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Adnan Januzaj was the breakout star for the Reds in 2013/14 so it's fitting he signed the season off with a starring role in our Trickbox video – United Uncovered's round-up of the silky skills, flicks and tricks from the past month.
The Belgian's technical talent stood out during 34 appearances this term, and his display against Hull in the Reds' penultimate outing was a showreel of the exciting play he is capable of producing.
"We all saw it against Hull," said then interim manager Ryan Giggs, "both when I was on the bench and when I was on the pitch... I was excited whenever he got the ball. He just floats with it effortlessly and he is one of those players who you love watching."
Giggs feels the experience of being in Belgium's squad for Brazil 2014 will only help his development as a player for United. "The experience of going to a World Cup is something you could never take away from a young player and Adnan is the kind of player who could light up a tournament, whether coming off the bench or starting games," he said.
Check out skills from Januzaj and his team-mates and fellow World Cup hopefuls Juan Mata, Danny Welbeck, Robin van Persie and Shinji Kagawa in the video above.
This feature first appeared in United Uncovered. To receive it by email, register on ManUtd.com or edit your newsletter options and select 'weekly ManUtd.com newsletter'.


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Jul 9, 2010 8:57 AM by Bea Karnes, News First 5
State health officials say tests show that raw goat milk from a Longmont dairy is responsible for sickening 30 people, including two children who are in the hospital.
Health officials said Thursday that samples of unpasteurized milk from the Billy Goat Dairy tested positive for the strains of campylobacter and E. coli that have made the people sick.
On June 29, the Boulder County Department of Public Health ordered the dairy to stop distributing milk to the 43 households that buy a "share" of a goat for $40 a month in return for a gallon of raw milk a week.
Dairy operator Bill Campbell has been certified to produce raw milk since January 2009. Campbell says he's working to comply with department regulations.
9 hours ago

subset: commoncrawl


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Pumpkin Walnut Cheesecake Recipe
- 2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter, melted
- 3 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 5 eggs, lightly beaten
- 6 tablespoons butter, softened
- 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- Place a greased 9-in. springform pan on a double thickness of heavy-duty foil (about 18 in. square). Securely wrap foil around pan. In a small bowl, combine cracker crumbs and sugar; stir in butter. Press onto the bottom and 1 in. up the sides of prepared pan.
- In a large bowl, beat cream cheese and sugars until smooth. Beat in the pumpkin, cream, cinnamon and cloves until blended. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Pour over crust. Place springform pan in a large baking pan; add 1 in. of hot water to larger pan.
- Bake at 325° for 1 hour. For topping, in a small bowl, combine butter and brown sugar. Stir in walnuts. Carefully sprinkle over hot cheesecake.
- Bake 30 minutes longer or until center is just set. Remove springform pan from water bath. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight. Remove sides of pan. Yield: 12 servings.
Reviews for Pumpkin Walnut Cheesecake
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"After reading the reviews, I decided to use a 10" springform pan. Other than that, and using finely chopped pecans instead of walnuts, I followed the recipe exactly. The cheesecake was cooked perfectly after 1 1/2 hours, it tasted absolutely delicious, and it was easy to cut. Definitely a winner!"
"Research the "bain-marie cooking technique" and "how to tell when my cheesecake is done" before attempting this recipe. The instructions in this recipe are somewhat lacking. The water bath is critical to the cheesecake turning out well-cooked. Be sure to wrap the spring-form pan, with the prepared uncooked cheesecake, in foil at least twice before adding the water so the water does not leak into the spring-form pan. It's easier to add the water to the roasting pan after you get the cheesecake into the roasting pan and then into the oven. Be sure to add boiling water to the pan for the best results. Your cooking time should only be 1 and a half hours total, if you make sure to do a proper bain-marie. The other thing I would say is lightly beat the eggs and add one at a time on a low mixing speed so as not to over mix. Cheesecakes don't have to be hit or miss, but there are some techniques that need to be executed in order to assure reliable results."
"I'm a little confused! Recipe calls for 1 hour baking time, put topping on and then bake for another 30 minutes, which is a total of 1 1/2 hours. One reviewer says she added 55 minutes baking time with a total of 1 1/2 hours when actually adding 55 minutes would be almost 2 1/2 hours."
"This recipe is awesome! Better then classy restaurant cheesecakes! Always receives great reviews. The only thing I did different was used crushed ginger snaps instead of graham crackers in crust."
"I followed this recipe exactly and came into a few problems; One: didn't cook all the way through, two: the crust was very hard and difficult to cut as it did not stay attached to the cheesecake and third: the topping was also very hard, like a walnut brittle so by the time I could cut/break it, it ruined the cut of the cheesecake. With all of these difficulties, the actual cheesecake part did have a really nice flavour. I will try this again but would appreciate any suggestions that anyone has to try to correct these difficulties!!"


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A Night for Valentines
Presented by Concordia University
February 15, 2013
The Men's Chorus and Women's Ensemble will present two heart-warming concerts of love songs. Enjoy the romantic mood, Valentine's decor, and refreshments.
Good Shepherd Chapel
1530 Concordia
Irvine, CA 92612
Admission Info:
$10 General Admision / $8 Seniors / Students Free
Phone: (949) 214-3418
Accessibility Information: Currently, no accessibility information is available for this event.
Facebook Comments
Member Reviews
There are currently no reviews/comments for this event. Be the first to add a review/comment , and let folks know what you think!


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Promotion Terms & Conditions
- There is a limit of one coupon per order.
- Offer expires 11/29/2014 at 11:59PM ET.
- Free Shipping is for the Cont. US only.
- On sale items, NFL, MLB and NHL jerseys, World Series Championship Locker Room apparel, Nike Holiday Fleece, NFL Salute to Service apparel, MLB and NFL on field headwear, NASCAR die-cast, Under Armour apparel, gift cards, online gift certificates and select memorabilia are excluded from promotion.
Main Content
Order today, receive no later than Thursday, December 4th. Some limitations apply.
$6.99 3-day shipping. Need it faster?
There really is nothing better than the classic, reliable fit of a button-up shirt. This Wilson woven shirt from Hurley is no exception! It features a little bit of girly shirring on the back and two buttoned chest pockets. This polka dotted, sheer shirt will give you the ultimate experience in comfort and style.
- 100% Polyester fabric
- Imported
- Sheer fabric
- Shirring at back yoke
- Two buttoned chest pockets
- Two buttons on each cuff
- Woven logo clip tag
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Special event items are produced by manufacturers only after the outcome of a game or event. These are advanced sale items and will ship immediately after they are received in our warehouse.
Manufacturer direct items are shipped directly from the manufacturer. These items are not available for international or expedited shipping.
Customized items can be personalized with options such as your name, your favorite number, and/or designs. Some options may be limited by league rules.


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Anne and Peter Robinson started Dorchester Cycles in 1988. It wasn't long before the shop was groaning at the seams with bicycles and accessories! So in 1991 we moved 2 doors down to where we are now, lots more room! We now have 4000 square feet dedicated to all things cycling.
As you enter the shop you will see our great selection of bicycles. We stock Trek, Giant,Dawes and Raleigh mountain, road, hybrid and children's cycles. These brands are at the forefront of modern cycling technology, ensuring that the bicycle you ride is safe, handles well and is a joy to own.
We also stock folding bikes from Brompton.With increased concern over congestion on our roads and climate change we are selling increasing numbers of these bikes. Just fold it up and hop on the bus or train.
We also stock Electric bikes from Dawes & Giant with prices starting from £899.
Upstairs we have one of the largest selections of cycling accessories, clothing, spare parts, helmets, shoes, gloves and components on the south coast! With brands such as Blackburn, Shimano, SRAM, Topeak, Abus, Suntour, Bontrager, Altura, Raleigh, Sigma, Cateye, Bell, MET and Giro helmets, Camelbak, Avenir, Titec, Kryptonite and much, much more.
We now have a large servicing department that you can view on our cycle floor. We can handle almost any repair to your cycle and we pride ourselves on our quality of service, our friendly knowledgeable staff and the back up that we provide to our customers.
If you wish to explore our local lanes and are only visiting the area then why not hire one of our Hire bikes? We have a selection of Raleigh Metro hybrid bikes available at very reasonable rates.
Why not pop in and see what cycling and Dorchester Cycles can offer you?
01305 268787
Opening Hours.
Mon to Sat: 9am till 5.30pm.
31 Great Western Road


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Elkhart, Ind. It's a brand as iconic as slinkies and stretch arm strong.
The Tonka truck has been a sandbox staple for over 65 years and today you can drive your very own.
"The sand box just got bigger."
That's the slogan for this toy dream come true, a limited edition, Ford F150 made by Tuscany in Elkhart.
Tonka is more than just a toy and a brand, it's a right of passage for all kids across America
And that was Mike Graber's inspiration for the project. Take that classic yellow truck from the toy box and put it on the road.
"It really starts with a concept in our head and then we take it to a piece of paper and then to a computer and then to clay modeling," Graber said.
Clay eventually gives way to plastic, add a lift kit and some chrome and this stock Ford F150 Larriat really begins to take shape.
"We want it to be more aggressive," Graber explained. "What we have to do first is raise the body, we raise it 6 inches, that allows us to give it an aggressive off road stance. Which also allows us to put larger wheels and tires on it, and then we put step bars and cladding, cladding kind of makes the truck look a little wider. We put wide fender flares, fender flares also make it a more aggressive stance, we change how ford does their grill application in the front, we change the hood, we put a taller hood on it."
Also new are rear dual exhaust, a Tonneau cover and carpeted bed. Custom head rests, floor mats and Tonka badges add a little extra flair to the interior.
"It is an iconic color, it is truly the Tonka color," he said. "When this vehicle drives down the road you can't miss it."
From the sandbox to the showroom, all the modifications to this truck are made right here in Elkhart, and the parts that go on it are from the area as well.
"A lot of these plastic parts you see on this table come from Bremen, Ind., a company called Charleston Inc. The floor mats are made down the street, the headrest with the stitching is literally made down the street."
"We want to support the people in our backyard and our proud to do that ... For the most part we want to work with people we know and people that we go to church with, live with, hang out with and see on the streets and i think that is very important to us."
It's those strong local partnerships that make this new version as rock solid as the origional.
"We are fortunate to work on a great product.... We have a great brand in the Ford F150, a great brand in tonka that is a household name that is recognized and very proud of this project and it is going very well."
The trucks are limited.
Tuscany is creating 500 of the 2013 model and will make an additional 500 of the 2014 model.
The trucks will be distributed to Ford dealers all over the U.S., and if you are wondering about the price tag.
Graber tells us the stock truck's suggested retail price is around $50,000 and after it has had the Tonka treatment it retails between $60-70,000.


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AP Personal Finance Writer
BOSTON (AP) -- This year's tax-filing deadline is a couple months away, and many investors are beginning to review whether they made any rash moves with their portfolios to trigger potentially unnecessary tax bills. It's a good instinct to follow, because it can become a teachable moment on how to become a tax-savvy investor.
But it's perhaps more important now to be mindful of new tax law changes approved in the deal that lawmakers struck in January to avoid the "fiscal cliff."
Those changes could have a big impact on taxes filed in 2014 and beyond, especially for those in the top income bracket. They'll pay higher rates, and will want to invest with a heightened sense of tax implications starting this year.
The rate increases are intended to help the U.S. get its fiscal house in order, but the medicine isn't entirely bitter. Historically low rates remain intact for investors in middle-income brackets, and the worst-case scenario rate hikes that were on the table during congressional negotiations failed to become law.
Another plus: The high uncertainty over taxes in recent years is largely gone. President Obama and congressional leaders continue to discuss raising revenue by capping or limiting some tax exemptions. But the rate levels in the Jan. 1 agreement to avert the fiscal cliff are expected to remain in place for the foreseeable future. There's no sunset date on the rates, unlike the Bush-era tax cuts approved in 2003.
"The most important thing is to have a plan, and now you can plan," says Duncan W. Richardson, chief equity investment officer with Eaton Vance, an investment manager whose specialties include tax-efficient investing.
Tax-savvy investors keep in mind the type of account in which they hold their investments. Only withdrawals are taxed from IRAs and 401(k)s, so these tax-advantaged accounts are good places to keep investments that are likely to generate a tax bill. Taxable accounts are the place to hold municipal bonds and mutual funds that invest in munis, because the income they generate is exempt from federal taxes.
Here are 4 other considerations for investing in the new tax landscape:
In the year ahead, investors should focus on their tax rates for capital gains and dividends.
In the middle-income tax brackets -- those with adjusted gross income of $72,501 to $223,050 for married couples filing jointly, and $36,251 to $183,250 for single filers -- the rate remains 15 percent on long-term capital gains. Those are the profits from selling such investments as stocks or funds held for at least a year.
The 15 percent on long-term gains is the same rate that applies to income from stock dividends. But the rate for capital gains and dividends has climbed to 18.8 percent for joint filers with more than $250,000 in income and $200,000 for single filers. That factors in a new 3.8 percent investment income surtax to help pay for President Obama's health care overhaul.
The biggest hit will be felt by top-bracket investors -- those with adjusted gross income of more than $450,000 for couples, and $400,000 for individuals. They now pay 23.8 percent on long-term gains and dividends, including the health care tax. They will pay nearly 9 cents more in taxes than they did last year on each dollar of dividend income flowing into a taxable account.
Despite that increase, these rates are modest historically. In the 1970s, the top rate on dividend income was 70 percent, for example.
The distinction between a long-term capital gain and a short-term gain remains important for investors in the top brackets, because tax rates continue to be far higher for the latter.
Short-term gains are triggered by profits earned from a taxable investment held less than a year. They're taxed as ordinary income, like wages, and high earners now face higher income tax rates. Those in the top bracket now pay a steep 43.4 percent including the health care tax, up from 35 percent. That's nearly 20 cents on the dollar greater than what they pay on long-term gains.
The rate also rises to 43.4 percent for income that top earners receive from taxable bonds, such as corporate bonds. As a result, those investors can realize a greater tax advantage than they could previously from investing in municipal bonds and muni funds, rather than in taxable bonds.
Investors don't have to pay federal taxes on income from munis, which invest in local and state government bonds. Munis are also free of state taxes if they limit investments to the state where you live. So consider whether munis' tax advantages will offset the higher pretax returns you'd normally expect from investing in a taxable bond fund. Look at tax-equivalent yield. It tells how big of a return you'd need from a taxable investment to equal the return of a tax-free bond.


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Monday, April 22, 2013
Final thoughts on Pink13
George Spalding, our ebullient Master of Ceremonies and one of the driving forces behind organising the whole event, gives us his parting thoughts on Pink13. He and the team are already hard at work on Pink14. Will I see you there?
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Monday, April 15, 2013
Project Management and ITIL: Why can't we all just get along?
One of the most common questions I get when teaching the ITIL Foundation course is around how Project Management relates to ITIL. This question either comes from those currently leading project management or by those feeling the rigor around their organization's project management practice and wondering how they can leverage some of the best practices from ITIL without 'upsetting the peace'. In fact, ITIL recognizes project management as a valuable and important part of IT Service Management and the Service Lifecycle.
Project management, as defined by the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a product, service, or result. There is a key idea in this definition that a project is temporary and finite – something used to get from point A to point B and then its done. In a service based IT organization, the majority of projects (if not all) will do one of 3 things: produce a new service, retire a service, or improve a current service (including any aspect of the service). The key is to realize this and look at the ITIL Service Lifecycle to see what is happening. Through the course of the project, many of the ITIL processes are being executed. The strongest focus is generally in those processes from the Service Strategy, Service Design, and Service Transition phases. The challenge now is mindset.
In project centric organizations, planning, funding, reporting, and ultimate value to the business is based on the projects being initiated and delivered. Therefore, project management takes the spotlight and all other activities are subservient. In many cases, little is considered in terms of long term support of the ongoing 'service' that lives on after the project has completed – at least not until closer to launch, if ever. In a service centric organization, IT provides value by delivering services to the business that facilitates outcomes the business want to achieve. IT does this by making strategic decisions, based on business input, around what Services need to be offered, how they will create value, what exactly they need to do and how they will be designed. They manage the build and transition so as to minimize risk and disruption to the business, support it in operation and continually make improvements to ensure it always has high value.
Understanding the role of project management within ITIL requires a paradigm shift around the role of project management. Organizations must think about moving through the Service Lifecycle and understand all of the processes working to take the business need through to a valuable, operational service. To effectively accomplish this, project management is used manage resources, tasks, risks, milestones, and ensure all the activities defined in the lifecycle processes are completed as defined. To transition to this level of realization however, the organization must be able to move past the thought that 'those activities are part of project management'. This can be difficult because in most cases, project management existed in the organization first.
Out of necessity, and for lack of any other guidance, many IT organizations adopted project management before ITIL existed or gained mainstream recognition. Now that there is best practice more specific to guide IT organizations in managing Services, we must thank project management for its years of contribution and transition it to its new role in the organization.
Once we move beyond the 'we where here first' mindset, we can leverage project management in ensuring compliance with and moving us through the lifecycle processes. The project plan can be built to include checkpoints and tasks tied to various processes. For example, at the onset of the project, the plan may look to ensure a Request For Change (RFC) has been entered in to the Change Management process. Before build tasks begin, project management can ensure that the RFC has been authorized (by Change Management) for build. The project plan may also ensure that, in the design and requirements phase, the Service Level Management process is engaged to discuss Service Level Requirements or Event Management is involved to begin identifying and designing the appropriate monitoring. At this point, the organization is using project management as their greatest partner and driving the full value of their defined IT Service Management processes. So just like that sign that hung in my room as a kid, "A place for everything and everything in its place."
Brian Newcomb • ITSM FAQs • Permalink
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Pink13: another great ITSM Conference
Pink13 is done and dusted. All would agree it was a great conference ... again. The Pink Elephant team do it year after year. I'm looking forward to the next one - I'll be at Pink14 next year. See you there!!
Here is a retrospective I put together of Pink13 for those who missed it, or those who just want to reminisce for a moment.
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Looking back at the ITSM Extreme Makeover
Pink Elephant Principal Consultant Jack Probst was the Pink Elephant lead on the ITSM Extreme Makeover, a project we have blogged about before, where several vendors donates resources to the University of Texas Health Sciences Center to "make over" their IT practices.
- ITSM can contribute to the community
- ITSM Extreme Makeover – Have you been following?
- Get a Feel For the ITSM Extreme Makeover
- Jack writes about the 4Ps
- An interview with the UTHSCSA CIO, Jerry York.
Coming up to Pink13, and with almost a year gone since the project wrapped up, it is time to look back and reflect on what went down and what we can take away.
Here are some pictures from the Christmas party Jack referred to:
You can see Jack at Pink13 and ask him more about the ITSM Extreme Makeover.
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Astro Pinky!
Some of us get a lot more excited than we should about the latest Pink Elephant conference mascot. Me for example. Every year I wait with bated breath, and pester David Ratcliffe for hints. So here is he is for PINK13: Astro Pinky
Astro Pinky has his own Twitter account where you can follow all the news about this years conference, live, real-time, right through the conference. So this is an essential account for all you twitterati to follow. And of course, keep watching the hashtag #Pink13.
The 'astro-connection'? Why, one of the keynote speakers is Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson!
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Some ITSM Christmas Carols
To celebrate Christmas the ITSM way, here are some suggested carols and Christmas songs:
- O Come All Ye Faithful
An ITSM conference
- Silent Night
The peace that only a silent phone can bring
- Hark the Herald iPhones Sing
The opposite of Silent Night
See also It Came Upon The Midnight Clear
- O Come, O Come, a Manual
The last resort of technical support
- We Three Kings of Orient Are
HTC, Huawei and Samsung
- How much is that iPad in the window?
The joys of BYOD
- Root Cause the Red Faced Vendor
Blame the vendor, that's what they are for.
- While Shepherds Watched
The night shift operators
- Christmas is Coming
A real project milestone
- Go Tell It on the Mountain
Management reporting
- The Little Drummer Boy
How ITSM consultants feel sometimes
- Let It SNOW
The cries of one particular service desk vendor
- The 12 Days of Christmas
We already did that one
Happy Holidays everyone!
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Monday, October 22, 2012
Self-Empowered Leadership
One of the primary messages in recent times from David Ratcliffe, President of Pink Elephant, has been Seff-Empowered Leadership. He spoke about it at PINK12, at the Pink conferences in Mexico and Asia, at the ITSM Leadership Forum, and in his blog earlier this year.
The first ITSM Leadership Forum was an event run by Pink Elephant in Scottsdale, Arizona in August this year, and equally it is a community discussion, right now, online. The event and the discussions intersect on the session descriptions. Read that sessions page: it is structured as a set of key questions for ITSM leadership.
The theme of leadership can be expected to re-emerge just as strongly for PINK13, so I took an opportunity to talk to David about ITSM Leadership.
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Friday, September 28, 2012
Evolution in IT Management
IT Management doesn't stand still. If tracking the current directions in IT Management is part or all of your mission at PINK13, here are some sessions to attend.
Over the three or four decades of the IT sector, we have matured as an industry and a profession. We have had some step changes and some evolution.
Service Management was a very influential concept which took decades to take hold in IT. It brought exciting concepts from the service industries.
Quality management ideas like Deming, Six Sigma and Lean come from the manufacturing sector and also slowly took hold.
We've also hatched a few ideas of our own in the IT sector, such as Corporate Governance of IT (ISO/IEC 38500), Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and Knowledge Centered Support (KCS). The first of those - Governance - is having a huge influence on IT Management at the moment as we come to better understand the political and organisational requirements to realise value from IT
And of course we have developed our own bodies of knowledge such as ITIL and COBIT, which now become world leaders and offer value back to the other business sectors.
The other great area of growth in our sector has been our maturing of understanding of "People Process Technology". We started as a tech-obsessed industry sector, then ITSM led us to understand the importance of process as well. Finally - FINALLY! - in recent years we have grasped that IT is all about people. In this decade the people message is coming through strongly in many areas, e.g.:
- Karen Ferris wrote the seminal book Balanced Diversity which pretty much nailed the practice of cultural change in IT for me.
- David Ratcliffe, the Pink Prez, talks of Self-Empowered leadership.
- BYOD and social media aren't technical issues or process issues.
So Governance and People are the huge tectonic shifts in IT Management at the moment as we continue to grow as a sector. Look for a number of sessions on these topics at PINK13, including:
- Leadership: Helping Others To Succeed :- Bernardo Tirado, CEO and Founder, The Project Box, LLC, Six Sigma Black Belt
- ...in fact the whole of Track 1 – Leadership & The ABCs Of ITSM
- The LOE Index: A Quantitative Tool For Measuring The Individual Response To Organizational Change – An Overview :- Dr. Victoria M. Grady, PhD, Assistant Professorial Lecturer, Department of Organizational Science, Columbian School of Arts & Sciences, George Washington University
- Business & IT Alignment: What It Really Means :- Paul Wilkinson, Director, GamingWorksBV
- Tips For Cementing Organizational Change :- Troy DuMoulin, Vice President, Professional Services, Pink Elephant
- Align IT – For Free! :- Niel Nickolaisen, CIO, Western Governors University
- Linking Company Strategy To Portfolio Management :- Marc van der Heijden, Vice President Global IT – Competency Center Sales, Adidas-Group
- Organization Change & ITIL Service Improvement Initiatives: A Look At 3 Models :- Rae Garrett, Principal Consultant, Pink Elephant
- The Neuroscience Of Leading Change :- Samad Aidane, Founder, Guerrilla Project Management
- Using Myers-Briggs To Manage Your IT Project Team :- Bernardo Tirado, CEO and Founder, The Project Box, LLC, Six Sigma Black Belt
- ITSM Parenting: Raising Empowered & Self-Sufficient IT Staff :- Andy White, Principle Solutions Marketing, BMC Software
- Mavens, Connectors, Salesmen – What Every ITSM Leader Needs To Know About Them :- Jack Probst, Principal Consultant, Pink Elephant
- Navigating The Cultural Silos Of The IT Value Stream :- Troy DuMoulin, Vice President, Professional Services, Pink Elephant
- What IT Governance Isn't :- Rob England, The IT Skeptic
...and many more. These are presentation topics we would seldom have seen five years ago, related to People or Governance. In 2013 there are too many to list.
In addition to these really big shifts, there are some smaller "quakes' going on, lesser step changes in IT Management, such as
- The Service Management Office 2.0 :- Troy DuMoulin, Vice President, Professional Services, Pink Elephant
- ...and my own humble contribution to ITSM step-change, which I am really really excited about: Applying Adaptive Case Management To ITSM: The Standard+Case Approach
Please indulge me while I rant about that last one, as it is my own personal passion. Not many things get The IT Skeptic all fizzy and enthused, but this does. I think it is a really important change to the way we think about ITSM. Standard+Case is about applying a body of knowledge called Adaptive Case Management to ITSM, synthesising it with your existing process approach. Standard+Case (S+C) applies to anything that requires a human response: there's either a standard response or there isn't. If you only look at one new idea this year, look at this one. It is an ITSM game-changer.
If you want to keep tabs on the current evolution of IT, these are all sessions to attend at PINK13.
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Interviewing Brian Newcomb, Pink Elephant Practitioner of the Year
A year ago I interviewed Brian Newcomb, on behalf of Ohio State University who won the Pink Elephant ITIL Project of the Year last year. Now Brian's back in another interview, but this time because he personally won Pink Elephant ITIL Practitioner of the Year this year. Which is great, because we get a second snapshot of where OSU and Brian are at on their ITSM journey.
My favourite quote from the interview: "Fundamental questions, and when you ask them you get the crickets".
You can hear more about Brian's work at OSU at the 17th (SEVENTEENTH!) Annual ITSM Conference and Exhibition next year, where Brian is presenting on Balancing Continual Improvement At Ohio State University:
So, you've implemented Incident, Problem and Change management. OK, you're done! Right? Well, wait a minute…not so fast! IT Service Management initiatives are not about being "done" but about what's next? Not satisfied to rest on the laurels of their 2010 Project of the Year win, OSU embraced a Balanced Scorecard as a means to measure process performance, and maintain momentum to implement additional processes and drive continual improvement; not an easy task when you are one of the largest US universities with over 100,000 users. Join Brian, the 2011 Practitioner Of the Year as he shares practical and proven tips on how OSU maintains the passion to drive its ITSM initiative.
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Monday, July 23, 2012
Incident, Problem, and Change Management Metrics Benchmark - July 2012
The Pink Elephant IT Management Metrics Benchmark Service collects, analyzes and presents IT management metrics benchmarks. This Incident, Problem, and Change Management Metrics Benchmark update presents an analysis of voluntary survey responses by IT managers across the globe since early 2010. The surveys have thus far been limited to simpler metrics and the processes most broadly practiced.
The full whitepaper is available from the Pink Elephant White Papers site here.
Key points in this analysis:
Incident Management:
The number of Incidents is most influenced by (in order of influence)
1. The size of an IT organization (measured by quantity of IT Full Time Equivalent workers (FTEs) of all kinds (employees, contractors, and direct service providers' workers))
2. The number of users, and
3. The number of years that formal Incident Management has been in practice
At least a quarter of all respondents have no documented basis for any Incident Resolution Interval.
Problem Management:
The number of new Problems recorded every month is just below the number of Active Problems already in progress (Problem WIP). This implies that the exit rate (rate at which Problems get resolved – or at least closed), must be pretty close to the number of new problems recorded every month. The 4.4 month average problem average age at closure implies that some Problems are being closed very quickly – perhaps too quickly.
Change Management:
Among the several interesting metrics here is an average 90% Change Executed Right First Time (no rollback or cancelation, and as scheduled). This appears to indicate that 10% of all changes fail in at least 1 of the 3 ways - a quite disappointing benchmark.
This is an update on the Pink Elephant IT Management Metrics Benchmarks Service. Please submit your organization's data! The more participants in our on-line metrics benchmark surveys, the better! The surveys are available at https://www.pinkelephant.com/MetricsSurvey/.
ITSM FAQs • Martin Erb • Permalink
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Talking with Cathy Kirch about her award-winning ITSM work at AllState
Congratulations to Cathy Kirch of Allstate Insurance Company for winning Case Study of the Year at the 2011 Pink Elephant ITSM Conference. The award was for Cathy's presentation Application Management As Part Of The Overall Service Management Lifecycle: how Allstate Insurance tackled Application Management under the ITIL framework while avoiding the creation of redundant support silos and new processes to what are already in place on the Infrastructure side.
Since Cathy has won a couple of awards at the ITSM Conference now, I thought it was time we learned more about her and what she is up to:
What is your role at Allstate and background?
My role is as an internal consultant for Allstate Insurance with a focus on Information Technology Service Management (ITSM). My position is mapped to a job family called Service Manager. My key responsibilities currently include Service Transitions focusing on Release and Change Management integration and moving the process adoption and improvement forward. I am also the coordinator and subject matter expert for IT Service Management training. Along with my primary roles, I provide consulting services for the various leaders in our organizations, this is how I got involved with Application Management. Two years ago an organization was forming to support various applications. The leader reached out to me to ensure that they aligned with best practices. We conducted a workshop and were able to draw out the scope of their organization by aligning it to Application Management. Since then additional organizations have been created and align to do the support in a centralized way for many applications in our various business verticals.
My Background- I have 35 years experience in different areas of Information Technology and have served in almost every aspect defined in IT Service Management. My earlier years were spent in application development in areas of Claims Reserve systems, branch office accounting, and a Technology component inventory system. I did both development and systems design work in those years and then moved into Technical support providing support for transaction management, database design, implementation and support. Then, I began focusing on the Data Warehouse implementation to provide program and project management services bringing server, database and storage together with the warehouse analysts and developers.
In 2004, we formalized our approach to IT Service Management leveraging ITIL, CobiT and PMBOK. I have played various roles in this space and am currently titled an ITSM Consultant. Our roles in ITSM have evolved as the journey has moved forward and ITSM has become a way life in the technology area with a focus on how to support the broader Allstate Insurance Corporation.
For me personally, I am currently active in the industry in roles such as Chair for priSM America's; and president of itSMF Chicago LIG. I have also been a previous examiner for APMG. And, I was the Pink Elephant ITSM Practitioner of the year in 2007. I just recently was awarded the Case Study of the year in 2012, I will be joining Pink Elephant at the PINK ASIA Conference this summer.
What was the scope of Application Management? In particular, how much did you bridge that traditional divide between Solutions/Development and Operations/Production?
Application Management teams have evolved and been created as a result of applying efficiencies. This was not started as a form of a project or organizational direction which made this journey even better to watch! As I mentioned earlier, one group realized the tie to the ITIL Framework and leveraged what was written around Application Management. Being able to tie those concepts with the design and direction of the ITSM processes made it clear on how to construct the new organization.
Today the groups who are performing Application Management roles sit with the functional or application organization verticals. They have become the conduit to almost every touch point of IT Service Management with the exception of Release Management. The organizations followed the same path as ITSM implementation. For example, in the beginning, some focused on Incidents, then Change impact, then Problem Management followed that and now pretty much the entire lifecycle.
How good was ITIL as a reference for Application Management?
The ITIL reference was just that – a reference. There is a lot more that could be written in this space for startup, scope, activities, efficiency and approach to maturation. For us, we created a workshop with an external partner to walk the first group through the understanding of the general ITIL framework and understand what their goals and objectives were. After that the outputs from various ITSM processes were understood and how an Application Management area can provide value by being the one stop shop for the various applications that support our services. Finally, it was about expectation setting and managing everything from application mapping, environment design, operational readiness, disaster recovery, procurement, deployment and change evaluation.
How did you avoid having redundant Infrastructure and Application Management processes, policies and support?
At the beginning of the ITSM launch, one of our Sr. Vice Presidents had a sign in his office that said, "Enterprise spoken here" and that has been a cornerstone of delivery ever since. We have had to reinforce and ensure that the ITSM processes were built for both Infrastructure and Application. This was not an easy task as the two areas have been separated since the 80s. We have had to ensure everyone executes one process and does not build their own version so that we avoided redundant processes. Since the processes started in Infrastructure a keen eye had to be understood on how it impacted the Application areas. We always start by identifying roles, then the activities and lastly the tasks for a given process. From there it was our leaders on the Application Management side that realized the value of consolidating into an Application Management group to ensure proper support with clear accountability.
Tell us about the holistic across-the enterprise strategies for all Application Teams.
Our Application Management teams have formed their own council to synergize and ensure alignment for the applications they support and the overall enterprise view. With so much middleware today and integrated applications, even application management cannot work in a silo. The Application Management teams then live into the mandates and standards of ITSM processes but also keep an eye on the business needs and perceptions.
Are there any new developments since the conference, and where to from here with Application Management?
Each of our Application Management organizations have been aligned to have direct line of site to the business. This establishes accountability and creates a better partnership with the business. The division organization now owns both solutions /development as well as application management. This construct allows the application management organization a seat at the table and positions us to be more proactive with input in the Service Strategy and Design lifecycles. For example, during the Software Delivery Lifecycle SDLC phase, input is provided around operational readiness requirements which has the advantage of past lessons learned to be input to future success.
What is your next challenge?
I am not sure we have any real identified challenges in front of us. However, there will always be a positive challenge to keep everyone focused on the journey we have started. I am excited to share that there is work going on to bring Release and Change together as well as expand Change into more of a management process. Each step of the way we will continue the ITSM journey, looking for improvements based on metrics, business needs and enabling solutions in the most cost effective way possible. There is excitement throughout the organization as we embrace service management as a way of doing our business and cope with the natural challenges of organizational and human change. Stay tuned as we advance the organization and share our lessons learned as we move forward.
Cathy will be back at Pink13 with two sessions:
priSM – What Is It & Why You Should Care (as mentioned above, Cathy is the Chair of priSM America)
An ITSM Journey – 10 Years Later, where Cathy will profile her organization's Service Management journey, and how they have kept the momentum going into their 10th year and integrated the processes beyond Service Operation and Service Transition.
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Talking with Jerry York of UTHSCSA about the ITSM Extreme Makeover
Recently we took the opportunity to talk to Jerry York, the VP and CIO of the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio. The Health Sciences Center were the organization chosen for the ITSM Extreme Makeover. I'm assuming that most listeners to this interview will be familiar with the ITSM Extreme Makeover. Briefly, it was a collaboration between Pink Elephant, Hornbill, GamingWorks, LCS, HDI & TSO to do an extreme makeover in a very short period of time to help an organization improve their service management.
Embarrassingly, I never quite got to interview Jerry throughout the process, even though he was the guy on top of the whole thing, answerable for the results. Recently I moved to rectify this oversight, since by the time you read this Jerry will have retired (said I wistfully). Fortunately Jerry will still be part of our community now and then, nevertheless it was high time I interviewed him for this blog.
So here is a conversation with Jerry about the experience of ITSM Extreme Makeover, with some great insights into what it took and what the effects were.
Interview With Jerry York, UTHSC by Pink Elephant Inc.
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Monday, May 07, 2012
ITSM Leadership
Pink President, David Ratcliffe, called it out earlier this year: we in ITSM are not doing enough to deal with the risks and opportunities that the changing IT landscape presents. It is time for more ITSM people to step up and take a leadership role. There is too much laissez-faire abdication of control of IT. We can't sit back and watch BYOD, social media, the Cloud and so on change our organisation's IT. We must do more to play a part in steering the organization, helping manage the risks and exploit the opportunities:
These services are out there in the ether, on the Web. Being dreamt up by innovators who don't work for us and who sometimes don't even know where they're headed! These new services are being tried out by everyone – often without a goal in mind. They're just experimenting. Much falls by the wayside, but some of it sticks.
The other key point David makes is that people from all levels of IT can help lead:
Don't confuse authority with leadership, or leadership with management. Anyone can lead, you don't need approval, or a title. Good leadership is about influencing and helping others to achieve a common goal. A vision can come from anywhere, but a good leader communicates and reinforces the vision; and helps others to act in accordance with it.
So Pink Elephant are doing some interesting stuff to address this need for more ITSM leadership, with the ITSM Leadership Forum. It is an event, in Scottsdale in August, and equally it is a community discussion, right now, online. The event and the discussions intersect on the session descriptions . Read that sessions page: it is structured as a set of key questions for ITSM leadership. It will get you thinking and hopefully joining in the forum!
I reckon Pink have really spotted a need here and done a nice job of addressing it.
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
COBIT 5 is here: essential reference for everyone in IT
You may recall Pink12 gave you 10 things to do when you got home, and my own recommendation was
Read ISO/IEC 38500 Corporate Governance of IT and dip into COBIT 5 Process Reference Guide (Draft) - you need to be aware of these
COBIT 5 is no longer in draft: the final public version is out and you can download it here (46,000 downloads as of April 26th). As ISACA says on the website
COBIT 5 is the only business framework for the governance and management of enterprise IT. This evolutionary version incorporates the latest thinking in enterprise governance and management techniques, and provides globally accepted principles, practices, analytical tools and models to help increase the trust in, and value from, information systems. COBIT 5 builds and expands on COBIT 4.1 by integrating other major frameworks, standards and resources, including ISACA's Val IT and Risk IT, Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) and related standards from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
That sounds like something everybody in IT should at least be aware of.
Personally I think it is something that everybody in IT should have in their toolkit.
In fact I go even further than that and say it should be the default best practice framework which we reach for first (as you know if you went to my "ITIL vs. COBIT: showdown of the methodologies" presentation at Pink12).
But even if you don't buy that last premise, it is hard to argue with the first one: everybody in IT should at least be aware of COBIT 5.
ISACA want your registration to get the core COBIT 5 content (but they don't want money).
They want your membership to get all the associated books in digital format for free as well, but personally I think that is a good deal. I pay it. I buy the hardcopy versions too, but I'm like that: I still prefer paper to bytes.
If all you want is overall awareness, then you don't even need to register. You can download a few documents without registration that will give you the picture:
- Executive Summary (powerpoint)
- COBIT 5 Introduction (powerpoint)
- Framework Overview, the main diagrams describing COBIT 5's structure (pdf)
- Toolkit, a zipfile of articles, presentations and a spreadsheet.
I would encourage everyone to have a copy of COBIT 5 at hand. I use COBIT as
- a structure for framing any IT management thinking
- a checklist for any form of review: process capability assessment, current state review, document audit, process audit…
- an input to role descriptions, especially the RACI responsibility matrices
- a reference for process best practice (fleshed out when necessary with other sources such as ITIL)
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Leading The Way To A LEAN Problem Management Culture
The Pink Elephant 2011 ITIL Project of the Year Award winners were Deutsche Bank. This award "recognizes an organization that has demonstrated significant commitment to ITIL and ITSM best practices with involvement of certified staff, and visible positive outcomes." The 2011 runners-up were Adobe and Air Canada Jazz.
You can learn more about this interesting initiative next year at PINK13, when Joseph Gallagher, Vice President, Global Problem Management Process Owner at Deutsche Bank will present Leading The Way To A LEAN Problem Management Culture
I talked to Joe about the project.
Joe, for those readers who weren't at the ceremony at PINK12, please tell us a little about Deutsche Bank's winning project
The DB project was called "Problem Management Transformation Program" - at the end of 2010 we realized that, although we had a nice, repeatable problem management process, we were not working very efficiently, nor were we providing our clients with consistent quality. At the beginning of 2011 we initiated this program to address both of these weaknesses, by conducting a LEAN 5D review of our process and implementing higher standards for producing a quality problem analysis. LEAN helped us to identify various types of TIM WOOD [Transport, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over-processing, Overproduction, Defects] deficiencies in our process, which we drove out through automation, consolidation, industrialization (moving very repetitive tasks to a support organization that focus on those tasks and become very efficient at it), and elimination. By Q4'2011 we had removed close to 40% waste from the process, allowing our problem managers to focus on the two areas where they add the most value – root cause determination, and remediation determination. As part of the LEAN component we "went back to the drawing board" as it relates to the proper way to implement program management as detailed within ITIL v3.0. We found that over the years we had "over engineered" the problem management process, making it cumbersome and slow, with lots of "cool steps" in the process that really added no value to the client. Finally, we improved our overall quality by aligning our problem managers to specific business areas, giving them a better understanding of the applications/infrastructure they support, which made them much more effective over time. We also trained all our problem managers (and all were certified) in Kepner Tregoe Resolve, giving them the foundation of a rational and consistent thought process.
What have been the consequences or impact of winning this award?
Consequences – I believe we have set the bar very high and expectations for problem management in 2012 will be well above that bar. But we are up to the task and looking forward to really extending the value we add throughout the organization. One of the consequences of the project itself, is that it has allowed us to shift a portion of our problem management resources to focus on more proactive problem management – driving problems out of the organization before they lead to serious incidents
You are presenting next year on LEAN Problem Management Culture. I'm willing to bet not too many organisations have applied LEAN principles to problem management in particular, especially on a global scale. You had difficulty sourcing expertise?
We were fortunate at the beginning of the project to have an outside firm come in and teach us the LEAN concepts and help us with the initial Define and Diagnose phases. From there, it became fairly straightforward to identify and address the various types of waste we discovered.
And did you find any resources at all pertaining to LEAN and problem management?
We found no resources externally or internally that had experience using LEAN within a problem management process. Although the LEAN methodology seems to be very easy to apply to any process.
Were there peculiarities to problem management when applying LEAN to it?
Measuring waste was a challenge at first, as we were using 2010 baseline, which was filled with hazards related to data quality. We saw the LEAN program coming in early Q4'2010 so we paid particular attention in Q4'2010 to provide as accurate a reflection of our workload and process as possible, so that could serve as the baseline for 2011 measureable improvements.
Can you expand on what that was about please?
One of the issues we recognized in 2011 is that the quality of our data was not great. This was due to the lack of strong governance and quality controls around what we were entering in problem records. It wasn't as bad as garbage-in-garbage-out, but it was inconsistent (an artifact of having problem managers coming together into a single organization in 2010, each bringing their own "unique" perspective on what was required to be documented in a problem record). We started to change this in Q4'2010 just as a matter of good practice, but also recognizing the fact that in order to measure 2011 improvements we needed to have at least one quarter of reasonably good data as the baseline.
Another peculiarity with problem management is that you really can't remove "waste" from the actual root cause investigation itself. Sure, we can streamline our root cause sessions, and provide more consistent results (KT), but you can't "squeeze" much waste out of this part of the process, which by its nature, has lots of variability due to the different levels of investigation required. Thus, we set out to remove all the waste before and after the actual root cause investigation, and that's where we reaped lots of benefit.
What tools or techniques helped you with the cultural change over 73 countries?
There was lots and lots of training, communication, and awareness throughout the year. I cannot understate the importance of this aspect – updates were provided to the problem management staff and senior management at least monthly, and sometimes more often. We also made LEAN improvements part of all the problem manager's objectives – they were all required to provide at least two LEAN improvement initiatives that made it to production. Finally, we governed the process very well – we had daily health checks to ensure we were on target with our objectives, and weekly trend reports to see where we needed to shift resources.
Watch this blog for a future discussion with Joe and George Spalding of Pink Elephant about the judges' views on this project and why it won the Award. And go hear Joe at PINK13.
Conferences • Rob England • Permalink


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Street smarts are far more important than academics.
Solving the CIA's PC Problems
CIA bomber's wife says war must go on against US – AP
Jacob Laksin is a senior writer for Front Page Magazine. He is co-author, with David Horowitz, of The New Leviathan (Crown Forum, 2012), and One-Party Classroom (Crown Forum, 2009). Email him at firstname.lastname@example.com and follow him on Twitter at @jlaksin.
he Turkish wife of a Jordanian doctor who killed seven CIA employees in a suicide attack in Afghanistan says her husband was outraged over the treatment of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison and the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Defne Bayrak, the wife of bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, said in an interview with […]


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Chinese Cookbooks?
We have a large wok and cook lots of "chinese italian"dishes - vegetables with various pastas. For flavoring, have not gone much beyond fish and soy sauces, the nice pastes from Thai Kitchen and, in season, fresh herbs from our garden. We have an excellent Asian market in town and are looking to get more authentic, with an emphasis on vegetarian dishes. We own dozens and dozens of excellent cookbooks but none Chinese. Suggestions anyone?
If you're into spicy Chinese food, i.e., Sichuan or Hunan, I'd highly recommend Fuchsia Dunlop's books, Land of Plenty: A Treasury of Authentic Sichuan Cooking and her newest book, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province.
The recipes are well written and straightforward, and those that I've tried so far have been delicious, bursting with flavour.
To get you started I'd look for a copy of The Key to Chinese Cooking by Irene Kuo. The book is in 2 parts. At the beginning she teaches you different techniques with recipes and very detailed instruction. The second part of the book is building on what you learned in the first part. It is out of print but I'm sure you can find one. Great for beginners.
There have been A LOT of threads on the best chinese cookbooks in the recent past. Here are links to a few to get you started.
Meanwhile, I'll second the recommendation for Irene Kuo -- this is a great book.
re: vliang
I second the Wei-Chuan series, specifically the "Chinese Cooking Made Easy" blue book. No non-sense and down home cooking, a good reference when you have an idea but don't remember every detail.
"China:The Beautiful Cookbook" has some really beautiful pics in it. I have a mental block trying the recipes in that book, part of it is that the book is so big. Some of the recipes I don't think I'd ever try because it calls for some ingredients that are hard to find. But it's a good resource if you ever felt inclined to make something really nice. I really need to go through that book more often because it does have some quality recipes.
Charmaine Solomon's "The Complete Asian Cookbook" is my least favorite cookbook. She uses a very strange romanization of dish names in Cantonese I think and this just doesn't work for me at all. Unless you read the recipe, you don't realize it's something you know because the recipe name is so jacked up. The index is a nightmare. I haven't used too many recipes from this book because it pisses me off. And I get a slight feeling that she is omitting some details in the instructions.
re: balwink
She is a British author. Her books are only recently being published in the US. I bought my first Dunlop last summer, Land of Plenty. Can't have too many cookbooks.
I have "Chinese Cooking for Dummies" and think it's a great choice for beginners. It's written by Martin Yan, and covers the basics very thoroughly while still maintaining a good deal of authenticity. I also appreciated all the history and overviews of the different techniques/styles of Chinese cooking.
I highly recommend Wei Chuan Cookbooks. The foods in the books are most authentic I've seen. You may order from Amazon or go to www.weichuanusa.com to find more details about ordering the book. If you are in LA, you may go to the publisher's office in Monterey Park to purchase them and perhaps meet the author Ms. Huang Su-Huei who was a pioneer in teaching cooking in Taiwan during the 60's. I also like their Spanish version. I gave the Spanish cookbooks to my maid and my friends' Mexican maids. They follow the cookbooks without problems and really save a lot of teaching time on my part.
re: tchang
I have driven past their offices many times but did not know that you could buy them there, thanks!


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Professor Crotty's Book Reviewed in ChoiceJuly 24, 2012
The June 2012 issue of Choice reviewed Professor, and Thomas P. O'Neill Chair in Public Life, William Crotty's book, A Defining Moment: The Presidential Election of 2004 in their feature issue, "Camelot to Gridlock: Significant Choice Reviews on the Presidency". Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, or simply CHOICE, is a magazine published by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). It is considered the premier source for reviews of academic books, electronic media, and Internet resources of interest to those in higher education.
The following are some insights from Professor William Crotty on the subject of his book,
"The presidential election of 2004 was one of the most important in recent history. First, there was a clear choice between candidates. One, George W. Bush, was a believer in the hardcore Right conservatism of Ronald Reagam and brought it to policymaking and government operations. John Kerry was a Massachusetts liberal with a long record of achievement in the Senate who held a diametrically opposed view of the role of government in society. He saw it, as did Democrats generally, as a vehicle to serve national interests by addressing the pressing issues of contemporary America, including the increasing economic imbalance between the top one percent or so, the wealthiest Americans, and everyone else. There was little the candidates agreed on.
Second, President Bush had restructured government, significantly increasing its national intelligence powers in response to the 9/11 terrorist attack. He expanded the military and emphasized an aggressive, combative foreign policy that led to the invasion of Iraq, arguing they were a supporter of and base for the terrorists, which proved not to be the case, and took miltary actions in Afghanistan to root out Al Qaeda. The consequence was the longest running wars in American history. Further, the Bush administration through its own efforts and those of a compliant Justice Department restricted the civil rights of citizens and ignored constitutional restraints and/or international treaty obligations. The economy was in poor shape, and as we all are well aware only to get considerably worse.
Bush had assumed office after a questionable victory (his opponent, Al Gore, had won more popular votes) and by the decision of a single-vote conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which ignored legal precedent in delivering its verdict on who would be president.
The voters in 2004 had the opportunity to pass judgment on the Bush administration's record and conceivably begin the long process of a democratic revitalization. This did not happen. In an unusually close election, Bush defeated Kerry at the end of a bitter campaign.
The consequence of this election is that the "unitary presidency" that rewrote executive and government powers was institutionalized. The subsequent election of Barak Obama in 2008 did not substantially challenge what President Bush had done and in fact expanded its scope in key areas of governing.
The book "A Defining Moment : the Presidential Election of 2004″ (2005) covers all of these issues and attempts to bring into focus the nature of the campaign, the voting coalitions supporting each candidate, the severity of the institutional threat that had taken place during the previous four years and the importance of an electoral verdict that went a long way in establishing as acceptable expansion of presidential authority.
I am very pleased by the recognition of the importance of the book by CHOICE, in its inclusion in "Camelot to Gridlock" Significant CHOICE Reviews on the Presidency" (June, 2012)".
-William Crotty


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Participatory Medicine And Medical Transcription: What Can We Learn?
- Access all of their own health data. (The right to receive data)
- Share information in the record with other individuals or organizations, privately or publicly, as the patient sees fit. (The right to send freely)
- Aggregate data in a meaningful way from multiple sources (e.g., multiple physicians, clinical labs, imaging centers), before anyone else does, or at least as soon as anyone else does. (The right to aggregate)
- Flag errors and add comments, and have comments acknowledged even if not "accepted", in an automated and trackable fashion. (The right to correct data)"


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Final Response, my 3rd firefighter eBook has made it to the 2nd stage at Bookkus Publishing. I'd like to thank the reviewers who took time out to read the 3 sample chapters. My rating ended up as a 4 star. Now the entire manuscript will be read and deemed worthy. I think people are hooked now and I believe my writing is strong enough to keep them reading because once they're in the theater they'll stay to the end.
Recent Posts
Excellent Reads
Anything by these authors is a good read: Dennis LeHane, Rick Mofina,James Lee Burke, Dan Fesperman, Martin Cruz Smith, and Elmore Leonard.


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The AZADI Story
AZADI Fine Rugs understands and appreciates your deep involvement in choosing the rugs and the emotional appeal you wish to create in your design and living space. More than that, AZADI Fine Rugs is so passionate in building the dream, that AZADI Fine Rugs created the Seven-Star Service model. This is where AZADI Fine Rugs will engage in a personal design consultation to happily share our advice in order for you to garner the full experience of seeing and feeling how these amazing designer area rugs will transform and enrich a living environment, based on your taste and designs.
For David Neishabori (owner of AZADI Fine Rugs), it's not just about running a successful business. It's about his deep caring for helping people and improving humanity. David lives this philosophy through in phrase "Living About Giving." His passion has certainly grown AZADI Fine Rugs to an international success, but he would be the first to attribute much of it to AZADI Fine Rugs' wonderful clients, the amazing interior designers AZADI Fine Rugs has had the privilege of working with over the many years, and the expertise of the extraordinary professionals who bless AZADI Fine Rugs with their diligence and dedicated hard work.
AZADI Fine Rugs is a member of the ASID, the American Society of Interior Designers


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The Monmouth is a contemporary swivel recliner armchair in bonded leather. It features both recline and swivel functions and works well in both home and business settings. All our products are tested to UK fire safety standards. Some assembly is required with this product.
Available in:
Monmouth swivel recliner cream:
Chair: Width: 77cm, Height: 115cm, Depth: 88cm. Footstool: Height: 43cm, Width: 49cm, Depth: 49cm


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Wake Forest's Gimenez Named ACC Men's Soccer Player Of The Week
Tuesday October 22, 2013
Five-point effort keys Demon Deacons' road win at fourth-ranked Maryland
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Wake Forest senior forward Luca Gimenez has been named the Atlantic Coast Conference Men's Soccer Player of the Week after his five-point effort keyed the Demon Deacons to an ACC road win at fourth-ranked Maryland.
Gimenez came off the bench in the 21st minute and made an immediate impact in Wake Forest's 4-3 win. The Sao Paulo, Brazil, native's goal in the 29th minute gave the Demon Deacons a 2-0 lead. After Maryland scored its first goal of the night, Gimenez answered by heading home his second shot at the 39-minute mark for a 3-1 lead.
Gimenez's cross to Sean Okoli in the 41st minute set up the score that put Wake Forest in front 4-1, and the Demon Deacons held off the Terrapins from there to win.
The two goals for Gimenez against Maryland came on his only two shots of the game, as he tallied his first five-point game of the season. The multi-goal game was his first of the season and the fourth of his career.


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The Highlands of Valley Ranch is nestled within the bustling Valley Ranch area in Irving, TX. This beautiful city is located immediately adjacent to Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in between Dallas and Fort Worth. The unique location next to an International Airport and between two of the United States' largest metropolitan cities makes Irving one of the most convenient and accessible cities in the country.
The majority of The Highland's school age residents attend Tom Landry Elementary School, Barbara Bush Middle School and Ranchview High School. All three schools are part of Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD.
The Highlands of Valley Ranch is only a short drive from great shopping at well-known centers like Vista Ridge Mall and Grapevine Mills Mall. Those who love the active lifestyle will also enjoy the close proximity of the Campion Trail and Cimarron Recreation Center. Of course with easy access to Hwy 183, 114, 635 and the George Bush Turnpike virtually every shopping and dining option in DFW is only minutes from your doorstep.
With such a convenient location and so much to do and see, it's hard to beat life at The Highlands of Valley Ranch!


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Philip Gamble is our UK Nationality expert - read more
Status Trace
Get Philip Gamble (£650) or his Nationality colleagues (£350) to do a Status Trace on your rights to British Nationality (read more).
Countries > Canada
- Business & Investment
- Family & Partner
- Passport & Nationality
- Permanent Residency
- Study
- Travel & Tourist
- Work & Skills
- Working Holiday
Canadians and those born in Canada have several ways in which to claim British Nationality and the right to hold a British Passport. These are:
- By Birth (having been born in the UK)
- By Descent (a British or UK-born mother or father)
- Not having become Canadian by birth in Canada
- By Double Descent (a grandparent born in the UK)
- A parent or grandparent born outside of Canada
- A parent or grandparent holding a nationality other than Canadian
To discover whether you are entitled to a British Passport based on your birth in (or family links to) Canada, take 2 minutes to complete our FREE Nationality Search...
The most common route to British Citizenship for Canadians is often through residency in the UK while on a UK Ancestry Visa. This Ancestry Visa for the UK is available to a Canadian aged 17 or over, and entitles you to live and work in the UK. It is possible to obtain a UK Ancestry Visa Extension, and then then to qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) leading to British Nationality.
Another popular route is through the Tier 5 Working Holiday Visa. This is available to a Canadian aged between 18 and 30 and entitles you to live and work in the UK for up to 2 years. While this time does not qualify for time spent in the UK for the purposes of claim British Nationality, it does provide further opportunities to extend ones stay in the UK.
British Nationality for a Canadian is available to those with a family link to the UK or its former colonial empire. Broadly speaking (and there are exceptions), where a parent or grandparent has been British or was born in the UK or Ireland (before 1922), then it may be possible to have a claim to a British Passport. Our research has found that 13% of Canadians who have a UK born grandparent already qualify for British Nationality.
For these and other forms of British Nationality available to Canadians, click on British Citizenship for Canadians. To discover whether you are entitled to a British Passport based on your birth in Canada, take 2 minutes to complete our FREE Nationality Search...
From 1870 to 31.03.1949, Canada fell within the British Crown Dominions.
From 01.04.1949, Canada became an independent Commonwealth country.
From 1713 to 31.12.1948, Newfoundland fell within the British Crown Dominions.
From 01.04.1949 until 22.05.1950, Newfoundland was an independent Commonwealth country.
On 23.05.1950, Newfoundland ceased to be an independent Commonwealth country and became part of Canada.
To discover whether you are entitled to a British Passport based on your birth in Canada, take 2 minutes to complete our FREE Nationality Search...
Canadians aged between 18-30 qualify for a Working Holiday Visa for the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and United Kingdom


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"Hi Herb, it's Bill Cottrell. We're over at the Studio working on something and Walt wants to talk to you."
"Well, OK…"
"Hiya Herbie, it's Walt!"
"Well hi, Walt, how are you?"
"Fine, Herb, fine. Now listen. I'm over at the Studio…"
"Gosh, Walt, it's Saturday and you're working?"
"Yes, Herbie, it's my studio and I can be here anytime I want! Now tell me – how long would it take for you to get over here?"
"Well Walt, if I come in the clothes I'm wearing it'll take fifteen minutes, but if I need to shave, get cleaned up and change clothes I'll be half an hour."
"Never mind that – just come as you are. I'll be out front waiting."
Now, obviously, that's not what happened verbatim. But it is the general gist of a certain phone call that was made around ten in the morning on September 26th, 1953 – a phone call that would change the Disney company and the entertainment industry forever.
Herb Ryman was not working at Disney in 1953; after leaving the studio to work on Anna and the King of Siam he had continued at 20th Century Fox, with periods of time devoted to his own art and to touring with the Ringling Brothers Circus. He had helped Walt indirectly, though; the Disney studio had been looking for designers to come work on Zorro and Herb recommended future Disney Legends Marvin Davis and Richard Irvine, who had recently been let go when layoffs swept 20th Century Fox. Now Irvine and Davis brought up Herb's name when Walt needed a talented artist for a secret and very special project.
Herb hoofed it over to the Disney lot and, sure enough, Walt was waiting out front. They headed over to the Zorro production office, where Davis, Irvine and Bill Cottrell were waiting. Walt explained the situation. He was going to build a theme park. The Stanford Research Institute was doing a feasibility study and site search, and Roy O. Disney was flying to New York on Monday to try and sell the project to the bankers that would underwrite the $17 million project.
While Marvin Davis had been toiling away for some time on scores of different site plans for the proposed park, Disney and the others knew that bankers would never have the requisite imagination to divine Walt's grand ambitions from a simple set of layout and plans. To get their intentions across in the most effective way possible, the team knew that they'd need some real artwork – a conceptual rendering of what the park would look like when it was done. If Roy had something visual to present to the bankers, they'd be better able to understand what he was trying to described – a themed environment unlike any other ever attempted.
Herb was intrigued by Walt's description and said that he'd love to see the artwork that they'd cooked up. Walt looked up, pointed at him, and said "You're going to do it!"
Herb, naturally, refused.
Wait, what?
That's right – Herb refused. Throughout his career with the company he was one of the few who could get away with repeatedly telling Walt no, and that's just what he did here. Ryman was rather irked that Walt would call him up on a Saturday afternoon and expect to have something worthy of being shown in New York on Monday. Herb held himself to an extremely high standard artistically and would not be satisfied with work whipped up on short notice; "You were supposed to be instantly useful and instantly productive and kind of 'instant genius,'" he would say later. He knew that he would never be satisfied with such a large project if he only had two days to refine it, and so he refused.
"No, I'm not. You're not going to call me on Saturday morning at 10 A.M. and expect me to do a masterpiece that Roy could take and get the money. It will embarrass me and it will embarrass you." Ryman, as few others would, called Walt out for waiting so long to ask for his help when he'd known about the project for years: "You know you've had this idea for a long, long time. Why did you wait for the Saturday morning before the Monday to come here and ask me to make a fool of myself?"
Herb was serious about his art.
Walt cleared the room.
Now at this point, perhaps you'd expect Walt to put on the hard sell. Instead, he paces the room a few times and mulls things over. Ryman would later describe the scene almost as if Walt were a little kid trying to figure out the best approach to wheedle his parents into something. "Herbie," said Walt, "would you do it if I stay here with you?" Having sensed Walt's predicament, and after making him vow to stay there the entire weekend to help, Ryman consented. Walt went out to pick up some tuna sandwiches and malted milks, and the two worked nonstop through Saturday and Sunday to finish the rendering. The result was a large pencil sketch, 43″ by 70″, depicting the many wonders of Disneyland.
Thankfully for Ryman, he didn't have to start with a blank slate. Walt's desire to create some sort of amusement enterprise dated back to at least 1940, and in the years prior to 1953 the Disney studio artists had created several different plans for parks large and small to be located near the Disney lot in Burbank. Davis and Irvine, along with Harper Goff, had refined the various layouts and concepts into the well-known "hub and spoke" design with a number of themed lands.
This first sketch showed a park far different in layout than the one we know today. Based on a layout by Marvin Davis, it features areas labeled as "Holiday Land", "Recreation Park" and "Lilliputian Land." Tomorrowland was the "World of Tomorrow"; Adventureland was "True-Life Adventureland" and was wedged between Main Street and Tomorrowland. The details might have differed but the concepts are familiar; Walt was already insistent on the idea of a train encircling the park, and the Main Street slowly evolved to resemble the Midwestern memories that Disney and Ryman both shared. The early design for the castle, with its massive encircled courtyard, was informed by Herb's work for 20th Century Fox on The Black Rose. Herb's drawing, though done quickly and a subject of great dissatisfaction for Ryman himself, was nevertheless loaded with intriguing detail and hints of wonder within. Walt got his money.
Once financing was secured, Walt called Herb up and asked him to come aboard the project in an official capacity. Herb agreed immediately, but let Walt know one thing up front – Ryman would only work on the project as long as it remained interesting to him. As soon as it ceased to be exciting, he'd quit and return to his art. All Walt could do was agree and promise "Well, Herbie, I'll try to keep it interesting." He did, and Herb officially became employee #00003 of WED Enterprises.
The stories of Disneyland's creation, and of Ryman's role therein, are well-known and too numerous to be recounted here. One contribution, though, I'll mention. The design for the park's famous castle had been based on Neuschwanstein, the Bavarian retreat of Ludwig II. Herb was uncomfortable with this, fearing that guests would be familiar with the real-world castle and notice the resemblance. Loitering in the Imagineering workshops while waiting for Walt to make an inspection of some final designs, Herb flipped around the top segment of the castle model so that it faced backwards. The other Imagineers panicked; Walt was on his way, and Herb had just screwed up the model! Marvin Davis and the others told him to put it back the right way, but it was too late – Walt had been eavesdropping and said that he preferred it the new way. So, it stayed.
Ryman continued to work on Disneyland projects throughout the years; some of his best work was for the New Orleans Square expansion in the late 1960s. Full of atmosphere and detail, Herb's paintings for this new land were true works of art. In 1987, one of his pieces for New Orleans Square was lent to the United States State Department for display in the U.S. Embassy in Paris. It was the first piece of Disney artwork selected for the Department's Art in Embassies Program.
The rest of Herb's Disneyland roster reads like a checklist of important attractions and expansions. The Matterhorn. Pirates of the Caribbean. The New Tomorrowland of 1967. The artwork here can't begin to hint at the scope of Ryman's work over the years.
Some of Herb's last work before his death was on Disneyland projects. He did a number of conceptual pieces for the Indiana Jones attractions proposed for Adventureland, years before the Indiana Jones Adventure actually opened. To think – Herb was at Disney animating classic features like Dumbo and Fantasia in the same years that Indy was having his fictional adventures, and now Ryman was creating art for an attraction based on those times.
Ryman's Disneyland career eventually amounted to more than three decades of work, and it all began with that phone call in September of 1953.


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We're excited and ready to assist you in making the most of your graduate experience here at GSU. Whether you're new to our campus or you decided to return after completing your undergraudate degree at GSU, we're confident our Graduate Orientation will help you to identify available resources that will help you make a smooth transition to graduate studies.
Our half-day graduate orientation will allow you to participate with our talented and energetic Orientation Leaders, who will guide you in your transition to graduate studies at GSU. You'll also have an opportunity to interact with other master and doctoral level students, academic advisors, faculty members and administrators.
This will also be a great chance for you to discover exciting opportunities to become involved in student organizations, internships, support services and many enriching activities offered to GSU students.
Our final orientation program for new graduate students before fall classes begin will be held on Thursday, August 21, 2014 - 12:00 - 5:00 pm:


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Missouri may be a no-coast state, but Southwest Airlines is expanding its service to add more direct flights to the East and West coasts.
TwitterLeish Hailey was not laughing yesterday at Lambert Field.Update 3 p.m. Leisha Hailey and her girlfriend, Camila Grey, released a statement today saying that they "were not making out" or creating any spectacle. "It was one modest kiss." The couple plans to file a formal complaint with the ... More >>
Here's a fun dichotomy, courtesy of today's Post-Dispatch. Apparently CVC's marketing slogan is code for getting out of town -- each weekend.On Page One the newspaper continues its coverage about how state senator Jim Lembke (R - South County) wants to block out-of-work Missourians from receiving ... More >>
Slay reacts to news that he won't be home for Snowmaggedon '11.Updated 8:35 a.m. with a hilarious new out take! St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay missed the blizzard that sacked much of Missouri yesterday and left his fair city coated in a few inches of ice and sleet. The mayor was in Albuquerque. As ... More >>
Wikimedia CommonsAccording to AAA, travel during this Memorial Day weekend is slated to be up five percent over last year. Personally, I decided to get out of town this weekend - in fact, I'm already in Cleveland visiting my parents and my boyfriend, while tying up loose ends for my RFT work ... More >>
Robin WheelerThe Rotten Apple's Jerad GardnerJust because it was a short work week doesn't mean we weren't busy. Gut Check debuted two new features this week: Chef's Choice, this week featuring Jerad Gardner of the Rotten Apple in Grafton, Illinois, and the calorie-loving Stuck to My Ribs. Plus, ... More >>
www.inperspire.comInperspire Motivational Fitness Towels started as so many things do: as a random inspiration at the gym. Darla Dale, an assistant dean at Washington University "approaching 50", was trudging along on the treadmill somewhat less energetically than usual when she noticed that everyon ... More >>
Transit chief Larry Salci knows he has his critics. Ask him if he cares.
The year in review: A quiz (For answers, see last page)
Lambert's billion-dollar expansion hangs on a wing and a prayer: The numbers no longer add up
Stepped-up airport security is more sizzle than steak
The Lord's county executive plans to cleanse his county's Family Arena
Published the week of March 29
Why TWA keeps losing money and how Carl Icahn keeps cashing in at the airline's expense


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Legalizing The Manitou Incline Might Be Up In The Air
Published On: Feb 23 2012 11:50:06 AM CST
Updated On: Feb 23 2012 11:51:05 AM CST
Updated On: Feb 23 2012 11:51:05 AM CST
Manitou Springs - Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs city councils will vote next week on whether to legally opening the Manitou incline. It's not clear if either will approve it.
A Manitou Springs special meeting last night revealed a deep divide among members.
Some are wanting a fee to hike the trail to curb the number of people who visit.
They want that fee in place when the incline opens as part of the agreement.
Sign-Up For Breaking News Alerts: Click hereMobile:Get KRDO Headlines on the goFacebook: Find us on FacebookTwitter: Follow us on TwitterHave a News Tip?: Send hereReport a typo, inaccuracyCopyright 2012 KRDO.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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You Will Read This Headline. Then You'll Laugh. Then You'll Realize You Were Wrong All Along.
'We're going to be in trouble!' Little Sister wailed, clutching her favorite book to her chest and sobbing. 'This isn't fun like a story anymore!' But Big Sister was not listening, she was thinking. She grabbed Little Sister's book from her and ran into town, yelling 'Help! A book made me and my sister hurt someone!'
Val Kilmer lures 6 morons into the ultimate death schvitz to prove global warming is real.
The Goons have already started their preparations, because that pitch isn't going to carpet itself!
When it comes to gaming laptops, you can never have too many LEDs or too much bad taste.
A video game comic without sassy gamers and their non-human sidekicks/girlfriends. Each strip takes place inside a different game, sometimes with different jokes.
Copyright ©2014 Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka & Something Awful LLC.


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Irish Internet Radio and TV from Dublin, Ireland.
Irish statue representing the exodus from Ireland during the great famine
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Tom Cruise arrives in Ireland and traces his Irish roots.
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About Us
Library News
Baker's Dozen: Online Self-Paced Computer Classes
Released: 09-01-11
Baker's Dozen is 13 things to learn about on the web. The things range from music sharing to website construction and everything in between. Each week on Wednesday (for 13 weeks) a new self-paced class will be posted. Learn at your own pace, discover new things, and practice things you already know about.
If you're just getting started you may want to begin with Welcome to Baker's Dozen!
Website Construction
Time was, putting together even a simple website was something only web designers or computer programmers could do. Fortunately now things have changed. Nowadays, a good-looking website can be yours for the making. Come on along in this last of the Baker's Dozen series to see how it's done.
Online Image Editors
In this class, we'll be using a free online program called Picnik to help you change your favorite images from geek to chic. Picnik will allow you to remove redeye, brighten up smiles, crop and resize you photos and a lot more.
See how Picnik can jazz up those pics.
Remember years ago how we knew that we would soon enter the "pushbutton age" and that there would be flying cars and robots would clean our houses and we'd be talking to people face-to-face on our phones? Well, we've got two out of three! Check out Skype for long-distance video calling. And, don't worry, until we get those robot housekeepers Skype works perfectly well without the video feature too.
Wikis are web sites that can be viewed and edited directly by the people who use them. Wikis are great for online collaboration and communication, and are super easy to use--no techie skills necessary!
Photos are powerful. They communicate feelings, thoughts, concepts, and ideas. Flickr allows you to share photos with your friends, or even the whole world!
Learn how to get set up on Flickr.
Digital Books
Digital downloads come in different formats, but they're all basically online versions of the same kinds of things you would check out in a library—books, audiobooks, videos, and/or music.
Learn how and where to get your digital downloads.
Cloud Computing
If you've heard about "computing in the cloud" but what you've heard makes it sounds like so much hot air then this week's lesson is for you. You'll learn about the whys and hows, the advatages and disadvantages of cloud computing and how to set yourself up "in the cloud."
Up, up and away into the cloud we go.
Ever wish you had your own home page? How about a personal assistant? Need a way to organize your online information? Want to integrate your Gmail with the rest of your internet experience? Or maybe you just want to be able to take the information you need from computer to computer without having to pack around a disk or USB drive. iGoogle can help.
What can you get for free these days? Gmail, that's what. Gmail is a free web-based email service provided by Google. This week's Baker's Dozen will introduce you to Gmail and walk you through sign-up, should you decide that you don't know how you've gone this long without it.
Me, tweet? Why would I want to do that? Basically, Twitter is conversations going on all over the world, right now. Check out week 4 of Baker's Dozen to find out more about the whys, hows and what-fors of Twitter.
Privacy and Avatars
An avatar is simply an image you use to represent yourself when you're online. It's also sometimes called a "profile image" or, less frequently, a "member icon." If you plan to spend much time online, you'll find your time is much more fun with an avatar. Learn about using an avatar to protect your privacy, then learn how to create one for yourself.
Go straight to privacy and avatars.
For our second week, we talked about blogging. All blogs are web pages, but not all web pages are blogs. What's the difference? That's one of the things we'll be learning. Other topics: Why blog? What are some blogs to read?
Music Sharing: Pandora & Playlist
Music sharing is a type of online social networking, sort of like Facebook for music. Social music sites allow people to share what they're listening to, find out what their friends are listening to, get music recommendations, create their own channels, and find new music.
Check out what music sharing is all about.


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This resolution regarding the UN and Sierra Leone was adopted on August 14, 2000.
Published August 15, 2000
This resolution regarding the UN and Sierra Leone was adopted on August 14, 2000.
Maximalist finds lessons in the past that anticipate and clarify our chaotic present, revealing the history of U.S. foreign policy in an unexpected new light. More
This clear and authoritative book presents a sweeping account of China's global resource quest and the unrivaled expansion of its economy. More
The story of the tragic and often tormented relationship between the United States and Pakistan, and a call to prepare for the worst, aim for the best, and avoid past mistakes. More
This Independent Task Force asserts that elevating and prioritizing the U.S.-Canada-Mexico relationship offers the best opportunity for strengthening the United States and its place in the world.
This Independent Task Force report finds that as more people and services become interconnected and dependent on the Internet, societies are becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks.
Challenge to China draws attention to an underappreciated aspect of legal reforms in Taiwan, and asks how Taiwan's experience might be...
Thanks to a once-obscure law passed in 1789, foreign victims of foreign human rights abusers can use U.S. courts to sue their abusers. But...
The Charter of the International Military Tribunal, also known as the the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal, was signed in London on August...
Recently, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo expressed plans to investigate alleged crimes against humanity during post-election violence in...


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William Katz: Urgent Agenda
ABC'S LOSS, CNN'S GAIN – Jake Tapper, who has been ABC's White House correspondent, and is about the best there is, will leave the network for CNN, where he will become an anchor, and will serve as chief Washington correspondent. He is a major and welcome addition to CNN, whose liberal tilt is one of its problems, although it never acknowledges it. Tapper has been one of the few White House correspondents who has refused to be a potted plant for the Obama administration. He asks tough, informed questions. If this step was engineered by CNN's incoming chief, Jeff Zucker, we may be seeing the light at the end of the CNN tunnel. But if I were Tapper, heading for that network, I'd hire a food taster.
DEBACLE – In a clear PR setback, Speaker Boehner had to cancel the second part of a two-part vote on a GOP fiscal-cliff bill tonight because, as he openly admitted, he didn't have the votes. The controversial part, which a number of Republicans refused to back, would have raised taxes on those earning more than a million dollars a year. This defeat weakens Boehner, embarrasses the Republican Party, and will be used by the Obama White House to try to prove that the Republicans aren't serious about solving the fiscal crisis. The ball, as Boehner now says, is back in the president's court.
GEE, YOU THINK? – A new Fox poll reports that 61% of American voters fear that the Obama administration "will move the country toward socialism." Some 89 percent of Republicans and 38 percent of Democrats agree with the statement. Hmm. I wonder why. Could it be....Obamacare? Owning GM? EPA overregulation? Why, surely these people don't understand the vision of our president. Choke.
ALERT! – My Midland public alert radio just went off (true!), warning of high winds in our area from tonight through tomorrow, December 21st. Yes, it will be that day – December 21st – the end of the world. And, sigh, the end of the world always begins with high-wind warnings. You'll know the end is really upon us when New York's Mayor Mike Bloomberg warns of a tidal wave of high-calorie sugary drinks cascading down Broadway. Then, just sip and pray.
December 20, 2012


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Meg's Cabin
Call us at:
218-961-3000 or email us at firstname.lastname@example.com
Homestead website templates
Create a website today
Think Fall.
Think Fall:
We are ready for fall and Christmas at Meg's Cabin in beautiful downtown Nisswa!
Come and visit us and see what is new. We are fully stocked with new merchandise for a new season. Our fashion department is full of fall and winter items. Our gourmet foods and kitchen section has been expanded. And our newly created "Man Cave" and "Up North" department offers many of those items that are hard to find.
We also have many clearance areas throughout the store - 20%, 30% and 50% off...
We are open and waiting for you.
We look forward to seeing you soon
Come and see us this fall at Meg's Cabin. Road construction is almost done, but we are easy to find. We are open 7 days a week until the end of October. We will then be open 5 days a week for the remainder of the year.
Meg's Cabin firstname.lastname@example.com
25533 Main Street P.O. Box 196, Nisswa, MN 56468