text:
Translating isn't easy work. Many translators do want to continue, but they also have other things to take care of (i.e. school in my case). So, just keep up the support, sort of.
Translating isn't easy work. Many translators do want to continue, but they also have other things to take care of (i.e. school in my case). So, just keep up the support, sort of.
Because I'm somewhere in between,
My love and my agony.
You know, if people are really upset that books don't get finished, just don't read the translations till they are done.
I mean, really- I understand that people get frustrated that a tranlation they would like to see the end of may die before getting to the end... But to say that nobody should post till they are finished is to deny the rest of us the chance to read over time.
Personally, I am grateful for the people that take the time to translate. And if they don't finish, I am still grateful that I got to read the part I did. Would I like to see more? Sure. But frankly, beggars can't be choosers.
Criticising people that are just trying to help you is really unfair to them. And telling them they should not be posting till they finish what is often a monumental task is unfair to the rest of us.
Thanks again to all of you who have spent their free time translating for people like me. You hard work is appreciated, and I for one and willing to forgive, if things don't work out the way that you initially intended of hoped.
Congrats, Athena. Yu Pei Yu [still remembered his name "Sword and the Exquisiteness] epilogue: "Love is in the air." [Amusing, no? ]
Agree with both the readers' and translators' dilemma.
Solutions to Wuxia novel dissatisfaction:
1. recommend an unfinished Wuxia novel u like --"preferably" with a "wicked" cliffhanger at the end-- to a bunch of friends. Now u have a bunch of friends with an incentive to form a Wuxia translation group to finish that novel. haha. [Of course, collaborating this with the current translator is better too.]
2. exercise your reader rights. U [usually] cannot affect the author [ie. has a fast-forward button that speeds up a translator's abilities --translators would love such a device for themselves if 0% side-effects. ], but u can affect yourself.
3. forgot.
You can post in the translation's thread, or email the translator and ask them about the situation.
Because I'm somewhere in between,
My love and my agony.
I don't care if they never translate the whole story. I'm just happy that someone actually spend their time to translate something for me to read I'm just grateful to have something to read and know how the story really is like in the book. Since books are so much better than movies. *sigh* Oh BTW I just want to give a hand to the person responsible for translating The Adventures of Lu XiaoFeng. My favorite story and character of all time. I love Lu Xiao Feng. I think he's the most unique character ever, even better than GJ, YG, and ZWJ Gosh I'm going to get kill for this hehe
3. This is actually a "reader dissatisfaction prevention" (like fire prevention --best-- vs. fire fighting): aka guidelines translating Wuxia novels are different than Wuxia fiction writing. Translating usually takes longer. Some techniques:
1. post no cliffhangers --try posting passages that are self-sufficient (that dont ask for --require-- a followup). The translator already established the "story is good" near the beginning right?
2. update the readers. It's kinda like a flexible (vs. a fixed publication date) schedule. [I think Translators already use this, but maybe in a "reader dissatisfaction prevention" in mind?]
3. recruit "backup" translator(s). The more the better, since translation time and MORE IMPORTANTLY translation effort are reduced. If 5 translators translate one novel, and each translate one passage (ie one paragraph or sentence) in 30 minutes, the total output is 5 passages (ie. paragraphs or sentences) in 30 minutes.
4. quantity over quality. I think readers like quantity more than quality. [What is perfection in translation? Perfect/Absolute "conformity" to a set of rules/ideas?]
Salute to Wuxia readers and Wuxia translators.
I feel sorry for the translators. on one hand we say how much we appreciate the work they give us and on the other hand we list out all these guidelines to do this and don't do that.
These encouraging/discouraging remarks might end up scaring away other people who might be interested in giving this translation thing a try.
I know we're all fans begging for more, but please try to be more considerate of your suggestions and comments.
Patience is a virtue
I've decided to edit this message cause I was in an angry mood for a response from that poster. He/She will now be in my ignore list.
Last edited by zhaozilong44; 03-18-05 at 04:06 AM.
Well you'd be wrong. All I have to do is mention Bliss and his continuation of Dagger Lee or the trio of Strunf/Patudo/Du Gu seeking a win for their continuation of LOCH to prove you wrong. I can't speak for Bliss, but I know that translating 28 chapters is a lot less of a task than translating 89. Perhaps he would've started anyway, but it's undeniable that Meh's first 62 chapters was of great help.Originally Posted by zhaozilong44
You're being a little arrogant in speaking for "99% of the translators" aren't you? My impression is that while some translators would prefer to finish on their own, many others would be glad of receiving some help. That'd be less of a burden on them. Many of them seem to do it simply because they want to share their love of wuxia with non-Chinese readers, not because they want to own the work.
This guy is unbelievable.
No one is forcing you to read unfinished translations. All of the impatient readers who just can't stand unfinished work, why don't you simply not read them in the first place? It's your own fault for setting yourself up to get disappointed. Plus, I'm pretty sure the first poster only posted his rant because he was hoping to somehow guilt all the translators to finish their work.
Your analogy for TVB series doesn't work here. First off, TVB is a business. Starting a project and not finishing is bad business practice and would be a waste of time and money. Translations is not a business, it is volunteer work. If I ask you to use the analogy of requesting certain episodes for TVB to air before the series is finished, do you think they will do that? No, so this analogy between TVB and translations is irrelevant. Apples and Oranges.Originally Posted by zhaozilong44
Translators can translate whenever they want, stop whenever they want. They have no obligations, it is volunteer. If you can't stand unfinished translations, go learn the language and read it yourself. At least it will stimulate interest in Wuxia to a wider audience and spreading wuxia influence.
If a translator is not able to continue, or is a taking a long break to take care of other higher priorities in their lives, like Athena and Meh, then hopefully some other kind people will pick up where they left off, like Bliss. I don't understand why you think people will not do this because it's not like they are trying to publish their work. If they are, then it would make sense for them to not post at all.
So, your negative comments would only discourage translators to post their translations and limiting people's exposure to wuxia.
you misread his analogy. he means that tvb does finish the production, but you force yourself to not finish watching it. kinda like tryin to quit crack in a lesser extent.
and the "go learn chinese" arguement is the stupidest shit i have ever heard. seriously... assuming that since you're reading translations, you aren't living in an area with much exposure to chinese.. please be my guest to try. it'll take you what .. 5 years ? and especially since jy uses a lot of complex vocabulary in his novels.
Last edited by loch2; 03-17-05 at 07:30 PM.
And 5 years isn't better that a century? (zhaozilong44's words). If someone is not happy reading unifnished translations, just don't read them until they are finished. There, plain and simple.Originally Posted by loch2
Well it's not that hard to learn chinese if you have a vague background in it and know how sentences are formed but yeah learning it from scratch would be very difficult and JY is very difficult but a lot of the complexity in his language is used to describe that which is usually inessential so I suppose reading JY to get a rough idea of what's gong on in the story is not that hard. GL's relatively easy though. If anyone wants to learn the chinese vocabulary set found in wuxia novels I guess GL's a good place to start.
Originally Posted by bliss
Sorry, I don't have time to respond to all post, but I'll try and do a few.
I think you misled me into thinking that I'm ungrateful or something with this post of yours.
"Translations are 100% voluntary ... you should be grateful that any of these works are being translated in the first place. Translators devote their own time and efforts into something they are not being paid or compensated for whatsoever. Posts like these will just discourage people who do translate because they will feel that readers like you expect their total devotion in time and effort, and that the work that they HAVE done is not appreciated whatsoever. "
That wasn't my purpose or oringinal sentiment, but you misled me into thinking that it was. I'm posting at 3am at night with a rather busy work schedule so I can think too well.
Anyway, of course I applaud all translators for attempting to translate the works. I never said I didn't. And I know it's voluntary. I want to make two points. My point is not to discourage translators from translating.
It's to encourage the translators who aren't sure if they are really capable of translating a whole book, but claim that they want to to translate in secrecy first and see what they can do. By this, I mean. It's better not to get people's hopes high and then leave them unfulfilled. New translators who want to translate a whole book and claim they'll do it, should probably start off with a few chapters in secrecy first and see if they're really capable of such a task. From what I've seen, there were a lot of translators on the web whom wanted to translate whole books, but give up after a few chapters. I think that's kind of misleading the readers. But there's no way I can blame the translators. It's their life, time, and their devotion.
Note: This is not to discourage people from translating. And it applies to short chapters or whole books. For example: CC claimed that he was going to translate a few chapters in DGSD and he did. I mean, he said he was going to do it and didn't leave anyone's hopes unfulfilled cause he claimed from the beginning that he was only doing those few chapters.
Also, I left out quite a few translators whom I've known for years and sure that they will finish their translations. Moin, FaQ, Tiger, pop to mind. I'm sure there are others. The thing is, you kind of made me think that I was going in a way I'm not. When I'm not as busy and can think with a clear mind, I'll respond to this thread again.
be back later.....
I'm reading the translations because my knowledge in chinese is limited. I'm sure if I dedicate myself, I will be able to learn enough to read the novels myself. But I'm not, so I rely on the translations. There are plenty of ways to learn chinese. They teach chinese in some universities. There are language softwares, one I know of that is pretty good is Rosetta Stone, although I've never tried the Chinese one myself.Originally Posted by loch2
And so what if it takes you 5 years? It's what you yourself have to be willing to do to satisfy your wants. If it was easy, then obviously everyone would just go learn it and not have to read the translations. What other options do you have besides learning chinese if "translators shouldn't post unless they're finished"?
I think we still should thank all translators regardless whether they finish the translation or not. It requires devotion and time. I'm sure all translators are fully devoted, but it is time which is the biggest obstacle. They all have their own life to carry on and we have no right to ask too much from them.
Anyway, thank's to all translators. Your works have kept me refreshed especially after a day full of school work.
Thanks for the vote of confidence, but sounds like you're more sure of me finishing then I am.Originally Posted by zhaozilong44
It appears that there are just different views going on here regarding the question of the translator's obligation. Despite the remarks of "I understand they're not getting paid, it's voluntary, I appreciate their efforts, they have lives too, etc, etc.", it's clear there are some people who feel the translator is obligated to finish the whole thing.
For example, by suggesting that the translator finish several chapters in private before deciding to post anything at all. Although that is not stating outright that it's a job (which he is not getting paid for), or that any form of legal obligation is involved, it basically implies a similar thing. It is also not a realistic indication because even if one were to crank out a bunch of chapters, change still occurs in life and one still might not finish.
For me, I translated because I wanted to share a story I enjoyed, improve my Chinese, and cause it was fun. And from time to time (yes, rare these days), I may feel like doing more. Of course, the hope was to finish, but there are no guarantees.
I disagree that unfinished translations should never be shared in the first place. There are a lot of people who just enjoy reading what is available. Of course, everyone hopes to read the whole thing, but they still enjoy it nevertheless. And I think these are the people who truly approach it in the same spirit as myself, and a lot of other translators (although I can't truly speak for them), when we started these things. If anyone feels like translating and sharing something, do so. If anyone feels like reading em, do it. It's all very informal (this is just a discussion forum). I think anything beyond that is taking it too seriously.
I think the idea of not sharing at all until a certainty level is reached is a bit far-fetched. And while I can understand the basis for this suggestion (namely alleviating the disappointment of some who just can't stand to not read the whole story), not everyone shares that same outlook. And it would deprive those people of the enjoyment they get. Really, as evidenced by the range of opinions on this topic, how one reacts to these 'unfinished translations' is one's own individual issue. As such, I think anyone who can't handle the possibility of not reading the entire thing should just choose not to read it at all and let the others enjoy it for what it is.
As far as the learning Chinese thing goes... if you ('you' in the general sense, not responding directly to Jason here) feel that the odds are just too stacked against you, then fine. Hard to argue about the degree of difficulty in accomplishing it since everyone will have their own levels of motivation, circumstances, etc. Oh well, just means you won't get to read the whole story if the translation isn't finished. But that's your issue. Not trying to be mean, just stating the obvious. In life, you either work hard and do what you need to do to acquire something, or resign yourself to not getting it... either because it's not worth it to you or the 'Fates' have decided to keep it out of your hands. Let's not place the onus on the translator.
Just my 2 cents.
Last edited by TigerWong; 03-28-05 at 01:23 AM.
I read a fair bit of fanfiction, and one of the worst things that can happen to a reader is to have begun reading a wonderful story, get to a nice bit, and be left stranded because the writer lost steam.
For a non-chinese-literate wuxia reader, the feeling must be worse, because you know that the story is only going to get better, and you know that the story already has an ending. I understand drjqool's frustrations. I mean, I read my first wuxia novel, LOCH, because I was watching a TV adaptation of it. I got hooked, I was dying to know what happened next and 24 hours seemed a long time to wait for the next segment. Readers here have to wait for weeks, sometimes months to get the next update.
Although it's true that all the translators' time are voluntary, and translators do have other priorities; as a translator, I feel bad making my readers wait.
About quality of translations, working with other translators, etc... I'm speaking for myself only and not for the many other translators here. Before I came here, I ony read JY's novels. I got exposed to GL's stuff because there were more GL translations here than JY ones. If the 1st few chapters of the translation was good, I'd go and read the original chinese version. If not, I didn't bother. It was because I benefited from the translations, and that I am chinese literate, I thought I'd return something back to this community. Hence I began to translate GL's Horizon Bright Moon Sabre.
As a translator, I found that my priorities differed from that of a reader. As a reader, my primary concern was to find out what happened next. I didn't care for the quality of the tranlation too much, as long as the grammar was not too atrocious. This is just for wuxia translations though, if it's fanfiction, bad grammar turns me off straight away, because the only indication I can get as a reader with regards to the quality of a fanfiction story is the care that a writer takes in his/her writing. The best indication of this is his/her attention to grammar. If he/she doesn't care about something as basic as grammar, dare I believe that he/she would pay attention to characterisation, plot, etc?
As a translator however, I want to write the best translation that I can write. I care about the quality of my translation. When I work on a paragraph, my first concern is if my translation is grammatically correct. My next concern is if I'm translated the essence of the story properly. What do I do with word plays which make sense in Chinese but not in English? When do I use a literal translation, and when do I use hanyu pinyin with a footnote to explain what the term means? How much ground I cover when I'm translating is something that I do take note, but that is very very low amongst my list of concerns.
Because of the time that I put in, to think through the choice of this word as compared to other, a translation becomes very personal. Much like a fanfiction I'm afraid. Some of the more seasoned writers may enjoy collaboration. But as a novice translator, I prefer to work alone. With the help of a beta reader of course, but I do prefer to work on the initial draft alone. Also, while reading and rereading a well-written story is very enjoyable, rereading a paragraph for translation is work. It's not a bad way to spend time, but it's still time that I could have spent doing something that's of more interest to me. My free time is mostly used for me to pursue things I find interesting (like magic for instance... learning how to bend forks and spoons is so cool, but I digress), and when I get round to it, I work on a section of translation.
At the end of the day, the poor reader is at the mercy of the translator. Because we are not paid, we are not obliged to translate consistently. Do readers have the right to be upset by the "irresponsibility" of a translator? To start something good and not finish? Absolutely. I get frustated by fanfiction writers who don't finish their stories, and yet I know that writing for them is like translating to me.
Let's not jump on drjqool for airing his/her frustrations here. Think of it this way, for him/her to get this upset, he/she must have really enjoyed your work. Your translations must have captured the authors' essence enough for the reader to get hooked. He/she may sound angry, but what he/she is really doing is pleading you to continue your work.
« I know more than I can express in words, and the little I can express would not have been expressed, had I not known more. » 弗拉基米爾·弗拉基米羅維奇·納博科夫


text:
Electrochem Commercial Power, the battery maker eager to invest $28 million in Raynham Woods Commerce Center, may pull out of the deal if drainage problems in the park are not resolved soon.
Electrochem Commercial Power, the battery maker eager to invest $28 million in Raynham Woods Commerce Center, may pull out of the deal if drainage problems in the park are not resolved soon.
The company broke ground on its 82,000-square-foot building last month with an eye to opening next June and selling its smaller Canton plant.
But the Taunton River Watershed Alliance and a residential abutter have appealed a conservation commission permit that allows the company to start construction.Appeals can drag on for months.
"The environmental barriers need to be addressed as quickly as possible or Electrochem may decide to leave town. That's the reality," Town Planner Richard McCarthy said.
Michael Valent, Electrochem project manager, said the threat to pull out was real, but declined further comment Monday because negotiations were ongoing.
The problems began long before Electrochem bought the 20-acre parcel from Paramount Development and inked tax-saving deals with the town to locate here. The layout of the business park was approved 20 years ago with a flawed drainage system, local officials say.
An old dam and a culvert running under nearby Hill Street cannot handle the water runoff from a two-year storm.
Hill Street homeowner Anne Avelino, whose property abuts Raynham Woods to the south, says she is losing land to the floodwaters at an alarming rate and has been living with "level two white water" in her backyard for three years.
"It's just being absolutely destroyed," Avelino said. "I can hear the roar when I walk out my door."
Watershed alliance representative Robert Davis said the dam and a culvert must be upgraded to modern standards to protect the waterways.
Avelino and Davis have also appealed the conservation approval of Bella Estates, a 55-unit condominium complex planned for the eastern side of the park.
The developer of Bella Estates has paid $48,000 to carry out a drainage study that concluded the dam and culvert needed to be enlarged.
Although the Planning Board approved the site plans for Electrochem, board member Henry Ellis said every new building in the park sends more water downhill.
Carl Gauthier of Paramount Development wants to work with the town or local boards may not approve further building in his park. The old wooden dam was replaced by a concrete structure five years ago. "Obviously it hasn't solved the problem," he said.
McCarthy has also asked selectmen to endorse his request for a state $1.2 million Public Works Economic Development (PWED) grant to pay for storm water quality and drainage and road work improvements in the commerce center.
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Bernard Cohen, McCarthy says the Electrochem project is a $28 million private investment that will retain 200 jobs in Massachusetts, infuse $273,000 a year into local tax revenue and generate $464,000 a year in regional taxes.
The cost of improvements to the dam and culvert is estimated to be between $150,000 and $200,000.
Based in Clarence, N.Y., Electrochem is a subsidiary of Greatbatch Ltd., a leading manufacturer of high-performance lithium cells for extreme environments.Its clients include NASA, the U.S. military and Halliburton.
Company representatives said they searched from Mexico to China for new premises before settling on Raynham. The director of the Massachusetts Office of Business Development attended the groundbreaking last month.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Group hopes to mark graves of Civil War veterans
Library helping Masonic Lodge find next of kin
Tucked away in the back corner of the Wesleyan Cemetery in Northside stands a solitary tombstone marking the grave of Daniel H. Robison, an African-American Civil War veteran.
It's the only Union soldier's grave that's marked with a tombstone, with six others nearby awaiting that honor.
"Abraham Lincoln said that no veteran should be buried in an unmarked grave," said Mendle Adams, chaplain of the Masonic Temple Lodge.
Adams is leading the effort to get proper headstones placed at the graves.
He's sharing his progress with City Council, but under federal guidelines, next of kin must apply for the markers.
"Some have been dead 100 years-plus, (so) it's really difficult to find the next of kin, but we did find the next of kin for two of them," Adams said.
The genealogy department at the Hamilton County public Library is helping to find the soldiers' ancestors.
Charles Williams, a Masonic Order member and Korean War veteran, said the process has become close to his heart.
"I'm overwhelmed," Williams said. "It just makes me feel good that this has taken place, and I hope to live to see it through because hey I'm 81 years old."
The Masonic Lodge has collected enough money to install each of the missing headstones, Adams said.


text:
In day two of the Great Oak Workout Week series, we look at the history of the program and what they've been able to accomplish at both the state and national level. We also learn about what that tradition means to the athletes and the program.
Our release schedule is as follows:
- Monday, September 17: Working Toward Redemption at NXN
- Tuesday, September 18: The Tradition At Great Oak
- Wednesday, September 19: Young Leaders Stepping Up
- Thursday, September 20: The Battle To Make The Varsity 7
- Friday, September 21: Finding The Drive On Race Day


text:
Ah, the new-school power of nitrous oxide blended with the jet set trash and no star world of Cherry Bomb mufflers, all wedded to a hand-me-down lawnmower. The hooligans at Callie's Customs came up with what should by all rights be a massively overcarbureted mower (an Edelbrock 750? WTF!?!), but apparently the things spins up to a 12k redline, which is absolutely ludicrous from a garden-variety one-lunger like this. Nutzoid. [Thanks to Jason for the tip.]
Our Mower [Callie's Customs]
Hello, Mowto: Lawnmower Racing Tosses Turf, Bad Puns [Internal]


text:
GENDER: Female (sterilized)
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Estimated Birthday: 7/1/20
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text:
Oct-29-2009 HMFA Helps Break Ground on Mixed-Income Townhouse Community in Trenton
HMFA Helps Break Ground on Mixed-Income Townhouse Community in Trenton
TRENTON - New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA) Executive Director Marge Della Vecchia today joined local officials and representatives of K. Hovnanian Homes to break ground on The Villages at Delaware Run, an 84-unit townhouse project located at Lamberton and Lalor streets in Trenton. The HMFA, an affiliate of the Department of Community Affairs (DCA), has committed to $7.7 million in construction and subsidy loans for the project.
"This is the first time the HMFA has partnered on a project with K. Hovnanian Homes, the state's largest homebuilder, and it couldn't be for a more worthwhile community," said HMFA Executive Director Della Vecchia. "The Villages at Delaware Run represents the Agency's mission of investing in projects that increase affordable housing, encourage people to live where they work, and enhance market value and community well-being. It will also help revitalize Trenton's South Ward neighborhood and boost businesses there."
The groundbreaking today marks the first of two phases of The Villages at Delaware Run, which will ultimately include a total of 84 newly constructed townhomes. The project is located on the Champale Redevelopment site, an area bordered by Lamberton, Cliff, Lalor and Centre Streets and adjacent to the Route 29 tunnel and Riverfront Park in the City of Trenton. Upon completion, the project will have 12 three-story residential buildings and will include a mini-park open to the general public. K. Hovnanian will also fund exterior improvements to the Delaware Inn, a nearby 211-year-old former tavern owned by the city that is slated to become the Port of Trenton Museum and a community center.
Phase I will consist of 50 townhouses contained within six three-story buildings. The townhomes will range from two-bedroom, 1½ bath units to three-bedroom, 2½ bath units. All the units will meet New Jersey Energy Star standards and have garages.
Of the first phase townhouses, eight will be affordable units priced between $75,500 and $138,900 and 42 will be emerging market units with prices ranging from $165,000 to $227,000.
The HMFA will be providing a construction loan of approximately $3.76 million and a subsidy loan of approximately $3.95 million under the Choices in Home Ownership Incentives Created for Everyone (CHOICE) program. CHOICE is the Agency's financing program for the development of newly constructed and substantially rehabilitated homeownership housing in New Jersey. The program features below-market interest rate construction loans and construction subsidy funding for developers, as well as favorable end loan financing for eligible homebuyers.
The anticipated construction start date for phase I is fall of this year with an estimated completion date of April 2011.
For more information on HMFA programs and mortgages, please call 1-800-NJHOUSE or 609-278-7400, or log on to www.nj-hmfa.com.


text:
To annuitize or not to annuitize? That's just one of many questions financial advisors face in the seemingly simple but actually complex effort to produce a paycheck for retirement clients.
The difficulty is especially pronounced for middle-market clients, since the less well-off have few choices other than Social Security while those with ample assets have enough portfolio wealth to obviate the need for a monthly paycheck.
To help advisors get a global view of the key issues and trade-offs, AdvisorOne spoke with actuary Anna Rappaport (left), chairwoman of the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Committee on Post-Retirement Needs and Risks. Earlier this year, the Schaumburg, Ill.-based organization released a number of issue briefs on key retirement decisions, overseen by Rappaport's committee.
Rappaport, whose consultancy is based in Chicago, says there are three main approaches to creating retirement income paychecks: income annuities; guaranteed products such as variable annuities; and systematic withdrawals. She stresses that middle-class clients are usually best served by some combination of the choices, and that's where advisors can help.
"The products are complicated, so there's room for advisors to help clients sort out what's better," she says. They can explain "what the range of options are and choose a good mix for them, and I think the idea of all or nothing is not the right direction" for most clients.
These three methods of generating retirement income have different, sometimes opposite, features involving trade-offs advisors and clients need to discuss. "Who's going to bear the investment risk, and who's responsible for making the investment decisions?" Rappaport asks. "Most of the time you give up flexibility and control in exchange for lifetime security."
So, in deciding on an income approach, advisors and clients should first think about whether they want a guarantee behind that income stream. An income annuity, also known as an immediate annuity, is designed to mimic a traditional pension plan. The client purchases a monthly paycheck with a lump sum that is guaranteed by the insurer to last a lifetime (unless only a fixed number of years was purchased).
The trade-offs include no ability to access principal again, and no death benefit for heirs. But another benefit is higher payouts than other fixed-income products since those who die early subsidize the paychecks of those who live long. "You have some winners and losers," Rappaport says. "People who live longer get [more]."
But many other decisions, and trade-offs, remain.
Should the income annuity include an inflation adjustment? While inflation drives up a retiree's lifetime expenses, is the cost of the inflation rider worth the reduction in the monthly paycheck that funds it? Or might there be a cheaper way to buy inflation protection?
Advisors and clients must also assess the financial soundness of the insurance company issuing the guarantee, and may have to give up some additional income in return for increased safety.
Another obvious consideration is price: "You can buy on a basis that's more cost effective to an individual or less so," Rappaport says, adding: "You can use a competitive bidding platform like Income Solutions," which she discloses is a consulting client of hers.
Guaranteed products like variable annuities can overcome some of the deficiencies of income annuities such as loss of control of principal and the lack of a death benefit for heirs.
Especially with VAs containing GLWB riders (guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits), clients have access to their funds during the accumulation stage while enjoying the benefits of a paycheck that clients cannot outlive. These products also have a flexible range of investment options, including all manner of equity and fixed-income options.
But here too there are trade-offs. A death benefit to heirs means there is a smaller income payout than is obtainable through income annuities. Also, VAs are famous for their hard-to-compare features, and layers of expenses and surrender charges add to their costs.
Most of the above-mentioned issues do not affect those who derive their income from systematic portfolio withdrawals. But here the trade-off is quite simple, and unnerving, for middle-class clients. There is no guarantee. When the funds are depleted, the paychecks cease—even if the client has many years of life ahead.
Conversely, though, the entire portfolio can go to heirs if the client dies before portfolio depletion. And the account owner never loses control of the funds and can alter investment strategy and income amounts as desired.
To Rappaport, who stresses the advantage of a middle course for most investors, the challenge for advisors is: "How do you make a portfolio that is not all one way or the other, that balances between some guaranteed life income, and leaves some money for investing?
"If you do annuitize the money, then you may be able to be more aggressive with the rest of your investments," she adds.
All these product choices and feature trade-offs do not begin to exhaust the questions retirees face.
For example, if they still have a mortgage at the time of retirement, do they pay it off prior to annuitizing or keep the mortgage but enjoy a higher monthly income?
When to retire, when to claim Social Security and whether to buy long-term care insurance are a few others.
"People are very appreciative when they understand the range of options they have," Rappaport says. "For advisors, how you build a portfolio that defines and helps you think about the trade-offs is a really important issue."


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Friday, 25 January 2008
The Dog wants a Bone
Posted by Amrita at Friday, January 25, 2008
11 Fertilize my soul:
- Jo's-D-Eyes said...
Ha Amrita, Your dog is the sweetest eh? You can nurse another dog but no-one is better as your own, Give sheeba my hug,
Your blog looks great so is your header, fantastic!
Have a great weekend , watch my sky of Holland today, and listen to the new song on my blog:)
JoAnn greetings
- 25 January 2008 at 21:24
- kostas said...
Very good photographs, elect the beautiful ladies in movie stars
- 26 January 2008 at 01:03
- Kimmie said...
HI Amrita...your blog looks so great...love the design and the header. So colorful and bright.
Sheeba is so cute, even as a picky eater ;-)
We got some adoption news from God...
mama to 6
one homemade and 5 adopted
- 26 January 2008 at 08:32
- Kate said...
I wonder if Sheeba would let you put curlers on HER!?! LOL
- 26 January 2008 at 10:05
- Gudl said...
What a nice dog you have.
And the other one...funny!
- 26 January 2008 at 17:35
- Becky Wolfe said...
I had a fussy little dog once too. We'd pour her dish full of kibbles & bits and she'd always eat her favourite bits first, the little ones and then, when she was hungry enough, she'd go back for the non-favourites, play with them a bit and then finally eat them!
Funny fussy little creatures that are so lovable!
- 27 January 2008 at 00:09
- Anonymous said...
hmmm...now thats quite natural, but try to get rid of the chicken for some time....I absolutely love the second shot...really cute & you have captured it very nicely!
- 27 January 2008 at 09:49
- Amrita said...
Thank you joAnn, IOS is such a sweet dog too.The song is lovely.
Good idea Kostas. i was watching Garfeild, the cat movie and thought Sheeba could also be a star. She is very intelliigent
Dear kimmie, I read your adoption news. praise god. Rom 8;28
Hi Kate, Sheeba doesn 't like any appendages.I tried but she shakes them off.
Gudl the pug is so cute its a photo I copied from another blog. But I wish he was mine.
Hi Becky, Sheeba does the same. She picks out the tasty bits and waits for more. When she doen 't get them, she goes right back and finishes up the rest.
Hi Kalyan,can 't take gredit for the second shot, its copied.
- 27 January 2008 at 19:42
- Amrita said...
I should have entitled this post Dog Shall Not Live By Cupcakes Alone?
- 28 January 2008 at 15:22
- Anonymous said...
Refering to the Dog that has self control if he could only talk would say 'I need the Blueberry muffins from Tim Hortons these are not to my taste'.Anway let sleaping dogs lie.
- 28 January 2008 at 23:20
- Amrita said...
I also love blueberry muffins, specially the mix Anju bought for us.Thanks prem.
- 29 January 2008 at 20:55


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From the DVD case:
Fans of The Incredible Hulk will love this early sixties horror film. After accidentally being exposed to a dose of atomic radiation, a Russian scientist's body undergoes massive transformation. With this ill-tempered monster out to reek havoc on the world, is anyone safe? (1961, b&w)
Mark says:
The Beast of Yucca Flats is as close as you can get to an Ed Wood movie without actually being an Ed Wood movie. It has a ridiculous plot line, cheesy narration, wooden acting, and features Ed Wood regular Tor Johnson (Bride of the Monster, Plan 9 from Outer Space) in a starring role. Still, Beast of Yucca Flats fails to capture that certain Ed Woodian charm.
The movie's most obvious flaw is its lack of dialog. The entire story is told through the narration of writer/director Coleman Francis. What little dialog we do hear was obviously dubbed in later, and not very well at that. It seems the most creative efforts were devoted to obscuring the characters' faces as they spoke.
There is amusement value to be found in the narration, though. Incredibly silly lines are expressed with deadly seriousness. For example, as a man relaxes on a cot: "Nothing bothers some people, not even flying saucers." This might make sense if the movie had anything to do with flying saucers, but it doesn't.
The storyline is fairly standard, but silly. Tor Johnson plays brilliant Russian scientist, Joseph Javorsky. So right away our suspension of disbelief is stretched to its limits.
After one of the most boring car chases in cinematic history, Javorsky is transformed into a mindless, killing beast via a nuclear explosion. He still looks like Tor Johnson, but his shirt is ripped and he has some goop on his face. He then strangles a husband and wife and is pursued through the desert by a pair of dedicated patrolmen.
I'm actually making it sound more exciting than it is. For a film of merely 54 minutes, it feels much longer. Much, much longer.
The Beast of Yucca Flats desperately tries to impart a message to us, but we're never sure what that message is. It seems to take an anti-progress stand (and the filming technique reinforces this theme) but its hard to tell what to make of lines like: "In the blistering desert heat, Jim and Joe plan their next attack. Find the Beast and kill him. Kill, or be killed. Man's inhumanity to man." Everything is said as if it is very important, but nothing fits together.
Speaking of things not fitting together, the opening scene is a complete mystery. A woman towels off after a bath (there's actually some very brief and awkward nudity) and then Tor appears and strangles her.
What's so perplexing is that this scene takes place before Tor is transformed into the beast. It is also filmed indoors, while the rest of the movie is set in the desert. My guess is that the nudity is a ploy to capture the viewer's attention, but the overall effect is clumsy and utterly confounding.
I'm giving Beast of Yucca Flats a few points for its amusing narration, but I can only recommend this film to hardcore B-movie enthusiasts. Even then, it's not a hearty recommendation.
Despite what the DVD description above says, fans of The Incredible Hulk will not love this film.
Scene to watch for: Never say, "Shoot first and ask questions later," to Jim Archer unless you mean it.
Line to listen for: "Boys from the city, not yet caught by the whirlwind of Progress, feed soda pop to the thirsty pigs."
Trivia: That cute little bunny scene at the end was completely improvised when a rabbit just happened to hop onto the set. I think it was attracted to the goop on Tor Johnson's face.
Mark's Rating: ! ½ out of 5.


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During the first year of No Man's Sky's development, not even half of the Hello Games studio knew what a team of their four developers were working on.
I spoke to Sean Murray, managing director and Hello Games founder, in an interview at E3 in Los Angeles two weeks ago when he told me this story.
"We worked for a year and we didn't actually show anyone," he said. "There's like ten people at Hello Games and four of us just went into a room and locked the door and we had a separate entrance and things like that. We didn't show the rest of the team for that whole year and we also didn't show any publishers or anything like that."
The small indie team at Hello Games is still set to self-publish its impressive-looking first-person game.
Murray: "We worked for a year and we didn't actually show anyone."
"Why didn't you show the rest of your team?" I asked.
"To build pressure and expectation," Murray said. "I wanted it to go back to what we felt when we were making Joe Danger and what I felt when I was working at other studios on prototype games. I wanted to feel the guilt of wasting time or something not working, that pressure. People, the rest of the team, were working really hard on stuff that was important for Hello Games and Joe Danger-related stuff. So I felt enormously guilty if I wasn't delivering. That's how you should feel, I think. Also this thing of, 'I have to impress them.' We kept saying 'it's not ready, it's not ready, it's not ready.' The longer that went on the more that we wanted to make it good. We needed to justify the amount of time we'd spent on it. So that's quite nice."
"How was the reaction when you finally showed the team?" I asked.
"It was cool," Murray replied. "Some of the team did have those questions, like, how are you going to do this? This is madness, and stuff."
The team was impressed, Murray told me, but they weren't exactly sure what to make of it, either. And they weren't the only ones a little taken aback by their first look at the game that would go on to steal the show at last year's VGX.
"There was also something which we had before when we showed it off at the VGXs," Murray said. "People would often say—I showed other developer friends—and they told us we shouldn't show at the VGXs and they would say, 'I like this but I don't think people will generally like this. This is not really the general style of things that you see.'"
Murray: "Some of the team did have those questions, like, how are you going to do this? This is madness, and stuff."
Even Murray himself, who was surprised by the amount of cheering a game like Mortal Kombat X received during its showing at Sony's press conference, wasn't sure that people would accept his game.
"Why was Mortal Kombat getting so much cheering? That is a gross game to me," Murray said. "And it's kind of embarrassing. I sat there cringing a little bit. There's a lot of that and when you see that you think, 'Ok I like this thing [No Man's Sky], but I don't think that crowd is going to like that thing.'"
But excitement for No Man's Sky at its VGX reveal turned out to be high. It was a new game with seemingly endless possibilities. The player character wandered a colorful planet and then instantly jumped into a spacecraft to fly straight into space combat. And there was cheering. Word on the Internet was that everyone was excited.
The buzz for No Man's Sky was even louder at its recent, second showing at E3. Hello Games had not only reinforced all the ideas that made the game so appealing in the first place, but this was now a survival story. Just roughly five months previous to E3, their studio had flooded. And badly.
"We basically threw out everything," Murray said. "We lost all our machines. We had most of the work backed up. We told people at the time that we had everything backed up, but the reality is we didn't and we lost some stuff and so, for us, this E3 is more triumphant than people realize."
Although they had promised that the flood would not delay the game, some gamers were apparently unconvinced.
"Every now and then, people would be tweeting—because I'm NoMansSky and people just use it—so they'll be like, '@NoMansSky was flooded! They'll never be at E3!' and stuff like that," Murray said. "Everyone was talking about it and saying, 'I think that game was vaporware!' So we felt, not that we had to prove people wrong, but we just had to regain people's faith for them to be ok and for ourselves, as well."
Five months later and, what do you know, they showed up at E3, post-flood and all.
And, don't worry. Murray tells me they really do have everything backed up now. It only takes one bad hit to learn that lesson.
To contact the author of this post, write to firstname.lastname@example.com or find her on Twitter at @tinaamini.


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I was recently invited by University School of Management Studies in Delhi to deliver a talk in their ongoing Entrepreneurship development program. It is always motivating to see young students pursue entrepreneurial dreams. Things have changed quite a bit compared to what they were about 5-6 years ago.
Here is the slide-deck from the day's talk.


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Facom 21 mm Socket Wrench, Hex Drive With Tube Handle
This image is representative of the product range
- RS Stock No.:
- 250-5349
- Mfr. Part No.:
- 76.21
- Manufacturer:
- Facom
RoHS Status: Not Applicable
- COO (Country of Origin):
|Per unit
|1 +
6 / 12 point pipe wrenches with opening
Introducing the Facom 6 / 12 point pipe wrenches with opening, a set of professional and durable pipe wrenches with patented OGV 6-point profile on straight end and 12-point profile on angled end, providing increased torque, longer tool life and protection of nut corners. The 12 points also provide a 15° recovery angle. The angled design and opening allow long bolts or studding to pass through without detracting from the strength of the wrench. The satin chrome finish ensures that the wrench will remain durable even in tough working conditions whilst remaining resistant to rust and deterioration.
Features and Benefits
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Angled open head socket, designed for powerful unlocking with minimal effort and increased torque
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Bi-Hex x Hex drive shape
Typical Applications
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|Drive Size
|21 mm
|Handle Type
|Drive Shape
|Overall Length
|221 mm
|Chrome Vanadium Steel
|Satin Chrome


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Veteran small forward Paul Pierce will sign a two-year contract with the Washington Wizards, according to ESPN.
Pierce will reportedly join Washington on a full mid-level exception worth $11 million over two years. He can opt out after the first year.
A 16-year veteran out of the University of Kansas, Pierce spent the first 15 years of his career with the Boston Celtics before spending 2013-14 with the Nets. He was traded to Brooklyn last summer and averaged 13.5 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in his lone season in black and white.
Pierce, a 10-time NBA All-Star who earned Finals MVP honors in leading Boston to a title in 2008, agrees to sign just hours after last season's starting small forward Trevor Ariza agreed to a deal with the Houston Rockets.


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I'd first like to start off this post with an apology.
I'm sorry. I feel like I've abandoned my blog … but I haven't. I PROMISE!
I've just been ridiculously … insanely … exhaustingly … busy.
In the last month and a half I have …
- filmed more episodes of Must.Love.Food (amazing).
- celebrated my grandfather's 90th birthday (extra-amazing & super special).
- moved in with the manfriend (happy dance).
- packed and unpacked boxes and boxes of books, kitchen equipment, clothing, shoes … books. More books. So many … hardcover books (aka über heavy to carry).
- Oh! And I baked for these pretty awesome pop-ups in Magpie's three Ottawa locations … you not only got to look at some stellar jewellery … and clothing (from Victoire) BUT you also got to nibble on some mini lemon and mini chocolate tarts.
Holy heck ya! But also super tiring … especially when you add my regular 40 hour a week job into the mix.
I'm pretty darn exhausted.
But that doesn't mean that I haven't been baking, taking pictures, editing them and then working on a post. It just means … it takes me a while to get it all done.
I think sharing my banana chocolate – peanut butter chip coffee cake muffin recipe might make it all ok though.
I mean … think about it. Bananas. Chocolate chips. Peanut butter chips. Tossed together and lovingly baked. A total winner … plus perhaps one of my favourite things.
These muffins rock it something fierce. I'm so glad that I decided to give this recipe a go for last month's baking crew challenge. When Tom & Aimée, Cory, Meredith and I decided to bake muffins for our March gathering … I think we all kinda thought "muffins!? seriously. how exciting" (insert sarcastic voice).
But I'm actually really glad that's what we baked.
First off … I got to make something new … and something that I think will remain a staple in my baking roster … because frankly … these are divine.
Secondly … Meredith made these perfectly delightful rhubarb & ginger muffins (originally Jamie Oliver's mother's day muffin recipe).
She sourced out some fresh rhubarb and the result was a muffin packed full of rhubarb and a generous amount of ginger. I loved it. I actually meant to make a batch of these for my grandfather's party … (I ran out of time!). Huge winner. It'd be great with some strawberry curd stuck in the centre … maybe I'm just getting a little too fancy though?
Tom & Aimée decided to make one of my personal favourite recipes (and it was actually from my blog!) – pumpkin chocolate chip loaf became muffins.
This is a classic recipe for a number of reasons:
1. It's good. It packs a punch of pumpkin. Which really means it tastes like the absolute best thing in the world.
2. Because you add chocolate chips to the mix … it doesn't taste too healthy. Or boring. Nope. These muffins are good.
3. Pumpkin chocolate chip loaf is still the most popular recipe on my blog. There's a reason for it.
4. It was the first thing I baked for the manfriend and I after our move. New kitchen = must test the oven = pumpking chocolate chip muffins.
All in all, this was a successful, and super tasty baking crew challenge. Everyone gets into a muffin making rut, and by challenging ourselves, we were able to present some tried and true classic recipes … but also added a few new ones to the mix.
I'd like to think that my banana chocolate – peanut butter chip coffee cake muffins are one of those new classics.
I'm also tempted to change it up a little the next time I make them. I was thinking of drizzling caramel sauce in the centres and then only using the coffee cake topping for the top of the muffin (rather than layering it in the centre as well). Thoughts? Am I going too far?
Oh … one important note to make … don't eat too many of these all at once. You'll probably want to. The first one will taste so good that you'll think … what the heck! why not? Well … it just might make you feel a little ill … they are jam-packed with bananas (I used 7 in the recipe) … they also have a handful of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips. And cinnamon-brown sugar. These are intense.
banana chocolate – peanut butter chip coffee cake muffins
3 c. flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 c. butter, room temp
2 c. sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 c. mashed fully ripe bananas (6 or 7)
1 tsp vanilla
1 c. sour cream
coffee cake topping:
Heat your oven to 350 F. Spray your muffin pans with non-stick spray. I don't use liners for muffins … I don't know why … it's just not something I do.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and baking soda together. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand-mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. About 5 minutes at medium speed. Scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to beat everything until incorporated.
Add the bananas and vanilla, mixing well.
Add the flour mixture and the sour cream to the batter: alternating between each addition, starting and ending with the flour. Mix well.
Fill each muffin tin with a tablespoon of batter. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with the coffee cake topping. Cover with more batter. Sprinkle with the rest of the coffee cake topping.
Bake for 22 minutes … or until the top of the muffins bounce back when gently touched / or your toothpick comes out clean.
Allow to sit in the pans on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Then remove and allow them to cool completely. Or seriously … just dig right it. These are too good to wait. PLUS this recipe is a winner because you get over 3 dozen regular sized muffins AND 1 dozen large muffins. Think of the amount of mini muffins you could get?!
Oh … and on another note. Although Cory didn't participate in the baking crew muffin challenge … we did have another guest.
Tom & Aimée recently got FENTON the cutest little fella ever … and so after eating muffins, we all sat down and hung out with him.
Isn't he adorable?


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King's Gallery.
[Formerly Old King's School Shop]
c. 1647
Photograph 1995 copyright George P. Landow may be freely used without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose.
How this picturesque Canterbury shop managed to stay upright is anyone's guess, but its continued presence in the twenty-first century — think of how many more such buildings the Victorians confronted in their daily lives — should remind us how the past and present always intertwine. One can guess what Dickens would have made of it for something like The Old Curiosity Shop. Describing such structures in a novel written during an age of industrial expansion and modernity does not so much become a matter of realism (or lack of it) but of theme or ideology; that is, how representative of contemporary reality does the author take it to be?
Compare this building to the supposed source in London of Dickens's novel.[GPL]
Last modified 21 December 2005


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AJ Crimson
AJ Crimson is a rock star in the beauty industry! An Entrepreneur, Make up Artist, and Beauty & Lifestyle Expert, as well as one of the most trusted names and leading authorities in the beauty industry. AJ's established reputation as an innovative beauty solutionist has made him and his products the first choice for artists and celebrities.
AJ wanted to create a product inclusive of women of all ethnicities, a product all women could find ownership in and believe in. "So often, make up has been designed with a one size fits all mentality." As a result, AJ's cosmetic line contains shades for women of every ethnic background and skin tone.We could not agree more! For women of color, AJ Crimson Beauty products are a must!


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TALLAHASSEE — Brian Burgess, the combative communications director for the Republican Party of Florida, is returning to the private sector less than five months after taking over as the party's top communicator.
Burgess would not return emails or telephone calls, but was shown the door at the party after he did not answer questions from the Tampa Bay Times about a rescued Labrador retriever adopted by Gov. Rick Scott.
Scott publicly adopted the dog during the 2010 campaign and held a contest to name it — people chose Reagan — but Scott returned the dog shortly after taking office in 2011.
The resulting publicity outraged animal lovers across the state who accused Scott of adopting the dog as a campaign gimmick.
Burgess, 42, will be joining Brian Hughes, former spokesman for the party, at Meteoric Media Strategies, a private public relations business. Hughes and Burgess worked together in Scott's office shortly after Scott was elected governor and during the 2010 campaign. Hughes announced the new partnership in a statement to the Florida Times-Union Tuesday shortly after the Times asked Burgess for comment on his dismissal from the party.
Hughes' firm has consulting contracts with the Republican Party of Florida, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and other conservative groups. He has been paid more than $195,000 for campaign work since 2010, including $92,000 from the state party.
Burgess began working for the state party in September after 18 months working in the governor's office. Burgess previously worked for a Washington public relations firm that handled communications for Scott's gubernatorial campaign. He has a history of clashing with reporters — in public and in private — and was once called "an aggressive knife-fighter" by a prominent Florida communications consultant.
"I really don't miss some of you dips---- at all," Burgess emailed a Kansas reporter in 2008, after he left to work with a conservative public relations firm in Virginia. "Have fun in your world of make-believe."
As the governor's top spokesman, Burgess publicly lambasted reporters for the Tampa Bay Times and Miami Herald when they asked Scott why he included $370 million in federal stimulus money in the state budget in 2011 after repeatedly attacking the stimulus package as wasteful government spending.
Burgess objected to the reporters asking the governor about it rather than talking to him first.
"You're unprofessional and engage in 'gotcha' journalism w/o fact-checking," Burgess tweeted to Herald reporter Marc Caputo.
"You ducked the question for a 2nd time: Name 1 fact that was wrong," Caputo replied.
In the case of Reagan, Burgess said he was working on an answer to a reporter's questions but never provided one.
Five days after Burgess and other Scott staffers refused to respond to questions about the dog, Scott answered questions about the puppy himself, saying he had returned the dog to a Naples dog groomer after it frightened mansion staff. Later his staff produced an incident report with details of a dog bite suffered by a mansion groundskeeper.
Although the Naples groomer will not respond to questions about Reagan's fate, she reportedly told a Tampa television reporter that the dog has been renamed Pluto and is living on a horse ranch in South Florida.
Some time after flying Reagan back to Naples, Scott adopted a 7-year-old dog from a couple in New Jersey suffering from cancer. Melissa Sellers, communications director for Scott, said the new dog was located by an old family friend of the governor's who lived in Connecticut.


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I am a part-time postgraduate student, currently working towards an MSc in Archaeological Research at the University of Nottingham, which will take two years to complete. I've come back to archaeology after a long break, during which time I have pursued my career in research and academic computing. However, I am still in love with archaeology so my long-held ambition to do a further degree in the subject is at last being realised and I am really enjoying it, despite all the late nights reading and working on essays after I've finished my day job. As a mature student, I was concerned at first that I would find it difficult to fit in. However, the staff and my fellow students have been really encouraging, which is helping to make the whole experience very satisfying.
The taught part of our course has finished for this year, so it's now time to get down to preparing for the research work which will form the basis of the 15,000 word dissertation we must submit and which accounts for a third of the credits on our course. I'm interested in the application of scientific techniques in archaeology, which has influenced my choices of modules, including archaeobotany and zooarchaeology, and my research will be using a fascinating technique, stable isotope analysis, to try to answer some interesting archaeological questions. (more…)


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Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
The Coming Copyright Clash in Higher Education
Higher education finds itself in the crosshairs of American society, and the primary focus is on the debt graduates are incurring in exchange for a college degree. There was once a time where this inspection and scrutiny was reserved for the "other" part of higher education: for-profit colleges like Strayer, Kaplan and the University of Phoenix. Those days are over. Now everyone – citizens, elected officials, and the press – are questioning the intents and missions of "reputable," non-profit institutions, including questioning why they are authorizing salaries of $1 million or more for their presidents and chancellors.
The issue is so compelling that The Gray Lady, the venerable New York Times, has launched a new online series called "Degrees of Debt," which purportedly examines "how college presidents are recognizing that they must handle education costs through methods other than tuition increases."
There are a lot of things that go into calculating college tuition. Buildings must be built and maintained, lights need to come on, and professors need to be paid. In fairness, many colleges routinely offer various financial aid packages they hope will make attendance financially accessible. But the discounts can go only so far: for the most part, college is a "cash and carry" proposition. Therefore, tuition often is the main – sometimes the sole – source of a college's income. Most schools pay all their costs from that sole stream of tuition income.
One other significant cost colleges and universities incur is the cost of scholarly publication. This cost manifests itself most notably through electronic resources that represent the publication and codification of knowledge.
The Cost of Scholarly Publication
The scholarly publication business process begins with a system – fully supported by higher education institutions – that demands "high impact" publication as a condition of achieving the holy grail of academic tenure. "High impact" does not mean acclaim, or status, or even a mention in The Gray Lady (although, increasingly, that helps). Instead, it means that the academic work must be published in a very specific, narrow set of journals. These titles vary by discipline, but everyone in the discipline can identify them.
Let's be clear: this is a model colleges and universities impose upon themselves. By now, there are many blog posts that are as empirically rigorous as published journal articles; therefore, journals no longer have a monopoly on academic rigor. Further, scholarship, regardless the rigor level, often has little to do with effective teaching – and the quality of the teaching is a reason colleges and university use to justify high tuition prices. But blog posts and teaching are not the route to tenure. Publication, in specific journals that some influentials consider "high impact," is the route to tenure.
Many of these "high impact" journals, once independent, have been absorbed into larger, multinational, publicly-held corporations. In that absorption, these journals' primary purpose underwent an important evolution. Instead of knowledge dissemination, profit became the journals' primary purpose. These profit pressures have led to a steady increase in subscription rates over the past three decades. In some cases, the subscription increases have been so steep that institutions, through their libraries, have chosen to cancel the subscriptions.
The act of cancellation is anathema to higher education, since institutions long have prided themselves on having access to and preserving the entire scholarly record. Not some of it – not just in subjects or specialties of certain professors or colleges – all of it. Yet in April 2012, a faculty advisory council to the Harvard University Library, one of the biggest and most well-funded academic library systems in the world, concluded "major periodical subscriptions, especially to electronic journals published by historically key providers, cannot be sustained: continuing these subscriptions on their current footing is financially untenable. Doing so would seriously erode collection efforts in many other areas, already compromised."
Work Made for Hire in Higher Education
Here is the dirty little secret no one in higher education wants to acknowledge: the entire system of scholarly publication exists because colleges and universities fail to exercise the work made for hire doctrine. Under U.S. copyright law, the work made for hire doctrine essentially says that where an employee prepares a work within the scope of his or her employment, the employer – not the employee – will own the copyright in that work. Under this conceptual definition, there is no reason why colleges and universities should not universally own the copyright rights in a professor's research and scholarship. That many do not simply is a matter of choice, as codified through institutional policy.
Therefore, most American professors end up owning the copyright rights to their research and writings, and this category customarily has been defined broadly enough so that it excludes only works that a faculty member prepares in an administrative capacity (such as committee work product). Here is where things get tricky, though. The faculty member, who has the copyright and wants tenure, must publish in certain "high impact" journals. When he publishes in "high impact" journals, he gives away that copyright as a condition of publication. When he gives away that copyright as a condition of publication, the journal publisher owns the article. When the journal publisher owns the article, it now owns the exclusive in that article. When the publisher owns the exclusive in the article, it names whatever price it wants for subscribers to access that article.
Increasingly, institutions are saying "Don't pay whatever price a journal wants for access to an article." At the same time, though, the institutions have changed nothing in their tenure criteria so that scholarship outside of "high impact" journals and teaching count as much toward a favorable tenure recommendation as publication in a "high impact" journal.
This, to put it mildly, puts college administrators in a pickle.
The Policy Change
The faculty advisory council at Harvard recommended researchers and faculty "move [scholarly] prestige to open access" as a way to avoid paying "whatever price a journal wants for access to an article." That recommendation, though, underestimates the vast economic and labor costs associated with building and maintaining a current scholarly record, as well as the costs associated with backfilling the historic academic record. Perhaps Harvard can do this, but most universities do not have Harvard's resources. The recommendation also ignores reengineering the tenure system, which is, ultimately, the root of this conundrum.
Colleges and universities, however, have a major trump card to play: they can reverse their longstanding custom against claiming work made for hire status. Instead, they could claim copyright ownership in scholarship as a way to avoid the scholarly publications crisis, and at once, justify this policy change as a way to cut the costs of education. University professors surely would scream bloody murder. This group, though, has been virtually silent concerning recent copyright battles, and professors are not a particularly sympathetic bunch these days. (Few in the media, for example, would sympathize with professors maintaining copyright in their work when reporters routinely cede copyright in their work to their own employers.) While changing institutional policy is not without peril, the peril is of the sort many institutions can manage because it is tied to a paycheck. By imposing work made for hire rules, employing colleges would merely substitute for the publishers, and take steps to avoid having to buy back their own employees' work product.
Reversing the policy on work for hire in higher education is a draconian step. Given the economics and optics of the current crisis in higher education, however, it is increasingly likely to happen.
Note: Portions of this article were published previously as Dames, K. M. (2012, July-August). The coming copyright clash in higher education. Information Today, 29(7), 24-25.
HathiTrust Decision Summary
In September 2011, the Authors Guild, various international authors' rights organizations and one dozen individual authors sued HathiTrust, Cornell, and the presidents of the universities of Michigan, California, Wisconsin and Indiana, claiming that HathiTrust's online storage, searchability and public availability of a digital corpus developed as part of the Google Books scanning project constituted copyright infringement. More than three-quarters of the books that Google scanned as part of the Books project remain subject to copyright protection.
In June 2011, Michigan announced it would share with the public "orphan works" — works to presumed to be subject to copyright protection, but for whom a copyright owner cannot be found.
On October 10, 2012, Judge Harold Baer issued a 23-page decision that held, among other things, that HathiTrust's activities are consistent with the fair use provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976.
The remainder of this post summarizes the key holdings from the decision.
Read the rest of this entry »
Information Policy and The Red Herring of a Media-Tech Industry War
In an article published earlier this year, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee professor Sandra Braman defined "information policy" as positions and practices that concern the creation, processing, flows, access and use of information. The term certainly includes content, much of which is subject to protection under this nation's Copyright Act, and the telecommunication pipes through which that content travels. Given this definition, it easy to see how businesses regulated by copyright and telecommunications law enjoy a synergistic relationship.
The Internet's public availability in the early 1990s did not fundamentally alter this information policy landscape. But the Internet, along with simultaneous developments like unprecedented personal computing power, did make it possible for non-traditional actors to create, send, access and process significantly more copyright-protected information through increasingly faster telecommunication pipes. The rise of this non-traditional class also has spawned new businesses like Google (including its YouTube subsidiary), Facebook and Amazon.com, while encouraging or forcing traditional actors to evolve into new businesses (such as Comcast, a telecom company, buying NBC-Universal in a merger that was completed earlier this year).
Despite the historical and continuing synergy between copyright and telecom, there has been a recent, aggressive line of thought that argues these non-traditional entrants into the information policy landscape have grown powerful by free riding on the works of large corporate copyright owners. This argument arose during last month's Governance of Social Media workshop at Georgetown, which Michigan State University's Quello Center helped sponsor. The argument also manifests itself in Robert Levine's new book, Free Ride: How Digital Parasites Are Destroying The Culture Business, and How The Culture Business Can Fight Back (2011, Doubleday).
Occupy Copyright
"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!" — Howard Beale, Network (1976)
2011 will be known as the year of the occupation, with Occupy Wall Street being the most recognizable of the protest movements. Started in September in New York City, Occupy Wall Street is a series of ongoing, international demonstrations that protest economic inequality, corruption, and the undue influence of corporations on society and government.
But what about "occupying" copyright?
Decision Summary: Publishers v. Georgia State University
This article discusses the impact of a the recent federal district court decision [pdf] that, for the first time, provides colleges and university with some guidance on the use of copyrighted works for instructional purposes.
Case Summary
In April 2008, Cambridge University Press, Sage Publications and Oxford University Press sued officials at Georgia State University ("GSU"), claiming they were responsible for copyright infringement. The publishers' complaint arose from Georgia State's practice of allowing faculty to use university networks and university library E-reserves systems to copy and distribute book excerpts to students without paying licensing fees.
Officials for GSU, a public university, claimed that the creation and use of the unlicensed copies were allowable pursuant to the fair use doctrine, and therefore not copyright infringement. The officials also responded that the sovereign immunity doctrine precluded GSU or its officials from copyright infringement liability.
Judge Orinda D. Evans ruled May 11, 2012, that GSU professors had committed five copyright infringements from four of the publishers' titles. The publishers had alleged 75 copyright infringement claims. The publishers will file within 20 days their proposed injunction.
Copycense Weekly Review (through Dec. 24, 2011)
Copycense social media posts on copyright, communications, intellectual property and the media industries from December 18 through December 24, 2011.
- "Go Daddy No Longer Supports SOPA" is.gd/IwPRNN #copyright
- Why does Bill Patry's old book (2009) is.gd/de7EJ8 cost more than his new book (2011) is.gd/W1frTG on the Kindle?
- Paper: Orphan Works: Definitional Issues is.gd/cUNbwO #copyright
- Singer Cesaria Evora died last Saturday. She was 70. #music m.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/dec…
- Cornell, Technion (Israel) win NYC science campus bid is.gd/PuYLfE
- Wolverine uploader: 1 year federal prison; "strong message of deterrence to pirates" is.gd/N1VzAz #copyright
- The Economist explores progeny, history of seminal "Amen, Brother" break beat is.gd/TFZL2i #music /HT @wayneandwax
- RE bit.ly/rWu2tm Veoh wins #DMCA battle, still dead as a door nail is.gd/Va1jH5 #copyright
- Hollywood exec: "Our mistake was allowing this romantic word — piracy — to take hold" is.gd/0EQmRw #copyright
- USA: Federal appeals court affirms #DMCA safe harbor protection in UMG v. Veoh is.gd/ONY5zb [pdf] #copyright
- Judge in YMCA #copyright termination lawsuit allows Songwriters Guild amici briefs is.gd/IxVzal
- Adobe's no-choice embrace of HTML5 is.gd/fxwYGC #media #Web
- How the "jobs" frame failed to work magic in the AT&T/T-Mobile deal is.gd/9rlD7K #mobile
- Framing T-Mobile/AT&T: Low prices, choice & consumer benefit = harm to stock prices? is.gd/EQM4Jg /HT @artbrodsky
- RT @copyrightclear: Open-Textbook Idea Is Gaining Steam ow.ly/85p3a
- Harry Potter U.S. publisher releases YA time travel series with gaming tie-in is.gd/dv6piF
- USA: Intl Trade Commission rules Android smartphone features protected by Apple #patent is.gd/VQ0vU8 #mobile
- AT&T Ends $39 Billion Bid for T-Mobile is.gd/tttnTn #mobile
- Lemley, Levine, Post: Don't Break the Internet is.gd/URfRDR #SOPA #copyright
- RT @LawandLit: Who gets custody of Twitter when an employee quits? j.mp/uMIBj3
- Artist without registered Nielsen SoundScan sale gets Grammy nomination is.gd/yDjmRy #music
- Microsoft: We Can Remotely Delete Windows 8 Apps is.gd/53B6cL
- Research Note: #Copyright Infringement & Enforcement in the US: is.gd/KlpgbT [pdf]
- "[W]hen Napster blew a hole in the paradigm, everybody was sacrificed but the top guy" is.gd/yTJUmo #copyright #music


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An average of 3,000 people a day visited the recent Damien Hirst retrospective at the Tate Modern in London, the Evening Standard reports.
The 463,087 visitors for the show's five months makes it Tate's second-most-visited exhibition, after a Matisse and Picasso show in 2002. Read more here.
Thanks to Art Market Monitor for the tip.


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German and Russian: German
GERM 490-491 Reading and Conference (.5 or 1)
Designed to enable a student to acquire the necessary knowledge and experience of literary periods which are not covered by courses offered at Willamette University.
- General Education Requirement Fulfillment: Arts & Humanities
- Prerequisite: GERM 331W, Junior or Senior standing and G.P.A. of 3.0 or better
- Offering: On demand
- Instructor: Zheng


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Dar Hi, an eco spa opening in the Tunisian village of Nefta, looks kind of like Luke Skywalker's Uncle's place after an extreme home makeover. Which is fitting, because its just a short walk from where George Lucas filmed Tatooine<.>
Designboom visited and photographed the exclusive spa and retreat, as well some of A New Hope's Tatooine sets which are still standing today. Dar Hi might be a bit more colourful than the Lars Homestead, but the desert surrounding isn't any less dusty. [Dar Hi via Designboom]
Music: Kevin MacLeod


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Just testing ALE and seem to be getting the Audit Status shows "Logon auditing is disabled" message. I believe i have configured group policy correctly as per https://www.netwrix.com/kb/1571.
Also, when a list of locked out accounts is provided should i be able to use the 'Examine' option if there is no workstation provided?


text: The Five Elements - Chapter 10: A Change of Fortune 2. January 2011 My Novels, My Writing Back in early 2011, I serialized The Five Elements chapter-by-chapter. The individual posts had thousands of viewers, of which I am appreciative. However, since that time, I enrolled the novel in Amazon's KDP Select program. One of the conditions of this enrollment is that the electronic version of the novel remain exclusive to Amazon. This means this serialization needs to go on hiatus. If you would like to read the novel, please head over to Amazon where you can purchase the Kindle or print version.


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Henry Cavill: Shirtless 'Man of Steel' Workout Video!
Henry Cavill goes shirtless in this brand new video featuring his training sessions while getting in shape for his role as Superman in Man of Steel!
"Mark [Twight] is probably one of the most incredible people I've ever met," the 30-year-old actor says in the video of his trainer. "He's opened my eyes to seeing past what I thought were my limits. He's a remarkable man, truly. He understands what I'm going through physically. He understands me because he sees what I'm going through as a person, which I think is what makes him such a good trainer."
Man of Steel opened in theaters this past weekend and broke records as the highest grossing opening weekend in the month of June!
Henry Cavill: Shirtless 'Man of Steel' Workout Video!
10+ stills inside of Henry Cavill going shirtless in the workout video…


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Schools & Colleges
University of World Economy and Diplomacy
Fulbright Visiting Specialist
Tashkent, Uzbekistan 2009
The International Studies Program and the Office of International Affairs hosted Dildora Abidjanova from Uzbekistan's University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Department of World Political History where she is an associate professor on the Faculty of International Relations. Abidjanova holds a PhD in History from the Institute of History, Uzbek Academy of Sciences. Her research specialties are History of Muslim Civilization; Social, Political and Economic History of Central Asia; History of Religion and Culture in Central Asia and Women's Rights in Post-Soviet Countries. Abidjanova also served as a consultant for the United Nations, co-authoring the Millennium Development Goals Report for Uzbekistan, and for the European Union, coordinating a research group that analyzed the structure and impact of neighborhood communities (Mahallas) in the Fergana Valley.
Abidjanova received a year-long award from Fulbright and Harvard University before coming to CU Denver on Fulbright's Visiting Specialist Program: Direct Access to the Muslim World. During her six week stay in Denver, she gave guest lectures on campus and at surrounding universities and organizations in Colorado. Abidjanova also received invitations to guest lecture at the University of Wyoming and at Eastern Washington University.
Abidjanova enjoyed her visit to Denver and felt that it provided a great environment for international students. She recognized that the city is young and dynamic, with a beautiful landscape and a slower pace of life that offers a wonderful alternative to an East or West Coast American city. She noted that it attracts international students and provides a rich multicultural environment.
Abidjanova was pleased to be affiliated with the Political Science Department as a guest lecturer. She found value in the interactions with her colleagues, the CU Denver students, the syllabi and program points; her plan included carrying the concepts and information back to the University of the World Economy and Diplomacy to develop new program courses.
Much of Abidjanova's previous experience was in research; guest lecturing and co-teaching contributed to her professional growth and development. She reported that her involvement with the American education system resulted in a very positive experience. The collaboration with colleagues and the networking opportunities provided Abidjanova with new ideas for future collaborative projects in research, teaching and exchange.
"The Fulbright's Visiting Scholar Program Access to the Muslim World provides great opportunity for scholars from Muslim countries to share their knowledge and expertise. It allows scholars and students at host institutions to experience the culture through native eyes and fosters international relations by planting the seed for future opportunities for exchange and collaboration."
- Dildora AbidjanovaPhD, University of World Economy and Diplomacy
© The Regents of the University of Colorado, a body corporate. All rights reserved.
Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. All trademarks are registered property of the University. Used by permission only.


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What's Affecting You? Healthcare Reform
Healthcare reform has been debated for years, and as of March 2010 a new bill was signed into law by President Barack Obama. A few revisions to the policy have since been approved by the House and Senate, and the modified document is expected to receive the Presidential signature next week. This bill is intended to change healthcare laws forever, and it has become a controversial issue that is beginning to spark threats of violence.
The healthcare reform bill is a 2,409 page document filled with an overwhelming amount of details. Analysts have been breaking down the content into a few key points to help give people a better understanding of the new legislation. Some of the primary areas of focus include:
1. People with pre-existing conditions cannot be denied insurance.
Millions of Americans have had their insurance requests denied due to pre-existing medical conditions, or been forced to pay higher rates. The reform bill forbids insurance companies from continuing this practice.
2. Parents can insure offspring until age 26.
Young children are generally insured on a parent's policy, but at a certain age they get cut off. While that age varies by state, it can be as young as 19. With the healthcare reform bill, young people would be allowed to remain on a parent's policy until their 26th birthday.
3. Subsidies may be available for individuals and families.
According to the reform bill, anyone who does not receive insurance through their place of employment may be entitled to financial support. Every case will be reviewed, and decisions will be based on annual household income and the number of dependents.
4. Companies with 50+ employees must provide insurance.
Businesses offer employee insurance policies at their own discretion, but the reform bill will make this a requirement for companies with a staff of 50 or more. Any employer may refuse, but those that do will be fined $750 annually for every person who is not insured. That amount could increase to $2,000 a year.
Not every component of the reform bill will be implemented immediately. The "pre-existing conditions" and "increased age limit for dependents" clauses will begin in 2010, but other items won't be in place for several years. 2011 will bring a dramatic impact for Medicare, when the program will be required to provide preventative care treatment without charging co-pay fees or deductibles.
By 2014, every American will be expected to have insurance. Individuals who do not may be fined $750 each year, or 2% of their annual income. Citizens will also be required to maintain a set level of insurance, which will be determined by the government, to avoid these fines. The final piece of legislation will launch in 2018, when every insurance provider will be required to offer preventative care without charging co-pay fees or deductibles.
Reactions to the healthcare reform bill are growing progressively heated. Several Democratic leaders have been threatened, and a few were given extra protection from FBI agents. Angry citizens have made hostile phone calls, hurled racial slurs, and in one case thrown a brick through a district office window.
Republican leaders who oppose the reform bill were also targeted. An unknown citizen fired a gun into the campaign headquarters of one Virginia Representative, and several others have received anonymous threats. As the healthcare bill continues to move forward, the danger and opportunities for violence are expected to increase.
Those who support healthcare reform say it will ensure that every person in this country receives adequate insurance coverage, put an end to discrimination against pre-existing medical conditions and place a ban on annual limits of coverage. People who oppose the bill fear that it may cause smaller companies to reduce their staff to less than 50 people, drive medium-sized companies out of business, and force people to spend money on insurance whether they want to or not. Another complaint stems from page 158 of the bill … which seems to indicate that members of Congress are exempt from their own healthcare reform bill.
How this will end is anybody's guess. People feel very strongly about both sides of the issue. What do you think? We want to hear from you – leave us a comment and share your feelings on this explosive topic.
At PeopleFinders, we are concerned with things that affect you. That's why we'll be writing about more topics that are significant to you and your family, and why we maintain the Web's most comprehensive and reliable source of public records. We want to help you find and reconnect with the people who are important to your life. Watch for more topics about What's Affecting You, share your thoughts with us, and thank you for reading the PeopleFinders People Search blog.Tags: Health Care, President Barack Obama
Categorized in: Culture