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The Glen Waverley campus has approximately 1,200 students from 3-year-olds through to Year 12. Set on 18.5 hectares of open fields, the campus is situated 20 kilometres from the centre of Melbourne.
For the Glen Waverley campus brochure, please click here.
Join us for a guided tour to experience Wesley Glen Waverley for yourself
Cato Hall is the main hall for assemblies, chapel services, music and other campus activities at the Glen Waverley campus and is named in honour of Alec Cato (OW) and his family for their generous contributions and benefaction to the Glen Waverley campus and Wesley College.
It is the home of Wesley Student Theatre and adjacent to the hall is a drama studio which is used for rehearsals and small-scale performances
Follow this link to view a list of events across the College.
The Coates Pavilion contains sport change rooms at ground level and on the first floor, a uniform shop, meeting room and large multi-purpose function room. It is named after Dr T H Coates, a very distinguished Headmaster of Wesley College from 1957-1972. The redeveloped Coates Pavilion was officially opened on 30 April 2009.
Named in recognition of the generous contribution and benefaction to Glen Waverley by Frank and Marisa Colli and their family.
This specialist area caters for 3 and 4 year old children.
As the first formal place of learning for many children, the Early Childhood Learning Centre (ECLC) acts as an extension of home and provides an aesthetically beautiful environment where 3 and 4 year old children are nurtured and valued. Whilst the ECLC is an integral part of the PYP curriculum framework, the uniqueness of the early childhood learning environment means that it operates as a discrete learning unit, but utilises the wider resources of the school. This includes learning spaces and specialist teachers for Visual Arts, Perceptual Motor Program (PMP), Music, Creative Movement, Swimming and Library.
The Reggio Emilia philosophy, Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and the PYP, all of which support the child's development, are implemented in an integrated manner with the teacher acting as a facilitator, empowering children to develop and use their abilities to meet challenges, overcome obstacles and work cooperatively on small team projects.
The Educaton Resource Centre (ERC) is the library for all Senior School students (Years 10 – 12).
The main indoor general sports area for the campus. Provides an area for netball, indoor soccer, basketball, netball, badminton, tennis, table tennis and gymnastics.
Named after former pupil Bruce Gregory (OW1944) and one of the longest serving staff members at Wesley (1952 until late 1990s), who, amongst his many accomplishments, was a fine cricket coach, and Executive Officer of the Old Wesley Collegians Association and Headmaster of the Junior School from 1968 – 1976. This oval is used to play cricket and soccer on.
This multipurpose area provides tennis courts in the summer and hockey in the winter.
Named in honour of Jean James, the first Director of the Preparatory School at Glen Waverley (1978, 1979) and from 1980 – 1988 the Coordinator of the Preparatory School at Glen Waverley.
The Junior School is home to students in the Early Learning Centre, Prep, Years 1, 2, 3 & 4. The main indoor meeting area is the Conabere Multipurpose Room, named after a former Head of Campus at both Glen Waverley and St Kilda Road, Tony Conabere.
This playground provides a sheltered play and exploration area for children in the Junior School.
W D Kennedy entered the School as a pupil in 1908; his connection with it remained unbroken until his retirement in 1985.
In 1913 he became Headmaster and Housemaster of the Junior School, positions which he filled with distinction until 1929. In 1930 he was transferred to the Senior School to take charge of the Boarding House.
W D Kennedy was always actively connected with the School's sports, having been for some time coach of the First XI and First XVIII. In 1932 he became Chairman of the Games Committee, undertaking the organisational responsibility for all our sport. Mr Kennedy retired from the College in 1985.
The oval named in his honour is used to play cricket and football on, as well as for Physical Education classes and a general purpose recreation space.
General classrooms for students in Years 7, 8 and 9 with unique areas for each age group.
LOTE and general classrooms for Years 5 & 6 students are located here. The Atrium is the centre for Years 5 and 6 students and provides a recreational, learning and cooking space for Years 4, 5 and 6.
The Glen Waverley Sports Precinct was officially opened on 6 June 2011 and compliments the existing Kroger Pool, outdoor multi-purpose courts and Games Hall. The facility includes changerooms, a weight training room and office spaces.
The design of the building includes important environmental features such as natural ventilation systems, excellent day lighting and rainwater harvesting, while the facade is composed of highly insulated composite metal panels.
The Sports Centre complements the Glen Waverley campus' already existing 18.5 hectares of open fields and other sport facilities, and will ensure that the campus' and College's reputation for sport continues to grow.
Forming a core element of the Junior and Middle School Curriculum, the music school is also home to the Campus' various music groups including the Junior Strings, the Ted Joyner Big Band, the Wilkie Orchestra and the Symphonic Band.
Year 10 students have the opportunity to choose from an array of performing arts electives including Dance, Recording Studio Techniques, Music Performance and Small Ensemble whilst Year 11 and 12 students are able to undertake performing arts subjects in the IB Diploma Programme, the VCE and VET.
In addition to individual music tuition rooms, classroom and performance spaces, the music school also includes a dance studio, a recording studio and a pipe organ.
Click here to view curriculum details.
The Rowing Development Centre is a specialist indoor rowing training facility, affectionately known as "The Tank".
In addition to housing the Administration for the Senior School, subjects from Hospitality, English, Business, Psychology, Physical Education, Science, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology are taught in these areas. There is also a student cafeteria and a multimedia lab.
Named after Harold J Stewart (OW1899), a long-serving staff member and Headmaster from 1933-1939. This oval is used to play cricket and soccer on, and is also used for athletics.
The Goldstraw Visual Arts Centre contains a number of specialist classrooms for painting, sculpture, textiles, photography, visual communication and media.
The Middle School library at Glen Waverley is named after EA Wells who was appointed a resident master in 1920 and Headmaster of the Junior School in 1937; a post he occupied until his untimely death in 1966, the year the Glen Waverley (Syndal) Junior School opened.
The Wells Library serves Middle School students from Year 5 to Year 9 and houses an array of texts for research and caters for budding readers at all reading levels and interests.
Named after PL Williams, a great teacher and superb sportsman and coach. He achieved 10 premierships in 29 years of cricket coaching at the College. This oval is used to play cricket and football on, and is also used for athletics.
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A True Education


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Thanks to its upgraded processor, the owner of this Cube needed to find a way to cool its innards. The solution: Cut a hole in the case and disguise it with a grille shaped like the biohazard symbol. View Slideshow Like a pop star killed tragically young, Apple's distinctive Cube computer has achieved exalted status in death.
Though discontinued two years ago, Apple's Power Mac G4 Cube commands a strong – almost fanatical – following. Used Cubes fetch premium prices on eBay, there's a thriving trade in aftermarket upgrades, and dedicated owners are going to extreme lengths to keep their much-loved machines current.
New processor upgrades for the Cube may soon make it one of the fastest G4 Macs on the market, and a computer boutique specializing in high-design technology has just started selling a line of upgraded Cubes to its well-heeled customers.
"It was derided and abandoned, and yet here are thousands and thousands of users who say this is the greatest thing (Apple) ever did," said Laurie Duncan, who runs the popular CubeOwner website. "It's a thing of beauty. People are holding onto them for dear life."
Duncan, a Brooklyn-based Mac consultant, said the Cube is unique, a utilitarian computer that verges on a piece of art. She noted that one is on display in New York City's Museum of Modern Art.
When it was released in July 2000, the Cube was praised to the rafters for its unique styling, but it didn't sell well.
Starting at $1,800, the 8-inch cube-shaped computer was expensive. It had limited upgrade potential, and the translucent case suffered hairline cracks, which put many buyers off.
Having sold a paltry 150,000 units, Apple put the Cube "on ice" in July 2001.
But since its demise, the Cube has attracted a dedicated following, thanks to its sleek good looks, near-silent operation (it's one of the few computers without a cooling fan), and – if upgraded – pretty good performance.
Kemplar, an online computer boutique that sells sleek sub-notebooks, fancy cell phones and other trendy devices, has just started selling a line of upgraded Cubes.
Equipped with a 1.2-GHz G4 chip, a CD-RW, an Nvidia GeForce 3 video card, 1 GB of RAM and a 120-GB hard drive, the $2,000 machines are selling at a brisk pace.
"The response has been astounding," said Sage Waters, Kemplar.com's director of sales. "People are interested in the Cube because it's the Cube. It's the only computer people are interested in buying because of its design alone. But you have to upgrade it to keep it going."
Cubes still command $800 or more on eBay – a small fortune for a machine of its vintage. And because it is relatively slow by today's standards, most are upgraded, often at considerable expense.
Indeed, a mini industry has sprung up to supply new hard drives, processors and video cards for aging Cubes.
PowerLogix and Sonnet Technologies sell a range of Cube processor upgrades, while MCE Technologies has developed a special slot-loading DVD burner to replace the Cube's original CD-only burner.
Many owners also upgrade their Cubes with bumper hard drives and speedy video cards. A wide range of video cards from different manufacturers can be made to fit, though shaving the card is sometimes necessary to make it fit in the cramped Cube.
Newer cards also generate a lot of heat, requiring a hefty heat sink and, to the horror of the purist, a cooling fan. One owner built a dinky cooling duct to channel out hot air from a Radeon 9000 Pro video card (see photo).
In Japan, several companies sell special upgrade components for the Cube, including one company that sells special Cube cooling fans. Thanks to its small footprint, the Cube has a strong following in Japan.
Shortly, PowerLogix plans to release a 1.4-GHz G4 processor for the Cube, which will make the Cube faster than the fastest single-processor Power Mac currently available from Apple, which tops out at 1.2 GHz.
In about six weeks, PowerLogix will follow up with a dual 1.6-GHz processor upgrade card, which will make the Cube faster than Apple's current dual 1.4-GHz Power Macs.
Priced at about $1,000, the upgrade will also likely be faster than the forthcoming single-processor G5s, according to PowerLogix President Robert Jagitsch.
Jagitsch said he was impressed by the tenacity of Cube owners.
"It's really amazing," he said. "For a computer model that's three years old, there's still a strong following.
"But for many Cube owners," he added, "it's a case of upgrade it or toss it."
To avoid tossing it, some Cube hobbyists go to extreme lengths to keep their machines capable of running the latest power-hungry Mac OS X applications.
Boris Jotic from Germany, for example, upgraded his Cube with a pair of 1-GHz chips, which ran so hot he had to rig a water cooling system (see photo).
CubeOwner.com's Duncan said she soon plans to sell a larger Cube case to accommodate bigger cards and processors, and to allow more air to circulate inside. Measuring 10 inches by 10 inches, the case (see photo) should be available in about six weeks, she said.
"It's a 3-year-old computer with a significant set of limitations, but people are working around them," Duncan said. "It's pretty impressive. No one is as surprised as me by the fanaticism surrounding this computer. The trouble people go to upgrade it, it's comical. Someone will put a G5 in a Cube. I guarantee it."
Shrine: Little IMacs Everywhere
No Fish Tale: Swimming in Macs
'Modders' Can't Leave Macs Alone

subset: commoncrawl


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Grammy Guan's Stinky Tofu (Guan Lao Tai Chou Dou Fu)Grammy Guan is already 85 years old. The stinky tofu she made has been popular for decades. She passed her recipe to her son who passed the recipe to Grammy Guan's grandson. At the beginning, Grammy Guan only owned a small food s…


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Monday, April 11, 2011
Jacquard's Web
Jacquard's Web reminded me of Connections. Not just because James Burke covered several of the same topics, but because James Essinger seamlessly traveled from Prince Albert's inspection of a woven portrait of JM Jacquard, to the history of silk weaving, to the 1890 US Census with stops along the way for the French Revolution and Lord Byron. The bulk of the book, however, discusses Charles Babbage and his two machines, the Difference Engine and the Analytical Engine. Babbage never managed to build working models of either machine, but they're considered the precursor to the modern computer, and their description, written and annotated by Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace is considered the first computer program. Essenger is an engaging writer, and Jacquard's Web strikes the right balance between a collection of trivia facts and deep thought.
Posted by mrc at 10:53 PM
Labels: history, James Essinger, Science
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The Virgin Voyage coming soon
We did a cool new short film in the 3rd level Pixar class. Its called: The Virgin Voyage. Here are some images of the characters and a short clip of some of the animation. Basically, we recorded some improv actors and built a story around it. It was a really fun excercize and we hope to get the whole thing up and rendered soon.


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Story of the day
Museum of Ice Cream Arrives in New York For One Summer Only
By Holly Cole on
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New York's eclectic selection of museums just a got a little cooler this summer with the opening of the city's first ever ice cream museum.
Located at 100 Gansevoort Street in Manhattan's meatpacking district, the Museum of Ice Cream, will open its door to the "modern, whimsical urban ice cream playground" on 29 July, running for just one month until the end of August.
Children, and let's face it, big kids at heart, or art lovers distracted from Whitney Art Museum a few doors up, will have plenty of excuses to drop in and re-live their ice cream fantasies, whether seeking genuine ice-cream centric trivia or some serious ice-cream tasting.
Highlights include a swimming pool full of rainbow sprinkles, balloons you can eat and an enormous, massive ice cream sundae. There will also be an ice cream sandwich swing fit for two – how romantic – and an ice cream scooper seesaw. That's not to mention the Tinderland ice-cream dating app.
Stop off for a "Scoop of the Week" before you leave – speciality ice-cream creations by some of New York's finest ice cream purveyors like Black Tap and OddFellows Ice Cream Co, all included in your ticket price.
Modern visuals from NYC artists are the cherry on top:
What Museum of Ice Cream
Where Meatpacking District, New York
When 29 July - 31 August


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Mobile Radiation Detection System
NDMA, as part of a pilot project, has taken initiative to equip police and NDRF personnel for management of radiological emergency in public domain. List of the personnel trained under the project is displayed herewith. The information can be utilised only for any assistance during radiological emergency.
- Last Updated on Thursday, 29 June 2017 17:12


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Testimony of
Alieta Eck, MD,
Physician in private practice in Internal Medicine, Piscataway, NJ,
Rethinking Insurance
April 28, 2004
Good morning. Thank you for this opportunity to come before this Committee to share some of my experiences as a physician in private practice. After 15 years of watching my profession go through profound changes, I would like to share some insights.
1965, a friend of mine was volunteering in a New Jersey hospital. She remembers that, at that time, a day in the hospital was billed at $39. 1965 was the year that government entered into the payment of medical bills, for it was the year that the two huge government programs, Medicare and Medicaid, were begun. This was also the year that medical inflation began, caused by an enormous infusion of federal dollars, resulting in todays sad statistic that a day in the hospital in New Jersey is billed anywhere between $3000 and $5000. My name is Dr. Alieta Eck. I was a registered pharmacist before going to medical school. I graduated from St. Louis University School of Medicine and then did a residency in Internal Medicine at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. I am Board Certified in Internal Medicine and am part of a four physician multi-specialty practice.
I live and practice in New Jersey. I participate in a Health Benefits Reform message board, and experts from all over the country shake their heads in awe at how a state government could mess things up so thoroughly. In 1992, New Jersey created the Individual Health Coverage Program to ensure that people without access to employer or government sponsored health care programs could purchase health coverage from a variety of carriers. All plans were standardized, and any attempt to alter the plans to satisfy consumer demands became illegal. Insurance companies were told exactly what had to be covered, what the maximum deductibles could be, and who would be eligible to enroll.
The state was attempting to make it easier for NJ citizens to understand the plans and comparison shop for the best rates. But the net effect was a staggering increase in premiums, and an equally staggering increase in the number of uninsured citizens. 220,000 individual state-approved health insurance policies were obtained in NJ in 1996. This number has dropped to 90,000 and the number is falling quickly. Anyone can pull up ehealthinsurance.com, type in a New Jersey zip code and view rates that are laughable. For example, the March, 2004 quote for a single person, Plan C, with a 30% co-pay and a $1000 deductible, is an astounding $4419 per MONTH as quoted for all to see, by the Celtic Insurance Company. The least expensive plan, which still allows the patient to choose his own physicians, is offered by Oxford, at a rate of $912.20 per month for a single person. These astronomical rates can be explained by six NJ laws and facts that cause insurance rates to rise.
Because of all the mandates, New Jersey is being left in the dust when it comes to the establishment of the newly enacted Health Savings Accounts. One insurance agent told me that there are 2300 open questions concerning the structure of these plans and the legalities of implementing them with the existing New Jersey laws.
At a recent conference I suggested to our own Senator Jon Corzine that there was one law that he, as a US Senator, could support, that would cut the number of uninsured in NJ in half. That would be to allow us to purchase health insurance across state lines. The internet provides a perfect vehicle, and Washington could help undo the extensive damage done by legislators in states like New Jersey. This would be entirely consistent with the Commerce clause in the US Constitution. His answer was completely unsatisfactory. He thought that this would result in insurance companies cherry picking only healthy people. I countered, rather, that this would result in more people being insured, avoiding the risk of bankruptcy by owning affordable health insurance.
Early on, in our practice, we avoided enrolling as physicians in the HMOs, unwilling to sign contracts that tied our hands while paying us some un-negotiated fee. We were being asked to swear our allegiance to the HMO, while pretending to care about our patients. I remember attending a hospital Grand Rounds where we were shown a graph with the horizontal axis being our patients length of stay and the vertical axis being the amount spent on the patients care. We were told that BAD doctors had patients in the upper right hand corner while GOOD doctors had patients who fell into the lower left hand corner. In other words, we were good or bad depending on how much money our patients cost the system. There was no mention about how sick the patient was, how much pain and suffering the patient endured, how kind we were, how complicated the diagnosis was to make, or how well we implemented treatment. The heart of our medical training was being undermined, and we were being taught to consider the bottom line above all else.
For several years we participated in one non-capitated HMO, but dropped out when the company representatives read some of our charts and determined that we had spent too much time with the patients. If we billed for a level 3 visit, and they decided it should have been level 2, they asked for a refund. We got out in a hurry. We wrote to our patients, explaining that we wanted to be their doctors, not the servants of their insurance company. In the letter, I included a quote from Atlas Shrugged, written in 1957, by Ayn Rand:
Many patients left our practice, and went looking for a $10 doctor who would only charge them the co-pay, but many have returned, seeing a big difference in the care they receive. They now see us out of network.
So now we do not participate in any insurance scheme, though we do continue to see patients in the Medicare program. We do not participate in Medicare and most of our patients pay the government determined limiting fee, at the time of service. We dutifully send in the claims electronically, abiding by the Medicare laws. The patients get reimbursed. We do not know how much longer we will do this, as Medicare is becoming more and more intrusive, demanding and punitiveall while lowering its fee schedules. The only reason we remain in the program is the fact that senior citizens are not given any alternative. People over 65 cannot purchase health insurance outside of the Medicare system.
Our practice is very efficient. Our four doctors function well with one full time employee, one bookkeeper and six part time nurses and receptionists. No one needs to spend valuable time asking permission of the insurance companies to do tests. We negotiate directly with each patient, discussing the costs as well as the benefits of any tests we recommend. We have many patients who are uninsured, so we are very careful to order medications that are the most cost-effective. We are free to spend as much time as is needed for each patient and have a loyal following.
Early on in our practice, we learned the folly of getting involved in any government program for the poor. Something seemed disingenuous in government officials promising they would provide free health care for the poor, and then expecting us to foot the bill. The reimbursement is so ridiculously low, and that comes six months after the visit. Taking on many Medicaid patients would jeopardize our survival, so we choose to screen them ourselves, and treat the poor for free.
We began to study the root causes of poverty, and were heavily influenced by Marvin Olaskys book, The Tragedy of American Compassion. (c. 1992 by Marvin Olasky, published by Crossway Books) The government looks on poverty as a simple lack of funds, and has a hard time categorizing the poor. Indeed, the government is criticized heavily when it attempts to distinguish between the worthy poor, those who are poor through no fault of their own, and the poor who should not be given money-- those who have a lack of funds due to bad choices and bad behavior. Both may need help, but the kind of help needs to be very different. Olasky teaches the ABCs of Compassion, and recommends that successful people personally reach out to those who are poor. A brief summary of his seven principles of compassion is as follows:
We were fortunate to belong to a church that had a building that was not in use. It had been devastated by Hurricane Floyd in 1999 and was sitting dormant. A lot of fundraising and volunteer work led to the complete renovation of the building and the emergence of the new Zarephath Health Center. (www.zhcenter.org.) Employing the principles laid out above, we began operation in September of 2003, and have been seeing and caring for the poor and uninsured ever since. Here are a few of the people our physicians, nurses and support volunteers have helped:
People ask why we started the Zarephath Health Center for the poor and uninsured, and we reply by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. It is a story that Jesus told, about a man who was lying by the side of the road, injured and bleeding. A minister walked by quickly, thinking that he had to hurry to preach his sermon. Then a Bible teacher came by, and also felt that he did not have the time to stop and help. Finally, a Samaritan, a religious outcast, saw the man, stopped to help, and gave of his own time and resources to see that the man got cared for.
We have determined to live out our faith by following the example of the Good Samaritan. When we see people in need, we are not going to demand another government program, but rather, we will use our own time and resources, and find others willing to help us do the same. We are looking for physicians and support people to donate four hours per month. We believe that there is a God in heaven, and that He would have us show compassion by meeting the physical, emotional, spiritual and relational needs of people with whom we come in contact. We do not shove religion down anyones throat, but are ready to give an answer if anyone asks why we have an enthusiastic optimism about the future. We are free to tell them how a relationship with God provided the missing link in our lives and how it can be the same for them.
There is another non-profit health center, the Parker Health Center, in Red Bank, NJ. In its four years of existence, this Center has reached a point where the physicians cared for 6,000 people, with 20,000 visits last year. All the doctors and most of the staff are volunteers. They have a budget of $500,000, which computes to $83. per person per year. I would like to challenge the government to demonstrate any program that delivers care with more efficiency, patient and physician satisfaction, and quality.
One additional concern of ours, as champions of the uninsured, is the tremendous cost differential between what Medicare pays and what the uninsured are billed for a hospital visit. In New Jersey, the uninsured are billed 300% of the cost of their stay. If their stay costs the hospital $10,000, they are billed $30,000. The uninsured have no clout, and if they happen to own a house, a lien is placed on their property. We have done some investigating, and have discovered that a patient can have his gallbladder removed in a nice little clean hospital on a Caribbean island, for less than $1000. Compare that with the $30,000 bill we saw from one of our patients at a hospital in New Jersey. After travel, lodging, paying the surgeons and anesthesiologist, plus a week recovering in paradise, the total bill for a cholecystectomy would not be greater than $5000 in that island hospital. The Zarephath Health Center is looking into facilitating such medical tourism for those who are interested.
We have many optionsbut we simply ask the government to step aside and allow the free market to lower medical expenses for all. Food, clothing and shelter are greater necessities than health care, yet we have a largely free market in these needs, and inflation in these necessities is kept lower than in health care. As Peter Drucker said in the Wall Street Journal in December, 1991,
Our Zarephath Health Center could do much more, at no cost to the taxpayer, if there were tort reform that would allow retired physicians to volunteer without fear of being sued. New Jersey has 15,000 retired physicians many of whom would love to provide meaningful aid to those in need. The physicians working for the medical schools have caps on malpractice claims, as well as state covered malpractice premiums. Why not have a similar arrangement for those physicians who would donate their time to clinics for the poor? This would alleviate the tremendous burden on hospital emergency rooms, lessen the burden of the welfare system, and provide more comprehensive help to those without insurance. It is time that we roll up our sleeves and tackle these problems in a more reasonable way.
In 1997, my husband, our five children and I dropped our own health insurance. We were unwilling to pay those inflated New Jersey insurance rates, and chose to join a faith-based medical cost sharing program. It is not insurance, but a commitment to bear one anothers burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ, as stated in the Bible. We pay $215 per month to help others in the program, and they in turn are committed to helping us if any medical event exceeds $911. They hold us accountable for healthy behavior. We cannot smoke, drink alcohol to excess, must attend church, and must avoid sex outside of marriage. This is how the monthly contributions can be kept so low.
I love being a physician. It is the most rewarding of professions. I want my son to become a doctor. But unless we give our physicians the respect and freedom they need to practice the compassionate medicine for which they were trained, we will watch the deterioration of the greatest health care delivered anywhere in the world. Give individuals the freedom to purchase the health coverage they want, opening up insurance opportunities across state lines. Allow people to choose the best physicians, not just those on the list provided by their insurance company. Enact true tort reform, where patients are compensated, but are not awarded jack-pot judgments for pain and suffering for bad outcomes. We need tort reform, with relief from skyrocketing medical malpractice premiums, or the best and the brightest will no longer be attracted to the healing professions. And we must hurrybefore more Americans are harmed by the diminishing numbers of neurosurgeons and obstetricians who are willing to take risks and use their superb skills to save them.
Thank you.
Alieta Eck, MD


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[A] remembrance is... a reconstruction of the past achieved with data borrowed from the present, a reconstruction prepared... by reconstructions of earlier periods wherein past images had already been altered' (Halbwachs 1952, 69)
Later this year, Doctor Who will reach its 50th anniversary, a major milestone that few television programmes have achieved. Although partially overshadowed by the announcement that current 11th Doctor Matt Smith will be leaving (and the now-traditional media interest in who will replace him), the 50th anniversary will see a range of different celebrations, from a special episode through a BBC-organised convention. As long-term fans of the programme know, however, we have been here before: Doctor Who celebrated its 10th, 20th, 25th and 30th anniversaries with similarly well-anticipated television specials, commemorative magazines and/or events. As each of those anniversaries has demonstrated, the history of Doctor Who is in almost constant revision, with reconstructions of narrative conceits and alterations of past fictional events a de rigeur feature of dramatic anniversary commemorations.
Over a series of three blog posts, I want to think about how Doctor Who's anniversary celebrations have set up recurring traits around anniversary television programmes. Specifically, I want to think about how fictional celebrations such as The Three Doctors (1973), The Five Doctors (1983), Remembrance of the Daleks (1988), Silver Nemesis (1988), Dimensions in Time (1993) and Scream of the Shalka (2003) created their own remembrances of the programme's history – both in terms of narrative (the fictional world of the Doctor, the TARDIS etc.) and behind-the-scenes production information.
The media representation and commemoration of 'real world' historical events (such as the Second World War) tends to take place through news and documentary-led programmes, and such programmes manufacture their remembrances through a combination of archive footage, dramatic recreation, voiceover, and (often temporally disingenuous) editing patterns. These manufactured media histories, then, renew, challenge and efface real memories, creating a collective public memory of the original event – as I was writing this first blog, for example, it was claimed that collective memory of the First World War has likely been shaped more by Blackadder Goes Forth than any textbook or documentary.
This, then, suggests the importance of media constructions to public memory of 'real world' histories. Using Doctor Who, however, these blog posts will explore how anniversary fictions can reproduce and reassert particular elements of its fictional dramatic history, while promotional materials support a particular mediation and representation of the programme's production history. By looking at these specific stories, it is clear that anniversary dramas retell stories about their fictional pasts, adding a new veneer of meaning in each retelling, and representing subtle shifts in the collective memory through each recreation.
10th anniversary: The Three Doctors (1973)If you've read this far, I'm going to assume you have a basic sense of what Doctor Who is: a time travel drama aimed at family audiences, that was first broadcast on Saturday 23rd November 1963, and grew in popularity due (at least in part) to the introduction of the Daleks in December 1963.
The first major anniversary story is 1973s The Three Doctors, although a case could be made for 'World's End', the first episode of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, given it was broadcast on 21st November 1964 and is the end of the first major arc of the programme, reintroducing the hugely popular Daleks (who had been killed off at the end of their first story) and ending with the departure of the Doctor's granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford). Yet although it falls around the right time of year, and features returning villains (subsequent conceits of the anniversary episode), the story was not designed to commemorate the programme's one year anniversary.
The Three Doctors, however, was produced as a deliberate attempt at commemoration, bringing together the First (William Hartnell), Second (Patrick Troughton) and Third (Jon Pertwee) Doctors to battle a Time Lord villain, Omega. The story is a solid example of Pertwee's era as the Doctor, a partly-Earthbound action-adventure romp, featuring most of the regular supporting cast from UNIT (the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce), a military force designed to combat the alien and unusual, led by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney), and featuring Sergeant Benton (John Levene) and Jo Grant (Katy Manning). This Earthbound focus was a production conceit for budgetary and story reasons: the Doctor's memories of time travel taken away by the Time Lords and the TARDIS's dematerialisation circuit removed.
Unlike traditional ideas of media anniversaries, which are based around the proximity to an actual date, The Three Doctors was broadcast as the first story of the 10th season of the show, with episode one debuting on 30th December 1972, almost a year ahead of the anniversary. Most journalism-based media anniversary programmes also make specific reference to the period of time that has passed: but The Three Doctors has not narrative reference to ten years having passed, or even that the adventure takes place in 1973.
That said, several anniversary themes are established that recur through future programmes:
The multiple Doctor / the 'absent' Doctor: the programme is built around the combination of Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee in both production and narrative terms. It is the first time Doctor Who would revisit its past in such an overt manner, but by no means the last; it was also designed to be the first time all three Doctors shared screen space and time, although due to illness Hartnell's First Doctor is mostly 'absent' from the reunion, delivering his lines via the TARDIS scanner. The Three Doctors also sets up the dramatic concept of rivalry and competitiveness between the Doctor's incarnations: the Second and Third Doctors bicker throughout, while the First (who describes his 'replacements' as 'a dandy and clown') acts as a drill sergeant in his cameos. Off-screen, the Troughton-Pertwee relationship was cordial, but featured a clash of acting styles, with Troughton more given to on-set improvisation.
The Time Lords: Ten years into the programme, very little was known about the Doctor's people, the Time Lords. The Three Doctors establishes much more information: Omega gave the Time Lords the power of time travel by harnessing the power of a black hole; Omega is a hero on Gallifrey, the Time Lord's home; the Time Lords have a governing structure that includes a President and a Chancellor; and there are 'Laws of Time' (the first of which is that Time Lords should not meet their other incarnations)
References to a shared narrative past: Anniversary programmes tend to be spaces where particular views or perspectives on the past can be solidified: here, for example, Benton and the Brigadier both recognise and reminisce about previous adventures with the Second Doctor, most notably those involving villains such as the Yeti and the Cybermen (in turn, these reconstruct a vision of Doctor Who that focuses on the spectacular nature of the villains: something promotional materials such as the 10th anniversary magazine special would also focus on)
Narrative change: like The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Three Doctors ends with a narrative shift that affects the whole programme: the Time Lords return the Third Doctor's knowledge of time travel, and give him a new dematerialisation circuit, allowing the programme to return to its earlier narrative structure of off-world and Earth-bound adventures.
Promoting the Anniversary: The Three Doctors was promoted with features in the Radio Times, a special celebratory magazine, appearances on Blue Peter and a special exhibition at the Science Museum in London focus on the actors, crew, costumes and stories that defined the decade. Each of these materials offered a stronger sense of the programme's decade-long success, the actors and crew involved, and the range of monsters the programme was famous for. As such, these were more traditional media 'anniversary' celebrations, pulling together strands from the previous ten years, rather than The Three Doctors' narrative approach.
Next time: From The Five Doctors (1983) to Silver Nemesis (1988)...


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Elite 3K
- Posts: 22687
- Joined: 05 May 2009, 21:31
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F-35 inventory soars in new Pentagon spending bill
14 Sep 2018 Joe Gould
"WASHINGTON — Flying beyond 77 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters authorized by the 2019 defense policy bill, congressional appropriators are adding another 16 for a total of 93. [Is this what a death spiral looks like?]
Congressional conferees on Thursday finalized a $674.4 billion defense spending bill for next year packaged with funding for the departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, or Labor-HHS—and a continuing resolution through Dec. 7 for some other parts of the government.
As usual, appropriators used their annual defense spending bill to offer tweaks to the shopping list for military hardware in the annual defense policy bill, which President Donald Trump signed into law last month….
...The House and Senate are expected to pass the measure before the start of the fiscal year, Oct. 1, to avoid the optics of a government shutdown ahead of midterm elections in November....
...On the flip side, the bill includes language echoing the FY19 NDAA's pause on sales of F-35 to NATO-ally Turkey, pending a new assessment of U.S.–Turkey relations. The move bucks Defense Secretary Jim Mattis who has warned this would cause an international supply chain disruption, as the aircraft is coproduced with Ankara...."
Source: https://www.defensenews.com/congress/20 ... ding-bill/
RAN FAA A4G Skyhawk 1970s: https://www.faaaa.asn.au/spazsinbad-a4g/ AND https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwqC_s6gcCVvG7NOge3qfAQ/


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What does it mean?
Well, imagine your name there instead of those dots, to be more precise; imagine your brand there. Now imagine if the bit that says '& Company' said '& engagement & insight & energy & no agenda & plain English & tons of experience & design & film & being heard & punctuality & pride & Hob Nobs, yes Hob Nobs & most of all partnership' Well, that's what we do. (Oh, and we love your curiosity.)
Ampersand Company serves ambitious businesses and brands impatient to tell the world what makes them special.
Let's unpack that;
With limitless free media, easy to access creative talent and low production cost there's never been a better time to tell your brand's story.
With so much on your plate and so little time we help you step back to take stock and identify what's important.
We apply experience gained from serving the world's favourite brands to help you identify and share what makes your brand unique.
Formerly founder of start-up consultancies Ask Senex, and DHM. Managing Director of DDB London, Chairman of Arnold Amsterdam. Deep client experience of the B2B sector, automotive and international brands. Notable clients: Google, Economist, Lego, New Labour, Sony and Volkswagen.
Formerly Global Head of Operations at J Walter Thompson and AMV BBDO. 20 years experience managing brands on their journey from analogue to digital including the global implementation leadership of Nokia, Mars, Microsoft, Volkswagen & Sainsbury's.
We're always on the look out for freelance or independent creative talent who'd be interested in partnering with us. If you like the sound of what we are up to and think that you could contribute, please get in touch:
© 2019 Ampersand


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Use the form on the right to contact us.
You can edit the text in this area, and change where the contact form on the right submits to, by entering edit mode using the modes on the bottom right.
1045 W 25th St
Merced, CA, 95340
United States
(209) 725 3337
The Applegate Park Zoo website is operated by the Merced Zoological Society.


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This article is about the
Viz Media, LLC is an anime, manga and Japanese entertainment company.
Viz Media, LLC is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. The company was founded in 1986 as Viz, LLC.
Starting in November 2002, Viz Media translated and localized the Dragon Ball manga from start to finish. However, starting from what would be volume 17 of Dragon Ball, they began labeling the books Dragon Ball Z for the consideration of the American anime viewers who may not have been familiar with the original Dragon Ball series. Much later, starting in June 2016, Viz Media translated and localized the Dragon Ball Super manga. They have also published a number of other popular Japanese manga, such as Naruto, Death Note, Full Metal Alchemist, Rurouni Kenshin, YuYu Hakusho, and Bleach.
In 2005, the Viz, LLC. and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current Viz Media, LLC which is jointly owned by Japanese publishers Shogakukan Shogakukan, Shueisha Shueisha, and Shogakukan's licensing division Shogakukan Shogakukan Productions (ShoPro Japan).
Viz Media has released all the volumes of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z; however, they have edited and changed a few scenes to make it more child friendly. For example, Viz, while keeping some nude pictures in (such as Bulma in the shower, and Goku nude in volume 1), puts a bra over a nude Bulma in Volume 9. Viz also edits out a gun that Android 17 is holding up to a man.


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Fears that the temporary closure of police custody suites in Upper Bann may effect frontline policing have been expressed by local solicitors.
The custody suite at Banbridge is currently closed for refurbishment work and scheduled to re-open early 2016 after which, work is planned to start in Lurgan custody suite.
Local solicitors have voiced concerns that closures 'could have an impact on the PSNI's ability to carry out their job' however the PSNI has dismissed the claims.
Local MLA Sydney Anderson, a former member of the Stormont Justice Committee, said: "I feel the community should also be concerned about recent developments.
"There is a genuine fear that the PSNI could be hindered greatly in their efforts to carry out arrests of suspected criminals because there now exists real pressures on custody suite availability in our local police stations.
"Worryingly, dangerous people could end up being left to roam the streets due to the fact police do not simply have the capabilities to go fully through arrest procedures.
Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon District Commander, Supt Davy Moore confirmed that refurbishment work at a number of custody facilities across the Province is well under way, and added: "While the refurbishment is taking place in Banbridge followed by Lurgan, the custody facilities in Armagh, Dungannon, Omagh and Enniskillen will be available for arrests in the South Area".
Mr Anderson warned this solution is far from perfect.
"Not only will police costs rise due to the extra travel required, but legal fees will also increase and there will be an impact upon the legal aid budget as solicitors have to travel further to represent suspects arrested in the Banbridge and Craigavon areas."
Supt Moore responded: "The overarching objective of the review is to ensure police provide the safest possible custody facilities for both detained persons, police officers and staff. We have not closed any suites locally. Rather, we are upgrading them."


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The new name for Party Sounds 4U
Oxfordshire Mobile Discos are a high quality, full service mobile disco company based in Abingdon (Oxfordshire) catering for special occasions including Weddings & Civil Partnerships, Private and Social Functions, Corporate Events and Children's Parties.
To help you focus on your specific type of event, we operate three different websites:
A full-time mobile DJ covering Oxfordshire, the Cotswolds and parts of Berkshire, Wiltshire and Warwickshire. Oxfordshire Mobile Discos' excellent reputation is built on our extremely strong customer service principles and the provision of excellent value for money.
If your entertainment buying criteria for one of the most memorable days in your life is cost, then we're probably not the right disco company for you. Our professional approach and attention to detail result in a high-quality service offering which is why many of the area's top wedding and corporate venues recommend us. We put many hours of planning and preparation into every event even before we've arrived on site, and this really shows in our performance and unbeatable customer reviews.
Rather than cram everything onto one website, we've carefully divided our customer base into three groups, so that we can help you focus on the things that matter most. Our dedicated wedding & civil partnership website Oxfordshire Wedding Entertainment is chock full of gorgeous pictures and excellent client feedback from recent wedding discos, plus lots of ideas to help you plan the perfect reception party.
If you're looking for a lively, fun, cool DJ for a children's party, school disco or prom, then our Oxfordshire Kids' Disco site should convince you why our disco service for youngsters is streets ahead of anything else we've seen locally.
For all other types of events - family parties, private functions, social occasions, corporate entertainment and those awkward teens, you're already in the right place! Simply choose from the menu (above and below) to learn more about Oxfordshire Mobile Discos. We offer the ideal package of an experienced, competent DJ and MC / compere with a wide range of high-specification modern sound and lighting equipment to suit any occasion. Our music library is second to none, catering for all tastes.
Whatever your musical entertainment needs, why not get in touch for a FREE quote without obligation?


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Apple Martini
Sour green apple steals the show in this icy-cold martini. It's a very refreshing cocktail with a nice hint of sourness.
- ice cubes
- 60 ml vodka
- 45 ml apple schnapps
- 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
- green apple slice, to garnish
- Fill a shaker three-fourths full with ice. Add the vodka, apple liqueur and lemon juice.
- Cover and shake for 10–15 seconds or until condensation forms on outside of shaker.
- Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish as desired.


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Stamp used is 904-L, Daffodils and colored with Copic's. The sentiment is included in the full sheet of unmounted rubber #8600.
I used some alcohol ink in yellow to color a few white enamel dots, then added them on the side of the card.
Lastly, tied a gingham bow using the Bow Easy and added it to the top of the card.
So what are you waiting for?! Why not play along with us and start stamping up a card now. We can't wait to see your creations!
Don't forget… Take part in one weekly challenge or all of them. The more you play along, the more chances you have to win! Each submission enters you in the drawing for our gift certificate. And you don't always have to use our stamps in your creations, but we will reward you if you do. Each submission using a Repeat Impressions stamp will earn you an additional entry in the drawing! Also, check out our Rock Star blogs to see what they did with the challenge.
Check out what our Rock Stars did for this challenge.
Thanks for stopping by!


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Personalised and Hand Painted Quote Champagne Flute
A stunning gift this Mother's Day
Our personalised and hand painted quote Mother's Day Champagne Flutes can be personalised with name, special message or in your choice of colours.
We also have gift boxes available if you would like to add an extra special touch to your gifts too.
Champagne flutes are approximately 20.5 x 5cm and other glass styles and designs are available too.
if you have your own special quote that you would like painted on a glass please contact us to arrange.
Care instructions: this item is dishwasher safe.
All items are made to order so please allow 5 – 10 working days (unless otherwise specified on the product listing) for your order to be made. If you need your order quicker than this please contact us to see if we have an opening in our schedule.
Once your order has been made we will update your order status with the tracking number, etc.
We use either Australia Post or a courier to send our orders and all items are covered by insurance. Delivery can take between an estimated 3 – 10 days depending on where you are located. If you would like a more specific timeframe then please contact us. We do also offer Express Post if you are needing your item the fastest way possible too if you are within the Express Post network.
Postage costs are based on weight. Please see our postage guide here.
Please view our FAQs page here.
To view our Colour Options for this product please go to our Colour Chart Gallery - CLICK HERE


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If you wish to have an Excel file emailed to you, please email here with "marketing" in the subject line!
Marketing 17 & 18
|Chapter 17
|Nonpersonal communication paid for by an identified sponsor using mass media to persuade or inform
|Product advertising
|An advertising message that focuses on a specific good or service
|Institutional advertising
|An advertising message that promotes the activities, personality, or point of view of an organization or company
|Advocacy advertising
|A type of public service advertising provided by an organization that is seeking to influence public opinion on an issue because it has some stake in the outcome
|public service advertisements
|advertising run by the media without charge for not-for-profit organizations or to champion a particular cause
|Advertising campaign
|A coordinated, comprehensive plan that carries out promotion objectives and results in a series of advertisements placed in media over a period of time
|Creative strategy
|The process that turns a concept into advertisement
|Advertising appeal
|The central idea or theme of an advertising message
|Unique selling proposition
|An advertising appeal that focuses on one clear reason why a particular product is superior
|A research method that seeks to minimize mistakes by getting customer relations to ad messages before they appear in the media
|Copy Testing
|A marketing research method that seeks to measure the effectiveness of ads by determining whether consumers are receiving, comprehending, and responding to the ad according to plan
|Media planning
|The process of developing media objectives, strategies, and tactics for use in an advertising campaign
|The best place and time to reach a person in the target market group
|Out-of-home media
|A communication medium that reaches people in public places
|Computer media
|A communication medium that transmits information through the World Wide Web (WWW) or via e-mail messages (duh SPAM!!)
|Media schedule
|The plan that specifies the exact media to use and when
|Advertising exposure
|The degree to which the target market will see an advertising message placed in a specific vehicle
|the number of people who will be exposed to a message placed in one or more media vehicles
|The percentage of the target market that will be exposed to the media vehicle
|The number of times a person in the target group will be exposed to the message
|Gross rating points (GRPs)
|A measure used for comparing the effectiveness of different media vehicles: average reach times frequency
|Cost per thousand (CPM)
|A measure used to compare the relative cost-effectiveness of different media vehicles that have different exposure rates; the cost to deliver a message to 1,000 people or homes
|Research conducted on consumer's responses to actual advertising messages they have seen or heard
|Unaided recall
|A research technique conducted by telephone survey or personal interview that asks how much of an ad a person remembers during a specific period of time
|Aided recall
|A research technique that uses clues to prompt answers from people about advertisements they might have seen
|Attitudinal measures
|A research technique that probes a consumer's beliefs or feelings about a product before and after being exposed to messages about it
|Chapter 18
|Public relations
|Communications strategies to build good relationships with an organizations publics, Including consumers, stockholders, and legislators
|Unpaid communication about an organization appearing in the mass media
|Press release
|Information that an organization distributes to the media about its activities intended to appear as publicity
|Sales promotion
|A program designed to build interest in or encourage purchase of a product during a specified time period
|Merchandise Allowance
|Reimburses the retailer for in-store support of the product
|Case Allowance
|A discount to the retailer or wholesaler based on the volume of product ordered
|Trade shows
|Events at which many companies set up elaborate exhibits to show their products, give away samples, distribute product literature, and troll for new business contracts
|Push money
|A bonus paid by a manufacturer to a sales-person for selling its product
|Sales promotions that allow the customer to recover part of the product's cost from the manufacturer
|An item included without charge when a customer buys a product
|Distributing trial-size version of a product for free to encourage people to try it
|Point-of-purchase (POP) promotion
|The use of signs or displays to influence purchases at the store level
|Two or more products or services combine forces to create interest using a single promotional tool
|Personal selling
|The part of the promotion mix that involves direct contact between a company representative and a customer
|The use of the telephone to sell directly to consumers and business customers
|Order Taker
|A salesperson whose primary function is to facilitate transactions that the customer initiates
|Technical specialist
|Sales support personnel with a high level of technical expertise who assists in product demonstrations
|Missionary salesperson
|A salesperson who promotes the firm and tries to stimulate demand for a product but does not actually complete a sale
|Order getter
|A salesperson who works creatively to develop relationships with customers or to generate new sales
|Transactional selling
|A form of personal selling that focuses on making an immediate sale with little or no attempt to develop a relationship with the customer
|Relationship selling
|A form of personal selling in which the salesperson seeks to develop a mutually satisfying relationship with the customer so as to work together to satisfy each other's needs
|Creative selling process
|The process of seeking out customers, analyzing needs, determining how product attributes might provide benefits for the customer, and then communicating that information
|A part of the selling process that includes identifying and developing a list of potential customers
|Quality prospects
|A part of the selling process that determines how likely prospects are to become customers
|A part of the selling process that includes developing information about prospective customers and planning the sales interview
|The first step of the actual sales presentation In which the sales person tries to learn more about the customer's needs, create a good impression, and build rapport
|Sales presentation
|The part of the selling process in which the salesperson seeks to persuasively communicate the product's features and the benefits it will provide after the sale
|Sales closing
|The stage of the selling process in which the salesperson actually asks the customer to buy the product
|Sales follow-up
|Sales activities that provide important services to customers
|Sales management
|The process of planning , implementing, and controlling the personal selling function of an organization
|Sales Territory
|A set of customers often defined by geographic boundaries, for whom a particular salesperson is responsible


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Just saw a great post on Jonathan Snooks' blog about doing text rotation with CSS and how to accomplish it in IE using IE propriety filter basic image property to rotate a text block. But there is a better way using CSS3 writing-mode property that has been in IE since version 5.5.
writing-mode which is currently in the CSS3 draft specification allows us to accomplish text rotation without using propriety properties, effectively future proofing the concept as more browsers adopt the CSS3 draft spec.
The CSS
p { writing-mode: tb-rl; }
That's it incredibly simple CSS technique that will eventually work with all browsers as their CSS3 support gets better. This is one of the handful of CSS3 supported properties in IE. The tb-rl value tells the browser to display paragraphs with the text flowing from top to bottom, right to left. Essentially rotating the text 90 degrees clockwise and aligning to the right.
This properties true intention is for displaying other languages in their correct "writing mode" such as Japanese right to left or Arabic & Hebrew which display right to left & top to bottom (rl-tb).
At the moment IE is the only browser to support it starting from IE5.5 and up, IE8 adds further values through using the -ms extension. There are 4 values available from IE5.5+ and an additional 4 values for IE8+ through the -ms extension.
- lr-tb – This is the default value, left to right, top to bottom
- rl-tb – This flows the text from right to left, top to bottom
- tb-rl – Flows the text vertically from top to bottom, right to left
- bt-rl – bottom to top, right to left
- tb-lr – This and the followings value are only available in IE8+ using -ms-writing-mode. Text flows top to bottom, left to right
- bt-lr – Bottom to top, left to right
- lr-bt – Left to right, bottom to top
- rl-bt – Right to left, bottom to top
Rotate text in other browsers?
As stated in Snooks' article we can do this in Webkit based browsers, Firefox 3.5+ using the transform property.
-webkit-transform: rotate(90deg);
-moz-transform: rotate(90deg);
-ms-transform: rotate(90deg);
-o-transform: rotate(90deg);
transform: rotate(90deg);
For all browsers we need to use their vendor extensions
-o- and
As for Opera it neither yet supports transforms or writing-mode properties but I'm sure that will change with the upcoming release of version 10.
In the article example we need to position the element differently for browsers that support the transform property compared to ones that support writing-mode as the elements rotated still exist as horizontal elements where as with writing-mode the element is truly rotated, see screenshot below.
Element that is rotated is outlined and highlighted, writing-mode on left transform on right
.datebox span:nth-child(3) {
right: -16px;
bottom: 24px;
writing-mode: lr-tb;
To target the browsers that potentially support the transform property we use the CSS3 nth-child() psuedo class.
A pretty cool alternative to an already great idea by snook.


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Dave Oliver has been elected as the new ACTU Secretary at the union movement's Congress in Sydney today. Mr Oliver was elected unopposed to replace Jeff Lawrence, who did not seek re-nomination after five years in the position.
Mr Oliver, who comes to the ACTU after five years as National Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, said he was honoured to be entrusted with representing working Australians and their families.
"Australian workers face a multitude of daily pressures to earn enough to meet their cost of living expenses, balance their working and family lives, and plan for their future," Mr Oliver said.
"Workers face many challenges at the moment, as a result of both the increasing resistance by employer groups to accept that workers in this country have rights, alongside the two-speed economy and the growth of insecure work.
"I am determined to combat the increasingly hostile attack on workers' rights by employers.
"I've never been one to put up the white flag and I am not about to start now. In fact, I am buoyed by the passion across the union movement to ensure that the rights we fought so hard for only a few years ago are maintained and in some areas strengthened.
"I intend to work with all unions, big and small, to put our agenda into action, grow the movement and achieve positive change for workers and their families."
Mr Oliver will formally take office on 24 May and said he looked forward to elevating the role of the ACTU as a high-profile campaigning organisation. He said he would bring a constructive approach to working with employers and the Government to address the challenges facing industries struggling against the high Australian dollar.
"It is in all our interests to work together to ensure the longevity of industries like manufacturing and tourism," he said.
ACTU President Ged Kearney said she looked forward to working with Mr Oliver to advance the union movement's agenda to help improve the lives of Australian workers.
"I look forward to working with Dave to continue our agenda and confront the growing attack on workers' rights," Ms Kearney said.
Mr Oliver paid tribute to outgoing Secretary Jeff Lawrence as a man of decency who enjoyed universal respect.
"The union movement is in good shape and totally united, thanks to Jeff," he said.


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I get asked often by students, "Mr. Brown, what do you do here when we aren't here?" They are referring to winter break, summer break, spring break, etc. It certainly is quieter here but one thing I do is go through my "Stuff to Learn" list.
Over a few months, I compose a list of all of things I want to learn about, but during the school days don't have the necessary time spend. I worked through such a list last week and one thing I watched was this video. Her comments around 13 and 14 minutes in about constant connection, the quote "I share therefore I am" and moving from connection to isolation are especially interesting. Of course, I think about this with your children and my own at home and the environment they are growing up in.


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Tell me about The Adventures of Beanboy by Lisa Harkrader
The Adventures of Beanboy is about a boy named Tucker MacBean. His mom works at a bank, and she can never come home in time to spend time with her family. She can't quit her job because she doesn't have a college scholarship and needs money for school. Tucker loves this comic book, H2O Submerged. The comic book company is holding a contest to create a new sidekick for H2O. The winner gets a college scholarship. Tucker enters the contest to try to
win college money for his mom.
This book was a mixture of humor and drama, can you name one funny scene and one dramatic scene from the book?
A funny scene was when he was creating the sidekick, Beanboy, and decided his super power should be farts. Hilarious!
A dramatic scene was when Samantha Zawicki took Tucker's newest edition of the H2O comic and threw it in the puddle at it was ruined. It set up the conflict between Samantha and Tucker that goes on through the book. However, they eventually become friends, but you'll have to read the story to find out how.
Does this book remind you of any other books you've read? Why?
Probably the book Rules, because both characters have to look out for their little brothers, and both the little brothers have special challenges. David in Rules has autism and Beecher in The Adventures of Beanboy didn't get enough oxygen when he was born.
Who was your favorite character?
Obviously, the main character Tucker MacBean.
Who was your least favorite character? Did you have one?
I did not have a least favorite character. I liked the way the author made all of the characters. They were all interesting even if they were mean.
Do you think the author should write a sequel? Why?
No. I don't want to spoil the ending for other readers, but no. Mom, don't tell them why because it will give away the best part of the story. Let's just say that I think it's a good stand-alone book.
Would you recommend this book to a friend?
Yes, I would. I would recommend it to all my friends ~ that's how good it is.
If you could talk to the author, what would you say?
I would say that she created a wonderful book, and that it is one of those books that kids will read over and over and over...
Blog you later!
Ali B. & Mateo


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Listen to the Voice of Experience
"Ten years from now," writes Jon Cohn, "if health care reform is a boondoggle, you might be able to trace that failure back to a decision in the wee hours of last week's Senate Finance Committee hearings."
The decision he's talking about is the rejection of John Kerry's amendment "Empowering State Exchanges to be Prudent Purchasers." Olympia Snowe apparently dropped the guillotine, worrying that it would mean more government, which it would. But it would also mean working exchanges offering products that consumers can actually trust at prices they can actually afford. Cohn explains:
In the bills that passed three House committees and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the exchange would be a "prudent purchaser." In other words, it would have a staff that bargained with insurers to bring down premiums -- and that made sure all plans lived up to strict guidelines for coverage and customer service. In effect, any insurer that wants to offer coverage through the exchanges has to get the equivalent of a "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval" from the administrators. This is precisely how it works in Massachusetts.
By contrast, the Senate Finance bill envisions much weaker exchanges. Instead of choosing which plans to make available, the exchange administrators would, by law, have to accept any plan that meets a relatively minimal set of standards.
Jon Kingsdale, who runs the Massachusetts exchange, calls that a recipe for "policy disaster," as consumers faced a dizzying array of more expensive, less regulated choices. "It would be like telling your grocery store they have to offer every single kind of bread baked by every single bakery. ... The exchanges would be nothing more than an automated Yellow Pages."
There's a good chance that Kerry's amendment will triumph down the line, and the "prudent purchaser" language included in the House and HELP Committee bills will be in the final legislation. But it's worth keeping an eye on. If Kingsdale, the only guy who's actually run one of these exchanges effectively, says this is necessary, then it's necessary.
Photo credit: By Win McNamee — Getty Images
Ezra Klein
October 5, 2009; 12:56 PM ET
Categories: Health Reform
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Next: A Very Sad Lunch Break
Its more than a little disengenious that you point to this but not the Wyden Free Choice Ammendment. As you know that would have done much more to promote cost savings than the prudent purchasers ammendment. It would have opened up the exchange to everyone and it was Kerry (ironically) that was one of 4 Democrats to shoot it down while at least one Republican (Ensign) seemed in favor of it.
You can blame Snowe all you like but its the Democrats who deserve MORE blame.
Kerry and others bowed down to Big Business and Big Labor that destroyed all of our choices. HOpefully its ressurected on the floor.
Posted by: visionbrkr | October 5, 2009 1:11 PM | Report abuse
In general, Democrats have offered a lot of good ideas, but in this case Snowe has it right.
Consider: "....have to accept any plan that meets a relatively minimal set of standards."
As if this kind of diversity is bad.
No, this kind of diversity is very necessary.
Specifically, it will allow individuals like Lyn Robinson to finally get coverage that makes sense:
We only need certain "minimal benefits", that is, a regulation that prevent tricky loopholes where policy buyers think they have coverage, like hopitalization, which in fact they have little or none of by virure of carefully written tricky language in their policies. That is the only kind of "minimal" we need to exclude, and the "bronze," "silver," etc., levels will answer this.
Posted by: HalHorvath | October 5, 2009 1:22 PM | Report abuse
You might also think to the analogue of Medicare (Parts C & D). CMS does not accept a bid from anyone. It won't list plans that have marketing violations, where the formularies don't follow CMS rules or where bids are not submitted in a way that follows rules.
Posted by: GrandArch | October 5, 2009 1:40 PM | Report abuse
LOL. What difference would it make? You'd support it no matter how bad it got, Ezra. In fact, the only thing you won't do is admit it.
Posted by: whoisjohngaltcom | October 5, 2009 2:07 PM | Report abuse
--"[I]t would have a staff that bargained with insurers to bring down premiums -- and that made sure all plans lived up to strict guidelines for coverage and customer service."--
Would that sorta be like how a state trooper bargains with the speeders pulled over on the interstate?
Or more like how the members of the legislature and executive bargain with their brothers in loot down on K street?
Or some mixture of the two?
Posted by: msoja | October 5, 2009 2:37 PM | Report abuse
"Its more than a little disengenious that you point to this but not the Wyden Free Choice Ammendment."
I could have sworn it was tabled by a point of order from Baucus/Conrad rather than "voted down".
Posted by: toshiaki | October 5, 2009 3:06 PM | Report abuse
it was technically tabled but Kerry and Binghaman talked so badly about it and how business and labor were against it that i'd suspect it would have a hard time managing itself through the entire senate much less a committee where democrats have the majority need to get it into the legislation. Also the reason it was tabled was because there was no score on the vouchers in the ammendment.
Other things weren't scored in its entirety and they made it through.
As I've said before on a different post if you want choice maybe you need to work for Raytheon because Senator Kerry doesn't want anyone outside large employers to have choice.
Posted by: visionbrkr | October 5, 2009 3:46 PM | Report abuse
Just so we're clear and can cut through the rest of the nonsense:
The amendment was tabled by Baucus/Conrad and not "voted down" by "four" Democrats.
It's worth noting that doesn't make the Dems look good: it was Baucus/Conrad who killed it, and they're (D) rather than (R).
Posted by: toshiaki | October 5, 2009 5:06 PM | Report abuse
Cantwell's plan will depopulate the exchanges by up to 75%. They are now worse than useless and should be eliminated completely.
Posted by: bmull | October 5, 2009 5:23 PM | Report abuse
Don't just blame Baucus and Conrad. Kerry and Bingaman are just as much to blame. They put up the argument against it that will follow to the Senate floor. You can argue semantics to give them "cover" but watch the below starting at 1:17:00 in the evening session part 2. Kerry sold out to big business. Binghaman sold out too. Bingaman's concerns are easily allayed. His issue is that employees could opt out of their employers plan and take lesser coverage than they should be able to get or can afford on the exchange. All you have to do to fix that is put something in that's in insurance now. Its called open enrollment. You can only change once per year. If you can't allow that then you can't allow choice at all and you're basically telling people what they can afford. how long before we tell people they can't afford cell phones so they need to cancel them. Why didn't we tell them they couldn't afford their houses and second and third mortgages so we could have avoided the housing crisis??
And God forbid, but Senator Ensign (R) is for it because the Free Choice Ammendment gives power back to the individual instead of big business and labor. I know, my head spinned too when I heard it myself but the tape doesn't lie. I saw it live and was dumbfounded. This is something you'll never hear Ezra say.
Posted by: visionbrkr | October 5, 2009 9:34 PM | Report abuse
The comments to this entry are closed.


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CTC Inc.
Case Studies
A new restaurant company wanted to go head-to-head with the segment leader. To gain volume, it completed an IPO and continued to raise capital efficiently to fund new locations. As the company's outsourced IR department, CTC sought an IPO underwriter, counseled management on best practices, and worked to both educate and inform the investment community through a targeted IR program. Going public at $6, it had coverage from seven sell-side analysts within six months. The analyst following and strong subsequent performance attracted several institutional investors. Within three years, the stock price hit $16.50 and it was closing in on its competitor.
Air freight is among the world's most economically sensitive industries. But our client constructed a solid, transparent growth platform by blending strong cash generation via long-term aircraft leasing with the upside benefits of operating and servicing those aircraft on a turn-key basis for global clients. Our role in framing, simplifying and spreading the news about this distinctive approach, compared with risk and unpredictability of more volume-sensitive air cargo carriers, has attracted a substantial investor following, including sharply expanded sell-side coverage.
A private space exploration venture imploded after the Challenger tragedy, dropping from the mid-20s to under a dollar. Management sold assets and acquired petroleum services companies. The new businesses were successful, but the stock price languished. Investors became so frustrated that metal detectors were used at the annual meeting. Through a perception study, CTC discovered that most shareholders were still interested in the aerospace industry. We recast the image of the company, in part by correcting its industry classification. Through media, road shows, industry conferences, and reports from three petroleum industry analysts, we built a well-informed shareholder base. The stock price rose to $13.88 in a year, and daily volume grew from 2,000 to 100,000 shares as petroleum industry investors jumped in.
A leading Midwest property-casualty insurer had launched an aggressive, metric-driven IR effort, only to see the transparency benefits eclipsed by the penalties of missing several of its performance marks. CTC was retained to help chart a new course back toward more traditional guidance measures, and more strategic messaging. After checking with key analysts and major shareholders, CTC recommended new disclosure practices and formats that together with better performance, earned back investors' trust. Then we sharpened the strategy message to emphasize commitment to consistent value creation over cyclical growth. The company was acquired three years later at a price four times greater than when we were retained.


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Confessions of a Tee
A teenage girl is convinced that her home city revolves around her until her family packs up and moves to the suburbs, where she finds herself competing for attention.
Friends with Kids
Two best friends decide to have a child together while keeping their relationship platonic, so they can avoid the toll kids can take on romantic relationships.
Holiday in the Sun
Sisters Alex and Madison are whisked away to the Bahamas for winter break but soon find themselves crossing paths with a man smuggling stolen artifacts.
How to Lose Friends
A British writer struggles to fit in at a high-profile magazine in New York City.
Jennifer's Body
A newly possessed high school cheerleader turns into a succubus who specializes in killing her male classmates. Can her best friend put an end to the horror?
Jonah Hex
The U.S. military makes a scarred bounty hunter with warrants on his own head an offer he cannot refuse: in exchange for his freedom, he must stop a terrorist who is ready to unleash Hell on Earth.
Teenage Mutant Ninja
When a kingpin threatens New York City, a group of mutated turtle warriors must emerge from the shadows to protect their home.
Teenage Mutant Ninja
After supervillain Shredder escapes custody, he joins forces with mad scientist Baxter Stockman and two dimwitted henchmen, Bebop and Rocksteady, to unleash a diabolical plan to take over the world. As the Turtles prepare to take on Shredder and his new crew, they find themselves facing an even greater evil with similar intentions: the notorious Krang.
The Dictator
The heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.
This Is 40
Pete and Debbie are both about to turn 40, their kids hate each other, both of their businesses are failing, they're on the verge of losing their house, and their relationship is threatening to fall apart.
An ancient struggle between two Cybertronian races, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, comes to Earth, with a clue to the ultimate power held by a teenager.
Transformers: Reveng
Sam Witwicky leaves the Autobots behind for a normal life. But when his mind is filled with cryptic symbols, the Decepticons target him and he is dragged back into the Transformers' war.


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Yes. It's happened. Your nightmare has actually come true. An honest-to-God, real-life pilot, in charge of a plane full of people and stuff, nodded off at the wheel (stick?), halfway over the ocean. Oh, and it wasn't just once -- the master of the skies managed to have two little cat-naps. Jeez.
The pilot was flying an Air New Zealand 777 between London and Los Angeles when the incident happened, way back in 2011. Apparently, he hadn't had a good night's sleep the previous evening -- faulty air conditioning, I sympathise -- and "suddenly, and without any warning, fell into a deep sleep on the flight deck".
The airline didn't take any action, as the pilot reported the incident voluntarily, and the airline don't want to dissaude people from doing so in the future. Still, I sure as hell won't be flying Air New Zealand any time soon. I mean, I know autopilots and all, but still, who's going to make those reassuring announcements telling me how fast I'm going? Exactly. [BBC News]
Image credit: Sleeping captain from Shutterstock


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Mega Size Gundam Age-2 Normal
A most magnificent MEGA SIZE! With those large binders on its shoulders the Gundam AGE-2 Normal might just be the biggest MEGA SIZE yet. But don't let it intimidate you. Despite being enormous MEGA SIZE kits are a snap (pun intended) to assemble. This kit comes with plenty of markings stickers and even a mini booklet to help you detail up your own AGE-2.


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Gov.-elect Bill Ritter rallied renewable-energy advocates Wed nesday with a speech about making Colorado a national leader in alternative energy.
Attendees at the meeting of renewable-energy and agriculture groups were more specific than Ritter, with requests for a state renewable-energy fund that would be used to stimulate new developments for wind and solar power, energy efficiency and other projects.
"We as a state can play a real role in providing leadership for this country in developing renewable energy," Ritter said at a meeting sponsored by the Colorado Harvesting Energy Network. "We need a grand strategy that says we are a leader."
Ritter said he will pursue a strategy of developing a "clean- energy coalition" comprising renewable-energy, oil-and-gas and coal interests; increasing the use of energy-efficiency techniques and products in state government buildings; encouraging development of new electric- transmission lines; and supporting financing of new renewable projects by leveraging available federal funding.
State Rep.-elect Claire Levy, a Boulder Democrat, said she will sponsor legislation for natural- gas conservation measures by utilities that also requires building codes to include energy-efficiency measures.
"There will be a suite of legislation that fosters energy efficiency and renewable energy," she said.


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Pro-Gadhafi forces are in heated battles with rebels who are trying to advance west toward Gadhafi's hometown and stronghold of Sirte. The battles happened after pro-government forces strikes on the rebels with heavy tank and artillery on Monday. It is expected that the battle for Sirte will end Gadhafi's 42-year rule. While civilians have been suffering from gunfire and burning houses, Libyan rebels play football peacefully at the last check point before the strategic eastern town of Ajdabiya, a flashpoint where rebels are battling Kadhafi's forces on March 23. Despite the danger of war, these soldiers still live with their passion – football.
There is no necessary condition for a football game. The highway is used as the football field by Libyan rebels
This highway is located in the city of Ajdabiya where rebels gained after heated battles with pro-Gadhafi forces
Rebel soldiers stopped their cars on the roadside to play soccer. A soldier even held an anti-tank shell when he was playing the game.
Before the war, football was a popular sport in this country. Gadhafi's government used to spend a lot of money for Tripoli capital to host the Italian Super Cup 2002.
Libya is engulfed by fire from the civil war between pro-Gadhafi's forces and Libyan rebels.
Libyan civilians also suffer from gunfire and burning houses by United States, United Kingdom and France.
The no-fly zone has been established on March 19 due to the requirement of Western nations in order to protect Libyan civilians.
The war in Libya can not be stopped immediately because Gadhafi's government has not been overturned.
I am the fan of news on society and culture. I am currently the lecturer in social major. In free time, I am fond of reading articles and joining social activities.


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Cox Communications has had an outage of their voice mail service for the last week or so (exact start date TBD - more on that in a moment). From a customer service perspective, I give them a B-. I think they did some things well, but there are some areas where they fell down.
So when did the outage actually happen? Unfortunately, like many of you, I rely heavily on my cell phone, so I can't really answer that question on my own. I usually forward my office line to my cell if I plan to be out and about... and then conveniently forget about that setting, so it's regularly on call forward. And I get so few phone calls on my home phone that I wouldn't know if there was a voice mail outage. (Advantage for Cox in this situation; I'm guessing a lot of customers rely more heavily on their cell phones than their landlines anymore.)
Mission Viejo Patch states the issue started on February 21, but the first message about an outage on Cox's Facebook page was on February 24. The first email I received from them on it was February 26. I subsequently received a message with a status update on February 28, and another mid-day February 29, indicating the service was restored. O! But wait! Not eight hours later, I received an email saying that the fix didn't hold. Ouch.
Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly of this issue and the way it's been handled. Within the good were some bad and ugly, i.e., they get an A for effort but failed on execution. Take a look.
The Good
There were a lot of things that Cox did right in terms of this issue. They...
1. Communicated proactively about it (for the most part, though I'm still not sure when it actually started)
2. Signed their emails with the name of a relevant executive's name (Vice President, Customer Care)
3. Outlined clearly what the issue was as well as who it impacted and what services were affected
4. Apologized sincerely and showed empathy: "We apologize for the inconvenience and frustration that this issue may be causing."
5. Offered a workaround, which included calling Cox Support for a feature (call forwarding) that would be added for free for the duration of the issue (if not already a feature you subscribe to)
6. Gave instructions on how to apply the workaround
7. Provided status updates, although occasionally set expectations that were not met
8. Offered various additional options for status updates
9. Showed genuine appreciation for their customers' patience by providing a free month of voicemail service ($7.99) for an issue that lasted almost 8 (?) days (though, now we learn it's not resolved yet); they had indicated in their status updates that customers would be credited, but I figured there would be a credit only for the days the service was out.
The Bad
On the flip side, there were two opportunities that they missed.
1. The email messages were not personalized. Cox knows very well who I am; I have been a phone/cable/internet customer of theirs for almost 10 years. The emails were addressed to "Dear Valued Cox Customer." In bad times, it's great to still be polite and address customers by name, especially if you know their names.
2. Again, this has to do with personalized service. Cox knows if you have call forwarding or not. So, rather than have you wait on hold with the hundreds or thousands of other customers who don't have call forwarding (keep in mind that it's part of a feature bundle that you pay for, and some of the features are likely not needed by everyone), automatically give everyone call forwarding for the duration of the issue. First, customers are inconvenienced because of the issue, but then you want to further inconvenience them by making the workaround more painful than it needs to be.
The Ugly
The Ugly is ugly for a couple of reasons: it lacks personalization, and it's useless.
The closing paragraph of the status emails read: "For updates as we work to resolve this issue, please visit your local Cox Facebook page or the customer forum on cox.com..." Ok, what does "local Cox Facebook page" mean?
The closing paragraph of the status emails read: "For updates as we work to resolve this issue, please visit your local Cox Facebook page or the customer forum on cox.com..." Ok, what does "local Cox Facebook page" mean?
I searched "Cox Communications, Orange County" on Facebook, and six "local" pages popped up, not one of which was the right one or had any information about anything. Somehow I ended up finding "Cox Orange County," which is their official "local page." (By the way, that Facebook page has 5,344 followers; it's not a great vehicle for them to use to communicate to their masses when there's an issue.) Why not link me right to that Orange County Facebook page in the email? You know I'm an Orange County customer.
Then there was the other option, the part of that sentence that said "... or the customer forum on cox.com...," with a link to the so-called forum. (Clearly, that is a misnomer.) Call it what you want, it's a road to nowhere that gives you nothing more than what is in the email. Here's what that page tells me...
What I expected to see on that page was meaningful, timestamped, daily (at least) status updates. This message is of no help. As a matter of fact, it sends you somewhere else for updates! So I clicked on the Cox.com/Support link, and I was taken to the landing page for their online support area. See the image below. At the top of the page is a statement boxed in red with an "alert" symbol.
Wait, it gets better. See that link at the end of the paragraph? Want to guess where that takes you? Yea, back to the page where I just came from! The road to nowhere. A circular link to frustration. Ha!
Some of the lessons learned (and there are likely others) include:
1. Apologize, empathize, and be genuine
2. Personalize your communications
3. Communicate using a vehicle that your entire audience uses
4. Provide regular status updates
5. Don't send customers to your site for updates if there really are no updates
6. Don't make the the task of finding updates more painful than the issue itself
7. Make a peace offering (i.e., credit for cost of feature)
8. Minimize customer efforts for workarounds
Want to add any others? And am I being generous with a B- grade for this experience? Maybe. I'll let you decide.
Update: Once the issue was resolved (on 3/1), Cox continued to communicate with its customers to let them know they were monitoring the system to ensure that it remained working and stable. In the latest email (3/5), Cox let customers know that the credit had been bumped up from $7.99 to $25. ("I also know that even our most sincere apology may not be enough. In appreciation for your business, your patience and your loyalty during this time, we will increase the credit to your account from $7.99 to $25.00.") Nicely played.
Note: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly images (c) 2008 - Zach Bellissimo.


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Anybody who has attended a massive Civil War reenactment knows that it can be an exciting and noisy affair, with hundreds of industrial-strength Civil War buffs (er, "living historians") dressed in their finest period garb and ready for some black-powder fighting. In our age of digital entertainment in relatively small settings, be it the cineplex or home theater, nothing can compare to the pageantry of staged battle on an open field, and even more impressive is the participants' commitment to historical accuracy, down to the smallest of details. But Civil War reenactments aren't stories, they are pageants, and this proves to be a crucial flaw in the otherwise impressive Gettysburg. Originally produced by Ted Turner for cable TV, this four-hour saga rounds up all of the principals who did battle during those fateful three days in July of 1863, but sometimes less is more and for Gettysburg, more often seems like too much. In the supplementary materials on the DVD edition, virtually everybody associated with the project speaks of trying to "honor" those who fought and died, and of course they want to be sure they have created a film that is a fair representation of history. But Gettysburg refuses to draw up a compromise between history and entertainment, which is sure to please lovers of everything Ante-bellum but can frustrate those who are looking for an exciting war film. Where Gettysburg is strongest is in the first half, as the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Robert E. Lee (Martin Sheen), finds itself in a standoff with the Federal Army of the Potomac. Much of these early sequences work well in small settings, particularly with the introduction of Union Col. Joshua L. Chamberlain (Jeff Daniels) and Confederate Gen. James Longstreet (Tom Berenger) two men who have no love for war but excel at tactical command. But as character gives way to wholesale massacre, the most crucial parts of the battle are taken to such historical accuracy that they defy all conventions of cinema. The Confederates rushed Chamberlain on Little Round Top seven times before he executed his "swinging gate" offensive, but the many charges depicted here are largely repetitive and somewhat numbing. And while the mile-long march of Pickett's Charge on the third day took 16 minutes, again, do we need to see seemingly endless panormas of soldiers walking across the field before the fighting begins? Beyond that, so much love and attention is showered on the major characters by director/screenwriter Ronald F. Maxwell that they are given substantial monologues, sharing the personal stories or high ideals that have led them to this place, which destroys opportunities for pithy dialogue or crisp verbal conflicts, and thus tends to bog down the plot. But if some film buffs will have their complaints about Gettysburg, Civil War buffs will want to watch it repeatedly for the very things that can be so frustrating historical figures delivering grand speeches amidst thousands of reenactors engaged in brutal, rank-and-file warfare. Warner has decked out the DVD as well, with a commentary by director Maxwell, cinematographer Kees Van Oostrum, and historians James McPherson and Craig Symonds (edited together from separate recording sessions, and only included for some sequences). Also on board is a 50-minute behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the film, an older, 30-minute documentary on the Battle of Gettysburg narrated by Leslie Nielsen (which regrettably has so much MPEG-2 shimmer it's shocking), and an interview gallery. The best supplement is all too brief ten minutes of maps that illustrate the battle's progression, narrated by a knowledgeable, yet unidentified, historian.
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