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Experimenting with a New Content Approach
For several years after writing the Sales 2.0 book with Brent Holloway, I was a consistent and disciplined blogger, with a target of producing at least one blog post every week. This year, I decided to try something different. Given how inundated everyone seems to be with content – and frankly how anxiety-ridden I became trying to keep up with the demands and deadlines of high-volume blogging – I've been experimenting with a "quality over quantity" approach to writing this year. As a result, I've been focused on developing some longer form pieces to address the issues that come up consistently when we speak tobusiness leaders about where revenue generation is headed.
I am thankful to the leading companies who are investing in "thought leadership" content : material written by an expert in a particular field that does not contain an overt sales message but provides food for thought, helpful business advice and specific action steps on a topic of interest, and in the process attracts potential buyers for a company's products.
Have a look, for example, at the recently-published free eBook, Inside Sales Success: A Guide for Global Leaders*
* Original version generously sponsored by SAP
Changes in today's buying and selling behavior have forced companies to rethink the way they build and operate a winning sales organization. This new 35-page eBook provides revenue generation leaders the what, why and how for growing a highly competitive inside sales team.
This short book is a good introduction for those with little to no experience with inside sales (like perhaps your senior management team, board of directors, field or channel sales reps or leaders) as well as those who are veterans or inside sales believers. It addresses the basics (like the difference between pipeline-building and revenue- generating inside sales teams and sales metrics to track) and also covers some new, emerging practices and technologies (like results some companies are seeing from predictive analytics, gamification and social selling.)
If you click on the eBook link, you'll also see that along with many companies with content marketing programs, I'm testing a new approach to content distribution, tracking, and analysis using PaperShare, which asks you for your social sign-in rather than the traditional form to capture requester information. (Disclosure: Because I believe that to be an effective social business, it's essential to provide the revenue-generation team with high quality, practical and share-able content for customers – AND I like the company, its product and its management team -I have joined PaperShare's Advisory Board.)
Next up (both debuting at the Social Shakeup Conference in Atlanta September 15-17):
- An interactive workshop and peer exchange on social selling
- A panel discussion on the revenue results generated from social business programs (including sales, marketing and executive managers from one large global company)
Stay tuned for more details.
What are your experiments and experiences with content? What is generating the best results? What is your personal preference: regular and short blog posts or in-depth content, produced with less frequency? To what media do you gravitate: text, video, audio, in person event?
Does Cold Calling Still Work?
Mike Volpe (HubSpot's CMO), Ken Krogue (insidesales.com's President) and I will engage in a live Google + Hangout debate on this popular topic on Wednesday January 30 at 11 AM PST. To join us and watch online, visit our host's Google + page (Software Advice's Managing Editor Derek Singleton.)
Here are some key points I plan to make:
1. "Cold calling" is an unfortunate, outdated and stigmatized term that I'd love to see banished from our sales vocabulary, along with the equally cringe-inducing term, "telemarketing." In the Sales 2.0 world, we've moved beyond the boiler room. Old school expressions like "pounding the phones" and "smiling and dialing" – along with "cold calling" – belong to the Sales 1.0 era we're leaving behind.
2. Modern sales organizations have highly specialized and segmented sales forces that include inbound and outbound organizations usually known as "Sales Development" (or "Lead Generation") as well as quota-carrying sales teams that don't travel (or limit face-to-face meetings,) typically called "Inside Sales."
3. Inbound Sales Development responds to and follows up with leads generated by marketing. Outbound Sales Development teams are the ones that prospect ("cold call.") Their goal is to add incremental qualified leads to the pipeline. The good ones do this via intelligent outreach (not generic and irrelevant pitches) to buyers most likely to become customers, use multiple media for reaching contacts (e.g. phone, e-mail, social media), and are supported by ongoing marketing programs.
4. Sales Development teams that follow Sales 2.0 practices can measure the contributions they make to the company's pipeline, forecast and revenue. And the best ones show significant business return. In our last survey, we found that the average contribution of Sales Development teams was 55% of U.S. revenue. Brent Holloway and I include a case study of the ROI of Sales Development in the Sales 2.0 book that showed a return of over 1,000%.
5. Best-performing companies minimize the amount of outbound prospecting done by quota-carrying reps, either in the field or "inside." (I dislike that term, too. But that's the subject of another blog post…)
What contribution does Sales Development make in your company? Can you quantify the pipeline, forecast and revenue impact?
One Big Idea for 2013: Test One New Sales Initiative
A condensed version of this post appears this week on the SAP Sales Effectiveness blog, along with additional Big Ideas from Hank Barnes, Sales Benchmark Index, Dave Brock, Bob Apollo and the SAVO Group. We were asked to answer this question: "If you were having a conversation with a friend and they asked you for one thing they should do, or focus on, in 2013, what would it be?"
My advice for 2013 is to identify and try at least one new thing in your sales approach next year.
I know from personal experience that running a sales organization is demanding. The pressure to deliver sales results quarter after quarter is all-consuimg. There aren't enough hours in the day to hire and onboard new reps in a growing organization. Keeping existing reps focused, on message and consistently following your sales processes and using your systems is a full time job. Management and the Board require regular forecasts and other reports or have other special requests, often at a moment's notice. And keeping customers happy advocates is another top priority. However, in order to stay competitive in today's sales and marketing reality, sales managers cannot get stuck in the mode of doing the same things every day, every quarter and every year. To avoid the risk of losing customers and our quota-carrying reps, we must continuously look for ways to improve, innovate and change, as their behaviors, preferences, and expectations change – and we know for certain from numerous industry research sources that business is changing.
In order to stay ahead, we need to adopt what we've described in the Sales 2.0 book as a Sales 2.0 mindset. Sales 2.0 is a measurably better way of selling for both the buyer and the seller that's enabled by technology and integrated and aligned across an organization so the customer's experience is consistently positive and relevant. Those who have embraced Sales 2.0 combine the art of selling – creating meaningful long-term and mutually profitable relationships with customers – with science – establishing measurable and scalable sales that are predictable.
What does this mean for your organization in 2013? For organizations that are evolving from Sales 1.0 to Sales 2.0, there are always new opportunities to test that can improve your company's results, but it can take some discipline to get out of your status quo, business as usual comfort zone. By talking to customers, peers and subject matter experts across industries, attending networking events and conferences, reading blogs, watching videos and following innovative thinkers on social platforms, or just leaving the office to give yourself time to think, you can identify just one new thing that will make the difference in your 2013 performance.
Some examples showing encouraging results that are being tested or fully implemented today by forward-thinking organizations include:
- Personalizing customer contact with measurable, scalable social selling, especially when integrated with phone & e-mail outreach (aka "inside" sales)
- Finding those customers who are most likely to buy and are most profitable, using data and analytics – and prioritizing and personalizing contact with those buyers
- Customizing your sales team's Incentives and approaches to motivation, enabled by gamification
- Optimizing recruiting and hiring using Sales 2.0 practices and technology to stand out from the crowd of companies with sales team growth goals
- Accelerating onboarding and insuring consistent Sales 2.0 process using robust sales playbooks that cover everything from messaging to systems to step-by-step checklists for customer contact and frequency
- Leveraging sales team productivity with automated, consistent and personal content marketing
- Optimizing sales performance while improving responsiveness by adding specialization and segmentation to your sales organization (e.g. With Sales Development/Lead Qualification, Inside Sales, Renewal Sales, etc.)
What new sales initiative are you planning for 2013?
Why are we so afraid of calling Sales 'Sales' ?
Anneke's Note: This post is by my colleague John Philpin, who asks really thought-provoking questions. Enjoy!
Have you ever thought about how caught up we get in titles and departments and naming things? For example, someone once described their role to me as follows …
"Actually I am in Sales. Specifically Inside Sales. Well really – when I say Inside Sales – I am a Senior Outbound Telesales Executive, with responsibility for the digital acquisition of Western Region Customers."
Say What ?
I was reminded of this today when I heard a discussion around the need to rename inside sales. Apparently 'we need to rename inside sales to remove the stigma and old thinking around that term.' Terms raised included Virtual Sales, Digital Sales and Social Sales.
How about just calling calling it 'Sales' ?
Here's my take.
The differences between venerable institutions such as 'sales' and 'marketing' are hardly understood – much less "Virtual Sales, Digital Sales, Social Sales". The world is all about the customer – not how we organize.
How we do that (the orgs, the teams, the people, the hierarchy is meaningless to anybody outside a company – they don't care – and nor should they.)
I firmly believe that
- introducing more new terms is self defeating
- forever subdividing internal orgs with meaningless terms is self defeating
- continuing made up separation of organizations is self defeating
- continuing to use terms that border on the 'pejorative' is self defeating
- focussing on the organization – not the customer – is self defeating
What do you believe ?
John Philpin is Chief Social Business Strategist with Reality Works Group: he makes Social Business work for customers, partners and your organization. He is also an entrepreneur (founder of 3 companies) and has held CEO and other C-level positions (in Sales, Business Development, Marketing and Customer Management – though he shuns those names!) in both start-ups and large companies including Citibank and Oracle. You can follow John's thought-provoking thinking at: http://beyondbridges.net/ on Twitter @fractals or the old-fashioned way (on e-mail or phone): firstname.lastname@example.com, (808)344-2914.
The social revolution is a trust revolution
"The social revolution is a trust revolution."
This statement appeared on the 9th slide of Marc Benioff's opening keynote, "Business is Social," during his kickoff of Dreamforce 2012 last week. It followed some compelling statistics proving that the trends toward social media adoption in business are undeniable:
1.3 Trillion in value can be unlocked through social technologies – McKinsey Global Institute
123% growth in social customers – Google Social Media Analysis Study
150 million conversations per day – Twitter, Visible Technologies
As your customers, employees and partners become increasingly connected online, this raises some interesting questions, opportunities and risks in regards to trust:
- Will we have some kind of open and universal access to ratings and reviews for B2B sales and service professionals as we now see on consumer Internet sites for professionals like doctors? Will enterprise products – and the companies that produce them – be subject to a proliferation of eBay or Yelp-like reviews?
- How will this impact how we treat one another in business? Will those with the most loyal, helpful and honest behavior be recognized and rewarded? For example, will buyers search not only on solutions but also on the reputations professionals who represent them in marketing, sales and services (and even product development, accounting, HR….)? Will the deceitful, insubordinate, or lazy lose customers, jobs or promotional opportunities? Will companies that stretch the truth in marketing materials or products that don't perform as advertised be shunned and avoided? Will we be able to measure that economic impact by corrollating some sort of truth index with market share or financial performance?
- How can we automate and encourage the process of recommendations and reviews for B2B customers, coworkers or managers at the moment when they have a positive experience? Is "gamification" – providing some kind of recognition or reward such as privileges or prizes for participation – appropriate when it comes to ratings? Or will incentives beyond just doing the right thing skew results?
- How will we defend ourselves from inappropriate, inaccurate or competitive attacks on our reputation? Will we all need products like reputation.com to defend against career-limiting online content?
Rachel Botsman, one of the speakers at this June's TEDGlobal conference, thinks like Benioff. She says that the currency of the new economy is trust and reputation in your most valuable asset. Botsman writes, speaks and consults on "the power of collaboration and sharing through network technologies, and on how it will transform business, consumerism and the way we live," according to her TED bio.
As examples of the real value of reputation, intention, capabilities and values, Botsman references the following in her talk:
- Uberhosts at Airbnb
High scorers draw more overnight visitors and make more money
- Super rabbits at TaskRabbit
Popular and efficient part-time workers are more likely to find jobs and command higher rates.
How will the social revolution- a trust revolution – impact your business in the future? What are you doing about it?
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Taking a break from all the mock drafts and have some fun!
So it's the offseason... just in time to blow the dust off my PS2 and start my franchise with the Cowboys! I've always been curious if I am the only Cowboy fan in the world to play Madden the way I do.... So without further a typing I will show you what I mean.
Before I started a new franchise it hit me one day where all of our great ideas come from.. the throne.... "I should start a new franchise with ONLY players drafted by the cowboys via NFL draft or UDFA. Here's what my roster looked like to start the 2007 season.
1. Tony Romo 2. Chad Hutchinson
1. Julius Jones 2. Tyson Thompson 3. Woody Dantzler (CAP)
1. Marion Barber (changed his position)
1. Antonio Bryant 2. Miles Austin 3. Patrick Crayton 4. Sam Hurd
1. Jason Witten 2. Anthony Fasano
1. Flozell Adams 2. Doug Free 3. James Marten 4.Rob Petitti
1. Larry Allen 2. Andre Guroude 3. Justin Rogers 4. Kurt Vollers
1. Matt Lehr 2. Al Johnson
1. DeMarcus Ware 2. Greg Ellis 3. Anthony Spencer 4. Jason Hatcher 5. Ebenezer Ekuban
1. Marcus Spears 2. Jay Ratliff 3. Chris Canty 4. Michael Myers 5. Stephen Bowen
1. Dexter Coakley 2. Kevin Burnett 3. Bobby Carpenter 4. Randall Godfrey
1. Dat Nguyen (CAP) 2. Bradie James
1. Terrance Newman 2. Derek Ross (CAP) 3. Alan Ball (CAP) 4. Jaquez Reeves
1. Roy Williams 2. Isaiah Stanback (changed position FS) 3. Abram Elam 4. Omar Stoutmire
Matt McBiar
Woody Dantzler (CAP)
So I go through the season trying to get all of the starters to the pro bowl (linebackers are the hardest to get). I play 4 minute quarters on rookie with injuries off. After the season is done I go ahead and draft how the cowboys drafted... For example I would draft Felix Jones, Mike Jenkins, Orlando Scandrick, etc....
You can draft players that look like them, then change their name/height/weight/college after. Then I play the season with the adjusted depth chart and do the same thing over again. This takes a while... about a game a day.... the offseason mode taking a good 3 hours....
I want to know... am I crazy or do some of you guys do this as well???

subset: commoncrawl


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By Lane Oliver
2009 saw the release of Cattle Decapitation's The Harvest Floor, which to me (at least at the time) was their magnum opus. This year, the band returned with the highly anticipated, 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired Monolith of Inhumanity. The Harvest Floor was such a grand masterpiece for the band so one must wonder if anything released after it can top it.
If you pondered whether Monolith could out do Harvest, then you will be surprised to know that it did just that! From the opening pulverizing chords on "The Carbon Stampede" to the final epic one-two punch of "The Monolith" and "Kingdom of Tyrants", this album has defied my expectations and wowed me in a variety of ways. Incredible production and a plethora of deliciously vile riffs "plague" this album in a great way. The album begins with the crushing "The Carbon Stampede" which collapses the skull with an absolutely crushing opening breakdown that soon evolves into a procession of dizzying technical riffs. The Harvest Floor showcased a lot of newfound technical mastery but Monolith fleshes out the band's technical skill and increases it tenfold. The song "Gristle Licker" really shows that off with its off-kilter, noisy riffs, complex start and stop rhythmic patterns and awe-inspiring guitar sweeps. But the band did not go completely tech death on this record. You've still got the very thrash inspired "deathgrind" riffing on most of the tracks, most notably "Projectile Ovulation". One must also note the band's newfound since of melodicism not just in the music but the vocals as well. The track "Lifestalker"s bridge features emotionally charged melodic riffs and solos and Travis Ryan's unique vocal delivery. Travis Ryan is known for having a unique voice, but besides the disgusting gutturals and high shrieks, he has created a new technique in which he "sings" in a vile sounding high pitched voice. He showcased this vocal technique on the final track on The Harvest Floor, but on Monolith he sings like this all over the place. It's so weird sounding that you can't help but love it. The final two tracks are what made me fall in love with this record in the end. Monolith ends in a similar way that The Harvest Floor ended; with a soft droning track that leads into the final pulverizer. "The Monolith" is a clam, sinister droning track that features primal echoing drums and melancholic clean guitars. Travis sings in a low tone that adds to the tracks sinister, malevolent feel before screaming in the end to signify the album's final turning point. Then "Kingdom of Tyrants" kicks in and Cattle Decapitation goes out with a bang. Deliciously evil sounding riffs are around every corner at the beginning of the album's closer. But the track really gets good around the minute and a half mark when the band once again becomes a melodic, powerful monster with Travis Ryan "scream-singing" over harmonious chords. From beginning to end Monolith of Inhumanity is superior to The Harvest Floor in every way imaginable.
I really had no problems with the record besides a few songs I didn't care for as much as the others. "Forced Gender Assignment"s lengthy breakdown during its final moments kind of got a little cliché and "Your Disposal" repetitive melodic riff just didn't stack up to the rest of the songs that came before or after it.
But nitpicky things aside, Monolith of Inhumanity is one of the best metal records to be released so far this year. It's heavy, melodic, emotional and extremely creative all at the same time. Cattle Decapitation has woven a beautifully vile metal blanket that I will envelop myself in for years to come. Do not miss out on this record.
Rating: 9/10
Label: Metal Blade
Release Date: May 8th, 2012
Favorite Tracks: "The Carbon Stampede", "A Living, Breathing Piece of Defecating Meat", "Gristle Licker", Lifestalker", "The Monolith" and "Kingdom of Tyrants".
For Fans of: Cephalic Carnage, Carcass, Murder Construct and Origin.


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Dear Readers: Blount Today to close
Bill Harris of Town & Country Realty in Kingsport attended the 2007 Tennessee Association of Realtors annual convention held at the Hilton Resort in Sandestin, Fla. He is pictured with Martha Galyon, president of the Blount County Association of Realtors; Susan Myers and Martha McCampbell, current directors; and Angie Kirby, who serves as a committee chair.
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The Mountaineers defense came off a brilliant performance against the eleventh ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys last week. WVU pulled off the upset and a lot of credit went to the defense.
The West Virginia defense looked to build off their success from last week but anything that was built up was quickly torn down when the team suffered a 73-42 loss to Baylor.
The Mountaineers defense has seen a lot of praise this season with an offense that has a lot of questions surrounding it; the defense seemed to be the backbone of the team. However, the defense was knocked down a peg at the hands of the Baylor Bears.
The speedy offense of Baylor torched the Mountaineers defense all game long. To put things into perspective, it only took 41 seconds into the game for Baylor to find the end zone. After the initial touchdown the Bears never let up on the accelerator.
"We couldn't stop their tempo, "said nose tackle, Shaq Rowell. "We got flat out beat."
Flat out beat is a good way to sum things up. The Mountaineers couldn't keep up with Bear's fast-paced offense regardless of whatever scheme or coverage was put into play.
"They string you from sideline to sideline," said defensive coordinator Keith Patterson. "They physically beat us."
Baylor amassed a total of 872 yards of total offense against the Mountaineers. The Mountaineer's defense looked like the defense of last year and that's not something the Mountaineer want to hear.
Baylor's dominance is a real eye opener for the Mountaineers. The Mountaineer's defense prior to this game were really establishing themselves as a great defensive unit in the Big 12. Although Baylor is a force to be reckoned with and should win the Big 12 with ease, the Mountaineers can't shrug this loss off by just accepting the fact they lost to a really good team.
The Mountaineers need to fix all of their mistakes and really evaluate what went wrong. Pinpointing their errors against this high paced offense is crucial moving forward.
"We have a lot of flaws right now, we need to correct them, "said Isaiah Bruce. "[This loss] just makes us realize exactly where we're at right now; we're not where we want to be."
No defense can be where they want to be after giving up video game like numbers in a big-time loss. The Mountaineers will need to improve when it comes to facing fast teams like Baylor. In this day and age college football continues to get faster. In the Big 12 this is especially true, with teams like Oklahoma State and Baylor the high tempo offenses will be present year after year.
When a team struggles, a lot of the blame is directed towards the coaches. Former Mountaineer great, Pat White is calling out head Coach Dana Holgorsen on his leadership ability. Defensive coordinator Keith Patterson also put blame on himself for this pitiful defensive performance.
"Obviously, I didn't have them prepared," Coach Patterson said after the game.
Despite taking the blame, Darwin Cook refuses to believe that it's on the coaches.
"I know Coach Patterson's going to take a lot of the credit for this, but it's not on him, "said Cook. "We were well prepared on defense. The reality, we just came out here and laid an egg."
The Mountaineers head into a bye this week. This will allow the team much needed time to evaluate where they stand. A 3-3 overall record and a 1-2 record in the Big 12 the Mountaineers season has taken a negative turn.
The Mountaineers will look to rebound after bye week when they meet Texas Tech at home for another Big 12 match-up.
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Right-wingers have better bodies than Left-wingers, according to new research, sort of
Conservatives are more likely to be musclebound simpletons who think with their biceps, according to new research.
Yes, yes, all right, that's not quite what it says. But we do report today that physically strong men are more likely to support aggressive foreign policies, usually those espoused by the Right in US politics. Clearly I am the caring-yet-titanically-well-muscled exception to the rule ("Hey, baby. Want two tickets for the Gun Control Show?").
I have no reason to doubt that the findings are accurate. Science Daily has the research as saying that "physically strong men have a greater sense of entitlement, a shorter fuse on anger, and are more likely to turn aggressive when angry," and are "more likely to believe in the utility of political aggression as a means of resolving conflicts of interest." They also point out that while Hollywood is made up of wishy-washy Lefty-liberal bien pensants, the ones who wear singlets and wield pretend pistols and/or plastic swords for a living (Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Norris, Willis) are more likely to be gung-ho Right-wingers who want to invade everywhere, then blow it up, then invade it again.
This isn't the first piece of research that discusses the physical and mental differences between liberals and conservatives. It's relatively well documented that (self-described) conservatism is also linked to more activity in the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for the fear response, and that conservatives react more strongly to signs of danger, while (self-described) liberals are more likely to seek new experiences, because their brain is dosed up to reward them for novel sensations.
What this shows us, of course, is that humans are not the perfect all-purpose reasoning machines that we like to think of ourselves as, but evolved mammals with highly developed systems for getting the best out of our environment – or, more specifically, the environment we evolved in. And if we were more likely to do well, evolutionarily speaking, from violence, then we would be more likely to think it's a good idea. The authors of the study say that our mental systems were "designed by natural selection at a time when personal physical aggression was far more common and individual differences in fighting ability were far more relevant for the resolution of conflicts." So people who would do well out of physical aggression tend to favour it; those who didn't tended, understandably, to favour conflict resolution, dialogue, running away etc.
As Jonathan Haidt, the author of The Righteous Mind whom I met last night (and in whose presence I had an embarrassing attack of the fanboys), might say, this is just another reminder that conservatives need liberals and vice versa. Neither side has a special window on truth, and if our foreign policy opinions really are heavily based on whether or not we have good muscle tone, then they are not the product of pure rationality. In which case, a balancing act of liberal yin and conservative yang is probably our best bet, as broad-shouldered Right-wingers seek to charge around blowing up imagined enemies, and pigeon-chested Lefties timidly suggest that we go and inspect their nuclear facilities instead.
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Allison and I decided long ago that we were going to fulfill one of our life dreams and go on the Sound of Music tour, our reason for going to Austria in the first place. I still remember watching the movie over and over and over when I was younger (and singing and dancing along, of course).
So, after a day in Vienna, we took a three-hour train ride early the next day to Salzburg. We passed through the countryside and arrived in a town surrounded by snow-covered mountains. Now I understand why Maria would leave the abbey to go sing in the mountains. Salzburg is absolutely GORGEOUS.
We definitely lucked out on our tour. Apparently, it had been raining for the past week and half but there wasn't a drop of rain that day. Our tour guide was very entertaining and as we drove to the various locations to see where certain scenes from the movie were shot, we all listened to songs from the Sound of Music that I still can't get out of my head. There were also people from all over the world on our bus, but apparently, most Austrians don't know much about the movie at all!
I don't want to ruin any surprises for those of you who want to take the tour someday, but here are a few pictures of my favorite parts of the tour. Can you recall what scenes they are from?
Allison and I had a blast together and it definitely was a dream come true!


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MILTON (WKOW) -- Milton police say there is a potentially dangerous competition that the local high school student are engaging in.
Students are competing in a "Nerf Gun War". The object is to "shoot" other participants with a Nerf gun bullet. Once someone is struck, they are eliminated from the game.
The real danger is students are firing in traffic at moving vehicles, furthermore, breaking into homes in the middle of the night to shoot participants as they sleep. Police caution students, saying these acts could be considered criminal and there is great risk involved when breaking into unknown dwellings. Owners could arm themselves out of fear of a true burglary taking place.
Milton police are also asking parents to speak with their kids about the very real dangers involved.
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Don't forget that Menifee 24/7 has other sections besides this main news feed on our blog site. They are listed on the top bar of this home page. Check them daily for updates.
Today in our columns section, you can read Michelle Walsh's latest "Menifee Mom" column, one of our most popular new features. That section also includes Editor Doug Spoon's tribute to two departed leaders of the community, Carmelita Rood and Tom Carpenter, and Bill Rhoads' latest "tips on life."
Special note: We are looking for a male, approximately between the ages of 25 and 50, to write a weekly column for us. The working theme is "a man's adventures in Menifee." We'd like to have a man's perspective on the recreational opportunities here -- hiking, horseback riding, off-roading, fishing, maybe just working on your car. In short, what would you like to brag to the other guys about or what secrets about our scenic area would you like to let them in on?
If you're interested in applying for this position, email email@example.com and tell us why you're a good fit for the job. Include some writing samples if possible.
Thanks, and enjoy the columns section along with the rest of our website.
Check Out the Latest News, Opinions in Our Columns Section
Don't forget that Menifee 24/7 has other sections besides this main news feed on our blog site. They are listed on the top bar of this home page. Check them daily for updates.
1 Comments:
- AnonymousMarch 10, 2013 4:13 PM
bill we love you keep up the good workReplyDelete
Menifee 24/7 welcomes comments from readers in response to posts on our website and on our Facebook page. Comments on our website must be submitted through a Google account with the user's full name. No anonymous comments are allowed. On both the website and our Facebook page, use of profanity, personal attacks, statement as fact of things that have not been substantiated, or statements of a generally offensive tone are prohibited.


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Fact-checking the Frankel-Hasner race in South Florida
We look at dueling ads in a the congressional race for a seat representing Broward and Palm Beach counties.
By Amy Sherman :: Published on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 at 11:02 a.m.
We want to hear your suggestions and comments. For tips or comments on our campaign promise database, please e-mail the Obameter. If you are commenting on a specific promise, please include the promise number. For comments about our Truth-O-Meter or Flip-O-Meter items, please e-mail the Truth-O-Meter. We're especially interested in seeing any chain e-mails you receive that you would like us to check out. If you send us a comment, we'll assume you don't mind us publishing it unless you tell us otherwise.
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K-12 Teacher Opportunities
The Museum of Science's Gateway Project will be hosting one of their Institutes at MCLA on July 15-17, 2014. One of the project's goals is to build a cohesive STEM program through out school districts. More information can be found in this flier or by contacting the Gateway Project directly at email@example.com or their website
Past Events
STEM Teacher Externship: The Berkshire County Regional Employment Board is accepting applications for externships. Download their application here or visit their website at www.bcreb.com. Contact: Heather Shogry-Williams, Youth Director, at 413-442-7177 x151 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Vocational Schools Grant from the state. The deadline is April 10, 2013. The grant is to help schools to purchase equipment. The awards are up to $25,000 (without a match) or $100,000 with a 1:1 match. The guidelines and the application form will be on our teacher's webpage till the deadline has past.
Youth Environmental Summit: for students in grades 3-12 to gather for a day to share the findings of their science and environmental studies projects with other students through presentations and hands-on workshops. This event occurs on 23 May 2013 from 8:45am-1:30pm at Berkshire Community College. For more information email email@example.com or visit www.flyingcloudinst.org
Bridging Engineering, Science, & Technology (BEST) for Elementary Educators will be hosting a professional developments session at MCLA on April 25, 2013 from 9:45-3:00. A similar workshop was held last year and was a lot of fun and a great success. Click here for more information and how to register.
UMASS Nanotechnology 2013 Summer Institute for Middle & High School opportunities. Earn college credits or PDPs. Visit their website for more information.
MCLA's Education Department just released the course offerings for Spring 2013.
Berkshire Mathematics and Science Partnership: This program offers professional development and graduate level courses for Middle School Teachers.
The Regional Science Resource Center provides supplies and resources for STEM-related programs.
Upper Housatonic Valley Experience
NASA's STEM Program for Teachers
Return to the STEM Network Website


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When historians look back and try to understand how the George W. Bush administration managed to trample the Constitution and transgress the Geneva Conventions with near impunity, our mainstream media will stand out as one of the primary culprits.
Case in point: Sunday's New York Times report on President Bush's veto of a bill that sought to prohibit the CIA from using torture techniques such as waterboarding. Here's the lede:
President Bush on Saturday further cemented his legacy of fighting for strong executive powers, using his veto to shut down a Congressional effort to limit the Central Intelligence Agency's latitude to subject terrorism suspects to harsh interrogation techniques.
There you have it. According to The Times, Bush's legacy of gutting and subverting our Constitution in a patently authoritarian, fascistic manner is defined as merely "fighting for strong executive powers." Such reporting is as absurd as summing up a man's inclination to beat his wife as an act that depicts a strong male role in marriage. During the Bush years, this kind of intellectually dishonest, apologetic journalism has done grave damage to our country and the rest of the world. The smattering of begrudging mea culpas aside, such reportorial distillations in our mainstream media, in which reality is jettisoned for unmitigated transcription of White House talking points, has not, as conventional wisdom keeps telling us, subsided much, if at all, since the earliest drumbeats to invade Iraq. (Ask yourself as well, for example, how a study released nearly six months ago that an estimated 1 million Iraqis have died as a result of the US invasion of Iraq received virtually no coverage; the Los Angeles Times was the only major US newspaper to report on it; US network news completely ignored the study.)
This particular Times article (which only gets worse) underscores the disingenuous depths to which our paper of record is willing to sink. President Bush vetoes a bill intended to stop the CIA from using torture techniques, including waterboarding - which dates back to the Spanish Inquisition, was a favorite practice of the Gestapo, and for which the US tried and hanged Japanese soldiers after WWII - and The Times boils down the entire veto to politics and a factually inaccurate, Bush-approved narrative of his legacy.
This is a disgraceful piece of reporting, as damaging, or more damaging because of The Times' stature and influence on the rest of the media, than any yellow journalism disseminated by Fox News and its minions. If The Times is portraying Bush's despotic desire to continue torturing as nothing more than an effort to retain "strong executive powers," then it sets the bar lower for not only the rest of the media but especially those outlets, like a Fox News, that portray the Bush administration and its actions in a positive light no matter what the situation.
The Times article, written by Steven Lee Myers, continues with a veritable lexicon of Bush-era, media-transcribed talking points, disingenuous frames and deficient-by-omission details:
Mr. Bush vetoed a bill that would have explicitly prohibited the agency from using interrogation methods like waterboarding, a technique in which restrained prisoners are threatened with drowning and that has been the subject of intense criticism at home and abroad. Many such techniques are prohibited by the military and law enforcement agencies.
First, waterboarding is not an interrogation technique but an historically known torture technique. Second, as Malcolm Nance, a former master instructor and chief of training at the U.S. Navy Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape School (SERE) who applied waterboarding to US soldiers to prepare them in the case of capture, has attested to time and again, an individual administered waterboarding is in the process of drowning. It is not "simulated drowning" as it has so often been described in the media. Nor are they being "threatened with drowning," as The Times misleadingly states here. To paraphrase Nance, one is either drowning or has drowned; there is no in between. During waterboarding, water fills your lungs and you can't breathe. You're drowning. Nothing is being simulated.
Moreover, techniques like waterboarding are not only prohibited by the military and law enforcement agencies but also by international law, as stated in the Geneva Conventions. Additionally, a US president's executive decision to carry out torture is also a breach of our Constitution, on which President Bush swore to uphold upon taking office. So how does The Times justify omitting that Bush's past torture, his veto to continue torturing and any future torture directed by him are all explicit acts in direct violation of these two guiding statutes of US domestic and international law? This isn't a question of point of view; it is a question of reporting the facts or omitting them, of giving the public sufficient substantive details to assess what's actually at issue or obfuscating them.
The veto deepens his battle with increasingly assertive Democrats in Congress over issues at the heart of his legacy. As his presidency winds down, he has made it clear he does not intend to bend in this or other confrontations on issues from the war in Iraq to contempt charges against his chief of staff, Joshua B. Bolten, and former counsel, Harriet E. Miers.
Mr. Bush announced the veto in the usual format of his weekly radio address, which is distributed to stations across the country each Saturday. He unflinchingly defended an interrogation program that has prompted critics to accuse him not only of authorizing torture previously but also of refusing to ban it in the future. "Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists," he said.
Bush isn't a profligately criminal US president; instead he's a fighter
who's "made it clear he does not intend to bend in this or
other confrontations," in which he has clearly lied to the American
public and repeatedly broken the law. He's the same strong leader who
"unflinchingly defended an interrogation program that has
prompted critics to accuse him not only of authorizing torture
previously but also of refusing to ban it in the future." Moreover,
"critics" aren't just accusing him of this; it's a reality-based fact:
President Bush authorized waterboarding and other known torture
techniques, including stress positions. Fact. This veto expressly seeks
to "legally" retain the CIA's ability to continue to torture terrorism
suspects. Fact.
And on and on this despicable reporting goes: according to The Times, Bush's veto "underscored his determination to preserve many of the executive prerogatives his administration has claimed in the name of fighting terrorism, and to enshrine them into law." Slight omission: each of these "executive prerogatives" is unconstitutional and only by subverting the precepts of American democracy will he be able to "enshrine them into law." Much in the same way that Adolph Hitler "legally" justified everything he perpetrated (please note: this comparison to Hitler is directly related to his tactics for subverting the rule of law, many of which the Bush administration has applied since the 9/11 attacks). As Katrina Vanden Heuval pointed out in her 2005 piece "I Am Free--To Think--To Speak":
Historian Alan Bullock writes that Hitler's dictatorship rested on the constitutional foundation of a single law, the Enabling Law. Hitler needed a two-thirds vote to pass that law, and he cajoled his opposition in the Reichstag to support it. Bullock writes that "Hitler was prepared to promise anything to get his bill through, with the appearances of legality preserved intact." And he succeeded.
Hitler's originality lay in his realization that effective revolutions, in modern conditions, are carried out with, and not against, the power of the State: the correct order of events was first to secure access to that power and then begin his revolution. Hitler never abandoned the cloak of legality; he recognized the enormous psychological value of having the law on his side. Instead, he turned the law inside out and made illegality legal.
The Times even revs up the cognitive dissonance by mentioning in the same article:
The administration has also moved ahead with the first military tribunals of those detained at Guantánamo Bay, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, despite calls to try them in civilian courts.
Yet it fails to note that not only was Khalid Shaikh Mohammed waterboarded (which CIA Director Michael Hayden admitted to Congress last month) but that this was precisely how the government extracted his "confession."
This irresponsible reporting beats on with the very next frame: "All
are issues that turn on presidential powers. And as he has through
most of his presidency, he built his case on the threat of terrorism."
Yes, "all are issues that turn on presidential powers" but that, most significantly, threaten the fabric of our democracy. And sure, he has
"built his case on the threat of terrorism" since 9/11, yet his
justifications have been proven innumerable times to be based on an
underlying desire not to protect America but to "cement" his ability to
rule with despotic power. Again, not opinion. Fact. To ignore this,
to not at least balance the Bush talking points with examples that run
counter to the administration's narrative, is to be complicit in
promulgating its narrative.
That's not reporting. That's unadulterated, grade A, 100% propaganda.
Near the end of this article, The Times presents the view of one presidential scholar, who, by largely repeating the same blunted truths, only adds to the mealy-mouthed quality of this report:
Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution, said Mr. Bush's actions were consistent with his efforts to expand executive power and to protect the results of those efforts. Some, he said, could easily be undone — with a Democratic president signing a bill like the one he vetoed Saturday, for example — but the more Mr. Bush accomplished now, the more difficult that would be. "Every administration is concerned with protecting the power of the presidency," he said. "This president has done that with a lot more vigor."
Once more, the profligate and shameless criminality of this president is chalked up to his "vigor" in "protecting the power of the presidency," this time through the eyes of a scholar, who, at least as captured in this article, conveniently mirrors the frames, omissions and understatements of its author, Times reporter Steven Lee Myers.
Between The Times' pre-Iraq War coverage, its sitting on the NSA wiretapping story for a year and its feckless handling of the recent John McCain lobbyist "affair" (in which it not only sat on another story - this time until McCain gained the GOP nomination - but also torpedoed the substantive nature of the investigation, his behind-the-scenes deals for lobbyists, by leading with the half-baked portion of the report, the alleged affair with lobbyist Vicki Iseman), The Times has compiled an miserable track record under the executive editorial leadership of Bill Keller.
Maybe Keller was a great reporter. Maybe his editorial work was exceptional prior to taking on his current role, in which he's served since 2003. But it's clear Keller has been a lousy executive editor for The Times. During a period when the most secretive and criminal administration in our nation's history has held office, The Times, under Keller's stewardship, has too often shown an apprehension to report the cold hard facts in an intellectually honest and timely fashion.
His leadership at our paper of record has not only damaged journalism but our country as well, supplying fodder to those who revile freedom of the press (such as those cretins who literally called for Keller's head after The Times finally reported on the wiretapping scandal) while playing politics with the truth and withholding information from those who are believers in this First Amendment right.
It's time for Bill Keller to step down. Steven Lee Myers' article is one more piece of evidence to justify Mr. Keller's exit.


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I know it's early but PFF came out with their top fantasy free agents list so I figured we could start the discussion.
Obviously we are set at QB and Kicker.
TE: We have Cook and Graham back. Stevens could be back at cheap. I'd like to explore locking Cook up.
RB: Will we stay with Johnson, Ringer, Harper. Hall has to be resigned unless they think Harper can play FB.
WR: Here's upgrade time. Britt should be at 100%. Washington and Williams make a perfect 3 and 4. Mariani stays on as returner. #1 is obviously Wallace but no way Pitt lets him go. I think the best fit is Stevie Johnson. Elite speed to stretch to field (will fit great with Locker's arm) and is only 25. Plus he runs routes so well he actually excels against Revis. Just my opinion. Would also like Bowe or Colston.
O-Line- We need a middle of the line upgrade badly. Our 18-24 pick can net you the #1/#2 G/C in the draft. My pick is David Decastro. Carl Nicks and Ben Grubbs are also FA. Also Chris Myers is a FA. He's the best C in football.
DT: We're set with Casey, Klug, and Smith. Marks is an X-Factor.
DE: Morgan is starting to turn the corner. The rest of the guys are pretty one dimensional. Could be our few round pick. Abraham or Mathis would be a studly stopgap. Mario Williams would be a coup.
LB: Ayers and McCarty are long-term starters. We have Witherspoon next year. One more guy would be nice. Third round pick?
CB: The big question is whether we resign Cort. McCourty, Verner, and Mouton should be sufficient.
Safety: Hope has to go. I'd love to resign Jordan B. Campbell shows potential. Griffin should be resigned too.


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This tutorial is to help you learn how to convert a regular color photo into a sepia toned photo. This can turn a dull photo into a more interesting artsy photo. Ok, once you have your photo open in photoshop:
1. Convert the photo to black and white using a new Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer. If you need more help with this step please refer to our tutorial on "Converting Photos to Black and White."
(with the background layer selected)
2. Open a new Photo Filter Ajdustment Layer. (Image>Adjustments>Photo Filter)
3. Change the Filter to Sepia. Adjust the Density to your liking, for this example I used 60%. And make sure Preserve Luminosity is selected.
For Further Training on Retouching Photos:
Check out this in-depth eBook on how to do professional yet subtle photo adjustments that really bring out the best attributes of any photo. PictureCorrect readers can receive 15% off by entering the discount code picturecorrect. It can be found here: Understanding Post-Processing
Don't Miss The Next New Article!
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To get to Hempstead and attend the second presidential debate, I had to leave Plattsburgh first.
I gassed up at a Stewart's Shop and grabbed two michigans for the road and set out from the overcast chill of Plattsburgh to the crisp, clear autumn of Nassau County.
I cruised the normally long trip in five and a half hours, and after a brief stop in Queens to pick up my mother, Christine Tully, we made our way to Hofstra University and the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The coliseum, the home of the New York Islanders, was where attendees had been instructed to park their cars and pick up their tickets. The process was painless, and Hofstra's student volunteers helped direct hundreds of people to lines for ticket pickups, refreshments and coach buses that would shuttle us to the debate hall.
All types of people milled through the corridor of the venue. Men wearing expensive suits and ties and women with designer dresses and pinpoint stiletto heels stood in line with people wearing blue jeans, sweaters and sneakers. What these people shared was the tickets they held, described by news anchors as "the hardest tickets to get on Long Island."
Money could not purchase those tickets, and of 6,500 Hofstra students who entered the raffle to get one, no more than 300 did.
After going through a security check of metal detectors and another line, we crowded onto coach buses. The ride was just minutes long, yet it passed through security checkpoints staffed by what seemed to be every police officer in Nassau County. Everywhere one looked there were cop cars parked sideways across double-yellow lines. Their lights flashed and motors ran, and I could smell car exhaust on the air until I entered the debate hall.
The inside of the debate hall was packed. In the hall was the stage, the carpeted area where television viewers would see the candidates, 82 undecided voters chosen to ask questions and the moderator, Candy Crowley.


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- Directory
- President
- Administrative Council
- Board of Trustees
- Academic Affairs
- Enrollment Management & Marketing Department
- Alumni
- Archives
- Center for Student Services
- Conference & Event Planning
- Finance & Business
- Human Resources
- Information Technology & Media
- Office of Institutional Advancement
- Physical Facilities
- Post Office
- Registrar
Nursing-Grad Instruction
Kathleen Donaher
Associate Professor - Grad Nursinge firstname.lastname@example.com
t 781-768-7456
PhD, Nursing Health Policy, University of Massachusetts, Boston, 2004
MS, Nursing Administration, University of New Hampshire, 1998
BA, Economics, Emmanuel College, Boston, 1982
Diploma, Nursing, Lowell General Hospital School of Nursing, 1977
Prior to joining Regis College in 2008, Dr. Donaher was School Health Advisor for Performance Improvement at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She has extensive teaching experience from Excelsior College, University Massachusetts Boston, and University of New Hampshire. She was a Medical Surgical Staff Nurse and Critical Care Unit Staff and Charge Nurse; Medical Review Specialist at a disability management company in Woburn, MA; and Utilization Review and Quality Assurance Coordinator at University Hospital in Boston. She is also sole proprietor of Reciprocal Envisioning.
Dr. Donaher joined Regis College as Associate Professor in August 2008 bringing more than 30 years of experience in academia, hospital and insurance industries. She currently serves as the Director of the Health Informatics Program for the School of Nursing, Science and Health Professions, launching one of the first Graduate Certificates in Health Informatics to be recognized by the state of Massachusetts. The informatics curriculum currently services three programs: Master's in Health Administration (MHA), Master's in Nursing Leadership and Health Informatics (MNL-HI) and the Doctorate in Nursing Practice. Her research interest and expertise lie in the development and testing of academic - practice partnerships with implications for delivery system performance. Her work has been recognized nationally, as well as in South Africa (supported by Kaneb funding) and China. Before joining Regis College, Dr. Donaher led the performance improvement efforts of the Massachusetts Essential School Health Services Program. Prior to that she served as a senior analyst in Quality Health Informatics with Tufts Health Plan. This built on her 20 years of experience working as a nurse, progressing through roles in utilization review, quality assurance, disability management, and health policy. Passionate and committed to public service, she resides in Massachusetts; serving on the Health Information Technology - Health Information Exchange Advisory Committee, as co-chair of consumer and public engagement.
Tuxbury, J., N. Street, A. Lawton, and K. Donaher (in progress). Breaking Down Barriers to Informatics Deployment through Education: the Haiti Project.
Christiansen, S., S. Garman, A. Bowen, and K. Donaher (in progress). Apps, Ambulatory and Upgrades: Learning Outcomes of Informatics Education.
Hayes, Glynn, Sugrue and K. Donaher. 2010. Addressing the Demand for Education and Professional Development in Health Informatics. Poster presented at ANIA-CARING Annual Conference, "Re-Evolution in Nursing Informatics," Boston, Massachusetts, April 22-24.
Hayes, Glynn, Sugrue and K. Donaher. 2010. "Addressing the Demand for Education and Professional Development in Health Informatics." Poster presented at NENIC Annual Conference, Waltham, Massachusetts, May 13.
Donaher, K. 2010. "Implementing Meaningful Use." Panelist at Academy Health Interest Group Session. John B. Hines Boston, Massachusetts, June 26.
Donaher, K. 2009. "The Competencies Needed by Nurse Managers." Presented at Leading Change: Building Healthier Nations. ICN Durban, South Africa, June 27 – July 4.
Read, M., P. Gilanz, A. Sheetz. 2008. "Evaluating Parent Satisfaction in School Nursing." Accepted presenter at National Association of School Nursing.
Donaher, K. 2007. "Managing Professional Nursing Practice Competencies Inventory." Poster presented at Eastern Nursing Research Society, Rhode Island.
Donher, K. 2007. "Evidenced Based Management Practices: Development and Psychometric Testing." Presented at University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland.
Donaher, K. 2005. "Human Capital Competencies Inventory: Development and Psychometric Testing." Accepted speaker at International Nursing Conference Second Military, University Shanghia, China.
Donaher, K. 2004. "Human Capital Competencies Inventory: Development and Psychometric Testing." Poster presented at Nursing Management Congress, Chicago, Illinois.
Donaher, K. 2002. "Workplace Leadership." Posted presented at Conference on Creating a Healthy Workplace, Registered Nurse Association of Ontario, Ontario, Canada.
Donaher, K. 1998. "Leadership in the Workplace." New Hampshire Nurses Association Annual Spring Convention, Manchester, New Hampshire.
Donaher, Scoble, Russell and Chen. 2007. "The Human Capital Competencies Inventory for Developing Nurse Managers." The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 38(6) 277-283.
Read, Small, Donaher, Gilsanz, and Sheetz. 2009. "Evaluating Parent Satisfaction of School Nursing Services." Journal of School Nursing, 25(3) 205-213.
Co-Curricular Mini-Grants Award, Regis College. Gusiora, C., L. Keegan, C. Davison, J. Pollard, K. Kaur, C. Pouravelis and K. Donaher (in progress), "Graduate Student Burnout: A Feasibility Project," 2012
Academic Achievement Award, University of Massachusetts-Boston, 2004
Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, inducted as community leader, 2002
State of New Hampshire, Governors Citation State Health Planning, 1996
Emmanuel College, Distinction in the field of concentration
Nursing Department
e email@example.com
Mailing Address
Regis College
College Hall 331
235 Wellesley Street
Weston, MA 02493
PO Box 10


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Simmons College
Job Title: Open-Rank Tenure-Track Faculty
Contact Name: Jeannette Bastian
Contact Title: Professor
School/Program: Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Institution: Simmons
College Address: 300
Phone: 617-521-2808 Fax:617-521-3192
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Website: http://www.simmons.edu/gslis/
Job description
Simmons GSLIS invites applicants and nominations for a full-time open-rank tenure-track position to begin July 1, 2013.
We seek faculty in the area of digital stewardship, digital preservation, digital curation, or data curation. In addition to having research and teaching expertise in one or more of these areas, the faculty would lead our recently launched online advanced certificate in digital stewardship and be expected to further a developing digital stewardship curriculum at the master's level.
The faculty may also teach in the core curriculum as needed. Consideration of applications will begin on October 18, 2012 and will continue until the position is filled.
The position has been posted to: https://jobs.simmons.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=51819.


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Is this really the worst hotel in the world? Photo: Chris Van Hove
It's a fairly bold move to call yourself the worst hotel in the world. After all, there's no shortage of dodgy places out there vying for the title. Hotels with bedbugs and blocked plumbing, dirty linen and broken furniture. Hotels where there is mould in the bathroom and cigarette burns on the sheets, bad electrical wiring and broken locks on the doors. Hotels where the surly, sleazy staff believe the customer is always wrong. And yet along comes Amsterdam's Hans Brinker Hotel, proudly proclaiming to be the worst hotel in the world.
It's quite the canny marketing campaign: take one lacklustre, low budget hotel, play up its shortcomings, and successfully separate it from the pack of other grubby mega-hostels in Amsterdam.
Featuring marketing gems such as "Hans Brinker Budget Hotel: it can't get any worse… but we'll do our best" and "Now a door with every room!" the decades-long campaign has been a huge viral success. Most importantly it has ensured a consistently high occupancy rate: after all, which 20 something doesn't want to brag on social media about surviving the world's worst hotel?
Bare essentials: Rooms at the Hans Brinker. Photo: Chris Van Hove
But amongst all the well-crafted hype, one question remained: is Hans Brinker really all that bad? One Friday night I booked a twin room for €79 (A$106) and decided to find out.
On paper, I'll admit the hotel had the potential to be horrid: with 550 beds, it was bound to pack people in like sardines. With such an obnoxious marketing campaign, it had to have indifferent staff. And with its basement nightclub open until 4 am, it promised little sleep.
Curiously though, Hans Brinker is located in a more gentrified part of Amsterdam. The nearest cross street is know for its fine art and antique stores, the hotel is on a mainly residential street with an Italian deli, a few galleries, tattoo parlours and bike shops.
Just a run-down hostel catering to young people. Photo: Chris Van Hove
Entering the hotel, I discover first impressions last at Hans Brinker, mainly because the lobby's special stench of stale beer and old cigarette smoke will seep into your clothes and hair, lingering for days.
The lobby is cluttered with peeling posters, beer vending machines and people: one group with luggage waiting to be checked in by the sole receptionist, another made up of guests waiting to be buzzed out of the secure building. A souvenir cabinet by reception catches my eye. It's filled with books, lighters and mugs bearing the slogan "The Worst Hotel in the World" (Coffee cups cost €4.95 or A$7.14; if you're over 40, they cost €14.95 or A$21.57).
Eventually, I'm checked in en masse with five others, while a staff member loads a vending machine with cans of beer. The receptionist tells us to all pay attention at once so she doesn't have to repeat herself (not exactly customer-focused, but time-efficient).
The souvenir cabinet by reception at Hans Brinker. Photo: Chris van Hove
After forking over €10 (A$14.42) in cash for a key deposit, I head to my room on the 4th floor. Inside, there are two single beds, two lockers, a chair, and a rubbish bin in the room. Surprisingly, there's a small handtowel on the end of the bed and a full roll of toilet paper in the loo. There's even some very bad, framed art on the walls – and the walls look freshly painted.
There are working lights, smoke detectors and the window even opens to allow fresh air in. There's even a view of a church and a courtyard filled with blooming tulips. When I see the tulips, I start to get suspicious. Last time I checked, the world's worst hotel didn't offer a garden view. Could this hotel really be that bad?
I decide the answer to this, like most life questions, lies in the bar. Happy hour runs from 5 pm to 6 pm with two-for-one drinks, but my partner and I hit it up around 8 pm when dinner is being served.
Over a hundred hotel guests sit in groups around picnic tables eating from a menu featuring a selection of backpacker fare: burgers and spaghetti bolognese. I feel like I'm in a school cafeteria, mainly because everyone is very young.
People file in and out, quite a few of them toting, predictably, souvenir bags from either The Bulldog, Amsterdam's most popular tourist coffee shop, or the Heineken Experience, Amsterdam's beer-brand attraction. A few take selfies with the hotel's worst hotel posters, giving the thumbs-up sign. For a Friday night, it's fairly tame stuff, even if it is early. But I have to admit it's the sort of environment I would have relished if I were backpacking for the first time.
As appetising as the spaghetti looks, we dine out. When we return in the AM, it's fairly quiet in the hotel, but almost on cue we have a crystal clear audio on the neighbouring room's (brief but noisy) nocturnal habits. But with the aid of earplugs, we get a decent night's sleep.
The sun might be shining on our stay, but the morning presents a new challenge: with a glass encased box for a bathroom, who should use the loo first?
Showering as a spectator sport can be fun, but being able to wave at your partner from the throne first thing in the morning doesn't encourage romance.
When we check out, there's a free breakfast happening downstairs and the room is packed with hungry, hungover but mostly happy guests. Collecting our key deposit back with a minimum of fuss, we leave the hotel disappointed and underwhelmed. We really had expected a lot worse from the worst hotel in the world.
As suspected, Hans Brinker is just your stock-standard low budget, run-down hostel catering to young people. The only difference is the owners have wisely spent some coin on a decent PR campaign that piqued the curiosity of their target market.
But don't worry. Should you feel the need to tweet, Facebook or Instagram a picture of yourself at the world's worst hotel, I won't tell a soul you're just in another average backpacker dive.
The writer travelled at her own expense.


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While the in West Hempsteadto the public on Wednesday - possibly for good - you can still take a "virtual tour" inside the building that's been at the center of the.
Photographer Andrew Vardakis went inside the notorious hotel while it was still open for business and captured some of the sights that guests would have seen.
Now, you can check them out without ever checking in.


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Dark Souls sequel to bring the series to a wider audience
Not only has From Software confirmed that they are developing a sequel to Darks Souls but they are hoping to extend the series' fanbase with the next game too.
R&D boss for the studio, Masanori Takeuchi has made it clear that they are working on the next game in the series saying, "Of course, it's not over yet. We've always been enamoured by dark fantasy action RPGs. That's just been our core DNA and I think we'll continue to utilise that."
Executive producer, Eiichi Nakajima added that they are hoping to open up the series to many more gamers. He said, "We've always been about making games for the core gamer, and they weren't necessarily games that did well financially, which is too bad."
"The success of both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, which have each sold over a million [units] per title worldwide, has made us shift our thinking internally to not just core gamers, but to globalise our products, that they can be successful on a worldwide scale. That's now one of the key pillars we consider when we develop games in the future," Nakajima continued.
Thanks GameTrailers.
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TCM - pain behind the patella
hi all.
i was looking for a treatment protocol for general knee problems but could not find one in the conditions section. i consulted the arthritis treatment protocol which i figure is at least partially applicable, but still: do you have any particular recommendations for points that are indicated to treat a minor but nasty pain right behind the patella?
thanks a lot.
Check knee first, if there is
Check knee first, if there is not bend knee pain, pressure pain, swell red, bones or soft tissues injury or knee liquid stasis inside, use the points on both Xiyan & Heding with heat lamp 20 minutes, after needling, use herb wine Tuina five minutes, then put on pian killer patches(Zhi Tong Gao) on both side of knee for about 8 hours.
You were on the right track
You were on the right track looking in the acupuncture for arthritis section. Near the bottom of that section there is a part for local points and there is one for the knee there which contains many of the commonly used points. To me the most important and probably underutilized point for the knee is LV 8. The other common points are good - heding, st 35 and xiyan.
Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.
Yin Yang House Acupuncture and Wellness Center
How long has the patient had the pain? Are they a runner or consistant exerciser?
Have you or someone with knowledge of orthopaedics checked the knee?
The first half of the equation is definately treating the knee. The second half of the equation, is taking a look at the patients biomechanics, gait, and activities that may be contributing to the condition, and make corrections as needed.
When working with the knee, I like to clear the channels using the jing well points of the ST, SP, and UB meridians (bleeding tech), tupically on the first treatment, or if experiencing intense pain. After bleeding, I use Heding, Xiyan, K10, LR8, GB34, ST36, SP9, and SP10 (if blood stasis or night time pain exists). If necessary I also you kinesio or acu-taping, then schedule the next appt 3 days later, to remove tape and next treatment.
There are a variety of topical jows and plasters that can be utilized, as well as Evergreen herbs has a great formula for Knee and Ankle (Acute and Chroinc formulas).
Steven Shomo
I usually add contralateral
I usually add contralateral LI-11 if the problem is an excess condition.


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October 21, 2006
Albany - - The lyrics to blues music usually have sad overtunes, but the music brought out the best in people in downtown Albany tonight. The Flint River Beach & Blues Music Street Party is taking place.
It's just a sad love song that you could hear from blocks away. Live music, food, and dancing.
"I had worked all day and we just came out to relax, get a little entertainment," says Benjie Green.
The Flint River Beach & Blues Music Party brought 5 bands together, including the legendary Drifters.
"Made a bunch of calls and pulled out these people together to do this event for the Cancer Coalition," says Organizer Patricia Swain.
The fundraiser didn't go quite as planned.
"People in Albany complain a lot about not having anything to do and this was something for them to do. Our attendance wasn't quite what we anticipated, we had hoped to have a lot more people because they always complain about not having something to do," Swain says.
They anticipated 500 people. Not even half that number showed up.
"It's a wonderful event. I wish there was more turnout. Albany needs more support with these types of functions," says Carol Slappey.
But those who came didn't let the small crowd stop them from having a good time.
"We love beach music and we love the Drifters," Slappey says.
And what a better environment than this to hear them.
"I like the atmosphere that's going on out here," Green says.
Organizers say, the show must go on.
"We've had a good time anyway," says Swain.
Grooving to the sounds of music that brings out the best in people. The Southwest Georgia Cancer Coalition works in 33 counties to eliminate cancer in our region by educating people about the disease and promoting early detection and treatment.
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Friday, 9 August 2013
Sexism and homophobia within gaming communities
6 comments:
Grow up. No one wants to hear your whining. Girls are so privileged in gaming. You don't get half the abuse that guys give to each other, and you get a little taste and spit your dummy. It's pathetic.ReplyDelete
Western Feminism = Heterophobia. Don't get sucked in. Censorship is not the road you want to go down. I had my account suspended and banned on a public warhammer forum by a self confessed manhating feminist and her sidekick, a 30something girl by the online handle of Laurelia + Neytyri. A girl who has whored her way through various men she's met online and in game, and Neytyri who bragged about being bought things all the time, sending people pictures of herself naked and sleeping or trying to sleep with other guy gamers in the community. Maybe you want to look at the LARGER "minority" (if you can even call it that) of GIRL gamers who give you all a bad name rather than pointing at heterosexual men.ReplyDelete
Heterosexual male identity in adolescent situations or environments is about competition and sexual prowess (or perceived), and the strength of that heterosexuality. That means by default a rejection of homosexuality. That isn't going to change. We don't ask women to change, women who attack male heterosexuality/potency constantly in the media and gaming world and communities with NO reprimand or penalty. Get a grip, and shove your victim card where the sun don't shine.ReplyDelete
We should draw awareness to the harm bullying can do, of course. Segregating and refusing to adapt or integrate however, is far more childish and potentially damaging to communities than a bit of namecalling. It is such organisations that promote "US vs THEM" mentality.ReplyDelete
- Viidias11 December 2013 14:17
You were a respected DPS before people found out you were female and you were a respected DPS afterward, to anyone worth a damn. I've been surprised to learn just how many female gamers there were in WAR, it's a shame a few of the louder ones give girl gamers a bad name, but as you say, there are a lot of cocks spoiling the broth for female gamers and for those of us men who enjoy a "diverse" gaming community. Most of what I wrote previously is knee jerk shit that is really directed at perverse discrimination I've experienced the other way from female gamers/admins. Sorry to piss on your blog comments like that. Peace.ReplyDelete
Help my india is the World Best Forum and Blogging Site which provides the all category of forum and blogging and Social Community site.ReplyDelete
Social Communities


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Food Lovers Flock to Festival
8.30am Thursday 3rd July 2008
The west country's finest food and drink was showcased at Bridport's annual two-day food festival.
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Cooking seasonally will make your life easier as a chef, though the opposite will seem true at first.
In culinary school, my favorite class was the Advanced Cooking class. During each session, my colleagues and I were broken down into groups of three or four.
Every day we were given a "mystery basket" of ingredients to work with. The ingredients were infuriating at first, as they all almost went together, but not quite. As budding chefs we were expected to discern how to make them work in a single dish, and pair a beer or wine with said dish.
Oh and we had to complete all of the above in an hour and a half, two hours on pairing days, having never seen the mystery basket ingredients before that moment.
Easier said than done, right? Right, but it trained our brains to think creatively about food and understand how to work within certain parameters.
Seasonal cooking is the same way, but even more fun. Ask any great chef what the secret to his/her success is and the answer will be: start with fresh ingredients. Indeed each dish you make will be instantly elevated by doing so.
The secret about seasonal food is that there is an abundance of it at all times, though it might not always be what you're used to cooking. It stretches your creativity to think outside the box. Get away from using tomatoes in the winter - they're not in season! Instead try your hand at a robust pesto or rich cream sauce.
If you want to broaden your skill set and have some fun, get your best friend, boyfriend/girlfriend, wife/husband or kids to put together a seasonal mystery basket for you.
Here are some upcoming seasonal vegetables to work with in the state of Missouri.
September Harvest
- Basil
- Beets
- Broccoli
- Brussel sprouts
- Cabbage
- Cantaloupes
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Chard
- Cucumbers
- Eggplant
- Garlic
- Grapes
- Green beans
- Kale
- Leeks
- Mushrooms
- Onions
- Parsley
- Pears
- Peppers
- Radishes
- Spinach
- Squash
- Late harvest tomatoes
- Zucchini
Suggested proteins:
- Scallops
- Chicken
- Sausage
- Pork
Suggested herbs and seasonings:
- Oregano
- Thyme
- Sage
- Rosemary
- Basil
- Parsley
- Smoked paprika
- Cumin
- Coriander
- Sea salt
- Pepper, white, black, cayenne
What an abundance! But now I'm going to make it hard. Take a look at this mystery basket idea, think it through, and write me an email telling me what you would make with it. The winning dish will be featured in an upcoming 'Smarter Chef' article on Sunet Hills-Crestwood Patch.
September Mystery Basket
1 pound scallops
1 whole carrot
1 jar smoked paprika
1 head cauliflower
1 head cabbage
1 sprig rosemary
Mustard - your choice on this
1 bottle white balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper
You don't have to use all of the ingredients, but it must be creative and you have to complete the dish in two hours. I will know if you cheat - Good luck!


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Front-Paged. Although I hope this is just a reaction to one bad game, it's really unfortunate that the recent success of the Phillies has made a large portion of the fanbase so impatient. - WC
Tonight, on August 29th, 2011, I witnessed what we should all hope will become the nadir of a long and wonderful baseball-playing career of Domonic Brown. We should hope this because there is so much clearly-demonstrated promise in this young outfielder. And we should hope for better, for him, because any point reaching lower than tonight's nightmare borders on the tragic.
More thoughts after the jump...The double-header, scheduled thanks to tempestuous Hurricane Irene, between the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and the Syracuse Chiefs started off badly for Domonic Brown, and only got painfully worse.
Facing Chiefs left-hander, and Washington Nationals' 2010 Minor League Pitcher of the Year, Tom Milone, Brown struck out in his first at bat of the night to end the bottom of the first inning. This moment, along with Brown's two ground-outs to second (one against Milone in the 4th, the next against south-paw reliever Atahualpa Severino in the 6th) might actually have been the high points of Brown's evening.
To be fair, none of the Iron Pigs did much against Chiefs pitching in either of the 7-inning games (the lone exception might be Freddy Galvis, who looked, tonight at least, like Lehigh Valley's best player). The Iron Pigs were shut-out in both games with identical scores of 4-0, mustering a total of eight hits in the 14 combined innings.
However, Brown's nightmare was not confined to the batter's box, though I'm sure he wishes that it could have been.
In the top of the first inning, the Chiefs began their scoring on the first of Brown's miscues in Left Field. A line-drive off the bat of Jesus Valdez headed straight for Brown, freezing him, with the ball then continuing over his head. Ruled a double, it was a tough play, perhaps the toughest of Brown's numerous misplays on the night, but it was a play he probably should have made.
In the top of the 4th inning, Chiefs' First-Baseman Jeff Frazier hit another line drive to Brown, this time in front of the Iron Pigs' Left Fielder. Brown came sprinting in for the ball, whereupon it clanked off his glove, chest high. Originally ruled E-7, the Official Scorer later took mercy on Brown, granting Frazier a very generous single. This would be the last bit of mercy offered to Domonic Brown.
Brown and the Iron Pigs looked to rebound in Game Two, just 30 minutes after a listless 4-0 loss in Game One. The very first batter of the double-header's second game, the part-time Washington National, Roger Bernadina, lifted a lazy fly ball to left field. But this wasn't just any fly ball. As it headed toward Domonic Brown standing underneath it, Brown's right arm stretched to the sky, the fly ball became a cruel joke, became a disease, became an assassin, became a snow-cone at the end of Brown's glove, became an egg, broken in the soft grass of Coca-Cola Stadium.
The people of Allentown, most of them Phillies fans, were too shocked to boo. They just witnessed the third of Brown's misplays, and the most egregious one, out of four total chances (Brown did catch Steve Lombardozzi's fly ball in the top of game one's 7th inning). The colliding surrealities of the double-header, the extra beers, the psychedelic pink sunset peeking beyond the scattered clouds, made us all think we were all there together, caught inexplicably in Dom Brown's inescapable nightmare.
Wherever we were, and however we got there, the night continued.
After striking out weakly in the bottom of the first inning, it was then that the boo birds made their way through the tightened throats of Lehigh Valley to descend upon the tall, lanky, clearly affected outfielder, wearing, ironically perhaps, jersey number 7.
Two innings later, Dom Brown then struck out again, chasing a low breaking-ball, against Chief's starting pitcher, right-hander Brad Peacock. The boos, a little louder this time, chased Brown back to the dugout, looking like a beaten dog.
An inning and a half later, the top of the 5th, Steve Lombardozzi, perhaps looking for revenge for the one ball Brown caught, sent another one Domonic's way, this time with horrifying results. A lazy fly, Brown settled underneath it, reached his right arm up, and missed it. The ball, laughing all the way down, landed several feet behind Brown, just as the Chief's second baseman took second base on a gift double.
Fighting through disbelief, the boos rained down harder.
My girlfriend and I stood along the right-field fence, just in front of Coca-Cola Field's "Bud Light Trough", with our hands first covering our eyes, shortly thereafter holding our heads. We were sincerely saddened by this string of moments, fruitlessly trying to count the number of Domonic Brown mistakes, perhaps hoping we could enumerate them so we could offer equal number forgivenesses.
Making things worse were the boos, which were only getting more violent. Worse still, the boos all came from white faces, momentarily flushed red from drink and from anger, all aimed at the only black player on the diamond for the Iron Pigs.
I questioned whether the fans wanted Brown to fail, right there in front of their eyes, thereby offering them the gift to lash out at him. To enact their own venomous, slightly veiled, violence.
Myself born in 1976, I imagined, for a moment, 1964 and Dick Allen and Connie Mack Stadium. Could so much history still live in bones and blood of these baseball fans? Are racial tensions reborn deep inside the muddy waters of the Schuylkill River? Are these 8,100 white fans so scared of or disconnected from (or both) Domonic Brown that they can't see the beaten soul out there they are so carelessly trampling upon?
Or maybe none of the racial complications are relevant, and the real truth is that Domonic Brown is a ball-player, and he is being confronted by the mythologically harsh judgement of Philadelphia-area baseball fans.
The optimistic view might be that the Universe (or perhaps BaseBa'al itself) is offering Domonic Brown a profound rite-of-passage-- an impossible, transformational opportunity to transcend from prospect to professional, from athlete to man.
In any case, the evening's indignities were not done with him. Double-switched out of the game after his fourth and final strike-out of the night, Brown endured the roar of the remaining IronPig fans, rejoicing in the announcement that Tagg Bozied was in the game, replacing Brown in left field, and offering a corporeal end to the nightmare (the memory, of course, is able to live on).
As the second game neared its final outs, I spoke with a ballpark usher about the night. I was relieved to hear that this was the first time this usher heard these kinds of boos directed at Brown. He told me he thought the fans were just reacting to a bad night. This bit of news, delivered almost a bit flippantly by the usher, temporarily (and thankfully) suspends my doomsday narrative of The End of Domonic Brown. Perhaps this night, like so many in the incomparably complex and beautiful sport of baseball, was just a bad night—a really terrible, horrible, no good, very bad night.
Perhaps all that's needed is for Domonic Brown to shake it off, rub some dirt on this night, and play a better game tomorrow. And the next day, and the next day. And perhaps if he does, August 29th, 2011, will indeed be the welcoming but painful springboard of rock-bottom.
But perhaps it's true that things aren't as simple as that. Because baseball, acting so often as a mirror that reflects everything around it, is a more complicated animal than simply having good days and bad days, and it's because of these reflective complications that I am so desperately in love with it.
It is my own hope that Domonic Brown can recover from this night, shake the nightmare from his body, and play a game tomorrow more worthy of his talent, more worthy of himself. And if he does, and then plays himself back to Philadelphia after enduring this night (and all that it does or doesn't, may or may not signify), Domonic Brown, fans screaming at him forever, will always be one of my heroes.


text:
Get out your eyeliner, because the man with the darkest lashes in the business is getting ready to make a return to Gotham City.
Variety reports that Nestor Carbonell (who you might also remember as Richard Alpert from "Lost") is in negotiations to reprise his role as the Mayor in Christopher Nolan's upcoming "The Dark Knight Rises." No word yet on how beefed up or not his role will be, or if it's simply for the sake of continuity, but basically, any opportunity to step into one of the biggest films of next year with one of the most acclaimed big budget filmmakers going is a chance any actor will take no matter how long they're gonna be on screen.
Carbonell will join Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Juno Temple, Josh Pence, Daniel Sunjata, Diego Klattenhoff and Burn Gorman with the final confirmations likely to come through on Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard before cameras roll. The film hits on July 20, 2012.
joey | April 19, 2011 1:38 AM
Nestor's coming back? I wasn't too excited for DKR, but now? Count me in.
Abner | April 16, 2011 5:09 AM
Also, might look closer at this phrase "...next year with one of most acclaimed big..."
Abner | April 16, 2011 5:06 AM
you had their/they're confusion, for one. that's enough
rodie | April 15, 2011 9:45 AM
You commenters are hilarious. You frequent a movie site because they blog about detailed and timely movie news, then you make fun of that blog for doing that very thing. Do you also comment on Variety's site that their casting news is not worthwhile? If this post was not interesting to you, then just ignore it.
jim | April 15, 2011 9:35 AM
who is playing Tom Hardy's body double? I must know.
simon | April 15, 2011 9:30 AM
I know what you're getting at, but I wouldn't put "police officer #1", on a par with the best boy grip. That's kind of insulting to a grip.
steve | April 15, 2011 8:40 AM
any word yet on who lands coveted role as "Police Officer #1" or who is handling Best Boy Grip duties???
Kevin Jagernauth | April 15, 2011 8:39 AM
What is incomplete jackass?
Abner | April 15, 2011 8:38 AM
This post is incomplete. Please edit before publishing.


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Jackson police believe the person responsible for a July 6 murder was captured on surveillance video. Detectives are now asking the public for help in identifying the person in the video.
Officer Colendula Green with the Jackson Police Department says the suspect was caught on camera in the 1900 block of North Lamar Street.
Twenty-seven-year-old Latezee Hogan was shot multiple times around 6 a.m. July 6 and his body was found in the roadway near Livingston Street.
Witnesses reported seeing a silver car on Livingston Street with the door opened. If you can identify the man in the pictures and video, please call CrimeStoppers at 601-355-TIPS (8477).
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