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== Vulnerabilities in Their Strategy ==
== Vulnerabilities in Their Strategy ==
*On average, states with Republican leadership are more dependent on the federal government for funds than are Democratic states.[https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700/]
*On average, states with Republican leadership are more dependent on the federal government for funds than are Democratic states.[https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700/]
[https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700 Source]
[https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700 Source]
Revision as of 23:41, 26 May 2017
This is a collaborative knowledge base; feel free to propose edits/additions that you believe are important for others to know. Contributions will be reviewed and approved based on quality and accuracy.
- 1 How You Can Resist
- 2 Recent Updates
- 3 Food Stamps (SNAP)
- 4 WIC and Food Deserts
- 5 Unemployment Benefits
- 6 Trump/GOP Tax Reform Proposal
- 6.1 Expanding Child-Care Benefits
- 6.2 Changing Tax Brackets
- 6.3 Tax cuts for married couples
- 6.4 Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
- 6.5 Tax Cuts for Businesses
- 6.6 Tax Increases for Homeowners and People Giving to Charity
- 7 Social Security (OASDI) and SSI
- 8 Vulnerabilities in Their Strategy
How You Can Resist
- Call your Senator and US Representative by dialing tel:844-6-RESIST and tell them to vote against proposed actions that cut taxes for the highest earners.
- Find out when your Senators and US Representative are holding town halls and other Upcoming Events/Opportunities. Show up and tell them not to cut taxes for the highest earners.
- Click here to find an organization looking for volunteers.
Recent Updates
- Trump's tax reform plan is incomplete. It has little to no information on tax bracket limits, standard deductions, or personal exemptions. His reform outline has no information about what a tax subsidy to care for children means. Corporate tax preferences can have major impacts on the cost of the Trump plan and the distribution of its benefits among people of different income groups.[1]
- Experts warn major tax cuts can mean major cuts in state services. For example, in Douglas County, residents have voted to do away with a $6 tax on a median priced home to fund the area's libraries. This resulted in closing of 11 local library branches.[2] Also, there were cuts to the sheriff's budget, which means the end of round-the-clock staffing. Even conducting an election this fall could be beyond reach.[3]
- Trump's radical tax reform plan can face severe resistance from the housing lobby, governors of states with already high taxes. Tax breaks disproportionately benefit those tax payers who can itemize their deductions.[4] According to the joint committee on taxation, in 2014, 90 percent of the beneficiaries of itemized deductions were tax payers who earned over $100,000. It is usually the argument of the state governments that local and state tax deductions help balance power between federal government and states. Administering federal tax cuts by eliminating state tax deductions would create "double taxation" of income which might not be in the best interests of house republicans.[5]
Food Stamps (SNAP)
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program helps people buy healthy food. The majority of recipients are children or elderly with many working. In a 2012 report, 45 percent of SNAP recipients were under 18 years of age and nearly 9 percent were age 60 or older. More than 40 percent of recipients lived in a household with earnings.[6] SNAP has been essential in preventing families from falling into poverty. In 2011, SNAP was shown to lift 4.7 million households out of poverty. Without the program, the child poverty rate would be almost 3 percentage points higher.[7] During economic downturns SNAP can respond to meet the increased need. As the first recession was hitting its stride, SNAP was able to efficiently expand and serve families hit the hardest by the recession after effects like job losses and foreclosures. And then as the economy improves, the program contracts accordingly. Poverty increased during the recession, but food insecurity remained flat due in large part to SNAP's role in helping keep food on the table for families that needed it most.[8] SNAP benefits the economy, and USDA research shows that for every $5 in new SNAP benefits, $9 of economic activity is generated. The food that families purchase with their benefits to meet their needs helps keep local businesses making money.[9]
The largest group that received SNAP benefits according to 2013 data was white. The breakdown according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was 40.2 percent of SNAP recipients are white, 25.7 percent are black, 10.3 percent are Hispanic, 2.1 percent are Asian and 1.2 percent are Native American.[10] Three quarters of the 22 million households that received SNAP benefits in 2014 included a child, an elderly person or someone with a disability.[11]
To find the usage of this program by Congressional district click here.
Trump/GOP Agenda
- Trump has shown that he will act against key protections for Americans like SNAP with comments that the program "shouldn't be needed often", and that "when half of food-stamp recipients have been on the dole for nearly a decade, something is clearly wrong, and some of if has to do with fraud."[12]
- Cuts to SNAP would be immediately damaging. The House version of the Farm Bill would cause 2 million Americans to lose their benefits entirely, 210,000 children to lose access to free meals at school, and 850,000 households to see their benefits cut by an average of $90 per month.[13]
WIC and Food Deserts
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides Federal grants to States for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children up to age five who are found to be at nutritional risk.[14]
The program is voucher based, and has a list of foods that are high in nutrients such as protein, fiber, iron & calcium. WIC accepting locations often also accept SNAP, and are required to keep a certain number of foods that meet the WIC nutritional standards in stock. Participants will turn in a voucher that covers all or most of the cost on food items such as bread, eggs, milk, fruits & vegetables.
In addition to safeguarding the health and well being of low-income women, infants and children, WIC has provided opportunities for small businesses and corner stores to grow and sustain their businesses in food deserts, which are areas where fresh or healthy food options are rare, or altogether missing. Many of these small business owners are able to stay in business because they are able to provide local options for buying food, where few or no options are available.
The largest group that received WIC benefits according to 2012 data was white. A breakdown according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2012 reports 58.2 percent of all WIC participants reported their race as White Only, 19.8 percent reported as Black or African American Only, 12.2 percent reported as American Indian or Alaska Native Only, and 3.9 percent of participants reported as either Asian Only or Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander Only. Two or more races were reported for 5.1 percent of WIC participants. For ethnicity, 41.5 percent of participants reported as Hispanic/Latino.
For more information on program requirements and how to determine eligibility, please follow the link.
Unemployment Benefits
The Department of Labor's Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs provide unemployment benefits to eligible workers who become unemployed through no fault of their own, and meet certain other eligibility requirements, most of which will vary from state to state.[15]
Unemployment benefits largely focus on providing for immediate financial needs for people who are currently out of work but are able and available to work, with the intention of looking for and securing employment while receiving unemployment. In addition to supplementing income, unemployment benefits can also include job training and readiness programs. Most programs for collecting unemployment require participants to enroll in and attend re-employment seminars.
Unemployment benefits through the Department of Labor's Unemployment Insurance programs are not available for individuals who are out of work due to injury, or disability, although there are other programs to support these people. Unemployment benefits require certification for continued eligibility on a weekly, or bi-weekly follow up. This means that your state agency that you have filed with to receive these benefits requires you to share information on any job applications, job offers, or job refusals. Recipients may also be required to register with a state Employment Service, so that they can get assistance in finding a job in a timely manner [16].
The unemployment rate in your Congressional district can be found by clicking here and selecting workers.
Trump/GOP Agenda
The White House fully intends to implement a law that would allow states to drug test any applicant for unemployment benefits. The previous restriction only tested applicants who do jobs that require drug testing.[17] However, in instances around the United States drug testing Unemployment Insurance applications has repeatedly shown to be a failure at best and a waste of resources at worst. In Tennessee, only one person in the 800 who applied tested positive. In Florida, during the four months the state tested for drug use, only 2.6% of applicants tested positive, which is well under the state-wide illegal drug use rate of 8%. The Florida law wasted taxpayer money and was eventually ruled unconstitutional.[18]
Trump/GOP Tax Reform Proposal
On April 26, 2017, the White House released a one-page document outlining the Trump administration's new proposed tax plan. So far, no legislation has been introduced to implement it. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and director of the administration's National Economic Council Gary D. Cohn presented the plan to reporters.
The U.S. Federal Bureau Budget Deficit is the difference between what the government takes in from taxes and other profits, and the amount of money it spends.
While the tax plan did not give many details, the proposal includes several key changes that would increase the deficit, or the excess amount of money spent.[19] Experts argue that this new plan only proposes tax cuts, with no plan to make up for them. This may reduce economic growth instead of increase economic growth, which goes against the administration's promises.[20]
Expanding Child-Care Benefits
The Trump administration's tax proposal may include tax credits for child care. How much this would increase the deficit is unknown.[21]
In 2016, the administration had considered adding child-care benefits such as:
- Child-care savings accounts based on income rates. Experts argued that these savings accounts would benefit the wealthy more than low-income families. For example, the top wealthiest income bracket gets taxed 39.6% of their income. That means for every $1,000 deposited in the child-care savings account, they would save $396 in tax. But a family in the bottom tax bracket, who are taxed at a 10% rate, would save just $100 on the same $1,000 deposit. Wealthy families already benefit from being able to afford child care that low income families do not.[22]
- Child-care spending rebate. This means a partial refund for low-income parents. The Trump campaign described it as "half of the payroll taxes paid by the lower-earning parent, and would be subject to an income limitation of $31,200."[23] For low-income married couples, both spouses would have to work, and does not apply to stay-at-home parents. By contrast, a wealthy couple with only one working spouse would still be able to afford more care to begin with, and would benefit from other tax breaks. [24]
The previous proposal gave the biggest tax cuts to higher income families. It would also raise taxes on millions of lower- and middle-income families. This includes more than half of single parents.[25] It also did not say whether the reduction would change depending on the age of the child, or how each state deduction would be measured.[26]
Changing Tax Brackets
As of 2017, the US has seven tax brackets that tax individuals, married couples, and households differently based on how much money they make.[27] The new tax plan proposes three tax brackets instead of seven, with tax rates of 10%, 25%, and 35%. The Trump administration has not outlined where each bracket's income cut-off begins or ends, which makes it difficult to see how it will affect the middle class.[28] The wealthiest tax bracket would get a 5% tax cut, which could increase the deficit by almost $1.5 trillion.[29][30][31]
Tax cuts for married couples
The Trump administration has proposed doubling the standard deduction for married couples. For the vast majority of homeowners, this would make little difference to their Mortgage Interest Deduction (MIDs). MIDs are interest paid on a mortgage that is not counted toward taxable income, reducing taxes paid by the homeowner. Middle class homeowners have smaller mortgage debts because they own less expensive property. Oftentimes, this means the interest they pay is less then the standard reduction, giving them no reason to itemize their property. Wealthy homeowners in expensive homes can still benefit from the MID, as they have more interest to write off.[32]
Depending on whether you are single ($6,350), married ($12,700), or head of household ($9,350), you can deduct from your taxable income.[33] The Trump administration has proposed doubling the amount you can deduct, which may benefit the middle class. However, since people could then elect to pay fewer taxes, this may increase the deficit by almost $1.5 trillion.[34] [35]
Tax Cuts for the Wealthy
Repealing the AMT
The alternative minimum tax (AMT) is an additional tax used to tax items that are not covered by the regular income tax. It is meant to make sure the very wealthy do not avoid paying taxes on "add-ons" that are not included in their income.[36]. In 2005, Trump had to pay an additional $31 million because of this law. The Trump administration would like to remove this requirement, which would benefit the wealthy and possibly raise the deficit by almost $.4 trillion.[37] [38]
Lowering Capital Gains Tax
In this new plan, the Trump Administration has proposed removing the capital gains tax, which is a 3.8% tax on investment income. This 3.8% is in addition to a 20% investment tax, and helps fund the Affordable Care Act. Removing the tax is meant to make more people want to invest. This would increase the deficit by almost $0.2 trillion.[39] [40]
Removing the Inheritance Tax
Trump's tax plan proposes repealing the inheritance tax, which taxes estates. The U.S. has the fourth-highest inheritance tax in the world.[41] The Trump administration has said the estate tax is mostly a burden on farms and small business, but many argue that this will mostly benefit the very wealthy who own expensive estates.[42] This would increase the deficit by almost $0.2 trillion.[43][44]
Tax Cuts for Businesses
The Trump administration plans to reduce the corporate tax from 35% to 15%. It is estimated this would increase the deficit by $3.7 trillion.[45] [46] The plan also includes a special one-time tax with, with no specific rate. This is meant to encourage corporations to bring back money made overseas.[47]
Tax Increases for Homeowners and People Giving to Charity
The plan proposes getting rid of tax deductions (expenses that won't be taxed) except for mortgage interest and money given to charities. State and local taxes would no longer be deductible. This negatively affects some people who live in states with high taxes, such as New York and California.[48] This would reduce the deficit by $2.0 trillion.[49][50][51]
Social Security (OASDI) and SSI
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federal program that provides supplemented income to help aged, blind, and disabled individuals who have little to no money of their own to pay for basic living needs, like clothing, shelter and food. SSI is not the same as Social Security—although recipients of SSI may also be eligible to receive Social Security. There is more information available on SSI on the Disability Rights page.
Social Security (OASDI)
Social Security (also known as OASDI) is a federally funded program meant to supplement the loss of income for people who have retired. Eligibility for Social Security is determined by how long someone has had a job in the United States that offers Social Security benefits. People work to obtain credits from the time they turn 21 until they turn 62, become disabled, or die—whichever comes first—to reach the amount of credits necessary to provide for their quality of life upon retirement.[52] Social Security payments are monthly, and a recipient can begin obtaining these benefits at the age of retirement, which is currently 65. Due to the federal hiring freeze Trump ordered at the beginning of his time in office, some recipients of Social Security have experienced delays in receiving their Social Security checks. Since many Social Security recipients depend on this income to support themselves, these delays are harmful.
Congressional District Breakdowns
Breakdowns of use of these programs by Congressional District can be found here.
Vulnerabilities in Their Strategy
- Tax reform cannot be enacted until two conditions are met: 1. Republicans will have to repeal and replace Obamacare and 2. They also have to Pass the 2018 budget before tax reform. This is because, for tax cuts, republicans are keen on utilizing the special congressional rules which allow them to act without support from democrats. However, they can have this opportunity only once every year. Republicans are currently using their fiscal 2017 congressional rules for health care. Which leaves them no choice but to wait until next year for introducing tax reform [53]
- On average, states with Republican leadership are more dependent on the federal government for funds than are Democratic states.[54]


text:
Many years ago I set about devising a system that would rate college football teams. I wanted to make something that would eliminate my personal biases and be based solely upon team abilities and performance.
Like many other systems, I started by evaluating each team based upon their oofensive and defensive performance. I added in a factor to account for how much the team wins, plus another for how well the team performs at home. These numbers, when compared to another team's numbers, provide a predicted score, as many other systems do.
The difference in my system is that the teams are then graded upon how well they did in that specific game. If a team is favored to win heavily and they do, they get a certain number of points. If they ourperform expectations, they get extra points, but those extra points are capped to aviod rewarding running up the score. If a team is heavily favored, and win, but by less than expected, that team earns a diminishing number of points, and may even lose points depsite winning. Conversely, the underdog can win rating points depsite losing the game.
An underdog earns more rating points by actually winning the game, and the favorite loses an equal number of points. The bigger the original spread and the greater the underdog's margin of victory, the bigger the point swing (favorite losing rating points and underdog gaining points). By keeping the points balanced (Team A's loss is Team B's gain), I avoid overall point inflation. The one exception to this rule is when a team ranked in the Top-10 (my rankings, not the polls) loses. Should the #1 team be upset, they lose 3 times the regular number of rating points. A #2 team losing means they lose 2.5 times the regular number. This "Top-10 Factor" decreases to 1.1 times the regular number of rating points for the #10 ranked team. If a team in the Top-10 loses (and loses badly enough to lose rating points), no matter if it was predicted or not, this extra factor is put into play. The perception is that a loss for a Top-10 team is "bigger" than a loss for any other team. In all of these cases, the team doing the upsetting earns the regular number of rating points.
So, then, I have all these teams with all these rating points. What happens now? In each subdivision, I set the points so that an average team has a rating of 80. Anything above 80 is an above average team, below 80 is not so good. Over the years, I have seen that a rating of 90 is pretty good, a rating of 95 will most likely get a team into the Top 15 or so, and a rating of100 or more will put a team into the Top 8. Going the other way, a rating of 70 indicates a team probably in the lower 25, while a rating below 60 means the Bottom-8 or so.
A rating of 80 in the FBS is NOT equivalent to a rating of 80 in the FCS. While a fluid number that changes as teams play each other between these two subdivisions, the rough rule of thumb is that a FCS rating is only about 2/3rds of it's FBS equivalent. Thusly, an 80 rating in FCS converts to about 53.5 in FBS terms while an 80 rating in FBS would be about 119 on the FCS scale. The FCS ratings are more spread out generally, top-to-bottom. This is due to the wide variance in quality of teams within the FCS. You have teams that could definitely play in the FBS (Appalachian St, Villanova and James Madison, to name a few), you have teams that don't offer scholarships or participate in the FCS Champiohsip playoffs (any Ivy League school), and you have teams that play a high number of games against Division 2 opponents (Butler, Campbell, Savannah St). With such a diversity, there is bound to be a broader range of ratings and, to keep things from getting out of hand, certain limitations are applied to rating points at the start of each season. Otherwise, the rating range would be more like 150 to 10. With such a broad spectrum, a team in the lower reagions could get hot, beat other teams and pull upsets and still never get out of the Bottom-25.
The other factor to determine rankings is "Difficulty of Schedule". While not a factor that evaluates a team's rating directly, it does reward a team that plays a harder schedule. Should two teams have identical ratings, the schedule difficulty is used as a tie-breaker with the higher ranking going to the team with a harder schedule. However, a team's Difficuly of Schedule rating is also a fluid thing. It takes into account the entire season of all teams, not just when a team played another. For example, Team B is hignly rated when Team A plays them, but later in the season, Team B falls apart and plummets in the ratings. Team A's difficulty of schedule follows Team B's fall throughout the season and is not based solely upon how TEam B was rated at the time of the game. Any team's difficulty of schedule rating is an ongoing average of their opponent's ratings. And, yes, the conversion between subdivisions is factored in here as well, so an FBS team playing an FCS opponent is at best, "OK" and oftentimes very detrimental to the FBS teams Schedule difficulty. This also explains why a team's schedule difficulty factor doesn't rise rapidly or plummet sharply depending upone any one opponent's rating. Any one team's rating is only 1/10th to 1/12th (or even less) of another team's schedule difficulty rating.
Finally, between the end of one season and the start of the next, each team is evaluated on thenumber of starters returning on each side of the ball. I have found that a certain number of returning starters on defense seems to maintain that defensive factor, so I then add or subtract factor pointsbased upon that number. For offense, I have a different number, and then add in the returning QB factor. If last year's starting QB is returning, I add 1 more to the offense factor. If the starting QB is not coming back, I subtract 2 more points.
The "winning edge" factor and the "home field" factor are each based upon the winning percentage from the previous 3 years plus the current season. This evaluates the history of the players who are graduating seniors and adds in their contributions their senior year.
Between seasons, I compare the numbers after adjustments to see how a team rates to start the new season. Oftentimes, a team has moved way up the rankings based upon their performance but, when evaluated against all other teams for the new year, they will find themselves back in the middle of the pack. In the same way, a team that has one abysmal season can find itself ranked much higher to start the next season. The system looks at ALL the factors, not just some of them.
Updated: Sunday, 19 September 2010 12:02 PM PDT
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Ben Howell is thankful for every bruise. He is grateful for every thudding tackle that has taken him to the turf in practice.
TUSCALOOSA — Ben Howell is thankful for every bruise. He is grateful for every thudding tackle that has taken him to the turf in practice. He is appreciative for the jersey that got shredded in a game last weekend.
Most of all, Howell is thankful for football. The University of Alabama's walk-on running back from Gordo didn't have any options to continue playing after his high school career until he got the offer to walk on at Alabama without a scholarship.
Howell knew he was signing up to be a practice player — in truth, a live practice dummy — for one of the nation's top defenses to tee off on, to help them prepare for games on Saturday.
For four years, the 5-foot-9, 200-pound senior has gladly suffered for the privilege of wearing the crimson jersey. This season, he dressed out for every game and has even been able to get on the field in six contests, rushing 15 times for 47 yards.
When he gives thanks, it will be for family and plenty of support from his hometown and for having the chance to play at Alabama.
"Football is definitely on the list," Howell said. "I'm thankful for the opportunity Coach (Nick) Saban and the other coaches have given me to come here and be on the team for four years and contribute. I'm thankful for the opportunity God gave me to come here."
Howell's teammates, too, are grateful that he's part of the team.
"Ben Howell is probably one of my favorite players I've ever been able to play with," safety Vinnie Sunseri said.
"He might not be the most athletic person, but I mean he gives his all, 110 percent of the time no matter what it is. A lot of the guys get mad at him because he's always going so hard even when we're doing walk-through and stuff, but that's just the kind of person he is.
"Him being able to go out and play is just awesome."
Said defensive lineman Damion Square, "The man has been giving us a look (on the scout team) for the past four years and I'm glad they're giving him an opportunity to showcase his talent out on the field for all that he does for us every week. Ben is a great player with a great heart and knows what he's doing and knows the game of football really well."
Howell caught some breaks that allowed him to play at Alabama. His mother, Jackie, works for Alabama as an office manager at Alabama Public Radio, which qualifies him for a big discount on his tuition, and he also earned academic scholarship help.
His father, Richard, and grandfather, Jack, own a beef and poultry farm, so the family has been able to help out with rent and other costs.
He also has his sister Sara, a fellow Gordo High School graduate who is a freshman at Alabama.
Playing at a Class 3A high school less than a half-hour drive from the Alabama campus, Howell didn't get a look from the Crimson Tide during the recruiting process.
So he made them look, sending highlight tapes that garnered him an invitation to a camp, where coaches liked his attitude and effort. After the Tide's loss to Utah to end the 2008 season, he got the call from Joe Pendry, then the Tide's offensive line coach, with an invitation to join as a walk-on.
"I always loved Alabama," Howell said. "My mom was a big Alabama fan. My dad was actually an Auburn fan until I got to college and came here. I always loved playing football."
From the start, Howell's job was more to be hit than to hit. He worked against Aabama's first-team and second-team units in practice, and was there to help make them better.
"There definitely have been times where I've been just, man, is this worth it?"
So why did he stay?
"The wins, that we were a good team made it a lot easier," he said. "And, also, I felt like God gave me this opportunity to do more than just play football. To help others, show others the right path, stuff like that, remembering that and that I'm here to help the team as a whole and not just for myself."
Howell has been hit by All-Americans like Courtney Upshaw and Dont'a Hightower, Terrence Cody and Javier Arenas.
He will tell you, honestly, that he has lost more practice-field battles than he has won.
"One hit, my freshman year, Dont'a Hightower �— he probably doesn't even remember — he came through the middle and I was supposed to block him and he just plowed through me," Howell said. "At that time I probably weighed 185 pounds. He killed me.
"Running into Cody was like a brick wall, he was just huge. Javy Arenas could hit really good, too. He would pop you. I've had to block Upshaw a few times. Not fun. It gets brutal out there sometimes."
Every once in a while, Howell has come out on top in practice. He savors those moments.
"I've had some good plays," he said. "One time my freshman year, Javy came to tackle me and I think he thought he was going to kill me."
I just kind of side-stepped and kept going. I felt like I was a champ."
Sunseri has seen Howell battle bigger, stronger, faster players in practice. He likens him to Rudy Ruettiger, a former Notre Dame walk-on who had his career chronicled in film.
"Coach calls me 'Rudy,' but he's actually the real Rudy," Sunseri said.
Howell played in one game as a sophomore, running five times for 11 yards against Georgia State, but didn't get a single carry as a junior. He began to face reality.
"I'd always dreamed of being the main running back," he said. "Probably around my junior year, it just looked like that's not going to happen. I just thought I've gone this far, I need to finish. That's one of the main things in this program is finish. It's really going to help me if I keep with it."
Howell will leave Alabama with at least two national championship rings, for the 2009 and 2011 seasons, and could earn another if the Tide wins out the rest of the way.
Last weekend, he even got a souvenir. His jersey got ripped at the end of Alabama's victory over Western Carolina and his name tag nearly came off. Teammate Carson Tinker, Alabama's long snapper and himself a former walk-on, pulled it off after the game and handed it to Howell.
"I put that in my pocket," Howell said. "I asked the managers first, and they said it's no big deal."
Running out onto the field this weekend will be a big deal. It will be Howell's last home game.
"It's my last game and it's actually the first time I've got to dress against Auburn," he said. "That will be really cool."
Sometimes I take it for granted, but afterwards I have to look at it and (realize) that's something a lot of people wish they could do. It will be really special."


text:
- After cooking whatever with the Iron pan-
- Clean it with warm water and mild soap. Never soak an Iron pan with water. After cleaning I sometimes notice that it still have some "residual" smell. So I boil some water in it.
- Pour it out and wipe it clean of moisture. Spray some vegetable oil to the insides of the pan.
- Smear it all over the pan with paper towel.
- Wipe the excess with a clean paper towel.
- Line the pan with a fresh paper towel and store it. Care for your pan and it will serve you well over the years. :)


text:
I'm all about the new Deborah Lippmann shades for Spring. The shade on the left is Glitter in the Air, a shade she named after Pink's performance on last year's Grammy's of that song. It was a gorgeous, moving performance and now there's a light, fresh take on a glitter polish to go with it. It's a very sheer baby glitter with both microfine and chunky bits of glitter in it. It also has a slight pearly quality to it that I only noticed when I layered it over another shade. The other polish for Spring is Naked, a clean bare beige huge that is beyond chic. This is actually the shade Deborah Lippmann put on Anne Hathaway for the Oscars.
This is the mani I'm rocking this week. Pay no attention to how janky my cuticle line is, that's what you get when you're up the night before painting your nails when you're exhausted. I've cleaned it up a bit since then too. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Deborah Lippmann on Saturday so I wanted to wear shades she created. I started with two coats of Naked and two coats of Glitter in the Air on top. I really love the combination of these two shades, it reminds me of an Easter egg. Naked is really pretty on its own, two coats of it and I had almost full coverage. I would have gone for three coats if I wasn't layering but adding Glitter in the Air on top solved the problem. Glitter in the Air is also really pretty on its own, you just have to pile on the layers to get the color payoff you want since it's sheer. I stopped at 4 layers and loved the result, a sheer somewhat nude shade with a twist.
You can find these shades at Nordstrom now, Glitter in the Air retails for $18 and Naked for $16. What say you?


text: Sijun Forums :: View topic - "I told you this was a bad idea..." Log in to check your private messages Sijun Forums Forum Index >> Work in Progress View previous topic :: View next topic Author Topic : ""I told you this was a bad idea..."" SynnicalmemberMember #Joined: 28 May 2005Posts: 177Location: Toronto, Canada Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 6:36 pm hey guys, This started out as a speedpaint a couple nights ago and I decided to put a bit more time into it tonight. (one of my new year's resolution is to start finishing paintings, as i have tons of unfinished speedpaints lying around - my artistic ADD be damned! ) I hope the scenes is self-explanatory; I was interested in the effect of transparent skin against a strong light source, and thought a Pteranodon would make a cool thing to illustrate that. I would just like to hear what people think of it so far before i sink more time into it. Comments and critique are most welcome. Back to top medmemberMember #Joined: 22 Dec 2006Posts: 230Location: LA Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:31 pm Hey Synnical; First of all, great composition mah bruddah It is a good new year's resolution to finish paintings, a lot of us have that problem too lol... As for your goal in this painting, I think you're somewhat on the right track. But! I feel you're afraid of the dark! You're using the extreme darks in spurts here and there, rather than grouped areas. I hope you don't mind my edit; Since your goal was to manipulate lighting, it's important to get the objects to read three dimensionally by using grouped darks/shadows (like the neck of the creature in the edit). See how it reads more like it has separate rounded planes? You seem to try to do that, but I feel like you need to use a wider range of values (darks/lights). To get the figures to read like they're in a field of depth, try out the effect of atmospheric perspective. A fancy word for saying; objects further away have less contrast than things closer to the viewer. Notice in the edit, the guy up front has pure black within his darks, but the second guy has a lighter value on him (that bluish color, gradient on a layer set to "lighten"). I know the edit isn't all that great, but it's just to kind of nudge you towards a more effective sense of the illusion of visual reality. I'm talking too much lol.... Anyway, that's my opinion! Back to top SynnicalmemberMember #Joined: 28 May 2005Posts: 177Location: Toronto, Canada Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:46 am Hey med, 'mah brudddah', ha, that to me is Little Jacob from GTAIV. hilarious character. thanks a bunch for the comments! I think you are totally right about me being afraid of the dark. I have less of an issue with that when things are relatively well-lit, but when it comes to low light conditions, I get nervous of using too much black, thinking that I would make things look bland and uninteresting. My initial concern was how to illuminate most of the foreground with only the scattered light from the two flashlights, and that's when I ended up stepping away from the darks. Your overpaint really helped me in seeing how effective the grouped shadows can be used, and the dramatic effect that I was aiming for thanks dude!! oh, and you are not talking too much. You know what you are talking about and I am all ears here. Back to top medmemberMember #Joined: 22 Dec 2006Posts: 230Location: LA Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:41 am Awesome, glad that helped. I'm not sure who little jacob is though...lol But yeah keep posting your works! Back to top sometimesmemberMember #Joined: 04 Dec 2008Posts: 160 Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 12:04 pm it looks like he is sukking the soul from that bird thingy, pretty unique I must say. Back to top canvasdezignjunior memberMember #Joined: 19 Jan 2009Posts: 10 Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 3:37 am hello Synnical, i would like to say that the painting is truly awsome u have rightly justify with your resolution, please let me know what medium, tools or software u adapted to create this wonderful painting. all the best for future endeavors._________________(no spam) Back to top Klipshjunior memberMember #Joined: 04 Aug 2009Posts: 5 Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 12:25 pm You have a TON of stuff going on. Some good sections and some bad but I think you could approach this entire painting with a less is more mentality and push what you want to push and remove distractions fomr the puepose of the painting. 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International Journal Honors Tech Prof's ResearchSOCORRO, N.M. December 8, 2011 – New Mexico Tech management professor Dr. Toshiyuki Sueyoshi has won a top award for a scientific paper via the prestigious Papers in Regional Science journal.
|Mika Gota, (from left) Dr. Toshiyuki Sueyoshi and Dr. Peter Gerity pose with the plaque commemorating the Martin Beckman Award. Gota, Sueyoshi and Akihiro Otsuka (not pictured) won the award for their research about industrial clustering and its effect on efficiency and productivity. Gerity is the Vice President for Academic Affairs at New Mexico Tech.
Sueyoshi said he was especially pleased with the prestigious recognition because the journal selected his paper over others from universities with more name recognition – like Stanford, Berkeley and M.I.T. He said being selected was quite an honor.
Papers In Regional Science is published by the Regional Science Association International. The journal highlights scholarship on spatial networks and clustering, labor markets, transportation and migration, land use and urban development, economic geography, inter-industry analysis and trade, environment and natural resources and geographical information systems.
Management Department Chair Dr. Peter Anselmo said the award shows Tech's continuing commitment to excellence in the management research.
"This shows that we have a research environment at Tech and in the Management Department where people can be productive, which is part of our strategic emphasis on quality," Anselmo said. "We also can form alliances like Toshi's with the Japanese institute. The other neat thing about this award is Toshi brings these research innovations into the classroom, especially as part of our Graduate Engineering Management Program."
Goto and Otsuka are staff researchers with the Central Research Institute for Electric Power Industry of Japan, or CRIEPI. Sueyoshi has been collaborating with the Japanese institute for almost five years, a partnership that has produced dozens of publications on various management and energy policy research projects.
The current publication addresses the benefits of regional clustering within an industry. Manufacturers, their suppliers and customers – when co-located geographically – achieve a higher level of efficiency than industry groups are not clustered.
The paper further addresses government subsidies, showing that incentives were not associated with enhanced business efficiencies when compared with the firms that were within clusters.
The research team used a well-known econometric technique called Stochastic Frontier Analysis to interpret data related to inputs and outputs to develop a measure of efficiency.
"They did this on a regional level, with prefecture-level data,which is hard to get," Anselmo said. "This research can be applied to any industrial situation anywhere in the world."
By Thomas Guengerich/New Mexico Tech


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Montauk Sharks Upend Danbury
Continuing to roll Saturday, the Montauk Rugby Club upended the Met Union's Division II leader, Danbury, by a convincing score of 25-7.
Danbury, which had beaten the Sharks last fall and edged them in the playoff hunt by 1 point, only managed one try on the home side's Herrick Park pitch, the result of a momentary lapse after Brenden Mott, who had come in for Zach Brenneman on the wing, had made it 20-7 Montauk.
Mott, who was to begin an Army tour two days later, scored again soon after, stripping the ball from a Danbury player near the Connecticut side's try zone, and touching it down for the aforementioned 25-7 final.
Rich Brierley, Montauk's coach, said later, however, that "more than our backs, it was our defense that did it. We never let Danbury get the ball out. Their coach said later that their backs were knocking the ball on [fumbling forward] too much, but a lot of that could be attributed to our team defense. When there's a ruck or a tackle, you have to reorganize quickly — as a team. You can't go it alone — your opponents will find a hole. . . . I think our defense is improving week after week."
Montauk has a bunch of athletic tyros who are learning quickly. Brierley singled out one of them, Jarrel Walker, as "the man of the match." The flanker, a former C.W. Post lineman and arena football player from Bridgehampton, had been "a standout on both sides of the ball," said Brierley. "He made many tackles, stopping their forward progress, and, offensively, it took three or four guys to bring him down. He only committed one faux pas, which earned him a yellow card, when he threw a shoulder and didn't wrap up. But there were only five minutes left when he went out."
The other flanker, Hamish Cuthbertson, a coast guardsman who plays for Montauk "when he's ashore," was also outstanding, said Brierley. "He does a lot of things you don't notice, like securing rucks and making tackles. He's always in the mix."
When asked if there were other defenders who should be mentioned, the coach said, "It really was the whole team."
The locals, who improved as a result of the win to 3-0 in divisional play, only led 5-0 at the half. The margin could have been greater, but John Glennon, one of Montauk's prop forwards, was prevented from scoring out of a five-meter scrum when the visitors "held him up," i.e., prevented him from touching the ball down in their try zone.
Erik Brierley, the Sharks' young fullback, made the lone first-half try, taking a lateral from Ricardo Salmeron before streaking unmolested 25 yards down Montauk's sideline with 10 minutes left in the period.
Danbury had a chance to make it 5-3 soon after, but its fly half's penalty kick from about 40 yards out hooked wide left of the uprights.
"It was anyone's game at the half," said Rich Brierley. "Danbury has talented backs — they're capable of scoring a couple tries very quickly. A missed tackle or a mistake of another kind and they would have been right back in the game."
But Montauk continued to put the pressure on in the second half. In the opening minutes, Erik Brierley blocked an attempted clearing kick, picked the ball up, and ran it in from the 22-meter mark. Gordon Trotter's conversion kick was good for 12-0.
At that point, another of the side's coaches, Paul Cleary, shouted, "Concentration, now. Concentrate."
Moments later, after the visitors had run Montauk's kickoff all the way back for their first score of the day, Cleary said to a spectator, "It's a common occurence. Teams will score, lose focus, and give up a try by other side, just as you saw."
A penalty kick from 20 yards out by Trotter, which upped the margin to 8 points, gave the Sharks some breathing room however, and this time they not only held, but went on the attack, which ended with Mott's second try of the afternoon.
To make the playoffs, whose first round games are to be played in early November, the Sharks will have to finish among the eight-team division's top three.
"Lansdowne is next [in Yonkers this Saturday], and it will be a big hurdle," said Rich Brierley. "They're 3-0, as are we.
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Educational, Cultural, Apprenticeship, and Exchange Programs for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Whaling and Trading Partners in Massachusetts (V-D-12)
This program develops culturally based educational activities, internships, apprenticeship programs, and exchanges to assist Alaska Natives, native Hawaiians, and children and families of Massachusetts linked by history and tradition to Alaska and Hawaii, to learn about shared culture and traditions.
How It Works
Grants or contracts are awarded to: the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage, Alaska; the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska; the Bishop Museum in Hawaii; the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts; the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the New Bedford Oceanarium in New Bedford, Massachusetts; other Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian cultural and educational organizations; and other cultural and educational organizations.
Funds are used for educational programs to increase the understanding of cultural diversity and for programs that use modern technology to teach about the cultural and trading relationships among Alaska Natives, native Hawaiians, and the people of Massachusetts. In addition, the program encourages intergenerational cultural exchanges among the target populations to increase their awareness of the diverse cultures, as well as sharing collections among cultural institutions. Internship and apprenticeship programs in cultural institutions also may be funded.
Key Requirements
Grantees submit an application to the secretary of education, in accordance with the secretary's guidelines. Applicants are to inform the local school district serving students who will participate in the program.
Key Activities For The State Education Agencies
The state is involved in key activities only to the extent that the state education agency (SEA) may apply for a grant or contract. If awarded, the sea would be subject to the terms of the grant or contract.


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Interviewing while looking at photo albums (Part 2)
For Part 2 of this two-part series about interviewing using photo albums, I made you a movie!
Using the writerly maxim, "Show, don't tell," I show you what it's like to view photos while listening to people talk about them. I've written the important lesson before – describe out loud what you see on the page – but it's easier to watch and listen to see how important it is to put what you know into the recording. The movie features the glorious album of my Great Aunt Doris, the painter and horsewoman. (See Part 1)
I put this movie together from the audio recording of an interview I did with my mother a few years back. I just started up the audio and we looked through the album in two long sessions. Don't worry, this movie is much shorter than the long afternoon we spent poring over its pages. You'll join us as we look at one spread in the album and talk about the photos on its pages.
You get to step into the shoes of someone who comes along later—someone who wasn't present at the interview—and try to make sense of the photos by looking at the photos. It's 4:46 minutes long.
[note: if you are reading this using a feed reader (Google Reader, Feed Demon, Bloglines, NewsGator, Net News Wire, Cyndicate, NewsCrawler, etc.), the above movie will not appear. Please click through and visit this actual post and view the movie. Have troubles viewing the movie? Please let me know in the comments.]
Part 1 of the series—How to seat yourselves for best visual access to the album and the other person's face.
Also: if you want to view the movie in higher resolution/high def, you can see it on YouTube.
Posted by Susan A. Kitchens on December 16, 2010 in
• Interviewing
• Photographs
3 Comments • Permalink
« Previous The Scrapbook Belonging to Great Aunt Doris | My Christmas: A Shrine to Obsolete Technology Next »
How I wish I had had this video 20 years ago when I interviewed my grandmother while we looked at her photo album. What seemed so clear at the time was not so clear after she died, and we found she had removed photos, moved some from page to page, etc.
I also really like how you used animation to identify specific places on specific photo album pages, or on specific photos.
Great post, Susan!
Have you ever found a computer/software photo album display which also takes audio and pointer/click/touch input as the photo is shown? That way the interviewer or interviewee would mark which part of the photo was under discussion at the exact time the audio is recording the description. I could see that sort of action in Susan's video except that she had to do the animation and pointing after the fact based on the excellent info carefully added by asking direct questions.
I can imagine doing this with a tablet type computer.


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One of the great things about living in the upper Midwest is the change of the seasons. The leaves that are still on the trees have a nice tone to them, however they won't last much longer. Here's a recent senior portrait – Morgan.
An on-location high school senior portrait session is $350. Interested in a portrait session?


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Man Arrested After Attempting to Set Ryman Auditorium on Fire
Nashville Metro Police arrested a man on Tuesday (Aug. 27) and charged him with arson, saying he tried to set the Ryman Auditorium on fire. Jeffrey Parsley allegedly admitted to trying to light newspapers in an attempt to burn the back door of country music's most hallowed venue.
The 52-year-old's address is listed as Church St., which runs just one block behind the Ryman Auditorium. WTVF-TV in Nashville reports that flames rose several feet high and lasted for a few minutes before firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire.
The incident, which occurred on Aug. 18, was caught on surveillance cameras. Parsley was arrested, with his bond set at $20,000. No injuries have been reported as a result of the incident, and the extent of the damage has not been revealed. The next scheduled event to take place at the Ryman is on Sept. 8.


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28 February 2014 at 1.15pm | 2 Comments
The Winter's Tale might not be as familiar to non-Shakespeare buffs as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet or Macbeth, but its strong narrative has drawn choreographer Christopher Wheeldon to adapt it into a ballet.
In this latest film, we look at the themes and plot of the original play with Christopher and theatre director Lucy Bailey, who directed an RSC production of The Winter's Tale in 2013.
'It's a story of jealousy, comedy, great tragedy and redemption,' says Christopher.
'It's about sex, friendship, and a fall from grace - the darkness within that destroys the potential for a good life,' says Lucy. 'It's about class and the haves and the have-nots...It defies being put into one genre - it's a romance, a tragedy, a comedy, it's intensely poetic and spiritually enlightening. For me, that's why it's called a problem play but for me, it's not - it's one of Shakespeare's best.'
The story of The Winter's Tale follows the destruction of a marriage through consuming jealousy, the abandonment of a child and a seemingly hopeless love. Yet – the ending is one of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Watch Christopher Wheeldon speak about the choreographic process of adapting Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.
To see more films like this, subscribe to the Royal Opera House YouTube channel:
The Winter's Tale runs from 10 April-8 May 2014. Tickets are still available. The production will be relayed live to cinemas around the world on 28 April. Find your nearest cinema and sign up for our cinema newsletter.
The ballet is staged with generous philanthropic support from The Monument Trust. Generous support is also offered by Mrs Susan A Olde OBE, the Metherell Family, Lady Ashcroft, Celia Blakey, Sarah and Lloyd Dorfman, Sir Simon and Lady Robertson, The Taylor Family Foundation, Mr and Mrs Edward Atkin CBE, Richard and Delia Baker, Kenneth and Susan Green, David Hancock, Randa Khoury, Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson, Doug and Ceri King, Sir Roger and Lady Carr, The Winter's Tale Production Syndicate and an anonymous donor.


text: Hi guys, I am desperated! I have lost the data from my production db and I need the mysql dump file of my website. I have set the backup task in the ISPConfig control panel but I cannot see the dump file of all db of my web profile. I have already get the /var/backup/1232.zip but I don't see the mysql dump. Where is it?


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SneakPeeks are a TOC webcast series featuring a behind-the-scenes look at publishing start-ups and their products. The inaugural SneakPeek webcast includes presentations from 24symbols, Valobox, Appitude, Active Reader and OnSwipe.
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All trademarks and registered trademarks appearing on oreilly.com are the property of their respective owners.


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Tomten with jacquard
Belatedly posting this here -- you've probably already seen it on Ravelry or on my blog, but I think this page needed a fresh post for the new year! This is a Tomten sized for a 3- or 4-year-old, a Christmas present for my nephew. I took my lead from Franklin Habit and added some jacquard patterning to the shoulders.
All the details are on my blog! Oh, and Happy 2011 to all the Zimmermaniacs!


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By Julia Eisman, HHS New Media Communications Director. Crosspost from Healthcare.gov
Every day we receive letters, emails, tweets and Facebook messages from people around the country that have been touched by the health care law – like a parent whose child is no longer denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition or a senior who has received a 50% discount on prescription drugs.
There are a lot of ways that the law, signed 20 months ago, has provided significant relief to families throughout the country, easing worries and ensuring that focus is on health, not on fighting with insurance companies over the phone. Chances are, someone in your family is seeing new rights and benefits.
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, during the month of November on our Twitter and Facebook pages we'll be highlighting these benefits and sharing some of the stories we've heard from people around the country who have been helped by the law. We also want to hear from you, so we encourage you to tell us your story about how you've been helped by benefits in the law. Share on Twitter with the hashtag #ThanksHCR. You can find us on Twitter at: @HealthCareGov.
To give you an idea, here are a few new benefits we have thanks to the health care law:
Thanks to health reform, insurers cannot deny coverage to children due to pre-existing conditions.
Thanks to health reform, preventive services will be available for millions for free.
Thanks to health reform, being a woman will soon no longer be considered a pre-existing condition.
Thanks to health reform, people with Medicare get discounts on prescription drugs and a free annual wellness visit, AKA more time with their doctor.
Thanks to health reform, young adults under 26 can stay on their parents' health insurance.
Thanks to health reform, insurers can no longer raise rates with no accountability.
Thanks to health reform, insurers must spend most of your premium dollar towards your health care instead of on advertising or big CEO salaries. If they don't, they must provide refunds to you.
And the list goes on…
Many of the items in the law are common-sense provisions that end the worst insurance company abuses. From new consumer rights like appealing denied insurance claims, to new benefits like prescription drug rebates for Seniors, there are a lot of reasons to be thankful.
Join us on Twitter this November in saying thanks and share your story.
Go to @HealthCareGov, and let's get started!


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Fagerholm's lovely work is infused with a playful sense of anxiety; his characters, both human and otherwise, curl on the ground of tightly enclosed spaces like affrighted children. Wide-eyed and appearing to move manically back and forth, they hold their knees close to their chest. In these strange, surreal narratives, we are invited to feel the claustrophobia of a time out, recalling the lonesomeness and isolation of being bound to our rooms. One girl seems to be trapped within a TV screen, seemingly sucked into a blue, static-filled haze by her own imagination, peering curiously and excitedly outward.
These sweet, solitary creatures play and daydream in a dark state of nighttime unease. A seven-headed dragon evokes images of the beast from the biblical text Revelations, recalling (in an unexpectedly adorable way) frightful notions of eternity and punishment. As if pulled from films like The Shining or Poltergeist, Fagerholm's characters transcend the real world, reaching instead for a chaotic, nervous aesthetic. With eyes dazed like hypnotic spirals, these little monsters seem to wait impatiently for sunrise and open air, for someone to keep them company. (via Demilked)


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ObjectiveThe TETON Westwood SmallCap Equity Fund seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation by investing primarily in smaller capitalization equity securities.
Principal Investment Strategies:
In selecting securities for the Fund, the Sub-Adviser considers companies which offer:
Frequently small capitalization companies exhibit one or more of the following traits:
The Fund may invest in relatively new or unseasoned companies, which are in their early stages of development, or small companies in new and emerging industries.
Because smaller growth companies are less actively followed by stock analysts and less information is available on which to base stock price evaluations, the market may overlook favorable trends in particular smaller growth companies, and then adjust its valuation more quickly once investor interest is gained. Smaller growth companies may also be more subject to a valuation catalyst (such as increased investor attention, takeover efforts or a change in management) than larger companies.
The Fund may appeal to you if:
TETON Westwood SmallCap Equity Fund
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The Gabelli Mutual Funds are distributed by G.distributors, LLC., a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA.


text: Hello Taswegian Riders & Visitors, ###Links to Tassie riding info below### Being of the slow kind and not always up with modern technology (like dial up connection instead of broadband, or 2nd hand DR650 instead of a new Husky or whatever), methought that it'd help me if we had a Tassie Riders thread. Only one place to go to and look if I'm short of time or brain-space. Purpose would be to organise little trips, point to where big trips are organised and reports can be found, find out what Tassie riders are on ADVrider, exchange info about good or bad deals, and whatever ... Does this idea have a future? May just start this thread and see if it leads anyhere? ... Darwinian theory at its best ... a. _________________________________________________ Links to info about riding Tassie ... Other websites or the like https://www.facebook.com/groups/tasadv/ Publications Book: 4WD Tracks in Tasmania, best of all, worthwhile to spend the $s (http://www.roving.com.au/) Parks & Wildlife Guide to 4WD Tracks in Tas, free (http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/index.aspx?base=7542) "Ride around Tasmania!", free PDF download, some good detail maps (http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/file.aspx?id=6881) "Tasmanian Favourite Roads & Trails" http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=409481 "Tasmania (Oz)..my turn (11 days 3200kms)" (vOOdsy) http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=317971 "Oz - A TAste of Tasmania" (atgreg) http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=190259 "Round OZ on KTM 950 Adventure?" (HumanOne) http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116544&page=31 "Tripple T Ride - Tassie Two Up with a Trailer" (LOFTYBOB) http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=301741 "Tasmania Touring Two Up" (minusone) http://members.optusnet.com.au/shirleyminus/Tassie_for_Two.pdf "Monkeys Two-up Tassie Tour" (OutbreakMonkey) http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=305189 "11 days, 3100km's around Tasmania" (Warnabrother) http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=311305 "ADV'ing The World Heritage Area of N.W. Tasmania" (Just Dan) http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=312814 "Tasmania" (iamcanjim) http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3633452 Tasmania Tarkine and more http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2265 Jafu's Tassie Tour http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1340 Tassie Tour http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2691 A taste of tasmania http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1308 A picture say's a thousand words (Tasmania) http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1460 Tassie Gems 2005 part 1 http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=795 Tassie Gems 2005 part 2 http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=796 Tassie Thrills 'n Spills pt.1 http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=807 Tassie Thrills 'n Spills pt.2 http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=806 Tassie Loops..or..how to get addicted http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=868 Tassie_Gems 2 wrap-up http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1390 March '07....Tassie Gems Ride #2...The South http://www.austouring.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1003 Tasmania's Best Road http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=655050 2 Week Tassie Adventure (by bull600) http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=759832 (trip report) http://www.advrider.com/forums/showpost.php?p=17856116&postcount=26 (trip planning & ref to GPS tracks) ... FLICKIT's mega effort ... (29 March 2014) more to come when I happen to come across them ... a. _________________________________________________


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Vincent Powell Wows Judges With 'Rock Me Baby' on 'American Idol'
Vincent Powell was the first audition featured on tonight's episode of 'American Idol' (Jan. 30), and what a way to start! The Texas native blew the judges away with his soulful delivery of B.B. King's 'Rock Me Baby,' causing them to utter an appreciative chorus of "ooh"s and "ahh"s.
This isn't Powell's first time on 'Idol.' In fact, he made it all the way to the end of the Hollywood week last year, but claimed that Randy Jackson took a long, slow-motion sip of his drink that made him nervous and threw him off his game. Luckily, he didn't let his nerves get the best of him this time around (and the panelists kindly refrained from making any distracting slurping noises).
The judges were quick to voice their enthusiastic approval following his performance. "Thank you, Jesus!" praised Jackson. "It's clear that your voice is amazing, and it's clear that you brought so much joy to this room. I can only imagine what a gospel CD from you would do," said Nicki Minaj. "Your voice is the kind of voice that gives people chills." Mariah Carey agreed. "You sing like an angel," she stated.
Needless to say, Powell's moving on to the next phase of 'Idol.' "Can't wait to see you in Hollywood!" he exclaimed happily after receiving his golden ticket.


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Tag Archives: easter bunny
Eating Cute
Where I work, we serve rabbit. It's a delightful dish, but when I describe it to guests, very often I am greeted with head-shaking, gasps of alarm, or– sometimes– the empathetic bunny-twitching of noses. "Oh no, no, no," I've heard … Continue reading
Posted in Meatness, Rants and Stories, Savories Tagged cute food, easter bunny, hasenpfeffer, nicky dunbar, rabbit, recipe 18 Comments


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Men's piqué cotton polo shirt
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The Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts is comprised of three central units, each of which boasts a rich history:
- The College of Art was founded in 1879 as the first professional, university-affiliated art school in the United States, and is the only art school to have fathered a major metropolitan art museum.
- The College of Architecture was established in 1910, and has the distinction of being one of the 10 founding members of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture.
- The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum (formerly the Washington University Gallery of Art) was founded in 1881 as the first art museum west of the Mississippi River.
The Sam Fox School as we currently know it evolved over several years. The Visual Arts & Design Center (1997), subsequently named the Sam Fox Arts Center (2002), was envisioned as a hub for interdisciplinary programs among the College of Art, College of Architecture, Graduate School of Art, Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Art & Architecture Library, and Department of Art History & Archaeology in Arts & Sciences.
The vision grew to encompass the launch of a new school at Washington University in St. Louis. In January 2005, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced the creation of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, uniting the academic units of Art and Architecture with the University Museum under the leadership of a new dean.
The improvement, expansion, and construction of new facilities for this collaborative unit have been significant accomplishments. Renovations to Bixby and Givens Halls, home to Art and Architecture respectively, were completed in 2001. Two new buildings by renowned architect Fumihiko Maki—the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum and the Earl E. and Myrtle E. Walker Hall for the College and Graduate School of Art—were dedicated in October 2006. The rededication ceremony for Steinberg Hall was held February 22, 2009.
The School is named after Sam Fox, BSBA51, who was integral in the realization of this collaborative vision. One of St. Louis' most active philanthropic leaders, he is also one of the staunchest supporters of Washington University. He is founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Harbour Group, Ltd., which acquires and builds companies for long-term investment. He and his wife, Marilyn, have received many awards for their philanthropy, including the 2004 Excellence in Philanthropy award from the Arts and Education Council.


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Wine roots: Lost history gets marker
There's a gap in Charlottesville's wine history. Between Thomas Jefferson's efforts to establish vineyards and the spate of wineries sprouting over the past couple of decades, winemaking thrived in the intervening 200 years– until Prohibition crushed its spirits in 1916.
A historic marker downtown near the Recycling Center commemorating the Monticello Wine Company, the second largest in Virginia, will soon correct that historical oversight.
"It was one of the largest commercial wineries," says Jeff Werner, whose house at 212 Wine Street was the home of the winery's general manager, Adolph Russow.
Founded in 1873, Monticello Wine Company "took winemaking out of the cellar in Central Virginia and to the corporate level," says Werner, who set the wheels in motion for the historical marker after meeting Russow's grandson, Ed Hase.
The winery used grapes from local vineyards, and Charlottesville proclaimed itself the "Capital of the Wine Belt in Virginia." A bottle of Monticello Wine christened the USS Virginia in 1904, according to the marker's text.
The four-story brick building with cellar sat across from what's now the Greek Orthodox Church on Perry Drive, until the building burned in 1937. A railroad track behind the recycling center on McIntire provided convenient transportation for shipping wine.
"Vineyards were all over Albemarle County," says Werner. "It's interesting how much viticulture was a part of our past. The current boom is not a new thing. It's just coming back."
Wine history has made strange bedfellows. Werner, who works for the Piedmont Environmental Council, is often on different sides of public policy issues from Neil Williamson at the pro-biz Free Enterprise Forum.
But Williamson also does marketing for local wineries, and one of his clients, Stone Mountain Vineyards in Greene County, is going to foot the approximately $1,200 bill to have the historic marker cast.
"Charlottesville has a rich wine history," says Williamson. "And this is a little bit of lost history. A lot of people don't know why we have a Wine Street. No active wineries survived Prohibition."
Although the marker was approved the Department of Historic Resources on March 17, Williamson thinks it may be around harvest time before it's installed in the grassy triangle on Perry Drive. "I hear it takes about six months to get it forged," he says.
And once installed, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Werner and Williamson will be clinking glasses over one issue they agree upon: history refound.
A "calling card" proclaims that even back in the late 1800s, Charlottesville had an award-winning winery.


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CiiNOW's Chris Donahue, a 25-year game industry veterans, argues that it is viable in the opinion piece for GamesBeat.
I don't really understand who this is meant for. People with slow internet connections obviously can't take advantage of this. On the other hand, people with fast internet connections such as myself don't need to use cloud since every download is blazing fast.
Cool article! I could sure do without so many system/game updates/downloads. It's such a pain.
He picked the worst example possible: Trying to compare cloud gaming to updating games on the PS3. Of course the PS3 is going to offer a bad experience on that front.
If your a PSN PLUS member the ps3 will update any game you've recently played. True that games you haven't played in awhile won't be updated but I prefer to sit and wait for the update rather than stream a game.
There are other problems other than latency, the biggest disadvantage is that internet connections isn't always stable. We can have the fastest connection in the world but if its not stable it means nothing.


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Detect ThisNovember 12, 2007
Reason #429 why your browser detection script needs to be trashed.
On Greg's say-so, I thought I'd check out the Starbucks card designer. Mixing up my morning coffee with creative UI design seemed like a winning combo.
After waiting a couple of seconds through an unskippable Flash intro (who still does this?!), I found the button to "Get Started".
Except rather than actually doing that, I was stopped dead in my tracks by an error message that my "Browser version does not meet minimum requirements".
I'm using Camino, which is of course functionally similar to Firefox. If they were testing for features rather than parsing browser strings, I wouldn't have received this message. So even though it's entirely likely my browser of choice is capable of treating the site the same as Firefox, they've locked me out. No "I know I'm living on the edge, let me continue anyway" link in sight.
Normally when sites do this to me, I can happily live without their service and just go somewhere else. Today I happened to have Safari loaded at the time and I was still curious, so I dumped the URL into the address bar. Another browser, another error message.
Keep in mind that Safari was listed as a supported browser. This error message tells me I don't have cookies enabled. Except, I do. Suspecting a frame, I viewed source which revealed that the white area is pulling a page from an extrenal site into a frame that presumably runs the card creation app. (Who still does this?!)
The actual issue stems from the fact that Safari allows me to specify if I want to accept cookies with the options "Always", "Never", and "Only from sites I navigate to". The latter is clearly the only sane choice for users who stop to think about it (and for all I know, it could be Safari's default behaviour). So the framed third-party application was denied cookie access, and clearly they have no fallback position for cookies being disabled. And I was shut out once again.
Okay, so what can we learn from all this? Your browser detection script better not be testing for specific versions of specific browsers, because there are too many out there, and they'll all (finally) updating rapidly enough that your script will be out of date in months.
If you absolutely 100% cannot launch without some sort of message to users who choose a different browser than you've tested in, do not lock them out. Throw up a warning message to cover your bases. I, the crazy non-standard browser user, can take it. But let me proceed anyway. This is literally 5 seconds worth of work, what justification is there for not including a link that will let me do it?
The cookie problem is a bit more complicated to tackle, especially for a third party service provider, but we do know about server-side sessions and APIs now. There are ways around it.
Otherwise, you're just foiling your copywriter:
Interestingly, I have even had trouble using IE7 to access the Microsoft Update site. They seem to think I'm using a browser for a Mac. I had to use the MS User Agent String Utility to spoof IE6 to get access to the site.
I have been having some trouble with Safari and Cookies not enabled as-while, I wonder if it is a bug?
I hope you learned a valuable lesson from this: Don't drink at Starbucks.
By coincidence, I ran into the same kind of excessive-cleverness this morning: a customer-satisfaction survey. It started with a "Do not use the back button" warning and got worse: a naïve attempt to prevent a question from being submitted twice also meant that each time their servers failed to respond (often) there was no way to re-send the request without using Firebug to reset a JavaScript variable. A single server-side check would have saved a few dozen KB of JavaScript (really!), not locked out Safari users and made their service significantly more reliable.
Granted, it was an outsourced survey host but it's still pretty embarrassing since the survey was for a company which used to bill itself as the dot in .com…
Yeh, who does intros anymore? It wouldn't be so intrusive if it wasn't about 15 seconds in length before you could actually click on something (or 30 if you let the whole animation play out.) And this is designed for coffee drinkers! Maybe they figure you'll end up using it before getting your fix… ;)
I find it interesting that i also came across the same issues with Safari browser
(One of the error messages that a recent app of mine spits out is "Sorry, you need a browser that's not as old as your mom." So I may be a bit biased here, but…)
Just to play devil's advocate –
(Yes, I know, the second one is probably not too difficult to detect with javascript, and the first is hackable with behavior files, but if you're nitpicking then you're missing the point.)
We can all pray at the altar of Graceful Degradation and Progressive Enhancement, but surely there must be a line in the sand somewhere, right? At what point do you throw up your hands and say "the design *IS* integral, and it's not worth my time to make your browser do what it should have done right in the first place"?
I'd also assert that there is a quantifiable benefit for browser-lock instead of warn-and-proceed-with-caution: support costs. No matter how many times you say "you are unsupported", people are going to call you up and waste your time trying to get you to support them. Some will even go so far as to lie to you and tell you they are using Browser X, when really they are in Browser Y, because the warning on their screen says "You should use Y instead of X". So when they get half-way into the app and something breaks, they are going to call you and try to get support, because they want the end product, not excuses about how parts work and parts don't. Whereas if you just shut them down completely from the start, not only are they less likely to call and try to finagle support out of you, you can state with confidence "you wouldn't get that error message on Browser Y, only on Browser X".
Not that I don't agree with every point you made, of course. Just trying to widen the box a little.
I hope you were nice enough to let Starbucks know about their problem?
#Rick O - Thanks for the opposing viewpoint, you make some valid points.
Drawing a line in the sand is a reality, you obviously can't support every browser ever made, and there are certainly diminishing returns in supporting browsers beyond a handful of those currently popular.
But I would question the actual support costs of letting users choose to proceed with an unsupported browser; without numbers it's anyone's guess if those costs outweigh the cost of flatly denying users. My gut tells me no.
Mostly unrelated to your post, but I've noticed that I can't read your blog through my RSS reader (I use LiveJournal.com and read blogs integrated into my friends page there) anymore, because all of your images are being replaced by an anti-hotlinking placeholder. I'm quite disappointed by this, because I probably won't have the inclination to click through without the lure of the pretty pictures. I don't do much in the way of design, web or otherwise, at the moment, so I'm probably not a huge loss, but I just thought I would let you know.
I found it interesting that the Camino screenshot linked to download pages using the version number in the text of the link. I decided to see what version you could actually download at each of those links, and it so happens that they are IE7, Firefox 2 (but version three will be on that same page whenever it releases), and the Safari 3 Public Beta (not instructions on how to download an install a non-beta version).
I checked the page in Safari, and it did work for me, even with the cookie preference "Only from sites I navigate to" which is odd.
Why am I not surprised that the website is running ASP?
One of the most frustrating (but similar) situations that I have found myself in involves applying to medical schools with AMCAS's primary application system. The only acceptable browsers according to their system is Internet Explorer and Netscape. Well, I wasn't willing to use those two browsers (nor was I willing not to go through the process!) so I used a Firefox plugin to trick them into thinking I was using IE. Guess what: there was no problem in using the application from Firefox! WHY would such a large organization pay for a website that employs this sort of garbage?
"Suspecting a frame, I viewed source which revealed that the white area is pulling a page from an extrenal site into a frame that presumably runs the card creation app. (Who still does this?!)"
Starbucks sell coffee, that is their area of expertise. They aren't in the business of printing customised cards, so it appears that they've sourced a company that does just that to handle the personalised card design application for their website. In addition to this they would need to source the card stock, printing and delivery that follows the card designing process.
I think it's unfair to give Starbucks a hard time just because they chose to deliver a product that is built, maintained and hosted by people who are specialists in that line of business.
I will admit that using an IFRAME doesn't make for a perfectly integrated "view source" experience, but this is exactly the kind of situation the IFRAME element was created for.
In my experience, there are some CMS's that make the integration of 3rd party applications so ridiculously convoluted that sometimes there is no other feasible way to complete the project on time and within budget than to use IFRAME's to integrate applications into a website.
I think that if the HTML elements are being used in the way they were intended (not being employed in a convoluted manner e.g. tables for layout), there are no security risks to the site or user, and the finished application meets all the user and business needs - then I don't see why using a hosted application through an IFRAME should be looked down upon.
I concur with you on the detection script issue. Being a Camino user myself, I cringe every time I come across one (Who still uses these?!) - but I bet (or hope) that they have a good reason for using them.
Who still sends e-cards?
Dustin: silly wabbit! It's a Starbucks prepaid card, not an e-card… but yeah, does anyone send those?
Mezzoblue, I like your idea for some creative fun… I'm not a huge Starbucks fan, but I've always loved the idea that they're cards are customizable.
What about this one: I picked up a problem with a radio button list on my bank's online banking site where the radio buttons didn't line up with the labels. A quick logout in Firefox and retest in Internet Explorer confirmed my suspicions that it worked fine in IE. So I reported it to them, suggesting that they may want to fix it since it was basically a simple markup issue. Here is their reply:
"Kindly note, the structure and platform of the Internet banking website was primarily written for the Internet Explorer browser. It makes it more safe and secure because of the encryption and security provided by Internet Explorer. However, another recommended browser is Netscape as they a built on similar platforms."
Internet Explorer is recommended for *security* reasons! Whatever.
Aw, but string parsing is so much fun :)
As a long-time Opera user, I have to say that this style of script writing isn't news! On bad days I'm quite sure it's typical and widespread. You have my sympathy and understanding, though.
Opera's worked around this problem by having switchable user agent strings. I just found something similar for Camino, but haven't tried it since I don't have a Mac: http://www.derailer.org/useragent/
The real complaint is sites that practice browser lockout based on an exclusive list of supported software. I'm always a little irritated when I have to open my company's bug tracking software in Firefox because Opera (which is an entirely-competent browser) gets stopped at the door. I guess what really irks me is that IE6 and 7 are–of course–supported perfectly, despite having obvious flaws, merely because they're more popular.
Douglas Crockford once asked the following question, "If a web browser is defective, causing errors in the display or performance of the page, should the page developer struggle to hide the browser's defects, or should the defects be revealed in hope of creating market pressure to force the browser maker to make good? By which approach is humanity better served?"
I noticed something similar to this on none other than Yahoo! I was using my linux live cd one time and went to their site and got a friendly message stating my browser sucks. Regardless I changed my user agent string and low and behold their home page was a bit screwed up.
Dave, you do have to admit that you make up a very, very small population of the web using Camino.
I usually just use Internet Explorer on a standard monitor with a standard resolution. It's best to create websites using the same stuff everyone else uses but it doesn't mean we should forget about all the other browsers out there.
"Starbucks sell coffee, that is their area of expertise. They aren't in the business of printing customised cards…"
True enough but they should be involved in what gets displayed on their site and of course bears their brand. This should have been tested, audited and rejected and it is Starbucks job to make sure their site is up to par not the 3rd party. If they can't code to certain standards then find someone who can.
Very nice article btw.
I pretty much always have Camino spoof Firefox to avoid such troubles.
Dave, have you considered contacting the webmaster of that site ?
You can always point to http://geckoisgecko.org/ .
Sometimes that works out quite well (the people in charge are eager to improve their site); and sometimes, the answer is better left unsaid.
I never spoof my UA string (Camino) and, well, some sites have lost sales.
The problem is if a site developer isn't going to implement graceful enhancement, odds are good that stuff will break horribly in some way for browsers that lack the required capabilities, and this will lead to support issues (even if the specific problematic areas are identified – users often don't read warnings). So though I agree browsers shouldn't be blocked from accessing a site, I don't think providing a "use at your own risk" link would adequately avoid support problems. Testing with browsers that lack the desired capabilities should be performed so the resulting issues can be evaluated.
A potential pitfall is that users may not be able to correlate any shortcomings in the site with their browser's configuration or lack of feature support. For example, for the longest time, when I visited the site for an organization I belong to, I used to think that it just didn't put much information up – I didn't realize that without cookies enabled, the site failed to display most of its content. (The site design has since been changed.)
In the spirit of treating cool applications as progressive enhancements, I prefer to simply remove such content based on user abilities, instead of giving an error message (though it sounds like your experience and that of some of the others was the result of some flaw in the scripting).
It is very difficult, though, when trying to provide for all. Not everything is possible. And as Rick O. asked — "surely there must be a line in the sand somewhere, right?" — it is true, there has to be. It really boils down to how the application's designer deals with these things that separate the men from the boys, so to speak.
Locking out users is not a good method of dealing. A user shouldn't be locked out, but rather they should just be given what they can use. I don't like requirements up-front, nor do I like them as a result of failing at something I'm informed I can do. Not to say I can't be informed (or led to believe), it just needs to be done more informatively I guess. Such as seeing a subtle message on a site that I am fully enjoying with what I'm using informing me that other functionality — added cool stuff — does exists but I will need this-or-that.
I guess the real question then is not why it has happened but 'will they fix it?'
Or will this company tell Starbucks that its just a few peripheral Camino whiners making a big deal about nothing much at all.
I don't begrudge Starbucks at all for making a mistake but I would be disappointed if they fell into the osterich stance and ignored the issue. It will be interesting to see if anything changes - I'm assuming someone has brought this to their attention?
I'm a weak soul though myself and would probably have just opened up IE or Firefox and plugged away without remorse - oh I am soooo shallow when it comes to cool experiences lol. :)
I know this problem all too well. it's my job at Opera to get these kind of messages removed from web sites (even for none Opera browsers). They are still far too common, and even from companies that should know better.
@Ian, I guess I was just stating that if you use a browser that few people use, don't expect it to work perfectly on every site out there. It's the unfortunate truth of the internet. I totally agree that browser sniffers are lame.
I think its probably one thing for your more obscure browser not to work because it was overlooked and not tested for - but to choose exclusion is a bit harsh.
One would think by now businesses would be particularly aware of the importance of letting customers in the door. But then again they may hire a big angry bouncer to stand at the door of their physical book store, for example… now that would be worth a photograph!
I doubt Starbucks picked it's gift card provider on whether they had an API for customization (I'm assuming the company that does the custom cards fulfillment is the same that does all of their other mass-produced ones).
I can't believe I'm defending Starbucks.
Conditional CSS is something that really gets my back up. There is an awful lot to be said for semantic markup - keeping it simple (which does not preclude a complex design) means that most browsers will behave themselves without the need for separate stylesheets or browser-specific hacks.
Perhaps Starbucks feel the need to offer their users as many variants of CSS as they do coffee!!!
Rick O:
"So when they get half-way into the app and something breaks, they are going to call you and try to get support …"
Obviously, a decent (let alone a _good_) web app developer would have the skills and common sense to build the app so that whatever browsers are capable of entering the app are capable of completing it to the end; having something break halfway is just a sign of truly poor web development, and that's not a case we should assume at all.
Progressive Enhancement is really the key answer here: provide at least a basic version that, if it truly CANNOT render/support your app's intention, will at the very least give a message explaining why the user can't see the (full) app, what it is they're missing out on and where they can get a browser that does allow them to continue.
Beyond that, simply build the app so that functionality is added in the app in perfect parallel with that functionality being available in the browser used. That's really all there is to it, and any good web developer will build the app that way (pending reasonable circumstances).
Support issues like you presented are very easily dealt with if the app is properly built: there's not much you can do against people lying in any scenario, so being inaccessible isn't a particularly great way to cover your bases. In fact, it may be the worst approach of them all, depending on the case — as you're potentially setting yourself up for a lawsuit by doing so (in more and more countries).
Nice article JS browser sniffing is pretty crap, I have to agree. I personally use server side detection as I validate my code to strict which throughs IE into quirks mode something they don't plan on sorting out till at least IE8. I do this by testing the user-agent - moz. browsers get 1 IE (including Opera) get another. Then there is very minor changes for each one.
A little bit more work agreed but the code is clean and the changes to the other 3 are only a few lines + users like yourself don't get locked out. I know it's getting, if not already, outdated but I prefer the fact that -
1. Fewer bytes are going to the client.
2. Increased download time.
3. A very small bandwidth saving.
I'll be stuck in my ways at least till IE8, if it supports the strict doctype that is, is the norm for IE users. If they could just fix that bloody browser life would be a dream.
Now that Target is getting sued over accessibility (http://www.out-law.com/page-7285) and as you read the bottom of the page you see that the UN is getting involved and the UK has already made laws covering ANY public sites, the Starbucks out there (private companies who's business isn't normally webpages; businesses who hire "professionals" to do the work well) will start to worry more about accessibility– and browser choice is part of that. Expect more companies to grill their web-builders, expect more web-builders to get sued (or have court settlements), and expect problems like this to get more recognition as the disabled make their case (I would think any specific laws would mention browsers and browser choice).
I recently found a page written in some Vector Markup language for Microsoft only. The page is almost completely unviewable with ANY other browser. Their response to my question was, maybe we'll look at it.
Sites that force users to be locked out based on their browser are like night-clubs where doormen turn you away for having the "wrong shoes".
I have money to spend and the shoes on my feet or the label on my shirt do not limit the vast amounts of cash I was thinking of spending in your swanky club.
If these doormen tell me to leave due to my attire, I always see it as their loss. They didn't deserve my attention in the first place.
I run about 70 web sites for newspapers using about 10 vendors.
Our main site backbone was developed by a group of idots I won't name but when I asked them what browser they beta tested the sites in they replied only Firefox. They are fired. 90% of my audience is using some version of IE - and definitly not a lot of IE7. Just because web designers like other browsers is no excuse for the thinking process clearly taken in the community. Most people are on Uncle Bills machines using his browser and we on the business side don't want to hear too much about why a site is 400 times the screen size on a MAC 8. Upgrades cost money out here.
How a big company like Starbucks allows a website to be designed with limitations to specific browsers is beyond me as they really cut off their own toes.
Yes, the Flash animation is cute and light and pretty - but does it sell what it says it does or does it aggravate more people than good and turns the customer away?
Have them build something that degrades well to old browsers, slow connections and people who HATE anything Flash getting in their way of spending money and leaving the store as fast as possible again.