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Teachers' Job Protections Debated in California Trial
When a teacher fails to meet even basic job duties yet remains in the classroom, is that the fault of byzantine laws governing teacher dismissal—or the failure of administrators to adhere to them?
That's just one of the questions that emerged here during the first week of testimony in a sweeping lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court that is challenging key dimensions of teachers' job protections and drawing national notice as a potential harbinger of similar challenges elsewhere.
In Vergara v. California, filed in May 2012 on behalf of nine students and their families, the plaintiffs argue that five statutes governing teacher tenure, dismissal, and seniority in the Golden State violate students' equal-protection rights by making it too difficult to rid schools of "grossly ineffective" teachers. The suit names Gov. Jerry Brown, state Superintendent Tom Torlakson, and the state education department and school board as defendants.
All California pupils are at risk, the plaintiffs contend, but minority students and those living in poverty are in reality the hardest hit.
"These statutes work together in a kind of vicious cycle. The system harms students every day," Theodore J. Boutrous, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said during his opening statement.
The trial is the latest volley in a nationwide effort to reshape the fundamentals of the teaching profession. All but a handful of states are working to institute teacher-evaluation systems that include consideration of student learning. Efforts to that end have been unsuccessful so far in California, one factor that prompted Students Matter, an advocacy group based in Menlo Park, Calif., to file the suit.
The state teachers' unions, which entered the suit as intervenors on the side of California in March of last year, have portrayed the case as an attempt by well-heeled noneducators to force controversial policies on the state.
Legal experts highlight the lawsuit's unusual tactic, which interprets access to good teaching—not merely funding and facilities—as part of the state constitutional right to an equitable education. That feature, coupled with the legal action's scope, makes it hard to predict the outcome, they say.
"I see this as a fascinating case that could only occur in California," said Perry A. Zirkel, a professor of educational leadership who specializes in school law at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. "Unlike an issue like desegregation, which is literally black and white, this one is a mixed bag. The measure of inequality is nowhere near as blatant. It's not what the courts are very good at."
L.A. Superintendent Testifies
The specific California laws in question require that tenure be given by March 15 of a teacher's second year of employment, mandate that layoffs be made in nearly all cases in the order of reverse seniority, and establish a dismissal process for tenured teachers consisting of multiple hearings and appeals.
Both the plaintiffs and defendants in Vergara v. California plan to call prominent researchers to weigh in on topics such as teacher evaluation.
Thomas Kane
The Harvard University professor is among several economists whose use of statistical methods has uncovered large differences in learning among students taught by more and less effective teachers.
Arun Ramanathan
Mr. Ramanathan is the director of the advocacy group Education Trust-West. The group sponsored a 2012 paper using Los Angeles test data to show that poor, Latino, and black students were more likely to receive the lowest-performing teachers than higher-income, white, and Asian peers.
Raj Chetty
The Harvard economics professor has studied how students taught by more effective teachers have higher lifetime wages and are more likely to attend college.
Linda Darling-Hammond
A Stanford University education professor and chairwoman of the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, Ms. Darling-Hammond opposes the use of test scores in teachers' evaluations and is a proponent of performance tests for aspiring teachers.
Jesse Rothstein
A professor of public policy and economics at the University of California, Berkeley, Mr. Rothstein has raised concerns about the stability of value-added measures and their appropriateness as a part of teacher evaluations.
Susan Moore Johnson
The Harvard professor has written extensively about peer-assistance and -review programs, which unions say help weak teachers improve.
The state teachers' unions argue that the laws are crucial to recruiting and retaining a skilled teaching force. They also have pointed out links between Students Matter—launched in 2011 by David Welch, a scientist in fiber optics and an entrepreneur—and groups with a history of battling teachers' unions.
The case is being heard by Judge Rolf M. Treu without a jury. Even if his ruling favors the plaintiffs, immediate changes in law seem unlikely, as an appeal is certain. And a ruling could take a while; with more than 150 potential witnesses yet to take the stand, the trial itself could last more than a month.
Last week's court sessions were dominated by direct and cross examinations of John E. Deasy, the superintendent of the 651,000-student Los Angeles Unified School District. Mr. Deasy's testimony outlined the heart of the plaintiffs' case: Despite its efforts, the district has been unable to rid its classrooms of all its ineffective teachers, he said.
The state's rules for granting tenure do not allow enough time for principals to assess probationary teachers, offer remediation, and make an informed decision about whether to grant them tenure, Mr. Deasy said. Seniority rules favor even ineffective teachers during layoffs, he argued. Dismissals must be approved by the school board, then by an independent panel, he noted, and then face possible appeals in the court system.
Such cases can cost an average of $250,000 to $450,000, Mr. Deasy testified.
"When you have a finite budget, you have to make decisions about whether to invest to create greater supports for students" or continue pressing for dismissals, he said.
Rhetoric and Reality
During cross-examination, lawyers representing the state of California and the state teachers' unions spent hours trying to chip away at such arguments, showing that in "well managed" districts, the statutes don't prevent administrators from dismissing ineffective teachers.
Mr. Deasy's management of the LAUSD was exhibit A, as the defense documented how fewer Los Angeles teachers have been automatically granted tenure under his watch. They noted that he has recommended for dismissal greater numbers of teachers—99 in 2011-12 and 57 in 2012-13, up from 10 in 2009-10, the year before he became the district's superintendent.
At times, such arguments highlighted stark differences between legal positions and the real world of hard-knuckle politics: The unions' largest affiliate, United Teachers Los Angeles, has strongly opposed Mr. Deasy's plans to toughen tenure and evaluation policies.
Still, Mr. Deasy's efforts show that "the statutes are enforceable," said Laura Juran, a lawyer for the California Teachers Association, in an interview last week. "Whether the local association complains that the implementation is aggressive is not really relevant."
The state's attorneys general, meanwhile, sought to show that the Los Angeles district had not discriminated against poor or minority students by assigning them to weaker teachers. But Mr. Deasy said the layoff procedures forced his hand on at least one occasion.
"An unfortunate byproduct of following the law is the discrimination of a youth having to be placed in front of an ineffective teacher," Mr. Deasy said.
None of the nine students who joined in the lawsuit had testified yet as of late last week, but declarations filed with the court sketch out the particulars of their complaints.
Kate Elliott, now a senior in high school, says one of her middle school teachers showed YouTube videos and gave coloring assignments rather than teach. Beatriz Vergara and her sister Elizabeth allegedly faced a series of poor teachers, including one who slept in class and one who referred to his Latino students by the racist term "cholos."
Disturbing though those examples may be, lawyers for the unions plan to make the case that the nine plaintiffs don't have standing to sue on an equal-protection basis. Six of them are not disadvantaged; three are not students of color; and two are in a district "pilot" school, where most teacher-protection rules don't apply, said James M. Finberg, a lawyer with the San Francisco-based firm Altshuler Berzon, which is representing the CTA and the California Federation of Teachers.
Moreover, he said, they will show that some of the teachers named as ineffective are not, having received teaching awards and other honors.
"Plaintiffs will not be able to identify any specific instance in which the challenged statutes caused them to be assigned to any specific ineffective teacher, let alone a grossly ineffective teacher," Mr. Finberg said in his opening statement.
'Grossly Ineffective'
The very definition of a "grossly ineffective" teacher is being contested.
The plaintiffs are basing their case in part on research showing that students' achievement varies greatly depending on the teachers to whom they're assigned. Those studies hinge on a statistical method known as "value added," which aims to isolate the effect of each teacher on his or her students' standardized-test scores.
But that method has proved controversial as states and districts, prodded by federal incentives, adopted it in systems for evaluating individual teachers.
Many teachers contend the measures aren't fair and affect teaching in unproductive ways. The value-added method was recently labeled "a sham" by Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the parent union of the California Federation of Teachers.
And Nimrod Elias, a California deputy attorney general, said in his opening statement that value-added measures were "methodologically flawed" and "limited in what they purport to show."
Both the plaintiffs and defendants in the Vergara trial have lined up competing expert witnesses to testify on whether the measures are valid—a fact that highlights the deep ideological divides on teacher quality even among scholarly researchers.
Raj Chetty, a Harvard University economics professor, took the stand late in the week to testify that students taught by teachers with low value-added scores were at risk of "substantial harm."
The scope of the Vergara lawsuit may be impressive, but that doesn't mean a victory will be easy, according to legal experts.
Prior education equity suits have addressed teacher quality only insofar as underfunding has harmed districts' ability to recruit and retain teachers, said David Sciarra, the executive director of the Newark, N.J.-based Education Law Center. Mr. Sciarra served as a counsel to the plaintiffs in New Jersey's landmark Abbott cases, which established mandatory pre-K programs, among other measures, for a subset of schools.
No previous cases, he said, have concluded that teacher work rules by themselves have impeded staffing to such an extent that they undermine a state's constitutional guarantee of an equitable education.
"It's at best a serious stretch," he said of the lawsuit. "You may not like the work rules, or think they need to be reformed or improved, but there's no evidence that terms and conditions of employment of teachers are the deciding factor that would lead to systemic deprivation of resources."
Experts also are divided on whether the case could set a precedent for action in other states. Students Matter and its clients have made no secret of high hopes for the lawsuit's outcome.
"Even though we're focused on California constitutional provisions, we think it could provide a model for challenging the laws of other states that have the same arbitrary, unequal effects on rights of students," Mr. Boutrous said.
But Mr. Zirkel of Lehigh University is less sure.
"Practically," he said, "even if the state language is the same, there are always interpretations of the language."
Vol. 33, Issue 20, Pages 1, 12-13Published in Print: February 5, 2014, as Teachers' Job Protections Debated as California Trial Gets Underway
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Hadoop is an open-source software framework for storing data and running applications on clusters of commodity hardware. It provides massive storage for any kind of data, enormous processing power and the ability to handle virtually limitless concurrent tasks or jobs.
Why is Hadoop important?
- Ability to store and process huge amounts of any kind of data, quickly. With data volumes and varieties constantly increasing, especially from social media and the Internet of Things (IoT), that's a key consideration.
- Computing power. Hadoop's distributed computing model processes big data fast. The more computing nodes you use, the more processing power you have.
- Fault tolerance. Data and application processing are protected against hardware failure. If a node goes down, jobs are automatically redirected to other nodes to make sure the distributed computing does not fail. Multiple copies of all data are stored automatically.
- Flexibility. Unlike traditional relational databases, you don't have to preprocess data before storing it. You can store as much data as you want and decide how to use it later. That includes unstructured data like text, images and videos.
- Low cost. The open-source framework is free and uses commodity hardware to store large quantities of data.
- Scalability. You can easily grow your system to handle more data simply by adding nodes. Little administration is required.

subset: commoncrawl


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The anemic economic recovery has been in the forefront of the news for several years now. Because the economy is so complicated and multifaceted, it's often difficult to grasp what's really occurring. Moreover, given all of the noise in this hotly contested political season, the spin machines have only added to the confusion. However, there are some good clues, if you know where to look. For example, why did former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan say that the yield on the 10-year Treasury is his most important signal? Why hasn't the massive amount of government stimulus been very stimulating? What role does fear play in the financial markets? Is a U.S. recession still a possibility? Will Greece default? Is Europe already in a recession? When Congress extended employment benefits, did they understand what would happen?
The ascent of stocks that began in late 2010 continued into 2011 and was bolstered by a tailwind from the Fed's QE2 program. However, at the end of July, after a group of European bankers met in Paris on July 6 to discuss the Greek debt crisis, the luster of stocks began to fade. In fact, by the time Aug. 1 rolled around, stocks were beginning their decent en route to a very ugly third quarter (see Figure 1, left). Of course, weak job growth in the United States for the previous two months didn't help the situation.
The bankers who met in Paris were hoping for a "controlled default" in the case of Greece, amid much speculation that a Greek default would trigger a global panic. However Pollyannaish they were—or political, as they were trying to avoid a Lehman-type fallout—many observers, including this author, continue to believe that a Greek default is inevitable.
A few years ago, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan commented that if he could only view one piece of data, it would be the yield on the 10-year Treasury. There is a finite amount of money in the world at a given time. Investors seek the best returns for a given level of risk. Then, when fear rises, the velocity of money increases. Also, when fear is on the rise, money seeks a safe haven and flows into the best house in a bad neighborhood, namely, U.S. Treasury bonds. Finally, as money flows into Treasuries (i.e., demand is elevated), its price rises and its yield falls. Thus, in 2011, increased fear led to a 30%-plus return on the long-term government bond.
Fear and Stocks
One of the most commonly accepted measures of fear is the VIX. The VIX, or Volatility Index, is based on data from the Chicago Board Options Exchange and measures the implied volatility of S&P 500 Index options. Whenever fear rises, put option activity increases; when fear subsides, more call options are purchased. As illustrated in Figure 2, (left), the VIX spiked in mid-2011 and stock volatility increased. Then, in December, the VIX began to fall and volatility abated. The increase in fear in late July and early August was primarily due to the aforementioned events in Europe and the U.S. labor market.
What role does fear play in stock performance over the long term? To examine this, let's refer to Figure 3, (left), which compares the St. Louis Fed's Financial Stress Index (STLFSI) to the S&P 500. The STLFSI uses 18 different weekly data series in three categories: interest rates, yield spreads and other indicators. To even the most casual observer, the near-mirror image is obvious. Although they are not exact opposites, with a correlation of -0.57 over this period, there is a very strong contrary trend.
Recession Reprieve?
Last October, I wrote an article on the possibility of the United States entering a double-dip recession. It included comments from Rich Yamarone, an economist with Bloomberg. His contention was that since WWII, whenever U.S. GDP on a year-over-year basis fell below 2%, a recession ensued. Since U.S. GDP was below this level, he believed that a recession was inevitable before year-end. Although his time line didn't materialize, the possibility is still quite real. To better understand his position, please refer to Figure 4, (above). This graph begins in January 1950 and plots the percentage change in real GDP from one year prior. The shaded bars are recessions and the red line crosses at the 2% point. In nearly every instance, when year-over-year real GDP fell below 2%, a recession followed. However, there were a couple of instances when it fell below, then rose above, then fell below the 2% line again before the recession occurred. In any event, there is a compelling argument to be made here. Currently, U.S. GDP is below 2%.
GDP and the Money Supply
Let's turn our attention to one of the key ingredients of economic policy: the money supply. The key is to maintain enough money in the system to foster economic growth. Too much and inflation will occur, and too little will result in a slowdown. Another key is to recognize that the money supply must also keep pace with the growth of the population. If the population grows at a faster pace than the money supply, there would be less capital per individual. To better understand the relationship between the money supply and GDP, please refer to Figure 5, (left). Beginning July 1, 1981, the growth of M2 and GDP has been fairly consistent, with a correlation of 0.95. Upon closer examination, you will notice how GDP was flat to slightly lower during the double-dip recession of the early '80s, the recession of 1990 and the post-tech-bubble recession of the early 2000s. Then, in 2008, the economy experienced a very severe contraction, while at the same time, the money supply increased dramatically. This "narrowing" indicates an excess supply of money in the system. In short, the Fed has infused the economy with trillions of dollars. Why then is the economy still struggling? Why hasn't the Keynesian two-step worked? Where is all this excess money?
Years ago, when the Fed needed to increase the money supply, the Treasury would fire up the printing press. Today, it's largely electronic as the Treasury can create billions of dollars out of thin air. Once the money is placed on the Fed's balance sheet, the Fed can transfer it to the 12 regional Fed banks. From there, commercial banks will go to the Fed window to get money to lend. Hence, money flows from the Treasury, to the Fed, to the Federal Reserve banks, to the commercial banks and finally to the consumer. However, if loan demand is weak, the commercial banks have little reason to step up to the Fed window. This is precisely the problem today. So where is this excess capital? As can be seen in Figure 6, (left), much of the excess money sits at the Federal Reserve banks.
The Fed's position to remedy the problem of low GDP has been to lower rates and increase the money supply. Normally, this is sufficient. However, due to the severity of the recent contraction, a policy of easy money has proven to be insufficient in stimulating economic growth. Why? Before the economy can grow, the consumer, who represents nearly 70% of GDP, must be willing to borrow and banks must be willing to lend. Beginning in the mid '90s, under threat of penalty, banks were strong-armed into relaxing their credit standards and lending to lower credit-worthy customers. In hindsight, lender compliance may have yielded a worse result than the penalties would have borne. The desire to expand the housing market to the less credit-worthy is a classic example of an unintended consequence of government regulation, one which resulted in an overheated economy and the biggest housing bubble and subsequent bust in U.S. history.
What will happen to this excess money? If the Fed was to take its eye off the ball and leave this excess money in the system, when consumers finally decide to borrow again, the economy would experience a period of such rapid growth that it would make the Roaring '20s look like a depression. Therefore, the Fed is faced with an important challenge. The Fed must manage the process of systematically removing a portion of this excess capital as loan activity increases. According to Mr. Yamarone, the Fed will be able to do this, and I have no reason for doubt. However, if he is wrong, then we would experience above-average inflation. Even so, at the present time the greater threat is deflation, which could lead to QE3.
The Conundrum of Unemployment
Unemployment has been over 7% for 37 months since December 2008. It has been higher than 8% for 35 months and at 8.5% or greater for 32 months. As most are aware, that's the "official" rate.
The unemployment rate is determined by dividing the number of job seekers by the total work force. Let's say the total work force was 100 and an additional 10 were looking for work. The unemployment rate would be 10%. Now let's assume five of the 10 became discouraged and stopped looking. The rate would fall to 5%. This past December, 200,000 jobs were added, but more people dropped out of the hunt and the rate fell. Hence, the real rate is higher than 8.5%.
What's particularly concerning is the average number of months of those who are unemployed (see Figure 7, left). Notice as the unemployment rate rose, the average number of months that people have been unemployed kept pace. Then, when the rate fell, the average number of months fell. Historically, these have tracked closely. That is until recently. While the unemployment rate has fallen, the duration of unemployment has risen. Why?
For 61 years, from January 1948 through January 2009 (the month before unemployment exceeded 8%), the average duration of unemployment was 13.6 months. From February 2009 through December 2011, it was 32.6 months. In December 2011 alone, the average length of time for the unemployed was three times greater than in the 61-year period mentioned earlier, now standing at 40.8 months. This is due to the extension of unemployment benefits. Is it possible that the extension is a disincentive to job seekers?
European Infection
The top five largest economies in Europe, as measured by GDP, are Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. From this group, only Germany has a GDP rate greater than 2% and an unemployment rate below 8%. In fact, Spain has the highest unemployment rate at over 20%, followed by Ireland and Portugal. Moreover, Europe's GDP is less than 2%, which is extremely weak.
We are all aware of the debt and potential contagion in the eurozone. What's also important to realize is that on March 22, 2012, Greece will have a substantial bond payment due. If they are unable to meet it, global risk will rise and stocks … well, let's just say you might not want a lot of exposure there.
The United States is the largest single economy at around $15 trillion. However, if you combine all the countries in Europe, their GDP is similar. Currently, Europe is near or perhaps already in recession. As an important trading partner, U.S. economic growth is greatly influenced by Europe's economy. The emerging market economies derive a great deal of their growth from exports, and with weak demand from Europe and the United States, these economies are slowing. In short, global demand, according to the IMF, will continue to slow.
The Search for Answers
We know unemployment is too high and GDP is too low. To find the solution, let's conduct a brief experiment. First, to lower the unemployment rate, businesses must hire. Let's assume you are a business owner; as a business owner, what would need to happen to make you hire? Answer: You would need more business. Let's assume you are a consumer. What could government do to put more money in your pocket? Answer: Reduce your tax burden. Therefore, the primary focus should not be on business, but on the consumer, since consumer spending is the largest component of GDP.
During the great debt build-up, along with consumers, businesses became over-levered. Since then, businesses have done well to reduce their debts. Although they harbor large cash balances, they have been reluctant to hire due to low consumer demand and uncertainty over recent government regulations. Comparatively, non-financial companies are in a stronger position than financials. Even though financials are much better positioned than they were in 2008, there is still a cloud overhead. What did the government do in the wake of the financial crisis? They added more regulation to financial companies. Instead of penalizing the financial companies, why not prosecute the offenders?
Before the economy can rebound, financial companies must heal because the money supply flows through them. The government has been focusing on banks with Dodd-Frank, but fails to see that any associated expenses will simply be passed on to the consumer.
During the 1907 bankers' panic, financier J.P. Morgan stepped in, pledging his own money and convincing bankers to do the same. This restored liquidity and confidence to the system. When the stock market crashed in 1929, Morgan had died, and although there was a weak attempt by a few in the private sector to rescue the ailing market, the effort failed. A few years later, FDR took a page out of Keynes' book and intervened with massive new government programs. During the Great Recession of 2008, when liquidity and confidence dried up, there was little interest from the private sector to step in, and the task fell to the federal government once again. In Europe, a great deal of money has already been allocated to Greece by their stronger neighbors, but that well may be drying up, along with their patience. Without additional support, Greece will default, fear will rise, the contagion will spread to Spain and Portugal, and financial markets will seize up once again, causing stock prices to plummet.
It's hard to say exactly how this will unfold. However, we know that Europe's problems will be around for many years. We can also be reasonably sure that politicians will take action based on what's politically expedient, and the problem will be extended until it can no longer exist.


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If 3,000 sounds like a lot of calories for one meal, that's because it is. Yet many holiday meals bust straight on through to the other side of a whole day's calories in one sitting.
Now for the good news: you can still enjoy your holiday traditions. Read on for some practical tips, and a few less than practical (but highly effective) ones.
First, let's take a closer look at exactly what we're talking about here.


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Filters: Author is McVernon, Jodie [Clear All Filters]
On the Role of CD8 T Cells in Determining Recovery Time from Influenza Virus Infection.. Frontiers in immunology. 7:611. Abstract. 2016.
Modelling cross-reactivity and memory in the cellular adaptive immune response to influenza infection in the host.. Journal of theoretical biology. 413:34-49. Abstract. 2017.
Interval Between Infections and Viral Hierarchy Are Determinants of Viral Interference Following Influenza Virus Infection in a Ferret Model.. The Journal of infectious diseases. Abstract. 2015.
Innate Immunity and the Inter-exposure Interval Determine the Dynamics of Secondary Influenza Virus Infection and Explain Observed Viral Hierarchies.. PLoS computational biology. 11(8):e1004334. Abstract. 2015.
Dynamical crises, multistability and the influence of the duration of immunity in a seasonally-forced model of disease transmission.. Theoretical biology & medical modelling. 11:43. Abstract. 2014.
The dynamical consequences of seasonal forcing, immune boosting and demographic change in a model of disease transmission.. Journal of theoretical biology. 361:124-32. Abstract. 2014.
Corrigendum to ''Modelling cross-reactivity and memory in the cellular adaptive immune response to influenza infection in the host'' [J.Theor. Biol. 413 (2017) 34-49].. Journal of theoretical biology. 419:394.. 2017.


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I am experimenting with test-driven development, and I found that I often come to a following situation:
- I write tests for some functionality X. Those tests fail.
- While trying to implement X, I see that I need to implement some feature Y in a lower layer of my code. So...
- I write tests for Y. Now both tests for X and Y fail.
Once I had 4 features in different layers of code being worked on at the same time, and I was losing my focus on what I am actually doing (too many tests failing at the same time).
I think I could solve this by putting more effort into planning my tasks even before I start writing tests. But in some cases I didn't know that I will need to go deeper, because e.g. I didn't know the API of lower layer very well.
What should I do in such cases? Does TDD have any recommendations?


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ENGG 173: Energy Utilization
Industrial societies are presently powered primarily by fossil fuels. Continuing to supply energy at the rate it is now used will be problematic, regardless of the mix of fossil fuels and alternatives that is used; yet western consumption patterns spreading through the rest of the world and other trends portend large increases in demand for energy services. Increased energy efficiency will be essential for meeting these challenges, both to reduce fossil-fuel consumption and to make significant reliance on alternatives feasible. Technical issues in efficient systems for energy utilization will be surveyed across major uses, with in-depth technical analysis of critical factors determining possible, practical, and economical efficiency improvements in both present technology and potential future developments. Areas addressed include lighting, motors and drive systems, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, transportation, appliances and electronics.


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PHILADELPHIA — For the second consecutive season, Creighton has drawn an ACC icon in the NCAA tournament, and once again, Steve Merfeld is the Blue Jays' lead scout for the matchup.
A former Hampton University head coach, Merfeld is in his second year as a Creighton assistant. He scouted North Carolina in last season's tournament, Duke this year.
The Blue Jays and Blue Devils clash Sunday here after Friday victories over Cincinnati and Albany, respectively.
"They're just talented at every spot," Merfeld said of Duke. "Teams that usually can put five guys on the floor that can score have given us problems in the past. If there's a guy we can play off of, we can scheme some things (defensively). … We're going to have to play at a really high level."
When the NCAA announces the tournament bracket, head coaches designate assistants to scout possible later-round opponents. Last year, Creighton head coach Greg McDermott assigned North Carolina to Merfeld, and sure enough, the Blue Jays and Tar Heels both advanced.
Carolina won the game 87-73 with all five starters scoring in double-figures. Creighton returns four starters from that team, the lone newcomer to the lineup sophomore point guard Austin Chatman.
Last Sunday, McDermott assigned Merfeld to scout Duke. He spent much of the week watching tape, and Friday afternoon he sat courtside as the Blue Devils defeated Albany 73-61. Creighton then defeated Cincinnati 67-63 behind 27 points and 11 rebounds by All-America forward Doug McDermott, the head coach's son.
"I thought we defended very well," Merfeld said of the Cincinnati win. "Obviously it will be a lot different game plan against Duke, but our guys have been able to adjust from one game to the next. …
"We won a game last year in the tournament (over Alabama). Our goal since the start of the season has been to go one game farther. It's within reach now. All that hard to prepare, and now you have to take advantage of the opportunity."
Creighton ranks first nationally in 3-point shooting (40.8) and second in overall field goal percentage (50.6). The 6-foot-8 McDermott and 6-7 Ethan Wragge give the Blue Jays two big men capable of shooting the three and stretching defenses.
The two combined to make 6-of-9 threes Friday.
"Their bigs are obviously very talented," Merfeld said of Duke's Mason Plumlee and Ryan Kelly. "But that's something we'll have to take advantage of, the perimeter jump shot. If we're making jump shots, we're awfully good."
Creighton (28-7) has never advanced more than one round in an NCAA tournament. Duke (28-5) has reached 11 Final Fours and won four national titles under Mike Krzyzewski.
"It's an awesome opportunity," said Merfeld, who coached Hampton to a 2001 NCAA upset of Iowa State. "The timing's good, with us leaving the Missouri Valley (Conference) and going to the Big East (next season). This is an opportunity to let everybody know how good we are. At the same time, obviously, we have great respect for Duke."
I can be reached at 247-4636 or by e-mail at email@example.com. Follow me at twitter.com/DavidTeelatDP
Here's a link to my Daily Press print columns.


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University Road,
+44 (0)28 9097 5250Visit Website
Waterford Institute of Technology
by AsIAm.ie - 28 August, 2018
Disability Service, Main Campus Cork Road, Waterford City, Co. Waterford, X91 K0
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by asiam_user - 22 August, 2018
National University of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM)
by asiam_user - 22 August, 2018
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI)
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Dublin Business School (DBS)
13/14 Aungier Street, Dublin 2, D02 WC04. firstname.lastname@example.com
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Monaghan Institute (MI)
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Dundalk Institute of Technology (DIT)
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Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LIT)
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Solas – Further Education & Training Authority
by asiam_user - 14 August, 2018
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Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT)
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Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT)
GMIT Mayo Campus, Westport Road, Castlebar, Co. Mayo, F23 X853. accessoffice@gmi
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Mary Immaculate College
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University of Limerick (UL)
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National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG)
Room AUC1004, First Floor, Áras Uí Chathaill, National University of Ireland G
Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT)
GMIT Galway Campus, Dublin Road, Galway, Co. Galway, H91 T8NW. accessoffice@gmit
Cork Institute of Technology (CIT)
Ground floor, Student Centre, Cork Institute of Technology, Rossa Avenue, Bishop
University College Cork (UCC)
South Lodge, University College Cork, College Road, Cork, Co. Cork. disabilitysu
Griffith College
South Circular Road, Merchants Quay, Dublin 8, DO8 VO4N email@example.com
University College Dublin (UCD)
CD Access & Lifelong Learning, Level One, James Joyce Library Building, Univ
Trinity College Dublin (TCD)
by asiam_user - 13 August, 2018
Room 2054, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2. firstname.lastname@example.com
Institute of Technology Tallaght (ITT)
Blessington Road, Tallaght, Dublin 24, D24 FKT9, firstname.lastname@example.com
Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB)
Blanchardstown Road North, Dublin 15, D15 YV78. email@example.com
Dublin Institute of Technology
Room G-012, Prefab 2, Dublin Institute of Technology, 163-167 Lower Rathmines Ro
Dublin City University (DCU)
Room CG28, Henry Grattan Building, Dublin City University Glasnevin Campus, Coll
South West College
South West College
1 Dublin Road, Enniskillen, BT74 6HQ email@example.com
Southern Regional College
Lisanally Building, Lisanally Lane, Armagh, BT61 7HF email@example.com
Southern Regional College
22 Castlewellan Road, Banbridge, BT32 4AY, email@example.com
South Eastern Regional College
South Eastern Regional College, Market Street, Downpatrick, BT30 6LZ firstname.lastname@example.com
North West Regional College
Northern Regional College
Belfast Metropolitan College
Room 62, Level 2, Titanic Quarter Campus, 7 Queens Road, Belfast, BT3 9DT, cild


text:
Personal Financial Planning Resources
The personal financial planning resources section within the AICPA site helps members to keep up with the latest planning strategies and trends in personal financial planning services so that they can practice competently and profitably.
Broadridge Advisor
Broadridge Advisor is a Web-Based business development, education and client communication tool that enables personal financial planning professionals to deliver current and concise advise to clients. Resources are continuously updated to reflect current legislation and industry trends.
All of the resources can be searched with a Google-like search engine and they are also organized by 17 life events and 10 financial goals. You can choose from any of the 3,000 resources to compile the presentations that uniquely fit your client's needs.


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Mayor's Office
Mayor Chris Beutler today said updating the City's pavement condition survey will provide important data on how to prioritize street repair projects. A specially equipped van from IMS Infrastructure Management Services is now surveying arterial and other major streets to help the City update its pavement management system to extend the life of City streets.
"Pavement is one of the City's largest infrastructure investments," Mayor Beutler said. "It's estimated that the cost of rebuilding pavement in Lincoln would be more than $1.5 billion. The pavement survey now under way helps us determine those areas where repairs now will prevent more costly reconstruction down the road. The goal of our pavement management system is to make the best use of our limited funding to keep our streets in good condition."
A complete survey of all Lincoln streets was conducted in 2005 by Applied Research Associates (ARA), which also updated the survey of major streets in 2008. Thomas Shafer, Design and Construction Manager for the Public Works and Utilities Department, said the City's pavement management system calls for updates of major streets about every three to four years, and full surveys of all streets about every ten years. The survey now under way will cover about 582 lane miles of major streets at a cost of cost about $193,650.
IMS began the survey January 25, and it is expected to take about three to four weeks to complete depending on weather. The process collects high-quality digital images of the pavement surface and measures the number and extent of defects. The van also records the extent of roughness and rutting along each street surface. The van is equipped with navigation and global positioning systems (GPS) to map each street section surveyed.
Once all of the digital images are processed for each pavement section in the street network, the information is entered into a pavement management software program designed for the City of Lincoln's unique combination of traffic, climate and paving materials. Analyzing the data and uploading it into the City's system will take about two to three months.
The city now has nearly 2,800 lane miles of streets. Shafer said the City plans to spend about $35 million on street construction this summer, and previous condition surveys have helped the City prioritize that work. Information on City street projects is available at lincoln.ne.gov (keyword: projects).


text:
Montegrappa, the maker of gold nibs and fountain pens for sophisticated Italian scribes, was founded in 1912 within sight of the river Brenta in Bassano del Grappa, an ancient town in the heart of the prosperous northeastern region of Italy. This northeastern part of Italy offered a premium pen maker exactly the workforce needed to produce the ultimate Italian writing instrument.
Montegrappa quickly became famous for products with a perfect blend of tasteful design and superb craftsmanship, which are still hallmarks of the brand today. Still made in the original factory, these are pens that are created and crafted, not produced.


text:
Sveum: Winning not that far off for Cubs
CHICAGO -- The Cubs had to watch the Braves and Pirates secure postseason berths in back-to-back games, and Chicago manager Dale Sveum says he hopes the young players can learn from the experience.
"Any time you're losing, you're not going to enjoy it," Sveum said Tuesday. "I don't care who you are, it's not very fun. You hope you have people who get tired of [losing], and you appreciate winning and how things can turn around, like the Pirates and the Nationals. That's what you want to produce.
"Obviously, the Pirates have done a nice job in the last three, four, five years in the Draft, and some of the trades. It's not that far off [for the Cubs]. That's the message you try to send. It happens pretty much every year in every sport."
The Cubs now have lost 90-plus games for the third straight year, the first time they've done so since 1960-62.
"The only way you break [that trend] is winning," Sveum said. "The bottom line is getting off to a good start and believing you can win baseball games."
Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo have been the focus of attention for their struggles at the plate, but Sveum said their years aren't as bad as it may seem.
"The thing that gets blown out of proportion is that these are the two guys getting talked about all the time," Sveum said. "Are they having really bad, bad years? No. Rizzo has [39] doubles, he's got [77 RBIs], he's got home runs in the 20s, and Castro has been swinging the bat a lot better. These guys just have to keep playing and build on the adversity they've gone through this year."
The reason Castro and Rizzo are in the spotlight is primarily because both young players received long-term contracts, which Sveum acknowledged. Castro's drop -- he was batting .241, well off his two All-Star seasons -- is just a matter of maturity.
"It's easy to explain [a bad year] when you've been around the game long enough and see plenty of stars have a tough year," Sveum said. "It's just the nature of the beast."


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Holidays Holidays
Namibia's Public Holidays Act, Act 26 of 1990 provides for 12 public holidays annually. If a public holiday falls on a Sunday the following Monday will be a public holiday, unless the Monday is already a public holiday. The following are public holidays in 2019 in Namibia:
|The following are public holidays in Namibia:
|1 January
|New Year's Day
|21 March
|Independence Day
|19 April
|Good Friday
|22 April
|Easter Monday
|1 May
|Worker's Day
|4 May
|Cassinga Day
|25 May
|Africa Day
|30 May
|Ascension Day
|26 August
|Heroes' Day
|10 December
|International Human's Right Day
|25 December
|Christmas Day
|26 December
|Family Day
The President may declare any day in a particular year as a public holiday by proclamation in the Government Gazette.


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Summary Report for:
39-3093.00 - Locker Room, Coatroom, and Dressing Room Attendants
Provide personal items to patrons or customers in locker rooms, dressing rooms, or coatrooms.
Sample of reported job titles: Athletic Equipment Manager, Coat Check Attendant, Coat Checker, Coat Room Attendant, Fitting Room Attendant, Ladies Locker Room Attendant, Locker Room Attendant, Locker Room Manager, Locker Room Supervisor, Spa Attendant
Tasks | Technology Skills | Tools Used | Knowledge | Skills | Abilities | Work Activities | Detailed Work Activities | Work Context | Job Zone | Education | Credentials | Interests | Work Styles | Work Values | Related Occupations | Wages & Employment | Job Openings | Additional Information
- Provide towels and sheets to clients in public baths, steam rooms, and restrooms.
- Assign dressing room facilities, locker space, or clothing containers to patrons of athletic or bathing establishments.
- Check supplies to ensure adequate availability, and order new supplies when necessary.
- Monitor patrons' facility use to ensure that rules and regulations are followed, and safety and order are maintained.
- Clean facilities such as floors or locker rooms.
- Answer customer inquiries or explain cost, availability, policies, and procedures of facilities.
- Refer guest problems or complaints to supervisors.
- Maintain a lost-and-found collection.
- Clean and polish footwear, using brushes, sponges, cleaning fluid, polishes, waxes, liquid or sole dressing, and daubers.
- Activate emergency action plans and administer first aid, as necessary.
- Procure beverages, food, and other items as requested.
- Collect soiled linen or clothing for laundering.
- Store personal possessions for patrons, issue claim checks for articles stored, and return articles on receipt of checks.
- Operate washing machines and dryers to clean soiled apparel and towels.
- Maintain inventories of clothing or uniforms, accessories, equipment, or linens.
- Attend to needs of athletic teams in clubhouses.
- Provide assistance to patrons by performing duties such as opening doors or carrying bags.
- Operate controls that regulate temperatures or room environments.
- Issue gym clothes, uniforms, towels, athletic equipment, and special athletic apparel.
- Provide or arrange for services such as clothes pressing, cleaning, or repair.
- Report and document safety hazards, potentially hazardous conditions, and unsafe practices and procedures.
- Stencil identifying information on equipment.
Technology Skills
- Data base user interface and query software — Data entry software
- Internet browser software — Web browser software
- Inventory management software — IntelliTrack DMS Check In-Out; Inventory tracking software; SportSoft Equipment Manager
- Office suite software — Microsoft Office
- Spreadsheet software — IBM Lotus 1-2-3; Microsoft Excel
- Word processing software — Microsoft Word
Hot Technology — a technology requirement frequently included in employer job postings.
Tools Used
- Automatic pool cleaner — Pool vacuums
- Brooms — Push brooms
- Clothes dryers — Industrial clothes dryers
- Desktop computers
- Dust mops
- Floor scrubbers — Floor scrubbing machines
- Laundry type washing machines — Light commercial washing machines; Washer extractors
- Personal computers
- Vacuum cleaners — Industrial vacuum cleaners
- Wet mops
- Customer and Personal Service — Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- English Language — Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Speaking — Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Active Listening — Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Service Orientation — Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness — Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speech Recognition — The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Oral Comprehension — The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Speech Clarity — The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Oral Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Work Activities
- Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships — Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
- Getting Information — Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
- Performing for or Working Directly with the Public — Performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving customers in restaurants and stores, and receiving clients or guests.
- Judging the Qualities of Things, Services, or People — Assessing the value, importance, or quality of things or people.
- Performing General Physical Activities — Performing physical activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling of materials.
- Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates — Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person.
- Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events — Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
Detailed Work Activities
- Clean fabrics or apparel.
- Distribute resources to patrons or employees.
- Assign resources or facilities to patrons or employees.
- Monitor availability of equipment or supplies.
- Administer first aid.
- Monitor patron activities to identify problems or potential problems.
- Clean facilities or work areas.
- Perform housekeeping duties.
- Handle luggage or other possessions for patrons.
- Explain regulations, policies, or procedures.
- Resolve customer complaints or problems.
- Respond to customer inquiries.
- Maintain supply or equipment inventories.
- Maintain facilities.
- Arrange services or reservations for patrons.
- Communicate with management or other staff to resolve problems.
- Prepare operational reports or records.
Find occupations related to multiple detailed work activities
Work Context
- Contact With Others — 90% responded "Constant contact with others."
- Indoors, Environmentally Controlled — 92% responded "Every day."
- Deal With External Customers — 63% responded "Extremely important."
- Face-to-Face Discussions — 80% responded "Every day."
- Spend Time Standing — 51% responded "Continually or almost continually."
- Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls — 56% responded "Continually or almost continually."
- Work With Work Group or Team — 58% responded "Extremely important."
- Freedom to Make Decisions — 42% responded "Limited freedom."
- Structured versus Unstructured Work — 47% responded "Limited freedom."
- Physical Proximity — 33% responded "Moderately close (at arm's length)."
- Telephone — 56% responded "Every day."
- Deal With Unpleasant or Angry People — 45% responded "Once a week or more but not every day."
- Spend Time Making Repetitive Motions — 37% responded "Less than half the time."
- Frequency of Decision Making — 31% responded "Once a week or more but not every day."
- Responsible for Others' Health and Safety — 34% responded "Very high responsibility."
- Importance of Being Exact or Accurate — 46% responded "Very important."
- Spend Time Walking and Running — 29% responded "Continually or almost continually."
- Time Pressure — 32% responded "Every day."
- Coordinate or Lead Others — 28% responded "Important."
- Responsibility for Outcomes and Results — 28% responded "High responsibility."
Job Zone
|Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed
|These occupations usually require a high school diploma.
|Related Experience
|Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.
|Job Training
|Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.
|Job Zone Examples
|These occupations often involve using your knowledge and skills to help others. Examples include orderlies, counter and rental clerks, customer service representatives, security guards, upholsterers, and tellers.
|SVP Range
|(4.0 to < 6.0)
Interest code: SEC Want to discover your interests? Take the O*NET Interest Profiler at My Next Move.
- Social — Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.
- Enterprising — Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
- Conventional — Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.
Work Styles
- Self Control — Job requires maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger, and avoiding aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations.
- Dependability — Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
- Cooperation — Job requires being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude.
- Attention to Detail — Job requires being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
- Integrity — Job requires being honest and ethical.
- Social Orientation — Job requires preferring to work with others rather than alone, and being personally connected with others on the job.
- Concern for Others — Job requires being sensitive to others' needs and feelings and being understanding and helpful on the job.
- Independence — Job requires developing one's own ways of doing things, guiding oneself with little or no supervision, and depending on oneself to get things done.
- Stress Tolerance — Job requires accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high stress situations.
- Adaptability/Flexibility — Job requires being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace.
- Initiative — Job requires a willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges.
- Achievement/Effort — Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.
- Persistence — Job requires persistence in the face of obstacles.
- Leadership — Job requires a willingness to lead, take charge, and offer opinions and direction.
Work Values
- Relationships — Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to provide service to others and work with co-workers in a friendly non-competitive environment. Corresponding needs are Co-workers, Moral Values and Social Service.
- Support — Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees. Corresponding needs are Company Policies, Supervision: Human Relations and Supervision: Technical.
- Independence — Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions. Corresponding needs are Creativity, Responsibility and Autonomy.
Related Occupations
Wages & Employment Trends
|Median wages (2019)
|$12.07 hourly, $25,110 annual
|State wages
|Local wages
|Employment (2018)
|18,500 employees
|Projected growth (2018-2028)
|Faster than average (7% to 10%)
|Projected job openings (2018-2028)
|State trends
|Top industries (2018)
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics 2019 wage data and 2018-2028 employment projections . "Projected growth" represents the estimated change in total employment over the projections period (2018-2028). "Projected job openings" represent openings due to growth and replacement.
Job Openings on the Web
Sources of Additional Information
Disclaimer: Sources are listed to provide additional information on related jobs, specialties, and/or industries. Links to non-DOL Internet sites are provided for your convenience and do not constitute an endorsement.


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From Green Right Now Reports
There are times it makes sense to make a single cup of coffee.
Like when it's just you who needs a brew. (Pardon the rhyme.) But those single-serve coffee machines that have swept the planet — you know the ones — are creating a mountain of plastic waste, a blizzard of tiny disposable cups, most of which cannot even be recycled.
At least someone's been thinking about this problem. The Suncana coffee brewer, available at Staples, other stores and online at BluTigres, can use biodegradable coffee packets. That's big.
Sign up with the BluTigres coffee club and they'll ship these more planet-friendly coffee packets on a schedule of your choosing.
It's a workaround we're glad has arrived.
Also, this month BluTigres, is giving away a coffeemaker to some lucky follower. You have to sign up for their newsletter by July 1. Yes, it's a marketing ploy to get your email address, and we're not necessarily advocating that you enter.
We are happy to report, however, about this eco-option for those of you in the market for a single-serve coffee machine/plan.
What about the coffee, you're wondering? Us too. These single-serve arrangements can taste just ghastly and often it's environmentally checked out.
We haven't tried the coffee produced by the Suncana. But it's noteworthy that one of the coffees sold by BluTigres is Seattle-based Zoka, an award-winning coffeemaker. Several of Zola's coffees are "Direct Trade" from Central American suppliers, and they donate back. We're not sure how that stacks up against coffees that are certified as Fair Trade — we think certification proves commitment.
But on balance, the Suncana machine, paired with Zoka's single-serve packets, will provide a more conscionable cup of joe. It certainly beats churning out plastic waste. It could even be Seattle's best.


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|Photographed by
|Ian Wilson on Tue 20th Nov, 2018 and uploaded on Sat 12th Jan, 2019 .
|A solitary bird found feeding along the high-tide line on the beach at Portland Roads.
|Canon 5Ds + 400 mm f/4 DO II + 1.4x III extender, hand-held.
Manual, spot metering, AI Servo spot AF, f/5.6, 1/320 sec, ISO 500.
Processed using DPP4 and PSE14 with Neat Image plug-in.
|Portland Roads, Queensland
|feeding/with prey, adult, non-breeding plumage/features
|You already have an outstanding request to download this image for non-commercial purposes. You may cancel this request by clicking on the button below and waiting for confirmation that your request has
been noted. When you have selected all the images
that you require, go to 'My Download Requests' (under Photo Gallery) and submit your request by clicking 'Edit/Submit' and filling out the details. You will be advised of the result by email.
Note that cookies MUST be enabled for this to work.
|You may request download of this image for non-commercial purposes.
A request that meets the usage rights of this image will be automatically approved;
a request that does not meet the usage rights will be refused, but may (at the Download Manager's discretion) be referred to the photographer.
The usage rights of this image are: Any non-commercial educational or conservation use by any requestor, excluding personal use. For further details of image usage rights,
see here.
Request the image by clicking on the button below and waiting for confirmation that your request has been noted.
When you have selected all the images that you require, go to 'My Download Requests' (under Photo Gallery) and submit your request by clicking 'Edit/Submit' and filling out the details. You will be advised of the result by email.
Note that cookies MUST be enabled for this to work.
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The Our People page, in the About Us section, contains email links to each of the committee members.


text:
Signs that Apple is working on a wearable gadget and software to track users' health data keep showing up.
The latest is a job listing posted by the Silicon Valley technology giant that seeks a physiologist to design and run user studies on "cardiovascular fitness & energy expenditure."
The posting, reported earlier on Thursday by the technology website 9to5mac, said the candidate must have a good understanding of physiological monitoring equipment, measurement techniques and how to interpret results.
The type of data that will be tracked and measured in the tests includes calories burned, metabolic rate and aerobic fitness levels, according to Apple's job listing.
Apple is under pressure from Wall Street to come out with new products in big new categories this year as growth from its main product, the iPhone, wanes. CEO Tim Cook has said that Apple is interested in wearable technology and analysts expect a smart watch from the company soon.
Speculation about an iWatch that monitors users' activities, health and fitness increased last week after it emerged that Apple executives met recently with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to discuss mobile medical applications.
Courtesy of USA Today


text: Resources Resources such as documents, research, data, and other tools related to the activities of the California Air Resources Board are available from this page. Use the following general categories or the search tool below. Resource DirectoriesExecutive OrdersPermits, Certifications, Verifications, and RegistrationsFormsDatabase ApplicationsResearchA-Z indexVapor RecoveryEducational Resources Keywords TopicCommercial Harbor Craft Community Air Protection IncentivesCommunity Air Protection Program Haagen-Smit Clean Air AwardsLow Carbon Transportation Investments and Air Quality Improvement ProgramLower-Emission School Bus ProgramOil and Natural Gas Production, Processing, and Storage On-Road MotorcyclesProtect California Air Act of 2003 - Senate Bill 288School BusesVapor Recovery(-)Vapor Recovery - OverpressureZero-Emission TransportationZero-Emission Vehicle ProgramFact SheetFormInformationLegal DocumentNotice(-)PresentationReportsResearchStudyVideo 1 results found for PresentationOverpressure - Workshop Presentations FeaturedTruckStop Diesel Truck InformationDriveClean Buying guide for clean and efficient vehiclesBreathe Well Air quality in your neighborhood


text:
These astronauts, Mike Massimino and Don Pettit, are a bit blasé about the view of the aurora from Earth. "One of the things that we've noticed," Massimino says, "is that when you see something, you get used to it in your daily life." But, he continues, when "you get to space, and you see the same type of phenomenon, it's a completely different experience, it's a completely different perspective, like the Earth's aurora."
I myself haven't quite gotten used to seeing aurorae here on Earth (having never seen them in person), but as Pettit describes them, and with the footage of them showcased in the video above, the impressiveness of that view from space is evident -- even over the Internet, on a computer screen.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to email@example.com.


text:
Seth Jones of Plano, Texas, is a 6-foot-3, 201-pound defenseman and quite possibly the best young American-born hockey player in the country. He was the captain of the USA Under-18 team that recently won gold at the World Championships in the Czech Republic. He's also the only player on that team who didn't commit to playing NCAA hockey. Everyone of his teammates (save for one undecided) will play D-I hockey, but Jones will instead go play for the WHL's Portland Winterhawks for a year while he awaits NHL Draft eligibility.
But the real kicker here is that Jones is the son of former NBAer Popeye Jones. Yes, the same Popeye Jones who played one unmemorable season in Denver, which was apparently enough for five-year-old Seth to fall in love with hockey. To that end, we can also thank Celtics management for trading Jones to Denver in August 1999 as part of a seven-player deal. (Also going to Denver in that trade: the late Dwayne Schintzius.)
Might we see Jones in the NHL one day? It seems all but certain, based on this scouting report:
[He] probably made the correct call in choosing Portland. Though he could probably benefit from a college weight program, it probably does him better to go out and dominate young kids in the WHL and play in a ton of games before heading to the NHL than it would for him to struggle with the more physical aspects of college hockey (and I think it's fair to say that an 18 year old, no matter how talented, would struggle physically playing against men). It's important to reiterate, though, that Jones would fare well regardless of the path he chose. By all accounts he is as smart and humble and hardworking as he is talented.
Now all he needs is a memorable nickname. Maybe Dad can help out.
[G: College Hockey Blog (1); A: Andrew Sharp (1), Bakes (1)]


text:
Sao Paulo, Brazil (CNN) -- Almost overnight, a patchwork of plastic tents appeared on an empty piece of land less than 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) from the World Cup stadium as a show of force from Sao Paulo's working poor.
In a matter of weeks, more than 3,000 families joined the squatters settlement known as the "People's Cup," hoping to use the global sporting event as a platform to pressure the government to provide low-income housing.
On a recent morning, Jucilene de Oliveira was working in the communal kitchen -- a lean-to made from plastic tarps and plywood -- preparing lunch for families in her quadrant.
She said her rent in Sao Paulo's East Zone nearly doubled when the stadium was being built. "We paid 700 reais ($314) on rent, then food and clothes, it was too much," she says.
She, her husband and four daughters now camp out in a small tent stacked with mattresses, hoping to persuade the government to build subsidized housing on the occupied land.
"We don't want anything for free, but we need something we can pay," said the young manicurist. "If we can pay 700 reais a month for rent, we could pay that in installments for a housing unit."
Rising rent
During the day, the tent city is a maze of mostly empty lean-tos. New arrivals show up to pitch tents and get themselves on the list of house seekers coordinated by the Homeless Workers Movement.
Sometimes it is an entire family living in a tent. In other tents, family members take turns in spending the night there.
Rents in the city have risen by double digits in recent years, far outpacing the increase in minimum wage, which is $360 a month in Sao Paulo. In the East Zone, a simple two-room apartment now costs around $300.
But it is hard to say whether the World Cup has had an impact on rents as the increases have been felt across the city, not just in the East Zone where the stadium was built.
At night, thousands of people pour into the settlement as families return from work and others show up for the nightly assembly. They tell us they won't even watch the World Cup now.
"I always liked the World Cup. I was Brazilian through and through," says one woman. "But this Cup and the stadium are making people angry."
Maria das Dores takes the stage to lead the group in a rally. "Let's hear it for quadrant G1," she shouts and is greeted by a cheer from the crowd.
Das Dores has been coordinating land invasions for the movement for eight years. She says the World Cup has done nothing for Brazil's lowest classes.
"The World Cup and the stadium here in the East Zone aren't going to leave the legacy that was expected," she says.
"The legacy is higher rents and pushing people further outside of the city to the peripheries."
Popular pressure
In the protests leading up to the games, The Homeless Workers Movement has become the biggest force out on the streets of Sao Paulo, with marches of more than 10,000. They lash out at the government for spending $11 billion on the World Cup instead of schools, hospitals and public housing.
All the pressure appears to have paid off.
The government said this week that it is drawing up plans to build low-income housing on the land occupied by the People's Cup and that details of the project will be made public this month.
But the families at the tent city say they're ready to march on the Sao Paulo stadium at a moment's notice if those guarantees fall through.
READ: Flipboard World Cup Glories magazine


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Welcome to the Hilltown Families Sustainability Bulletin Board, a place for community organizations, nonprofits and individuals to share all things sustainable in Western MA. Please feel encouraged to self post any of the following:
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Leah Letourneau ♦ Leah has always called Western Mass home and chose to stay in the area to attend Mount Holyoke College where she studied Environmental Studies and Politics. She currently works for The Center for Ecological Technology (CET), an environmental non-profit in Florence. She is also a graduate student at Elms College pursuing her Master of Arts in Teaching and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies for licensure as a Reading Specialist. She currently lives in Easthampton, MA, and is passionate about working to expand environmental education curricula in public schools. email@example.com
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ISTI's response to COVID-19
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Open House on Sunday, April 30, 2017 1:00PM - 4:00PM
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The Celtics are the most storied franchise in NBA history. The 17 banners hanging from the rafters attest to this. No other NBA franchise can match the rich history of the Celtics organization. 1981-1986 were very good years for the Celtics and for Celtics fans. In 1981, Larry Bird's second season, the Celtics won the championship. And with Kevin McHale and Robert Parish joining him, the Celtics dominated as they won again in 1984 and 1986.
On June 8, 1986, the Celtics beat the Houston Rockets in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. This 1986 team is considered by many to be one of the greatest teams ever assembled. The Big Three were at their peak and things were looking good for the Celtics to continue their domination as they owned the 2nd pick in the draft that season thanks to the trade of Gerald Henderson to Seattle. I remember being so excited about that draft. The Celtics had never had a pick that high as long as I was following them. A little more than a week after the Celtics won their 16th championship, they selected Maryland star Len Bias with the No. 2 overall pick in the draft.
I remember being so excited. Len Bias was an exciting player and the talk was that he could be even better than Michael Jordan. The sky was the limit. The Big 3 were getting older and Bias would come in and be able to contribute right away and then would be the anchor of the next championship. It was an exciting time to be a Celtics fan. They were champions once again and they had just drafted one of the most exciting young players ever to come out of college.
On the morning of June 19, less than 48 hours after he was introduced by NBA commissioner David Stern as the Celtics pick, Bias was dead of heart failure brought on by cocaine use. He was just 22 years old. At first it was only known that he died of a heart attack. But later as the investigation proceeded, there were reports of the cocaine use and that made his death seem almost surreal. Len Bias was religious and by all reports, a hard worker. Red Auerbach had vouched for his character as above reproach. No one thought he would have anything to do with drugs.
But the reality was that he celebrated his selection by the Celtics by using cocaine and it killed him. The basketball world would never get to see what he could do at the next level. He would be remembered only by what he had accomplished at Maryland, where he transformed himself from an athletic freshman who could do little more than dunk into one of the most explosive offensive players in Atlantic Coast Conference history.
Bias had spent hours working on that picture-perfect jumper and building that power-forward physique. By the time he was finished playing for Lefty Driesell at Maryland, Bias had become the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,149 points, a record that stood until 2002 when it was broken by Juan Dixon. Though we will never know what kind of player Len Bias might have been if he had he lived and played out a full career in the NBA, those who played against him in college and those who would have played a part in his life as a Celtic feel that he would have developed into one of the most dynamic NBA stars of his era, maybe in league history.
The Big Three were aging and the Celtics looked at Bias as the link to the future of the 30-year Celtics dynasty that began with Bill Russell in 1956 and continued to the glory days of the 80's culminating with the 16th championship in 1986. It was even felt that Bias could have been the rival that Michael Jordan never really found during his career. Bias was a better outside shooter than Jordan. He didn't handle the ball as well, but he was bigger and tougher and every bit as athletic, perhaps even more so.
As a rookie in Boston, Bias would have assumed the role of the team's sixth man, a much vaunted tradition in Boston. He would have provided young legs and instant offense off the bench to back up a starting lineup that featured Larry Bird, Kevin McHale and Robert Parish in the front court and Dennis Johnson and Danny Ainge in the back court. It is widely believed that had Bias lived he would have been able to prolong the careers of the Celtics Hall of Fame starting five and because he was so talented, he would have worked his way into the starting lineup before long, continuing the dominating play that people had come to expect from the Celtics.
As a Celtics fan, I have never gotten over this tragedy. I remember the elation I felt when I saw the Celtics make that pick. And I remember all too well the heartbreak of hearing the news that Bias had died. It's been 25 years since Len Bias died and not much is said these days about him because a new generation of Celtics fans don't remember the excitement of that draft and the shock of hearing the news of his death. But, every year as the draft nears, thoughts of Len Bias and the senseless tragedy that took his life always come back to haunt me. I have to admit that even now, whenever it gets close to the draft, or when I see videos of him in college, I get tears in my eyes, thinking of what might have been.
I recently read the book "Never Too Young to Die" by Lewis Cole that tells Len Bias' story, with an emphasis on the events surrounding his death. The book also takes a look at the epidemic of cocaine use at the time. The book is divided into three sections: a detailed account of the events leading to Bias's death, a description of the police investigation that followed, and the story of the trial of Brian Tribble, Bias's best friend who was accused of supplying the cocaine that took his life. I recommend this book to anyone who is still haunted by this tragedy as well as to those Celtics fans who are too young to remember.
I remember... and it still hurts even 25 years later.
9 Responses so far.
Eloquently written FL; just an awesome article. There's a reason his jersey is my picture on here. It still hurts like hell. Had Bias and Reggie lived, there's no doubt in my mind the 1991 Celtics would be NBA Champs. Probably a few other teams as well (1987 and 1988 come to mind).
So tragic, it changed everything in the NBA, and prevented the Celtics from still having a commanding lead in all time NBA championships.
i wonder who was chosen first in that draft.
FLCeltsFan says:
Thank you TB... Every year at draft time, Bias' death comes back to haunt me.
Rondo>me - Brad Daugherty was picked first by the Cavs.
I remember Larry was going to rookie camp that year too after Bias was picked. Would've been amazing.
I also own that book "Never Too Young to Die," it's a good read.
Brad D was choosen first just google 7 foot black guys who like Nascar!!!
Haha. Good one Anonymous!
Yo wtf?! I'm done with this site, ya'll keep copying my name! I've been on here for a long time too. But that's just fucked up.
You lost one of your long time followers today. Unfollowing on Twitter and deleting from Facebook.
peace y'all!
What's your FB and twitter Keith? I want to friend you.


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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Twitter Inc. will report second-quarter results after the market closes on Tuesday. Wall Street expects a surge in sales, but investors are more concerned with seeing signs of growth in the social-network's user base.
Here's what investors can expect:
Earnings: Twitter
Revenue: Twitter's revenue is expected to more than double to $283.4 million from $139.3 million in the year-ago quarter.
Stock reaction: Twitter shares were up 1.7% in late-afternoon trading on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the shares have fallen 9.5% since first-quarter results were released in late April, and are down 39% year-to-date, mainly due to investor worries that the company's user base isn't growing fast enough.
Meanwhile, the stock has gained nearly 50% since it went public on Nov. 7, 2013, at an initial public offering price of $26.
What to watch for: Twitter is reportedly planning to introduce new user metrics to show investors that it has a broad and growing reach even though its base is expanding at a slower rate.
This underscores the San Francisco-based social network's main challenge: Convincing Wall Street that it can create value even without robust growth in monthly active users. Twitter inevitably must wrestle with comparisons to social media giant Facebook
Last quarter, Twitter reported that it had 255 million monthly active users, which pales in comparison to Facebook, which just reported 1.3 billion monthly users in the second quarter.
Still, Twitter is considered a key player in the social networking market. In a note to clients, RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney reaffirmed an outperform rating on the stock, citing Twitter's "ability to become one of the Web's leading utilities," alongside Google
More must-read stories from MarketWatch:
Facebook says SEC has dropped inquiry into IPO


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Facebook: Social Reader Usage May Be Down, But Engagement Is Up
The media, forever a navel-gazing industry, worked itself into a fever earlier this week after evidence emerged that usage of Facebook's social reader apps is declining.
In an article designed to further dramatize The Washington Post's recent tension between its editorial and financial divisions, Jeff Bercovici at Forbes pulled up a chart from AppData illustrating a falloff in the number of monthly average users of the Washington Post Social Reader app.
John Hermann at Buzzfeed quickly pointed out that usage of social reader apps was down for many news publications, not just The Washington Post.
Why the dropoff? Herrman blames the apps themselves, which he calls annoying. He writes:
"Social Readers always seemed a little too share-y, even for Facebook; they felt more like the kind of cold, descriptive, invisible and yet mandatory services we're used to seeing from Google rather than genuinely new and useful tools for spreading information. And they feel, I don't know, kind of broken right now? My brain already associates those little blocks of auto-fed stories with second-class content. I mean, I know my friends didn't really mean to show to it to me. Why would I click? And god, why would I sign up for the thing that seems to have tricked its way into my timeline? It's an app that broadcasts Internet illiteracy for everyone to see."
I see his point — but Facebook doesn't. A spokesperson tells me that although the number of people using social reader apps has fallen at some publications, engagement levels are up as the company introduces new tools and adjusts its algorithms to display more relevant content to users.
"We're trying to get the right content in front of people, to up the signal to noise ratio," the spokesperson explained.
The Facebook representative added that although some apps have seen "short-term traffic swings," which is typical in the ongoing development of any online product, Facebook is committed to the long-term evolution of these apps "to create a good social news experience."
User numbers are also up for The Huffington Post's, MTV's and ESPN's apps, the spokesperson noted.
Social reader apps were first introduced in September. Through the apps, which are built on Facebook's Open Graph, publications like The Washington Post and The Guardian are able to serve users a mix of content based on the information they've shared with Facebook, including their interests, "likes" and stories that are trending among their friends. Those stories are displayed in the apps and make frequent appearances in the Newsfeed.
The numbers may be up for debate, but there was some surprising consensus among media critics — like Herrman, above — about the poor user experience offered by social reader apps. We're curious: Do you use any of these apps? What do you like or dislike about them?
Front page thumbnail courtesy of iStockphoto, -Oxford-


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I also can't get too outraged by the early skepticism that Hillary had a blood clot in her brain yet was also doing just great because those two reports don't seem to mesh. The latter certainly didn't match the expression of worry on her daughter Chelsea's face as she left the New York hospital where the secretary of state was admitted on Sunday.
And finally, it isn't as though Clinton has never shaded a fact in her 65 years; she's been rightly hailed for a remarkable tenure at the State Department, winning over many critics and probably even avoiding more of the blame for Benghazi than she should have. At this point, it's the Clinton fatigue that many felt at the end of her husband's presidency that's fatiguing to recall, and I hope the most admired woman in the world in 2012 does run for president again in 2016.
But without dragging the ancient White House travel office scandal or the Rose Law Firm into this century, she's still the same person who repeatedly described coming under fire on a runway in Bosnia. During her '08 campaign, she was eventually forced to apologize for saying, "I remember landing under sniper fire," in Tuzla back in 1996. "There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base." That never happened, though the greeting ceremony did.


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Once I had a yarn I liked, this project just danced off the needles!
All washed, blocked, and ready to pop into the mail.
Baby Bolero from One Skein by Leigh Radford
2 Balls Debbie Bliss Pure Cotton
Size 8 needles, plus a Size 9 circular for the ribbing
Mods: I changed the eyelets on the left side of the motif from k2tog to ssk to emphasize the holes, and I picked up the sleeves at the armholes and knit circularly down to the cuffs to avoid seams. Also, I couldn't pick up the specified number of stitches for the ribbing trim; I picked up what felt like a reasonable number (a lot, but less than specified). It just needs to be a multiple of 4. I would happily make this sweater again; it's quick and cute. When I knit it again, I may decrease the sleeves down more so that they're narrower at the cuff; these are cute, but wide.
A few more FO's: These are thank you gifts for some of the Day Old Pastries, my singing/guitar/mandolin buds, who helped with music at our women's retreat a couple weekends ago. Feels like a long time ago, but it's been busy around here!
Here's a close-up of the edge. I like it because it's narrower and lacier than the two stitch edge you usually see.
I'm pairing these with some nice soaps, and away they go.