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While my son fortunately didn't have to spend anytime in the NICU when he was born, 10-15 percent of babies aren't so lucky. Chandler Regional Hospital recently released an incredible app to help parents of pre-mature babies. Seriously, it's pretty cool. I started out including this in my recent post about apps for parents, but I felt like it needed a better review.
Guide for New Parents was developed mainly for NICU parents, but any parent can find use in it. Portions of it are aimed specifically at people who have children in the NICU at Chandler Regional Hospital. This portion has tours of the NICU and other educational videos.
There are five other main sections, which can be used by any new parent. Here's a little bit of information on each of them.
Track My Baby
There are a lot of apps and websites out there to help track development, but this one is unique in the sense that you can follow development according to an infant's gestational age. Premature infants reach milestones according to an adjusted age, not necessarily their actual age. Weight, length, and head circumference can be tracked, and they are plotted on a graph next to percentiles. It also provides ideas for parents on a variety of topics, such as bonding.
I like that you can plot growth information and see it compared to percentiles. This could be really helpful in tracking an infant's growth from home and identifying any abnormalities, because sometime a doctor may overlook something, or if another doctor needs to see information. My son had rapid head growth early in life, and recently we were referred to a pediatric neurologist. Because this doctor and my son's pediatrician didn't have the same system, he was unable to pull up any information, even though he said it would have been nice to be able to see the graphs. Having something like this would have been helpful at that time.
Feeding My Baby
One concern I hear over and over again from new parent is, is my baby eating enough? And honestly, it can be hard to know, if you don't know what signs to look for. This section contains tons of information on feeding, focusing mostly on breastfeeding, and providing links to information about it. It talks about common challenges that arise, but also has information on formula feeding, for parents who choose that route.
There is a neat log to help track feedings. It includes a timer that a parent can start when a feeding begins, and end at the conclusion. The information automatically gets added in to the log. I remember at the first few doctor's appointments of my son's life, I was always being asked "how much has he eaten, how often, and for how long," and in my sleep deprived state…I never could tell them. It also would have been helpful when I had to keep careful track of how long and often my son was eating when he was in the hospital. It would have been way easier than having to look at the clock and then write on a white board the numbers (which was so hard in the middle of the night!)
Spiritual Care
Now, I know not everyone is religious, so this may not be relevant for some. I've really never seen a feature like this before, and being a religious person myself, I appreciated it being included. However, as I've read reviews about it, it wasn't the most helpful place. It mainly just included quotes and inspirational thoughts, that aren't necessarily tailored toward a parent's situation. I think this could be improved by having different sections of quotes, letting parents select what type of belief system they come from, and have thoughts tailored toward that, and even having the option for just uplifting, not necessarily religious messages.
Follow-up Care and Find my Hospital
These last two sections will really just be helpful for people being treated at Chandler Regional. The follow-up care lets parents search for doctors in the area who may be of use to them, and the find my hospital section just gives basic information about the hospital.
Overall, I think this is a really cool app, especially for those who had a premature infant. There are a lot of features that I really like, but also room for improvement. Some of the complaints I"ve seen is that there really aren't a lot of videos, and it doesn't have a section about problem that might arise with a child, and how to resolve them. I think that would be a particularly important thing, especially for parent's of premature infants, where health problems are probably more likely to arise.
This app is free, and available for iOS devices.


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You've seen the exceptionally moody and action-packed new trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man. But what secrets does it hide about the Lizard and Spider-Man's parents?
It's the first ever shot of Spidey flying in the air. Looks much different from Sam Raimi's hyper comic book coloring and CG animated action (not that there's anything wrong with that). The whole night sky tone matches the far more broody, walks-down-the-street-with-his-hood-up, Peter Parker.
Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) drops on in Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone). Both Hollywood actors maintain their adorable.
Peter at dinner with the whole Stacy family. Nice to see the new family dynamic. Gwen, as opposed to MJ, has a fairly stable family life. Not to mention her Pops is the police top brass, George Stacy.
Peter has a moment alone, starring at his superhero mask (as all heroes are contractually obligated to do in their films).
Peter Parker making his web shooters. Unlike Tobey Maguire, this Peter Parker is a bit of a whiz kid. Instead of being blessed with web shooting abilities after the mutant spider bite, Peter constructs them himself.
The first look at the new Spider-Man symbol. What are the odds that this is some gang sign in an alley, and this is just Peter's big "ah ha" moment? Hell, if the boy can sew an entire unitard that looks that good, shouldn't he be able to paint as well?
Spidey first toys with, then strings up a local car jacker.
Close up on the new suit.
Little Peter Parker saying goodbye to his parents, most likely for the last time ever. Could Peter's parents be S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in this continuity — or something similar?
Peter uses his super strength for revenge on a school bully.
Uncle Ben and Aunt May!
Sorting through his Dad's old briefcase, another good shot of Peter's room. Looks like he's a movie buff?
Dad's OSCORP card.
Ground shot of the OSCORP tower.
Dr. Curt Connors uses Peter's mega brain to solve his math equation. Thus allowing him to complete his secret serum, which later backfires and turns him into a lizard beast. Hence Peter telling Gwen that he "has to stop him," as he "made him." Yet another reason for Peter to feel guilty and take responsibility and stuff.
Great look at The Lizard's eye, complete with third eyelid.
The leftovers from a Lizard fight, note the claws.
A shot of an actual Lizard claw.
Sick full look at the (now complete) web shooters!
Spidey takes another midnight swing, check out OSCORP's amazing tower, complete with big sign in the sky.
Spider-Man is arrested, but then BREAKS the handcuffs apart and uses his spider karate to kick so much cop ass. Your move, Tobey.
Spidey dodges a bunch of bullets, love that the police officer was firing that much at him, in fact it seems like there are a lot of guns in this trailer.
The infamous super spiders.
Blurry shot of the Lizard in a toilet.
Dr. Curt Connors slowly transforming, and getting pissed off.
Showdown between The Lizard and Spider-Man on top of OSCORP?
Big moment — looks like Gwen finds out that Peter is Spider-Man in this flick.
The Lizard uses his tail as weapon.
Blurry shot of The Lizard drowning Spidey.
The final scene (and my personal favorite shot of the trailer) Peter takes down the tower on the top of the OSCORP building, fueling my suspicious as to The Lizard's big plan, which we speculated on at the Spider-Man sizzle reel screening.

subset: commoncrawl


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Aaron Blackledge M.D., founder of Care Practice clinic in San Francisco, sent me a link to a post he did back in April about a new EMR company called Carecloud. The irony of this is that Carecloud had just reached out to me for information about advertising their EMR on my sites since they are getting ready to launch their product. Their impending launch was why Aaron decided to share his post with me.
I think Dr. Blackledge's post about Carecloud is summarized in his final paragraph:
My recommendation is if you are about to give up and lay down some hard earned cash on an EMR that is just good enough I would urge you to wait a few more months and compare CareCloud's first iteration with other emerging platforms now gaining a foothold in the marketplace.
Since Carecloud is about to launch, you won't have to wait a few months to check it out, but if you read the rest of the post, you see that Dr. Blackledge is high on Carecloud and its potential.
The hard thing for me is that I've seen this same EMR high from people over and over. You know the EMR employee (particularly the EMR sales people) "high." (Although, Dr. Blackledge is not a Carecloud sales person and calls himself a "wayward disgruntled platform evangelist waiting for the future to arrive.") The one where you can tell that the EMR employee has drunk the Kool-aid they've been fed by the company. They've likely not looked at many other competing systems and only know the stuff they've read in their email from the company highlighting how they're better than everyone else in the industry.
This "high" is especially potent before a product is actually released. Why? Because it's easy to get excited about an ideal and see the potential of the ideal. What's much harder is when the customers start using your product and telling you what's wrong and trust me that customers will find something wrong. No product is ever perfect.
This pre-product launch "high" is not unique to the EMR industry. It's found throughout the tech industry (and likely many others). Funny thing is that Dr. Blackledge probably knows this pre-launch hype better than most doctors since he practices medicine in in the internet startup mecca: silicon valley. Ironically he traveled to an EMR company in Miami to find his EMR "high."
Funny thing is that as I read Dr. Blackledge's post on Carecloud, a number of comments he made popped out to me as potential red flags. Here are a few:
"First off, they have a really impressive group of people with ambitious plans for building something robust and elegant."
How many big ambitious plans by companies have fallen apart? Many! I'm not saying that companies shouldn't think big. I am saying that a group of impressive people with ambitious plans often leads to a momentous flop. At least the startup company numbers seem to spell this out.
"What I like most about CareCloud is that when asked about a timeline for release they will only say that they won't release it until they get it right. They simply don't know when it will be ready."
Some might say that this sounds like a company that's too afraid to release a product. That the company won't ever find out what's right until they launch the product and get customer feedback on what needs to be improved. I guess they don't follow the release early and often approach to software development.
"Another thing I like is they are worried about not just becoming a very successful billing company, but they want to achieve much more by building something that really resonates with users and transforms the space."
I applaud this ambition since I've been preaching that current EMR software are often just expensive billing machines for a long time. If they solve that problem I'll be quite happy. Let's just hope they didn't forget the billing part though. Sadly, it's still very important.
"I would guess CareCloud's calm steady course is because they just don't feel that anyone else is on the same path they are on so why hurry when you have time to get your vision done right."
This is possible. Although, it's also possible that they spent so much time waiting to release that it's too late for them to capture the EHR market.
"If you hear an EMR company offer you 20 hours of free training with your purchase you can stop right there because any software that needs 20 hours of free onsite training forgot about the user long ago during the building and won't be doing much in 5 years."
Of course, in this comment it's assumed that Carecloud's focus on a great UI will limit the number of hours needed for EMR training. I love the irony of this being said right after he describes it as a "very complex and difficult to develop product." I guess you could say it's making a complex process simple is what's so difficult. No doubt I agree that many EHR vendors over charge for their EHR training services. Problem with Carecloud is that we don't know if they'll charge, how much they'll charge, and how many hours of training is needed since they haven't launched.
"Even the office space at CareCloud is beautiful and reflects this attention to aesthetic and experience of the individual, in this case the employee experience."
That's one way to look at it. Another is that they overspent on office space and you're going to pay for that overspending when you buy the software.
Ok, I won't go through and nit pick the whole post. I think you get the basic idea. Dr. Blackledge describes Carecloud as the best thing since sliced bread. In this post, I've played devil's advocate and described how maybe it's an over funded, slow to release software company that's trying to bite off more than it can chew. The reality is that Carecloud is probably somewhere in the middle of those two extremes.
The fact of the matter is that I really don't have any clue if Carecloud is a good EMR system or not. They haven't even launched their product, so I'm not sure that anyone knows. However, after creating this post, I have to admit that I'm excited to see it in action in a real doctor's office. Plus, I think the founder, Albert Santalo, and Dr. Blackledge are going to be at a healthcare IT conference I'm hoping to go to in SF in a couple weeks. I'm looking forward to learning more and talking with them in person.
If nothing else, I love the audacity that it takes for someone to launch an EHR company now. I'll be interested to see if their product is compelling enough to be "heard above all the EMR noise."


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Silicon Valley Money Men Are Now Serving "Artisanal Venture Capital"
Benchmark Capital is in ascendance, thanks to investments in Uber, Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram. Thus the VC firm can afford to say ridiculous things like: "Our belief that this is more of a guild than a corporation. So, we try to think of it as artisans practicing a craft," as if they were 18th century woodworkers and not financiers hand-carving embellished valuations.
Actually, in the prevailing venture celebrity climate, it's imperative for investors to say asinine things to get attention or risk losing deal flow to some other braying prognosticator. A gimmick helps and "the Boys of Benchmark" did not disappoint in this interview with Kara Swisher at their new office in the Tenderloin. Peter Fenton, the general partner responsible for that artisan analogy above, told Re/Code:
And we picked a particular neighborhood that challenges us to engage with the city's non-technical, non-technology population. and it's at times uncomfortable. This is not a neighborhood that's gentrified and may never be. The Tenderloin, in particular, I think because of the SROs, may never be and we are at peace with that in the sense that it forces us to engage with the city that has a set of challenges that it has to overcome.
Well, as long as the VCs have made peace with it . . .
When Swisher asked the four white men about the need for diversity, Matt Cohler, the former Facebook exec turned investor, said the homogeneity of his general partners was a reflection of the tech industry:
The lack of diversity at this table reflects the lack of diversity in the industry. We're a very small and very focused and very selective partnership. We would love nothing more than to bring that — because I do think we have a lot of diversity, for four white guys. Believe it or not, we're pretty different people, with a lot of common ground between us. Diversity with a shared core we think is the most powerful thing that exists, and we would love to add to that on multiple dimensions and would love nothing more than that.
In fact, it's the other way around—the money men control which founders get funded. But since he's loving it, ladies and people of color, please send your resumes to Benchmark at 1 Edgy Neighborhood Lane.
To contact the author of this post, please email firstname.lastname@example.com.


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In the latest online poll of our Information about information project you told us that you'd like an answer to this question. We asked Seth Lloyd, an expert on information at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and here is an answer. We also bring you two related articles from FQXi who are our partners on this project. Happy reading!
Something called quantum field theory has been hugely successful in describing the fundamental forces and particles. But what exactly is it? This series of accessible articles traces the history of quantum field theory, from its inception at the beginning of the twentieth century to the tantalising questions that are still open today. It's a story of pain and triumph, hardship and success.
Is it cold outside? Yes! The fire warm? Yes! Snow on its way? Yes! Do we love Christmas? YES! Celebrate the countdown with the Plus advent calendar featuring our favourite bits of maths.
Now, what's behind today's door...?
What is information and how does it shape our reality?
Science is much stranger than fiction. It suggests that our Universe may just be one of infinitely many which constantly pop in and out of existence like bubbles in a bubble bath. There may be many more dimensions that the three we can see and our Universe is riddled with black holes at whose centres time and space tear themselves apart. Intrigued? This ongoing project will bring you the latest research in physics with the help of researchers from Queen Mary University of London.
Space is the stage on which physics happens. It's unaffected by what happens inside it and it would still be there if everything in it disappeared. This is how we learn to think about space at school. But the idea is as novel as it is out-dated.
Are there parallel universes? In the latest online poll of our Science fiction, science fact project you told us that you'd like an answer to this question. So we spoke to physicists Adrian Kent and David Wallace to find out more. Happy reading!
What's that we hear? Sleigh bells! What's that we smell? Chestnuts roasting on an open fire! What can that mean? Christmas is coming! Celebrate the countdown with the Plus advent calendar featuring our favourite mathematical moments from 2012. Now, what's behind today's door...?


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Uzungöl Lake
The trip to Uzungöl (Long Lake) is the second most popular excursion out of Trabzon, after Sumela. Were it not for the mosques, you could be in Switzerland. The scenic lake, at just under 1100m, has a bazaar district around its outlet and is best seen by renting a mountain bike from one of the teashops.
Uzungöl makes an ideal base for rambles southeast up to the nearby peaks of Ziyaret (3111m) and Halizden (3376m), with a chain of glacier lakes at the base of the latter. It's a very long day's hike there and back – though you can go partway by car to save time – so take a tent and food for two days if at all possible.
The eastern Black Sea
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Manage DownBy Anne Field
Trends: Management
For Kamalesh Dwivedi, being a successful CIO in these days of tightening budgets and recession jitters is part technology and part chemistry. Dwivedi, the CIO of $3.3 billion equipment maker ADC Telecommunications Inc., was able to convince execs at the Minnetonka, Minn.-based company to give him a 40 percent increase in his technology budget this yeareven though corporate beancounters practically everywhere else are giving CIOs less for new projects. How did he do it?
Dwivedi knows how to build cloutand wield itinside the corporation. It's a skill that's more important than ever for CIOs faced with economic uncertainty and increased in-house rivalry for new resources. The funding squeeze is real: Corporations are expected to increase tech spending by just 5 percent to 6 percent this yearnearly half the previously projected 9 percent, according to a recent Merrill Lynch survey of 50 top U.S. and 20 European companies. "We see a growing need to better justify technology investments in pretty much every company we work with," says software consultant Barry Johnson of Plymouth, Minn.-based Dynamic Information Systems.
Trouble is, even when CIOs can make a solid case for the business payoff of their bids, they often fall short in the political skills needed to sell their ideas to those who count most inside the company.
At the same time that resources are becoming scarce, CIOs also have to contend with a Net-wired environment in which their technology initiatives, by their very nature as information networks, are ever-more intertwined with the interests of other managers. The implications are huge: CIOs must simultaneously gain favor with mid-level managers and underlings who matter, and do a better job educating top managers about the business payoff of new technologies. "Geekspeak doesn't cut it anymore," says management guru Gary Hamel, author of Leading the Revolution, in which he promotes the need for people to lead change inside their companies on all levels. "CIOs need to know the technology and possess the vision for how it will impact the companyand then be able to sell it to those holding the pursestrings. It's a tall order, and many CIOs aren't up to it."
For those who are, the payoffs can be sweet. Dwivedi, for his part, has mastered the art of the hard and soft sell: He's won the green light on four successive years of five-star IT projects, including a massive, three-year effort to install a corporatewide intranet that ties together everything from human resources to manufacturing, part of an effort to support ADC's ambitious acquisition strategy. Dwivedi cites a relentless sales campaign to push every new technology initiative under his purview. "We are constantly selling, marketing and lobbying," he says. "It never stops, especially now."
The message: CIOs need to be able to manage up, down and sideways in order to get the money and influence they need and to avoid getting sidelined in the networked corporation. For many CIOs, that means learning whole new relationship skills to becomeand remaineffective. Says Andrew Rudin, a partner with Eisner Information Solutions in New York City: "The CIO has moved from a technical to a political position. It's a whole new ball game."
Follow the Money
Follow the Money
Managing up, though, requires more than high-level schmoozing. Harvey Enns, assistant professor of business at the University of Dayton School of Business Administration, recently asked 69 CIOs how they became skilled at wielding influence in their companies. Enns found that one of the most effective tactics they used was what Enns calls rational persuasionpresenting a logical case for the bottom-line payoff of a project. "Otherwise, executives argue that the initiative will take the company in the wrong direction and dismiss it," Enns says.
Six months ago, for example, Steve Brown, CIO of Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., an $11.4 billion healthcare provider, embarked on an effort to win senior management approval for an ambitious Web-based distance-learning program for the company's more than 25,000 nurses. To sell the plan to top managers at a time when they were examining new IT projects more rigorously than ever, Brown made the case that the system would dramatically reduce turnover among nurses and increase patient satisfactionand he provided numbers demonstrating what those improvements would mean to the bottom line. It worked, despite management's tougher attitude. "Without quantifiable objectives, your proposals won't survive," says Tom Mangan, global managing partner of enterprise technology solutions for Andersen Consulting in Atlanta.
It also doesn't hurt to tell a few stories to demonstrate the potential impact of a new technology initiative. When Tenet Healthcare's Brown sought to convince management to build a Web site to give consumers access to information and resources about the company and medical issues, he didn't have many hard numbers at his fingertips to justify the projectjust a good hunch. So he borrowed a page from the marketing department's focus group methodology and set up interviews and workshops with customers. From those, he was able to gather real-life anecdotes and insights about what customers would want to see from such a systemand why it would matter to them. Later, when pitching his proposal to corporate beancounters, Brown was able to help them see how the proposed system could help real-life customers.
To strengthen his case, Brown also researched what the company's top rivals were already doing for customers with CRM technology, and the extra effort won the day. "You have to do whatever it takes to get people to understand what you're trying to accomplish," Brown says.
But just relying on a formal presentation, no matter how air-tight, is still no guarantee of success. What happens behind the scenes is also something that needs to be choreographed. Approval requires not only building ownership across many functions but also getting a buy-in from key players before anyone even walks through the door of the conference room.
Last spring, Mark Zahorik, CIO of Dallas-based Rapp Collins, a direct-marketing company, became convinced the firm's key Dallas unit had to embark on an ambitious effort to rewrite the marketing databases used by clients. The idea was to create a modular design so that certain components could be re-used for many clients, instead of designing a different database for each project. It was a $750,000 proposition, just when it seemed that new business was starting to dwindle. Zahorik, however, felt he could make the case for the improvements: They would reduce cost and the time it took to get information to clients.
Zahorik didn't wait until the formal meeting to make his move. Instead, he immediately targeted sub-managers who would be most likely to influence the project and met informally with each of them. Then, when he was sure he had won them to his side, Zahorik arranged for a real presentation to the higher-upsthe CEO, CFO and COO. He knew he was ready for prime time because in his trial runs, each sub-manager had become so engaged in Zahorik's proposal that they tried to take the discussion to the next step.
"I wanted to be positive that all those heads would nod yes when the time came," Zahorik says. Sure enough, the committee approved the project. Says Andersen's Mangan: "Failure to win a buy-in from other top managers can be fatal, even with a clear mandate from the CEO."
Consider the new CIO of a major publishing firm, hired last fall by the CEO to build a system tying 26 business units, most of them recent acquisitions, into one centralized unit. It was a $150 million project that would take five years to complete. Convinced he had a clear go-ahead from the top, however, the CIO never bothered to make his case to anyone else in the executive suite. Then, when ad revenues started drying up, the company was forced to announce layoffsand the board began looking with a more critical eye at the initiative. The result: With few allies to back him up, the project was put on hold indefinitely. Now, "all he can do is manage the status quo, which is a mess," says Mangan. "And eventually the board will hold him responsible for failing to address the problem."
For CIOs, Knapp says, the opportunity and need exists to educate top management about how such systems can cut costs and boost revenues. But to do that well, CIOs need to know how to identify the business people inside the company who can make a differenceand then learn how to speak their language. At the board level, "they want to hear, short and sweet, what an idea will do for the business, what it will mean for opening up new markets and what the competition is doing," says Rudin of Eisner Information Solutions. "They don't want a lot of technical detail."
Imagination and creativity are also required, along with the metrics. When Dwivedi first tried to win approval for his e-commerce initiative, for example, he was turned down. So he directed his team to place clear plastic piggy banks in strategic locations throughout the company's headquarters, with notes attached asking passersby to donate money to pay for e-commerce. A month later, ADC's executive committee reexamined the project and approved it, noting Dwivedi's collection campaign. Says Dwivedi: "I launched a campaign to display my faith and passion in the vision of e-commerce, and it succeeded. You have to have a clear vision of where you want to take a system over the next three to five years. Then, you need to engage in selling that vision in a way that captures the imagination of the CEO, CFO and COO."
Initiatives also have to be in sync with what business units need, and that means it's also important to manage down: to use those who work below you as your scouts on in-house trends that may influence or alter your initiatives.
Andrew Bartles of Giga Information Group, an IT advisory firm in Cambridge, Mass., says it's a good idea to meet regularly with mid-level managers and to institute a system whereby members of the IT staff "act as the eyes and ears of the CIO," he says. Ulrich Seif, CIO of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based National Semiconductor Corp., for example, has his direct reports sit in on weekly staff meetings for finance, human resources, marketing and sales, and manufacturing "so they can spot trends early on," he says. Last fall, his sales and marketing representatives reported an interesting find to Seif's weekly IT staff meeting: Marketing felt that the distribution of semiconductors had become more global and that the company lacked the internal processes needed to keep pace with industry trends. So Seif and his team linked up with marketing to develop a "globalization of distribution" initiative.
The goal: By linking up everyone in the company's supply chain, the system would allow users to see everything from the status of orders to sales levels of specific products across facilities in 120 countriesand then decide, for example, whether or not to speed up or slow down production. Ultimately, the proposal was championed by the senior vice president of marketing, who made the final presentation to the executive staff in October. It was approved.
Others take a more informal approach. ADC's Dwivedi directs a team of 30 IT managers to mingle constantly with their counterparts in other departments, talking up certain projects and looking for input. It's an easy task, since each IT manager works in the same location as the tasks he or she is assigned to perform. The program manager for e-commerce, for example, sits alongside customer service representatives. Whenever they discover anything that could affect a particular effort, Dwivedi's people report that information back to their boss.
Enlisting Eyes and Ears
Enlisting Eyes and Ears
Two years ago, thanks to such input, Dwivedi modified an e-commerce proposal to focus it more on marketing, communications and customer servicedesigning a system to help customers get information on the status of an order, for example. With such an emphasis, Dwivedi was able to make a case that the initiative would help boost customer satisfaction and lead to repeat sales.
It also helps to think smaller. Focus IT efforts on a few critical projects at a time. Otherwise, "you're fighting the war on too many fronts," says Bob DeRodes, CIO of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and CEO of subsidiary Delta Technology. This is especially true during a time of uncertain resources. Says Johnson of Dynamic Information Systems: "We were seeing a trend toward 'anything goes' and almost a mystique surrounding IT investments. But now the economy has forced IT to get on their game and become more efficient."
DeRodes ought to know. Last summer, he met with virtually every senior vice president and vice president throughout the company to discuss what role IT could play in their strategies. From that, his team distilled what DeRodes calls important "big ideas"maximizing revenues, for example. Then, instead of deploying his programmers to spend most of their time modifying existing systems or making incremental improvements, he focused their efforts on those ideas, one at a time. Last fall, he won approval from Delta Technology's board of directors for the first initiative, to rework the company's ticket pricing and distribution channel, increasing revenues and lowering distribution costs as a result. Now he's trying to get the go-ahead for the next move, a system to overhaul maintenance operations. If approved, that projecta $100 million effort likely to take at least two yearswill unfold in several phases.
Developing Metrics
and Trust">
Developing Metricsand Trust
It also doesn't hurt to develop a set of metrics for measuring progress and keeping peers regularly updated about results. "Good CIOs spend maybe 40 percent of their time communicating upward about technology and how it's impacting the business," says Rod Hall, vice president of consulting for Compass America, an IT consulting firm in Oakbrook, Ill. He points to a CIO who, six months ago, put together a two-page list of projects, including an overview of cost reductions that have resulted from implementations. The CIO goes over it once a month at an hour-long meeting with senior management. So far, he hasn't pushed for any major new initiatives but, according to Hall, he has won the confidence of top management.
Still, no matter how great a CIO's influence on others' opinions, sometimes the best tactic is to step backand to do so before someone else forces the issue. If the economy continues to flatten, Delta's DeRodes, for one, plans to hold a meeting with his board to invite suggestions on what to slow down or stop.
In fact, such a move might even prove a worthwhile strategyand a reliefto some CIOs. "I've heard many CIOs say they're glad to have the chance to slow down and digest what they've done so far," says Hall. "They've been operating at such a frantic pace until now."
Anne Field is a Pelham, N.Y.-based writer who covers management and business trends. Her work has appeared in a variety of business magazines and Web publications, including Business Week, Fast Company, Fsb.com and iSource. Comments on this story can be sent to firstname.lastname@example.com.
Manage Up
Manage Up
How should you sell your project to key decision makers?
Cite the project's potential bottom-line payoff
Communicate your progress to higher-ups
Don't talk details, talk strategy
Get buy-in from other managers
Manage Down
Manage Down
How do you get the rest of your company behind you?
Meet one-on-one and listen
Weave suggestions and criticisms into your proposals
Seek out technology innovators
Involve IT staff in business unit meetings


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A model in front of Linder's "The Migration of Symbols," Duratrans-on-lightbox
Alfonso Montiel, Christie Allardyce, Jason Ziegler
Chuck Steelman, Toni Munoz-Hunt
Ariel Saldivar, Jessica Olsson-Nowitzki
Kandis Hutchinson, Gina Ginsburg, Bill Hutchinson
Kandis Hutchinson, Gina Ginsburg, Bill Hutchinson
Susie Straubmueller, Logan Waller
Leave it to handbag designer Susie Straubmueller to find the perfect amalgamation of fashion and art by launching her latest collection amid Brit artist Linder's scantily clad women at the Goss-Michael Foundation. With skin both on bags and the female form as the theme, handbags were displayed on the heads and arms of stark-white mannequins, as well as live models in all-white ensembes. Admiring the python and croc pieces were guests such as Christie Allardyce, Gina Ginsburg, Toni Munoz-Hunt, Kandis Hutchinson (carrying her own lipstick red Straubmueller clutch), Jessica Olsson-Nowitzki, Ariel Saldivar, Logan Waller and more.Photography by Jonathan Zizzo
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In a rare example where 3D has the potential to actually be something more than a headache-inducing gimmick, researchers at the Japan Science and Technology Agency have developed the world's first scanning electron microscope capable of capturing a 3D images in real time.
Creating microscopic 3D images with an electron microscope isn't a new idea, but previous techniques required separate images to be taken after the electron gun was shifted to account for the view from each eye. So it was far from real time. This new technique, however, uses an electromagnetic 'lens' that's able to slightly slant the electron beam when powered on, instantly creating left and right eye parallax images.
The only tradeoff is that the images produced have a slightly lower resolution than those created with traditional electron microscope imaging techniques. But having the ability to examine cells or other micro-organisms in 3D, in real-time, could give scientists an opportunity to observe their behaviors in a unique way and gain further insights into how they function. So the tradeoff in resolution may not necessarily be a bad thing. [Tech-On!]


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Player Profile
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49ers Hope Chris Borland Can Fill Void Sunday NightFew 49er fans know the name Chris Borland. This will change Sunday Night as he will be asked to fill in for Patrick WIllis and help contain the Denver Broncos offense.
Matt Flynn Hopes His NFL Travels End In OaklandFans of the Oakland Raiders know the phrase "quarterback competition" almost more than any other in the English language. That is no different for the 2013 season, but Matt Flynn hopes that the competition ends his well-traveled career and ends with him.
Finally A Starter, Lance Moore Is Dancing It Up For The New Orleans SaintsLance Moore is one of those players that understands what it means to pay your dues in the world of professional football. Now, after eight years in the league, he is going to be a starting wide received for the New Orleans Saints, and it is totally deserved.
Stevan Ridley Has Fought Through Crowds To Be The Patriots' Featured BackSteven Ridley always knew that he was talented and had the drive to be a star in the NFL. He knew it wouldn't be easy though, and his path to being a starter for the New England Patriots was a long road with a lot of others standing in his way.
Kendall Hunter Is Part Of the Best One-Two Punch In The LeagueWhen the 49ers drafted Kendall Hunter in the 4th round of the 2011 draft, they got a player who is trusted carrying the ball when Frank Gore is not on the field. This is a lot of trust to give a player who is just in his 2nd year. Hunter has continued to improve each week and is poised to take over the full time job when Frank Gore eventually calls it quits.
Richard Seymour's Career Journey Has Him Leading The Raiders' DefenseRichard Seymour has seen a lot during his long time in the NFL, but now he sees a lot of younger players looking up to him for advice and leadership.
Shane Lechler: The Unsung Hero Of The Oakland RaidersIf someone asked you to name the top five quarterbacks of all-time, you'd get many different answers. If asked the top five NFL punters, you might get some confused looks. But despite not showing up in box scores, Shane Lechler has made a great case for being one of those elite men who can give his team an advantage when it comes to field position.
Colin Kaepernick: A Glimpse Into the FutureColin Keapernick made his presence felt in last week's win over the New York Jets. He size and speed put him in the same conversation with Cam Newton and Tim Tebow, but he is still far from earning a starting role in this league. He is on the right team with the right coach and will have a chance to show what he is made of eventually.
Carson Palmer Is Coming Of Age As Leader Of The Oakland RaidersCarson Palmer almost had his career cut short by an unmovable president that was not willing to compromise on a deal. With that situation finally settled, Palmer has moved on to Oakland and is flourishing as leader of the Raiders.
Kyle Williams Has ResiliencyThe man known for his two fumbles on punt returners in last years NFC Championship Game has returned this season to prove that he is able to contribute at the NFL level. Throughout his entire life he has had to work hard and earn his spot and after a great preseason is a bright spot on a team that is constantly looking for their next play maker.
Sebastian Janikowski: The MVP Kicker Of The Oakland RaidersOakland Raiders kicker Sebastian Janikowski was the 17th overall pick in the first round of the 2000 NFL Draft. He is one a four players in NFL history to make a 63-yard field goal.
Vernon Davis Is A Superstar And A Role ModelVernon Davis has always been gifted, but until recently he had a "me first" attitude that was holding him back on the field. Thanks to the help of former coach Mike Singletary, Davis has matured into a role model in the community and has continued to flourish on the field. He had a record-breaking postseason last year and will play a huge role in the team's future success.
Marcel Reece: A Versatile And Fast Fullback For Your Oakland RaidersA profile of Raiders fullback Marcel Reece, his history with the Raiders and noted highlights with the team and collegiately.
Michael Crabtree Awakes From His NapMichael Crabtree enters the 2012 season with a big question mark over his head. He has had his good moments and his bad moments, due to what appeared to be a lack of motivation. With the addition of depth at his position the fire under him has been lit and it will be interesting to see how he performs for the rest of the year.
Raiders' Darren McFadden: The All-Purpose Running BackProfile of Raiders running back Darren McFadden and why he his success will determine if the team can make its return to the playoffs for the first time since 2002.


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Author Notes: This recipe was inspired by Ana Sortun's Egyptian Spiced Carrot Puree Recipe from her cookbook Spice. I make that recipe every year for Thanksgiving and it's always a hit and well-worth the three recipes involved to make it! This is a simplified, parred-down homey version, without the elaborate spice mixtures, homemade harissa, and dukkah. The tomatoes and vinegar give the carrots a great tang, while complimenting the smokiness of the paprika. Making this today was such a welcome break from studying for my anatomy final!
Quick note: feel free to make adjustments to spices and vinegar at the end. My paprika was VERY smokey and so I didn't need much. I didn't want it too spicy either, but you could definitely add more cayenne! —student epicure
Serves: 2
pound carrots, peeled and cut into 2-3 inch chunks
cup sun-dried tomatoes
tablespoons good olive oil (the kind you'd want to use in a salad)
teaspoon smoked sweet paprika
teaspoon ground cumin
dashes cayenne pepper
teaspoon red wine vinegar
- Place carrots in a small pot and add just enough water to barely cover them. Boil on medium/high heat partially covered until a fork easily slips through one of the thicker chunks (about 30 minutes). Drain, reserving the water, and return to pot. Mash carrots with a potato masher, but don't be too thorough about it — some texture is good.
- Meanwhile, soak sun-dried tomatoes in boiling carrot water (there should be about 1/3 of a cup left — if there is not, plain boiling water is fine too) for about 10 minutes. Place tomatoes and water in a blender with olive oil, paprika, cumin, and cayenne pepper. Puree until smooth, scraping down the sides of the blender. If tomatoes are too thick to blend, add another teaspoon or two of water.
- Scrape the tomato blend into the pot with the carrots and stir until thoroughly combined. Add vinegar and season with salt and fresh ground pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.


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- January to March: Holiday in the Philippines to escape the winter.
- April to May: Mornings walking the track in the leisure centre, afternoons pottering around the house.
- June to October: Mornings walking in the park, afternoons cooking and gardening for Mom, working on cars in the garage for Dad.
- November and December: Home renovation for Dad, general cleaning insanity for Mom.
Anyway, Dad's really good at it. He's ripped down drywall, re-insulated the walls and now the house is much warmer (at least, the parts he has finished are) and the floors are nicely done. And I have to hand it to him: his finish is really nice. No seams, all level, no streaky paint. Nice.
Now that they've finished re-doing their bedroom, the carpet is gone and has been replaced with laminate. My mom is one of these people who is perpetually cold, so I decided that it would be nice to make her a mat for the floor on her side of the bed, so that she could step out onto something warm before she puts her slippers on.
I dithered about what kind of yarn to use for it, and settled on wool. At last year's Olds Fibre Festival, I picked up four skeins of some metal grey wool from one of the vendors. They were a good price, about $4.30 a skein, but a bit coarse for next-to-skin wear. I was a little stumped about what to use them for, but they were perfect for this project: sturdy and solid, unlikely to pill, yet comfy.
I worked it in crochet basketweave, which was perfect for this yarn, a kind of DK weight wool. It was a good, mindless project, but I have to admit: it got reeeaallyy boring towards the end. How boring? Well, here's a list of things I found to do instead of working on this mat:
- cleaning out my bookmarked favourites and organizing my queue on Ravelry
- cleaning my mom's kitchen
- washing the dishes
- cleaning the bathroom
- playing fetch with an unresponsive dog named Rascal
And guess who I found checking it out after I lifted it to vacuum the floor?
I'm happy with it, and Mom was too. It's a little wonky because my tension changed about halfway through the project (I finally started to relax, I guess). I don't think she realized I was going to give it to her until I finished it. And I got it just in time, since we're leaving tomorrow. It was a nice, easy project, but yeah... kinda boring.
So, last night, I cast on for Alisa Daly's Red Emperor Shawl with the Rocky Mountain Sundance Sock I bought last spring in Canmore. Beautiful lace, intricate and delicate...
... and fricking difficult after an easy project like that mat. I've been counting and re-counting stitches for hours now. Who knew it was so hard to count to six?
It's probably just as well I'm doing a more difficult project. I need to get the ol' brain back into gear in time to go back to work. A week and a half off has made it a little weak and flabbby...
..among other things. Ahem. The diet starts next week!


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Discover for free which first names would suit you or your baby !
Meaning of name Ayane
Etymology : From Japanese (aya) "colour", (aya) "design" or (aya) "kimono design" combined with (ne) "sound".
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Origin : Japanese
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Gender : girl
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Who are they?
Ayane and Haniyya are well worth knowing, but one must be able to tame them first... Shy, wary, secretive and reserved, they feel like fishes out of water in society. They possess a discreet charm, and are capable of giving much of themselves once they feel affinity and trust. Simple, natural and genuine - especially where their feelings are concerned, they require reassurance in the form of proof of others´ affection. Their attitude is direct and frank although they can sometimes lack spontaneity and adaptability, their evolution being rather slow. Their inner lives are much richer than their material lives and they are more or less cerebrally dominated meaning that they are inclined to meditation as well as ponderings of an intellectual and metaphysical nature. With the karmic 4 and 7, there is only one alternative; either they are completely rational, to the point of being hostile, sarcastic and critical of faith of any kind, or conversely, they cultivate their intuition and feel impelled to explore religion, esotericism and the big philosophical questions... Nevertheless, Ayane and Haniyya ´s progress could be hindered by a dysfunctional family environment or by conflict between the karmic 3 (the L and the C in their first name) and 4. In this case they are likely to be overly preoccupied with details or deviate from their initial trajectory. However this could be the perfect opportunity for them to develop their creativity. The family context therefore has great influence on their early lives, and immersed in an artistic environment, they are likely to be tempted to continue on this path. As children, Ayane and Haniyya are anxious to please and be loved in return. Their parents can trust them completely, no problems there. The fact that they are somewhat different from other children could perturb them or even present them with a real problem until they learn to value this difference and realize that it also makes them quite special indeed. Their upbringing should therefore be liberal and the channels of communication kept wide open.
What do they like?
Ayane and Haniyya appreciate intimacy and the sweet security of their homes. They dream of a house in the country, tucked away in some remote corner where they could live peacefully, especially since they aren´t afraid of solitude. They are strongly attracted to all that is odd, heterodox or original, which goes some way towards explaining the feeling of being an outsider that they sometimes have. Their romantic lives are naturally also rather complicated. They often feel as though they are misunderstood, however they don´t do anything to change this state of affairs, and often find themselves in absurd situations. Strict with themselves and others, not very demonstrative and quite stern at times, they would prefer to remain single than be disappointed in love... but perhaps they expect too much from a relationship?
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What do they do?
With the karmic 4 they could have one of two antagonistic attitudes towards their career. Either they invest themselves totally in their work, possibly to the detriment of their affective lives; or their professional aspirations get pushed into the background to allow them to fully focus on their home and family lives, which can be more dull and characterized by routine. Possible occupations are those in connection with the land or the natural sciences, management positions, economy, esotericism or the social sciences.
Discover others girls first names : Aya Ayaka Ayako
*To note: :
It sometimes happens that two different first names have the same meaning. This has nothing surprising: both first names have the same figures of numerology. It is as in astrology: two persons belonging to the same sign present the same characteristic...
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Test the compatibility of your names to know if your love relation is lucky to succeed. Friendship, love or passion?
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Your Name Horoscope !
Thanks to the numerology, we propose you daily a horoscope personalized for your first name. Love, money , Shape: discover what waits for you for today. In Bonus every day find your daily lucky figure .. Horoscope of the first names
Love :Couples: Harmony will once again reign between the two of you. Singles: Make the most of your own company, you are unlikely to meet "the one" today.
Money :Today is a perfect day to clarify your financial objectives.
Health:You're lacking in calcium and vitamin D Ayane . Get enough sunshine and eat plenty of brocolli to keep your bones healthy!
Your Lucky number : 49


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Uh-oh. We're saving less againOctober 29, 2012: 12:38 PM ET
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Paul R. La Monica. Other than Time Warner, the parent of CNNMoney, and Abbott Laboratories, La Monica does not own positions in any individual stocks.
Today's personal income report may not get much attention for a lot of reasons. If a piece of government data falls in a forest and nobody's around because they're bracing for Hurricane Sandy, does it make a sound?
But investors and consumers should not completely ignore the latest figures for September on consumer spending and saving. Personal expenditures rose 0.8% last month, well ahead of the 0.4% increase in personal income. As a result, the savings rate fell to 3.3% from 3.7% in August. This is the third consecutive month of declines in the savings rate. As recently as June, the savings rate was 4.4%.
That is not a good sign. It seems to indicate that consumers are tapping into savings more in order to spend. That could provide a short-lived boost to the economy. But at what cost?
Even though the economy has been puttering along at a slug's pace for a few years now, one positive for the long-term health of the nation is that consumers have been cutting back on debt. Or so we thought. If the era of thrift and frugality is already over and consumers are now depleting their savings accounts in order to spend again, we risk getting in a similar type of credit-induced mess as we did leading up to the Great Recession.
Paul Dales of Capital Economics wrote Monday morning that "September's US personal income and spending data confirm that households were only able to boost consumption in the third quarter by dipping into their savings." But Dales sees a bright spot ahead, if you want to call it that. He predicts that "faced with the prospect of major tax hikes in the New Year ... [consumers] will soon become more cautious.
In other words, the looming fiscal cliff will force Americans to start saving more again. But when will that happen? In January?
Related: Tighten up your holiday spending
Many retailers are staffing up for the holidays in anticipation of strong fourth-quarter sales. And consumers may deplete their savings for the next three months before reality sets in. At that point, they'll be faced with the bills from their shopping sprees.
With the job market still relatively weak, it's hard to imagine that incomes are going to rise sharply. As long as people are spending more than they take in, that could be a recipe for disaster.
Jim O'Sullivan, chief U.S. economist with High Frequency Economics, pointed out in a report Monday that real disposable income was up a mere 0.8% for all of the third quarter.
"While real spending finished Q3 strongly, still-weaker income data will keep alive doubts about sustainability," he wrote.
Related: Storm supplies flying off the shelves
Consumers on the East Coast may also be spending aggressively this week on necessities due to Hurricane Sandy. It will be interesting to see if Wal-Mart (WMT), Target (TGT) and Costco (COST), as well as supermarket chains Kroger (KR) and Safeway (SWY), will report big sales for October thanks to a panic-induced rush this weekend on milk, bottled water and batteries.
For consumers who are being forced to buy more groceries now, it seems that unless they want to tell their kids that Sandy is the Grinch that Stole Christmas, they're likely going to have to tap into savings even further and bust out those credit cards to keep spending.
So let's hope that history doesn't repeat itself and consumers do start saving more again in 2013.


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One hundred firms make up AdvisorOne's 2012 Top Wealth Managers, as measured by assets under management per client, with data as of 12/31/11.
Here we present a profile of the crème de la crème of the Top Wealth Managers—those 10 firms that topped the list in in our 2012 survey.
View the list of all 280 firms in our 2012 Top Wealth Managers survey.
According to Steve Braverman, managing director and cofounder of Pathstone Family Office LLC, even though Pathstone itself is fairly new—formally announced just 2½ years ago—the principals have worked together, and with some clients, for years longer than that.
Pathstone is "internally multidisciplined to provide fully a integrated family office" and made up of 30 employees who serve 34 client families with an average $100 million balance sheet net worth. (In the Top Wealth Managers survey, as of Dec. 31, 2011, Pathstone reported it had 26 staffers.) Directors head such areas as tax, insurance, financial reporting, philanthropy and accounting, and seek to provide each client family with its own customized family office.
"All families are different," he says, and despite some commonalities, each family has different critical needs. As a result, the firm classifies itself as a "single-family office for multiple families" and the principals who make up Pathstone regard the firm as a way to best serve "client families we've been working with for as long as 10 years, if not longer."
'An Accounting Firm Stapled to an RIA'
Partly as a result of the events of 2008, says Braverman, and partly as the "UHNW community has come to better understand the role that institutions, banks and others play in wealth management," the business has grown substantially.
"We found many families becoming increasingly interested in independent advisors," he says, "and specifically those who have formulated themselves as family offices." Pathstone has designed itself around being "internally multidisciplined" so that it can provide a fully integrated family office to its clients.
He explains further: "We've made the conscious decision to internally staff the multiple disciplines that those families most appropriate for our service would have chosen, should they wanted to create their own family office." The firm not only provides a multiplicity of services, it does so in a way to "create economies of scale" and benefit its clients "without diluting the service experience."
As a result, he says, "We look like an accounting firm stapled to an RIA—going the extra mile to integrate the level of expertise" necessary to oblige clients. "Those families most successful with us," says Braverman, "are those that recognize that marrying those disciplines together on a permanent basis generally allows for the best decisionmaking, problem solving and forward-thinking advocacy for the types of families we serve."
Growth and Adaptability
The team that started out at 19 professionals has grown to 30, and has seen its client base grow organically as well. While further growth is planned, Pathstone has only just begun to consider acquisitions.
Being a relatively new firm has its advantages, says Braverman, adding that Pathstone has "enjoyed being a new organization able to more easily adapt and adopt new technology and processes." Client meetings are conducted on iPads, rather than "handing out multitudes of paper in an environment where the market is volatile." Technology, as might be expected for such a firm, is a "major factor," particularly because of its client base. More timely data, managed and manipulated more quickly and efficiently by "taking the best advantage of what the tech world has to offer," is appreciated by a client base that's pretty heavy into technology itself.
"So many clients are heavily entrepreneurial in nature," says Braverman, "that they're on the move more. As a result, it's hard to catch them behind a desk, so technology has given the firm the means to deliver information to them wherever and whenever they need it, whenever they have time to access it."
Because Pathstone incorporates so many aspects of clients' financial lives into its functions, it doesn't have to ask questions about what a family might want to do with its money or how it might prefer to handle a business or charitable question. "We are in possession of the answers, rather than the questions," says Braverman, so if a client wants to make an unplanned major acquisition, the firm can tell him if it's possible and/or adjust other aspects of his finances so that it can happen.
Ownership From Within
Pathstone is "employee-owned," with new employees "mentored through a growth process to be future partners." In addition, there is a protocol in place, Braverman explains, to acquire ownership interests from the founders.
Succession planning is set up with the multigenerational nature of client families in mind. "When a family makes the buying decision to become the client of a multifamily office," says Braverman, "what they're really saying is, 'Here's all my money forever,' because what they recognize is that they have attained a level of wealth greater than they will need to consume in their lifetime." For that reason, he says, the firm has to be prepared to serve the family beyond the current generation and plan for its own longevity.
Along those lines, he says that maintaining the culture of the firm, with client service ideals intact, is a prominent concern. Future leaders of the firm have to be selected to be culturally aligned with the ideals that drive present leaders. To this end, when looking for new candidates, the firm seeks out those who look at the whole picture, whether on the accounting side—with a focus on complex families—or on the advisory side, with a focus on multigenerational financial planning with complex asset allocation.
For more on the 2012 Top Wealth Managers, please visit our home page.
For information on reprints of this profile and other 2012 Top Wealth Managers content, we invite you to visit our reprints partner, PARS International.


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A classic ghost face design plated with platinum and adorned luxurious zicorn gems. From YVMIN's The Stranger collection, an invitation to a world of mystical power. Sold as a pair.
Size: 5cm/ 2"
Material: Brass plated 18k platinum, zicorn, natural pearls
Care Instruction: Wipe clean after every use to avoid erosion. Avoid contact with perfume (alcohol) and other detergents.
Designer: YVMIN is an acclaimed Beijing based jewelry design studio known for its innovative take on body-decoration.
Due to the current COVID-19 situation, all shipping might experience 1-5 days delay. Thank you for your understanding and patience!
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We are now offering in-store pick up service everyday after 3pm. The pick-up option is available at the check out section. Please leave us a note or contact firstname.lastname@example.com for your desired pick up date & time.
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International shipping is available via DHL Express Worldwide (3-6 business days).
Customs Policy (PLEASE READ):There are duty and import taxes that are not included in the total at checkout, are owed by the recipient, and are collected at time of delivery. The taxes are calculated by the customs agency of the destination country, and are beyond our control. You can calculate the costs by contacting your local carrier/customs office. **If the recipient refuses delivery of their order due to a customs charge, their package will be considered abandoned and disposed of by the shipping carrier and their order will not be eligible for a refund.****The customer is responsible for paying for shipping costs for returning any item(s). Shipping costs are non-refundable.****Once an order ships and is in transit, it is not possible to cancel the order.**
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In an effort to be more environmentally conscious, Chop Suey Club is reusing shipping packaging. ☺


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WASHINGTON (AP) — The force-feeding of terror suspects at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, runs counter to international standards, medical ethics and the practices at American prisons, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Wednesday in pressing the Pentagon to establish a more humane treatment.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who traveled to Guantanamo earlier this month, wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that she opposes the force-feeding of prisoners who have been on a hunger strike to protest their conditions and indefinite confinement.
As of Wednesday, 104 of the 166 prisoners at the U.S. detention facility were on hunger strike and 44 were being fed to prevent dangerous weight loss. One of the men was hospitalized for observation but did not have a life-threatening condition, said Army Lt. Col. Samuel House, a spokesman for the detention center on the U.S. base in Cuba.
"Hunger strikes are a long-known form of non-violent protest aimed at bringing attention to a cause, rather than an attempt of suicide," Feinstein wrote. "I believe that the current approach raises very important ethical questions and complicates the difficult situation regarding the continued indefinite detention at Guantanamo."
Feinstein said that during her June 7 visit to the installation with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, they were briefed on the Pentagon policies on handling prisoners on hunger strikes. Since then, a review by committee staff found significant differences between how the Pentagon force-feeds detainees at Guantanamo and how it is done by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
She said the U.S. prison system has several safeguards in place that do not exist at Guantanamo.
At Guantanamo, "all detainees being force-fed — regardless of their level of cooperation — are placed in chairs where they are forcibly restrained. The visual impression is one of restraint: of arms, legs, and body. Further, at Guantanamo Bay, detainees are fed twice a day in this manner, potentially over a substantial period of time."
After their trip, Feinstein and McCain issued a statement saying they favor closing the detention facility and moving the prisoners to other locations.
The defense bill approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee last week includes a provision that allows the temporary transfer of terror suspects to a Defense Department medical facility in the United States to prevent the death or significant imminent harm to a prisoner's health.
However, the full Senate is not expected to consider the bill until the fall and lawmakers are likely to try to change the provision.
Associated Press writer Ben Fox at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba contributed to this report.


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Two opposing forces have claimed to speak for the Tunisian people in the run-up to the country's first free elections for a constituent assembly today.
Last week, thousands of angry salafists -- radical Muslims -- marched through the streets of the capital, Tunis, with many in the crowd shouting: "The people want an Islamic state."
A few days later, a smaller, better-dressed crowd of perhaps 2,000 people walked down Mohamed V boulevard in Tunis shouting: "The people want a civic state."
Both slogans were a play of words on "the people want the fall of the regime," which became the slogan of the Tunisian revolution and then a rallying cry for protesters across the Arab world.
Tunisia's elections, more than nine months after the country toppled its dictator of 23 years, Zine El Abedine Ben Ali, are a litmus test for the Arab Spring.
[ Video is no longer available. ]
Tunisia was the first Arab country to topple its dictator, and it is now also the first to put democracy into practice.
"Tunisia is holding what looks so far like the first free democratic elections in the Arab world, not counting Iraq where elections were held only after a US invasion," says Issandr Al-Amrani, a Moroccan-American political analyst who runs the well-respected website The Arabist from Cairo and is in Tunis for today's vote.
"But Tunisia is on the periphery of the Arab world, so it remains to be seen what effect free elections here will have on other Arab countries like Egypt", he adds.
Here come the Islamists
If the opinion polls are to be believed, Tunisia may also become the first of the Arab Spring countries to vote in an Islamic party.
Nahda (Awakening), Tunisia's equivalent of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, is expected to get anywhere from 22 to 30 percent of the vote according to various opinion polls.
In a majority voting system this would give Nahda a clear victory, which is why Tunisia has opted for a proportional voting system. But as the biggest political party, Nahda will undoubtedly put its stamp on the Tunisian political landscape.
Nahda's leader, Rached Ghannouchi, has sought to reassure Tunisians and the world about his party's intentions. Women's rights will be guaranteed, Mr. Ghannouchi says, and there are no plans to impose an alcohol ban on Tunisia's tourism sector, which provided 350,000 jobs, or 12 percent of the workforce, before the revolution.
"The political debate has forced Nahda to change its tone considerably," says Al-Amrani. "They say they are a democratic party. For now we have no choice but to take their word for it."
A violent face of Islam
But in the past couple weeks, Tunisians have been confronted with a much more violent face of Islam.
The Oct. 14 demonstration by the salafists was prompted by anger over the airing of the animated film Persepolis by a Tunisian TV channel, Nessma.
Persepolis is based on a graphic novel by French-Iranian Marjan Satrapi, which tells the story of the 1979 Iranian revolution through the eyes of a little girl.
What drew the ire of the salafists – and many ordinary Muslims as well – was a short scene in which the main character imagines a conversation with God, who is represented as an old man with a long beard. In Islam, all depictions of God are strictly forbidden.
Friday's march began peacefully, but it ended with an angry mob breaking into the house of Nessma TV's owner, Nabil Karoui, and attempting to set it on fire.
Mr. Karoui's public apology over the airing of Persepolis – he said he wasn't aware of the scene – has not succeeded in calming the salafists' anger.
"They have attacked God and the Tunisian people," said student Younes Omar during the demonstration. "Nessma TV should be shut down."
Mr. Omar is convinced that the airing of Persepolis was part of a plot by the West to anger Muslims and show them in a bad light. "They're hoping that violent Islamic demonstrations will make people think twice about voting for Nahda," he said. (Nessma TV is partly owned by Mediaset, the media company belonging to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.)
Deep suspicion over radical Islam
At the other side of the spectrum there is deep suspicion over the role that Nahda has played in demonstrations by radical Islamic militants.
"The salafists are nothing more than puppets in the hands of the Nahda party, and Rached Ghannouchi is the conductor," said Salwa Ben Sbaa during the secularists' Oct. 16 demonstration.
The Nessma TV episode was only the latest in a string of protests by Islamic radicals.
In February, salafists attacked Tunis' red light district. (Tunisia is the only country in the Arab world where prostitution is legal and prostitutes get monthly health checks by government doctors.)
On June 26, Islamists attacked a movie theater in Tunis to protest the showing of the movie 'Ni Allah Ni Maitre' (Neither God nor Master) by French-Tunisian director Nadia El Fani. The movie explores secularism in Tunisia; it's title has since been changed to 'Laïcité Inch'allah' (Secularism, if God wishes.)
In the coastal city of Sousse, protesters stormed the literature department of the university earlier this month after a female student was denied admittance because she refused to take off her niqab, a face-covering veil.
According to the Ministry of Religion around 900 mosques have been taken over by salafists since the revolution.
Many see the hand of Hizb el-Tahrir, a radical Islamic party that was denied recognition because it rejects democracy, behind the street protests.
How radical is Nahda, really?
But many observers also note that while Nahda denounces the use the violence, it often stands by the demands of the violent supporters. So while Ghannouchi has condemned the Oct. 14 march that turned violent, he has also said "all of Tunisia has been insulted by Nessma TV."
"Every time there is violence, Nahda condemns it, but not without adding that there are limits to freedom of expression," says Hamadi Redissi, a professor of political science at Tunis University and an expert of political Islam.
Mr. Redissi is keeping a weary eye on the outcome of Sunday's elections.
"These days, whenever my son calls me from abroad, he asks: 'So, dad, how are things in Tunistan?' " says Redissi. "The facts that more than 100 lawyers filed a complaint against Nessma TV owner Karoui, that the public prosecutor actually opened a criminal investigation against Nessma TV for defaming Islam, and that Karoui has publicly apologized all point in one direction: we are already giving up on freedom of expression in Tunisia."
"The biggest danger," says Redissi, "is that Nahda will score a big victory, but not a big enough one to allow it to push its agenda in the constituent assembly. In that case, they might just resort to the street to get what they want."
Today's elections may yet hold surprises.
For now, the Tunisians seem mostly baffled by the enormity of the choices put before them.
After decades of fake elections which dictator Zine El Abedine Ben Ali invariably won with 90 percent, they are suddenly confronted with a choice of more than 1,500 electoral lists and more than 100 parties. As a result, many people will not vote on Sunday: only 50 percent of eligible Tunisians have registered as voters.


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Top rated digital SLR cameras: August 2011
Here are the 10 best digital SLR cameras for August 2011
The digital SLR market is dominated by two players: Canon and Nikon. This is reflected in our August top rated list for digital cameras, with Pentax being the only other vendor getting a look in. We haven't included any Sony cameras in the list as we are yet to review any of the latest models, nor did we include the Olympus E-5, because we didn't rate it highly enough.
We haven't included Micro Four Thirds cameras or other types of mirror-less cameras in this list because they are not quite the same as a digital SLR -- we have a separate list for those cameras.
1 / 10
The Nikon D7000 is an excellent digital SLR camera for photography enthusiasts. There are two small flaws which stop it being perfect, but if you can work around these it is one of the most competent digital SLRs we've tested.
- Review Date:
- Reviewer:
- Manufacturer:
- 21st Dec., 2010
- Campbell Simpson
- Nikon
- Rating:
- Price:
- $ 1,599.95
- Pros:
- Excellent image quality (including at high ISOs), excellent quality 1080p video mode, plenty of professional-level features
- Cons:
- No histogram, exposure indicator or aperture adjustment during live view mode, some shooting controls are not laid out in an intuitive fashion


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Utica mother discusses departed son's gift, importance of organ donation WITH VIDEO
It was June 16, 2007, the day that changed Troy resident Lynn Parker's life forever. Her son, Tim, who had just graduated from Troy Athens High School, was involved in a serious car accident while driving two friends home from a party when he fell asleep at the wheel -- crossing five lanes of traffic and hitting a semi-cab.
Tim was the designated driver for his friends, and about a mile away from home when he fell asleep.
Lynn said her family received the phone call from Beaumont Health Center in Royal Oak at 3:22 a.m. -- it was the call that no parent ever wanted to receive.
Tim was unresponsive when his family arrived at the hospital.
"He had internal injuries to his liver and he had a broken neck and broken lower vertebrae," Lynn said. "He also was not breathing when they got to him ... as broken as he was on the inside, he only had a scratch on his lip."
Tim was the third oldest out of four children. Lynn described him as goofy, athletic and a soccer player and crafty -- especially in woodworking.
He also liked having his mom around, Lynn said, and he was never embarrassed by hanging out with her. He often went grocery shopping with her, even when he was older.
After several attempts to save his life in a two-day period, Tim was declared brain dead and the family made the decision that Tim would be an organ donor to the Gift of Life Michigan.
"He was a very giving person," Lynn said. "... I always talked to him about organ donation before and I told him it was a good idea. I didn't know why it was a good idea, but it was."
Lynn and Tim's family knew nothing about being a donor, but after giving consent to donate, the Gift of Life walked them through the entire process.
"(The donation) helped me through the week to know people would be getting a phone call that would change their lives," Lynn said. "... "It's more than just one person (that is affected by organ donation)."
Two days after being declared brain dead, the donation surgeries began.
"Gift of Life kept us informed about what was about to happen as they coordinated the different surgical teams coming in," Lynn said.
All together, Tim was able to donate seven organs including two lungs, kidney, heart, pancreas and liver, even though there was damage to it. Tim's favorite number was seven, and it was his soccer number.
"While I was losing my beautiful blond, blue-eyed boy, they were receiving a wonderful gift," Lynn said. "I was not bitter, but very thankful that they would be able to live because of the gift."
His corneas went to two different people and there has been at least 150 surgeries where his tissues have been used -- including Lynn's own neck.
In 2008, Lynn had a anterior cervical fusion surgery. When she found out donor tissues are kept frozen for an extended period, she worked with Gift of Life to track down Tim's donations.
She calls the piece of him in her neck her "Timbit."
"I think those people are pretty lucky because he was an athlete, and he had some good parts," Lynn said.
The fact Tim was a donor gave Lynn and her family a way to heal -- knowing that he would save many lives was huge. Today Lynn speaks to audiences on the importance of donating.
"I never thought how much of the donation would help me ... it gave me more of a purpose in promoting organ and tissue donation," Lynn said. "I found other people that lost children, I've made some really good friends ... it's given me a way to volunteer -- I work to make Tim proud of me and it's really been my passion."
Lynn said she was fortunate to meet Tim's left lung recipient, who lives in St. Paul, Minn. The recipient works hard to honor Tim's memory.
"(Recipients) know in order for them to have this life-saving transplant, some family had to lose a loved one," Lynn said. "They're excited for themselves ... but at the same time they're very aware of the sacrifice."
The Gift of Life Michigan and its partners are now offering a new specialty license plate and fund that will promote organ, eye and tissue donations just like Tim.
These license plates will be available to motorists after June 30, and will cost $35 more than a standard plate -- $10 will go to the new Thomas Daley Gift of Life Fund.
Rep. Kevin Daley lost his 23-year-old son in a tree-cutting accident about a year ago. His organs were donated and saved four lives.
The Thomas Daley Gift of Life Fund will promote organ, tissue and eye donation and the Michigan Organ Donor Registry.
Lynn said she cannot wait to get her new donor license plate with Tim's initials on it.
Contact Megan Semeraz at 248-745-4628 or email email@example.com or follow her on Twitter @MeganSemeraz


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Holiday Arrangement III Photo
Christmas Cards
Holiday Arrangement III Photo, Item# HC9741CP
Note: Sparkles are simulated and will not light up.
Holiday Arrangement III Photo, Item# HC9741CP
Note: Sparkles are simulated and will not light up.
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Your Custom Holiday Photo Postage Stamp
Christmas Photo Beverage Napkin
$0.84 - $1.49
Our holiday tea length card features your personal photo set in a festive design with multiple color options. A complementary design is printed on the back of the card. Spread the cheer of the season with this perfect greeting!
We recommend horizontally addressing the envelopes.
We recommend taking your assembled invitation to your local Post Office to confirm the correct postage prior to mailing.
You will be able to select the typestyle and ink colors to use for your personalized text during the design process. Start by clicking on the green 'Personalize and Continue' button. We recommend using the default typestyle and ink colors.
|Estimated Postage Required:
|$0.55 stamp - if other items are not added into the Envelope. Click here for additional postage information.
|Item Type:
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|4" x 9.25" (W x H)
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Oklahoma Hunter Education Certification Available Online Now
Obtaining an Oklahoma hunter education card is now just a few clicks away for most of the state's prospective hunters. In fact, about 3,600 hunters have already successfullycompleted the course online and have printed off their hunter education card.
The Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation is now offering the complete hunter education course online. The successful cyber-student will be able to print an Oklahoma hunter education card after completing the free course. To learn more or to take the online course, log on to www.wildlifedepartment.com/education/huntered.htm.
Most state residents who are 10 to 30 years of age are required to have a hunter education card to buy a license. Now, instead of attending a traditional eight-hour course in a classroom setting, prospective hunters can simply log on to the Wildlife Department's website to complete the course and test for a certificate.
"We've always tried to make classes convenient for our hunters," said Lance Meek, hunter education coordinator for the Wildlife Department. "But everything we've tried, there were still people left out. The online class is the most inclusive option we've ever offered."
Students can study the curriculum online in sections. They will not have to complete the entire course at once, which is usually the case in a classroom setting. Fifty test questions are scattered throughout the online course, and students must select the correct answers before being able to continue to the next section.
Also, this online course can be used by prospective hunters younger than 10 to satisfythe home study requirement they need to attend a traditional Hunter Education class.
Meek said the online course also offers young students the benefit of involving parents in learning about safe hunting.
"One of my favorite things about this online class is that I love the idea of the kids sitting down with their parents to work through the hunter safety curriculum," he said. "Parents or mentors are a hugely important part of the process of becoming a hunter."
The hunter education course is free, whether the student attends a classroom session or chooses the new online course. Anyone may take the online course by logging on to www.wildlifedepartment.com. The course was developed locally by Career Tech using curriculum from the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. Many of the test questions
relating to accidents and violations are based on real-life experiences reported by game wardens in the field.
"Now there are three options for hunter education certification," Meek said. "You can take the course online if you are 10 years old or older, you can take an eight-hour classroom course, or the home study that requires a four-hour class."
Youth under 10 years old still have the opportunity to attend a hunter education course before the deer gun season opener. On Nov. 10, classes are being held in communities across the state including Jenks, Stillwater, Ada, Kellyville, Burns Flat, Miami, Enid, Woodward, McAlester, Oklahoma City, Broken Bow and Sallisaw. Log on to wildlifedepartment.com for more information.
Exemptions from hunter education certification requirements in Oklahoma include anyone 31 or older, those honorably discharged or currently on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, and members of the National Guard. If an Oklahoma resident is exempt from taking hunter education in Oklahoma but needs a hunter education certification card to hunt in a different state, they can also complete the new course online for certification.


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But I've run into my first major gripe and it has nothing at all to do with gameplay.
EA uses authentication servers to validate your DLC. Which means that you must be logged in to play on a game with DLC active. Which means that if your save happens to have DLC content in it, then you can't play if you can't log in.
The problem is that the game says I'm logged in. I've even logged out and back in again, several times. Yet it still refuses to register the connection and won't let me play. I will repeat that: I cannot currently play a game that I spent seventy dollars on because of a server issue.
I'd say that this sort of problem is a herald of the future, but it's more like an annoyance of the present. Every company likes this sort of solution to their perceived problems. The downside is that they've apparently released a product that can suddenly not work.
In ten years will anyone be able to play a game from this generation?


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