. The buttons are touch-sensitive areas and offer no tactile response when pushed; however, once one is pressed, a contextual onscreen menu guide lines up with each button, making their functions clear. Having the OSD buttons on the front instead of the back as they were on the PX2370 makes them easier to use.
The OSD includes all the typical Samsung features like Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, RGB color controls, six different color temperature options, and five presets for Custom, Standard, Game, Cinema, and Dynamic Contrast. Magic Angle attempts to mimic wide-viewing-angle displays by adjusting the brightness, contrast, black level, and gamma to make the screen on the S23A350H clearer from certain angles.
The S23A350H is missing the really well-implemented Eco feature seen on the S23A550H. Instead, the S23A350H's Eco feature is limited to brightness control only.
In terms of build quality, the S23A350H feels slightly sturdier than the S23A550H, which was plagued with a brittle neck casing. Overall the S23A350H is very solid for a TN monitor.
|Design and feature highlights
|Ergonomic options:
|20-degree back tilt
|1,920x1,080 pixels
|Aspect ratio:
|VESA wall-mount support:
|Included video cables:
|Panel type:
|Screen film:
|Matte w/AG coating
|Number of presets:
|Picture options:
|Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, HDMI Black Level
|Color controls:
|RGB and 6 color temperature options
|Gamma control:
|Additional features:
|Magic Angle, Eco Mode
We tested the Samsung SyncMaster S23A350H through its HDMI input, connected to a Windows Vista PC, using our own HDMI cable. The display posted a composite score of 93 in CNET Labs' DisplayMate-based performance tests.
The merits of an antiglare (AG) screen coating are much debated these days. Some people prefer the coating not be applied at all, while others favor only a limited amount. A third set of viewers are completely indifferent. AG coating doesn't adversely affect quality and its merits or lack thereof are strictly a question of preference.
That said, there is heavy AG coating on the S23A350H's screen, reducing potential reflections, but diminishing glossiness severely. A glossy display can increase the perceived contrast of a monitor screen--which some people prefer--but it can also be difficult to see in direct sunlight.


text:
- 1 12-14-lb. turkey, giblets and neck removed, brined (click for recipe), at room temperature for 1 hour
- 1 apple, cored, quartered
- 1 orange, quartered
- 1 red onion, peeled, quartered
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Special Equipment
- A charcoal chimney; 2 cups wood chips, soaked in water for at least 2 hours (optional)
Recipe Preparation
Place a large disposable aluminum pan in the bottom of a charcoal grill; add 2 cups water to pan. Fill a charcoal chimney with charcoal; light.
Pat turkey dry with paper towels. Place apple, orange, and onion in cavity. Tie legs with kitchen twine. Rub bird inside and out with butter. Season skin lightly with salt and pepper.
When coals are covered with ash, spread half on either side of disposable pan. Set top grate on grill. Place turkey on grate over pan (do not allow any part of turkey to sit over coals). Cover grill. Insert stem of an instant-read thermometer into hole in hood. Maintain temperature as close as possible to 350° by opening vents to increase temperature and closing vents to reduce it, lifting grate with turkey to replenish coals as needed using charcoal chimney. If using wood chips, scatter a handful of drained chips over charcoal every 30 minutes.
Cook turkey, rotating every hour for even browning (lift the grate with the turkey on it; rotate grate 180 degrees), until an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of the thigh without touching bone registers 165° (juices should run clear when thermometer is removed), about 2 3/4 hours.
Transfer turkey to a platter. Tent with foil and let rest for 1 hour before carving.


text:
News - December 2013 - University Communications
|December 2013
Browse by category:
- All Categories
- Campus Life
- Bike Hub
- Campus Public Safety
- Campus Recreation
- Daily Messages
- Diversity and Multicultural Student Services
- Diversity at PSU
- Housing Dining & Residence Life
- Information Technologies
- Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation
- Multicultural Center
- Native American Student & Community Center
- Portland State of Mind
- Resource Center for Students with Children
- Student Groups & Government
- Student Health and Counseling
- Student Legal Services
- Vikings Athletics
- Visit Portland State
- Women's Resource Center
- Academics & Research
- Portland Center for Public Humanities
- School of Business Administration
- Graduate School of Education
- Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science
- College of the Arts
- College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
- Anthropology
- Applied Linguistics
- Biology
- Center for Japanese Studies
- Center for Lakes & Reservoirs
- Center for Science Education
- Chemistry
- Communication
- Conflict Resolution
- Economics
- English
- General Studies
- History
- Intensive English Language Program
- International Studies
- Judaic Studies
- Mathematics & Statistics
- Philosophy
- Physics
- Psychology
- Religious Studies
- School of the Environment
- School of Gender Race and Nations
- Sociology
- Speech & Hearing Sciences
- World Languages & Literatures
- School of Social Work
- College of Urban & Public Affairs
- School of Community Health
- Hatfield School of Government
- Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies
- Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning
- University Honors College
- PSU Library
- Academic Programs
- Center for Real Estate
- Center for Turkish Studies
- Challenge & LINK Programs
- Education Abroad
- International Studies
- Middle East Studies Center
- Peace Corps Master's International
- Sustainability at PSU
- Systems Science Graduate Program
- University Studies
- Academic Services
- Office of Academic Innovation
- Advising
- Advising & Career Services
- Admissions
- Undergraduate Admission
- International Admission
- Graduate Admission
- Post-Baccalaureate Admission
- Re-Enrollment
- Oregon Residency Status
- Careers
- Commencement
- Disability Resource Center
- Financial Aid
- Graduate Studies
- Office of International Affairs
- Orientation
- Registration & Records
- Dean of Student Life
- Veterans' Services
- Writing Center
- Research
- Alumni & Giving
- Administration
- Academic Affairs
- University Advancement
- Finance & Administration
- Government Relations
- President
- Commission on the Status of Women
- University Communications
- Featured Content
- Calendar
- Global Diversity & Inclusion
Monday, December 2, 2013
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
»Cynthia-Lou Coleman, Communication faculty, was a member of a working group of marine biologists and communication scholars that met Oct. 4-5 for a project called "Communicating Conservation Science to Non-Scientists: Strategies and Practices," sponsored
»Berrin Erdogan, Business Administration faculty, was re-invited to join the editorial board of the Journal of Management.
»L. Kris Gowen, Abby Bandurraga, Pauline Jivanjee and Barbara Friesen, Regional Research Institute for Human Services, with Terry Cross, former Social Work faculty and now director of National Indian Child Welfare Association, received the Best Article of
»Tom Potiowsky, Jenny Liu, Jeff Renfro, and Scott Stewart, Northwest Economic Research Center (NERC), won the 2013 Award for Excellence in Print Publications from the Association for University Business and Economic Research at its October conference. NERC
»Shelby Anderson, Anthropology faculty, presented "Ceramics and Social Networks" as an invited speaker in the Simon Fraser Department of Archaeology Colloquium Series, Nov. 21.
»Kimberley Brown, Applied Linguistics and International Studies faculty, presented "World Englishes Infusion Activities in the TESOL Methods Sequence" at the Conference of the International Association for World Englishes in Tempe, Ariz., Nov. 16. Graduate
»Scott Burns, Geology faculty, presented a keynote speech, "Urban Landslides: A Challenge for the Forensic Engineering Geologist and Geotechnical Engineer" at the 45th Annual Geotechnical Engineering Conference held at the University of Kansas, Nov. 14. Hi
»Jack Corbett, Public Administration faculty, presented "Predilectos, Abandonados, y el Desarrollo Sustentable en la Ciudad Patrimonio" at the XII World Congress of the Organization of World Heritage Cities in Oaxaca, Mexico, Nov. 18-22.
»Evguenia Davidova, International Studies and University Studies faculty, presented "Doctors Across Borders — Reluctant Revolutionaries? Some Examples from the Mid-19th Century Ottoman Balkans," at the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Stu
»Dave Ervin and Simon Ngawhika, Institute for Sustainable Solutions, with Sara Vickerman, presented "Principles to Guide Assessments of Ecosystem Service Values" in four briefings with federal agencies and private organizations in Washington, D.C., Nov. 12
»Michele Gamburd, Anthropology faculty, presented a talk, titled "Corruption Narratives: Affective Moral Economies of Post-Tsunami Recovery," at the 112th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, Nov. 23.
»Mel Gurtov, Political Science emeritus faculty, presented two papers in Korea: "U.S. Perspective and Strategy for North Korean Development Cooperation" on Nov. 19 in Seoul at the Conference on International Cooperation for Enhancing Peace in Northeast Asi
»Ted Khoury, Business Administration faculty, presented a paper, "The Robustness of Institutions and Entrepreneurship Outcomes in Developing and Emerging Economies," at the Southern Management Association's November meeting. The paper won the best paper aw
»Anoop Mirpuri, English faculty, chaired and presented on a panel, titled "The Debt Financing of Mass Incarceration: Prison Profiteering in High Financial Times," at the Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association in Washington, D.C., Nov. 24.
»Will Parnell, Curriculum and Instruction faculty, presented a paper, "Collecting from Streams of Children's Identity: Teacher Candidates Find their Agency," at the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators 2013 Annual Conference in Washing
»Tracy J. Prince, Portland Center for the Public Humanities, gave talks on her book, Culture Wars in British Literature: Multiculturalism and National Identity, at the University of Washington Tacoma, Dec. 2, and at the University of British Columbia's Gre
»Jill Rissi, Public Administration faculty, presented "Getting from Here to There: Application of Implementation Science to a Patient-Centered Primary Care Home Program" at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Exposition, Nov. 15-19.
»Billie Sandberg and Jill Rissi, Public Administration faculty, presented "Health Care Reform, Coordinated Care Organizations, and the Process of Neoliberalization" at the 42nd Annual Conference of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations an
»Keith Walters, Applied Linguistics faculty, presented "A Bit Part, But An Important One: Linguistic Anthropologists and Sociolinguists as Expert Witnesses" at the 112th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting in Chicago, Nov. 22.
»Paul Collins, English faculty, authored "Does Christmas Shopping Start Earlier Every Year? (Nope.) The Long History of Early Shopping in America," published in the online magazine Slate.com, Nov. 6.
»Emily Ford, Library faculty, with Laura Ziegen co-authored "Interinstitutional Library Collaboration: Support for a Joint Master of Public Health Program," published in the journal Advances in Librarianship, Vol. 37, in September.
»Sherril Gelmon, Public Administration faculty, with Cathy Jordan and Sarena Seifer, co-authored "Rethinking Peer Review: Expanding the Boundaries for Community-Engaged Scholarship," published as the lead article in the inaugural issue of the International
»Priya Kapoor, Communication and International Studies faculty authored a lead theory chapter, "A Genealogy of Occupy within Transnational Contexts and Communication Research" published in an edited anthology, Understanding Occupy from Wall Street to Portl
»Charla Mathwick, Business Administration faculty, co-authored an article, titled "Consumer Power: Evolution in the Digital Age," published in the November issue of the Journal of Interactive Marketing.
»Timm Menke, World Languages and Literatures faculty, authored "Arno Schmidt und Martin Walser: Eine intrikate Beziehung. Vier Thesen," published in in the journal Bargfelder Bote: Materialien zum Werk Arno Schmidts, December 2013.
»Lauren Simon, Business Administration faculty, co-authored an article, titled "Hierarchical Representations of the Five-Factor Model of Personality in Predicting Job Performance: Integrating Three Organizing Frameworks with Two Theoretical Perspectives,"
»Pete Tashman, Business Administration faculty, co-authored an article, titled "Who and What Really Matters to the Firm: Moving Stakeholder Salience beyond Managerial Perceptions" published in the October issue of Business Ethics Quarterly.
»Tony Wolk, English and University Studies faculty, authored a book of short stories, The Parable of You, published by Propeller Press in November.
»Talya Bauer, Business Administration faculty, received funding through the PSU Provost Challenge to create a "mini-MOOC" to facilitate real-time practicums and internships for students. The initial phase of her project has been successfully completed.
»Cindy Cooper, Business Administration faculty, received funding through the PSU Provost Challenge for an online Social Entrepreneurship Certificate, which is accepting students and has received local press.
»Jeanne Enders, Business Administration faculty, received funding through the PSU Provost Challenge to move two undergraduate degrees, management and leadership and supply and logistics, fully online. The project is off to a strong start.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Friday, December 6, 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
Thursday, December 12, 2013
»The Oregonian: Gun violence report after Sandy Hook: No one can predict future killers, but some intervention programs work
Monday, December 16, 2013
Monday, December 23, 2013
Tuesday, December 24, 2013


text:
Soft cover onlyFrom $15.98$11.99Save 25%
Soft or hard coverFrom $19.98$16.58Save 17%
Soft or hard coverFrom $24.98$15.49Save 38%
Soft or hard coverFrom $24.98$15.49Save 38%
Soft or hard coverFrom $29.98$17.39Save 42%
Hard cover onlyFrom $69.98$28.69Save 59%
Hard cover onlyFrom $74.98$28.49Save 62%
Our most elegant offering with top-of-the-line details.
Make your photo book as special as the day with a range of page and cover options.
Learn More
Create Custom Photo Books for Every Occasion
Are you helping your little one turn their young author creation into a beautifully bound book? Have you been looking for an elegant way to display your favorite photographs of the year? A custom book is the perfect way to showcase your unique story. Shutterfly makes it easier than ever to turn images of your original artwork into elegant photo albums perfect for displays, coffee tables and gifts. Take your favorite pictures and tell your personal story.
Designing a Personalized Book
With Shutterfly, simply take your precious memories and turn them into beautiful products you can admire every day. To make your own photo book, upload all of your favorite images to Shutterfly. When designing a book, simply choose your favorite template from our stylish selection and arrange your pictures with the easy-to-use design assistant. Shutterfly can help you add design elements, create custom text and choose your finishing touches for a one-of-a-kind photo album that is all you.
Ideas for Custom Photo Books
The options for creating personalized books are endless. They make great gifts for grandparents for birthdays and holidays. Simply gather the best pictures of the entire clan and make your own photo book to tell your family's story. A polished photo book is a great marketing tool for an artist, business owner or entrepreneur to have on hand to help tell their story. Showcase (and show off) your photo collection, be it your fur baby, flowers or whatever your favorite subject might be.
Kids also love photo albums, and they are great projects for the both of you to work on. Have them gather their favorite pictures of friends, family and the year's events and make their very own personal yearbook they can treasure for a lifetime. Use a custom photo book to commemorate a wedding, as a gift for newlyweds or from the newlyweds to their parents.
Other Cool Ways to Share Your Pictures
Your favorite pictures and images can be turned into products you use or see every day. To keep your thoughts organized, a custom photo journal is a fantastic option to put those ideas into one place. Sometimes, your story isn't best told through a traditional book but through a quilt. Shutterfly can help you turn your memories into a beautiful photo custom blankets. If you just want to highlight a few of your favorite photographs, personalized stickers are a neat way to use them.
Shutterfly is here to help you turn your most precious memories into beautiful objects you can use every day. Photo books are an excellent way to capture all of your best pictures in one place.


text:
Jonathan Greenblatt: So, today I'm going to talk a little bit about my background. I'm going to share with you some thoughts on the context in which I think we are operating. Again, what does this new world order look like? And I'll share with you a case study, an example, of a firm that really was able to leverage the impact economy, and that's Ethos Water. And then, finally, I'll share some closing thoughts. And the reason why you're here is because you made a conscious decision to be part of this fairly remarkable global community. I think that's a huge statement in and of itself. Again, like I said, I think you are well positioned to thrive in the world to come. But before we get to that world, let's look backwards, and I'll tell you again just a little bit about my background.
So, see the photo behind me? This is a picture that was taken in Germany, in the eastern side of Germany, in the mid '30s. And, actually, it says a lot about who I am standing here on this stage, you know, 80 some-odd years later. I don't know if you can see what it says on the top of this building—of this store—but that man, actually, over on the right-hand side of the picture, that's my grandfather, Bernhard Greenblatt, and you can see his name written across the shop. He had a hair salon, a barbershop, in Germany in the '30s. And my grandfather, like so many, was Jewish, and, as it turns out, being Jewish in Germany in the '30s … not a really terrific combination. My grandfather had the wits and the will to escape. And he did. He escaped in 1938 on one of the last boats to take Jewish refugees out of Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, most of his family didn't survive. So my grandfather came to this country as an immigrant, a little younger than me. Didn't speak the language, didn't have any family here, didn't have any money, but somehow, he made it work.
And I learned at a very early age that I could change the world, that I could be a part of something bigger than me, and I could leave a stamp, leave an imprint, and affect people's lives. This always stayed with me. This always was part of my consciousness. And so it was the reason why, years later, when I was graduating from college—and I was the first in my family to graduate from college—I called my parents one day, and I said, "Hey." I was at school in Boston, so it was 1992. I said, "I've got a great idea, Mom and Dad. I want to go volunteer for Governor Clinton's presidential campaign."
Now how many of you are here from the great state of Arkansas? A couple of you? I see one person actually over there. Nice to see you. Well, I can tell you, you may have known Governor Clinton, but in—if you remember, in '91, '92, before, I mean, a long, it's a long time ago in relative terms—my parents didn't know Governor Clinton, most of the country didn't know Governor Clinton. And so my parents said, "Wait a second. Let me get this straight. You just graduated from a fine four-year institution."
"And you're not going to go to law school or business school or go into consulting."
"Instead you want to go—you're going to go wait tables in Harvard Square"—that was my plan—"so that you can volunteer for this governor from where exactly? Oh, who's going to lose?" Because that was the conventional wisdom at the time.
And I said, "Yep, Mom and Dad, it's a great plan."
Well, suffice to say, my parents weren't all that thrilled with the idea, but I thought I could change the world. I thought I could be a part of something bigger than me and so that was the decision that I made. Turns out, it was a pretty good decision, and things tended to work—worked out pretty well with that. And, again, that sort of reinforced the lesson that I had learned is that we can change the world through acts small and large. And that was part of the reason why, almost 10 years later, I decided to join my business school classmate, Peter Thum, and start Ethos Water. And then it was why, a few years later, I decided to leave my job as CEO of Good and work for President-elect Barack Obama. And it's the reason why I then left Washington and launched this thing called All for Good, which is an open source website that I helped to build. Today, it's the largest database of volunteer opportunities on the Internet.
All through my life, I've been making these decisions about changing the world. Sometimes they're small acts and sometimes they're large. Sometimes it's creating companies, and sometimes it's just making a conscious decision to lead my life a little bit differently. It's something that all of us can do, including all of you. Including all of you, and that's what we're going to talk about. Today, I run a program at the Aspen Institute. It's a think tank in Washington, and we're trying to build out the plan to create this impact economy, trying to build the plan so we can scale up the field of social entrepreneurship. It's an exciting platform, and that's really where I am. How can we make change happen at a huge scale, 'cause we need that in order for—to turn around some of the terrible trends that we're dealing with in this world. I mean, the context in which you are getting your education, the working world where you are already participating, is changing with a velocity that's almost unprecedented in the history of humanity, and there are forces that are driving that. It's just a new operating context.
I think one of the most significant phenomena today, maybe the singular most important, is the dawning awareness, the acceptance of climate change and the fragility of our ecosystems. Now, there may be some of you in the audience who don't believe in climate change, and, actually, I saw there's a meeting of the Flat Earth Society right down the hall that you can check out. And they're filming another moon walk on the other side of the auditorium. No, I say this because the data is empirical, and it is real that we're living with the highest levels of carbon in our atmosphere in something like 600 million years and that we're seeing the rate of change, the reports today about the pace, the rising of ocean sea—oceans and the sea level. In California, it's happening at a pace far beyond what the original data suggested. And I think we've simply learned that the externalities that we—that once didn't account for in our accounting systems now need to be calculated for, because we're not going to stop climate change, folks. It's simply a matter of how do we adapt to it, how do we adjust for it, and how do we try to build businesses and create organizations that can succeed in that new environment. So the fragility of our world is real and difficult to argue with.
Now a second trend, a second phenomenon that is also incredibly profound is what I describe as adjacency. Some might call it globalization. The fact of the matter is because of political reform, because of technology, the growth of technology, because of international trade and business, we live in a moment today where there are no longer those kind of barriers that once kept countries apart from one another that once kept people apart from one another. It's been called the death of distance, and it's very, very real. Today, you are as likely—you are almost as likely to have things in common with people in, let's say, Abu Dhabi as you are just down the road from where you live. And I think Walden is a perfect example of that. The students with whom you take your classes, who once, you know, when maybe a few years ago, when we were growing up—other than correspondence courses—you sat next to people in a desk. Right? You could touch them. Well, now those people online could be coming from anywhere in the world. And brands are really at the forefront of this, and whether it's McDonald's in the Gulf or Starbucks in India or Asian and Latin American brands coming here to our country, adjacency is real. We live in one incredibly shrinking world.
Another powerful phenomenon is what I describe as discoverability. Because of the advent of technology and the Internet, even though it was just invented in the early '90s by Al Gore, the fact of the matter is we're living in this extraordinary moment when anything that has ever been written can really be found, thanks to our friends at Google. Where anyone online can be discovered, thanks to our friends at Facebook. Imagine this for a moment. Facebook, which was founded in 2004, less than seven years ago, today has 600 million members. That would make it the third largest country on the planet. And of those 600 million members, somewhere between 250 and 275 million use it every single day. It's really quite profound how fast this has exploded and how you are very likely to be able to find anyone, anywhere, and, of course, this has created problems. Admissions officers report with increasing frequency that they decline people who apply to their colleges and universities—job recruiters are doing the same thing—based on Facebook searches. Those photo, the photo you thought you took. Remember everything—what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? Whoever told you that … Hope you don't believe that anymore. And the explosions of cell phones and the reach, the ubiquitous reach of search engines like Google make everything discoverable today. And now you layer on top of that this explosion in mobile technology. So there is this extraordinary phenomenon where you have massive computing power embedded in our lives in ways that has never happened before, and that creates a whole other issue, which is immediacy. The volume of those Facebook pokes or those tweets is really overwhelming. Twitter, which was founded just three years ago, today is supporting roughly 200 million members all over the world who are doing 120 million tweets a day. A day. It is—to say that it's dizzying I think is an understatement. When everything is discoverable and everyone has multiple computers on their person at any given time, the volume of information creates an immediacy.
So, again, if we think about this context, we have a massive deluge of information enabled by mobile, enabled by this phenomenon of discoverability. It's the world in which you are all heading. And then the question becomes, well, how does one succeed? How can I be a social entrepreneur?
You can find social entrepreneurs in all walks of life. This isn't just about making money. I would say, though, the thing that makes a social entrepreneur such a remarkable phenomenon is they're trying to build business, as I mentioned before, with social impact right at the heart of it. So when you find these people in a private-sector setting, maybe like many of you, they start off by saying, "How can I build a business to fix this problem?" And that idea of a business, but animated by social issues, this is new. I mean, I would say this: When a business hires people that's a social impact. When a business pays fair value—pays fair wages, that's a social impact. When a business makes it easier for people to lead their lives, that could be a social impact, too. But the difference is the social entrepreneur sets out to say, "Look it, I'm going to build a product or service to fix that disequilibrium." That's different.
Now, on the other side, we are increasingly seeing people in the nonprofit space, social entrepreneurs. And we know that typically the reason why people go into nonprofit work is to make a difference. But the social entrepreneur goes into the field to say, "How can I make a difference, but do it in a way that creates economic sustainability, do it in a way that works with market-based models?" These nonprofit executives, they behave more like businesspeople. So there's a series of behaviors and a series of attributes we find in the classic social entrepreneur. I would suggest that this is a pretty reasonable list or a starting point. Now, again, I don't believe that you go, you need to go out and build the next great business or to launch the next national nonprofit to make an impact, but I would say to you, all of you can find ways to be socially entrepreneuring in your own lives. And ask yourselves, "How do I map against this set of attributes? Have I had my personal epiphany? Is there a way that I can create direct action? Is there an equilibrium that I want to try and repair?"
This is sort of the essence of Ethos, which is: How can you turn this irrational product into something just a little bit more rational? How could you transform an act of extravagance into an act of philanthropy? How could you bring together water that we have here for people who need water around the world? How could you link water for water, so suddenly the consumption would support the cause instead of being at cross purposes with it? And this is the essence of Ethos, water for water. Social entrepreneurship starts with mission. It begins with that moment, your epiphany, where you think about, "How can I take action to right this wrong?" And that—again that may be a small decision to no longer drink bottled water or that may be something big, to create a whole new brand that solves this problem. It starts with mission. Now, how did we do that? That sounds good, water for water, right? But we wanted to change the way that people thought about water so that every bottle would make a difference.
Here's how we did it. Number one, we set out to donate up to 50% of our after-tax profits to fund humanitarian water programs around the world, to provide those people with water sanitation and hygiene education. Fifty percent! Big number. Secondly, we sought to use our marketing as education because we felt that the answer to this problem, the way we could spawn a social movement, would not be by just selling lots of water, but by evangelizing, by enlisting people in our cause, so they could do what I did as a seven-year-old, so they could find ways to be activated. So it was a mission with two ways we were going to deliver on that. Now, how did it actually work? Well, it started with Peter. Peter was my business partner and my apartment-mate in business school, and he had his epiphany when he was working as a consultant, went to South Africa, saw people living without clean water, and that's what got the idea—that's where the idea germinated. And it took time, it took research, took our partnership. It took a lot of things for it to come to fruition, but the fact of the matter is, we spent countless hours in stores like this one and other places connecting with people and describing what we were doing. Now, we had left our jobs and had used our savings to build this business, and that was one of the things that resonated with consumers, the authenticity of Ethos, the integrity of two guys trying to do something to make the world a better place. Social enterprises that succeed have authenticity at their core. It's an essential element of their architecture. Think about that. You can't contrive authenticity in a cubicle. You can't focus group your way to it. Authenticity is genuine, and it comes from the heart.
Now, the heart's a funny thing. Sounded good to me and to Peter, and I remember the phone call with my parents, much like the one I'd had about—during the Clinton campaign <laughs> ten years before. I said, "Mom and Dad, I've got this great idea."
They said, "OK." They have learned to tolerate my great ideas.
I said, "OK, going to leave my job in corporate America to go start a bottled water company—it's not going to be—the water's not going to be from some special place, and we're going to go up against Coke and Pepsi and Nestlé, and then we're going to give away half our profits."
My mom and dad thought, "Oh, that sounds like a great idea, Jonathan. Good luck with that!" <laughs>
And so we took that pitch to Sand Hill Road, to the capital of the venture-capital movement. How do you think they responded? There weren't a lot of takers. We had hundreds of meeting with prospective investors, all of whom turned us down for reasons that I think you might surmise if your child came to you with a similar idea. But the fact of the matter is we were lucky we had these friends at companies like Visa and MasterCard who were only too happy to indulge us. They thought it was a great idea! <laughs> It's funny how generous they can be. And so that's really what it took to get the business started. We didn't have the benefit of, you know, large-scale private equity. We only had our personal credibility and our diminishing savings accounts.
But we had a plan, and we had—we thought we were onto something, and to explain that, I'm going to use this diagram. Anybody recognize this? Wow, this is—at Walden University everybody knows what it is. Right, Abraham Maslow, famous sociologist, this is his hierarchy of human needs, a way that he mapped what we need as people. And, so, I'm going to try to apply this to the bottled water industry if you'll indulge me. So, at the bottom of that pyramid are body needs, right, those, like, basic needs, survival needs, and I would put there sort of private-label water. Let me make the point. How many of you shop at Costco or buy water at Costco? Raise your hands. Anybody? Okay, so why do you buy water at Costco? You in the front row? Cheap. Honesty, I love it. Who else? Why does someone else buy water at Costco? Is that the only reason? Pardon? Wholesale, which probably means less expensive. Anything else? Quantity. There's a lot of them, right? Yes? You were going to say the same? Right, so it's cheap, and easy, convenient. That's those private-label products. We just know we're going to drink it, it's not going to kill us, right? <laughs> Maybe someone's had a different experience over there. So it's easy.
Then we have water like Ozarka or Arrowhead. Anybody here drink Ozarka here this weekend, right? How many of you think that water comes from a place called Ozarka? Can someone take me there later this afternoon, because I'd like to see it for myself? In Southern California, we drink Arrowhead, and I'm sure there was a point in time when it really was from Mt. Arrowhead. That was a long time ago. But Nestlé Waters, a division of Nestlé, the largest food company on the planet, a global multinational corporation, years ago, saw bottled water as an opportunity, and they went around the U.S., and they bought up local springs. And then they took those local springs and packaged them up in local brands. They're evocative of your area. So in Southern California, it's Arrowhead. You see the mountain and the luxurious trees, right? It's a place where I take my kids to go skiing. And in the East Coast, it's Poland Springs, and in the Midwest, it's Deer Park or Ice Mountain, excuse me, as if there was such a place, and in Florida, Zephyr Hills, and here, it's Ozarka. And the list goes on. Right? So they are playing on the regional association with that place, building a sense of trust, making you feel secure, like it's from a place that you know. Mt. Arrowhead. But, in reality, it's not, and it hasn't been for a very long time, but they're playing on security.
Now, next up are Pepsi and Coke, Aquafina and Dasani. Anyone been to the springs of Aquafina? You can see it right there. Look, the mountains, the sun. Or how about Dasani. Sounds, like, vaguely European, right? So where did Aquafina and Dasani come from? Who knows? Anyone? City water supplies <laughs>, that's right. They come from Houston. Or Minneapolis. Or Portland, Maine; or New York City; Sarasota, Florida; Chicago, Illinois; Seattle, Washington … just depends on where you are. They're municipal water. Guys, it's tap water. It's tap water. That's all it is. But Coke and Pepsi have built the largest two bottled water brands in America, because they saw this trend and thought, "This is a better way, we can get—use our distribution, use our vending machines, use our sales people, use our marketing muscle." That's exactly what they did, and they created the first big marketing campaigns around these brands, and they socialized them, leveraging their infrastructure, and that's why they're so big today.
And then we have brands like Evian or Fiji, like a trip to the Pacific Isles or the French Alps. Most of us can't afford a vacation in the Fiji Islands, but a bottle of Fiji, even at four dollars, we can afford, right? Might not be the smartest purchase, but it's the example of affordable luxury. It's an example where they leverage their aesthetic and their package and their label to transport someone even momentarily to another place, playing on your sense of ego.
Well, at the top of that pyramid is where we wanted to position Ethos. Not water that is better for you, but water that is better for the world, water that'll allow you to self-actualize, to do something more than, again, your—than your—just physically hydrate you. But what we discovered along the way, that if we were to succeed, we needed to hydrate people as effectively as those private-label products, to come from a local place that people trusted like the security products, like the Nestlé products, to be well marketed and well distributed like the Coke and Pepsi products, and to have a form factor, a package and aesthetic as good, if not better, than the Evian and the Fiji products. Quite frankly, social enterprise is not an excuse or a shortcut. The cause doesn't get you anything other than, maybe, a pat on the back. You have got to be as good if not better than the competition. Social entrepreneurship is about delivering superior value. And when you can embed social change in the DNA of your brand, when you can integrate it into the architecture of your company, you've got a shot, but you've got to deliver all the basics first. Make no mistake. It's about performance, and that's fundamentally important.
Now, it's also about commitment, because if you're going to say, "Hey, I want to change the world," you better, you'd better live up to your expectations. I can tell you how we tried to do it at Ethos. First of all, we only sourced our water from local, sustainable springs. We didn't bring in our water from a fjord in Norway or the French Alps. We brought it from the Sierra Nevada Mountains that were close to our customers, and when we were going to grow to the East Cost, we waited to find a spring on that side of the country before we would sell to customers on that—in that part of the U.S. We tried to reduce our water miles and to diminish our impact on any one source. Now, we also, I should say, didn't try to build the largest water company. That was never the idea. The idea was, as I mentioned before, how do we change the way people think about water. I told you it's an irrational industry, so we moved into reusable products. We moved into recyclable—we looked at biodegradable packaging. We tried to find ways to change the equation. I can assure you, you will not see an Evian reusable bottle or an Aquafina reusable bottle anytime soon, but that's what we wanted to do. Even if it meant that it would hurt our sales, we thought it was the right thing for the cause.
Now, another really key point to build a social enterprise, you can't just show commitment across your value chain. You'd better explain that to your customers. You had better be transparent. They want to know. So, when we started the business, even before we sold a bottle, before we made a penny, we started making donations out of our own wallets to fund humanitarian water programs around the world, and, as we grew, we kept updating our consumers on that on our website and our marketing materials. Transparency is so important, I think, today. In a world where everything can be discovered, where everyone has, again, these massive supercomputers in their breast pocket, where there's a massive amount of data coming at you, you can't hide any more. You can't obscure the facts. It will be found. So, we put our foot forward, and we tried to be as transparent as we could, and it's an axiom that I would encourage all of you to adopt. Transparency and sunlight are great antidotes, and they will serve you well in the marketplace. If you can create the space for engagement, not just with your customers, but with your vendors, with your stakeholders, you can create that opportunity, not just for conversation, but for co-creation. That's when you start to get leverage.
Again, this idea started with Peter in 2001, and then we get to the point where people feel so compelled that this is what they do. This is when we knew we were really on to something and on to something big, when we realized that the same felt sense of inspiration we felt could be shared with others in powerful, unanticipated ways. Which brings us to a small coffee company up in Seattle. Some of you may have heard of it before. And I'll tell you, when we were thinking about our growth, thinking about where we would go, Whole Foods was a natural partner, but we also thought, wouldn't Starbucks be a great place to distribute our product, and there are a couple reasons why. First of all, Starbucks at its heart and soul has a remarkable entrepreneur in Howard Schultz. He is awesome. I mean, it's impossible to put into words what he has meant for the company and, I think, what he's meant for American business, forgetting the fact that we're all spending, you know, I don't know, five dollars a shot at Starbucks, this guy really changed the way we think about retail and some—in some very, very masterful ways and has built a marvelous company. He's the heart and soul of it. Now, secondly, what do you think a cup of coffee really is, guys? It's just flavored water. We thought we should sell Starbucks in the stores. Our brand will be a good fit. Howard will like the startup, and all they're doing is selling water. More so than that, where do you think they get the coffee and tea from? Any ideas? They call that area across the equator the Bean Belt, from Mexico to Venezuela to Brazil to Kenya, Yemen, India, Indonesia. These are all water-stressed places, and where do you think they're going to grow? Now, it may come as a shock that they're not going to open yet another Starbucks, let's say, in the lobby of the Hilton hotel, but the fact of the matter is Starbucks' growth will be taking place in Brazil, in India, in China, all water-stressed parts of the world. So, we thought, hey, water matters, not just because it's their core product, but it matters across their value chain. So, it's a great issue for Starbucks to take on, and they certainly have a legacy of community service. Starbucks' employees, they're called partners in a Starbucks' sort of vocabulary. They donate hundreds of thousands of hours every year to local communities where you can find their stores. And they have a track record of innovation. They've done remarkable things, not just with products, but on service. They launched a campaign last year called "I'm In," committing people to donate hours in their local communities and getting a free cup of coffee when they do, and logging all of that on the Internet. I mean, it's a remarkable business.
So, we thought wouldn't this be a great place to sell our product? So we went and visited, we talked to them, we met with Howard, and he came back and said, "I don't just want to actually sell your product. I want to own your product. I want to own your business. I want to acquire your company."
Now, we thought "Wow. That wasn't what we expected." But I can tell you, when you start your company to create social change, when you're willing to sacrifice 50% of your profits to make a difference, getting acquired by a Fortune 500 isn't the first thing you have in mind—which actually translated into leverage at that negotiating table. We said to Starbucks, "If you want to buy our business, you'd better show us how you can scale our social mission." And so here's what we worked out.
We were donating 50% percent of our profits. We weren't even profitable yet when we were bought. They said—but you know—they said, "We'll commit to that."
We said, "You've got to do more. You need to donate an amount per unit. So for every bottle sold, there will be a hard number that gets donated to the cause." By our math, we figured we'd be doing 2–2 ¼ cents per bottle once we started really kicking in. Now, small company, high cost-structure, may seem little to you, but to us, 2–2 ¼, that would have been a lot of money per unit sold. We said, "So, Starbucks, you'd better double that. Five cents a unit."
And guess what? They said, "Sure. Okay. We can do that."
We're like, "Wait, wait. I'm sorry. Wait a second. We said five cents."
They did a calculation, and they said, "Yeah. That's not a problem. What else?"
We're like, "Oh, rats." But the fact of the matter is that five cents per unit is so important. Since the acquisition, Starbucks stock has risen and fallen and it's rising again. Profits have come and gone but five cents. Five cents is forever, which means every bottle will make a difference today, tomorrow, for the entire life of the brand. We think that's very meaningful.
Secondly, we said, "Well, guess what? You're going to sell this thing in your stores for what, $1.80, $1.90, $2.00 a bottle?" We said, "Five cents is going to seem pretty paltry. It's going to be a problem—it's a problem for us, it's going to be a problem for you. So, you've got to make a big commitment right out the gate. A big commitment to show people that you really care about this issue."
And so, Starbucks, to their extraordinary credit, to Howard Schultz's remarkable leadership, they looked at Peter and I, and they said, "You're right. We do. We do have to do this."
And so we worked back the math and looked at our expected volumes, and we agreed to commit $10 million—they agreed to commit $10 million within the first five years of the brand. A number which I'm delighted to report they were able to achieve. You know, it's been six years since they bought the company, and they've done more than $10 million to fund—it's more like half a million to provide lifetime access to clean water to more than half a million people around the world. Think about that. Think about a large, multinational corporation, right up front accruing $10 million. Just to help people in need, in places where they don't operate, people who don't buy their product, but just making a commitment on an issue. To us, that felt really profound, because now every bottle would make a difference, and now there would be a meaningful commitment that would hopefully inspire other companies to do the same.
Now, thirdly and maybe most importantly, we said, "You've got to commit to build on our brand and our story." And they were able to do that because we went from having a national presence, but fairly concentrated on the West Coast, to suddenly being in, as Brian said, 7,000 stores all over the country, overnight, in the best locations with the best customers. We could tell our story, and they committed to use our marketing to tell that. Now, that was pretty great because what we're able to do was to not just put it on package but to create the movement.
So, I think this talk, for me, was really about planting seeds. It's not about saying you need to go out and create the next Ethos Water. It's not about saying you need to go out and build your own business. It's just not. I think about the words of Robert Kennedy; you know, the former democratic senator and presidential candidate, who said that few of us have the greatness to bend history, but all of us can work to change the world, and in the total of those small acts will be written the history of our generation. So, I ask you, how will you write that history? What will be your acts, big or small, to make an impression?
Now in closing, I want to point out to this slide. This picture, it's an image of a march in Selma, Alabama, from the '60s. I'm sure everyone in the room recognizes this man in the middle, Dr. Martin Luther King, the civil rights pioneer, who said, "Life's most … urgent question is: What are you doing for others?" Not how, but what? And then, to his right, it's a guy by the name of Abraham Joshua Heschel, who's a very famous theologian, and he said, " … every little deed counts." Every word matters and all of us in our own way can redeem the world. I hope all of you will leave today, will complete your degree in your time at Walden thinking about that. How will you, planting those seeds, redeem the world? Thank you very much.


text:
Helen Gurley Brown, the famous Editor-in-Chief who helped make Cosmo the magazine it is today, died on Monday at age 90.
Helen served as Editor-in-Chief of Cosmo from 1965 to 1997, and was the best-selling author of the hit book, Sex and the Single Girl. The book was so popular, it was on the bestseller list for a year and was later turned into a movie starring Natalie Wood, Tony Curtis, and Lauren Bacall. After writing SATSG, Helen went on to relaunch Cosmo, focusing it more on modern women.
Helen stressed to women that they could have it alllove, sex, and moneyand was the first to utter the phrase, "Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere."
She was also an outspoken advocate of women's sexual freedom and stressed that sex should be pleasurable for men and women. Helen also worked hard to give women role models who had it all.
Current Cosmo Editor-in-Chief Kate White had this to say about the editor: "It was such an extraordinary honor for me to follow in Helen's footsteps. She revolutionized women's magazines with her message of empowerment to females, and inspired women all over the world. Helen once told me that two of the most imporant things she wanted women to know when she took over Cosmo were that you didn't have to be married to enjoy your life and you didn't have to married to have sex. Those messages were so liberating because until then women generally felt ashamed about exploring sex outside of marriage and thought you had to have a man to be happy."
"Cosmo has continued to be a huge success," White continued, "because we've stayed true to Helen's vision. I channel her all the time."
In addition to her famous book Sex and the Single Girl, Helen also wrote The Single Girls Cookbook and Sex and the New Single Girl, among other titles.
Cosmopolitan is the largest-selling women's magazine in the world with 64 editions. After retiring from Cosmo, Helen served as the Editor-in-Chief of the international editions.
Read her full obituary here.
Read a Cosmo editor's tribute to Helen here
For more coverage of the great HGB The New York Times, Huffington Post, Women's Wear Daily, and Bloomberg.
See how Helen changed the lives of many people here.
Read Helen's most memorable Cosmo coverlines here.
And check out this video that sums up the amazing effect she had on women, worldwide.


text:
RecordsFerret.com contains extremely sensitive information about people you know, including where they live, their past, and many other details. You will gain access to criminal records, arrest records, family information, current address, public record information and much more.
Because the information on RecordsFerret.com is so shocking, we are required to inform you that RecordsFerret.com is not a consumer reporting agency, and you may not use this site for any Fair Credit Reporting Act related purpose. By Using this site you agree not to use the information herein to provide/deny consumer credit, screen employees or tenants, or any other permitted purpose as defined under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.