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BPL Community Profile
Jim Colten (jcolten) - BPL Premium Member
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All Forum Posts by Jim Colten
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about committees: The Politics of Cottage Consumption
PS: a committee is a dead end into which good ideas are carfully herded to be quietly buried. Here's another one ... "a camel is a horse designed by a committee"
Re: The Politics of Cottage Consumption
The smart consumer will by the best product at the best price, without prejudice as to what segment of the industry produced it, or where it was produced. Ahhhhhh, the smart consumer ... does th...
Re: Packit Gourmet- What dishes are your favorites?
For me its the Burger wraps, gumbo and Smoothies. Stephen, a rule to live by ... eat no cajun food prepared by a person born north of Interstate 10! But I might give it a try, there's exc...
Re: Backyard
@Kat ... kudos on your choice of a backyard! @Nick ... traditionally, Yentels are women;-)
Dances with bears
news article about an encounter with an aggressive black bear
Re: FS: Neoair Small and Patagonia R1 Mens XS
PM sent on the neoair
Re: Cool things to sightsee before Philmont?
* Tour the Air Force Academy * Whitewater rafting on the Arkansas River. Several firms operating out of the Buena Vista, CO area ... 90 miles by road west of Colorado Springs
Re: A Pencil for the JMT -- Solution Found!
Another enjoyable read! Thanks, Nick. But you missed an obvious secondary benefit ... onion paper is edible ... multi-purpose! However ... I ask this with dread in my heart ... are we to inf...
Re: getting bearbag rope over a branch: The SUL Wanderer - Episode 2
Throw the bag like it's a grenade. Doug, If you saw me throw like it is a grenade you'd quickly transfer me out of your foxhole;-) (I tried it this weekend)
All Reader Reviews by Jim Colten
Showing 1 - 3 of 3 | Page: 1
My entry into the world of tarping was with Hernry's orginal squall. Later that year the Cloudburst was introduced. I contacted him about an idea of converting my squall to use an arched front p...
1) good products 2) friendly and useful help before ans after sale 3) great customer service I'd rate Thru-Hiker a 6 if that was an option
Minibull Designs Pocket Puck
Hector, I had similar experience .... but only the first time I lit it. Since then I've been giving the pocket puck about 15-30 seconds more warmup time and it has always stayed lit. There is a...


text: Director II Technology PNC Pittsburgh, PA 9/28/2014 Save Job Sign in Now Email Print Report Apply Now Job Description As a Technology Director, you are a member of PNC's Digital Technology organization of more than 130 professionals. PNC has created numerous award winning digital solutions for customers, including Virtual Wallet, Wealth Insight and Cash Flow Insight. You will be based in Pittsburgh, PA. Your responsibilities include providing strategic leadership in growing and transforming our digital servicing applications, portfolio management, strategic planning, employee performance management, coaching and development. You will report to a Business Information Officer.Your hours largely fall within a normal work week, but there is variability and off-hours work based on the project and production activity. Within the day, there will be a significant variety of activity, with a pace set by business demands, technology stability and customer experience. In your role, you will draw upon communication and leadership skills, highly self-directed and with significant interaction with technology and business professionals at all levels across the organization. PNC's commitment to leadership in digital customer solutions means you will always be at the leading edge of online and mobile technology. All the while, you'll enjoy a highly collaborative environment. Provides, leadership, guidance, expertise and direction to staff and internal external service partners. For an area or specialty technology function, Oversees training and development of direct reports. Provides policy expertise and develops organizational policies/procedures.Manages the budget, succession planning, quality control, performance, and reporting for a major division or LOB production area.Partners with Senior level individuals within the Retail SegmentDrives strategy, policies, and procedures for assigned area.Works with business areas support to review and set service level requirements. Establishes service level reporting requirements. Reviews reports with business leaders as applicableThe successful candidate will have the following qualifications:Typically 10-15 years of prior management experience required. Additional experience would be accepted in lieu of education.Bachelor's degree in business or related field and/or equivalent experience.Strong communication skillsPMP Certification is a plus Job Requirements Job Snapshot Employment Type Full-Time Job Type Retail Education 4 Year Degree Experience Not Specified Manages Others No Relocation No Industry Banking - Financial Services Required Travel Not Specified Job ID 182197BRCBP Apply Now SIMILAR JOBS Director I Technology (Database & Integration) PNC Director I Technology PNC Director of Technology Governance ServiceLink, A Black Knight Company IT Engineer Elliott Group IT Services Manager Crown Castle International Corp.

subset: commoncrawl


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the primary focus of CERP model development efforts, and substantial progress has been made on the NSRSM and in subregional applications of the RSM. In contrast, efforts to develop ecological models, linked ecological-hydrologic models, and biogeochemical or sediment transport models are notably minimal. As a result, project planning and decision making proceeds without complete information as to the ecological and water quality impacts at both a project and regional scale.
Although the concept of economic valuation of ecosystem services is a promising and important one, the committee does not see near-term benefits to its use in the CERP. Developing accurate and defensible estimates of the economic values of ecosystem services in the Everglades will require careful, deliberate, original research and analysis that integrates assessments of aquatic ecosystem functions, services, and individual value estimates. Prerequisites for such an analysis are integrated hydrologic, ecological, and biogeochemical models that can predict the ecosystem services that will likely result from alternative restoration activities; even with such models, the analysis would require a large effort. For this reason, economic valuation of ecosystem services is unlikely to assist near-term decision making. Everglades restoration planners should be alert to specific opportunities when the economic valuation of ecosystem services has the potential to be useful, and, especially, to improve the methods for economic valuation of ecosystem services and adapt them to the Everglades.


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Akuma VS Shang Tsung - DEATH BATTLE!
Episode 2 - Street Fighter VS Mortal Kombat! Akuma, the most powerful Street Fighter, takes on Mortal Kombat's deadly sorcerer, Shang Tsung! Using their unique skill-sets, it's a no-holds-barred duel to the death! Who will win? Who will die?
Want to support the show AND get an epic shirt at the same time? Click here to get the exclusive DEATH BATTLE t-shirt!
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See ya next year, Game of Thrones.
Part of a "Rains of Castamere" series that I've been working on, using some new illustration techniques.
Happy Hobbit Day everyone! Hope your days are filled with pipeweed, ale, and as many meals as you can schedule.
Unfortunately, this marks the end of the infographics for the time being, but thanks for watching!
But really, was Bilbo's discovery of that weak spot useful? At all?
Being a ringbearer comes with many possible benefits. Vacation time negotiable.
(Bilbo seems to have lucked out, guys.)
Travel advice by way of Bilbo, Thorin, and Gollum.
The less a hobbit eats, the more adventurous he becomes. Life lesson, right there.
File under: important things that actually happen in The Hobbit.
That ring probably won't cause any probems in the future though, so it's probably fine.
I bet Legolas really did some hardcore training to prep for his performance in the Return of the King.


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04.03.05 - By Bernie McCoy: What did "Million Dollar Baby" do for the sport of Women's boxing? It set the stage for what could be the biggest and most lucrative fight in the sport. The movie, first and foremost, established Lucia Rijker as the new "face" of Women's boxing. Before the movie "hit big" Rijker was primarily known in the boxing community as the kick boxer who made the most successful transition to the sport of boxing.. Beginning in December, ' 96, Rijker reeled off seventeen straight wins, fourteen by knockout, but even in the boxing world, she was probably best known as the fighter who could not or would not (depending on which camp you listened to) get a bout with Christy Martin, the aboriginal "face" of Women's boxing.
Succeeding Martin at the top of the sport was Laila Ali, by far, the best and the brightest of the group of "famous daughters" who invaded the sport just prior to the turn of the century. Ali KO'd Martin in four one-sided rounds in August ' 03, firmly establishing Ali's succession to the top spot in the sport.
She maintained that lofty position until "Million Dollar Baby" hit the movie screens and Lucia Rijker emerged in the villainous role of "Billie the Blue Bear", who uses unbelievably foul tactics to bring down the heroine of the film, "Maggie Fitzgerald", played by Hillary Swank. Not only was Rijker the black-hearted malefactor in the movie, a role she played with stoic intensity, she also was a key figure behind the scenes, coaching Swank how to move like a fighter inside the ring. As a result, Lucia Rijker is, at this point in time, the best known female boxer in a sport that has long been starved for publicity with the general public.
The question now is: Which way does Lucia Rijker turn? Does she continue her career in the ring, the real ring, or seek fame and fortune in the entertainment world? If she chooses the former option, Rijker has the opportunity to be part of the most exciting and financially successful boxing match in the history of Women's boxing. Prior to "Million Dollar Baby", not only was the sport on the "back burner" of public awareness, but neither Lucia Rijker or Laila Ali, or for that matter, any other female boxer was viewed, by promoters, as having the ability to "carry" a big money boxing telecast. "Million Dollar Baby" changed that. Now, not only is the general public more aware of the sport than it has ever been, but newspapers and television stations, who prior to the movie, possibly knew that women boxed, but didn't know Women's boxing, are breathless in their desire to provide column inches and airtime to the sport and it's fighters.
Who does Rijker fight? The answer is the fighter most observers currently consider the best female fighter in the sport, Sumya Anani. Anani has been campaigning in the ring for over eight years, unfortunately, most of those years in undeserved obscurity, as far a the mainstream sports world is concerned. Anani has compiled a 25-1-1 record and that win total would be considerably higher but for the fact that, over the latter part of her career, many fighters avoided the opportunity of stepping into the ring with this hard hitting fighter. Early, Anani did get an opportunity to fight Christy Martin and, in her twelfth pro fight, Anani beat Martin in a bout that shocked Martin, who was fighting her fortieth bout, and also the entire boxing world. Anani is convinced that her win over Martin canceled out a Martin/Rijker match, "I screwed that up...I found out that (a) promoter was going to pay a million dollars between the two of them, but when 'some girl from Kansas' beat Martin, the backer quickly pulled out." Martin/Rijker never happened, a Martin/Anani rematch never happened and despite Anani's on-going efforts over the years, Rijker/Anani has never happened. "I offered to fight Rijker for expenses only and donate my purse to charity," notes Anani, "that would have put butts in the seats, then, and now, with the movie, it would be the biggest thing, ever, in Women's boxing." That sounds, as they say in "show biz", like big box office: the best known woman boxer, Lucia Rijker, against the best woman boxer, Sumya Anani.
Rijker has talked about fighting Laila Ali, but that bout has a distinct "been there, done that" aura to it. The Ali/Martin mismatch proved that the boxing adage, "a good big fighter can beat a good small fighter every time" is true and also applies to Women's boxing. Not surprisingly, Anani was not impressed, "How did that fight between the two biggest names in Women's boxing help the sport? The answer is it didn't, it's just fortunate it didn't do any irreparable harm." Also, in talking about an Ali bout, Rijker has said that she'll need to go up in weight, while Ali will have to come down in weight. That's a very unlikely scenario since Ali already has two competitive opponents at her "comfortable" weight, Ann Wolfe and Leatitia Robinson. Rijker, likewise, has a very competitive fighter awaiting at her comfortable weight, Sumya Anani.
And speaking of movies, could there be a better venue for Rijker/ Anani than Hollywood? The bout defines "event" boxing and Hollywood is all about events. Clint Eastwood and Hillary Swank would certainly be at ringside rooting for Rijker. And can Sylvester Stallone fail to recognize the "Rocky" quality of Anani's career (isn't there a Rocky VI on the drawing board)? If only the movie types who will now claim to have contributed to the success of "Million Dollar Baby" show up, the Staples Center will be full. How big could this bout be? It's probably big enough to move the Luddites at HBO to make it a main event on their schedule, it could and should be big enough to bring Don King and Bob Arum around for another look at the sport of Women's boxing.
Is Lucia Rijker ready for her "close up", up close and personal with the best female fighter currently in the ring? Rijker was an athlete and a boxer long before she was an actress playing a boxer. She has also excelled at the sport for over eight years and now she has the opportunity for center stage in the sport. Anani puts it this way, "Lucia, Clint has called ' It's a wrap', the time for acting is over. Let's you and I show people what real boxing, real good boxing is all about." Sounds to me like a bout that should get "green lighted" as soon as possible and if it does, and if it's promoted properly, it will set all kinds of box office records.
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If you are looking for a clean hotel good value with good food, then use this place! A little off the main road so nice and quiet. Food good, although they were catering for a function when I stayed so kitchen a little distracted.
Location: Italy > Marche > Province of Macerata > Matelica
Price Range (Based on Average Rates): $
Number of rooms: 16
- Reservation Options:
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Friday, April 15, 2011, 05:00 pm PT (08:00 pm ET)
Best Buy gearing up for nationwide iPad 2 promotion on April 17A leaked internal memo from Best Buy indicates that the big-box retailer plans to make a marketing push for the iPad 2 on Sunday, April 17, and will resume taking reserve orders for at least a week after the promotion.
After rumors suggested last week that Apple had "blacklisted" Best Buy from future iPad 2 shipments due to a sales dispute, Best Buy issued an official statement claiming that stores were holding non-reserved iPad 2 inventory for an upcoming promotion.
A corporate memo purportedly from Best Buy has outed details on the "upcoming promotion," which will reportedly take place on April 17, as noted by Engadget. According to the memo, "the iPad 2 will be featured on the front cover of the April 17 ad and because of this, the reserve order system will be turned back on on Sunday."
The ad will disclaim that there are "no rainchecks" on the iPad 2, although stores in Michigan and Ohio, which will have a minimum of three units, will offer Reserve Tickets in lieu of rainchecks.
As previously noted by Best Buy in last week's statement, reserve order fulfillment still takes top priority for any iPad 2 inventory that stores receive. After stores have sold through any additional inventory, they will begin taking reserve orders for the device.
"The reserve order system will be turned on for the entire week of the ad, possibly longer," the memo noted, adding that units should be held for customers for no longer than 48 hours.
The directive acknowledges that customer interest on Sunday will likely exceed available supply. "Corporate Support Teams know that many stores won't be in the optimal inventory situation or have available units to meet our customers' requests for this ad. It will be critical that stores have their current reservation(s) worked through and execute any new reservations effectively to take care of as many customers as possible."
Also of note, the memo states that Best Buy employees will be allowed to purchase the iPad 2.
Retail employees are discouraged from sending customers to other stores that show available inventory "since any inventory is most likely for reserves." Alternate store pick up options such as OMS and BestBuy.com will remain unavailable.
Best Buy was a launch partner for both the original iPad and the iPad 2. Last month, leaked photos, which showing that the first-generation iPad had been removed from the Best Buy inventory system on the eve of the iPad 2 unveiling, corroborated an exclusive report from AppleInsider that Apple would surprise with "near immediate availability" of the touchscreen tablet.
Apple has attracted crushing demand for the iPad 2, though supply has appeared to improve since the device's launch drew record lines in March. Estimated ship times for the iPad 2 on Apple's online store still stand at 2-3 weeks, down from the 4-5 week figure quoted throughout March.
On Topic: Best Buy
- Apple continues to experiment with super-low pricing as new $1,099 iMac already discounted to $979, $830 for students
- Best Buy student coupons cut new MacBook Airs to record low $650, Retina iPad minis to $300 [u]
- Best Buy now offering lowest pre-tax prices on Apple's 2013 & 2014 MacBook Airs, starting at $759
- Want one of Apple's new Mac Pros now? Best Buy says it has a few in stock [u]
- Retailers discount iPhone 5s down to $120, AT&T offers customers $450 to leave T-Mobile [u]


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Kangana Ranaut revealed on Simi Garewal's chat show, 'Indian's Most Desirable' that she is in love with an English scientist cum doctor. Talking to Simi Garewal in her chat show 'India's Most Desirable', Kangna said, "I'm in a relationship an
celebs at Indian International Model United Nation
Adhyayan Suman News
Adhyayan Suman felt awkward when he had to call his co-star Shahana Goswami a whore in his forthcoming film 'Jashnn'. In the film, Shahana plays Adhyayan's sister. Narrating the inci
One year of togetherness and then break-up is the short love story of Adhyayan Suman and Kangana Ranaut. Hectic shooting schedule and rare meeting are the reasons given behind their split up and moreover Adhyayan
Latest Bollywood News
- Sana Khan and boyfriend granted bail in assault case
- I am single, Varun Dhawan is not engaged: Lisa Haydon
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- Caught in a sex racket, Shweta Basu Prasad allows to go home


text: Yippee! London, here we come in 2008 Hillary --- Sharon Gordon <gordonse at one.net> wrote: > excellent news from Laurel - KWHS 2008 is in Drachenwald! > From: "E. Brown" <bend_gules at YAHOO.CO.UK> > Date: Tue, May 8, 2007 11:57 am > To: DW-L at DRACHENWALD.SCA.ORG > > Greetings from Genevieve, > > It's official! The 2008 known world heraldic symposium will be > in Thamesreach, in Drachenwald! > > Symposium general description on the SCA site: > http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/kwhs/ > http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/kwhs/qanda.html > > Briefly: the symposium is like a 'heraldic con', where heralds > and scribes get together for classes, presentations and lots of > hanging out together. It's a chance to meet some of the senior > heralds across the SCA, including the Laurel team. > > This is the first known world event in Drachenwald in several > years, and it's a super chance for folk from this kingdom to > meet folks who play elsewhere, tap into tremendous heraldic and > scribal expertise, and spend a weekend in London seeing splendid > heraldic and scribe-specific sights. > > This is an excerpt from the latest LoAR published by Elisabeth > Laurel, the head herald for our Society. > ------------ > "FROM LAUREL - KWHSS 2008 in Drachenwald > The bid for Known World Heraldic Symposium 2008 has been awarded > to the Shire of Thamesreach in the Kingdom of Drachenwald. The > event will be held the weekend of September 5-7, 2008 at > University College, London. The entire text of the event bid may > be reviewed on OSCAR; you will recall that it is posted as a > 'Laurel Other' letter dated January 10, 2007. > > "September is not the traditional time of year for Symposium, > but this date allows us to take advantage of lower costs, fewer > crowds and the accommodations at University College. Because of > this I am departing from tradition again and making this > announcement now, rather than waiting until this year's > Symposium to do so. Since this will involve far travel for many > members of the College of Arms, it made sense to give everyone > had as much time as possible to prepare for it. > > "I am looking forward to seeing many of you there. This is a > tremendous opportunity for us all and I thank the autocrat and > her team for making it possible." > ---------------------------- > > If you want to see the bid for yourself, which describes the > event as planned, click here: > > http://oscar.sca.org/ > Select 'read LoIs' > Scroll to January 2007 > click 'Laurel-other' dated 10 January 2007, which is the full > bid. > > regards, > > Genevieve > event steward, KWHS 2008 >


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July 12, 1997 made my date with the Catholic Priesthood. July 12, 2014 saw me step into the 17th year as a priest.
The motivation I have for doing this review is two-dimensional; authenticity of faith and responsible citizenship as the only mutually inclusive factors that can guarantee the Church's position in the evolving new world order and the only resources that can serve the ever growing need for peace and security in the global community.
And while I subscribe to and make my own the experience of veteran journalist John L. Allen Jnr. (formerly of the National Catholic Reporter but now working with the Boston Globe Newspaper) regarding his Catholic faith, my vocation as a priest and a theologian in communion with the Church surely has something different to say about method and the goals I have set out to achieve.
I therefore presume permission to reproduce here some texts from two books by authors whose conviction about method, not ideas, won my attention in a very strong and irresistible manner.
..but I feel compelled to offer some explanation of the dynamics that led me to write…. One might wonder why a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter, with its reputation as a progressive critic of the Catholic establishment, would choose to write about the Chief doctrinal conservative of our time. Or, one might assume that I chose Ratzinger in order to smear him, gambling that the cardinal has enough enemies to guarantee sales of a few books. My hope here is to present my interest in Ratzinger from the inside out, so that it might appear, as it does to me, neither enigmatic nor mean-spirited but a sincere attempt at understanding.
I am a child of Vatican II. I mean that not just spiritually or ideologically, but chronologically.
Michael Harrington once wrote a book on poverty called The Other American, and his idea of two nations sharing the same geography but inhabiting separate spheres of existence stuck with me. Later I found that this concept also captured my sensation of growing up in one kind of Catholic Church, then finding another ensconced in Rome when I began my work as a church affairs writer. I am the product of what I can only call "the other Catholicism." In short, I had a thoroughly-even pervasively-Catholic upbringing.
But that upbringing was of the post-Vatican II sort. Hence I never worried about non-Catholics going to hell… I never learned to think of priest as light out of the community, set apart in some mysterious sense. The value of "full, active, and conscious" participation in the Mass by laity seemed intuitively obvious. It would have struck me as fantastic had anyone suggested that just three decades later advocating any of these ideas in the public conversation of the Catholic church would stamp someone as a "radical".
I also imbibed in my parish and in my school that being Catholic meant being concerned for justice. I remember clearly the day Father Chuck, one of the many Capuchin Franciscans who were my teachers, spoke to my freshman religion class about how Catholic doctrine had led him to oppose the war in Vietnam. I began making the connections between Jesus, the church, and social activism, and as the United States cranked up its military activities in Latin America under Reagan during my high school years, I was ready with a moral critique that led me by a short path into political activities. I still think the single best piece of writing I did for my high school newspaper was an editorial defending, on the basis of Catholic "just war" principles, college students who refused to register for the draft.
I came to believe that being Catholic means caring about the world and about other people, and it means finding God in the midst of those concerns.
As I look back now, I realize that my experience wasn't this univocal. I know there were people, even in my little hometown in Western Kansas, who had vastly different visions of church, who were greatly pained by what they saw happening in my classrooms and in my parish.
This still describes the vast majority of the adult Catholic with whom I work, worship and socialize. Polls show that my friends and colleagues reflect where a solid majority of Catholics in the Western world are on those issues. Because these are the people with whom I share my life, these positions seem natural and almost inevitable to me. It was not until I began writing professionally on Catholicism in the church early 1990s that I realized how many powerful figures within the church regard this brand of Catholicism as a mistake. They see it as a product of the turbulence that always follows an ecumenical council, and they are determined to bring it back under control.
Of course, I always had the sense that the pope and the Vatican were "more conservative" than most people I knew. I was unprepared, however, for the vastness of the gulf that seemed to separate the Catholicism with which I had grown up from the statements and policies flowing from Rome. The turning point for me was December, 1997, five months after I had started work at the National Catholic Reporter, when I was assigned to do a story about a new Vatican pronouncement on lay ministry. In technical parlance this was an "Interdicasterial" document, meaning it was issued by several Vatican offices at once, and its general thrust was to reassert a sharp distinction between laity and the ordained priesthood. The authors believed that a softening of that distinction, in which priests had come to be seen as members of the community distinguished by function rather than essence, was one of the major problems facing the church. It was then I realized that I didn't understand what the church must look like to those who author such documents. I didn't understand the needs they perceive or the dangers they obviously see.
I also realized that my ignorance was interfering with my work as a reporter. I could do no more than caricature views for which I had no understanding. I needed to break through to the other side of my own perceptions, and in the end that meant wrestling with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. More than any other figure in contemporary Catholicism, more so even than the pope, he embodies the hospitality to the "other Catholicism" I have described.
I am, by the way, assuming that the concerns expressed in that document on lay ministry, and scores of Vatican pronouncements like it, are genuine. I do not subscribe to the theory that curial officials such as Ratzinger make policy solely in order to secure their own power, though I would not deny that such considerations play their own, often unconscious, role in shaping decisions. I believe Ratzinger's theological arguments are more than ex post facto rationalization for exercise of authority. I believe his analysis of church and world is sincere, and I wanted to understand it -and, where necessary, be challenged by it. If conversation within the church is ever to move forward, it seems to me, Catholics need to do more than impugn one another's motives. They need to understand one another's concerns and make some effort to speak the same language.
I knew the official catechetical rationale for the positions Ratzinger takes, but I needed more. I needed to understand how any religious leader in the modern world could believe that silencings and condemnations and banning books accomplish anything other than inflamed resistance and public incredulity. I needed to know how positions that seemed so obviously detrimental to women, to the intellectual life, to the cause of social justice, all of which the church cares a great deal about, could be so deeply entrenched and so vigorously defended by the best and brightest of Catholic officialdom.
(John Allen jnr: Pope Benedict XVI A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger; London; Concilium; 2005. Pp vii-ix)
From another angle, Hans Kuhnl writes thus:
Throughout my life, there is also a thread of militancy, which is not to be confused with quarrelsomeness. I have been involved in many controversies, most of which I have neither sought nor avoided, but none of them have been about incidental matters which I could easily have ignored. They have been about a great cause in which I believe. The struggle for this cause has been worthwhile, and in these memories I hope that it will come through as clearly as the person who seeks to serve it.
... I certainly do not share the view of Oscar Wilde that while everyone has disciples, it is usually the Judas who writes the biography- after all, the author can also be the beloved disciple John. (But), I would like as far as I can to prevent the formation of legends, whether malicious or well-meaning.
(Hans Kuhn: My Struggle For Freedom; (transl. by John Bowden); London; Concilium, 2004. P.1).
In this regard, therefore, anybody who gets genuinely hurt by me in the course of doing my work rightly deserves some apology. Likewise all those, especially friends, colleagues and fans, who are truly offended, misled or deceived as a result of communication-gaps occasioned by my resolute disposition and commitment to duty – gaps that seemed quite unavoidable. But any personality- high or low, cooperate or individual - and achievements which impugn, manipulate, vandalize, prevent, subvert and finally invert the nature and goals of a system erected to serve the GOOD, whether this personality or system is spiritual or secular, is highly quixotic and needlessly exasperating and so much so also do it's victims stand in need of rescue and rehabilitation. Put directly, the identity, goals and behaviors of some people, cooperations, institutions, organizations and nations are a big contradiction to what they portray or claim to serve and seek to inculcate into the larger society.
Between commitment to the faith and an honest subscription to responsible citizenship, between dissenting or rioting theological voices and disintegrating or vandalized magisterial fortresses, a virtuous Christian woman spoke up against the totalitarian pretensions of church leaders, the dictatorship of relativism and the approaching arsenals of global Satanism.
She gave a detailed report that was yet subject to wider interpretation, explanation and application. That virtuous woman is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Our Lady of Fatima.
One could point to a deliberate attempt to lower, downplay and finally disable the urgency, force and power the 3rd message of Fatima carried. Today in Nigeria, the issue has proved more disturbing than the Boko Haram menace. It is not probable, but rather the case, that a cabal emerged in the Roman Curia and constituted itself into and usurped the place occupied by God in the church to subtly but heavily undermines the noble efforts of Pope John Paul II and his team. Thus, in a venture dictated by worldly diplomacy and totalitarian pretensions that stifled the voice of reason, murdered the conscience of the church and suppressed viable alternatives that generously donated themselves in the form of reforms, transparency and commitment to the gospel ideals, a cabal in the Roman curia went out of the way of the church to negotiate its personal security, career and ambition with freemason - the real but hidden face of the enemy and it's unseen hands.
The fearless commitment of Benedict XVI to the faith through the Fatima message pursuant to the reform of the Roman Curia, enthronement of transparency and recovery of the original missionary spirit of the church is legendary in sustaining the horizon of hope and keeping the tiny thread of faith alive that have seen to the emergency of Pope Francis. Indeed, the church is alive. One only hopes Pope Francis will sustain the tempo and imbibe the radical disposition that moves with the speed of an underwater current instead of the many publicity bubbles –as healthy and well deserved as these may be that greet him everywhere he goes.
Quite Frankly, Pope Francis is proving to be the hidden and unknown side of ex-pontiff Benedict XVI- that radically decisive revolutionary force which was at work before and during the Second Vatican Council but which was silently used to infiltrate and recover the Roman curia and the entire machinery of the Holy See from magisterial malcontents and satanic marabouts that "played God in the human flesh."
The recovery of the church is not only about the emergence of Pope Francis. The church must resuscitate efforts, take resolute and proactive steps and be clad in the ash-garments that will prepare and dispose her to a meeting with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother God (theotokos), Mother of the Church, Mediatrix of all Graces and the Our Lady of Fatima. This preparation must begin by confronting the Masonic alleys where the original power and appeal of the 3rd secret of Fatima message was thrown into and then going back into the archives to repair whatever damage that was done to the entire corpus of the message ever since it arrived the Vatican many decades ago.
If God lives among men in the human person of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and if we cannot be Jesus Christ because he is God even though we can be another Christ -alter Christus- and if Jesus Christ is the symbol of perfect humanity who inspires us and to whom we aspire, and given the Masonic interpretation of the mystery of Incarnation as "man's recorded successful attempt at becoming God while still in the human flesh" which, in real spiritual times, is another way of "becoming like unto God", then the person and example of the Blessed Virgin Mary can be the only factor that defines and holds the very contents of authentic Christian discipleship today - the radically decisive affirmation and confirmation of the unity of God and the response it evokes in practical existential terms.
Christianity is that original form of discipleship ordained by God for the chosen people as the most real and authentic way of worshiping him and keeping his commandments but which was hijacked and hidden away from them by the deceptive arsenals of pharisaism. Or, to put it in ecumenical terms, Christianity is the most purest and authentic form of Judaism which came under strong illumination by the perfect witness of Jesus Christ to God in his life and ministry- an example he recommended to his disciples and all true believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That Jesus Christ is God has a decisive implication for this endorsement and recommendation. It goes to say that God intervened in a very personal and revolutionary way to defend his name and execute his will in the community of believers, and in this way rescued the chosen people from the rambling fingers of pharisaism and gave them over to the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. And if as a human being Jesus Christ was the self-practicalizing teacher of this renewed and re-vitalized religious sensitivity, the Blessed Virgin Mary was its self-practicalizing follower, and the best ever to attain maturity in that faith. Her presence in the community of believers must have taught the church some practical lessons which the Pentecost experience did not contradict but rather re-affirmed and confirmed.
Jesus Christ did not found a new religion different to and opposed to Judaism. In this context, it is therefore natural to argue that if Jesus Christ practiced Judaism, to hold the view that he is the founder of the Christian religion has far reaching implications. It goes to admit in a very helpless and defenseless manner that Jesus Christ was schismatic. And this brings us to a conclusion that is as certain as it is scandalous. The Jewish law prescribes death-sentence for such a one. Therefore, Christians are the rebels. This is true if it is still worth arguing that the separated churches have some trappings of rebellion. But rebellion is not a character of the Christian religion and cannot be.
If revelation is still an event and a source despite the fact that everything that needs to be said has been said and that nothing new can be said, and if there exists necessarily the need to be concerned or worried about the events and situation at the world scene, then the 3rd secret of the message of Fatima – not human sacrifices reminiscent of the type crude practices that usually obtain in pre-historic African societies - holds the missing bricks and promises to supply the cement that are urgently needed at the construction site of the pyramid of faith in the 21st century Church especially in Africa.
No adequate theology can afford the luxury of neglecting the Fatima message or trivialize its significance for the 21st century Catholicism without lapsing into a mere ideology or an intolerable messy opinion. And to contrive to lock it away in the archives is as weighty as locking up the fountain of knowledge, truth and life against the 1.2 billion catholic population across the globe.
With the clampdown on the power and urgency of the third message of Fatima and the idolatrous recourse made to Freemason, the many different routes to genocide, terrorism, corruption and Satanism have been grafted unto the very imposing trunk of church life and ministry. Those responsible for this clampdown must be made to take responsibility for their actions, or rather helped to appreciate the level of their culpability in the sponsorship, advertisement and enthronement of corruption, terrorism, insecurity and Satanism that have gripped the world.
And by a continuous deliberate neglect, by the church, to re-invent and acquiesce to the demands of the 3rd message of Fatima, and confronted by the invading arsenals of global Satanism, Vatican bureaucracy runs the risk of being reduced to an imposing ideological cult. Again, the umbilical cord which unites Christianity with Judaism will be further threatened by the violent disposition of Islam towards the State of Israel in the sense that there is no way the church can pretend to be fighting corruption and terrorism on the world scale while she herself is also at the same time a major beneficiary, with Islam, of the powers that shore up global terrorism.
Anti-Semitism holds no attractions for the Christian spirit because it neglects the lofty implications of Divine Mercy and the providence of God for fallen humanity and goes ahead to hold the chosen people of God up in Judgment forgetting that any day the Jews become aware of the abiding presence of God in Jesus Christ, Judaism will be upgraded to its original status which is Christianity, and the Christian believers will be contented to re-connect with their natural ancestry.
Witnessing to the gospel and queuing for global power and influence before global Satanic dictatorship are not mutually inclusive functions of the Roman Curia. They are mutually opposed. Steps in this direction must be retraced whether here in Nigeria or in the larger Church affairs.
By and large, the person and example of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Fatima presents a contrast to the many unhealthy divisions between that which is sacred and that which is mundane, and at the same time constitutes a very strong rebuke against every attempt at confusing them. In other words, while her life of witnessing to God was highly distanced from fundamentalistic and syncretic pre-occupations, the pretensions of careerism and ambitions that color most feminist agitations today, she is the model of unity between the sacred and the secular, and the most foremost agitator for the liberation of womanhood.
In respect of the 3rd message of Fatima, the contents of Mary's struggles are one of the issues and events that are locked away in the Vatican archives. Yet the church is poised for a showdown with LCWR. From Rome to USA, from the far East to emerging democracies in modern Africa, such pockets of ecclesiastical prison yards are becoming increasingly obsolete and disgusting as instruments of coercion or control in the midst of noble alternatives.
Therefore the very contents of my struggles and concern for the past few years present a complex picture, giving many a cause to believe that someone is out to experiment on the issue of theological impunity. But the difficulty of the question is not on excuse for avoiding it.
The situation in Nigeria presents the real face of the challenge and urgency which this question posits for the church today.
In my meeting, or rather discussions with Nigeria's Cardinal John Onaikan shortly before his elevation to the Cardinalate, he said they (that is, the bishops of Nigeria) knew what they were doing and went ahead to berate and even warned that our brand of activism- in manifest reference to my person, and at a different level, Fr. Ejike Mbaka, Spiritual Director of Adoration Ministry, Enugu, Nigeria (AMEN)- is creating unnecessary and unhealthy enemies for the church. He maintained this view unequivocally even against all threads of evidence and abundance of facts I laid at his disposal to prove the opposite.
In my letter to Cardinal Muller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith through General Muhammadu Buhari, and having as its subject Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan's visit to the Vatican, I wrote:
As a priest who is very well aware of the significance of and unreservedly subscribed to legitimately constituted authorities (both ecclesiastical and civil), my part in this theater of absurdity is becoming vey tetchy to me personally but the imperiling questions have refused to go away, (because) I am ordained for these people, to work for their well being and salvation. Is it possible that the Vatican, under any kind of Treaty whatsoever, can give an overt or even tacit approval to genocide?
Whichever way, and notwithstanding the murderous intents of the murderers and terrorists that still hang around our ecclesiastical courtyards I am all the more resolved to stand with God who is love and the Father of the Our Lord Jesus Christ through witnessing to Christ the the Prince of Peace with and serving the needs of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Fatima and Queen/Patroness of Nigeria for the poor and oppressed.


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Submitted by acohill on Thu, 02/03/2005 - 09:47
This CNet article says that businesses are realizing the value of dark fiber, and are willing to pay for it.
Here is the money quote:
"....Ford [Motor Company] found that it would cost less to lay its own optical fiber lines than to subscribe to a service from the local phone company."
Bingo. That's exactly right. As more and more businesses require more bandwidth beyond one or two T1 lines, the high prices from incumbents are tipping the tables in favor of community projects. Medium and large businesses in your community can become anchor tenants for a community digital transport system (aka duct, fiber, and wireless). Ford is building their own, but it would be cheaper for them to join a community project.
Good news? Not if your state is one of several that have anti-municipal legislation pending that will take the right of communities to decide their own future away from them.
This article shows how wrong-headed that legislation is. Let's see....our state will outlaw efforts to lower business costs, and force our biggest employers to buy overpriced services from near monopoly providers. That's a great Knowledge Economy strategy.
Get your legislators on the phone, invite them to lunch, and give them a copy of this article. It's a good first step.
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 01/25/2005 - 13:54
Here is an excerpt from a brochure about a project in Southside Virginia, a rural area that has traditionally relied on tobacco as a primary engine of its economy. Furniture and textile manufacturing were also mainstays for jobs and development, but over the past twenty years, all three have declined sharply.
The low cost of living, combined with the proximity to Greensboro and the North Carolina Research Triangle, may make Southside one of the best places to work in America, once this infrastructure is in place.
Also included as a service will be MSAPs in some locations, which create very high performance community intranets that support next generation multimedia services. The MSAP concept was pioneered by me while I was Director of the Blacksburg Electronic Village. Blacksburg has had an MSAP in operation since 1999, and Danville, Virginia also has an MSAP.
Note the emphasis on leasing capacity to "all interested providers," which includes incumbents, who, if they are smart, will realize they can lower their costs by leasing instead of overbuilding.
The Mid-Atlantic Broadband Cooperative (MBC), a non-profit cooperative with funding from the Economic Development Authority (EDA) and the Virginia Tobacco Commission (VTC), has contracted to deploy an advanced open-access wholesale broadband network in Southside Virginia. The RBI is a 700-mile fiber-optic network with 48 strands of dedicated fiber backbone, Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) architecture, dual rings with 13 OC-192 backbone sites and 65 satellite locations providing low speed & high speed interconnect facilities (OC-3, OC-12, OC-48, STS, VT). In addition to the turn-key implementation of the RBI, MBC has invested in building a new state of the art Network Operations Control Center (NOCC) in South Boston, Virginia.
The RBI network will connect four cities, 20 counties and 56 industrial parks providing access to nearly 700,000 citizens and more than 19,000 businesses throughout Southside Virginia. The goal of this project is to promote economic development opportunities for the region, attracting technologybased business and industry. Network construction begins in January 2005 and will be turned-up in phases. MBC plans to have the entire network fully operational by December 2006. MBC will be selling/leasing fiber and services on a wholesale basis to all interested providers.
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 01/25/2005 - 13:47
Northern Illinois, which is surprisingly rural in nature despite being a relatively easy drive to Chicago, has grabbed hold of the future. Below is a press release announcing an ambitious regional project to get affordable, high capacity broadband throughout that area. In announcing the effort, an official connected with the effort said, "The communication infrastructure we're talking about will be as important as electricity, water."
Northern Illinois Technology Triangle Unlocks New Opportunities for Northern Illinois Communities
Rochelle Municipal Utilities announces plans for a multi-gigabit capacity fiber optic ring to serve local rural communities
Rochelle, IL - Today, Rochelle Mayor Chet Olson unveiled plans for a superior fiber-optic telecommunications network labeled the Northern Illinois Technology Triangle (NITT). The network will provide multi-gigabit capacity to the Northern Illinois region, connecting communities across Northern Illinois and opening new opportunities for growth in education, research and business.
The NITT is a joint venture between Rochelle Municipal Utilities (RMU) and the Illinois Municipal Broadband Communications Association (IMBCA). It will provide a looped broadband fiber network in a triangle along I-88 from Rock Falls to Naperville, with a section north to St. Charles, and from St. Charles along I-90 to Rockford, and then along I-39 from Rockford to Rochelle. The physical infrastructure will be implemented in three parts. IMBCA has already leased existing fiber along I-88 from Naperville west to Rock Falls and is now negotiating leases for existing fiber on I-90. Rochelle Municipal Utilities plans on installing the remaining leg of the triangle, from Rochelle to Rockford, where no fiber exits. The NITT is the first municipal utility fiber optic network consortium in Illinois.
Chet Olson, Rochelle's Mayor, said, "We're pleased to play a part in bringing about the Northern Illinois Technology Triangle. NITT is the beginning of a new era, not only for Rochelle, but for all communities in this region that choose to access this network. For my community, it means an opportunity to expand our economic base from manufacturing and rail service to technology services and support." The network ring is based upon fiber optic cable and will offer 33 (or more) wavelengths, each with the capacity to carry data at a rate up to 40 Gigabits per second. With just one Gigabit connection, a family can download their favorite DVD movie in less than one (1) minute, something which would normally take 13 days to download using a telephone dial-up connection.
Submitted by acohill on Wed, 01/19/2005 - 21:04
The northern region of New Hamphsire is taking control of it's economic future by developing a technology master plan for the region, as reported by the AP.
One of the drivers of the project is the need to be competitive from an economic development perspective. Design Nine is providing the coordination and guidance for the effort.
Submitted by acohill on Sat, 01/15/2005 - 07:57
The City Council of St. Paul, Minnesota has approved a study to consider the feasibility of citywide wireless broadband.
The three month study will look for "the common good" that might be gained from community-managed telecom infrastructure. This is, as far as I know, the first time the common good has been explicity acknowledged in this kind of study. It has been implicitly part of many other community telecom projects, but it's about time we started this particular conversation in more earnest.
What has dominated the discussion so far has been the "unfairness" of community telecom projects, all viewed through the lens of monopoly telecom providers. Using that yardstick, community water systems are "unfair" because someone might want to build their own, private water system. Public sanitation would be "unfair" because someone might want to get into the sewer business. Our legislators and government officials need to start thinking more clearly about these issues.
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 01/11/2005 - 20:51
USA Today has an article about Lafayette, Louisiana, which has been trying to put together a community fiber project for the past year. The southern Louisiana community has apparently been beaten down by BellSouth, which has vigorously opposed the deal.
BellSouth has claimed it is "unfair" for communities to offer a service the company could offer, even though it provides only DSL in the community, a pale shadow of the robust fiber network the city was planning.
At the risk of boring my regular readers, there are two ways to approach community telecom projects. One is to regard telecom infrastructure just like roads. Communities build the roads, but private companies (like BellSouth) deliver services (like dialtone or TV programming) to customers. The other approach is to regard telecom infrastructure like the municipal water or electric system, in which the city itself provides the customer services.
The latter is certainly more efficient, but given that many of our elected leaders still don't take any of this very seriously and given that we have a ridiculously complex regulatory environment, I think the former approach (a public/private partnership) is the only alternative.
Rightly or wrongly, communities that are trying to create public monopolies in this area are losing. The telecoms are outspending them and are buying whatever laws are needed to prevent community investments. But communities must invest to stay viable in the global economy, and Lafayette knows that. From the article:
"The future of Lafayette shouldn't be left to the whim of the big telecommunications companies, insists City Parish President Joey Durel. Installing fiber-optic cable, he credibly argues, is no different from laying down sidewalks or sewer lines.
In fact, the "triple play" plan mirrors the action Lafayette's city fathers took a century ago when they realized the private power companies were passing them by in favor of larger, more lucrative markets in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. To survive, they built their own municipal power system.
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 01/04/2005 - 11:27
Here is an excellent article full of details about the citywide wireless project in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Rio Rancho is a fast-growing suburb of Albequerque. Here is the quote that shows that Rio Rancho leaders "get it."
"We see it as an economic development tool—today's business needs good quality access, Palenick said [the city administrator].
That's exactly right. It's an economic development tool, just as water and sewer were (and still are) economic development tools in the Manufacturing Economy of 40 years ago. It's not some esoteric luxury for a few privileged residents, WiFi is part of a package of services that can both bring businesses to a community and/or help existing businesses lower costs and expand services and markets. It can also help fuel the growth of home-based entreprenueurial businesses and startups.
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 01/04/2005 - 10:53
Yet another former third world country has broadband projects underway that leave U.S. efforts in the dust. Andra Pradesh, a state of India, has embarked on an ambitious but entirely doable project to build a statewide network consisting of a 10 gigabit per second backbone, 1 gigabit Ethernet trunks to a thousand locations, and 100 megabit fiber connections to every town in the state. More than 40,000 government offices will get fiber connections, and will be able to deliver government services via town kiosks and other public Internet locations.
Even more interesting, the official tourism site offers 24 hour chat service to online visitors and potential tourists. What about your community? Unfortunately, in the United States, we have the telcos busily trying to usurp the right of communities to develop community infrastructure, with the legislation in Pennsylvania as a perfect example--PA towns now have to ask Verizon's permission to chart their own destiny.
Submitted by acohill on Wed, 12/22/2004 - 11:03
Esme Vos at MuniWireless thinks that the real reason behind Verizon's fevered opposition of community wireless in Philadelphia is that Verizon is terrified of cheap VoIP over WiFi.
I'm inclined to agree. I've been saying for a while that the whole cellular marketplace is in deep trouble. The cellular companies are frantically trying to lash overpriced and relatively low bandwidth (a few hundred kilobits) data services onto a system never designed to deliver data (just like they are frantically trying to squeeze more data onto legacy copper systems). Meanwhile, WiFi already delivers megabit data services effortlessly, and VoIP works pretty well in a well-designed WiFi network.
Why would you settle for inadequate and expensive cellular if cheap WiFi services are available throughout your area?
Like the problem that the cable and phone companies face with their outdated copper systems, the cellular companies face the same discontinuity with cellular--how do make the jump (i.e. copper to fiber, cellular to WiFi) without losing your customer base and your investments in the old system?
A company that understands competition and has a corporate culture of competition would figure that problem out and be determined to compete. But the phone companies have decided that rather than reform their own outdated corporate culture, they'll simply make it illegal for communities to chart their own future.
What's the root problem here? It's lawmakers who are not adequately informed about the community and economic development issues at stake. Which is why I've always said broadband is not a technology issue, it's an education issue. Communities and regions need to make sure their elected leaders are educated on these issues.
Want to get started? It's easy. Organize a local "Take a lawmaker to lunch" program and have a rotating group of folks who are well-versed with the issues take lawmakers to lunch once a month. In a year, I guarantee you will have had a significant impact.
Submitted by acohill on Wed, 12/15/2004 - 12:51
Holman Jenkins, an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal, has an article (p. A21) about DSL and the future of that technology. Jenkins calls the '96 Telecom Deregulation Act a "DSL nuclear winter." That's probably a bit strong, but hardly anyone on either side of the linesharing issues of the telephone companies would say the law was crafted properly.
The original law forced the phone companies to share their copper lines with competitors, and it was only this fall that the FCC relaxed those rules. Again, no matter what side of the issue you are on (phone company or community), the outcome of the original ruling was to stall broadband investments by the incumbent phone companies.
As so many Federal initiatives ("We're from the government and we're here to help you..."), unintended consequences kicked in, big time. While the phone companies dithered, moaned, and complained, the cable companies upgraded their systems and captured 75% of the current broadband market, leaving DSL (the phone companies) with a paltry 15%.
Since the FCC changed the rules to free the phone companies from line sharing at wholesale prices, DSL costs have fallen dramatically--by as much as 50% in a lot of markets, and the service is generally priced below cable modem service.
But from a community perspective, the news has been bad and still looks bad. The marketplace, because of all this, has been effectively re-monopolized, but instead of a regulated public monopoly (pre 1996), communities are stuck with marketplace monopolies by the phone and cable companies.
To make things worse, in places like Pennsylvania, Verizon says it must be consulted before communities start their own broadband services. Even worse, lawmakers like Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell (D) thinks it is just fine to give a private company control over the future of rural communities.
The solution is for communities to stay away from the service end of the business. Treat broadband infrastructure just the way communities manage roads--build digital roads, but let private companies deliver the services while paying a use fee.
Submitted by acohill on Mon, 12/06/2004 - 13:14
According to a CNet article, BellSouth plans to provide higher capacity broadband to most of its customer base in the next five years.
Video is driving the plans. The cable companies have not only captured about 75% of the broadband market, compared to the phone companies' paltry 15%, but the cable companies can offer the fabled triple play--voice, data, and video.
The phone companies are terrified. VoIP is sapping traditional landline customers all over the country, and most of those VoIP users are getting that service over cable broadband, not DSL broadband. So the telephone companies want to offer the same thing--voice, data, and video--but their weak point is the 100 year old design of the telephone infrastructure. Most phone users in this country are still getting their dial tone the way Alexander Graham Bell designed it, but those copper cables won't haul video all the way from phone company video head ends. So BellSouth has decided to go with fiber to the node (i.e. fiber to the neighborhood), and deliver the first mile (last mile) connection over copper.
This may sound like great news, but most communities are still stuck with the same two monopoly service providers they had twenty years ago; that's not choice, and two oligarchies aren't likely to drive prices down. Continuing to overbuild private networks does not level the playing field and will not attract real competition.
Submitted by acohill on Mon, 11/22/2004 - 09:57
Iowa has what many other communities won't take the time to get--a clear, concise vision for the future. A consortium of Iowa communities and businesspeople have decided on a very simple goal--to have the best broadband infrastructure in the country.
Even better, based on the news article, they are doing it exactly the right way--with community investments in the transport layer (e.g. dark fiber) and leasing it to access and service providers who will deliver the services.
This approach is a win-win-win. Governments win because their investments are modest and manageable, and access fees provide a stable source of revenue to support the system. Private sector broadband providers win because they get access to more markets at lower cost, because the local governments are bearing part of the cost of infrastructure. Consumers win because the community investments expand the marketplace, create more competition, and lower the cost of broadband.
Don't forget that local government, schools, libraries, and health care providers are all users of broadband. Community investments lower costs for all users, public and private--don't discount the value of secondary savings from those initial public investments.
Submitted by acohill on Mon, 11/22/2004 - 09:32
The City of Philadelphia has been much in the technology news lately because of its ambitious plans to offer wireless broadband throughout much of the city. It's now back in the news with its announcement that it will fight a statewide ban on municipalities offering Internet access and related services.
On the one hand, these legislative attempts to throttle community projects are almost always the handiwork of the incumbent phone companies, who typically are nonpartisan in their strategy--they give money to all legislators, who then too often pass bills favoring these companies. A cynic might view this as selling out the electorate.
On the other hand, I don't believe local governments ought to be in the service business for broadband. It's not the same as water or electricity, and the fact that the community has municipal water and/or electric service does not, in my opinion, necessarily justify going into the broadband business.
As I have said repeatedly, I view more it like roads. Communities build and maintain roads, but they don't own the cars and trucks (or the businesses) that use those roads.
I'm very much in favor of municipal and local government investments in broadband, ESPECIALLY in underserved communities, but I think the way to do it is to keep the delivery of access and services in the private sector, where jobs are created and taxes are paid. It's a little more work and effort at the outset to make sure you have the right business and administrative model, but over the long term, making the private sector a partner is going to have a much better outcome.
Submitted by acohill on Thu, 11/11/2004 - 10:13
I had the privilege of attending what I think was a historic and potentially revolutionary meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Tuesday. The provincial government had convened an all day conversation about the broadband needs of rural communities, and how to best get affordable broadband connections to those communities.
It was Garth Graham, one of the real pioneers of the community technology movement, who grabbed me after lunch and pointed out that as far as he knew, it was the first time ever that four different groups of people met in the same room to talk about rural broadband problems. Represented at the meeting were:
It was a remarkable meeting, with open, frank, and stimulating dialogue from all four groups. The fact that it happened, that so many people attended (over 50 people), and that there was such honest speaking, listening, and understanding, suggests that we have truly turned a corner in beginning to identify and actually implement community telecom solutions that have a chance of meeting both public needs (the common good) and private needs (increasing shareholder value).
The group agreed that more meetings were needed to hash out details, but there was remarkable consensus that the problem is largely one of policy, administration, and management, and that this is not a technology problem, in the sense that it is NOT a matter of just picking wireless, or fiber, or Gigabit Ethernet, or so on. All parties agreed that communities and regions need some new and yet to be determined entity to help with telecommunications issues (infrastructure, access, services, policy, regulation).
Submitted by acohill on Mon, 11/01/2004 - 09:09
A flurry of articles like this are talking about ADSL2+, a new standard for DSL service over old copper phone lines. ADSL2+ is not only too long as an acronym, it offers too little, and ironically increases the digital divide, in my opinion.
In short, the new service will provide increased bandwidth over copper phone lines, but only if you are about one and a half miles from the telephone switch, as opposed to the three miles of the current DSL offering. ADSL2+ also will go further than the old three mile limitation, but only at low data rates--about four times dial up speeds.
So a few subscribers may get DSL service where they could not before, but only at much slower than "normal" DSL. And a few subscribers may get much faster service, but only if they are very close to the telephone central office. And it's important to remember that the distance rule of thumb is not line of sight, but cable feet; not only that, the ability to deliver DSL is highly dependent on the quality of the copper cable. In many rural areas, DSL just does not work on older cable plant, even inside the distance limits.
It's hard to see how this benefits anyone, even the phone company. It further segments their own customer base and prevents them from offering the same set of services to all customers. For example, some ADSL2+ customers might be able to get a single channel of high quality high defintion TV (HDTV), but others will not. How you market that is a mystery to me--"HDTV--it might work in your area, but maybe not!"
The phone companies are still very fixated on market share, rather than on offering good services in a competitive marketplace. So in their minds, anything that continues to allow them to lock customers up over copper is good, even if it's bad. Does that make sense to you? It doesn't to me either, but that's their strategy until they can figure out a way to justify running fiber to neighborhood.
Submitted by acohill on Sun, 10/31/2004 - 09:27
In the Northern Neck of Virginia, broadband is being viewed (appropriately) as a critical economic development issue.
One of the most interesting items in the article is near the end, where an independent ISP that has been reselling DSL via Verizon infrastructure for some time is now in trouble. For a long time, Verizon said there was not enough business in the Northern Neck to justify the investment. So this independent firm sold DSL. Now that the market has been opened by its competitors, Verizon has stepped in and begun selling DSL for less that it charges for wholesale circuits to its competitors.
Verizon has every right to do that, and I don't think communities ought to waste time and effort trying to "get" telcos and cable companies to behave differently. They have to answer to shareholders, not the community.
But the article highlights clearly what communities are facing: a marketplace monopoly (rather than a regulated monopoly) in which the community has only one or two large broadband providers that are able to act in cartel-like behavior, setting prices and services options because of lack of competition. If affordable broadband is an economic development issue (and I think it is), then the community places its economic future in the hands of the big telecom providers unless the community itself makes some investments to level the playing field.
In the last paragraphk, the article quotes the county administrator of Westmoreland County, who worries about investing in the wrong technology. It's a valid concern, but it's not an excuse for doing nothing. And that issue is managed in two ways: communities need to plan for telecommunciations, just like they plan for everything else. Secondly, communities should invest in things that don't become obsolete quickly--telecom duct, fiber, tower sites, antnennas, and colocation facilities. Fear of the unknown (otherwise called ignorance) is putting the economic future of communities at risk. But ignorance is easily correctable--as I've said for nearly a decade--this is an education problem, not a technology problem.
Submitted by acohill on Wed, 10/27/2004 - 07:57
from a mailing list....
With the number of communities linked with fiber-to-the-home rapidly growing, a new coalition has been formed to educate consumers about the benefits of optical access networks. Max R. Kipfer, founder and president of Fiber Optic Communities of the United States (FOCUS), said the group would "unite fiber-optic communities from urban, rural, and suburban settings with the aim of propelling America into the next generation of communication."
During a press briefing in Washington, FOCUS General Counsel Lawrence Freedman said one of the group's missions would be to promote the sharing of information and dissemination of strategies among communities seeking to connect homes and businesses with fiber-optic networks. "All of the best technology will be of no use if there's not the transactional structure and operative environment" that's needed, he said.
The press briefing featured presentations on fiber-optic deployments from representatives of the Utah Telecommunications Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA), a government effort to build a fiber-optic network covering 14 towns in Utah; Jackson (Tenn.) Energy Authority, which has built a fiber-optic network; and Brambleton Group LLC, which is installing fiber optics in its development in Loudoun County, Va.
Link Hoewing, assistant vice president at Verizon Communications, Inc., highlighted his company's plans to install fiber to the home in 100 central offices in nine states, passing 1 million homes, by year-end, and to pass 3 million by the end of 2005. Verizon has been expediting its deployment after receiving favorable regulatory decisions on fiber-related issues, he added.
Mike Render, president of Render Vanderslice and Associates, said fiber-to-the-home deployments had "taken off in the last six months," in large part due to Verizon but also due to several new "wired communities." There are now 217 communities in the U.S.
Submitted by acohill on Mon, 10/25/2004 - 07:58
All through the nineties, and especially during the dot-com silliness, hundreds if not thousands of companies talked about the "killer app." Usually those who claimed they had it were making some thinly veiled sales pitch for some proprietary piece of software that they believed would make them kings of the world.
I argued, at the time, that the killer app was email, and I still think I was right. Email is one of two things that virtually everyone does online. The other is search, and of course, the founders of Google, if not kings of the world, are now insanely rich.
But Google was never designed to be the killer app; no one was sure where search tools were going to go; they just happened. Alta Vista, the first search tool that tried to index the Web, was really started in large part to show off the power of DEC's processors, which weren't doing well in the marketplace. Alta Vista's early lead was squandered and DEC was bought out by Compaq, which killed the once powerful company, and Compaq was bought by HP. Ho hum.
Broadband connectivity has largely escaped the killer app disease, but in an odd kind of way. The broadband giants (i.e. telcos and cable companies) have pretty much failed to recognize that broadband is not that interesting unless you can do something with it. The big connectivity companies of the dot-com era (e.g. Global Crossing, UUNet, etc.) all collapsed because they utterly ignored the very sensible question, "What will people do with the bandwidth?" Consolidation in the cable business has been driven in large part by the enormous debt wracked up by cable companies trying to get broadband marketshare in advance of having even the slightest idea what people would do with it.
The killer app for broadband is going to be Voice over IP, or in simpler terms, telephone calls. We're already at a point where you can pretty much buy WORLDWIDE flat rate calling for under $40/month. Free point to point telephony software drives that cost down to zero.
We ought to stop calling the phone companies, well, phone companies. They aren't anymore, whether they like it or not. They have no choice but to become broadband companies, and just one of numerous services they offer happens to be dialtone.
In his remarks to the Voice on the Net conference in Boston on October 19th, FCC Chairman Michael Powell has called VoIP a "revolution." Powell went on to call for "bare DSL" access, meaning you can buy DSL service without being forced to buy bundled telephone service.
He went on to say something even more remarkable by outlining what he calls the Internet Consumer Freedoms:
The Consumer Freedoms that Powell outlines are breathtakingly simple yet incredibly important. They underscore the need for communities and organizations to have a competitive marketplace for broadband services--monopoly providers have no incentive to meet Powell's requirements.
It is exciting that Powell has laid this out so plainly. What's going on? Well, another part of his remarks calls for exclusive Federal regulation of Voice over IP. If the alternative is a mish mash of fifty different sets of state rules that are likely heavily influenced by corporate contributions, that may be the right direction, as long as Federal regulation is as light as possible. It appears Powell understands this.
download Michael Powell VoIP remarks).
Submitted by acohill on Fri, 10/22/2004 - 13:04
Here is an interesting article in the New York Times (registration required) about an experiment by Con Ed, the big New York City area electric provider, with Broadband Over Powerlines (BPL).
The BPL trial is not particularly noteworthy. I'll bet most of the electric utilities in the country have bought some equipment and are playing around with it. No, what's worth mentioning is that Con Ed has said, "Our aim is definitely not to become an Internet service provider."
Yes! That's exactly right. Con Ed has partnered with EarthLink, which will be the ISP. Con Ed is simply going to provide the transport layer, and the electric company is going to do what it does best, which is to go around and bury cable. They are doing what they know how to do, and will make a buck leasing their transport system (the electric lines) to someone else, who knows the Internet access business. Even better, Earthlink has not been trying to capture the content side of the broadband business, which the cable and telephone companies would like to do. Aside from a modest portal site, EarthLink is also sticking to the knitting.
If BPL becomes a force in the marketplace (and the jury is still out on the economics of that because of the amount of equipment needed to retrofit an electric service area), it will most likely succeed if the electric utilities do what Con Ed is doing--provide the transport layer and partner with others on access and service.
And thre is a lesson there for communities that want to jumpstart broadband--provide the transport layer and let the private sector deliver the access and services. Pay for the community investment by being the "carrier's carrier" and have just a few bulk customers (the access and service providers). It's a nice, clean business model that does not compete with the private sector and does not re-monopolize the marketplace (by creating a new public monopoly for broadband).
Submitted by acohill on Tue, 10/19/2004 - 12:56
BPL has the green light from the FCC. The NewsFactor has an article that goes into more detail. I have to agree with the conclusions the author makes--BPL is not likely to be a major factor for rural communities. Like DSL and cable modems, you have to have a critical mass of customers to justify the expense of the equipment. And it is not significantly less expensive to install than DSL or cable, so it won't have a big price advantage.
It may make a difference in some communities, but communities will have to continue to do the hard work of market creation through content and service offerings via a community network project, and ongoing training and education programs.
Like DSL and cable, BPL is another technology that potentially lets a single public or private company capture the entire broadband marketplace (unless the community makes some transport layer infrastructure investments to level the playing field). Once a single company has captured the marketplace, the community's economic future is now at the mercy of that company. Is that what you want?
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After spending one evening surfing through eBay, I was astonished at how many blatantly counterfeit pieces of glass and stone are presented as "genuine moldavite," many from Chinese or Thai vendors, but also from vendors in the USA. Granted, the Chinese are quite adept at creating fake or "reconstituted" gemstones by mixing powdered stones and resins and molding it. Most of the turquoise you see these days is made in this process.
I felt a strong need to educate the public on how to spot fake or suspicious Moldavite. Here at Soul2Soul Treasures I only purchase my Moldavite pieces from two trusted vendors/designers who get their Moldavite directly from the Czech Republic. Robert Simmons is one of them, and he wrote the book Moldavite: Starborn Stone of Transformation that introduced this amazing gem to the general public back in 1988. My other trusted vendor is Claude who owns T.W. Moldavite. Claude has a collection of fake "moldavites" that he uses to educate buyers, most of it bought online, but there are plenty of fakes that are offered up for sale at major gem shows around the country.
Both Robert and Claude have personal stories of their own spiritual awakening attributed to this powerful stone. I was first introduced to Moldavite in 2003 while training in
Reconnective Healing® with Dr. Eric Pearl. During one of his talks he mentioned this powerful, but somewhat homely green stone that someone had given him, that he carried in his pocket at all times. I was intrigued, and sought out this mysterious stone at the next New Age Trade Show in town. I've been hooked ever since!
First, let's discuss what true Moldavite is. "The Gem that fell to Earth," Moldavite is a tektite, the product of a meteor collision with the Earth nearly 15 million years ago. It is only found in what is now called the Moldau River valley in the Czech Republic. Moldavite is one of the rarest minerals on Earth and has been prized for thousands of years. Legends hold that Moldavite was the green stone in the Holy Grail, and has the power to quicken one's spiritual evolution.
Basically, it's a natural glass composed of silicon dioxide, aluminum oxide and other metal oxides. It has a Mohs hardness rating is 5.5 - 6. The color ranges from a deep forest green to pale apple green, some are greenish brown. In rough form, it has a distinct rippled surface. It can be polished and faceted in jewelry, but unless it's of extremely rare gem quality, it will present inclusions of gas bubbles and other matter within the stone, this adds to its appeal.
The best information I've found about the metaphysical and historic references to Moldavite can be found in this excerpt from Robert Simmons & Naisha Ahsian
Book of Stones found here at his Heaven & Earth website.
As the scarcity and price of true Moldavite goes up, the counterfeiters are getting more adept at their craft. Some of the fakes are very convincing... especially when mounted in sterling silver where the tell-tale signs of seams are hidden. Some very crafty counterfeiters create a mold from an actual piece of fine Moldavite and replicate the color and texture to perfection... the only way to catch this is by noticing the "flawlessness" of the stone and the price asked. Granted, there are vendors demanding high prices for these fakes as you can see in the examples I have collected below.
Amazingly, there are stores proudly offering "Lab-created Moldavite," that's simply green glass! It doesn't contain the energetic qualities of true Moldavite. You really don't have to break the bank to own a genuine piece of Moldavite, whether as a specimen or in a piece of jewelry. The energetic qualities are just as powerful in a small, "imperfect" $5.00 specimen as it is in a $6000 museum grade piece. It truly saddens me to see all the fake "Moldavite" that is now on the market. Now for the examples...
For people in the metaphysical arts and healing modalities, fake Moldavite is easy to spot when physically handled. True Moldavite has a unique, powerful "vibe" often called the "Moldavite Flush" that some have described as pulsating, tingling, dizzying, buzzing and such. Some feel lightheaded, some cannot handle the energy at all. For me, it's a bonus that I can feel the energy of the stones when offered at gem shows... and that is the reason I only buy from my two trusted dealers. When you buy a piece of Moldavite from Soul2Soul Treasures, you are guaranteed a genuine unadulterated piece of pure Moldavite.
Bright blessings!
See Soul2Soul Treasures'
See MOLDAVITE SPECIMENS HERE.
Here is another stunningly phony piece I acquired on eBay as a "Moldavite Diamond Cut 925 Sterling Silver Pendant" by a manufacturer in Hong Kong. Ironic that the seller had prominently posted this notice on his page:
"Buyers Beware!!!! Do Not be Fooled by some ebay sellers claiming their products are 925 Sterling Silver when they are not! They are selling 50% - 65% Silver Items or German Silver/ Paktong Silver MARKED as 925 Silver!!! Don't be taken for a ride with cheap prices ... when its too good to be true, it usually is a FAKE!!!"
The first thing you'll notice is that the stones are clear as glass... Well... that's because THEY ARE GLASS! The silver might be .925, but the "stones" are genuine phonies. You can see the flat, smooth surface on the back of these "gems." At least I only paid $10.20 in auction for this glass bauble. And it's a lovely example for my fake Moldavite collection. "Buyer Beware" indeed!
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