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June is here and that can mean only one thing. It's time to go shopping for the latest technology and travel gear for the dads and grads in your life. Here are a few suggestions for some items that are sure to make them happy.
Geneva: Model XS Travel Alarm Clock
The Model XS travel clock from Geneva also happens to be a powerful, compact sound system. With a built in FM tuner and integrated Bluetooth technology, it can stream music, podcasts or other audio sources directly from a smartphone or tablet. The device features two tweeters and a woofer for a surprisingly big sound and its included waterproof leather case makes it an excellent travel companion. Better yet, its compact size and solid audio performance means it is also the perfect addition to any dorm room. After all, you wouldn't want that new grad to miss any early morning classes, right? (Price: $249.95)
Sony NEX-F3 Camera
Compact interchangeable lens digital camera systems are all the rage right now, and Sony's new NEX-F3 just might be the hottest of them all. The camera takes photos like a DSLR, isn't much larger than a point and shoot and has the option of adding a host of different lenses to the mix. It features a 16.1 megapixel sensor, a bright, crystal clear LCD screen that rotates 180 degrees and a built-in flash. It will even shoot full HD 1080p video or capture photos at a rate of up to 5.5 fps in burst mode. Its compact size and outstanding feature set are sure to make this a popular camera on campus or on the road. (Price: $599.99 w/ 18-55mm lens)
Western Digital TV Live
Western Digital has made it extremely easy to get your favorite streaming video services onto just about any television thanks to their TV Live media player. This little black box allows you to watch Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube and so much more in the comfort of your living room. It is incredibly easy to set-up, has an intuitive interface and built-in wireless along with a good remote and it supports full 1080p HD streaming. The TV Live connects to more than 25 different Internet content providers for movies, music and games and will even stream your personal collection from a networked source. (Price: $129.99)
V-MODA In-Ear Headphones
V-MODA is a company that is well known for making tough, durable headphones that provide excellent audio performance across the full spectrum of sound. Their in-ear models in particular are comfortable to wear and will redefine your expectations of sound from earbuds, without putting too large of a dent in your wallet. The Remix Remote ($79) models are affordable and provide great performance, while the more expensive Vibratos ($129) amp up the bass considerably and feature a more rugged build quality. Both models include an in-line remote and mic that is compatible with the iPhone and iPad, as well as numerous silicone earplugs to ensure you get just the right fit. V-MODA even backs them with a two-year warranty.
GorillaTorch Flashlight
Whether you're traveling or at home, a good flashlight or lamp is always a handy tool. But when that flashlight is able to stand on its own and provide light exactly where it is needed, it becomes useful on a completely different level. Created by the same company that brought us the GorillaPod, the GorillaTorch sits on a tripod of articulated legs that can be bent and shaped as needed. This allows the light to easily sit on uneven surfaces or wrap itself around pipes, branches or just about anything else that might be close at hand. As a result, the GorillaTorch can shine its light exactly where it is most needed while allowing us to keep our hands free for other purposes. (Price: $29.95)
Nokia Lumia 900 Phone
The latest smartphone from Nokia is not only powerful and sophisticated, but it also happens to be beautiful. The Lumia 900 sports a stunning 4.3-inch AMOLED screen, an 8-megapixel camera and 4G LTE high-speed networking. It is also powered by Windows Phone 7, runs thousands of apps, shoots HD video and comes in three different colors – black, white and cyan. If your dad or grad is looking to stick out in field full of iOS and Android devices, the Lumia 900 can help them do it. (Price: $99.95 with contract from AT&T)
Braven 600 Portable Speaker
Weighing in at just 12 ounces, the Braven 600 portable speaker system is a great option for travelers. Not only does it wirelessly stream audio from a smartphone, tablet or computers, it also doubles as a speakerphone for hands-free calling. The device's integrated rechargeable battery provides up to 12 hours of use while away from a power outlet and the built-in USB port allows you to charge other devices while on the go. On top of all that, the device looks great and gives off surprisingly clear and loud sound. (Price: $149.99)
Zoom Q3HD Video Camera
Compact video cameras are fun to use and great for travel, but they often lack features and can suffer from less than stellar performance. That isn't the case with the Zoom Q3HD, however, as the diminutive device records in crystal clear 720p and 1080p HD widescreen formats. The camera is fast, easy to use and even maintains solid image quality in low light conditions. But where the Q3HD really shines is in its ability to record high quality audio. With two finely tuned mics built in and several onscreen tools to help fine tune input, there has never been a compact video camera that has offered this kind of control over audio. The result is great video and superior sound that makes sharing your travel movies better than ever. (Price: $299.99)
Lenovo Ultrabooks and Touchscreen Multimedia PC
Every dad and grad needs a good computer and Lenovo has plenty of models to choose from. For those heading off to college the new IdeaPad U410 and U310 Ultrabooks are fantastic choices. These incredibly slim and lightweight laptops have beautiful high-def screens, plenty of memory and a battery life of up to nine hours. That makes them perfect for those long study sessions at the campus library. They'll be available later this month starting at $749.
For something completely different, check out the new IdeaCentre A720, which features a unique 27-inch, 1080p touchscreen display. Built from the ground up to be a multimedia powerhouse, this PC comes equipped with a built-in TV tuner, integrated Dolby home theater system and a Blue-ray disc player. It also comes standard with dual hard drives (1TB hard disk and 64GB solid state), HDMI in and out and a high definition webcam for video chatting. The IdeaCentre runs $1849 and makes for a great addition to any home entertainment system.
A handy multi-tool is another one of those items that is useful both while travleing and at home. The latest creation from Gerber demonstrates this very well as it not only includes the usual array of blades, screwdrivers and can openers, it also has a built-in mount for smartphones and cameras. Gerber says the tripod is rated to hold up to 340 grams, which means the device you attach has to be relatively small. Still, this is a handy option to have when it comes time to take those impromptu self-portraits while on the go. (Price: $64)


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A celebration of Honorary Fellow Gary Crosby OBE's fifteen-year friendship with Trinity Laban, featuring music and memories from TL and Tomorrow's Warriors alumni.
TL Life: Crosscurrent – 08 Participatory Arts
Crosscurrent Spotlight: In-Trenched
Crosscurrent Spotlight: Drumstick
TL Life: Crosscurrent – 07 Legally European
Crosscurrent Spotlight: Keep Asking What If
Still sleeping off your Spring break? Well, the Summer Season is here and it's time to seize the day! Let TL Life help you go from this . . . . . . to this! 1. Let nothing hold you back We are delighted to present Co Motion, a celebration of exciting dance works… Continue reading

subset: commoncrawl


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BC HighwayCams - Highway 4
Please note all BC HwyCams use Pacific Time Zone (PT).
Attention motorists:
Winter tires or chains are required on most routes in British Columbia from October 1 to April 30. For select highways not located through mountain passes and/or high snowfall areas, tire and chain requirements end March 31. These routes are marked with regulatory signs posted on highways throughout the province. We reserve the right to restrict travel at any time of the year depending on road conditions.
Click for more information
This highway cam is permanently out of operation.
British Columbia Weather Warnings
Weather Forecast (from Environment Canada)
All weather stations (current weather) for this region (map)


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Over the last few years, we have, every now and again, escaped from the routine of reporting current science to take a look at the process of science itself. In this case, we're going to look at peer review, the gatekeeping process that confers a stamp of validity on science.
OK, so maybe that is an exaggeration; nevertheless, the purpose of peer review is to act as a minimal hurdle for the plausibility of a scientific finding. That is, scientists read the work of other scientists and determine if the methodology seems sound, if the conclusions are supported by the results, and if the results appear to be new. Does this process work? Do scientists like the system? A new report commissioned by the Publishing Research Consortium (PDF) suggests the answers are "probably" and "yes."
To add some perspective to this report, I'll discuss some recent experiences of my own that highlight some of the good and bad points of the peer review system. A graduate student of mine recently had two papers rejected. The responses of the four reviewers seem to line up with some of the main themes of the peer review survey nicely.
The study involved a survey of just over 3000 senior academics (authors, editors, and peer reviewers) on their attitudes and experiences with peer review. The overall tone of the responses indicated that most researchers are pretty satisfied with the way the system works, with only two exceptions: peer review takes too long, and only a few academics do most the reviewing. (You don't think those might be causally related do you?)
It is common for reviews to extend on for months, and this just annoys everyone involved. Worse, sometimes scientists agree to perform the review and then never do—this is exactly what happened to one of our papers—forcing the editor to rely on just a single opinion.
By far the strongest findings were that 90 percent of responders regarded peer review as an essential gatekeeper and a similar fraction felt that peer review improved their papers. This is something I can relate to. Of the four reviewers who looked over our two rejected papers, three of them raised important points and offered suggestions that would improve the paper.
In one case, our paper was rejected because we had tried too hard to gain buzzword compliance, so our introduction didn't reflect the paper's content as accurately as it should. It was clear that the reviewer liked the findings and felt that they should be published—in an expanded format, even—but the introduction had to change.
The funny—funny, as in sadly pathetic—thing is that we knew that when we sent it in. But, as a theory paper, we felt that the physics had to be attached to a hot topic to get through the peer review process. This shows peer review at its most perfect: the reviewer saw what was actually good about the paper and suggested how to present it in an acceptable way.
The other paper was a different experience: we had felt we were on pretty strong ground with that one, and were quite surprised that it was rejected. Of the three reviewers, one was very positive about the paper and pointed out one small inaccuracy and asked for one small clarification. The second reviewer was also quite positive, but raised an important point that was not discussed at all in the paper. In truth, it was a point that we had not considered at all; with that included, the paper will be much improved. Again, this is the ideal of peer review: a considered opinion that ultimately results in a good paper.
So, in enough instances, the reality of peer review lines up with its ideals, which explains its widespread support. What else was apparent in the survey?
Despite some vocal advocates, most scientists do not support open peer review—anonymity provides the protection necessary for those who feel the need to be merciless in their criticism. The majority would like double blind peer review, but acknowledge the difficulty in making a research paper truly anonymous.
Open review and post-publication reviews have been supported because they address the problems that occur when some reviewers misuse their anonymity. This can range from a scientist protecting their turf by rejecting good work to theft of methodology from draft manuscripts, and generally using advanced knowledge to get a jump on your competitors. And therein lies the rub: science is a competitive game and, as with any competitive game, there are unscrupulous competitors. This fact, however, does not mean that the whole structure should be uprooted just to spray a few bugs at the bottom, which is what the some of the reform advocates support.
Those advocates may have appeared in the survey as a notably dissatisfied group that formed a cluster of about 12 percent of respondents who generally perceived peer review negatively. Notably, they all experienced long review times (the average was more than 100 days), and felt that their papers were not improved as a result of peer review.
This brings me to the third reviewer of our second paper. It was an extremely negative review—the only way to make it more negative would have been allowing the reviewer to turn up in person and spit on us—but the review only criticized one specific aspect of the research. Despite the presentation, it was a point that we happen to agree with and will fix in the revised version. In itself, however, it should not have been sufficient to engender such a negative reaction.
The key point is that, although we can address specific criticisms, it is impossible to address the palpable air of dismissive dislike transmitted via the wording of the review. Put yourself in the editor's position: is it possible to discount the attitude with which a review is presented and instead objectively analyze its criticisms and the authors' responses? I don't believe that it is.
In short, it was the kind of review that, if I received them regularly, would place me firmly in the 12 percent. But, I think this highlights the important point: peer reviewers are overworked. The average reviewer gets around eight papers per year, but this understates the problem—active reviewers account for 79 percent of all reviews but only 44 percent of reviewers. The active reviewers get 14 papers per year. Once you realize that it takes at least five hours to review a paper, you can see how it can become a huge drain on a small group of scientists.
Seeing peer review as a burden is probably what drives some reviewers to provide unhelpful, and, ultimately harmful reviews. It would help to distribute the load more evenly, shortening review cycle times. By getting more people to participate in the process, it's likely that the scientists will find their own papers a bit easier to write.


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Blog Archives
"Shadows, Episode 4: i am anna" Released
Shadows, Episode 4: i am anna is now available electronically on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Nook UK, and Smashwords. It should be available on Apple within the next 7-10 days and will likely appear on Sony around that time as well.
The Legion Rises: Omnibus and Release Dates
The Legion Rises: Omnibus is now available in e-book and print. It can be purchased through Amazon, Kobo, and Smashwords at present. It should be available through Barnes & Noble sometime in the next couple of days. The rest of the e-book markets will follow. Likewise, it will be available in print from Amazon.com sometime in the next week, but may take 6-8 weeks before it will be available through other print outlets. It is currently available for purchase on CreateSpace.
Shadows, Episode 4: i am anna, is slated for e-book release on August 16, 2013. This should coincide with the print releases of the first two episodes of Shadows, to be followed by the third and fourth by the end of August.
Shadows, Episode 5: Torture, is slated for an October e-book and print simultaneous release.
Over the next 5 days, I hope to have the new editions (updated covers, samples of further episodes, and new blurbs) of all books posted to the online retailers. Those distributed through Smashwords may take up to several weeks to update.
The Machine, Released
Shadows, Episode 3 Released
Carundas Released
Carundas is now available for purchase at Smashwords and will appear on Kindle and Kobo later today.
[2012-08-06 20:44 MDT] Update: There will be a delay with the upload to Kobo.
[2012-08-23 09:56 MDT] Update: The issues have been fixed with Kobo. Carundas is now available.
Shadows #2 on Kobo
Shadows, Episode 2: Fear is now available on Kobo. It is also available on Smashwords and Amazon.
Shadows, Episode 2 Released
Now Available on Amazon and Smashwords: Shadows, Episode 1
Crashed: A Novella, Now Available At Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and Diesel
Crashed is now available at Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and
To the best of my knowledge, it should have been available on Apple a couple of days ago, but it still doesn't appear there. Sony should be up in the next week or so. I assume Apple will follow.


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Hello, and welcome to my challenge.
Writing Wednesdays is open to anybody, and they can write whatever they like. Longer fiction, short stories, flash fiction, micro fiction, or poetry, it's all good 🙂
If you would like to participate, please give me a ping back so anybody can look at what you have put up!
The aim is to get you writing, so let's have some fun! This week's prompt is the word change.


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Irving. Texas (PRWEB) January 25, 2013
Revenue in the global linear low density polyethylene industry experienced significant growth during the last five years, and the industry revenue is forecast to reach an estimated $41.1 billion in 2017 with a CAGR of 3.4% over the next five years (2012-2017).
Lucintel, a leading global management consulting and market research firm, has analyzed the global linear low density polyethylene industry and presents its findings in "Global Linear Low Density Polyethylene Industry 2012-2017: Trend, Profit, and Forecast Analysis." It is extensively used in applications such as food packaging and non-food packaging, heavy-duty sacks, injection molding, agriculture, cast films, and rotomolding.
The industry is consolidated, with Asia Pacific (APAC) and North America dominating this market. A combination of factors such as operating cost, feedstock price (crude oil, naphtha, ethane), feedstock availability, scale and technology, energy costs, oil price, utilization rate, GDP growth, distribution costs, operating rates, environmental issues, and government regulations influences industry dynamics significantly.
Lucintel's research indicates that high growth in associated manufacturing industries such as packaging, construction, automotive will boost the industry. Replacement of the low density polyethylene market by linear low density polyethylene due to its low cost and high mechanical quality will be the industry's main driver. Fluctuation of crude oil and ethylene prices is likely to affect the profit margins of linear low density polyethylene players. Introduction of metallocene linear low density polyethylene is a groundbreaking emerging trend that could lead the industry to new growth.
This chemical research report provides an overview of the global linear low density polyethylene industry and tracks industry performance in four geographic regions. Thus, four segments of the global linear low density polyethylene industry are tracked. The report studies manufacturers serving this segment, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, profit, and cost structure for North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of the World. The report also provides a forecast, addressing market opportunities for next five years for each of these regions.
For a detailed table of contents and pricing information on this timely, insightful report, contact
Lucintel at +1-972-636-5056 or via email at helpdesk(at)lucintel(dot)com. Lucintel provides cutting-edge decision support services that facilitate critical decisions with greater speed, insight, and market experts, cost efficiency. To learn more, visit http://www.lucintel.com.
Lucintel has started Live Chat in its Web Site to answer visitors' questions in real time with precision. Visitors can either chat with our experts or call them free of cost through Live Chat to get assistance about what they are looking for from Lucintel.


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In case you haven't been paying close attention, the Democratic presidential primary has dramatically heated up in recent weeks. Bernie Sanders has closed the gap in polling in Iowa and nationally, while building up a lead in New Hampshire. As polls have tightened, the Clinton campaign, their surrogates and many online supporters have gone into attack mode.
What is disheartening to me is that this could be a primary where big ideas are debated and we have a serious discussion of what direction the Democratic Party wants to take the country in coming decades. To be sure, we are having this debate, however it is being played out in increasingly uncivil tones. I'm no shirking violet and I do not think there's anything wrong with heated political debate. But it is frustrating to see friends and organizations I respect wade into vicious attacks on each other over the candidates and who people support.
I have a sense as to what is causing the rising acrimony. Policy ideas are, generally, fact oriented things. Many different ideas can be easily arranged on a spectrum, with the political philosophies of left and right representative of different polls, and policy solutions conforming towards different points on the spectrum. Arguably there is no normative value associated with different spots on the spectrum. The concept of single payer healthcare is inarguably to the left of Obamacare, which is inarguably to the left of a system where there is no public subsidy for private health insurance.
Where this becomes fraught in today's political environment is that people have very different, values laden senses of political identifiers. For people who use them to describe themselves, words like "progressive," "centrist," or "conservative" tend to mean "a good person." Thus someone may proudly claim to be a "bold progressive," a "staunch conservative," or a "realistic centrist" as if those adjectives increase the person's worth. And in the tribal realm of politics, individuals apply their assignation of self-worth not just to how they view themselves, but by supporting candidates like them, who fit these same billings and amplify their own worth.
The problems emerge, as we are seeing in the Democratic primary, when someone views themselves as a "bold progressive" and supports a candidate like Hillary Clinton in a race that also includes Bernie Sanders, an inarguably more left (and thus "progressive" in today's parlance) politician. To say that Sanders is to Clinton's left is a statement of fact – it has no moral value, nor does it impart any assessment on the worth of the candidates nor their supporters. It just is.
But for people who explicitly or implicitly take "progressive" to normatively mean "a good person," then someone being more progressive means that they can lay claim to being "a better person" than our Clinton supporter. No one likes to feel like they are worth less than they see themselves, so they fight back against this idea (even though it is purely implicit and premised on the normative application of "progressive" as a designation of self-worth). They defend themselves from this perceived attack. They look for the tiniest of holes in the ideological spectrum, searching for issues to find spots or moments where their preferred candidate is to the left, and thus the True Progressive. We see this in the primary fight where the Clinton campaign has sought to turn Sanders' lifetime "D-" NRA rating into a liability based on a handful of bad gun votes. The triumphant Clintonite response to this, "A-ha! Bernie is in the pocket of the NRA! He is no True Progressive!"
This also speaks to why we are seeing a real hatred of Sanders emerge in the Democratic establishment, which is almost exclusively backing Clinton and increasingly public in their disdain for Sanders. Democratic "elites" are flocking to Iowa, driven in part by fear and part out of a hatred of Sanders.
The campaign and its allies had planned all along to escalate their efforts at this point, as the caucuses near. However, Democratic governors, senators and other party leaders said they are increasingly alarmed at the prospect of Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, surfing a wave of populist frustration to the nomination. And they were quick in interviews this week to dispense advice to Clinton.
Within the Democratic elite, where Clinton enjoys near-universal support, the antipathy toward Sanders has grown steadily as he has emerged as a potential Clinton slayer. All week, McCaskill has been loudly predicting an electoral catastrophe if her party nominates Sanders.
As much as there will be a massive rending of garments in Washington if Hillary Clinton fails to win from the position of presumptive nominee, the Clinton supporters are not wearing desperation well. They're taking it personally and it is showing.
At least, this is what I am seeing. It could explain the anger and hatred at the increasing success of Sanders' campaign. If everyone feels like he exists as a finger in their eye, a statement that they are not as good people as they thought they were, then anger is an understandable reaction. Whether it is justified is a different question, but at least this could explain it on an individual, emotional level.


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No ox blood, but plenty of history uncovered in Quincy time capsule
The names weren't etched in ox blood as speculated, but the unrolling of an 1896 scroll still drew oohs and aahs from 21st century spectators Monday.
So did the invitations from the Adams chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who hosted an event in June of that year to dedicate the Abigail Adams Cairn on Penn's Hill.
These, along with a book and yellowed newspapers, spilled out of a 14-inch copper box that had been soldered shut and entombed in the cairn 112 years ago.
The time capsule was discovered by workers from Phoenix Bay State Construction last week as part of restoration work for the monument. On Monday, more than 100 visitors packed the Quincy Historical Society building on Adams Street to watch the same workers pry open the box.
'To the Memory of Abigail Adams'
Check out these lost time capsules
The highlight was the parchment scroll, the only item known to have been in the capsule before its opening.
A 1952 article in the Quincy Patriot Ledger told how dignitaries signed their names in ox blood, while 3,000 citizens and bigwigs dedicated the cairn to mark the spot where Abigail Adams and 7-year-old John Quincy Adams watched the Battle of Bunker Hill more than a century-and-three-quarters before.
"Here it is," whispered Quincy Historian Thomas Galvin, as he and Edward Fitzgerald, the historical society's executive director, withdrew it from the box and untied a red ribbon to unwrap it.
It turns out, the signatures were painted in some sort of indelible ink – a good thing, because ox blood might not have lasted, some said.
Drawing many people's attention was the name etched in perfect cursive at the top of the scroll: Abigail Adams, although not the onetime first lady, but a descendant of hers.
The book – not Abigail Adams' diary as some had hoped – was "Libertas et Patrai," from the Massachusetts Society of Sons of the American Revolution.
Newspapers such as The Boston Traveler and Boston Post, sold for 2 cents at the time, gave hints of how much has changed since the cairn was built: Then, butter was 17 cents a pound, and five pounds of coffee went for $1.
Margaret LaForest of Quincy was one of the people who pushed this year's restoration of the cairn, along with City Councilor Dan Raymondi. It is expected to cost Quincy about $50,000.
LaForest, who brought her two daughters to Monday's event, mentioned for those who missed the opening, many of the items found in the time capsule can be seen on microfiche at the Thomas Crane Library – where she did much of her research on the cairn.
Marie Dunkelberger, of Cohasset, brought her children, Gavin, 9, Ian, 7, and Ella, 4. They had watched HBO's "John Adams" miniseries, and she read David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Adams.
"It's very exciting," she said. "(Adams) is so under-appreciated, and this was so close. I got my kids here to see a little bit of history."
Also watching with a mix of awe and surprise were two families whose ancestors helped build the cairn.
James J. Gilcoine, and his two brothers, John and Timothy, were contractors on the project. One of the Gilcoine brothers' workers, John J. Stanton, was picked from a crowd of masons building a school in West Quincy to do the actual work.
Descendants of Gilcoine sat on the left side of the room, and those of Stanton on the right. Some had tears in their eyes. Mayor Thomas Koch invited one person from each family to pull an item from the box.
"I thought it was fantastic, I really did," said Fred Hallisey, of the Stanton side. "There was more in there than I expected."
Jennifer Mann may be reached firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Pip the Mouse
The holiday puppet show, The Mouse Before Christmas, was created by Dr. George R. Creegan, and made its world premiere at Hess's Department Store in Allentown on Saturday, October 27, 1962. The puppet show stage was placed in the front window on Hamilton Street and delighted thousands of people of all ages.
In the 1970s, Pip was moved to Hess's fifth floor Community Room and a Winter Wonderland was added, complete with mechanical animals, people, trees and a Swiss chalet. After Bon-Ton purchased Hess's, it continued the Pip the Mouse tradition, now beloved by two generations of shoppers and residents of the city. However, the store was closed in 1996, so the last production of The Mouse Before Christmas at 9th & Hamilton Streets was in December, 1995.
The Bon-Ton donated the Winter Wonderland, the Mouse Before Christmas stage, and Pip with all his pals to the Allentown Economic and Development Corporation in 1996. The show was presented by the former Allentown Downtown Improvement District Authority from 1996-2001, at several different venues, including the Allentown Public Library.
Volunteers from Civic Theater of Allentown restored the puppet show stage in 2001-2002, and then when ADIDA was deactivated in 2003, Pip, the stage and props all were given to the Liberty Bell Museum, with the understanding that the Allentown Public Library also would be a partner in the Pip the Mouse program.
The museum restored and digitized the original audio soundtrack and has presented the traditional Mouse Before Christmas puppet show to thousands of visitors during the holiday season each year since 2003. Although the Creegan Company produced stages for 15 department stores across the country in the 1960s, we have the only surviving stage and puppet show.


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While aging is something we obviously try to avoid at all costs, any woman of a certain age will dispel that infinite wisdom comes with every birthday candle blown out. Gloria Vanderbilt, Iris Apfel, Vivienne Westwood, and Betsey Johnson are just a few gal pals who rock AARP status with so much grace, they'll inevitably end up on feminist history class and countless FIDM courses' required reading lists.
And, whether your own grandma is Bill Cunningham fodder, or happens to pack mothballs in her closet, you know there's still a treasure trove of fab fashion to be found in those archives. That's why we're gunning for classic gems this season that — when worn right — are totally young at heart. So, don't waste another minute, and check out these 30 stunners that will never send your vibe to the old-folks home.


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Biomass opponents get their hearing at City Hall
For several hours Wednesday, concerns, opposition and some support for the city's biomass contract flowed at City Hall.
As part of the settlement of a lawsuit that sought to have the city's 30-year, $3 billion contract to purchase all the biomass plant's output declared null and void, the City Commission allowed plaintiff and anti-biomass group Gainesville Citizens CARE to hold a workshop to air out issues over the plant and the contract.
The group's primary focus was the changes between the initial proposal that commissioners accepted in 2008 and the contract with a subsidiary of the firm American Renewables that received final approval in May 2009.
Portions of that contract, including the price Gainesville would pay for electricity, were not discussed publicly before the approval of the contract and, at the request of American Renewables, were redacted until the settlement of a prior lawsuit in 2011.
That settlement revealed that the purchase price had risen to $130 per megawatt hour and that a backout clause, which commissioners required when voting to move forward with negotiations in 2008, had been removed.
Jo Beaty, with Gainesville Citizens CARE, said she had tried without success for 15 months to have the City Commission schedule a workshop on the contract before pursuing litigation.
CARE's lawsuit alleged that the negotiations on the contract violated the Sunshine Law because the Gainesville Regional Utilities staff team that handled the talks served in the role of an advisory board and should have held public meetings.
The city disputed the allegations, admitted no wrongdoing but approved the settlement agreement 4-3 in December.
Ray Washington, the attorney who represented the plaintiffs in the prior biomass suit, conducted much of the presentation Wednesday.
The removal of the backout clause, which would have been applicable until the notice of commencement on construction of the plant was issued, has been a recurring issue for biomass opponents since 2011.
Washington questioned the process leading up to its removal from the final contract. He said that, "in a normal situation where you have open government" GRU General Manager Bob Hunzinger would have gone to the City Commission at a public meeting for a debate on its potential removal.
When asked how it was removed, Mayor Craig Lowe said Hunzinger met with commissioners in individual meetings to say that, based on the status of negotiations with American Renewables, the price requested by the company to include the clause in the contract was "not in the best interest of the city."
Lowe said it was then not included in the final contract commissioners approved in May 2009.
When Commissioner Thomas Hawkins was asked the same question about the backout clause, he declined to answer.
In a deposition in the Gainesville Citizens CARE lawsuit, Ed Regan, GRU's former assistant general manager for strategic planning, said the company's request for a $30 million to $32 million fee to terminate the contract was a sticking point in negotiations. Regan said, "we were falling out of our chairs with the big numbers that were coming in."
Regan also testified that inclusion of the clause could make financing more difficult and drive up the prices the city would pay for electricity.
After abandoning plans for a 220-megawatt coal plant over environmental concerns, the city approved a 100-megawatt biomass plant on the premise that 50 megawatts of excess energy, half the plant's output, could be sold to other utilities until 2023.
But the proliferation of the fracking extraction method drove down natural gas prices and carbon cap-and-trade legislation and a requirement for utilities to have renewable energy portfolios have not come to pass.
To date, the city has not been able to successfully negotiate agreements to sell off any of the electricity from the biomass plant. The city is pursuing a series of moves, including a controversial decision to build up a reserve fund through the fuel charge on current customers, to try to limit the rate impact to $10.56 per 1,000 kilowatt-hours of usage in 2014.
Wednesday evening, several speakers criticized city commissioners for not stating that the contract terms were unfavorable to the city.
"Some of you are not humble enough or meek enough to say I made a mistake," said DeJeon Cain, who ran for the City Commission in 2012.
Several foresters who will supply the plant with wood waste fuel spoke in support of the plant, saying it would give a boost to the region's economy and ensure a local fuel source.
Jim Gordon, the president of the firm behind the biomass plant, said the plant would bring local jobs, diversify the utility's fuel sources and lessen the dependence on fossil fuels in the face of climate change.
The plant is now more than 70 percent complete and slated to go online in late 2013.
Currently, the city has filed a claim for arbitration against the American Renewables subsidiary behind the plant, arguing that a late 2011 sale of a 40 percent stake in the biomass plant constituted a control of ownership that should have triggered the city's right of first refusal to make an offer to buy control of the plant.
The City Commission also authorized Hunzinger to attempt to negotiate an alternate resolution, one that could include potential renegotiation of the contract.
As the meeting wound down after 10 p.m., there was a testy exchange between Commissioner Todd Chase and Mayor Lowe.
Chase spoke for more than 10 minutes about the need to work with American Renewables to bring down the city's costs to purchase power, saying it was the single most important issue for the area's economic future. At one point, Chase said the city might do better in wind-generated electricity.
When Hawkins went to speak next and said his comments would be "comparatively brief," Lowe said that if the discussion was about "harnessing wind," they had good material with which to work.
That brought an angry response from Chase.
"You can gavel all you want," he said to Lowe. "To say I'm full of hot air is not the kind of leadership we need."


text:
Click here to download the Lattice Quilt Instruction sheet (PDF file)
If you have problems opening the above link, right click on it and save it to your computer and then open it. Email me with any questions or problems at firstname.lastname@example.com
My quilt in progress
This is the 30's version Mom made
Another option is to go completely scrappy rather than alternating the light and dark blocks.
My finished quilt


text:
Talofa lava, malo e lelei, kia orana, taloha ni, fakalofa lahi atu, ni sa bula vinaka, kia ora, welcome.
The Ministry of Health is committed to working with the health and disability sector to improve Pacific peoples' health outcomes and reduce inequalities experienced by Pacific peoples.
This section offers information on the Ministry of Health's work to achieve health and wellbeing for Pacific peoples, as well as Pacific health resources and publications.


text:
Hello All
Can anyone tell me , how to measure the throughput of a Fibre channel HBA card ?
I am using :
IBM x86 64 bit Machine running RHEL 5.1 server and HBA card is QLA2340 (QLogic).
Our backups are running very very slow and we need to figure out if its an issue with the backup server or the HBA card firare/driver config issue.


text:
Buy Travel SIM Cards for Townsville in Canada
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text:
The WWW forgets to save our digital memories, but The Archive Team is picking up the slack
"BACK UP YOUR DATA!" That's a simple message expressed in capitalised, red and glittery letters on The Archive Team website introduction illustrating just how important it is that we take notice because, when it comes to our personal digital histories, we rarely do. There are 1.11 billion active Facebook users in the world and I'll bet most of them don't think to back up their messages, photos, video and wall posts documenting a present that will one day become a priceless past. Flickr, Dropbox and The Cloud are handy tools for accessing information no matter where you are but that accessibility hinges on the assumption that these services will be in operation forever. They won't be.
Contrary to popular belief, the internet actually does forget, especially when the information no longer serves a purpose in the interests of the businesses that host it. Yahoo!'s unprecedented dumping of GeoCities in 2006 has become a foreboding example of the risks involved in putting your faith in the corporate conscience because there isn't one. Once an emblem of online trash, now viewed as a fascinating insight into the user behaviours and DIY aesthetics that inform a fast expanding Net art field to this day, the destruction of the GeoCities empire has been described as an "internet atrocity". The notoriously behind-the-times legal system has done nothing to safeguard our cyberfuture from similar catastrophes and, understandably, the fate of recent Yahoo! acquisition Tumblr has people apprehensive. The Web 2.0 bubble is yet to burst but when it does there's no telling what will happen to the sites its users unconsciously depend on for uninsured data storage.
Contrary to popular belief, the internet actually does forget, especially when the information no longer serves a purpose in the interests of the businesses that host it
That's why The Archive Team founder, Jason Scott, has set up what he calls "a loose collective of rogue archivists, programmers, writers and loudmouths dedicated to saving our digital heritage", because if we won't help ourselves, they will. Comprising so-called "ArchiveTeam Warriors" working under names and aliases like "emijrp", "seanp2k" and "Ross", members are dedicated to monitoring and archiving hosted sites before it's too late. If not for them, internet obscurities like FanFiction, the digitised comic book archives of ElfQuest and Russian-based cyberpunk resource The Cyberpunk Project, running since 1994, risk disappearing completely, while more mainstream examples of user-generated content that are either dead or on death row include blogging platform Posterous, MobileMe and Friendster.
Responsible for salvaging what they could from the wreckage of GeoCities, The Archive Team are probably one of the better known digital archiving tribes but there are more data hoarders to speak of, including WebCite , UK Web Archive and Internet Archive. But The Archive Team, at least, is trying to promote individual user agency by providing detailed instructions on how to back up your own information. The Web is still a digital frontierland, functioning on a laissez-faire market economy where there is no obligation on the side of service providers to its users. In an exchange between these online tenants and their landlords, offering a service in return for valuable data and dynamic content, with no protection from eviction without notice, its up to us to look out for ourselves. Corporations aren't here to help you, they're here to help themselves and you should do the same.


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LIBERTY, Mo. -- He was only trying to be kind to a homeless man.
That, according to the former campus president of a Kansas City trade school, is what led to him being fired, while offering a homeless man shelter from cold weather.
Brian Carroll, campus president at Vatterott College in Kansas City for five years, says one of his students had no place to go. On Friday, January 6th, he allowed a student, who is homeless and schizophrenic, to sleep overnight in the school's library. The school fired him on Monday, January 9th, the next business day.
"Education is a beautiful thing to me," Carroll told FOX 4 News. "But sometimes, it gets destroyed in the process."
The recorded overnight temperatures outside Vatterott College on January 6th hit four degrees below zero. Carroll says that student had been sleeping in a wooded area near the school, but temperatures were too harsh that night, and the student had nowhere to seek warmth.
"I just didn't want to take the chance," Carroll said. "We had ice and snow."
"I had a tough choice to make. He can't stay on campus. I can't put him in my car. I can't take him to my house."
Carroll says the student had run out of his medication. He allowed the student to bed down in the school's library, and even though the student didn't steal or damage anything, Carroll was fired once the school's corporate leaders found out. The building has a series of surveillance cameras that can be viewed via remote, which is how Vatterott's Saint Louis-based management team found out.
"I made a choice. I was choosing between life -- I'm not from here. I'm from Southern California. I'm not sure if I could live in the woods at minus two degrees," Carroll said.
Carroll says he and others around the campus had been trying to help the student find subsidized housing. Carroll has worked in education for 35 years, and says he knows he took a risk, but he chose to protect a student's safety.
"I don't know of a direct written policy that says you can't keep someone overnight. There's a policy that says I must protect the assets. I did," Carroll said.
Carroll says it came down to money, and Vatterott officials fired him for putting their equipment and building at risk.
"My first reaction was, shouldn't you just write me up for this? Their answer was no," Carroll said on Monday.
Vatterott College's spokesperson, Julie Bishop-Cross, told FOX 4 News the school's policy is not to comment on personnel matters. Carroll says he hasn't heard from the student in question, but he'd make the same choice again.


text:
Onsted boys basketball topples Adrian
In non-conference action Tuesday night against the Adrian Maples, the Onsted Wildcats boys basketball team made a point to go to its two big guys early, throughout and in the closing moments of the game. That strategy paid off when a close one-point game at the half turned into a 10-point victory for Onsted, 56-46.
Adrian (1-7) used full-court pressure early against the Wildcats (4-4), and then scattered the pressure later in the game until needing to return to it late in the fourth quarter as they scrambled to get some quick points after Onsted had built a double-digit lead. The early pressure seemed to be boom or bust for the Maples. At times the pressure forced some backcourt turnovers that Adrian could turn into easy baskets, and there were other times when Onsted was able to pass the ball ahead of the pressure, giving the Wildcats some easy transition baskets.
Often times it was one half of Onsted's two towers who was the benefactor of those transition baskets. Six-foot-8 Devin Louden used some of his athleticism to run the floor when the Wildcats were able to pass the ball out of the Maple pressure. Just as Adrian was stopping one of Onsted's guards from going in on a lay-up, Louden was sprinting down the other side before angling in near the bottom block, taking a lob pass into his outstretched fingertips and then slamming in down through the hoop.
If, however, the Wildcats weren't sprinting out in transition, they were setting the ball up on the wing and letting the other half of the towers, 6-foot-10 Austin Davis, use his size to get position and his increasingly efficient post moves to score. Of Onsted's 28 first-half points, Davis and Louden accounted for 24.
"We did a better job of getting the ball inside tonight than we had been," said Onsted coach Brad Maska. "We were able to get the ball up the floor in transition at times, but when we didn't, we were able to execute much better than we have been, and that starts with getting the ball inside to our bigs in a position where they can score."
The Wildcats would get the crowd buzzing with an athletic dunk, but the Maples were trading a few possessions at a 3-to-2 rate, keeping the score close. Kevin Woodmore had the hot hand for the Maples in the first half, hitting three of their five 3-pointers and draining both of his free throws to have 11 points at the break.
The second half saw much of the same from the Wildcats on offense, but also more effort on defense. In particular, finding the Adrian shooters and contesting the shots. It was the defensive pressure and length of the defenders in contesting shots that the Wildcats used to limit Adrian to only six points in the third quarter, including keeping Woodmore out of the scorebook.
"Onsted did a nice job of contesting shots in the second half and forcing us to take jump shots," said Adrian coach Phil Green. "We didn't move the ball as well as we should have, but they also have the length to alter an offense."
Woodmore was able to find the long range for two more triples in the last quarter, but it was too late for the Maples to mount any comeback. Onsted was able to put the game away despite a scary free-throw shooting performance in the fourth. The Wildcats only made 3 of 15 attempts and finished the game 4-for-20 from the line.
Louden filled the stat sheet, scoring 17 points, pulling down 12 rebounds, dishing off six assists and adding four blocked shots. Davis ended with 21 points, 16 rebounds, and four blocks.
Woodmore hit five 3s and finished with 17 points. Jeff Marvin also played a solid game, finishing with six points, 12 rebounds and four each of assists and steals.


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Developer or Software Engineer?
We started a discussion this afternoon, and we want your thoughts. Like many of you, we have experience with diverse development tools (from C up to point-n-click CMS administration) for many types of projects (native applications, web services, branded sites, etc.) The question of interest is about job titles and their role in community. For our discussion, Let's not try to pick the better of these two titles. Let's explore what is communicated by them and how that influences various things about our professional world.
Specifically, we've wondered about the contrast between the use of these terms in the following contexts:
- Introduced to someone at a networking event
- non-professional introduction
- Hiring talent
- Hiring an agency
- Reading someone's blog (i.e. first impression online)
- Deciding what to call yourself
- Community embrace
1. What is your opinion on the appropriate circumstances for choosing either term?
2. In what ways can these titles influence how we think about and perform our work?
the subtext
Most of the edit iterations of this post were focused on removing the specifics that came up in our conversation. This was done primarily in the interest of starting the conversation without over-influencing it, and to give me and my MTM peers a prompt to participate in the conversation along with you.
Fri, 11/09/2012 - 19:38
As a non-programmer, the connotations of each title to me are generally:
Developer - Solutions-oriented, generally up-to-date on new programming trends, skilled. Generally learned by doing.
Software Engineer - Educated in software (likely as a degree), which could either be a good or a bad thing. Potentially not as skilled as the title might suggest without lots of work experience to back it up. To me, it sounds a bit "stuffier" and more old school than developer.
Mon, 11/12/2012 - 18:00
Well phrased, Adam. That aligns almost exactly with my impression.
Fri, 11/09/2012 - 20:39
Interesting question, and one that I have asked myself a lot recently. I feel that I most identify myself as a "Developer" within the community. To the outside world however, I identify myself as a "Software Engineer". When pressed for something more specific, I identify myself as a "UI Architect".
Mon, 11/12/2012 - 14:38
This is exactly what I do.
Fri, 11/09/2012 - 20:43
I think the terms are synonymous. I have a degree in web programming, but I feel like I have gotten the most out of what I have taught myself. I use the terms interchangeably. I call myself a web developer to other tech people, but I tend to use the term "Software Engineer" when talking to folks who do not really understand what a Web Developer is. Non-tech people tend to kind of get it when the word "Software" and "Engineer" are thrown in there.
Fri, 11/09/2012 - 21:10
'Software Engineer' requires a license in some jurisdictions, along with many other engineering fields. I wonder if this is a trend that will grow or recede. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_over_the_term_Engineer
Fri, 11/09/2012 - 21:20
Licensing will definitely recede and already has. Opensource is used more and more. In my entire career I haven't met a single programmer who has needed to be licensed or missed out on work because of a lack of license ... This is at least true for the web world
Sun, 11/11/2012 - 21:17
Employers call us engineers - and not us software people. No employer I have worked for has been willing to pay the premium for a licensed engineer in any field. None of my coworkers are licensed as engineers - electronics, electrical, mechanical, whatever - our employers still call us engineers (except the company's Chief Engineer, she actually is a licensed engineer, but several levels above us, so is NOT a coworker). But, they do not treat us as engineers - we do not get to approve or, more importantly, disapprove anything. Beyond designing, coding and writing documentation, our role purely advisory. Managers 2 levels or more above us make all the approvals/disapprovals. Not even the few licensed engineers down on our level have any more input to the decision making than the rest of us.
Fri, 11/09/2012 - 21:56
I usually think of a person developing certain features using existing libraries and programming patterns when I try to imagine developer. Engineer on the other hand would be an architect, a person developing a framework, library or engine of sort that will aid in the process of development. That being said, every developer is at times engineer and vice versa. As developers we approach problems systematically, we think about extensibility, efficiency and maintainability of our code and we constantly seek ways to improve it and learn more. I think the line between these two labels are pretty blurry even in development field and non-existent outside of it. I usually label myself a web/software developer to peers and software developer/engineer to layman. The reason for this being is that people outside the industry are often not familiar with term developer or what type of work would that entail. However, when you use a term software engineer and bust out your TI-84 graphing calculator at a party, not only will you communicate your awesomeness clearly, but you are bound leave the party with at least couple of additional entries in your phonebook.
Fri, 11/09/2012 - 23:10
I totally agree... the lines are blurry. And coders will do both depending on the situation
Fri, 11/09/2012 - 22:43
Whether required or not legally. I tend to dislike the term "Engineer" for any profession that is not speaking of a specifically "Licensed" person.
The reason is for the same that I often tell people not to refer to me as Dr. Joe. Most people mean this as an endearment because I "fix" their problems, however Dr. is a title which is not easily earned and should be reserved for those who truly earned that title.
Engineer is the same. To become an Engineer one does not simply graduate with an engineering degree. You must take the FE (Fundamentals of Engineering) Exam and after you have passed the exam you must complete multiple years as an "apprentice" under a fully licensed engineer before you can officially call yourself an engineer.
I know this because my wife is an Engineering apprentice at the moment with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. She can be called Dr. Collins but she has not yet earned the title of Engineer.
With that said, I understand why the term Software Engineer was coined but I feel it is a little bit misleading to those who are familiar with the "Licensed Engineer" path and it is a little bit degrading to those who did go through such a rigorous process to gain that title in which others are so freely taking.
Fri, 11/09/2012 - 23:04
Sure in other fields engineer means different things and requires apprenticeships .. Etc. but this discussion is specific to the web, where that isn't the case. Licensing doesn't matter for people who create the web... It's all about what you can do... We engineer, develop, and create.
Fri, 11/09/2012 - 22:57
Great comments so far, thanks! In hopes of drawing in a wide crowd of opinion on the topic, I've asked the same questions to Slashdot.
I'm not sure if it will snatch the interest of the community there, but if you're interested in engaging a larger audience perhaps you'd like to also comment on my submission over there
Sat, 11/10/2012 - 01:36
I feel that a big factor here is that many of the folks that have been around for a long time went to school back before the web was what it is today. Based solely on my college education my title would be "Animator" (and stop motion at that!); but when I went to school in the mid to late 90's my university didn't even have a web program yet. Essentially the profession as it is today was only in its fledgeling stages at that point. Since then I've seen a lot of computer science and digital arts people meeting in the middle as this entire new medium developed right before our eyes. I think it is only natural that we don't know what we are given how relatively young and rapidly evolving the web is.
Personally, I honestly couldn't care less what people call me. As long as I can keep making stuff that I'm proud of with people I am proud to be surrounded by, I don't care what goes in my signature line until the industry matures to a point where standard titles are decided upon.
That said I would like to be a "Ninja-neer" or maybe a "Fun-gineer".
Sat, 11/10/2012 - 23:21
The consensus on Slashdot.org seems to be that it's a *distinction without a difference*
But the quality of comments indicates that the question of defining roles and titles in the industry is in woeful need of revision.
The 'Licensed Engineer' aspect is interesting but ultimately inconsequential. In the US anyone can give an employee that title.
This is about **code** and **money**....that's what makes the 'tech industry' go around...everyone is a designer.
IMHO there are three roles....making code, making the code make money, and managing that money
If it is a *business*...call it what you want, the people who matter at a shop do one of the three things above...well, those three and the maintenance people of course ;)
Sun, 11/11/2012 - 00:52
Just to add to this great thread, in my humble opinion, you can use these two different titles in two ways:
1. By the type of work you do - As some mentioned already, if you're creating software for systems that are lower-level or that can't fail, seems like you're more of an engineer. Examples might be creating the embedded system controlling the airbags of a car, developing the internals of an OS. To me, this seems more like engineering, because you have to utilize more engineering principles, like fault-tolerance and redundancy (we all use these principles, but not to the degree some of these other systems require). Jobs for "Developers" tend to allow them to focus more on features and design, and less on creating mission critical software.
2. By how you actually do your work - To me, you can be a software engineer on projects that don't seem like engineering jobs. Because, developing even a mid-sized website can still be created using engineering principles. One example might be, if done right, you can use requirements and design to try to catch mistakes early when their "cheap to fix." For instance, endlessly about a feature during a 1 hour "requirements" meeting may seem like a waste of an hour, but considering the amount of man hours wasted if that feature goes through and gets designed, implemented, and tested. This of course isn't a new idea, and most of us have been through useless requirements phases where it was just a waste of time, but you may have also been on a couple projects where the person running requirements actually new what he/she was doing and really figured out a ton of stuff early on.
Or, for instance, designing systems that can be built relatively quickly, but will still also be able to be scaled, knowing that in the future, there maybe 1000 times as many users as compared to when the system is first started. Seems like a lot of websites I've personally come across are being designed for rapid development, and end up running into huge, major problems because of decisions they made early on. I've heard this quite a few times now.
This is just my opinion and I think I've been in both roles and ways of thinking in my career as a dev/engineer.
Sun, 11/11/2012 - 14:56
The term engineer is often associated with an engineering education, which includes study of calculus, differential equations, integral transforms, mechanics, electrodynamics, circuit theory, strength of materials, thermodynamics, semi-conductor fabrication, foundry, and numerous other commercial arts and sciences.
Mon, 11/12/2012 - 02:53
I've worked in web development for the past 12 years and I have hired many programmers in that time. I have always thought of them as developers with our primary technologies being open source tools and languages. I had always thunk that engineers were only low level programmers or a group that designs hardware.
In the past year I have started working with .NET programmers who often prefer to be called engineers. I don't know if this is a .NET cultural thing or just the company I am at. Many of them feel that the open source tools I use and love (php, linux, mysql etc...) are not fully developed "enterprise" options. I believe that they feel the title differentiates them from the open source "developer" culture. The context being that those are "just" web development tools.
In the end I have worked with several great "developers" and "engineers" and the problems, solutions and context has not changed much for me, just the underlying technology and preferred title depending on the group.
Thanks for the topic Chris!


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Cycling is one of the best forms of simple, low-cost exercises available out there. Let's find out more about its advantages and disadvantages.
As a kid, all one ever wants is a cycle! Many even used it to go to the school and the pride of owning a cycle was clear for everyone to see. But things change with time and now most people prefer bikes and cars. But let's not forget that even today, cycling still continues to be one of the best forms of exercise.
Benefits of cycling as an exercise
Builds strength – Cycling is not just an exercise for the legs. Contrary to general perceptions, cycling helps in building strength in a holistic manner
Cuts the risk of coronary heart disease – Cycling gives a workout to your heart, lungs and blood vessels, and thus reduces the risk of heart problems.
Increases muscle tone – Cycling is a slow but good way of increasing muscle tone. It is a good workout for the leg, hip and knee joints.
Builds stamina – Cycling builds your stamina even without your knowledge as once you start enjoying it you do not realise that you have gone further than original capacity.
Reduces stress – Cycling outside is a good way to be one with nature. It helps you to clear your head and makes you feel better.
Improves body co-ordination – As you cycle more and more, your body starts synchronizing the moves and your arm to leg, and body to eye co-ordination improves.
Melts your body fat – If you are on the heavier side, cycling can help you reduce weight.
Improves cardio-vascular fitness – Cycling improves your breathing and your heart beat in a steady manner. Cycling also uses the largest muscle group, the legs, and raises the heart rate.
Disadvantages of cycling as an exercise
Injuries due to overuse – Muscle sprain due to over cycling is very common. Along with that, over cycling can subject you to lower backache and knee problems.
Safety issues – Cycling on a busy road is never easy. After all, not all road users are generous towards a vulnerable cycle rider. This raises the need of the right safety gear and right paths for cyclists which may or may not be available.
At the mercy of Mother Nature – Cycles do not have roofs so when it rains you have no choice to either to stop at a shelter or to go ahead and get drenched.
Harmful pollution – Riding on busy roads full of traffic can expose you to harmful pollution. This can also cause respiratory diseases.
Precautions to exercise while cycling
Gear up right – Protection is very important. Wearing kneecaps and a helmet can be helpful in avoiding some injuries.
Work on stamina building – Do not aim long distance on your first try.. Slowly build up your stamina and increase the distance.
Stay hydrated – Cycling can cause a lot of sweating. Never forget to carry a bottle of water with you. Sip a little water at regular intervals.
Do not ride with an injury – Riding while you're injured can worsen the injury. It is better to take some rest and get better before starting to ride again.


text:
| by Karen Lowerr | 0
Over the past two weeks, the Remedy team traveled to and presented in several locations across the Midwest, connecting with customers and prospects from Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Minnesota. Here are the events that we attended in :
Karen Lowerr
Manager, Marketing & Operations
Karen is the Manager of Marketing & Operations, specializing in marketing and event management.
Strive or thrive? Pivoting with Strategic Planning & Economic Changes
How to figure out if your Core Software has been Sunset (without you knowing it)
Remedy Consulting helps financial institutions (FI) thrive through best-in-class fintech consulting services specializing in System Selections, Contract Negotiations, Outsourcing/In-House Advisory, Bank Mergers & Acquisitions, and FI Strategic Planning. As a trusted advisor to banks and credit unions located in Wisconsin, the Remedy Team has executed over 700 system selection and vendor negotiations since 2016. Our clients receive a cost reduction on their core vendor contracts and increased efficiency with Remedy's Price Repository. To learn more about Remedy Consulting, contact us today!
Our organization was engaged in a negotiation with our core provider for a contract renewal. Although we were already well into the process, I made the decision to hire Remedy because I felt the negotiations were taking too long and consuming too much of my management team's time.
Josh Hoppes, CEO
Mutual Savings Association, Leavenworth, KS
After completing one renewal on your own, it was evident that market pricing information was necessary for an effective negotiation. Remedy was able to provide that plus other contract information that made for a positive renewal. Remedy was able to achieve more than our expectations, including significantly lower rates.
Amy Johnson, COO
Dairy State Bank, Rice Lake, WI
We wanted to ensure our pricing and contract terms were in line with those of other financial institutions. Remedy had the tools and knowledge to help us out. The process, from beginning to end, lasted about 4 months. Remedy took care of all the negotiations and simply kept us apprised of where the negotiations were at and how they were going.
Ben Hansen, CEO
RSNB Bank, Rock Springs, WY
Cornerstone Bank thanks Remedy Consulting as a strategic partner in core contract negotiation. Brian, Project Manager, streamlined the process of our core vendor renewal and advised us as to the new technologies that we could continue/implement and still receive a cost reduction on our five-year contract. We are happy to highly recommend Brian and the Remedy Team.
John Doull, President
Cornerstone Bank, Overland Park, KS
Remedy Consulting was able to achieve much more than our expectations during our core contract negotiation including significantly lower rates and contract language that much more favorable to the bank. We were extremely impressed with the project management and professionalism shown by the Remedy Team. Highly recommended.
Walker Jordan, President
Bank of Monticello


text:
If you are anything like I am, you have been infected by at least one virus and occasionally have a really hard time removing it. I will show you to remove these tough viruses without having to rebuild your computer or pay someone big money to do so.
Ok so you notice your computer is running very slow. You run your virus scan software and find one or more viruses. You clean them up and your computer still runs slow. You cant figure out why so you run another scan and find out that the same virus is still on your computer. How does this happen?
Basically, there are viruses that will drop into protected system files or startup files that hide within your computer. Sometimes they cannot be removed without rebuilding your computer but there are a few ways around this.
First things first, get a computer toolkit ready to destroy the virus on multiple levels. I recommend a spybot scanner, adware scanner, and virus scan. Plus it always helps to have a strong registry cleaner. Once you have all of these tools ready to go, get them updated fully and download the latest versions of each if possible. After you have updated all of these tools DISCONNECT your internet connection from the computer.
It is essential to disconnect from the internet because most of the imbedded viruses will connect to their host site after the main piece is removed and will download and install itself again without you knowing. Run all of your scan utilities first and restart your computer after they have finished. Once the computer is started up, run the scans once more and restart if the virus is back. If you cannot remove the virus within three restarts, further action is required and will more than likely result in a rebuild.
If you remove it, run a registry clean to remove any leftover tag files. This will also help speed up your computer slightly. Refer to my article 5 Easy Tips To Keep Your Computer Running Smooth And Safe for more computer optimization tips. Restart once more and connect to the internet once more. You should run one more scan to verify the virus is gone. If it is we are ready to go. If it isnt removed you will have to take a couple more steps.
Use your scan utilities to find out exactly where the files are located and remove them from the registry. Be warned that removing registry files can break your operating system.


text:
Restoring to What Never Was
It seems that whether I live in the densest of towns or in the remotest parts of the countryside, I am fortunate to have neighbours who are bicycle-mad. So much so that, wandering past their houses of an evening, I might spot them in the act of polishing a set of wheels, or perhaps restoring a frame in their shed.
"When did you get that one?" I asked Owen, peering over his fence. He was holding up a vintage Raleigh frameset, waving to me with it as I made my way through the field behind his garden.
"Don't you recognise it?"
I did not recognise it in fact.
The frame was silver with a sort of dark maroon headtube. A model I had seen, no doubt, before, just not in Owen's collection. My gaze traveled along the tubes for clues to something out of the ordinary, but I could spot nothing - until my eye was drawn to the seat cluster. Those seat stay endcaps, they reminded me of something...
And then all at once it hit me what this bicycle was.
"You didn't!"
"I did."
"Oh wow."
Having acquired this local legend of a machine, Owen decided to re-build it with newer components. And, while he was at it, to de-Bianchify it. Why? Because the falseness of it felt wrong I suppose. The bike even "looked wrong" to the eye somehow, its proportions and details un-Italian even if the decals said otherwise.
Interestingly, Owen decided not to chase whatever look the machine originally had as a Raleigh Team 753, but to go with his own colourscheme. After stripping and sandblasting the frame, he treated it with a rust-proofing agent and then simply clear-lacquered. And indeed on closer inspection I saw that the tubes were "raw" rather than silver. The headtube he painted maroon for a pop of colour, then sourced the relevant decals, and hand-lacquered clear again over the entire frame - employing a technique not dissimilar to the one he uses when repainting vintage aircraft.
As darkness fell upon the small back garden strewn with tools and components, I decided to postpone a photoshoot until the frameset was fully finished and the bicycle assembled. And I could not help but feel a tinge of regret that the "Ralianchi" was no more. Granted it had been an "incorrect" bicycle. But it had also served as evidence of the much-mythologised practice of re-branding bicycles for promotional purposes in racing. This, I thought had made it a historically interesting specimen.
The repainted frame looked friendlier, less aggressive, more homey. It was not so much a restoration as yet another re-invention of a frame that had already lived two lives and had many adventures.
Meanwhile, no sooner was the celestial glow scrubbed off the Ralianchi, another creature, similarly hued, appeared in our 'hood.
A Bianchi? Nope. It's a Raleigh. And not a repainted one either, but an all-original 1980s Raleigh Rapide Handbuilt, with Reynolds 531 tubing and rather attractive art-deco style lugwork. But that is a story for another time.


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I decided that, once the public action taken by Ordain Women (OW) at the April 2014 Priesthood session of General Conference was accomplished, I'd stay silent about the event. I figured there would be enough people talking about them and probably not enough people listening to them. In the aftermath, I read some very moving posts written by the OW sisters and their male supporters. Surprisingly, during and immediately after General Conference, my Facebook feed was almost absent of OW bashing. I was pleased.
However, about a week after the Priesthood session, a guest post from The Millennial Star, titled "Ordain Women: thanks for nothing" (sic), began appearing in my feed. I looked away the first few times it appeared, but its recurrence demanded I pay it some attention. Everything about that post stood in stark contrast to the things I'd read by OW supporters. It was angry when OW posts were reflective, jubilant, and sad. It was rude when OW posts seemed to go out of their way to forgive. And it was illogical, making claims about OW that were not recognizable to me and assumptions that should have been put on the Naughty Bench rather than online. But I haven't an interest in discussing, much less debunking, the guest post. Read it here if you haven't. Instead, I'd like to don my fiction writer/editor's cap and discuss the difference between point of view (POV) and perspective, why and how that knowledge can help us, and what perspective has to do with the Ordain Women "problem."
Heading Back to School on Perspective: Thanks to our English teachers, most of us know the difference between first and third person points of view. But what we rarely get in our literary education is an introduction to the concept of perspective.
Perspective is a subset of point of view. Perspective is what writers are using when they focus the readers' attention within the constraints of point of view, or under its umbrella. It's sort of like where a filmmaker points the camera, what s/he draws your attention to. If you think about it, a novelist who is writing a restaurant scene in which two people are in conflict has a huge number of things she could direct your attention to: the stain on the tablecloth, the waiter's cowlick, the murmur of voices, dishes being dropped, and so on. So many things happen simultaneously, and a good writer selects out the things that will subtly carry a desired meaning or emotion to the reader. In this way, the writer aligns the reader, who began as a detached observer, with the point of view character and his/her emotions, goals and desires. Without perspective, we wouldn't care about the people in the stories we consume. With perspective, we begin to see the world through the eyes of another.
Of the two concepts, point of view is the easiest to comprehend. We understand that there are many points of view–an American point of view, a Marxist point of view, a libertarian point of view, a progressive point of view–and we have a general idea what these various points of view entail. A person needn't be LDS to understand a Mormon point of view values family, personal responsibility and accountability, and a commitment to loving and serving others. We understand points of view that are different from our own in broad, stereotypical ways much like we understand in a basic way what it is to eat in a restaurant. It's an intellectual understanding. Point of view allows a reader to see and comprehend, but perspective is what makes a reader feel and understand in an intimate way.
Perspective as a Life Tool: Just as intimacy and alignment between character and reader are brought into fiction through the writer's use of perspective, so it is in real life. In other words, if our goal is to align our hearts with others–especially with those who are markedly different from us–it isn't enough to be able to tick off the attributes associated with their point of view. We must experience their perspective. We must look where that person looks and see what they see through their eyes. We must use the tool of perspective to unite our emotions with theirs, the same way a reader's emotions are united with a character's through the craft of perspective. Even if that union of perspective is as momentary as the flip of a page, it is essential to establishing the alignment we call brother and sisterhood.
It's important to remember, however, that a well-crafted narrative changes its readers by broadening their world, not by changing their personal worldview. Acquiring the perspective of those who think differently than we do will not require us to become like them. Instead, it allows us to become better because we know them. This act of sharing another's perspective is the foundation of Christ-like love. Perhaps its mastery is what makes God God.
The woman who dashed off the guest post in The Millennial Star seems to understand the LDS feminist point of view accepted by Ordain Women. She wrote: "I don't disagree with OW's basic tenets. I find their statements that Joseph Smith planned to organize a female priesthood compelling. I'm not against that. Nor am I against the greater influence of women in the church, in addition to the power we already have."
Unfortunately, these sentences are buried in an avalanche of angry accusations that communicate, to me anyway, that the last thing she wants is a sense of kinship with the people of Ordain Women. It doesn't sound like she can tolerate them, much less love them. She had an emotional overreaction to a tenet of LDS feminism that she understands intellectually, but was unable to identify with, to feel an alignment with. That emotional overreaction seems to have lead her away from the love our Savior wants us–no, commands us–to have for one another. She has every right to reject any aspect of any world view she doesn't share. However, she, like the rest of us, has been called to love all of God's children. We don't insult, degrade, demean or misrepresent those we love. Nor should we give kudos to those who do.
I know darn well I've been as guilty of this behavior as anyone. Those who know me well know it well. When my husband and I dated, he called me his lovely little Sherman tank because sometimes I was so sure of being right that I confused that confidence with being righteous. Add in my love of words and, well, let's just say you could find several offenses of this nature in the wake of my life. But I've learned a few things.
I've learned that, in order to love, it isn't enough to understand different points of view. I need perspective, or, as the cliche goes, "to walk in another's shoes." But here's the trick. It isn't enough to simply read the perspectives of the members of Ordain Women (or for Ordain Women to read perspectives contrary to their own). Our hearts have to be willing to accept that the other perspective is valid. The validity is found in the fact that a child of God feels or thinks or experiences something in the manner they are expressing. The validity is confirmed by the knowledge that God loves us all and that He has placed each of us in the life that has made us who we are. Different. The same. All are loved in the eyes of our Heavenly Father and our Savior.
Perspective as a Blessing: I'd like to share a perspective with you, a lovely blog post written by a young Mormon feminist who stood in line for a ticket to the Priesthood session and was refused. If you do not share Ordain Women's point of view, remember as you read this that perspective is a tool that can align very different hearts. Do not merely step into her point of view; step into her perspective. Do not evaluate whether she is right or wrong according to your thinking. I ask that you feel the emotion in her. It may not be the emotion you have felt in a similar situation (it wasn't mine), but accept that the emotion is validated by the truth that she is your spiritual sister, a daughter of God, and that He loves her and understands her as much as He loves and understands you.
The question is, can you love her?
By Amy Cartwright
(originally published on April 14, 2014 at Young Mormon Feminist)
A year ago, I could not hold you. Despite carrying your body for nine months, despite enduring hour after agonizing hour of labour, despite sacrificing my body and hopes on an operating table, despite the endless nights and postpartum tears, despite laying down every piece of me—physically, emotionally, and spiritually—to provide you breath, I was not allowed. I was not allowed to hold you or to speak to you. I was not allowed to feel and hear of God's words pertaining to your life. I was not allowed to pronounce your name.
These are the duties of the male. The priesthood.
I was told my prayers were mighty. I was told my faith was strong. I was told I was of equal value.
And yet, I could not hold you, could not speak to you, could not pronounce your name. On a day meant to be a day of blessing, it promised only to be a day of exclusion and pain. I could not bless you. I could not even touch you at the moment your name would have been pronounced to our community.
All because I am woman and I am your mother.
And so, a year later, I held you tight as I used that body, my female body, the one that had been banned from holding and blessing, to offer up the prayer of my heart.
I carried you with me as I proclaimed my desire and readiness to hold you a year before. I carried you for the right to hold my own child. I carried you for the power to bless. I carried you because I wanted you to know that you are the authority in your life and not auxiliary to it. I carried you because I want you to know that you can be a leader, not simply one who is led. I carried you because I hope for a better, stronger, more loving faith for you.
I carried you because I do this for you. I do this for me. I do this for the grandmothers, mothers, daughters, and granddaughters. I do this for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
And as I carried you, I held your blessing in my heart. I blessed you with courage and fortitude, with love and passion, with determination and steadfastness. I blessed you with love of God and humankind, with understanding and foresight. I blessed you that you would find your voice early rather than spend your life fighting it off because of fear. I blessed you that you would always know you have a place at my table so long as you live. I blessed you that you will know you have choice in life. I blessed you that you might know you are not presided over by another but are the presiding authority on your life. I blessed you that you would covenant to God rather than to your husband. I blessed you that you, my sweet Emilia, would know that to be woman is not to be secondary, beneath, pedestaled, or excused. To be woman is to be wholly human.
You are my daughter, flesh of my flesh.
May this be the beginning of better days.
I've had three children receive their infant blessings by my husband while I sat watching. I've never once felt any of the things Amy Cartwright speaks of feeling. I never thought to feel envious or shunned, but only happy that the man I love, who didn't get to carry our children in the womb, got to lay his hands on their heads and bless them. I suppose, had it not been my husband pronouncing the blessing (and I have learned from Amy that her infant daughter would have been blessed by ward members), the likelihood that I would feel envy would rise. But does it matter that I haven't felt what Amy felt? No. Because, you see, I have felt misunderstood, undervalued, and alienated at other times in my life. Amy is directing my focus in a way that may be foreign to me, but feels so true, so human, so lovely, both in its strength and in its weakness. How can I not love her for all she expresses here? How could a Heavenly Father not love her for the intense desire she has to communicate to her daughter her divine worth? Why would anyone think God would rebuke her for that instead of comforting her? The desire of Amy's heart may be differently expressed than mine, but her desire for her child's well-being is the same as my desire for mine. I can't help but love her.
Many of us–most of us–don't share Ordain Women's point of view. We don't think this way. But we all feel this way. Maybe not about the same things. But opening ourselves to the perspective of others–following their emotional gaze as it were–is what will align our hearts and allow us to love in the way God promises us will lead to joy.
The sister who wrote the guest post in question worries that OW is bringing "bad press" to the Church. I submit that a variety of points of view in any organization is the norm and nothing to fret over, whether or not the press notices. On the other hand, a Church which teaches the love of Christ, but whose members cannot manage it one for another, simply because they differ, is a much greater worry.
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matt 22: 37-40)


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Marshall McLuhan once famously said, "The medium is the message." Here's what he meant:
"The 'message' of any medium or technology is the change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs."
Today, the meaning is the message. The "message" of the Internet's social revolution is more meaningful work, economics, politics, society, and organization. It promises radically more meaning: to make stuff matter, once again, in human terms, not just financial ones.
And that's never mattered more. Industrial era business was "meaningless" because it was antisocial. Here's how the DSM IV defines antisocial personality disorder:
"…a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood."
It fits most organizations to a T — from Wall Street to Detroit to Big Pharma to Big Food to Big Energy. Our research suggests that 95% of organizations are unable to offer socially useful stuff that creates meaningful value for people, communities, and tomorrow's generations.
Yet, most "social media" strategies have one or more of three goals: to "push product," "build buzz," or "engage consumers." None of these lives up to the Internet's promise of meaning. They're just slightly cleverer ways to sell more of the same old junk. But the great challenge of the 21st century is making stuff radically better in the first place — stuff that creates what I've been calling thicker value.
Organizations don't need "social media" strategies. They need social strategies: strategies that turn antisocial behavior on its head to maximize meaning. The right end of social tools is to help organizations stop being antisocial. In fact, it's the key to advantage in the 2010s and beyond.
Here are seven social strategies that are turning yesterday's zombieconomy upside down. They're what I look for when evaluating investments, innovations, and ideas across the social mediascape.
Character. Most organizations have no character, in the traditional sense of the word. They'll never stand up for what's right, noble, or true. If they were a hyper-Dickens character, they'd be Ebenezer Scrooge squared. The character strategy utilizes social tools to help an organizations develop a moral compass, often via ethical accelerators. One of my favorite examples is Gwilym Davies' disloyalty card, which rewards coffee-drinkers for trying out other local cafés. Now that's a coffeeshop with character.
Control. Most organizations are run by bosses. By contrast, an organization with a social control strategy radically decentralizes decision-making, giving the control that was formerly vested in echelons upon echelons of managers directly to people, communities, and society. Think Threadless, whose corporate anarchy is upsetting the tired, increasingly profitless clothes market.
Creativity. Most organizations are, from an economic perspective, brain-dead: they are unable to come up with newer, better ideas consistently and reliably. The result is that they defend old ones tooth and nail: a formidable source of antisocial behavior. The creativity strategy hinges on utilizing social tools to explode how imaginative organizations are. Lego's social approach to toy production and consumption — textbook awesomeness — has turned the table on its rivals, by giving Lego the capacity to be more imaginative than they can be.
Culture. Culture is how an organization makes sense of the world, a set of assumptions internalized by all its members. Most organizations are the cultural equivalent of stone age tribes: focused on "the hunt," "the kill," and what's for dinner today. Like stone age tribes, they're fractious, unproductive, and easily broken. In the culture strategy, social tools are used to help an organization make better sense of the world. Accountability, roles, tasks, processes, incentives — that's what shapes culture, and in the culture strategy, social tools are utilized to reconceive them. Wal-Mart's Sustainability Index is a radical example of a culture-changer, altering all of the above, helping Wal-Mart's entire ecosystem make sense of the world anew.
Clarity. The clarity strategy is perhaps the simplest. Most organizations are flying blind: they have limited visibility about changes in the marketplace. Social tools are a powerful way to gain clarity: better, faster information about what's happening not just in the boardroom, but in the real world. My favorite example of clarity is Google's rapid, frequent, consistent experimentation. Because of it, Google always has more clarity about what really creates meaningful value — and what really doesn't — than rivals. Here's a tiny example of Google helping searchers gain clarity on hotel pricing using Google Maps.
Cohesion. Relationship inflation is the most visible sign of social media decay. The cohesion strategy says: in relationships, seek quality, not quantity. One of my favorite recent examples of cohesion is "Tummling" — the art of social engagement. It's a form of moderation pioneered by Heather Gold, Deb Schultz, and Kevin Marks. The Tummler's job, Kevin says, is "setting the tone and establishing the norm," deciding who speaks where and when, summarizing, and synthesizing. The goal of Tummling is to help dialogue happen — and make relationships not merely inflate, but cohere, thicken, blossom, and mature.
Choreography. Most organizations seek "high performance." Today, performance is no longer enough: excelling in yesterday's terms is excelling at the wrong things. This is downright self-destructive (just ask Wall Street). Today's radical innovators aren't merely mute performers, precisely executing the empty steps of a meaningless dance: they're more like choreographers. Choreographers define the steps of a better dance — they lay down better rules for interactions between supply and demand to take place. Yelp's getting its choreography wrong, failing to build a better dialogue between buyers and sellers (instead of just isolated, drive-by "reviews"). Etsy's still on the brink of greatness, pioneering highly productive relationships between buyers and sellers. My favorite example is M-Pesa, which lays down a new choreography for finance: from person to person, instead of bank to bank.
Using the social to "build buzz" and "push product" is about as smart as using a warp drive to visit your local Wal-Mart. Social tools today are used mostly as a new "channel" to push the same old useless stuff of the industrial era at hapless "consumers." That's meaninglessness at it's finest. It's the least productive — and most soul-deadening — use of a formidably powerful tool.
Social media strategy fits inside a marketing (business, corporate) strategy, and is shaped by it. Social strategy fits outside business and corporate strategies, and shapes them. Social strategies are about rewriting the logic of the industrial era entirely, shifting gears in how we think, envisioning a broader, more powerful, more challenging use of social tools. They are about developing the capacity to understand an organization's role in society, and how to play a more constructive one, wielding sociality as a source of advantage — by acting radically more meaningfully than rivals.
Social strategies are about reinventing tomorrow. Their goal is nothing less than changing the DNA of an organization, ecosystem, or industry. Want to get radical? Stop applying 20th century principles ("product," "buzz," "loyalty") to 21st century media. The fundamental change of scale and pace that social tools introduce into human affairs — their great tectonic shift — is the promise of more meaningful work, stuff, and organization. Start with "the meaning is the message" instead.