text: On Sat, 2010-10-02 at 21:40 -0400, Tom H wrote: > On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 9:02 PM, Iain Morris <iain.t.morris at gmail.com> wrote: > > No one seems to like AD. I actually find it to be fairly manageable compared > > to stock LDAP/Kerberos. The management tools blow OpenLDAP out of the > > water. I laugh at myself saying it, but if you want simple management of a > > big installation, AD is pretty dang tested these days and it's not hard to > > integrate other systems in that environment if you have admin control of the > > schema. > > As long as we are recommending non-CentOS, non-Linux systems, I'd like > to mention OS X Server as a good GUI, works-straight-out-of-the-box > implementation of OpenLDAP... ---- This discussion completely ignores the fact that user authentication is just one of the many things LDAP does. If all you are going to do with LDAP is simple user & group management then you have a lack of imagination. It is a great disservice to suggest that AD tools 'blow OpenLDAP tools out of the water' or Apple's GUI implementation of their fork of OpenLDAP from several years ago are actually reasonable solutions. For that matter, you should have also mentioned Fedora-DS, RedHat-DS, FreeIPA which all use the previous Netscape Directory Server code that Red Hat has worked to open source because those all share a functional GUI. There are also a number of very functional GUI's such as GoSA and LDAPAdmin if you require such crutches or for that matter, a properly configured LDAP & Samba configuration allows you to use Microsoft User and Group Management tools anyway. The reality is that LDAP was designed to be completely flexible for many possible needs and Microsoft's AD, Apple's OpenDirectory, Fedora-DS (and derivatives) all use a predetermined setup that constrains the usage of LDAP rather than enhance it. Shared address books? Mail routing? Mail aliases? DNS? Personally, I use Webmin's LDAP Users & Groups to manage LDAP users and groups which rather cleverly allows me to create all the custom attributes and objectclasses that I routinely use with LDAP that I could never get out of the other GUI's, give me infinitely more flexibility and power. Craig -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.


text:
Our main areas of coverage:
Sussex wedding photographers Surrey wedding photography Kent
We are based in Copthorne West Sussex. Our nearest towns include Crawley, East Grinstead, Horley, Horsham, Redhill, Reigate, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Burgess Hill and Brighton. We are located just 5 minutes from junction 10 of the M23 motorway, 15 minutes south of the M25 motorway, circling London. We are Sussex wedding photographers providing Surrey wedding photography, Kent wedding photography, and Sussex portrait photography across the whole of the south east, and nationwide on request.
Surrey wedding photography Sussex

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea Have Officially Closed Until Further Notice
Due to the horrible earthquake and Tsunami disaster that took place in Japan last week, Disney's Disneyland Resort in Tokyo and Tokyo DisneySea have closed temporarily.
In an official statement released last week, Disney explained:
"Due to the Tohoku Pacific Earthquake that occured on March 11, 2011, Tokyo Disney Resort is currently closed. As soon as a decision is made on when the operations will resume, it will be announced on the Tokyo Disney Resort official website. We regret the inconvenience that this may cause and request your patience and understanding."
"Our top priority is the well-being of our employees and their families during this challenging time and we will continue to closely monitor the situation as it develops."
Our thoughts, prayers and well wishes go out to all of the residents in Japan during this horrific time.


text:
Piping Rock Item #6981
DHT Blocker for Men & Women, 60 Coated Tablets, 2 Bottles
In Stock
25% Off
Supplement Facts
Serving Size: 1 Tablet
Servings Per Container: 60
Per Serving
|% Daily
|Zinc USP (from zinc oxide)
|10 mg
|Selenium (from l-selenomethionine)
|100 mcg
DHT Blocker Proprietary Blend:
Phytosterol Complex (soy), Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens) (berry) (from 4:1 extract), Pumpkin Seed (Curcurbita pepo) (seed), Quercetin.
|300 mg
|He Shou Wu (Fo-ti) (Polygonum multiflorum) (root) (from 12:1 extract)
|100 mg
Kudzu Soy Isoflavones Blend:
Kudzu Root (Pueraria lobato) (root), Soy Isoflavones (Glycine max) (seeds)
|20 mg
|2 mg
Ingredients: Dicalcium Phosphate, Cellulose (Plant Origin), Vegetable Stearic Acid, Croscarmellose, Vegetable Magnesium Stearate, Silica, Cellulose Coating.
Directions: For adults, take one (1) coated tablet twice daily. For best results, take once in the morning and again prior to bedtime.
WARNING: If you are pregnant, nursing or taking any medications, consult your doctor before use. If any adverse reactions occur, immediately stop using this product and consult your doctor. If seal under cap is damaged or missing, do not use. Keep out of reach of children. Store in a cool, dry place.
* Daily Value (DV) not established.
Our DHT Blocker is designed for men and women alike. Our special proprietary blend incorporates beneficial substances like pumpkin seed, saw palmetto, and a phytosterol complex to give your body the nutrients it needs. Enjoy its benefits in easy-to-swallow coated caplets, grab a bottle today!
Health Notes is an independent provider of information regarding health and wellness. As a customer service, Piping Rock gives you this complimentary third-party resource. Piping Rock does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of this third-party literature.
Other Sizes
25% Off
$14.99 $19.99
Related Products
25% Off
$6.49 $8.69
26% Off
$6.99 $9.39
25% Off
$6.99 $9.29
25% Off
$7.49 $9.99
25% Off
$13.49 $17.99


text:
Enjoy a action packed combination of driving a snowmobile, a dogsled and staying overnight in a cabin on the Kiruna Husky and Snowmobile Overnight Tour.
Duration: 29h, pick up 9.00AM
Price: from 3700 SEK/ person
Day 1 – Snowmobile Tour
Start the day with an action packed snowmobile tour with an experienced guide who likes to show you his snowy playground. This tour is designed for beginner snowmobile riders. Learn to ride on the highly scenic trails along the Kalix river. Enjoy lunch by the campfire to warm up and get ready for the next ride. Two people share one snowmobile and take turns. In the afternoon we will be back on our sleddog kennel. Here you can meet the huskies and your guide.
We equip you with warm winter clothes and show you your cabin for the night. It has an wood heated stove and electricity. Take headlights and snowshoes to discover the beautiful surrounding nature by night. A campfire is ready where you can spend the evening hopefully under the Aurora borealis – the northern light.
Day 2 – Husky Daytour
The next morning starts early with a breakfast before we prepare the dogs together. If you like, join us before breakfast to feed the dogs. Your group and one guide will take the dogs out for a Kiruna Husky Daytour – Be a musher. Two people share a sled, one as driver and one as passenger. Taking turns during the tour gives you the chance to feel like a real musher and also to take pictures when sitting on the dogsled as a passenger. If you don't want to drive, feel free to take a seat on a guide sled.
We give you detailed instructions of how to be in control of the dog sled and the husky team. The guide will be nearby during the tour on the leading dogsled and is ready to help you out if necessary. After the start you soon feel comfortable on the sled as you "mush" over frozen lakes, through forests and across snow covered wide swamp areas. During the husky tour we make a stop to prepare lunch by the campfire. Enjoy a beautiful day with huskies in Swedish Lapland.
Note: For the snowmobile tour please remember to bring a valid car or motorbike driving licence (only if you want to drive).
Details – Kiruna Husky and Snowmobile Overnight Tour
December – April,
daily 9.00AM – 2.00PM the next morning
29h incl. transfer
pick up 9.00AM
min. 2 people 3900 SEK/ person
min. 4 people 3700 SEK/ person
min. 2
Guidance language
english, swedish, german
Equipment included
winter overalls, boots, mittens, hats, head lights, snowshoes
Equipment recommended
warm underwear, face masks, warm clothes – always good to have when visiting Kiruna and Swedish Lapland
guests and guide prepare lunch (2x), dinner, breakfast together; ingredients are included in the tour price
the transfer by car from your hotel in Kiruna to the snowmobile tour, to the husky tour and back to Kiruna


text:
We have update the package to protect the robot better!! Please noted
Remote Control Robot RC RobotSing Dance Toy Gesture Sensor Action Walk Rechargeable Smart Robot for Kids Children Birthday Gift
Thanks for your patience for reading the service of our store.
When you place the order, please choose a shipping method. We will send the items within 1-3 days once your payment is completed verified.
1) When you get the products, if you find any defect, fault and damage, please contact us first.
2) If you get item doesn't as described, please return to us. We will full refund to you when we get the products in good condition. No return, No refund.
3) If parcel lose on the way, we will resend or refund to you. So you don't need to worry about get nothing after you pay.
1) If you are satisfied with our products and services, please leave us a 5 stars as reward, and you will get 5 stars feedback from us.
2) If you find any problem with the products or the order, please do not hesitate to contact us, we will help you solve immediately.


text:
TFW two pieces you had a hand in get published one the same day.
MOOCs: A Postmortem
MOOCs are dead. "How can I possibly argue that MOOCs are dead?," you may ask. After all, to borrow the stats just from Coursera, they have: 1600 courses, 130+ specializations, 145+ university partners, 22 million learners and 600,000 course certificates earned. More importantly, it appears that Coursera has received $146.1 million dollars over the years. Even though it hasn't gotten any new funding since October 2015, unless Coursera tries to copy "Bachmanity Insanity" (Is Alcatraz still available for parties?) the company is going to be sticking around for quite a while.
What I mean when I say that MOOCs are dead is not that MOOCs no longer exist, but that MOOCs are no longer competing against universities for the same students. Continuing with the Coursera theme here, in August they became the last of the major MOOC providers to pivot to corporate training. While I did note the departure of Daphne Koller on this blog, I didn't even bother to mention that pivot at the time because it seemed so unremarkable, but really it is.
Do you remember Daphne Koller's TED Talk? Do you remember how incredibly utopian it was? n truth, it made no bloody sense even then. For example, she suggested back at the height of MOOC Madness that:
[M]aybe we should spend less time at universities filling our students' minds with content by lecturing at them, and more time igniting their creativity, their imagination and their problem-solving skills by actually talking with them.
I agree with that now. In fact, I agreed with that then too. The problem with that observation to almost anyone who actually teaches for a living remains that talking with students is obviously impossible when you have ten thousand people in your class. More importantly, showing students tapes of lectures (even if they're broken up into five minute chunks) is still lecturing.
That's why MOOCs were never going to destroy universities everywhere. There will still be far more than ten universities fifty years from now. Or to put it another way, the tsunami missed landfall.
But just because this blow proved to be glancing doesn't mean that the punch didn't leave a mark. For example, a lot of rich schools threw a lot money out the window investing in Coursera and its ilk. [Yeah, I'm looking at you, alma mater.] Others simply decided to spend tens of thousands of dollars on creating individual MOOCs that are now outdated almost by definition since they're not designed for corporate training. Yes, I know that MOOC producers claim that their MOOC experience improved teaching on campus, but think how much better teaching on campus would have been if they had just invested in improving teaching on campus.
At best, MOOCs were a distraction. At worst, MOOCs were a chronic condition designed to drain the patient of life-giving revenue. Instead, those schools could have used that revenue (as well as its initial investments) for other purposes, like paying all their faculty a living wage.
My inspiration for this observation (and this entire post) is the MOOC section of Chris Newfield's terrific new book, The Great Mistake: How We Wrecked Public Universities and How We Can Fix Them.* This is from page 227:
MOOCs were not going to leverage public colleges by buying them. But they could acquire a share of their revenue streams–that combination of student tuition and enrollment-based public funding–whose capture is one of the five key elements of privatization…MOOCs could leverage their private capital with far greater sums flowing colleges and universities without buying anything up front. This offered the attractive prospect to strapped public colleges of gradually replacing even more tenure-track faculty with technology that could be managed by private MOOC firms off campus, for a reasonable fee.
To make one of my favorite distinctions, this applies to schools that are MOOC-producers (like Arizona State) even if those MOOCs are mainly for internal consumption, and especially all those colleges and universities that were potential MOOC consumers – any place that considered replacing their humdrum, ordinary faculty with all the "world's best lecturers."
In order to capture part of that revenue stream, MOOC providers had to argue that their courses were better than the ones that students were taking already. That explains all the hating on large lecture courses. Except, MOOCs were nothing but large lecture courses dressed up with technological doodads. As Newfield explains on pp. 242-43:
In effect, MOOC advocates were encouraging students to leave their state universities to attend liberal arts colleges, where they could go back to the future of intensive learning in the seminars that typify "colleges that change lives." But of course they weren't. Advocates were actually claiming MOOC ed tech could create liberal arts colleges all for next-to-no-cost (Koller) or greatly lowering costs (Thrun). In making this claim, they ignored existing historical knowledge about learning at high-quality institutions, which made the technology seem original, when it was not.
MOOCs may have been cheaper (and Newfield even disputes that), but they certainly weren't better – even than large lecture classes.
Again, the vast majority of us faculty foresaw this particular Titanic hitting the iceberg (including me, even if it did take me a while). Nevertheless, university administrators that partnered with MOOC providers or (even worse) bought their products, trusted Silicon Valley types more than their own faculty. This course of action was a reflection of the same self-loathing that Audrey Watters describes here:
There seems to be a real distaste for "liberal arts" among many Silicon Valley it seems – funny since that's what many of tech execs studied in college, several of whom now prominently advocate computer science as utterly necessary while subjects like ethics or aesthetics or history are a waste of time, both intellectually and professionally.
Yet at least these Silicon Valley types had enough self awareness to go into a different field after they left college. What's the excuse for a university administrator with an advanced degree in the humanities (or anything else for that matter) to hate their educations so much that they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to deliberately undermine them? There is none. They should have known better.
Next time Silicon Valley comes up with a new way to "disrupt" education, let's see if we faculty can invest more time and effort in getting our bosses to listen to common sense. Instead, as Newfield notes in his postmortem of Koller's TED Talk on p. 241 of The Great Mistake:
The categorical discrediting of faculty pedagogy made this bypass of faculty expertise and authority seem reasonable and necessary for the sake of progress.
So in the meantime, let's fight to improve shared governance everywhere so that we're prepared to fight for quality education if our bosses refuse to accept the obvious. Some of us becoming temporarily famous is not worth wasting so much money and effort on any technology that is obviously going to prove to be so fleeting.
* Full Disclosure: Newfield and I have the same publisher even though we publish in entirely different fields.
Get your side hustle off.
I've been streaming a lot of Simpsons with my son lately. Backwards. Since I quit watching the show regularly sometime in the late-90s, this was the best way that we could both enjoy all-new material. The quality of even the most recent stuff is obviously the good thing about streaming the Simpsons. The bad thing is being locked into watching all those Fox commercials since my cable company (or maybe it's Fox) won't let us fast forward. The above Uber commercial has been on full rotation for months. In fact, it sometimes plays twice an episode. I've been making so many "earnin'/chillin'" jokes that my son now leaves the room when it comes on.
I thought of that commercial twice while I was at the AHA in Denver last weekend. The first time was when I explained to four historians from Northern California (ironically, the first place that I ever took an Uber) how Uber works. [Key lesson: Always tip your driver!] The second time was when I went to my first digital humanities panel on Saturday morning. The commentator, Chad Gaffield from the University of Ottawa, was talking about how DH makes it possible to break down the false dichotomy between work and play. That spoke to me, because I've been having an awful lot of fun teaching all my classes lately. Indeed, I'm going to bring that up the next time I hear someone who teaches like it's still 1995 start talking about "rigor."
The other point Gaffield mentioned that I thought was really important was the way that DH blends the traditional roles of teaching, research and service. In my case, I teach students how to research using local resources that help the community once they appear online. However, I suspect there are a million variations to that. In any event, when you fill out your annual performance review, we can all include DH work in whichever category we don't have enough material in already.
In the very early days of this blog, the role of tech critic was something of a side hustle for me. It wasn't my day job, but my writing nonetheless found an audience. It's through the conversations which that writing inspired that I stumbled into a large, multi-disciplinary pool of scholar/teachers who were trying to utilize the Internet to create unique educational experiences rather than cheap, dumb carbon copies of face-to-face courses. I started teaching online so that I could try to set a positive example for other people who might be reluctant to make the same jump because so much of what's out there has a justifiably bad reputation. I still have a long way to go, but one of the most refreshing things I got out of all the DH panels I went to last weekend is that so does everybody else. Even historians who get their DH papers onto AHA panels readily admit that their learning curve remains steep.
By the time I left Denver in Sunday, I had decided I'm never going back. I don't want my conventional courses to be entirely conventional anymore. In other words, I've been convinced that the digital needs to be present in every course I teach.
I am hardly the first person to draw such a conclusion. CU-Boulder's Patty Limerick wrote in the September 2016 issue of AHA Perspectives that:
In innumerable settings, historians in Colorado are stepping up to this challenge. In the process, they are devising practices that transcend the conventional turf fights between "academic history" and "public history," uniting in the strenuous and satisfying work of "applied history."
I think you could make a pretty good case that food and refrigerators are relevant today, but it's my classes which take students into the Steelworks Center of the West and the Pueblo Public Library that fit this definition of "applied history" the best.
While such activities have little to do with my current research, teaching is 50% of my job according the annual performance review I'll have to turn in a couple of weeks from now. In short, what was once my side hustle has now become my regular hustle. While there's still a lot of tech criticism left to write and I plan to write at least some of it when I have the time, this blog, when I have time for it (and why would I have redesigned it if I had intended to never use it again?) is going full pedagogy.
In the meantime, I have another actual history book I want to write…
More mistakes from my first semester teaching the US History survey online.
Curating a respectable online survey course experience comes with a lot of responsibility. In my humble opinion, too many online US history survey courses cling to the vestiges of the traditional lecture model. As I've explained here and here, mine is more like an English composition class. While I've enjoyed teaching it so far, the whole thing is far from perfect. So in the interests of transparency and helping anyone out there who might actually be interested in following my path, I'm going to try to explain more of the mistakes I've made (besides this one), as well as all the fixes that I'll be implementing when I re-write the syllabus over Christmas break for next semester's students.
1) Many years ago, when I first started at CSU-Pueblo, I asked an Associate Provost whether he thought I should have an attendance policy. "Do it for their own good," he responded, and I have mostly stuck with that advice. Of course, an attendance policy makes no sense in the context of an asynchronous, entirely online course, but you still need your students to log in to do the work. I can't tell you the number of times over the years that I have lamented the fact that when I remind students that there is an attendance policy, the people who need to hear it usually aren't in the room. Telling students to log in and do the work when they never bother to log in is even more frustrating.
That's why I'm moving to mandatory meetings (in person or via Skype) during the first two weeks of class, when everyone's working on setting up the various accounts and programs I require. On a human level, I suspect it's a little harder to abandon a course when the professor is a person rather than screen presence. On the more practical level, my one question during those meetings is going to be, "How do I reach you if you suddenly disappear?" Yes, I realize that online courses have always had higher dropout rates than their face-to-face alternatives, but that doesn't mean that I can't try to make my course something of an exception.
2) Another typical problem I've had is with the discussion aspect of the course. For one thing, it proved next to impossible to get and keep a good discussion going with a very small number of students (although things have been better now towards the end of our time together), even though Slack has worked beautifully for student/teacher communications. Besides getting a bigger course, I think my problem here was requiring too little. I've been asking for a question and an answer and a document summary for each two-week unit. In the future, I'm going to up that to once a week, and increase the percentage of the grade that goes for discussion. I also need to recommend the Slack mobile app a little more forcefully, as it has been great for keeping track of those discussions that went well.
3) As part of those unit assignments, I've been requiring students to bring in a source from the wider Internet in order to evaluate it. I LOVE the fact that I can conceivably do that well in this format, especially after reading the summaries of that bone-chilling Stanford study about students and fake news. The problem in my class has been is that students don't have any context to evaluate what makes something reliable. Indeed, the best answers I could get all revolved around the origin of the story. "It's from the New York Times, of course it's reliable." Nobody cares where the NYT was getting its info.
My plan is to move the outside sources out of the week-to-week writing assignments and into the pre-exam section of the course, and try to ban them outright for the bi-weekly essays. Too many people were using Google to write their assignments anyway, and not looking at the credible assigned texts. If I move the wider web stuff to the end of the course sections, then they'll have weeks of assignments and textbook reading that they can compare their outside sources too. If a reliable, already assigned primary source (or even the textbook) corroborates their outside source, then we can all gain a better understanding of what reliability really means.
4) I'm just gonna come out and say it: Online grade books are shit. Yes, the one in Canvas is better than the one in BlackBoard, but if your grading scheme includes something as simple as dropping the lowest grade of any kind of assignment (as mine does) it is impossible to get these systems to do what you want them to do ad still have a reliable total at the end of the row of columns. And don't even ask me about converting letter grades into points. It'll just make me angry.
This whole problem reminds me of why I resented grade books for so long back when I was only teaching more conventional classes. Students would constantly ask me what they're grade was and I'd say, "Do the math." The math wasn't that hard, but they were so used to getting their simple running final grade totals on a platter that response made me look like an asshole. Yet there are advantages to not keeping a running total. For example, I can do crazy things like grade up for improvement over the course of the semester or even curve my results if I decide that my constant pedagogical experiments proved too much for that semester's students.
So what am I going to do about this? First, I'm going to try to disable the final grade mechanism entirely so all that students can do is read their letter grades. I think that might work if I assign zero points for each assignment and use a separate spreadsheet at the end of the semester. If that doesn't work, I'm going to stop using a grade book entirely. Sometimes old school is better than dumb school.
5) Read the syllabus:
Reminder: The end of the term is near.
We are at that time when students finally read the syllabus, then whine & look for loopholes! Enjoy!
— College Professor (@ReadTheSyllabus) November 27, 2016
If you thought reading the syllabus was important for regular courses, it is probably five times as important for online courses because your students don't get the benefit of listening to you repeat reminders at them all semester. As usual, some students clearly did do so, but others clearly didn't.
What to do here? At first I was thinking about a syllabus quiz, but that's so boring. My new idea is an online treasure hunt that will force students to go back through the other programs I'm forcing then to use. [What is in the crazy online GIF that I embedded in the first response in Slack #random channel? Send the response to me as a Slack direct message.] Stick those commands in random places in the middle of the syllabus (and grade them), and maybe I can kill two birds with one stone.
Yes, there are a few more mistakes that I know I've made, but the of Gravatars or my my troubles with Hypothes.is groups were in no way pivotal to the success or failure of the class. The mistakes covered here are enough for public consumption. In the meantime, your thoughts and suggestions to what's here would be much appreciated both by me and my fellow denizens of the CSU-Pueblo Center for Teaching and Learning who are teaching online for the first few times and trying to make their courses better too.
I've come out of MOOC retirement.
I remember exactly when I took my first MOOC. It was Fall 2012 (during the run up to the last presidential election) and I was on sabbatical. If I didn't have all that extra time on my hands I never would have finished it. I've signed up for a couple of more since then (like the one with edX just so I could see if their syllabi actually had required reading), but I never really did any work on those. Recently, I started classifying my Coursera e-mail as spam so I wouldn't even have to think about MOOCs quite so much anymore.
Yet much to my shock, I've come out of MOOC retirement. While I'm not doing the work for the University of Houston's Digital Storytelling MOOC, I have decided to do watch the videos because I really want to be able to introduce digital storytelling as a possibility into my next digital history class. All I really need is some knowledge about the tools with which I can experiment. When I actually teach this stuff we'll all kind of fake it together.
That's good, because if I had wanted to do the work in the MOOC and get it graded, I'd have had to pay Coursera for a certificate. So much for open.
Not only is the grading now a privilege you have to pay for, Coursera is pushing the opportunity to get a certificate at the end of every video. Here's an exact quote of their nagging ad (at least in week #1) in its entirety:
Purchase a Certificate today, and you'll support Coursera's mission to provide universal access to education.
Open access. We want everyone to have access to the world's top courses. We provide financial aid to all learners with need.
New courses. Revenue from Certificates funds new course development.
Of course, the very existence of Coursera's many investors is never acknowledged.
Going back through my blog archives, it wasn't hard for me to find the post where I saw this coming. I wrote this in 2014:
[Coursera co-founder Daphne] Koller, and by extension the rest of the MOOC Messiah Squad, are performing a huge intellectual switcheroo by making arguments like this one. They're replacing the promise of universal higher education with the promise of universal ACCESS to higher education. We'll let you listen to our superprofessors for free, she is essentially saying, but you have to do the hard work of obtaining an actual education all by yourself.
If you think this change is why Daphne Koller left Coursera, remember that it took her two more years to actually leave. The investors' desire to monetize Coursera overtook the promise of educating the world long before she actually departed. At least when you give PBS $50, they'll give you a free tote bag.
Actually, Coursera's business plan now reminds me now more of a company like Evernote than it does public broadcasting. Provide a free service that people find useful, then constantly upsell your customers in the hopes that they might pay up for it. I still use Evernote even after they limited the free service to a total of two devices because it's useful to me. I haven't paid them a cent. Evernote is well on its way to going out of business.
I'm well past caring whether any particular Silicon Valley company, be it Evernote or Coursera, is actually making money. What I remain concerned about is the creeping corporatization of higher education.
To explain what I mean here, I'll pick on my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. Here's Penn President Amy Gutmann from way back in 2012 (when MOOCs were young):
"Penn is delighted to participate in this innovative collaboration that will make high-quality learning opportunities available to millions of people around the world," Gutmann says. "Expanding access to higher education both nationally and globally remains one of our most critical responsibilities. This initiative provides an invaluable opportunity for anyone who has the motivation and preparation to partake of a world-class education."
But Coursera isn't helping Penn provide "high-quality learning opportunities" to "millions of people around the world" anymore. They're helping Penn provide mostly static content to millions of people around the world and access to low-quality learning opportunities for people with the willingness and resources to pay for it. Heck, they might as well just go back to the old MIT model of taping course lectures there and putting them online. Why not (partially) cut out the middleman and just put your videos up on iTunes U? Because Penn is an investor in Coursera, that's why.
MOOCs were never about universal higher education. They were always about making money. Faculty and students at any university with a MOOC partner ought to recognize that by now, and pressure their schools to un-partner immediately. Then they can develop their own platforms and offer their own MOOCs on any terms they want. Hopefully, those terms will go back to really being open again.
My favorite mistake.
When I decided to teach online for the first time this semester, I was determined to throw out my old survey class and rebuild a new one from the bottom up. My main design concept was to create a US history survey class that didn't do what the web does badly, and take advantage of what the web can do well. The class is built around writing. [You can see my two earlier posts about the structure of the course here and here.] I though those of you who are still bothering to read this blog might be interested in how it's going.
Without getting into too many student-specific details: Not too bad. I am very fortunate to have a very small class. That gives me the freedom to make mistakes with a minimum of embarrassment. It also means that I'm not burdened with too much grading as I try to to read everything I assigned (often for the first time) and continually reach out to all the students who are having trouble with either the technology or the history itself.
I have certainly made tons and tons of mistakes. Most of them have had to do with the syllabus. I spent most of last summer working on that thing, and (inevitably) there are plenty of sections in it where I could have explained what I want better. For example, I don't think there's a better tool out there if you want comment on and discuss student writing than Hypothes.is. I had used it a bit last semester, but after I went to a Hypothes.is workshop in Denver a couple of months ago I was absolutely dying to use it more and to use it differently. Unfortunately, I hadn't used it enough at that point to explain how I wanted it utilized particularly well. Now that I'm using it a lot, I can assure you that that explanation will be much more clear next time around.
Before that workshop, I was actually thinking about dropping Hypothes.is entirely because there are so many different programs or publications requiring separate sign ins that I'm using in this course. Five actually. With respect to an LMS, I'm using the free version of Canvas (at a BlackBoard campus). I'm also using Slack, Hypothes.is, Milestone Documents and an online textbook. Oh yeah, there's also a class blog (but all the technical work there is mine). Yes, I knew this would confuse students — but I did it anyway, and this has become my favorite mistake, one that I plan to repeat next semester.
Why? I wanted to use the best tools available. Period. These tools are simply not available under one technical umbrella. Moreover, since all of these tools are outside the direct control of my university, I feel happily free of direct surveillance.
More importantly, I've come to believe that this kind of student confusion is in and of itself a tremendous learning opportunity. One of the things that my volunteer remote instructional design coach (the fabulous Debbie Morrison) told me while this course was still in the planning stages is that you have to give up some time at the beginning so that students feel comfortable with the technology. As a result, I planned two weeks of tech work and historical activities that didn't count towards the final grade before the students had to start writing. Of course, some students got the tech instantly. For others, though, it was a longer struggle than I ever expected — perhaps in large part (but not entirely) due to my poor instructions.
Now that the essays are coming apace, I've decided that those first two weeks were in and of themselves valuable. While you really can now Google anything about history and get at least an O.K. explanation eventually, getting over a fear of technology is a lot harder to do. Digital natives my Aunt Fannie. [And I've known this for years, not just when I started teaching online.] While I never, ever expected to teach this kind of thing back when I was in graduate school it's now pretty clear to me that this may be the most important behavior I'm modelling in this whole online survey class.
On the other hand, all those professors in whatever discipline who say things in public like "I don't do computers" are not only sending the opposite message. They really are preparing students for a world that no longer exists for every White Collar job in America, as well as an awful lot of the rest of them. They're also doing a terrible job preparing their students for the outside world – even the world of history graduate school these days (should they be so foolhardy to actually choose that route).
No, I'm not telling you to turn all your courses into computer classes. I've basically turned my survey class into a kind of English composition seminar, so it's not as if I'm abandoning the humanities or anything that heretical. All I'm telling you is that the world is changing all around you whether you like it or not, and all of my colleagues in academia really ought to at least make some effort to get with the program.
"I don't need your civil war."
All us historians let out a loud sigh when we read that story about Republican Senator Ron Johnson wanting to replace us all with Ken Burns videos. It's an incredibly stupid argument, of course, but it's also sadly typical of everyone who has no idea what history professors actually do all day. "Leave it to someone from a party led by a reality TV star to confuse videotape with the learning experience of a classroom," explained Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers:
"What Ron Johnson doesn't get is that education happens when teachers can listen to students and engage them to think for themselves ― and that can include using Ken Burns' masterful work. But this is typical for a party with an education agenda as out of date as Johnson's Blockbuster Video card."
We all know she's right, but I'm afraid that simply ridiculing the Johnson position isn't going to be enough to prevent de-skilling and automation in education at all levels.
Perhaps you saw that Ken Burns – God bless him – tweeted in response to Johnson that, "I'm here to support teachers, not replace them." Unfortunately, Ken Burns doesn't control the means of educational production in this country. In other words, Ron Johnson and his ilk could replace every history teacher in this country with a Ken Burns video and Ken Burns couldn't do anything about it. Neither could those teachers themselves, especially non-union secondary school teachers and faculty off the tenure track, because their jobs are so precarious. Better to be the ones inserting the video cassette and administering the multiple choice test after the tape ends than not to have any job at all.
I understand the difference between engagement and watching videos all day. Ron Johnson doesn't understand the difference. Unfortunately, an awful lot of college professors (the ones who rely primarily on lectures to convey the information that accompanies the skills of their respective disciplines) don't understand the difference either. The issue here is not how best to use videos in instructional settings, this is actually a debate about what education is.
Yes, I know that some lectures are better than others. Before I gave up lecturing entirely, I took great pains to engage with and watch the faces of the students in my audience. I once had a political science professor back in college who could only lecture staring up at the ceiling. It drove me crazy because I might as well not have been there at all. You could easily have replaced him with the poli-sci equivalent of a Ken Burns video. But, then again, the same thing is true of all us good lecturers too. In my case I think it would have hurt the quality of education in my classroom, but the sad truth is that people like Ron Johnson don't care about educational quality.
To be honest, I'm not particularly fond of Ken Burns' work. I don't need "The Civil War."* The first twenty minutes or so of "Baseball" are truly mind-blowing, but I have lots of problems with the rest of that documentary.** I liked "Prohibition," but you probably don't care what I think about those videos. Neither does Johnson and that's exactly the problem. The attack on our teaching methods isn't really economic (as Johnson seems to think). It's ideological. As a good book review that showed up in my Twitter feed the other day (and which started with the Johnson story) put it:
It's a common complaint among conservatives that many tenured professors "radicalize" students with Marx and gender theory while living royally off of state funding and federal student loans. Online and competency-based education will fix both, according to critics like Johnson and Scott Walker, by limiting professors' unchecked power and improving efficiency with market-based solutions.
Replacing all us professors with video, or robots, or even robots showing videos won't save anyone any money, but it will do a great job at preventing us from "radicalizing" anybody.
All the way back in 2012, Cathy Davidson declared quite famously that every professor who could be replaced by a computer should be. I know she meant well, but the people who have the power to replace professors with computers don't mean well at all. If educational technology is itself neutral, the companies that push it and the audiences they push it towards aren't neutral at all. To put it another way, video didn't kill the radio star. Video companies did. That's why we have to have a better defense for idiotic arguments like Johnson's than just calling it an idiotic argument. Otherwise we all run the risk of winning the argument, but still ending up unemployed.
To prevent that from happening, faculty need to choose and control their own technological tools – tools that promote engagement rather than tools that turn college into a video game or a Ken Burns film festival.*** If we suffer from a failure to communicate our true aims – or worse yet, a civil war – the consequences will be dire not just for faculty, but also for society as a whole.
* This isn't the place to get into why, but it involves WAAAAAY too much Shelby Foote.
** For example, the almost complete absence of the oldest franchise in the National League.
*** That's why my friend Jonathan and I have written a book about how faculty can take control of their own electronic future. If it's not out now where you live, it will be available there very, very soon. You might consider buying it.
Why America's MOOC pioneers have abandoned ship.
On November 7, 1872, the American ship Mary Celeste left New York Harbor en route to Genoa, Italy. On December 5, 1872, a British brig discovered that vessel drifting in turbulent seas about 400 miles east of the Azores. Its cargo of industrial alcohol was intact, but not a soul was aboard. No trace of its ten crew members was ever found, making their fate one of the most enduring mysteries in maritime history.
Of course, there are still plenty of people interested in producing and taking MOOCs, but the founders of the American companies that create them have lately become about as scarce as the crew of the Mary Celeste. In 2014, Coursera founder Andrew Ng left day-to-day activities that company to join the Chinese search engine firm Baidu (although he remains Coursera's Chairman of the Board). Earlier this year, Sebastian Thrun, founder of Udacity, departed that company earlier this year perhaps frustrated by what he once famously called its "lousy product." Last week, Coursera's other co-founder, Daphne Koller, exited in order to join a subsidiary of Google.
Besides MOOC leaders, some of the courses they commissioned during the early years of MOOC-Mania are disappearing too. Coursera, for instance, just changed platforms in order to make it easier for students to take classes "on demand." As a result, "a few dozen" MOOCs became completely unavailable, and those students who do enroll in the new courses might be taking them without the benefit of thousands of colleagues taking them simultaneously like the first MOOC students did. Some superprofessors, like the Princeton sociologist Mitchell Duneier, have suspended their MOOCs on their own accord.
The most obvious reason why everyone from the founders of MOOC companies to students who sign up for such course are abandoning MOOCs is because these kinds of courses have not lived up to their initial hype. MOOCs were supposed to transform education as we know it, but traditional education with its inefficiency derived from the close proximity between professors and their students has proved more resilient than its wannabe disruptors ever imagined. Yes, there are still plenty of MOOCs available for people who want to take them, but it now seems safe to conclude that Sebastian Thrun's 2012 prediction that there will only be ten institutions of higher learning in fifty years will be off by a large order of magnitude.
Why aren't MOOCs more popular? "Many MOOCs are ill–structured, and it takes a lot of onus on the student to do a lot of the work," explained Dennis Charsky of Ithaca College earlier this year. "It leaves for a lot of exploratory learning, which many students don't like and can't persist with." While plenty of lifelong learners might be willing to consider this kind of experience as long as it remains free, every attempt to monetize the many eyeballs that MOOCs can attract has so far come up short. With MOOC production costs as high as $325,000 for a single course, profitability is almost certainly the main obstacle to keeping MOOCs viable for the long term.
This problem has been obvious to industry observers since the early days of MOOC Mania. "Coursera has simply never had a coherent plan to generate revenue," explained Alex Usher of Higher Education Strategy Associates all the way back in 2013. "Allegedly, they were going to try to make money on a bunch of other things, like being scouts for businesses on the lookout for bright young talent, but there have been no announcements of revenue from these sources. Given how the tech news industry works, it's a safe bet that means the figure is close to zero." Daphne Koller's recent decision to exit Coursera strongly suggests that this revenue problem has yet to be solved.
While companies like Coursera may still have lots of venture capital money to burn, the passing of this industry's pioneers from the scene is as good a time as any to recognize that the profitability problem of MOOC providers is a problem that will never be solved. To make an often-used comparison in tech circles, compare education to the music industry. Most recording artists are now getting fractions of cents when consumers stream their songs because replicating digital copies of their work costs almost nothing. To make up for that problem, many bands have come to depend on touring to earn themselves revenue.
Colleges and universities, however, are already charging students an awful lot of money to see live performances by their professorial talent. Moreover, recording those lectures and distributing them for free over the Internet is a noticeably inferior experience to being on campus almost by definition. We professors do much more than talk at you during their live performances. Living, breathing faculty answer your questions, grade your papers and will even chat you up if you visit them during their office hours. MOOC providers will never be able to close this gap in educational quality.
Of course, Coursera and its ilk aren't really trying to do so for economic reasons. If teaching were like most activities, it might be capable of being automated and scaled. But unfortunately for the MOOC providers, teaching isn't like most activities. Every dedicated professor – even those of us who do not meet the MOOC provider's definition of "superstar" faculty – can provide a learning experience that's superior to watching pre-recorded lectures alongside tens of thousands of people from around the globe.
Even then, like the Mary Celeste, online courses without a live crew manning them can be very lonely experiences. A good education is an active experience, meaning that your professor can see you and adjust their teaching to the reactions of their audience and the students can respond to their professors in real time. Watching professors "on demand" on your computer, alone in your room, might make good business sense for Coursera, but it makes poor educational sense for anyone with access to an on-campus alternative. That's why not enough people will ever fork over enough of their money to keep Coursera afloat for the long-term.
Even if Daphne Koller and company are not yet willing to admit this fact publicly, with all that MOOC hype fading quickly into the rear-view mirror their actions speak louder than their previous once ever-so-optimistic words. MOOCs and other forms of automated online education may persist as long as there's a surplus of money in Silicon Valley anxious to disrupt higher education for the sake of capital rather than students. That ship may sail on indefinitely, but compared to the inflated rhetoric that once blew through their sails, MOOCs are destined to remain ghost ships floating on the open ocean, without the lost crew that had such high hopes to transform education forever at the start of their long journeys.
My excuse for not blogging.
So this has happened. It may take a little while to make it from the publisher in the UK to booksellers around the world, but I still thought I'd take a moment this morning to tell you all a little bit more about it. Education Is Not an App came about as a direct result of this blog. Terry Clague from Routledge was an MOLB reader from way back, and he gradually convinced me that getting some of the sentiments contained here into book form was a good idea.
Still don't know what a MOOC is? Read this book. Afraid the robots are coming for your job? Read this book. Do you teach critical university studies? We speak your language. Are you a university IT professional looking for a relatively short, highly-readable group read for your faculty development workshop? Well, we have a book for you. Longtime readers of this blog like Terry will recognize many of my well-worn sentiments in these pages, but there's also tons of outside-the-box, totally new stuff.
Most of that is the direct result of my co-author, Jonathan Poritz – JP to our mutual friends who want to distinguish us more easily. JP too was reading this space way back during the "Year of the MOOC" and he served as one of my very few guest posters. "You should write a book about MOOCs," he told me at least a couple of times. "Nah," I said. "MOOCs are just a fad." Well, I was at least kinda right. But as anybody who knows anything about this subject will tell you, there is a lot more to edtech than MOOCs and we wrote a book designed to take in as much of it as we could. Since JP already knew so much about copyright, OER and other very important subjects that I never touched on this blog, he proved to be the perfect co-conspirator.
If you don't want to read it because you still think I'm just that guy who hates MOOCs, you're in for a surprise. For one thing, I only hate some (OK…most) MOOCs now. Indeed, this is ultimately a book about distinguishing good edtech from bad edtech and we argue that the key to doing that is faculty autonomy. When administrative bean counters and greedy edu-preneurs run education technology, education suffers and the vast majority of faculty suffer with it. On the other hand, when caring faculty are given access to worthwhile tools and the autonomy to use them the way they want to use them…well, that's when the magic happens. For that magic to happen, however, also requires professors everywhere to pay at least some attention to an edtech space that's literally changing all the time and not always in good ways.
That's why this book is intended as a primer for any faculty member, anywhere in the world, who hasn't been paying attention while their world has been changing. JP even managed to convince the publisher to mark down the list price of the e-book (and the paperback to a lesser extent) so that you can easily learn more about your professional future without having it cost you an arm and a leg.
Not ready to buy it yet? I'll point to some of the publicity we're doing for the book from this space as it becomes available, and maybe we can convince you then.
Think different.
I've been an Apple user since the early-1980s. I don't think I qualify as a fanatic since I haven't bought anywhere near everything the company ever put out. Heck, I STILL don't own an iPhone. Nevertheless, I'm a big fan of their aesthetic and the general philosophy surrounding it, so much so that I bought the above poster on eBay a while back and have it framed behind my desk in my office at work.
Of course, because of everything that Apple has done to define modern life, it now qualifies as an official historical subject. That explains why I read Walter Isaacson's official biography of Steve Jobs. My verdict there is that the subject is interesting, but the writing isn't. I much preferred Becoming Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, which I picked up almost by accident trying to fill a three books for the price of two deal at a table at my local Barnes & Noble. It's a much more interesting of Steve Jobs' personality and philosophy than the one offered by the guy who had practically unlimited access to the man.
The interesting principles actually begin with Marc Andreesen's forward in the paperback addition. Now I'm not exactly a fan of that guy, and this point is rather obvious, but I do think he explains what makes most Apple products superior quite well on p. xiii:
"Since I have a degree in computer science, I pride myself on never opening the manual on anything electronic. But I could not change the clock on the center console of my father-in-law's German sport-utility truck. There's a "Systems" button, and there's a "settings" option in the "Systems" menu. But there's no setting for changing the clock. I finally broke down and went into the manual for the console display, and I looked up in the index under "time." Under "time" it said, "Refer to the other manual." It turns out you can't change the truck's clock from the center console. You have to change the clock from the steering wheel because the clock is controlled by the car's firmware, not the dash display software. It took twenty-five minutes to change the clock. Pre-Apple in the extreme.
The way Steve would react to that is simple: everybody involved in allowing this product to leave the factory without that being fixed would be fired."
This is exactly how I felt the first time I used BlackBoard. Indeed, it's obvious that edtech in general could use a little more of Steve Jobs' thinking for the good of all its users, professors and students alike. But that's a pretty easy point to make. Like shooting fish and a barrel.
Here's a slightly more complicated one inspired by the same book. On page 225, the section about iMacs, is Schlender and Tetzeli's explanation of what Jobs thought computers were for:
To understand why Steve could pare down Apple's offerings so drastically in 1997, it helps to think of personal computers as protean devices that can be programmed to be any number of tools–a word processor, a supercalculator, a digital easel, a searchable library of research materials, an inventory control system, you name it. There's no need for the machine to have a different physical form to perform each different service. All it needs is powerful adaptable software within. And in the mid-1990s, the capability of software was expanding faster than ever, thanks to the advent of local area networks and the burgeoning Internet. When software can link you to other people and to databases housed on databases far away from yours, it becomes much more powerful than an application that is strictly to whatever is stored on your own personal computer.
While a learning management system at least doesn't have to rest inside your computer, as long as it's designed to make it difficult to utilize material outside that system it's just another form of walled garden. But that's not the only problem. Because your provider sets the parameters of what that system can do, what you might want to do could very well be like trying to put a square peg into a round hole.
To draw on my own experience using BlackBoard's gradebook last semester, I wanted to have only four out five of the ID quizzes count towards 20% of my survey students' final grades. I had to have four slots for grades and go back and enter the last quiz in different places. This meant (among other things) that the gradebook's running grade totals were as good as useless until the very end of the course when I gave the last quiz. This can't possibly be an uncommon way of setting up grades, right? If you can do it on an Excel spreadsheet, you should able to be do it inside your LMS.
So me and my friend Jonathan have written a book about the many reasons why faculty should take technology choices into their own hands. Just because the systems on your campus make it difficult to think different, doesn't mean that you can't do so anyway.
Let me try another analogy to help explain the nature of the problem. We got a new classroom building at CSU-Pueblo about a year ago now. Most of the rooms in that building seat at least forty people and have fixed chairs raised on a slant towards the back, facing giant computer screens. All of my classes have less than forty people and now that I've moved my survey class online, I don't lecture anymore either. Luckily, I still have our old, crappy building with chairs I can move into circles and smaller computer screens in front that I can use whenever I actually need them.
Working inside any learning management system eliminates this kind of freedom, even if that freedom is essential to creating the kind of educational experience I want for my course, online or otherwise. There's an old Lisa Lane blog post that I included in our book, that I'll cite again here because it seems appropriate:
It's like making a movie. And I want to be Orson Welles – writer, director, actor. It's my class. I write it when I create the syllabus and collect the materials. I direct it when I teach and assist students. I act when I'm lecturing or presenting.
But now that we've professionalized "instructional design" (and other aspects of education that used to be considered support rather than primary functions), I feel there's a movement afoot to have me just act. Someone else has a degree that says they are more qualified than I am to design my class, in collaboration with me as the "content expert". They want to do the writing, create the storyboard, tell me what the "best practices" are.
They are trying to turn me into Leonardo DiCaprio instead of Orson Welles. They want me to profess, to perform, to present, and that's it. (They'll record that, so my students can view it later. Others can set up a "course structure" around my performances.)
Well…that's not OK. As a professor, I do not simply profess – I teach. All the decisions involved in teaching should be made by me. It's not that I don't understand the limitations (transferrability concerns, student learning outcomes), but beyond those limits the decisions about which materials to use, and how to use them, and what to have students do, and how to assess that, etc. etc. etc. should be mine. Doing those tasks are teaching.
I'm not saying that I can create any experience as good as Orson Welles, or Charlie Chaplin or especially Steve Jobs, but some control over the parameters of the technology we teach with is essential for professors to be able to create anything that bears any resemblance to a work of art.
If we don't think different, we're all going to end up systematized or standardized or, worst of all, automated out of existence. In other words, choose your tools wisely while the choice is still available. Your employment may depend upon it sooner than you think.


text:
Seniors Vs. School
Valerie Curtis
There are a few special events that take place during Senior Spirit week that give our graduating classmates a chance to make some final lasting memories. One of these is the annual Senior vs. School Flag Football Game. It's an intense, usually fast game that pits the Senior class against various members of the junior, sophomore, and freshmen class.
Early on, volunteer players from the school signed up to be on the boys and girls teams. Practices were held after classes, and both sides worked hard to prepare themselves for the big day. Volunteers from the community, consisting of family members of students as well as staff, coached the teams and organized the selling of food at the event.
After school on September 9, the teams assembled in the football field behind the Academy. Parents, staff, and students cheered on their friends and family as the game went on. It was over all too soon.
The results were both wins for the School team. The schools girl teams won 8 to 6, and the boys team 20 to 16. Whatever the outcome, it was a fun experience for everyone. Audience and participants enjoyed themselves equally.


text:
These arrogant people believe that they know best, and advocate birth control, voluntary euthanasia and all sorts of things like that to try to keep the 'damaging' human population down. All very sad and misguided, but not new. We were aware of these people and their activities. We knew all that.
But what we didn't know was this. These people are prepared to sacrifice their children in order to control the population. We have evidence - here, look:
Horrendous, isn't it? This is from the 'cyclestreets.net' website, and the photo is captioned: "Virtually all Dutch children cycle to school every day." Oh The Horror. The carnage must be unbelievable. The number of brain-damaged children in the Netherlands must be beyond count! The Dutch barbarians are prepared to soak their country in the blood of children's head injuries in order to 'save the planet'.
Of course, cycling is far too dangerous to just let children do it independently and in casual clothing. And here in Britain, we love our children, which is why we have every intention of making them safe at all times. If they were to cycle, we would make sure they were supervised and wearing high visibility yellow coats and big bright plastic helmets. This is in stark contrast to the Dutch monsters who let their children cycle about independently without any special equipment whatsoever. Unbelievable!
We believe that special safety equipment is very important and very good for safety at all times which is why we have no hesitation in endorsing these products which are for children to wear ALL THE TIME.


text:
- About
- Blog
- Contact Us
- Free Business Building Tips
- Home
- Privacy Policy
- Testimonials From Members
- Why Join
- What does it cost to join Roofers' Success International™?
- How to Join
- No categories
- Edwin Reyes (15)
- Jennifer Ortiz (1)
- Ray Last (13)
Recent Posts:
- The Power of One on One
- What's Your Niche?
- The Entrepreneurial Plunge
- Would you pay it forward?
- When Inspiration Strikes
- The Buck Stops Here
- The Power of Gold Status
- Motivating Messages
- Let Them Know You're There…
- Is it worth the risk?
- How to Survive a Business Blackout
- Automate, Don't Regurgitate: Take Your Company into the 21st Century or Risk Losing Business to Inefficiency
- 4 Ways to Keep Your Vehicle Insurance Down
- How to Get Your Customers to Spend Money with You Every Single Month!
- 5 Ways to Make the Winter Months Easier to Bear
- Create a Winning Culture in Your Company that Will Propel You to Record Breaking Year after Record Breaking Year!
- Adding Some Personal Touches to Your Website Will Help Your Salespeople Close More Deals with Customers
- Improve the Effectiveness of Your Advertising by Adding a "Pitchman"
- The Secret to Selling to Homeowners Still Recovering from the Recession
- Little Things Matter: The Secret to Differentiating Yourself from the Competition when Bidding on Re-Roofs
- 8 Strategies to Building a Better, More Effective Website
- Help Homeowners Choose You As Their Roofer: Offer Financing Options!
- One Way to Drastically Increase Sales Without Spending an Extra Cent on Advertising!
- What Kind of Service Are You Really Providing Your Customers? If You're Not Using Customer Surveys, You Don't Know!
- 2 Tips to Finding & Hiring Your Next Superstar Employee!
- 5 Inexpensive Ways to Advertise Your Business & Find Valuable Leads!
- Strategies to Avoid Losing Your Best Employees During Winter Slowdowns!
- Finding the Smallest Common Denominator: How Discovering One Little Detail Can Lead to You Selling Drastically More Re-Roofs!
- Roofing Lessons Learned from Office Depot: If You're Not Following This One Strategy, You're Losing Money!


text:
Jan 2015: Reflection - (Col. 3: 15, 16)
There is an oft-forgotten call for an active Christian: to actively belong to a specific community of disciples. The life in Christ is not an abstract spiritual exercise, but a joyful and eager participation in the love and life of the visible body of Christ.
© Copyright 2010 Jesus Youth. Privacy Policy


text:
Valero embraces corn ethanol
Oil refining giant finds its raw material in cornfields
Valero says the jump into ethanol production reflects market reality
HARTLEY, IOWA — Texas oil refining giant Valero Energy Corp. last week made its modest and rather unlikely debut as one of the nation's largest producers of corn ethanol.
Company executives, wearing crisp, tan shirts with a teal-colored "V" on the front pocket, arrived in this small farming town from San Antonio for the occasion, a homey ribbon-cutting ceremony at a plant here, one of seven Valero recently purchased in the Corn Belt.
The event was almost quaint, with a popcorn machine and little girls serving cookies and iced tea. But it highlighted the awkward position Valero now finds itself in as a leading producer of petroleum fuels and an alternative fuel that is steadily undercutting it, as well as hinted at how the company will position itself going forward.
"We are in the fuels business, and ethanol we see as becoming a bigger and bigger part of fuels every year," Gene Edwards, Valero's executive vice president of corporate development and strategic planning, told the farmers, civic leaders and local plant employees gathered for the ceremony.
"Not too many oil companies have made this jump as we have," he said, "but we see it as a natural fit for us, and we're happy to be in the business."
Valero's major entry into the renewable fuels business marks a break with a U.S. oil and gas industry that in recent years has rarely missed an opportunity to point out flaws with corn ethanol and government policies that support it. It also signals a shift in strategy for the San Antonio-based company with operations in Houston.
While most U.S. oil refiners have chosen to be "blenders" of corn ethanol rather than producers, Valero said it saw an opportunity to use its refining expertise and scale to lower production costs. It also gains a hedge against commodity price spikes, while satisfying a government mandate to mix more ethanol into its petroleum fuels over time.
Company officials acknowledge biofuels may be one of the few growth businesses left in the U.S. as tougher fuel economy rules, rising biofuel requirements and other factors threaten to eat into sales of petroleum fuels in coming years.
"If you look at overall gasoline, we don't see demand growing in the United States," Edwards said, "but this is a portion of gasoline that's still growing."
Ethanol's enemies
Ethanol is typically blended at low levels with petroleum gasoline to help curb certain tailpipe emissions and is heavily subsidized by the U.S. government to help domestic farmers and ease dependence on oil. Critics often note its inferior fuel economy to gasoline, complain it's a black hole for government money and argue that steering more than one third of the nation's corn crop to the fuel has boosted food prices — a claim the ethanol industry says has been exaggerated.
A 2007 law requires greater usage of ethanol and other biofuels in coming years, growing to 36 billion gallons in 2022 — or about 25 percent of America's current annual gasoline consumption. Under the law, 15 billion gallons of biofuels can come from corn, while nearly all the rest must be from non-food sources and agricultural waste.
New U.S. fuel economy standards also require cars and trucks to achieve an average 35.5 miles per gallon by the 2016 model year, up from 28.2 this year. And pending climate change legislation takes aim at greenhouse gas emissions from oil refineries and the petroleum fuels they make, threatening to boost production costs.
"With recent government actions, what's clear is fuel products from petroleum hydrocarbons is a declining business in the U.S., and fuels from renewable and alternative energy sources is a growth business in the U.S," said Roger Ihne, a principal with Deloitte's energy practice in Houston.
Amid the changing landscape, other U.S. oil refiners have made investments in corn ethanol. Philadelphia-based Sunoco recently bought a corn ethanol plant in New York, while Houston's Marathon Oil owns stakes in plants in Ohio and Indiana. However, most oil companies have focused on so-called next generation fuels from emerging sources like algae, wood chips or municipal waste.
The politics of ethanol
In April and May, Valero paid bankrupt ethanol producer VeraSun Energy $477 million for seven corn ethanol plants — four in Iowa, the others in Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota — and a site under development in Indiana.
The deal made Valero, now with 780 million gallons per year of production capacity, among the biggest corn ethanol producers in the nation, but the business is still small by comparison to its massive oil refining arm.
Jim Gillingham, a senior vice president in charge of Valero's alternative fuels business, acknowledged that simultaneously promoting the two businesses can be "very awkward. …"
"I think you can see by Valero having gone out and making such a large investment in this industry, we're prepared to take on that problem," he said after the event in Hartley.
How deeply the company will weigh into the politics of ethanol, however, remains to be seen. For instance, the ethanol industry is pushing hard for Environmental Protection Agency approval to increase the federally set ceiling for the amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline without modifying engines, from 10 percent to 15 percent. Valero has not taken a position on the issue.
It also hasn't joined the Renewable Fuels Association, a leading ethanol trade group. In fact, Valero CEO Bill Klesse was recently named chairman of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, a Washington lobby that has been among the harshest critics of corn ethanol.
Gillingham said Valero has been working with NPRA to tone down its rhetoric and will strive for "better balance" in the industry's views toward ethanol.
If that happens, "there may be some advantage to having oil companies in the ethanol business," said Daryl Haack, a corn farmer from Primghar, Iowa, with ethanol plant investments, "because maybe they won't fight it so hard."


text:
How to get the new Facebook profile
As you must have heard by now, Facebook had a redesign on its profile page recently, it is supposed to give people a clearer idea about who you are , setting out all of your information in a more ordered way.Apparently your privacy settings remain unchanged. Although I think people may be changing some of their settings after they see what exactly is on their profile page now.I've had the new Facebook profile for a day or so, a link just appeared at the top of my profile page but it seems that is not happening to everyone automatically until the new year. People have started asking how to get it.So.If you haven't already got the new updated Facebook profilehttp://www.facebook.com/about/profile/ and just click GET NEW PROFILEThis page has information about the new profile page too.And there you are. What do Wished you hadn't bothered? I'm not sure yet. If you have any questions, you should find the answers here.http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=new_profileHope this helps


text:
This would have to be my honeymoon 8 years ago. We went on a road trip and spent most of our time in Alberta and BC. It was my first time in BC. We went to a lot of neat places, saw so much beautiful scenery (gorgeous mountains!), and really just enjoyed spending time together. A few of our favourite places were the Victoria Butterfly Gardens, the Vancouver Aquarium, Cathedral Grove, and the Royal Tyrrell Museum. We mostly stayed in basic hotels, but we also stayed at Castle Mountain Chalets and Bear Hill Lodge. I love road trips with Hubby and I love being a tourist - sightseeing, taking pictures, eating out, staying in hotels, etc. We love the outdoors so most of our honeymoon was spent enjoying it.
|Bridal Veil Falls in Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park near Chilliwack, BC
14. First job?
Well, I had a number of small jobs before my first "real" job, which was working at Tim Horton's - one opened up in our town for the first time. I got that job when I was in grade 12 of high school, and I worked there for a year and 8 months. You sorta just do everything there - make coffee, make food, clean bathroom, mop floors, wash dishes, work the drive thru, etc. It wasn't the easiest always, but often it was fun, and hey, I met my husband there, so that's definitely something I wouldn't change!


text:
For some high school students, going to school can be tiring and repetitive; a chore they have to do everyday. It can get boring going to the same place five days a week for four years.
This, however, is not the case for a particular group of students: the international students.
For the international students, the new school year is an adventure; a new journey filled with the challenges of a new language, culture and country as well as the rewards of new friends and memories that will last a lifetime.
Each year, the CBVRSB welcomes students from 22 countries all over the world. Memorial is currently hosting 26 international students whose stay can range from one month to a year, although, some students choose to stay even longer.
Grade 12 student Oya Darıcı, from Antalya, Turkey, is one such student. She first came to Canada three years ago and has loved it ever since. Darıcı completed her Grades 10, 11 and 12 years at Memorial and is set to graduate this coming June. She is planning to attend university in Canada as well.
The international students attending Memorial have a special class two days every week called English Second Language (ESL) where a teacher assists them with the English on their tests and assignments as well as their language skills in general.
Students also go on school field trips to experience more of the island, including its unique scenery. Earlier this year, the international students went on a trip to the Cabot Trail in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Grade 12 student Aline Verhofsté from Belgium said she enjoyed the trip.
"The Cabot Trail was beautiful!" said Verhofsté. "We went when the leaves were changing colour so it was amazing."
It's Verhofsté's first year in Canada and she's enjoying it so far.
"I like a lot of things here," she said. "Hiking is great with the nature but also skating since I almost never do it at home."
For most international students, the first day of school in a new country can be intimidating, especially one with 952 students. The Nova Scotia International Student Program (NSISP) Ambassadors can help to ease this anxiety. They're a helping hand who are often the first friend a student makes.
Ambassadors are students who help international students become familiar with their school and community and create deeper relationships with the students around them. They work to make their school a more welcoming environment. Memorial currently has four students acting as ambassadors.
While the benefits of this program for the international students are obvious and include things like learning another language and exploring a new country, it also benefits Memorial as a whole as students are exposed to people from other walks of life. Befriending an international student can help students become more accepting towards other cultures and become better global citizens.
Some upcoming events for the next month:
• November 17 is a teachers' only day.
• The WE Schools club is doing a winter clothing drive. Hats, mittens, jackets, and so forth are appreciated and the donation box is in the lobby.
• Parent-teacher interviews will be on November 16 from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. and on November 17 from 12:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
• December 18 is a teachers' only day.
Samantha Jesty is a grade 12 student at Memorial. She is a member of the Interact, M-Crew and debate clubs.


text:
'Play With Your Food' offers Fairfield performance
The Play With Your Food lunch-time theater series presents its first performance of the season in Fairfield at the Fairfield Theatre Company on Tuesday, Jan. 14. The program, from noon to 1:30 p.m., includes a gourmet buffet lunch and dessert catered by the Pantry of Fairfield, followed by one-act play readings by professional actors.
Three readings will be presented in the January program, including "Package Deal," by comedy writer Frederick Stroppel, featuring actress Patricia Kalember, of Weston, who is best-known for TV work on "Sisters," "Thirty Something," "Law & Order" and "White Collar." Also planned is a reading of "Finding Mona Lisa," by Florida playwright Michael McKeever, who explores the intimate relationship between men of power and the subjects they love and want to possess.
The third reading, an excerpt from "Last of the Red Hot Lovers," Neil Simon's 1969 Broadway hit later turned into a film, follows the story of Barney Cashman, a seafood restaurateur, who is desperate to join the "sexual revolution" before it's too late. Veteran actors Barbara Rhoades, of Weston, and Tom Zingarelli, of New Haven, clash in this battle of wits.
There will also be a post-show discussion at the performance at the Theater Company's StageOne, 70 Sanford St. Tickets are $43, with lunch included.
The same program is planned for Tuesday to Thursday, Jan. 7 to 9, at Toquet Hall, 58 Post Road East in Westport, also from noon to 1:30 p.m. The season will continue with monthly performances in Westport, Fairfield and Greenwich through April.
"Our goal in programming is always to present well-written, engaging plays that, while pleasurable, somehow also manage to deliver a punch," said Artistic Director Carole Schweid. "I'm really pleased with the 2014 line-up."
Additional highlights of the 2014 Play With Your Food season include: Excerpts from Noel Coward's "Private Lives," featuring TV and film personalities Daniel Gerroll and Patricia Kalember, who recently performed the work together at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; "The Audience," a well-received new play by Peter Morgan that is attracting sell-out crowds in London and spans the lifetime of Queen Elizabeth, will include Obie winner E. Katherine Kerr in the cast. Also on the roster are David Auburn's dark comedy "Amateurs," "The Interview," by A.R. Gurney, and Arthur Miller's glimpse at immigration in "Grandpa and the Statue."
Additional performances at Toquet Hall in Westport are planned for Feb. 4 to 6, March 4 to 6 and April 1 to 3. At the Fairfield Theatre Company, productions will also take place Feb. 11, March 11 and April 8.
Tickets for Play With Your Food are $43 per show and include lunch. To purchase tickets and for a complete schedule, visit www.jibproductions.org or call the box office at 203-293-8831, Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For more information, visit www.jibproductions.org, e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com or call 203-293-8831.


text:
It's been two weeks since I first had my anti-ageing treatment with Dr Teodor at Walpole and with just one week left till my wedding, the excitement (and nerves) have really been building up.
In case you haven't read my first treatment blog, I wanted to get it done because all the women in my family have suffered from having deep lines around the eyes and on the forehead.
It's something I've felt insecure about for a very long time.
I really couldn't be happier to say that their treatment works, it really works! I just love seeing the difference in my face every day, whenever I catch a glance of myself in the mirror I just can't help but smile!
The creases around my eyes have almost entirely gone, all that's left are shallow lines that leave my face with a very natural look. My forehead has completely smoothed out, all the lines that I've had since I was a teenager have just vanished, it's an amazing change and I really don't want those lines to come back!
As an added bonus, my eyebrows have risen slightly, making my eyes look more open, generally making my face look younger, giving me a whole new energy!
Of course I'm not the only one to have noticed these changes. I'm constantly getting compliments from friends and family, who can really tell that something about my face has changed, but they just can't put their finger on what!
I'm truly grateful that Dr Teodor understood exactly what I wanted from the treatment, just how important it was for me to still look like me. It's not only about how I look either, it's how I feel, which is to say healthier and a lot more confident about my appearance too!
I can genuinely say that overall I'm extremely satisfied with the results. I really couldn't be happier with what they've done for me, especially to prepare for such a big day of my life.
I'll be posting my wedding day update in the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out for updates.
To find out more about the Facial Aesthetic treatments Walpole offer, click here.


text:
Steven Tyler Says He's In Aerosmith Forever
According to the frontman of Aerosmith and American Idol, Steven Tyler says that he may do this project and that project but Aerosmith is not a project it is his life!
I will be Aerosmith forever!
Steven Tyler says that his time as a judge on American Idol might come and go, but that he's a lifer when it comes to Aerosmith. In promotion of Idol's Wednesday (Jan. 19) premiere, he was interviewed by Billboard.com.
I'm so busy doing so many million things, so many irons in the fire that people don't know what to think. I don't need to be validated by someone's opinions or show. This will last for three years if I stay with it, or four months if I just do this year. But I'm in Aerosmith forever.
Of course, Tyler will be validating other young musicians with his new gig on the singing competition series. So what will he be looking for in the new contestants?
That certain something which can't be defined. When I hit on a song [sings intro to Aerosmith's 'Jaded'), I go, 'Oh, [expletive]! Where did that come from?' Or (sings 'Sweet Emotion') and I go, 'Oh, my God, there it is!' And whatever it is that magic comes from, it's the unknown. You can't put your finger on it. You can't say, 'Well, sing in church and you'll be a great singer.' It's an unspoken thing.


text: On Wed, Aug 04, 2004 at 11:20:57AM +0300, Shachar Shemesh wrote: > David Lee Lambert wrote: > >On Wed, Jul 28, 2004 at 10:13:15PM -0700, Alexandre Julliard wrote: > >>"Dmitry Timoshkov" <dmitry at baikal.ru> writes: > >>I don't see how the settings would be different, surely LC_CTYPE is > >>always going to control the ASCII->Unicode mapping on Unix, so why > >>shouldn't it do that on Wine? If the issue is that users change their > >>setup without understanding the results, then surely adding even more > >>config parameters that they need to get right is not going to improve > >>the situation. > > > >1. ANSI->Unicode translation for programs that use the ANSI calls, as > >has been discussed in this thread. > > > Ok. > > >2. Unicode->codepage translation on standard output, and > >codepage->Unicode translation on standard input. ... > > > Why should we set it differently than 1? (1) is when a program talks to what it thinks is a version of Windows according to the author's understanding of a the codepage. (2) and (3) are how are how Wine talks to the rest of the system. What codepage should be used under a utf8 locale, such as most of the setups on Redhat WS 9? There are no Windows programs that actually pass utf8 data to the Xxxx*A calls; if a program wants to use Unicode, it will use the wide character APIs. (MS Word, PAF 5, IE 6...) (I know I said UTF16 before. I haven't actually tried a UTF16-only setup, and UTF16 is not compatible with the C library because it uses \0 in normal text, etc.) > Name one such filesystem, please. EXT and reiser never cared, as far as > I know. VFAT has to translate names stored in UTF-16. Are you saying the > kernels<2.4 didn't have the "iocharset" option? I have some files stored on a Windows ME box with names containing accented characters, which show up fine in Explorer and the MS-DOS prompt on that system and on other WinME systems accross the network. In Linux the filenames appear to be encoded in CP437 when I use 'smbmount' whith no options. The manpage says that iocharset= (Linux side) and codepage= (Server side) are only supported in kernel 2.4 and above. However, on my system that runs kernel 2.4.x, the problem persists even when I pass options "iocharset=utf8,codepage=cp437" I get a message about CP437 not being supported, even though I have a kernel module cp437.o . By the way, Explorer and command.com only allow me to enter directories with 8-bit-character-names on the local system. Under Linux, I can enter said directory using tab completion, even though the characters don't show up. > > This is all through > >GetLocaleInfo(), whose first argument is an LCID returned by either > >GetUserDefaultLocale or GetSystemDefaultLocale. > > > You can also pass "LOCALE_SYSTEM_DEFAULT" instead, but that doesn't > matter. In any case, there are "user overrides" here, which we may, one > day, want to implement. Everything is laid out in the table that started > this thread. > > >5. The MultiByteToWideChar() and WideCharToMultiByte() functions, which > What do we need to do with these? They get an explicit codepage to > convert to/from. Funny though it may sound, these functions are not > affected by locale. Right. > I don't agree. Mixing default codepages across simultaneously running > programs is not possible on Windows, and sounds horribly difficult to > implement. Clipboard handling and cross-file using are two examples of > things that are likely to go horribly wrong if we tried. If a program does a an ANSI call, it gets changed to Unicode. If that data gets passed back to another program using an ANSI call, it gets converted to the target codepage, as much as possible. If Wine is doing console output to a non-Unicode codepage, it gets converted there too. I'm not sure about mixing codepages under Windows, but input-method switching is easy. > Having one setting applicable to all running processes sounds good > enough. I don't object to a config setting overriding what LC_CTYPE > says, but I don't see a use for it either. Let's say I want to run an Arabic dictionary program and Spanish dictionary program as I'm typing a report in Word. Furthermore, the arabic dictionary program would use ANSI calls and expects to run on Arabic windows (with MS-ARAB encoding); the Spanish program would use LATIN1. Word uses wide-character calls. How would I run all these programs at the same time under Wine? (I'm not saying I actually have such a set of programs. Actually, I own a copy of a standalone program that allows typing of Arabic programs on Western windows, and also have access to systems where Office XP with the Arabic and US-International input methods is installed.) -- resume at http://www.cse.msu.edu/~lamber45/resume.htm PGP key at http://www.cse.msu.edu/~lamber45/newmail.htm#GPGKey


text:
Leadership Courage (part forty)
Undermine the 80/20 Rule
Why is it that 20% of the people in our churches are doing all the giving, all the serving, all the ministry?
What if we who lead have actually established the culture that reinforces 80/20?
What are we communicating such that the vast majority of church dwellers feel great about coming, taking, and contributing nothing?
And, though you're unaware of it, pastor, what if this is exactly what you want?
I invite you to ponder: what are you doing to perpetuate 80/20 in your congregation? And, since, according to Edwin Friedman in A Failure of Nerve "No one has ever gone from slavery to freedom with the slaveholders cheering them on" I fully expect to encounter your resistance to this claim: 80/20 is yet another evidence of the culture of cowardice that is alive and well in much of the American Church.
So, take a breath. Set your resistance aside, and gather your key leaders together. Lock yourselves in a conference room until you can identify at least ten ways your church communications, culture, and leadership promote and preserve 80/20.
Think about it.
One: what do we model when, every time the doors are open, a relative handful minister to the many who simply spectate?
When a thousand gather for "worship" what do they see?
Another one does announcements.
One or two run the soundboard, show the videos, dim the lights.
Maybe a dozen play instruments or sing in a worship band. Or, maybe you have an organist. One organist…and a soloist. One soloist.
A couple dozen function as greeters and ushers.
And, several dozen teach the children—but that happens elsewhere… out of sight of most of the adults.
What you model reinforces a culture in which very few exercise their gifts and very many do next to nothing.
Don't they?
This entry was posted by Kirk Kirlin on November 14, 2016 at 10:00 am, and is filed under character development, Christian Leadership, clergy coaching, coaching, Emotional Maturity, Leader Development, Leadership Coaching, Leadership Skills, Leading, ministry coaching, Pastor coaching, Strategy. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Didn't find any related posts :(


text:
As part of their topic work on our Community and Environment, the children of Lythe School's class two visited the gardens of Mulgrave Castle.
They were were given a guided tour by Mr Parkinson who answered lots of their questions and shared lots of interesting facts about the plants, flowers, trees as well as showing the children the fruits and vegetables growing in the greenhouses.
The youngsters even got to sample a fresh peach straight from the tree.
The estate also provided juice and biscuits in the walled garden for all the children as a treat. The school thanks everyone at the estate for a memorable visit.


text:
Every kid is created to be in deep relationship with Jesus Christ, in a supportive community, and to be Christ's love to the world! Kidz Connect is designed to build and support these connections. We encourage families to create healthy practices and rhythms at home that support lifelong faith. Unique to Kidz Connect, we incorporate meaningful service opportunities every week to give kids experience showing Christ's love to those around them. Kidz Connect meets weekly on Thursdays from 6pm - 7:30pm during the school year.
If you are interested in your child being apart of this, parents are required to attend the Registration Meeting. Investment for deepening your child's is just $10. Registration deadline is August 25.


text:
Yesterday, KOZN-1620 AM announced that Matt Schick won't be replacing Kevin Kugler after all. The former channel 7 sportscaster is instead leaving "The Zone" to join ESPNU. Instead, John Bishop from KLIN-1400 AM is moving to Omaha to become the co-host of "Unsportsmanlike Conduct". (NRG Media owns both KOZN and KLIN.) In addition, 1620 also announced that Gary Sharp is returning to Nebraska and will co-host a morning show with "Double Nickel" Jason Peter.
I'm personally excited by the return of Gary Sharp, who left Nebraska in 2004 after being removed from the Pinnacle Sports Network broadcasts during Steve Pederson's Reign of Error. I thought he was the best host they've had on their "Sports Nightly"/"Sports Day Mid-America" broadcasts, and it's great to have him back in Nebraska. Even better is that the show will start at 7 am...during the morning drive into work. My kids may not appreciate sports talk in the morning during the drive, but I will.
Bishop should be an adequate replacement for Kugler in the afternoon. Bishop has improved dramatically since a painful first season as the postgame host on the Pinnacle broadcasts in 1996. He was very good on Sports Nightly and the "Big Red Reaction" show as well as with baseball broadcasts for both Nebraska and Creighton.
According to the Lincoln Journal-Star, Sharp will also do play-by-play and color commentary on game broadcasts, which makes me wonder what else is up at 1180 and 1620 AM as far as additional broadcasts. While rumors periodically appear about the Nighthawks still returning this season, that's now about as likely as winning the Powerball jackpot. And if I had my preference, I'd take the Powerball jackpot. But what could 1620 broadcast? UNO basketball would seem to be the most likely target as they begin their first season of Summit League play. Sharp also has a background covering Lincoln Stars hockey, and he would be a huge upgrade over Greg Ahlers on UNO hockey broadcasts. Problem is that I kind of like the game broadcasts on 96.1 FM, and I don't see UNO replacing their sports information director from their broadcasts. An even bigger problem with UNO hockey broadcasts moving to 1620 would be Terry Leahy, the long-time color commentator recently laid off by 1620.
I'm curious what Schick's role at ESPNU would be. My instinct would be as a studio host or sideline reporter, but you never know.


text:
First Year
First year brought the joy of a new place, new people and lots of excitement...
'Anti-Halloween Party' (for scaredy-cats)
The St.Mikes' Ball
CU House Party
Whilst I really enjoyed moving to Aber, didn't find moving away from home too hard, and thoroughly enjoyed making new friends and having a new adventure, November 2009 saw my family break up.
After a difficult Christmas I was thrown into depression. All I can say is a massive thank you to everyone that stuck with me and showed me such amazing love and support over the year! Especially to the amazing Hannah Sweeney...
and my fantastic boyfriend, Tom Lott...
Thankfully, through His love and grace, God broke my depression in June 2009!
Second Year
Second year was full of change and the joys of cracking down a little bit more with work and growing closer to different people... now for the pictures!
|Isaac, Toby, Laura and Me
|Me and Laura
|Phil, Ben, and Mark - Ali's birthday celebration
|Laura and I go to Marseilles
|Harry, Dan and Tom playing FIFA
|Josh, Tom, Rachel and I welcome the summer with a walk along the sea-front
Third Year
So, third year saw me become a bit more of a hermit :P I really put a considerable more amount of time and effort into doing my work, but I have had so much fun! I've learnt so much and thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with such amazing friends! So, here comes another year in photos...
|Isaac eating cake off the floor!
|Amy and Amy
|Laughter in the house with Kirsty, Jo and Chris
|Surprise!! Kirsty's 21st
|Isaac and Toby in the SUN!
|Me and Tom on my 21st
So now all that is left to do is to say thank you to all the amazing people that have made my time at Aber what it has been.
Thank you so much to all my friends for providing so much fun and laughter over the past three years! It's been a joy :)
And a massive thank you to St.Mikes (both staff and the congregation) for growing with me and encouraging me in my walk with God and being a support in times of hardship.
Bye bye Aberystwyth...


text:
Montepulciano Luxury Villa
Luxury Villas Tuscany : This typical and exclusive villa located 50 km from Siena dates from the middle age. Over the centuries many noble families have turned this holiday house into their country seat: coats of arms, paintings and frescoes are thwe best evidence of this. This elegant and majestic property is the ideal place to stay and enjoy your holiday with your family and friends; sleeps up to 24 people is composed by the main building and two annexes in the park. There are five suites and three double bedrooms; the suites have a living room, double bedroom and bathroom with bath and shower and the three double bedrooms have private bathrooms. Inside the park there are three apartments, two of which (sleep two) with a living room with fireplace and kitchenette, a double bedroom and a bathroom with shower. The third one (sleeps four) composed of a living room with fireplace and kitchenette, two double bedrooms with private bathroom with shower. This luxury villa has the air conditioning, the satellite TV, a telephone, a mini bar, hair dryer, a dishwasher and all the equipment you could need. It has a large Italian style furnished garden, a swimming pool with hydro massage, a small private chapel, a private car park and a barbecue.
|Preis pro Nacht
|Preis pro Woche
|Preis pro Monat
|01 Jan 15
|31 Dec 15
|On Request
7 Nachte