text:
Noleggio barche a Palma de Mallorca, Spagna
Alboran XXXI Saoco (Majorca)
Oceanis 43 - Barca A Vela
9.1 punti
We had a lot of complications due to… We had a lot of complications due to covid, but so far gotosailing support have been very helpful and made a great effort to help us out. Oskar
only good experiences I had a charter for the first time ever and had only good experiences with Gotosailing. They were very helpful even with questions that went beyond the actual topic, e.g. parking possibilities for car, insurance... Especially without any experience in the field of yacht charter, it was very reassuring to always be able to ask someone. Clear recommendation! Peter K.
Perfect job thanks for everything Perfect job thanks for everything Oznur A.
Thanks for the help Had a hard time finding a boat, the online chat was very efficient, Dave guided me through the site, sent me a proposal right away. We got a very good deal, thank you. Tom L.
Great service Fast response, very responsive client service team. Asked many questions, Fleur always answered with patience. Made a few changes along the way. Looking forward to our journey. Kevin D.
Easy as booking a hotel room Very good customer service, very good site. Surprisingly, they only show the available boats to you. Thank you for helping us finding a great boat for our holiday. Will definitely come back! Max P.
|Vedi tutte le recensioni
Alboran XXXI Saoco (Majorca)
Prenotato 11 settimane in questa stagioneOceanis 43 - Barca A Vela
Scegliete le date e prenotate subito
Maggio 20, 2023 - Maggio 27, 2023
only good experiences
I had a charter for the first time ever and had only good experiences with Gotosailing. They were very helpful even with questions that went beyond the actual topic, e.g. parking possibilities for car, insurance... Especially without any experience in the field of yacht charter, it was very reassuring to always be able to ask someone. Clear recommendation!
This is our return to Gocek from 2019…
This is our return to Gocek from 2019 and the response to our email for a reservation was really helpful and booking straightforward. Pricing and payment details are clear and easy. Last time the shore crew were great and the boat was immaculately cleaned and fully prepared for us with a detailed handover before departure. The only glitch which is worth remembering was the queue for the fuel berth when returning. This may have changed so we'll see and ask about it before we leave and plan our return accordingly. Very happy to be back with Goto Sailing.
GotoSailing has the best presales…
GotoSailing has the best presales customer support I've ever seen at any website. Within seconds of asking a question on the popup chat, on a weekend, I got a real person who handled several questions from me over the next half-hour. He could see everything I had filled out on the website, so we didn't waste time on the facts. The next day, I chatted with more questions. The customer service rep was a different person but she knew everything about my case including promises that they had made to chase down some photos. The website presents a lot of information about every boat in an orderly way. Excellent. What remains is the actual charter experience. Hoping it goes as well as the booking process did.
Impressive service
I was very impressed with the customer services, Dave was very patient, answered all my questions and helped me find a very good boat. The booking process was smooth and I highly appreciate the group payment; no more collecting money from friends, everyone paid their share.
The yacht was perfect
The yacht was perfect and all difficulties were solved at once (We had some misunderstanding around the transfer from airport). Thank you very much for your kind assistance! I would also like to thank GotoSailing managers for their assistance. There are some problems with the sight (may be because of my using tablet instead of PC). I filled the transfer form, but only second part was saved.. and I did not check it. But everything was solved after and we enjoyed our trip!
Best company ever!
Gotosailing excellent company and held our hands through the whole process. Loved our experience. Met another lovely couple which enhanced the experience. Would highly recommend. We are a couple in our 60's and were concerned we would not be fit enough to go sailing. How funny, it was the most relaxing beautiful trip of our lives. Best company ever. Loved our host David who advised on our trip. I will be grateful to him forever for the best trip of my life. Thank you. Enjoy.
Perfect service
Hervorragende Buchungsabwicklung mit Gotosailing. Toller Service, David hat uns geholfen, das perfekte Boot zu finden, gab uns Tipps für die besten Anlegestellen in Split und war immer für uns da, um all unsere Fragen zu beantworten. Ich kann Gotosailing wärmstens weiterempfehlen
Best moments of our summer
Dear GotoSailing.com, thank you for making our sailing holiday so magnificent. This was our first time on a boat and it was way too easier than we thought to arrange every detail. Our 3 kids were too happy since the moment they saw our boat. They didn't even want to go back home :) We are looking forward for next summer! Thanks for everything.
Excellent and prompt communication!
Excellent and prompt communication! Appreciate the patience with our various requests for information about the boat, itinerary and charter operator. The charter operator at ACI Split Marina, Euromarine, was very responsive prior to the trip. If you have chartered before and are a reasonably experienced skipper you should be fine, but don't expect a formal briefing and thorough pre-inspection like with a Sunsail/Moorings. That said, the boat was immaculately clean and everything worked as advertised. Two minor issues: the boat Tanpopo I is listed as a 2019 model, it's a 2018. There was a lack of communication and urgency from the receptionists in the Euromarine office in informing us when our boat would be ready at pick up. Our boat returned with a broken window from the previous charterer which appeared to be promptly fixed. There was a disconnect between the dock workers and receptionists who never called us as promised to tell us the boat was ready. Stopping in every hour to ask was fruitless. Finally, we just loaded up the boat and found a worker to do the check out, getting out of the marina late at 6 PM.
Gotosailing was great but didn't translate on the the ground/water
The service from Gotosailing was great but sadly didn't translate onto the ground/water at the beginning of our holiday. The charter company did not cover themselves in glory when we first arrived. They had not got our snorkelling kit, or our SUPs ready and although we were told we could pay for the insurance by credit card, we couldn't and they were very reticent to give us a receipt of the money received. Later in the week when we went back into port they were more efficient. Also I would expect to be able to do an online shop before getting there so not having to spend 2 hours in the sweltering heat shopping for basic supplies. Doing a small shop would be acceptable. The food list that was sent over to us was not extensive at all.
We had to "test" everything onboard
- echosounder unit wasn't connected so we had to do it ourselves after 2 days when we finally figured out the error (owners told us it was working the day before which was BS since the cable wasn't connected) - bow (jet) thruster stopped working already the first day and couldn't be repaired although we rerouted our trip to meet up with maintenance staff - no electrical fans nor solar panels were installed although it was part of the inventory list at the time of booking - the boat didn't have any gangway and we were promised to get one after one day (but we didn't) - the boat was equipped with a wrong water supply setup which made the refilling of water a nightmare - the dinghy was left with 1-2l of fuel and the dinghy itself could barely take two people onboard All in all, we were the first group to charter the boat since delivery and we had the unfortunate situation to "test" everything onboard
I couldn't recommend GotoSailing highly enough.
I hired a 37 ft Bavaria 2006 In Split in the second week of July 2019. The boat was a great price which was a bit of a worry from a company I had never dealt with before but I needn't have worried - see below. I had many dealings with Fleur and Dave of the office who were excellent. I dealt mostly with Fleur who was prompt and very supportive. I had a few problems before I arrived which meant a lot of correspondence with Fleur. My flight got in at 1am so the taxi service had to wait for me - No problem! I had problems in delay in getting my ICC Cert renewed before departure which meant i would to have hired a local skipper at Euro 1000 - GotoSailing offered to pay a significant portion so I could enjoy my holiday. I was very appreciative of their offer. In any event, my Cert arrived in time so didn't need a skipper.The Base Office manager Kristina was very helpful - West Cork is the place to go on holidays Kristina! The Base Manager Nicolai was brilliant. I rang him a few times over the week and he was patient and offered lots of additional local knowledge advice re anchoring spots etc. The Boat was not a new one but in great condition. Everything worked and was spotlessly clean. The engine was very well maintained and the sails as good as new. The only 2 areas of possible improvement might be the size of the dinghy (2 large adults and 2 chunky teenagers made for interesting transfers from anchor at night in windy conditions) and the electronic chart plotter was not fixed close to the wheel which having to go below but maybe Im spoilt as my own 36 footer has that facility with a bigger dinghy! I couldn't recommend Goto sailing highly enough. They really wanted me to have a good time and went the extra mile, particularly offering to pay costs on what was a low profit week for them with their original excellent offer. Great value for money, great customer service and they are my operator of choice next year. Robin Bradley Dublin Ireland... on facebook
Can't beat the Greek Islands!
We sailed with friends who had a larger boat from another company and our boat was better equipped and more functional in so many ways. Having solar power was a godsend, allowing us to charge the fridge/etc. all day and keep the important refreshments ready to share with our friends. Chartering team was very helpful and quick to check us in all clear. Can't beat the Greek Islands so hope to go again soon! The only confusion when trying to book was a map of the area relative to our friends. Otherwise all good.


text:
4.8 out of 5 based on 2,300+ reviews
Mon-Fri: 8am-5pm EST
Go Back
See Replacement:
Lowest Price Guarantee
100% Satisfaction Guarantee
Easy 30-Day Returns
Stock #: PBM2442
Our 24" x 42" 1.5 Mil flat poly bags offer lightweight protection for temporary storage of food, parts and hardware. All 24x42 1.5mil polybags are made from low density polyethylene and can be recycled. Our flat open top 24" x 42" .0015 plastic bags feature impressive clarity and make storage and organization simple for industrial, food service and medical industry applications. These light weight plastic lay flat 24 inch by 42 inch bags can be sealed by using twist ties, bag tape or by heat sealing, and they meet FDA requirements for use in food packaging and storage applications.
Fast Same-Day Shipping
Lowest Price Guarantee
30-Day Returns & Exchanges
100% Customer Satisfaction

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Meet Caveat, a finely handcrafted WordPress theme for businesses and companies. Get noticed with this elegant, clean, bold, beautifully responsive WordPress theme by Mighty Themes
Retina & HDPI Ready — Whether you are viewing Relevant WordPress theme on a Retina device, a HDPi device, or even a XHDPi, rest assured your site will display brilliantly at optimal resolution. Relevant uses no bitmap based images.
Responsive — Whatever the device, Relevant WordPress theme is up for the task. We don't just set breaking points, we scale the content, so that not matter which device, your content will always look beautiful.
Post Formats — Dressing up your blog posts has never been more easier and fun. Relevant WordPress theme offers support for many popular post formats, including: links, quotes, gallery, audio and video (both self-hosted and third-party).
Portfolio Projects — We've included a separate plugin that allows you to easily create and manage portfolio projects. With Relevant, you can post any type of portfolio work, including: images, slideshows, audio, and video (both self-hosted and third-party).
Custom Widgets — No more boring sidebars, or messing around trying to get third-party plugins to play nice with your new theme. We've now included a host of widgets baked right in: Twitter, Instagram, Dribbble, Vimeo, Flickr, social links, and more.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) — We've really gone the extra mile with SEO in Relevant. Not only have we integrated all of the standard best practices, but we've went ahead and implemented all modern HTML5 and Schema.org recommendations.
New Themes, Pre-Launch Previews, News, and More — Sign up and receive our Mighty Themes newsletter to stay up to date with new themes, upcoming theme releases, updates, and more.
Sign up for our email newsletter | Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter
Theme Features
- Cross Browser Support — Chrome, Safari, Firefox, IE, Opera
- HTML5 & CSS3 — Modern semantical markup and presentation separation
- Third-Party Integrations — Google Analytics, YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
- Post Formats — Links, quotes, gallery, audio, and video (self-hosted or third-party)
- Custom Page Templates — Homepage, jQuery contact form, full-width, portfolio
- Responsive Layout — iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android, Tablet, etc.
- Built-In SEO — Best practices, semantic markup, structured data, schema.org
- Localization & Translation — .PO and .MO language translation files
- Custom Shortcodes (Plugin) — Buttons, tabs, toggles, alerts, content columns
- Featured Images — Featured post thumbnails, post formats, and portfolio posts
- Logo Upload — Easy logo upload via theme options
- Color Options — Adjust accent and link color to your liking
- Custom Menus — Assign custom navigation menus to the header and footer
- Custom Widgets — Twitter, Instagram, Dribbble, Vimeo, Flickr, social links, and more
- More…
Need Theme Support? — Thank you for purchasing one of our WordPress themes! We want to make sure your experience with our product is an enjoyable one, as such, we ask that all support related questions be submitted via a support ticket.
Visit our Support Forums or Create an Account
21st March 2014 - Initial launch


text:
Submit your ad : Kamloops Furniture for sale
You are going to post free ads in FREEADS in Canada Kamloops, Canada in the category Furniture for sale.
FREEADS in Canada often visited by the main search engines. Our pages are search engine optimized. So you will find your ad in Google.com or Yahoo.com very soon.
Start to buy and sell for free in Kamloops right now!
DISCLAIMER: We do not accept any listing that contains unlawful, harassing, obscene and/or objectionable material of any kind. Such ads will be deleted immediately.
Our button:
Button code


text:
Health & Science
Why People Who Experience Severe Nausea During Pregnancy Often Go Untreated
February 7, 2023
What parents need to know about the child pain medication shortage
January 31, 2023
CDC urges parents to learn the signs of Invasive Strep A
January 26, 2023
What parents need to know about using naloxone to fight teen opioid deaths
January 19, 2023
For Patients With Sickle Cell Disease, Fertility Care Is About Reproductive Justice
January 17, 2023
New CDC report reveals alarming rate of preventable maternal deaths
January 9, 2023
How to empower your teen to manage their own healthcare
January 2, 2023
The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage
December 28, 2022
Patient mistrust and poor access hamper federal efforts to overhaul family planning
December 20, 2022
How to focus on what you can control as a parent
December 7, 2022
Better World
Breaking the silence: A parent's guide to talking about race and racism with white kids
January 31, 2023
A new museum and clinic will honor the enslaved "Mothers of Gynecology"
January 23, 2023
Working in extreme heat is risky for pregnant workers. Advocates say passing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act could help.
December 6, 2022
5 Unique ways to celebrate Veterans Day with kids of all ages
November 11, 2022
A new (historic) role model? Anna May Wong to be first Asian American on U.S. currency
November 10, 2022
New study shows how climate change stressors impact risk of anxiety, depression, and ADHD in kids
November 8, 2022
The increase in Social Security benefits will help millions of families
November 3, 2022
Voting is a Family Matter—ParentsTogether Lifts Up Families' Voices with Family Vote Initiative
October 28, 2022
Parents' toolkit for raising antiracist kids: A practical age-by-age guide
October 25, 2022
#ChalkTheVote Launches Nationwide—Here's How Your Family Can Get Involved
October 21, 2022
5 ways to model healthy relationships for your kids
February 8, 2023
Kids offer social-emotional advice and words of inspiration in viral "pep talk hotline" project
February 6, 2023
4 Research-based ways to connect with your partner (when parenting saps most of your energy)
January 30, 2023
Viral Twitter thread turns traditional parenting advice on its head
January 18, 2023
The Anti-Social Network
January 16, 2023
How to explain "bad words" to kids
January 13, 2023
Can Roblox be dangerous for kids? Here's what parents need to know
January 10, 2023
Median age of new parents hits 30 years old — here's what it means for families
January 4, 2023
7-Day Body Positivity Family Challenge
December 30, 2022
Does your child over-apologize? Here's how to break the habit
December 22, 2022
Chilling effect: 1 in 4 teachers told to limit class talk on hot-button issues
February 2, 2023
Book challenges may have 'chilling effects' on new LGBTQ books in school libraries, study finds
January 24, 2023
Parents and teachers: Here's a fun way to explain Lunar New Year to kids
January 22, 2023
Flu, RSV and COVID are wreaking havoc — but teachers don't feel like they can stay home when they're sick
January 12, 2023
Philadelphia school board approves grant to teach anti-racism in elementary schools
January 6, 2023
Schools across the U.S. have turned to Paper's online tutoring. Some worry it's falling short.
December 27, 2022
Colleges begin offering direct admissions to level the playing field for prospective students
December 21, 2022
'All-hands-on-deck': A Queens charter school welcomes 70 asylum-seeking students
December 15, 2022
A Pasadena school is the nation's first named after Octavia Butler — and it's her alma mater
December 12, 2022
How to teach the real story of Thanksgiving in an age-appropriate way, using just one picture
November 23, 2022
Our Team
Editorial Policies
Press Releases
Questions 4 Kids
Simple Parenting
Join on Messenger
Get Our Newsletter
Contact Us
Alena Ozerova_Canva Pro_Kid playing on iPad
Joanna Eng
January 9, 2023
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Joanna Eng
Type above and press
to search. Press
to cancel.


text:
Preventing Particle Penetration
With residents' health increasingly dependent on a home's indoor air quality, ventilation strategies become more important than ever.
As anyone who has stood over a smoky campfire can attest, breathing in fine particles is a health hazard.The health risk associated with inhaling dust and other small particles is directly related to the level of exposure, which is why agencies such as the Ontario Ministry of the Environment have set up outdoor atmospheric sampling stations to measure the levels of fine particles in outdoor air. But given that people spend most of their time indoors, indoor particle exposure may be more important than outdoor exposure (see "Sources of Indoor Particles," p. 14).
Unfortunately, there is little or no information now about how different ways of building, heating, cooling, and ventilating a home affect how well it guards the occupants from fine particles coming in from the air outside.With asthma, allergies, and other respiratory ailments that are linked with indoor air quality (IAQ) on the rise, better IAQ means better health for consumers.And knowing what ventilation strategies provide the best IAQ can help consultants, contractors, and builders to design and build healthier homes. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is the federal agency responsible for housing research.CMHC hired Dara Bowser of Bowser Technical, Incorporated, to provide some of that information by investigating how ventilation and filtration affect the indoor/outdoor ratio of particles in a house, and by determining the filtering effect of the house envelope on incoming air.
Outdoor Particle Penetration
Outdoor particles can penetrate either through the building envelope or through an intentionally created air inlet.The paths range from the relatively large and direct, such as—in Canada at least—the combustion air inlet for gas furnaces and water heaters, which are usually 4–6-inch open pipes, to the lengthy and convoluted, such as paths through the wall assembly.The pressure causing the air movement may be due to naturally occurring forces, such as wind and indoor/outdoor temperature differences; or the pressure may be caused by the operation of mechanical equipment within the home, such as the outdoor air supply connection to an air handler, an exhaust-only ventilation system, or a clothes dryer.
In Canada, some ventilation systems consist of an intake duct connected to the return air side of the furnace.These are sometimes called nonpowered systems, but in reality the operation and suction pressure created by the furnace fan governs the rate of intake air flow. Other ventilation systems are based on a central heat recovery ventilator (HRV).HRVs are equipped with filters that are capable of removing large particles that would block the heat exchange passages, but these filters are not usually effective for removing fine particles from the airstream.
When a central forced-air system is also installed in a home, the HRV often has its outdoor air supply connected to the return air duct of the central forcedair system. Internal fans and controls manage the HRV flow rate. In both of these systems, the incoming outdoor air is passed through the central forced-air system's main filter before being delivered into the occupied spaces of the home.The various filters in central forced-air systems remove anywhere from none of the fine particles to more than 90% of them.
Testing Ventilation Strategies
Our experiments took place in a home in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.Two adults lived in the house at the time of our tests.The test conditions represent typical southern Ontario spring and summer conditions. During our tests, the air handling and ventilation systems were operated continuously, with all the doors and windows closed.The continuous operation of ventilation systems is becoming more popular in Canada as the housing stock becomes more airtight, residents become more aware of IAQ, and summer air conditioning becomes more prevalent.Also, public health officials recommend that people who have respiratory problems caused by outdoor air particles keep their doors and windows closed. The Brantford house is considered to be moderately airtight by Canadian standards, with an effective leakage area (ELA) of 114 square inches (733 cm2) and an ACH50 of 5.33.
The Brantford house consists of a basement and an upper floor.The upper floor contains the bedrooms, living room, and kitchen. The basement contains the mechanical room and a home office.We located the instruments for the experiment in the mechanical room. One person was in the home during the day (mostly in the basement).Two people were in the home during the evening and at night (mostly on the upper floor).
We measured airborne fine particles
• outside (under the overhanging roof of a covered patio);
• in the air intake from outside;
• in the home office;
• in the central air handling system (the sample consisted of mixed return and outside air); and
• in one bedroom.
We tested for fine-particle penetration for five distinct ventilation modes.These were
• Supply Only, No Filtration;
• Exhaust Only, No Filtration;
• Balanced, No Filtration;
• Balanced, with HEPA Intake Filter; and
• Supply Only, with HEPA Intake Filter.
Ventilation rates ranged between 1.20 and 0.71 ACH and were selected to ensure that in the Supply Only modes, all of the incoming air passed though the ventilation system, and in the Exhaust Only mode, all of the incoming air passed through the building envelope. Continuous real-time measurements of indoor and outdoor particle levels were made during the day and night.We also measured air temperature, air pressure, wind speed, and ventilation flows continuously.A total of 428 data hours were used for data analysis.
We calculated a house average value using the average of the office and bedroom values. Indoor particle levels were reported as the amount of particles less than 1 micron (PM1) and as the amount of particles less than 10 microns (PM10). Indoor/outdoor ratios were also reported.An indoor/outdoor ratio of 0.5 indicates, for example, that the indoor levels were 50% of the outdoor levels.A ratio of 1.5 indicates that the indoor levels were 150% of the outdoor levels.
Comparing Ventilation Strategies
In general, the systems with HEPA filtration of the outdoor air provided the best control of indoor particles coming from outdoors. The systems that supplied outdoor air directly to the living space without filtration didn't do well in keeping particles out.The Exhaust Only system, which relies on the building envelope to filter out incoming particles, performed in the middle, halfway between the systems with HEPA filtration and the other two systems without filtration (see Figures 1 and 2).
The dynamic functioning of the systems can be seen in sample data sets. With the Supply Only HEPA and the Balanced HEPA systems respectively, the indoor particle levels compared to the outdoor levels show only a mild trend. The indoor particle levels appear to be related principally to occupant activity, rather than to outdoor levels.
With the Exhaust Only system, there is a distinct relationship between indoor particle levels and outdoor particle levels, but there is a significant time lag between the indoor and outdoor levels, and the effects of occupant activity remain apparent (see Figure 3). With the Supply Only, No Filtration system, indoor particle levels are essentially a mirror of outdoor particle levels, with a lag time that is attributable to the settlement rate of the indoor particles (see Figure 4).The effect of outdoor particle penetration is much greater than the effect of occupant activity.
Recommended Ventilation Strategies
From our measurements of particle penetration into a house under various ventilation conditions,we can offer some practical advice.
Direct entry of unfiltered air. The direct entry of air that is not filtered for particles will raise the indoor levels of respirable particles. These levels will be higher than those normally expected in a home that does not have direct entry of outdoor air, or in which the entry routes for outdoor air are filtered.This is true even in comparison to Exhaust
Only ventilation systems with similar air change rates, as the building envelope of the house is capable of removing a substantial portion of the incoming fine particles, even those with relatively small diameters.
For houses that are currently equipped with an HRV-based system that is not connected to a central forcedair recirculation system, a fine-particle filtering system should be considered for the incoming air. For homes equipped with an outdoor air intake directly connected to the return of a forced-air system, or where an HRV is connected to the forced-air system, the use of a fine-particle air filter for the central system should be considered. Such a fineparticle filter will treat incoming outdoor air as well as recirculated house air.
Exhaust Only ventilation. Exhaust Only ventilation systems are moderately effective at keeping fine particles out of the living spaces of a home, due to the filtering effect of the building envelope. While this filtering effect may vary depending on how the house was constructed, it is reasonable to conclude that Exhaust Only systems are superior to those that allow unfiltered air to enter directly into the house. In the absence of combustion equipment that could be depressurized by the action of an Exhaust Only ventilation system, this system could be operated year-round in Canada.The Exhaust Only system can be beneficial during winter operation, because the entry of dry outside air can
prevent the wetting of the building envelope by exfiltrating air.
In southern climates, where building interiors are cooler than the outdoor dew point, use of an Exhaust Only system may result in the wetting and subsequent deterioration of the building envelope.
Supply Only ventilation with filtration. Although the Supply Only system with filtration performed better in keeping outdoor particles out of the house,we can't recommended it for wintertime use in heating climates. In the winter, exfiltrating air forced into the building envelope by the operation of such a system could cause wetting of the building envelope, leading once again to deterioration.A Supply Only ventilation system with filtration could be used
during the spring, summer, and fall in heating climates and in southern climates, where building interiors are kept cooler and dryer than outdoors.
The pressurization of the building envelope caused by Supply Only ventilation would help to keep the building envelope dry during the summer in a heating climate, or in a southern climate with cool dry inside air.
Balanced ventilation with filtration. The Balanced system with filtration performed almost as well as the Supply Only system with filtration. It would have performed better if the building envelope had been more airtight.A Balanced ventilation system is often chosen for homes in heating climates, where combustion appliances may be affected by the negative pressure induced by an Exhaust Only ventilation system.
Preaching, Perhaps, to the Choir
Many people in the IAQ business assume that the catch phrase "Indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air" is true in all cases. In fact, with respect to fine particles—and especially if you live in an urban area, or where there are other outdoor sources of particulate pollution, such as wood stoves—this is not true. Fortunately, the path to reducing the penetration of outdoor particles is one that we are already following: Increase building airtightness, rely on controlled ventilation, and use sealedcombustion equipment, whenever possible.
Building airtightness can be increased to the point where all, or substantially all, of the ventilation is through a powered duct. In this case, the incoming air can be filtered and the outdoor fine particles removed.We were surprised that the simple addition of a filter to an HRV intake could improve IAQ so dramatically. If you are a professional working in the energy-efficient/healthy house field, this puts one more very important tool in your knowledge toolbox—a tool that you can use to make everyone's life a little better.
- 1
Enter your comments in the box below:
(Please note that all comments are subject to review prior to posting.)
While we will do our best to monitor all comments and blog posts for accuracy and relevancy, Home Energy is not responsible for content posted by our readers or third parties. Home Energy reserves the right to edit or remove comments or blog posts that do not meet our community guidelines.


text:
Large Italian painting of Flowers in a blue vase
+44 (0)772 5414743
United Kingdom
By phone:
Mobile: +44 (0)772 5414743
TALLBOY INTERIORSSaville House Saville Street
My name is Matt Dixon and for as long as I can remember I have had a love for history and design which I find relate very closely.
Since starting up TallBoy Interiors 3 years ago, I have learnt so much about what works together and I find that you can mix modern and classic pieces to create a truly unique design.
I am not afraid to express myself through the items I buy as I believe your home should represent as much about you as the way you dress. Everyone has their own style and that is what makes this business so interesting.
As trends change, the pieces that appear on the open market change, and that keeps me thinking of how it can work in a design.
I want to provide a service that is totally personal to the client and help them use their imagination to create something unique.
Are you sure you want to remove this dealer from Favourites?


text:
HealthWell Foundation Appoints David F. Ertel as Director
REMINDER: Our hotline team is working remotely and focusing their time on helping our patients. We kindly ask pharmacies, providers, and their staff to use our Pharmacy and Provider Portals. Please note: if you are contacting us about a payment or grant, it is faster to email us at email@example.com. We appreciate your continued patience and look forward to continuing to serve you. Wishing you all safety and good health during this difficult time. The HealthWell TeamDismiss alert


text:
Edkens Surname Ancestry Results
Our indexes 1000-1999 include entries for the spelling 'edkens'. In the period you have requested, we have the following 1 record (displaying 1 to 1):
Try these...
edis-myers edisburg edisburgh edisbury ediseduson edisfeld edisfield edisford edisforth edisheleg edison edisoun edisoure ediss ediston edit edith edithson edivean ediweston edkin edkins edkns edlaston edle edlee edlege edlem edleman edlemann edler edles edlesbir' edlesburgh edleston edlestone edlete edlett edley edlick
These sample scans are from the original record. You will get scans of the full pages or articles where the surname you searched for has been found.
Your web browser may prevent the sample windows from opening; in this case please change your browser settings to allow pop-up windows from this site.
Research your ancestry, family history, genealogy and one-name study by direct access to original records and archives indexed by surname.


text:
Rodman was greeted at Pyongyang's airport by Son Kwang Ho, vice-chairman of North Korea's Olympic Committee, just days after Pyongyang rejected a visit by a U.S. envoy who had hoped to bring home Kenneth Bae, an American missionary jailed there. The North abruptly called off the official visit because it said the U.S. had ruined the atmosphere for talks by holding a drill over South Korea with nuclear-capable B-52 bombers.
Rodman said the purpose of his visit was to display his friendship for Kim and North Korea and to "show people around the world that we as Americans can actually get along with North Korea."
Speaking to reporters in Beijing ahead of his flight to Pyongyang - his second trip to the North - Rodman declined to say whether he would seek Bae's release. Bae's health is poor, and he was recently transferred to a hospital.
"I just want to meet my friend Kim, the marshal, and start a basketball league over there or something like that," said Rodman, wearing rings through his lower lip and each nostril. "I have not been promised anything. I am just going there as a friendly gesture."
Bae was arrested in November and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for what Pyongyang described as hostile acts against the state. Rodman once asked on his Twitter account for Kim to "do me a solid" and release Bae. Kim has the power to grant special pardons under the North's constitution.
"I'm not there to be a diplomat. I'm there to go there and just have a good time, sit with (Kim) and his family, and that's pretty much it," Rodman said, adding that he planned to see Kim "pretty soon," perhaps later Tuesday or Wednesday. Rodman is being hosted in North Korea by the Ministry of Physical Culture and Sport, which has not confirmed if or when Rodman will meet Kim Jong Un.
Meetings between senior North Korean officials and foreigners are normally not officially confirmed or announced in advance.
Rodman first met Kim - a die-hard basketball fan - during a visit in February to promote the sport and make a film. U.S. officials frowned on the trip for giving the young leader a propaganda boost.
In the weeks that followed, after U.N. sanctions imposed in early March over Pyongyang's February nuclear test, North Korea threatened Washington and Seoul with nuclear and missile strikes and shut down an inter-Korean factory in the North.
Rodman, however, suggested "basketball diplomacy" could warm relations and said that Kim wanted President Barack Obama to pick up the phone and call him. He has called Kim an "awesome guy."
Rodman's trip comes as the rival Koreas pursue diplomacy meant to restart several cooperative projects that were scrapped as tensions rose in recent years, including the jointly run factory complex in the North Korean border city of Kaesong. While there is skepticism about Pyongyang's intentions, the warming ties have been welcomed in Seoul.
Outside analysts have said Pyongyang is likely using Bae as bait to win diplomatic concessions in a standoff over its nuclear weapons program. North Korea denies this.
Pyongyang accuses Bae of trying to establish an anti-Pyongyang base in the North. Friends say Bae was based in a Chinese border city and traveled frequently to North Korea both as a tour operator and to feed orphans.
At least five other Americans have been detained in North Korea since 2009. The others were eventually allowed to leave without serving out their terms, some after clemency missions by prominent Americans, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
Just this past weekend, a planned trip by Robert King, the U.S. envoy for North Korean human rights, fell through after Pyongyang said it couldn't forgive the inclusion of U.S. nuclear capable bombers in recently concluded U.S.-South Korean military drills.
Talks aimed at getting the North to give up what's estimated to be a small cache of nuclear devices, and involving the Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia, collapsed in early 2009. Pyongyang says its weapons are intended to protect itself from a hostile Washington.


text:
Blessed to be a Blessing
Bishop Michael Curry of North Carolina may be the closest thing we have to a rock star in the Episcopal Church. His sermon at this summer's General Convention in Indianapolis rocked the house and changed the tenor of the entire gathering (I was privileged to be there that day). Normally I wouldn't be worthy so much as to carry the case of his i-Pad. But for some reason I've been lumped in with him and four others who have written reflections for the Episcopal Church's Blessed to be a Blessing stewardship series.
This six-part offering provides brief essays on stewardship based on the Sunday readings in the form of bulletin inserts. It runs from October 7 through November 11, basically the height of the church's traditional stewardship season.
Here's the lineup and some info straight from the website:
The "Blessed to Be a Blessing" stewardship reflection series is designed to complement and support
congregations during their annual giving campaigns, October 7 – November 11, 2012. Each of the six Sunday reflections features a different writer from across the Episcopal Church, exploring stewardship as a response to that week's lectionary reading from the Gospel of Mark.
Sunday, October 7, 2012 (Proper 22B, Mark 10:2-16) – The Right Rev. Catherine "Cate" Waynick, bishop of the Diocese of Indianapolis
Sunday, October 14, 2012 (Proper 23B, Mark 10:17-31) – The Very Rev. Walter B.A. Brownridge, dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Andrew, Diocese of Hawaii
Sunday, October 21, 2012 (Proper 24B, Mark 10:35-45) – Lelanda Lee, member of Executive Council and lay leader at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Longmont, Colorado, Diocese of Colorado
Sunday, October 28, 2012 (Proper 25B, Mark 10:46-52) – Cindy Ruiz, lay leader at St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church, River Oaks, Texas, Diocese of Fort Worth
Sunday, November 4, 2012 (Proper 26B, Mark 12:28-34) – The Rev. Tim Schenck, rector of the Episcopal Parish of St. John the Evangelist, Hingham, Massachusetts, Diocese of Massachusetts
Sunday, November 11, 2012 (Proper 27B, Mark 12:38-44) – The Right Rev. Michael Bruce Curry, bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina
As you can see, I'm the token "simple country parson" here. But regardless, I encourage you to read them — there's some good stuff here — and download them for parish use. As a preview, I've pasted in my reflection below but here's the pretty format. And you can also read it in Chinese.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Mark 12:28-34
Taking the Plunge
My kids make fun of me for taking so long to get into a swimming pool. When I was their age I, too, used to race toward the water with t-shirt, flip flops, and towel flying as I launched myself into the deep end. Let's just say I've gotten less exuberant in my old(er) age.
That's the essence of the Shema, the Hebrew prayer that forms the basis of Jesus' Greatest Commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength."
The word "all" binds together this ancient prayer. Jesus bids us to love God with all our heart and all our mind and all our soul and all our strength. This isn't easy, of course, as there lots of distractions: kids get sick, things get crazy at work, we have needy friends, it's time to get to the grocery store, American Idol is on. Loving God with all your heart and mind and soul doesn't mean ignoring the practical realities of life. It means taking the time to be aware of God's presence not just on Sunday morning, not just when it's convenient, but in the very midst of life.
In the context of faithful stewardship, this doesn't mean God wants all our money. The annual stewardship campaign isn't a glorified back alley stick-up. Rather God wants all of us – heart, mind, and soul – and when we give our all to God, our financial resources naturally return to the God from whom all blessings flow.
Returning a portion of what we have is a recognition that we are merely temporary stewards of our resources. They were in the world long before we arrived and will be there long after we're gone. You may already be fully immersed in this concept or perhaps you've merely stuck a toe into the waters of stewardship or maybe you're up to your waist and contemplating whether to dive in. Most of us are somewhere in the middle as God beckons us into ever-deepening relationship.
I do eventually get into the pool. When the boys complain I'm taking "forever" I remind them I have a lot more surface area than they do. Taking the slow route can be painful but in time I find myself just as fully immersed as those who took the initial plunge. However we arrive at being fully immersed in stewardship, God rejoices.


text:
The Jackson Five Family received a complimentary product sample to help facilitate this feature while working with USFamily Guide. However, all opinions are honest and our own!
For the last 3 years Grady's love for soccer has grown and each summer he's attended British Soccer Camp. He went for his 4th time this summer and loved it just as much as the previous years.
We love that the Challenger camps teach Respect, Responsibility, Integrity, Leadership and Sportsmanship all while the kids are learning fundamentals of the game and having FUN!
The coaches travel so far from home to teach the kids their love for the game which is so awesome. They are very hands on and really interact and engage with each and every one. Grady loved the fun games they played, dressing wacky for wacky clothes day and making this huge flag for the country he was chosen to represent. He really loves all of the fun things they get to do, as well as playing the game and learning from these guys!
On the last day they have a ceremony to celebrate their completion of the program. He's always sad when the 5 day camp ends and he can't wait until he gets to do it again next year! As he's gotten older over the years he's been able to move up to new groups and we've loved watching him use some of the skills he's been taught at the camp.
Soccer camp is always one of the highlights of our summer! If you're looking for a fun soccer camp for your child to participate in I highly recommend checking into British Soccer Camp.
be social: like challenger sports on facebook, follow on instagram @challengersoccer and twitter @challengercamps


text:
Vans Slip-On Skate Shoe - Little Kid / Big Kid - Leopard
Vans Slip-On Skate Shoe - Little Kid / Big Kid - Leopard
Mix safari with skatepark in the new Slip-On Skate Shoe from Vans! These ferocious sneakers sport signature Vans skate style with sturdy canvas uppers, fuzzy leopard rosettes, dual elastic gore for easy on and off, and vulcanized sole construction for enhanced board feel and premium traction. Available exclusively at Journeys Kidz!
Color: Leopard
Style ID: 1498492
- Breathable canvas upper with fuzzy leopard rosettes
- Padded collar provides comfort and support
- Dual elastic midfoot goring for easy on and off
- Cushioned footbed delivers shock-absorbing comfort
- Durable rubber sole with Vans signature waffle tread for flexible grip and traction
Vans® is the original action sports footwear and apparel brand. Since day one, Vans® has celebrated the lifestyle and creative self-expression of musicians, artists, and athletes on boards and bikes all around the world. From timeless footwear, apparel, accessories, and snowboard boots, to progressive events like the Vans Warped Tour® and surfing's most prestigious contest, the Vans US Open of Surfing®, Vans® continues to support today's innovators and those who live "Off the Wall".
Point the camera at your feet to see the shoes!
Show Us Your Style
Show us your kidz style by tagging us @journeyskidz on social media.


text:
An online multimedia experience explaining what NATO is, what it does, how it works, what is on its agenda and key links for more information.More
Explore this interactive map, illustrating the who, what, where and when of NATO.more
An overview of NATO member countries with links to the national information servers of each country and to the website of its national delegation to NATO.More
NATO cooperates with a range of countries and international organisations in different structures (Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, Mediterranean Dialogue, Istanbul Cooperation Initiative,...). A list of these international organisations and countries with links to their information servers.More
Biographies and pictures of the current senior government officials, Permanent Representatives to the North Atlantic Council, all NATO Secretaries General, principal officials to the International Staff, members of the Military Committee, major NATO Commanders and the principal officials of the NATO International Military.More
Business Opportunities at NATO HQ
This online service gives you access to NATO Headquarters procurement notices. This service is free and may provide you with some business opportunities.More
NATO is offering employment opportunities for a variety of skillsets. A career at NATO is an inspiring and rewarding experience!More
The Young Professional Programme (YPP) is a three-year rotational programme that allows highly talented entry-level individuals to gain experience in multiple NATO bodies located around the world. Throughout the programme participants will obtain a broad understanding of NATO, while experiencing a unique personal and professional development journey.More
NATO Headquarters (HQ) introduced its Internship Programme in 2004. The aim of the programme is to provide a small number of current or recent students with the opportunity to intern with the International Staff at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.More
Co-sponsorship programmes with Partner Countries
The NATO Public Diplomacy Division runs an extensive public information programme towards the Alliance's Partner Countries. This programme includes publications in a number of Partner Countries' languages, sponsored visits by delegations of opinion-formers to NATO Headquarters in Brussels as well as co-sponsored conferences, seminars and workshops taking place in the Partner Countries themselves.More


text:
We're losing out to Slovakia. How often do we hear that?
The United States ranks 19th worldwide in the retirement security of its citizens, just ahead of our British cousins, Natixis Global Asset Management reports in its annual index. The reasons are not new—an aging population is putting government resources under strain and Americans will need to pick up a bigger share of their retirement costs, especially as the number of retirees grows and the government's ability to support them fades.
The index gauges how well retired citizens live in 150 nations, based on measures of health, material well-being, finances and other factors.
The report notes that although the U.S. is the world's biggest pension market, it lags behind less-affluent nations on measures of income and health, according to the index. While the U.S. leads the world in per-capita health spending, individuals are still required to pay a portion of this expense on their own. That leaves many health costs in the hands of retirees and takes resources away from their other needs.
In contrast, it continues, Western European nations—backed by robust health care and retiree social programs—dominate the top of the rankings, taking the first 10 spots. "The message is clear: You will be called on to finance more of your retirement," John Hailer, NGAM's president and chief executive officer for the Americas and Asia, said in a statement. "Citizens of other industrialized nations can rely on strong social safety nets in old age, at least for now. In the U.S., we encourage workers to plan, save and invest, and promote policies that help them meet their future needs."
Demographic challenges
Like many other nations, the U.S. is grappling with significant demographic change, including a rapidly aging population, rising life expectancy rates and declining birth rates.
Globally, the number of people age 65 or older is on track to triple by 2050. By that time, the ratio of the working-age population to those over 65 in the U.S. is expected to drop from 5-to-1 to 2.8-to-1.2.
These trends are likely to diminish the government's ability to finance programs such as Social Security and Medicare, and will mean a heavier financial burden going forward for individuals saving for retirement.
Retirement savings deficit
The economic downturn has taken a major toll on retirement savings. Natixis cites a recent U.S. Senate report saying the country is facing a retirement savings deficit of $6.6 trillion, or nearly $57,000 per household. As a result, 53% of American workers 30 and older are on a path that will leave them unprepared for retirement, up significantly from 38% in 2011.
Compounding the issue, only half of all workers have access to employer-sponsored plans, and those who do participate often make the common mistakes of saving too little or investing too much in lower-returning products.
Individual responsibility
"The bottom line is that U.S. workers, like many of their counterparts across the globe, have to step up even more and take charge of their retirement futures," added Tracey Flaherty, NGAM's senior vice president for government relations and retirement strategies. "If these challenges aren't met, they may not have adequate income in retirement, with negative consequences for their health and overall quality of life."
Here, in ascending order, are the top 20 countries for retirement security: 20. United Kingdom
19. United States
18. Slovakia
17. Czech Republic


text:
Important Notice:- Please be advised that there will be scheduled downtime across our website from (03/02/2023/12:30 PM GMT) to (06/02/2023/12:30 PM GMT). This is because we are updating our website. We apologize for any inconvenience. For more information, or if you have any questions, please contact the customer support Team at (email@example.com)
Talk to our expert to get the help with Intd 726 : Monitoring And Assessment Answers from Assignment Hippo Experts to complete your assessment on time and boost your grades now
The main aim/motive of the finance assignment help services is to get connect with a greater number of students, and effectively help, and support them in getting completing their assignments the students also get find this a wonderful opportunity where they could effectively learn more about their topics, as the experts also have the best team members with them in which all the members effectively support each other to get complete their diploma assignment help Australia. They complete the assessments of the students in an appropriate manner and deliver them back to the students before the due date of the assignment so that the students could timely submit this, and can score higher marks. The experts of the assignment help services at www.assignmenthippo.com are so much skilled, capable, talented, and experienced in their field and use our best and free Citation Generator and cite your writing assignments, so, for this, they can effectively write the best economics assignment help services.
Want to order fresh copy of the Sample Intd 726 : Monitoring And Assessment Answers? online or do you need the old solutions for Sample Intd 726 : Monitoring And Assessment Answer, contact our customer support or talk to us to get the answers of it.Assignment Help Australia
Want to order fresh copy of the Intd 726 : Monitoring And Assessment Answers? online or do you need the old solutions for Sample Intd 726 : Monitoring And Assessment Answer, contact our customer support or talk to us to get the answers of it.
Our motto is deliver assignment on Time. Our Expert writers deliver quality assignments to the students.
Get reliable and unique assignments by using our 100% plagiarism-free.
Get connected 24*7 with our Live Chat support executives to receive instant solutions for your assignment.
Get Help with all the subjects like: Programming, Accounting, Finance, Engineering, Law and Marketing.
Get premium service at a pocket-friendly rate at AssignmentHippo
I was struggling so hard to complete my marketing assignment on brand development when I decided to finally reach to the experts of this portal. They certainly deliver perfect consistency and the desired format. The content prepared by the experts of this platform was simply amazing. I definitely owe my grades to them.


text:
Corrections Appended January 8 and 10, 2013
In a study decorated with leather-bound books and busts of ancient Greek scholars, an 18-year-old British student is getting an assignment: a 2,000-word essay on democracy and Fukuyama's "The End of History?" "I want you to get argumentative," says her teacher, glancing over his spectacles. "Next week we'll pick up the theme of democracy with Plato."
Dressed in jeans, bangles and a leather jacket, the student, Jane Odera, appears at home with these highbrow challenges. Yet just five years ago, she was living with her mother in social housing and considering dropping out of school to become a hairdresser. Now, she's applying to one of the most prestigious universities in the world: Cambridge.
(MORE: Can Oxford and Cambridge Shed Their Elitist Images by Admitting More Poor Students?)
Her teacher, Oxford professor Peter Claus, travels to Odera's London public school, Brooke House Sixth Form (BSix), once a week as part of a program he founded in 2008 called Pem-Brooke. The initiative, partly funded by Pembroke College, Oxford, is aiming to help disadvantaged students get into the country's two most storied universities, Oxford and Cambridge.
The challenge for such students is immense. Pupils from private schools have been a significant presence at Oxford and Cambridge, known collectively as Oxbridge, for decades, despite the fact that only 7% of British students attend them. (The point is often made by the universities that despite privately-educated students being in the minority, they make up approximately one-third of the students with high enough grades to apply to Oxbridge — thereby constituting a larger pool of eligible candidates.) In a country with the lowest social mobility in the Western world according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Oxford and Cambridge rank last among large research-intensive U.K. universities in terms of students drawn from public schools. In 2010–11, just 2.5% of Oxford students and 3.1% of Cambridge students came from low-participation neighborhoods, and both universities scored below admission benchmarks calculated by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, a non-governmental body, for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, admitting around 10% from that group.
(MORE: Britain's Universities: Funding Excellence)
That matters because those left behind are less likely to join the ranks of Britain's elites. Over 30% of leading professionals in the U.K., including almost 80% of the judiciary, 47% of highflyers in financial services and 41% of top journalists attended Oxbridge, according to recent studies by the Sutton Trust, a U.K. educational charity. Every university-educated Prime Minister since 1937 has walked one of the two universities' halls save Gordon Brown. (Prime Minister David Cameron and his deputy, Nick Clegg, both attended top private schools and then Oxbridge, as did approximately two-thirds of their Cabinet.) This isn't just bad news for the clever, underprivileged students who don't attend Oxbridge — it's bad news for Britain, which draws its elites from an artificially narrow pool that is largely cut off from the country at large.
Still, the Pem-Brooke program is a sign of how change may finally be coming to these ancient institutions. Cambridge and Oxford have in recent years ramped up their existing efforts, which got underway over a decade ago, to actively seek out underprivileged students. Oxford now spends $4 million a year on student outreach, up from $1.6 million in 2006–07. While some of that money is still used to recruit from posh private schools, much is spent on school visits and teacher-training sessions aimed at encouraging poor and minority students to apply to the university. In 2010, Oxford also launched a summer school, which gives some 500 academically talented, state-school students a chance to experience studying at Oxford for a week. (Previously, Oxford hosted summer schools for unprivileged students set up and funded by the nonprofit Sutton Trust starting in the late 1990s. Cambridge continues to run and largely fund a Sutton Trust summer school program.) In addition, the university admissions office highly recommends to tutors that qualified students from poor areas be invited for interviews. And it has set a target of increasing the number of undergrads from socioeconomically disadvantaged areas from 6.1% to 9% by 2016–17.
Much of this is due to pressure from outside. In 2010, a Member of Parliament from the left-leaning Labour Party, David Lammy, launched a campaign to encourage diversity at Oxbridge after examining admissions data obtained via freedom-of-information requests. He found that almost 90% of the student body at both universities is drawn from the upper and middle classes, that Oxford accepted only one British black Caribbean undergraduate who declared his or her ethnicity in 2009, and that in 2008 and 2009, Oxford held 21% of its outreach events at private schools, including 12 at Kate Middleton's school, Marlborough College, and nine at Prince William's alma mater, Eton College. (State school students were invited.) Lammy's exposé, which received a flurry of press attention, led Cameron to describe the situation at Oxbridge as "disgraceful." (His remarks, prefaced by the statement: "I saw figures the other day that showed that only one black person went to Oxford last year," came under criticism from Oxford and others as inaccurate. One British black Caribbean undergraduate was accepted that year, out of the 27 black undergraduates admitted from the U.K. Cameron's office responded by noting that the Prime Minister was making a "wider point" about "black and minority ethnic groups" at "universities like Oxford.")
Around the same time, the government began a push to speed change at Oxbridge. In February 2012, Liberal Democrats in the U.K. coalition government pushed through the appointment of a new head of the independent public body charged with safeguarding fair access to higher education, the Office for Fair Access, Les Ebdon, who has indicated his intention to negotiate "challenging" diversity targets with English universities, in exchange for allowing them to charge up to $14,500 per year in tuition fees.
All told, these efforts seem to be having an effect. Last year, Oxford announced that it accepted a record number of state-school applicants, 57.7%, for the incoming 2011 class. In September 2012, Cambridge announced that it admitted 63.3% state-school students for 2012–13, up from 58% the year before.
Yet critics say while both universities are on the right path, the problem is far from solved. According to the Sutton Trust, about 90% of the "public-school students" accepted by Oxbridge were plucked from schools with above average levels of attainment, including selective grammar schools akin to New York's famed Bronx High School of Science. And within the universities' constituent undergraduate colleges — which oversee admissions individually — there are deep inconsistencies in efforts to track down bright underprivileged undergraduates. "There has been progress — colleges like Mansfield at Oxford and King's at Cambridge are really going out of their way to recruit the best and the brightest wherever they are. But the lion's share of colleges simply aren't pulling their weight," says Lammy. "When you look at the figures across schools, across ethnicity, across region, it's deeply worrying."
Pembroke is one college beginning to pull its weight, thanks to the efforts of Professor Claus and others at Pembroke to make equality of opportunity a priority. In September, the college announced a 10-year strategy for outreach to underprivileged students, including the expansion of the Pem-Brooke program to schools in the northwest of England.
But even at Pembroke, these efforts are relatively recent. Until 2008, the college confined itself to the traditional "outreach" activities, opening its halls to potential applicants who cared to come and hosting visiting schoolchildren. This meant, in essence, that the college was preaching to the converted. "Activities that try and get people who were perhaps not thinking about Oxford," says Mark Fricker, academic director of Pembroke. "Up until the Pem-Brooke scheme [in 2008], our activities in those areas were pretty slim."
Sitting in Pembroke's elegant faculty room, Claus, whose warm demeanor belies the stereotype of the aloof Oxford academic, reflects on why Britain's two oldest universities have come so late to the game. It's the pressure to publish that keeps academics from throwing themselves into outreach work, he says, balancing a cup of tea. But his own underprivileged background — he came to his history professorship via Ruskin College, an adult-education institution in Oxford — means he's taken a special interest. "I have to do it," he says.
(MORE: A Perfect Day … in Oxford)
The centerpiece of the Pem-Brooke project in Hackney, one of the roughest parts of London, is a room similar to an Oxford professor's study, built right in the heart of BSix. Called the Red Room, it's meant to get poor students used to the sort of surroundings they might encounter at an Oxbridge admission interview — during which a university academic invites a prospective undergrad into her study, hands him a cup of tea and ruthlessly probes the limits of his intelligence. When the replica professor's room first hit the papers in March, some in the press called it a gimmick. But Claus says creating an elevating space in the school — a modern building next to a concrete tower block — was crucial. "We wanted to get away from education as training," he says, referencing the common idea that poor students would be better off learning to be car mechanics or carpenters. "Education is for life."


text:
Morning Minutes: Feb. 8
Morning Minutes: Feb. 8
Word of the Day, Website of the Day, Number to Know, This Day in History, Today's Featured Birthday and Daily Quote.
Word of the Day
Zenith ZEE-nith (noun) A highest point or state; culmination - dictionary.com
Website of the Day
The Innoncence Project
The website describes the Innocence Project as "a national litigation and public policy organization dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted people through DNA testing and reforming the criminal justice system to prevent future injustice." John Grisham is on the artists' committee, along with Zooey Deschanel, Stephen Colbert, Paris Barclay and Yoko Ono.
Number to Know
28: Number of books published by John Grisham
This Day in History
Feb. 8, 1957: Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded in England for her complicity in a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth.
Today's Featured Birthday
Author John Grisham (58)
Daily Quote
"People can be more forgiving than you can imagine. But you have to forgive yourself. Let go of what's bitter and move on." - Bill Cosby


text:
An Interview With Manuel Quesada
In June 1974, Manuel Quesada, his brother Alvaro and their father, Manuel Sr., opened a cigar factory called Manufactura de Tabacos S.A. (Matasa) in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The Quesada family had worked with tobacco since the late 1800s in Cuba, but this was its first venture into cigar making. At the time, Dominican cigars were virtually unknown in the cigar world, but Matasa grew from making thousands of cigars a year to millions, thanks to the popularity of house brands such as Fonseca and Cubita, as well as a host of brands made under contract for other companies importing cigars to the United States.
Manuel Quesada, 57, visited the New York City offices of Cigar Aficionado in February to talk about his 30 years in business with senior editor David Savona, and to discuss his greatest challenge ever, dealing with the tragic accident that claimed the lives of his brother, nephew and right-hand man.
David Savona: This is a big year for you, 2004.
Quesada: Thirty years.
Q: Tell us about the history of Matasa. What month was it founded?
A: June ,74, with $100, a chair and a phone.
Q: You and your father?
A: We were running the leaf business, so I sort of moved over from the leaf business to start a factory. But my brother had come back already from college and the seminary.
Q: Why begin making cigars in the Dominican Republic?
A: In Miami, the cigarmakers that had come out of Cuba were getting older, and with the Social Security a lot of them had to be paid under the table, and it started to become a hassle. The free zones had just started in the Dominican Republic. So it was a good idea to transfer production from Miami to the Dominican Republic. In the Dominican Republic at the time, even though it didn't have a cigar history of exports, it did have a local cigar history. But for exports, nobody had thought about it, except, of course, Consolidated, which had already started in La Romana.
Q: So when you started in the Santiago free zone, was there any other cigar factory there?
A: Nobody in the free zone. The free zones started in ,72, and the first free zone to open was in La Romana.
Q: When did Santiago's free zone open?
A: Seventy-four. The building where we are is where [then president Joaquin] Balaguer inaugurated the free zone of Santiago. Our building was used for the ceremony, and right after the ceremony, we moved in.
Q: What other companies were there?
A: There were three buildings. Ours was in the middle.
Q: That was it?
A: That was it.
Q: Today it's so large. You must look at it now and say, "My God, I don't even recognize this place."
A: There are 45,000 or 47,000 people working in the free zone. There aren't many towns in the Dominican Republic that have as many
people as the free zone has.
Q: And when it opened?
A: When we started the factory, there may have been a couple hundred people working.
Q: How many rollers did you have at the beginning?
A: Three. We started by trying to hire some people, but they had all kinds of ideas. They thought that they were worth more than they were really worth. So we decided to train. And we started teaching people with a Cuban guy that we had brought in from Miami. Espinosa was his name. And he was in charge of teaching the cigarmakers. I would case and strip and prepare the leaf and do everything for him.
Q: I guess there wasn't a lot of tobacco for you to get ready for just three rollers.
A: Yeah, so I would do all of that, and he would take care of making the cigars.
Q: What brands did you begin with?
A: Ah, we had Sosa and Fonseca.
Q: How many cigars did you make in the first year?
A: Oh, heavens! Twenty thousand.
Q: Could you be a viable business at that level?
A: Well, it was being supported by the leaf business at the time, because we were getting started. We had to buy a whole bunch of equipment, molds, and buy some tobacco, and the wrapper, binders, and so on. It was a very meager and very humble start. And difficult, because nobody knew the Dominican Republic blend.
Q: Was there ever a time when the cigar business looked a little bit dicey, when you thought this might not work?
A: Quite so. In the ,80s, it was doldrums. It was very, very slow. The leaf business was always steady because the dark cigarettes were always big in Europe.
Q: Talk about your leaf brokerage business, if that's the correct way to describe it.
A: No, it's not really a brokerage, because we buy our tobacco and then we sell it. So we become the owners of the tobacco. We used to
supply farmers with all the know-how and the money. We'd buy the tobacco, then grade it, pack it and sell it as filler for either short-fill cigars or cigarettes. And long-filler as well, because Tampa would buy a lot of long-filler. The Canary Islands would buy some long-filler. And the Dominican Republic was starting to use it more.
Q: Is that also Matasa?
A: No, that's a separate company, called Manipuladora de Tabaccos CxA.
Q: Which is a bigger business, the leaf or the cigar?
A: It used to be the leaf. But the leaf has run into a number of
problems throughout the years. The Dominican Republic has had a policy of taxing exports, which is a very unusual situation, and at a time, we ran eight years with a 35 percent export tax and that took a lot of markets away. We became expensive in comparison to Colombia, to Brazil, to Paraguay, Argentina, which are the countries that compete with us.
Q: Today, is Matasa bigger than Manipuladora?
A: We're about the same, I'd say.
Q: Lets turn the clock back for a moment. Tell me what was tougher: those early years when you were struggling for business, or later when you were dealing with all the craziness during the cigar boom?
A: It was different. At the beginning, you knew more or less what your volume was. You knew more or less what your expenses were. You could program yourself. And the competition, of course, was very well established. And it wasn't an extremely lucrative business, but it was a business that you could handle. And you could program yourself and you could at least work your way into making a cigar. It was not a demanding time, because cigar smokers smoked a 4 1/2 inch by 43 ring, whatever brand, and smoked that every single day till they died. In the ,80s, cigar smokers were smoking one size and one brand because their map of preference was very narrow. That changed completely with the advent of Cigar Aficionado. In the ,90s, especially after the cigar boom, cigar smokers made their map wider by smoking more than one size and more than one brand. Of course, it flipped over the business completely.
Q: Were there introductions of new products before Cigar Aficionado?
A: Very little. Very little. You would introduce a new size, but nothing like it is today where you go to an RTDA [Retail Tobacco Dealers of America trade show] and the first sign on the door is New. Everything has to be new nowadays.
Q: In one of our earlier conversations, you told me that you're not certain the proliferation of new brands is a good thing. Could you please elaborate on that comment?
A: I don't believe it is. I don't disagree that the smoker needs a little excitement, the smoker needs a little more choice. But I think we're overdoing the choices. And in cigars, there are so many permutations and there are so many ways of blending that you can do without going into the extremes. And some of the extremes have proven successful. While there are products that I don't cotton to at all, apparently there are some smokers that want this type of choice. But if you look at the brands today, any brand has at least four or five extensions of that brand. So, it becomes diluted. Now, you're either cannibalizing your own brand or you're confusing the smoker. It's a game that we're playing that I really don't feel is sane or healthy for the industry.
Q: I'm smoking one of your regular Fonsecas: mild, medium, creamy, elegant. You have some others that have a very different flavor altogether now, right?
A: Indeed. Well, that's one of the things that, of course, [resulted from] Cigar Aficionado waking up the smokers [by saying,] "Hey, there may be more to cigar smoking than just a mild cigar," which was the standard of the industry back in the ,80s and early ,90s, until Cigar Aficionado started on the verge of kicking up the taste of cigars. And of course, all the brands have had to accommodate themselves to that. So Fonseca, in particular, has now come up with three or four extensions of different tastes and different strength levels to cater precisely to the smokers.
Q: Is Fonseca your biggest brand?
A: Yes, it is. The regular Fonseca is still the biggest seller. I still think that the average smoker out there is a middle-of-the-road smoker. It's like saying, "I will have a lobster diablo twice a day for the whole week." You can't do this. Smoking a very strong cigar that satisfies you completely cannot be a four-cigar-a-day habit. You can't do this. I can't do it, anyway.
Q: Let's talk about some of the new things you're doing. Let's actually talk about the brands that you make.
A: The factory is divided into two major divisions. One is where
we make our own brands and the other one is where we make brands under contract. And under contract we make Casa Blanca for JR, we make Licenciados for Mike's Cigars, we make Nat Shermans—some parts of the Nat Sherman brand—and we make smaller brands for small distributors. We make some cigars for Europe, as well.
The other part of the factory is where we make the brands that we sell ourselves: Cubita, Fonseca, which are the two main brands, and then we have other, smaller regional brands, which are national, but they sell more in particular pockets of the United States. We make some bundles, as well.
Q: Did you get phone calls during the cigar boom with people saying: "I need this many cigars?"
A: Oh, we had people come in with suitcases full of money, open it up and then, "Here, take it. I need cigars." At the height of the boom in ,95, all the people that were coming into the Dominican Republic were stealing from cigarmakers right and left by offering all kinds of stupid wages and offering incentives and giving loans, and it was just crazy.
So we had a meeting at Pro Cigar [the association of Dominican cigarmakers] and we said, "Guys, we either take the high road or we take the low road." Now, if we're in business for the boom, let's
take the low road and retire at the end of the boom. But if we're going to be here after the boom, we have to be very conscious of what our situation is. Because, when all of this clears, the ones
left behind are going to inherit whatever craziness was done during the boom.
If you go back to the boom and you do a study of pricing, the cheapest cigars during the boom were the Fonsecas, the Macanudos, the H. Upmanns, the Montecristos. We were selling cigars at between $5 and $7 when people were getting $12, $13, $18, $20 a cigar. Again, we had to make a choice, and we made the choice. Because we weren't there for the moment. We're here for the long run. Now, whether that's smart or dumb, I don't know.
Q: When did you realize that the craze was starting to come to an end?
A: The RTDA of ,97—I forget where it was—but we noticed that the new guys that were coming with all this, "My great-grandfather was a barber, but he lived in a place that had tobacco…," they weren't
getting all the excitement that they were getting in ,95 and ,94 and ,96. In ,98, it just stopped.
Q: So, you had some bad years after that?
A: Well, ,98 and ,99 were not happy years at all. And 2000, for that matter. Two thousand and one started to get a little better, but, then, some manufacturers continued making cheap cigars. And today that's still the case.
Q: How cheap are we talking about?
A: A quarter. Twenty-five, 30-cent cigars.
Q: How can they do that?
A: Well, anybody can do that. Anybody can do that. And it's sad, because I sat with a big wholesaler and he told me, "These are my prices: bundles or boxes, this is what I pay." I said, "I can't sell you cigars at these prices, because I'm not going to give you consistency, I'm not going to give you quality." He says, "I'm not interested in that—I want price." I said, "Well, I'm sorry. That's not the way we do things." And we still sell him some cigars, but not many, because we can't compete.
Q: So what's your opinion of the market today? And how was last year for you?
A: In conversations I've had with a number of people, the gist of last year was, if you came out in 2003 as you did in 2002, tip of the hat and you're doing great. And basically, I was a standard of last year. If 2003 was as good as 2002, you were doing good, because the first four months of 2003 were the worst four months that I've ever seen in history. Weather had much to do with it. When weather hits from Chicago to Boston and from New York to Atlanta, that's a big chunk of the market right there. That's a huge chunk of the market. The rest of the year made up for the first four months and that's why, if you came out even, you were doing very well.
Q: What about this year? Are you optimistic about the current state of the cigar market?
A: Quite so, quite so, quite so. I think it's an exciting time, because manufacturers are in a situation where they have to be creative, they have to be innovative, they have to be consistent, and it's really fun. And again, if we overdo it, if we're creating new things every two months, then we're just adding too many things into the market. And then we're not making anything stable anymore.
Q: Tell us about some of your new stronger blends.
A: Well, the Cubita SMS [Spanish Market Selection], in particular, is a rather strong cigar. And of course, it's given the smoker a totally different area to smoke in the Cubita line. For example, the regular Cubita was a little stronger than the Fonseca, but still along middle-of-the-road strength. Now the SMS brings a different level of strength and aromas and tastes into the same brand. So we have been able to capture those that are looking for something different, something more exciting, something a little heavier for a particular time of the day or week or whatever.
Q: The wrapper on that is something unusual for you, right?
A: Yes, indeed. It's a Nicaraguan criollo seed that we are purchasing from Plasencia.
Q: Now, on the inside, is there stuff that you normally maybe haven't used in the past, too, or just more ligero from the Dominican?
A: A little more ligero, yeah. And the combination makes a different cigar altogether.
Q: Is it the strongest cigar you think you make?
A: Ah, that one and the [Fonseca] Reserve…different taste, but strength level, they're more or less in the same ballpark. And we also represent Joya de Nicaragua Antaño from Nicaragua, which is a very strong cigar.
Q: Tell about that relationship a little bit.
A: Brad [Weinfeld] decided to come back into the industry, and he decided to come back with us. Brad had a great relationship with Joya, which had been rebought by Alejandro Martinez, and he was looking for a distributor in the United States, so he came to Brad, and Brad came to me. Unfortunately, the old Joya de Nicaragua had been beaten so badly that it was a difficult proposition to get it off the ground. And then Brad, who came up with the name Antaño, said, "Let's do something a little different. Let's do something a little heavier in taste." And it's quite different. Unfortunately, it's a very limited production cigar.
Q: I want to talk to you about a difficult subject. The awful day in 2002, when you lost your brother, your nephew and—
A: And Julio.
Q: And Julio Fajardo, your right-hand man. Could you talk about what happened that day?
A: I was coming back from Spain. I was in Madrid. And Julio, Alvaro and Alvarito, my nephew, wanted to go to Haiti to look at a cigarette factory, because we were involved in the purchase of a cigarette factory in the Dominican Republic. So they wanted to go to Haiti to see the cigarette factory because they wanted to go see what their capabilities were. So I'm flying back, and they were leaving that morning to go to Port-au-Prince. And coming into Santiago, it must have been 5:30, 6 o,clock. And I called my niece to find out if they had come back from Haiti. And my niece tells me, "We have no news from them. They left this morning around 11 and we haven't heard from them since."
Q: They were supposed to be back…
A: Ah, 3 o,clock, 4 o,clock. So instead of going home, I went straight to the airport because they were starting a…not a rescue operation, but a flyover to see if they could find anything. So helicopters were going out and airplanes were going out. Weather was not good that day. Visibility was not good. So they came back around 6:30 or 7 o,clock, with no news. That night, we had no news. The next morning, which is April 18, rescue operations went out again and around 2 o,clock in the afternoon they found the airplane…from the air. They saw the airplane from the air. It was unreachable because of where it was and weather. Nobody could land where it was. Finally, Friday morning, they were able to land and a rescue team had left by land to go up to the mountain and try to see firsthand what had happened. So by the time they landed, on Friday morning, and the rescue team had gotten to the place where they had seen the plane, the news came back that all the…that it had been a fatal accident. So they were able to bring the bodies back that Friday. And we buried them that Friday afternoon.
Three-quarters of the company went down that day, so I was left sort of alone. I have my daughters and my niece, but, of course, they were, at the time, and they still are, works in progress. They're young and they're learning and they're involved, but not at the level that these three…well, my brother and Julio, because my nephew was also a work in progress.
Q: How old was your nephew?
A: Twenty-four.
Q: And Julio was your right-hand man.
A: Yeah. But, fortunately—in all the bad, you can always find some good things—Julio and I had talked of bringing up people from the factory, because Julio and I could no longer be casing wrapper,
following filler, seeing what the yields were on the floor, making
sure that the blends were being properly done. So Julio had been bringing up a lady called Lourdes Veloz de Rodriguez, and my daughter Raquel, who had come back from Boston, had finished her schooling and working for David [Kitchens] at Gloucester [Street Cigars] and she had been already in the factory for about a year. So both of them were being brought up by Julio and myself into running the factory.
So, when the accident happened, we just left Lourdes and Raquel where they were, now under my supervision instead of Julio's, now [that] Julio was no longer available. And thanks to that, I was able to maintain some sort of structure in the factory and some sort of sharing of the load as far as running the factory was concerned.
Q: That must have been crippling.
A: [Sighs] It still is. It still is. Because you can't walk into the factory and not see where these people used to roam and walk and talk and do. But I told the family, "You know, the world does not stop and, unfortunately, we have to deal with this as best we can individually, but we have to move forward, because there are other responsibilities. You, as children, you're working in the company, so you're young. There has to be a future. So we have to work towards that and make do as best we can."
And thank God, we have been able to maintain ourselves in the level of quality, in the level of commitment that we had previously. And we haven't put a lot of emphasis on real growth, because we don't have the capability of duplicating, for example, our efforts. But we have been able to grow ever so slightly and maintain our position within the industry.
Losing one is a tragedy. Losing two is a huge tragedy. Losing all three is just insurmountable. It's just mind-boggling.
Q: Last week, when I was in the Dominican Republic, someone brought up how Julio had helped him in his factory.
A: Oh, Julio was a darling. Sometimes I had to tell him, you know, "Remember, they're competitors." [Laughs]. He would say, "Ah, don't worry, chief, I know what I'm doing."
Q: He called you chief.
A: Yeah, he used to call me chief. Yeah, Julio was a hell of a good man. And my brother…aw, it happens.
Q: How old is your daughter now?
A: She doesn't like for me to tell that, but she's 27.
Q: So the next generation of Quesadas…
A: And my youngest, Patricia, she's still in college, but she's also part-timing in the factory. So she's been able to help a whole lot as well. And Esther, my niece, in the leaf business—she has been running that with me as well.
Q: So you're getting by…
A: It's not easy, David. But unfortunately, it's a fact of life. I can't do anything to change this, so I have to make do.
Photo by Bill Milne
Click here to read the February 1998 issue profile of Manuel Quesada.


text:
Giants pick apart Saints
Manning throws 4 touchdowns, Wilson runs wild
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Rookie David Wilson's brilliant game might be the spark that gets the New York Giants back to the playoffs.
Wilson returned a kickoff 97 yards for one touchdown, ran for two more scores and piled up a team-record 327 all-purpose yards. Eli Manning threw four touchdown passes in the Giants' 52-27 win over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
The Giants (8-5) maintained their one-game lead in the NFC East over Washington and Dallas. The loss all but ended the playoff hopes of Drew Brees and the Saints (5-8).
New York also ended a three-game losing streak against the Saints, who turned over the ball four times in losing their third straight.
Manning had TD passes of 6 yards to Martellus Bennett, 5 yards to Domenik Hixon, 25 yards to Hakeem Nicks and 10 yards to Victor Cruz. Wilson scored on runs of 6 and 52 yards and finished with 100 yards on 13 carries for the biggest day of his short career.
The 52 points were their most since scoring 55 against Green Bay in 1986. It also was the most given up by New Orleans, whose defense is run by former New York coordinator Steve Spagnuolo.
Darren Sproles scored on a 13-yard run and caught a 9-yard touchdown pass from Brees late in the third quarter, cutting the Giants lead to 35-27.
However, Jerrel Jernigan returned the ensuing kickoff 60 yards to set up Manning's touchdown pass to Cruz. New York iced the game when Stevie Brown returned one of two interceptions thrown by Brees to set up Lawrence Tynes' 39-yard field goal.
The biggest play was Wilson's kickoff return, which came one play after Elbert Mack intercepted Manning in the left flat and returned it 73 yards to give the Saints a 7-0 lead. l
The touchdown came minutes after Dallas rallied for a 20-19 win over Cincinnati and Washington beat Baltimore 31-28 in overtime despite losing Robert Griffin III to a knee injury.
The Giants could have folded against a team that had routed them the past two meetings. Instead, Wilson, who has been threatening all season to break a kickoff, fielded one at the 3, went up the middle and then veered toward the right corner of the end zone. He capped it with a somersault.
A fumble near midfield Jed Collins led to Manning's touchdown pass to Bennett and New York never trailed again.
Manning finished 22 of 35 for 259 yards and two interceptions. Brees, who had never lost to the Giants and had eight TD passes and no interceptions in the last two games, finished 26-of-43 for 354 yards. New Orleans outgained New York 487-394, but mistakes were its undoing.
The Giants didn't cash in after Wilson's returns of 58 and 52 yards, but his 20-yarder late in the half after a short kickoff set up a 69-yard touchdown drive. Manning capped it with the fade route to Hixon.
Defensive tackle Linval Joseph returned Collins' miscue 16 yards to the Saints 35. A 16-yard pass to Hixon and a couple of penalties set up a 6-yard touchdown toss to Bennett for a 14-7 lead.
Brees took the Saints on drives of 81 and 67 yards in the second quarter, but each time the NFL's top red-zone offense settled for field goals of 32 and 25 yards by Garrett Hartley.


text:
Liking television is becoming more socially acceptable
Manjula Stokes has twice sworn off television, once throwing a set off her deck in a fit over an ex-husband's sports obsession. Now she's a devotee of programs like "Downton Abbey," "Mad Men," "Survivor" and "Masters of Sex."
The teacher from Santa Cruz, California, illustrates a subtle change in society's attitude toward television. The medium is growing in stature, propelled by both art and technology. More worthy programs are available at a time when viewers are becoming more comfortable setting up their own schedules to watch.
"I feel it's more like reading a good book," Stokes said. "The acting is better, the direction is better. I think it's more serious as an art form."
A CBS survey of 700 people in the U.S. with Internet and television connections last year found that 28 percent said they're watching more television than they did a year ago. Seventeen percent say they're watching less, with the remainder indicating their habits are unchanged.
That may not seem like much, but there's a long history of people saying they are watching, or plan to watch, less TV — even as Nielsen measurements proved the opposite is true.
In other words, liking television is becoming more socially acceptable.
"You can go to a sophisticated party in New York City now and people will be talking about television programming, not the latest art film or the latest play," said David Poltrack, CBS' veteran chief researcher. "You can go to a bar in a lower socio-economic neighborhood and they'll be talking about television. They may be talking about different programs, but they'll be talking about television."
Now, for every award-winning drama there's a series about botched plastic surgeries, naked dating or Kardashians. More than one, truthfully. But the push among cable networks during the past decade to make their own original series has significantly increased the amount of quality programs.
For years, polls uncovered a certain shameful attitude toward watching television. When asked in 2000 how much time they spent watching TV the previous day, 84 percent of respondents told the Pew Research Center it was less than four hours. That didn't jibe with the Nielsen company's finding that the average American that year watched four hours, 15 minutes of television a day. A Gallup poll in 1990 found 49 percent of people said they spent too much time watching television. Only 19 percent said they watched too little. Nine years ago when CBS began its annual survey, more people said they were cutting back on TV time.
This year, Nielsen estimates the average American watches four hours, 50 minutes of TV a day.
"I think the quality is better," said Yael Chanoff, a 25-year-old writer from San Francisco. She's a fan of smart comedies like NBC's "Parks & Recreation." Many older shows Chanoff has seen, even hits like "Friends," strike her as cliché-ridden.
Some better shows now have an attention to detail that reminds Stokes, who is 59, of work done by the MGM movie studio during the last century.
Cory Phare, a 33-year-old academic conference director from Denver, said he grew up watching a lot of television but drifted away. The ability to binge on well-written dramas like "Breaking Bad," "The Americans" and "Dexter" through Netflix drew him back in. He just finished going back to watch the entire run of "The West Wing."
"Even when I'm on a lunch break, I pull it up on my smartphone," he said.
That's another key to television's resurgence. Viewers no longer depend on prime-time schedules set up in Hollywood boardrooms; they don't even have to depend on television. Stokes, Chanoff and Phare all consider themselves fans of modern-day TV, and none of them have cable or satellite subscriptions.
"My friends all watch it on computer," Chanoff said. She finds a friend with cable to watch "Parks & Recreation," the only show she cares to watch live.
Television continues on firm footing financially, despite the rise of digital video outlets like Netflix and YouTube. The research firm eMarketer Inc. predicted TV ad spending will hit $78.6 billion in 2018, up from $66.4 billion last year.
Fears of so-called "cord-cutting," where people drop their TV subscriptions and rely on online video services, was "surprisingly benign" in the second quarter, with just 305,000 households — less than one-tenth of a percent — quitting pay TV, according to financial advisory firm MoffettNathanson LLC.
The days of needing to choose between two good programs airing at the same time are now gone. The downside for networks is that it's harder for less-established shows to catch on because some nights more people are watching DVR playbacks than any individual show on a network.
That's a problem for another day. The first priority is getting people interested in what television has to offer.
"Really, television is now more than ever at the center of culture," Poltrack said.