text:
|By Kevin Benedict
Article Rating:
|February 27, 2013 09:00 AM EST
Also read Enterprise Mobility Asia News Weekly
Also read Field Mobility News Weekly
Also read M2M News Weekly
Also read Mobile Commerce News Weekly
Also read Mobile Health News Weekly
Also read Mobility News Weekly
Also read SMAC News Weekly
Crocodoc has unveiled its new HTML5 document converter with a revamped conversion engine using HTML5 and scalable vector graphics to produce better image quality. Read Original Content
Doceo Publishing's Jan Ozer believes both HTML5 and Flash have their place depending on the market served. He explains the current state of HTML5 browser support and the essentials for creating HTML5 video files in this presentation available on StreamingMedia.com. Read Original Content
Antenna Software provides a complete cloud-based enterprise mobility suite that enables both IT pros and business executives alike to create and manage mobile apps, websites and content across the entire business. This newsletter is sponsored in part by Antenna Software.
The BBC joins Google, Netflix and Microsoft and has petitioned the W3C to implement digital rights management for HTML5 content. Read Original Content
Google has announced the SyncFileSystem API for Chrome to enable HTML5 apps sync offline data between devices via a cloud backup service linked to Google Drive. The API is currently only available in the Canary version of Chrome, but is likely to be released in the next few months. Read Original Content
Read Original Content
Carl Taylor, technology director at Hutchison Whampoa Europe states some of the initial reluctance surrounding HTML5 will "fade to the back" this year and predicts, "we'll see a lot more consistent HTML5 implementation throughout 2013 and beyond". Read Original Content
The three main reasons native apps remain unrivalled by HTML5 web apps are: User experience, discoverability, and web apps aren't "write once, run everywhere". Hayley Pearce explains in a post featured in the Trademob blog. Read Original Content
Microsoft has moved up the release date for IE10 on Windows 7 to sometime between the end of February and early March. The latest version of Internet Explorer promises improved support for HTML5. Read Original Content
Developer Steve Fulton shares an HTML5 Canvas example with this video puzzle using Google Chrome, a webcam and the HTML5 Canvas element. Read Original Content
Jason Pontin, Editor and Publisher of MIT's Technology Review, states a Web-based HTML5 platform will be the future of digital publishing. He elaborates in this interview video featured in the Huffington Post. Read Original Content
Recent Articles by Kevin Benedict
17 Questions to Ask When Developing Mobile Apps
Thomas Jefferson on Mobile and Collaboration
2013 Mobility Trends
What Questions Should We Ask Mobile Experts in Barcelona at MWC 2013?
Mobility and Collaboration Platforms, Part 2
Kevin Benedict on Enterprise Mobility and Collaboration
Mobile Banking and ING
Terra Cotta Army, Mobility and Social Engagement Platforms
Carpe Mobile
ClickSoftware Mobility Suite and Sybase Mobility Solution
Don't Get SMACked - How Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud are Reshaping the Enterprise
The Long Tail of Enterprise Mobility
Networked Field Services
Why Mobile Clients are Just Stepping Stones to Better Solutions
Read the insightful whitepaper on mobile, social, analytics and cloud strategies Don't Get SMACked
Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and SMAC analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
Read the original blog entry...
SYS-CON Events announced today that Windstream, a leading provider of advanced network and cloud communications, has been named "Silver Sponsor" of SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9–11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York, NY. Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN), a FORTUNE 500 and S&P 500 company, is a leading provider of advanced network communications, including cloud computing and managed services, to businesses nationwide. The company also offers broadband, phone and digital TV services to consumers primarily in rural areas.
Dec. 22, 2014 11:00 AM EST Reads: 2,351
The BPM world is going through some evolution or changes where traditional business process management solutions really have nowhere to go in terms of development of the road map. In this demo at 15th Cloud Expo, Kyle Hansen, Director of Professional Services at AgilePoint, shows AgilePoint's unique approach to dealing with this market circumstance by developing a rapid application composition or development framework.
Dec. 22, 2014 11:00 AM EST Reads: 1,451
The Internet of Things is not new. Historically, smart businesses have used its basic concept of leveraging data to drive better decision making and have capitalized on those insights to realize additional revenue opportunities. So, what has changed to make the Internet of Things one of the hottest topics in tech? In his session at @ThingsExpo, Chris Gray, Director, Embedded and Internet of Things, discussed the underlying factors that are driving the economics of intelligent systems. Discover how hardware commoditization, the ubiquitous nature of connectivity, and the emergence of Big Data a...
Dec. 21, 2014 02:00 PM EST Reads: 2,429
"BSQUARE is in the business of selling software solutions for smart connected devices. It's obvious that IoT has moved from being a technology to being a fundamental part of business, and in the last 18 months people have said let's figure out how to do it and let's put some focus on it, " explained Dave Wagstaff, VP & Chief Architect, at BSQUARE Corporation, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held Nov 4-6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Dec. 21, 2014 01:00 PM EST Reads: 2,033
The major cloud platforms defy a simple, side-by-side analysis. Each of the major IaaS public-cloud platforms offers their own unique strengths and functionality. Options for on-site private cloud are diverse as well, and must be designed and deployed while taking existing legacy architecture and infrastructure into account. Then the reality is that most enterprises are embarking on a hybrid cloud strategy and programs. In this Power Panel at 15th Cloud Expo (http://www.CloudComputingExpo.com), moderated by Ashar Baig, Research Director, Cloud, at Gigaom Research, Nate Gordon, Director of T...
Dec. 21, 2014 11:30 AM EST Reads: 2,445
SYS-CON Events announced today that IDenticard will exhibit at SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. IDenticard™ is the security division of Brady Corp (NYSE: BRC), a $1.5 billion manufacturer of identification products. We have small-company values with the strength and stability of a major corporation. IDenticard offers local sales, support and service to our customers across the United States and Canada. Our partner network encompasses some 300 of the world's leading systems integrators and security s...
Dec. 21, 2014 10:00 AM EST Reads: 2,187
ARMONK, N.Y., Nov. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it is bringing a greater level of control, security and flexibility to cloud-based application development and delivery with a single-tenant version of Bluemix, IBM's platform-as-a-service. The new platform enables developers to build ap...
Dec. 21, 2014 06:15 AM EST Reads: 2,164
"In the past year we've seen a lot of stabilization of WebRTC. You can now use it in production with a far greater degree of certainty. A lot of the real developments in the past year have been in things like the data channel, which will enable a whole new type of application," explained Peter Dunkley, Technical Director at Acision, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Dec. 20, 2014 08:00 AM EST Reads: 1,445
DevOps Summit 2015 New York, co-located with the 16th International Cloud Expo - to be held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY - announces that it is now accepting Keynote Proposals. The widespread success of cloud computing is driving the DevOps revolution in enterprise IT. Now as never before, development teams must communicate and collaborate in a dynamic, 24/7/365 environment. There is no time to wait for long development cycles that produce software that is obsolete at launch. DevOps may be disruptive, but it is essential.
Dec. 18, 2014 09:45 PM EST Reads: 1,291
"People are a lot more knowledgeable about APIs now. There are two types of people who work with APIs - IT people who want to use APIs for something internal and the product managers who want to do something outside APIs for people to connect to them," explained Roberto Medrano, Executive Vice President at SOA Software, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at Cloud Expo, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Dec. 18, 2014 09:00 AM EST Reads: 1,409
Nigeria has the largest economy in Africa, at more than US$500 billion, and ranks 23rd in the world. A recent re-evaluation of Nigeria's true economic size doubled the previous estimate, and brought it well ahead of South Africa, which is a member (unlike Nigeria) of the G20 club for political as well as economic reasons. Nigeria's economy can be said to be quite diverse from one point of view, but heavily dependent on oil and gas at the same time. Oil and natural gas account for about 15% of Nigera's overall economy, but traditionally represent more than 90% of the country's exports and as...
Dec. 18, 2014 06:00 AM EST Reads: 965
The Internet of Things is a misnomer. That implies that everything is on the Internet, and that simply should not be - especially for things that are blurring the line between medical devices that stimulate like a pacemaker and quantified self-sensors like a pedometer or pulse tracker. The mesh of things that we manage must be segmented into zones of trust for sensing data, transmitting data, receiving command and control administrative changes, and peer-to-peer mesh messaging. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Ryan Bagnulo, Solution Architect / Software Engineer at SOA Software, focused on desi...
Dec. 17, 2014 11:15 PM EST Reads: 1,460
"At our booth we are showing how to provide trust in the Internet of Things. Trust is where everything starts to become secure and trustworthy. Now with the scaling of the Internet of Things it becomes an interesting question – I've heard numbers from 200 billion devices next year up to a trillion in the next 10 to 15 years," explained Johannes Lintzen, Vice President of Sales at Utimaco, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Dec. 17, 2014 11:00 PM EST Reads: 1,511
"For over 25 years we have been working with a lot of enterprise customers and we have seen how companies create applications. And now that we have moved to cloud computing, mobile, social and the Internet of Things, we see that the market needs a new way of creating applications," stated Jesse Shiah, CEO, President and Co-Founder of AgilePoint Inc., in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 15th Cloud Expo, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Dec. 17, 2014 08:00 PM EST Reads: 1,473
SYS-CON Events announced today that Gridstore™, the leader in hyper-converged infrastructure purpose-built to optimize Microsoft workloads, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Gridstore™ is the leader in hyper-converged infrastructure purpose-built for Microsoft workloads and designed to accelerate applications in virtualized environments. Gridstore's hyper-converged infrastructure is the industry's first all flash version of HyperConverged Appliances that include both compute and storag...
Dec. 17, 2014 06:30 PM EST Reads: 1,433
Today's enterprise is being driven by disruptive competitive and human capital requirements to provide enterprise application access through not only desktops, but also mobile devices. To retrofit existing programs across all these devices using traditional programming methods is very costly and time consuming – often prohibitively so. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Jesse Shiah, CEO, President, and Co-Founder of AgilePoint Inc., discussed how you can create applications that run on all mobile devices as well as laptops and desktops using a visual drag-and-drop application – and eForms-buildi...
Dec. 17, 2014 11:45 AM EST Reads: 1,583
We certainly live in interesting technological times. And no more interesting than the current competing IoT standards for connectivity. Various standards bodies, approaches, and ecosystems are vying for mindshare and positioning for a competitive edge. It is clear that when the dust settles, we will have new protocols, evolved protocols, that will change the way we interact with devices and infrastructure. We will also have evolved web protocols, like HTTP/2, that will be changing the very core of our infrastructures. At the same time, we have old approaches made new again like micro-services...
Dec. 16, 2014 11:45 PM EST Reads: 1,435
Code Halos - aka "digital fingerprints" - are the key organizing principle to understand a) how dumb things become smart and b) how to monetize this dynamic. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Robert Brown, AVP, Center for the Future of Work at Cognizant Technology Solutions, outlined research, analysis and recommendations from his recently published book on this phenomena on the way leading edge organizations like GE and Disney are unlocking the Internet of Things opportunity and what steps your organization should be taking to position itself for the next platform of digital competition.
Dec. 15, 2014 11:45 PM EST Reads: 1,792
The 3rd International Internet of @ThingsExpo, co-located with the 16th International Cloud Expo - to be held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY - announces that its Call for Papers is now open. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the biggest idea since the creation of the Worldwide Web more than 20 years ago.
Dec. 15, 2014 10:30 AM EST Reads: 6,944
As the Internet of Things unfolds, mobile and wearable devices are blurring the line between physical and digital, integrating ever more closely with our interests, our routines, our daily lives. Contextual computing and smart, sensor-equipped spaces bring the potential to walk through a world that recognizes us and responds accordingly. We become continuous transmitters and receivers of data. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Andrew Bolwell, Director of Innovation for HP's Printing and Personal Systems Group, discussed how key attributes of mobile technology – touch input, sensors, social, and ...
Dec. 15, 2014 10:00 AM EST Reads: 2,001


text:
Lightbridge To Conduct Nuclear Energy Assessments For The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Member States
The Lightbridge Corporation logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=6636
About Exelon Corporation
Exelon Corporation is one of the nation's largest electric utilities with more than $17 billion in annual revenues. The company has one of the industry's largest portfolios of electricity generation capacity, with a nationwide reach and strong positions in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. Exelon distributes electricity to approximately 5.4 million customers in northern Illinois and southeastern Pennsylvania and natural gas to approximately 486,000 customers in the Philadelphia area. Exelon is headquartered in Chicago and trades on the NYSE under the ticker EXC.
Safe Harbor StatementThis press release may include certain statements that are not descriptions of historical facts, but are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as 'will,' 'believes,' 'expects' or similar expressions. Such information is based upon expectations of our management that were reasonable when made but may prove to be incorrect. All of such assumptions are inherently subject to uncertainties and contingencies beyond our control and based upon premises with respect to future business decisions, which are subject to change. We do not undertake to update the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. For a description of the risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, see our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ('SEC'), and our subsequent SEC filings. Copies of filings made with the SEC are available through the SEC's electronic data gathering analysis retrieval system at http://www.sec.gov .
CONTACT: Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide Greg Jawski (212)-880-5353 email@example.com
Select the service that is right for you!COMPARE ALL SERVICES
Action Alerts PLUSTry it NOW
Jim Cramer and Stephanie Link actively manage a real portfolio and reveal their money management tactics while giving advanced notice before every trade.
Product Features:
- $2.5+ million portfolio
- Large-cap and dividend focus
- Intraday trade alerts from Cramer
- Weekly roundups
TheStreet Quant RatingsTry it NOW
Only $49.95/yr
Access the tool that DOMINATES the Russell 2000 and the S&P 500.
Product Features:
- Buy, hold, or sell recommendations for over 4,300 stocks
- Unlimited research reports on your favorite stocks
- A custom stock screener
- Upgrade/downgrade alerts
Stocks Under $10Try it NOW
David Peltier, uncovers low dollar stocks with extraordinary upside potential that are flying under Wall Street's radar.
Product Features:
- Model portfolio
- Stocks trading below $10
- Intraday trade alerts
- Weekly roundups
Dividend Stock AdvisorTry it NOW
Jim Cramer's protege, David Peltier, identifies the best of breed dividend stocks that will pay a reliable AND significant income stream.
Product Features:
- Diversified model portfolio of dividend stocks
- Alerts when market news affect the portfolio
- Bi-weekly updates with exact steps to take - BUY, HOLD, SELL
Real Money ProTry it NOW
All of Real Money, plus 15 more of Wall Street's sharpest minds delivering actionable trading ideas, a comprehensive look at the market, and fundamental and technical analysis.
Product Features:
- Real Money + Doug Kass Plus 15 more Wall Street Pros
- Intraday commentary & news
- Ultra-actionable trading ideas
Options ProfitsTry it NOW
Our options trading pros provide daily market commentary and over 100 monthly option trading ideas and strategies to help you become a well-seasoned trader.
Product Features:
- 100+ monthly options trading ideas
- Actionable options commentary & news
- Real-time trading community
- Options TV

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Paessler AG
PhotoMeister is a wonderful photo editor with all the basic functions and more.
Pantone & GretagMacbeth
A freeware HTML colour generator that will convert RGB values to Hex and Hex back to RGB. Colours ca...
MindVision Software
Media Lab Inc.
The best way to convert Photoshop designs into web pages.
Recoveronix Ltd.
PhotoshopRecovery fixes corrupted Adobe Photoshop image files (.PSD, .PDD).
Freefire studio
CAD Converter is a format conversion software for batch and vector files. It can conveniently conver...
YouSendIt Plug-in for Photoshop allows you to send files directly from Photoshop.
Recovery for Photoshop is a powerful data recovery software for damaged Adobe Photoshop image files...
iDWGConverter Software
Easy Website Snapshot Free can convert HTML files to various formats.
Scarab Labs
This tool is an plug-in for Photoshop that simulates star lens filters.
Easy2Convert Software
You can convert Adobe Photoshop files (PSD) to JPEG files (JPG, JPE, JIF).
A simple application for converting Adobe Photoshop PSD files to JPG images.
Individual Software Inc.
The Fastest, Easiest Way to Learn Adobe Photoshop CS5!
abrMate is a Windows application that can to open Adobe Photoshop brush preset.
It can convert Adobe Photoshop files (PSD) to Portable Network Graphics files.
Recovery Toolbox, Inc.
Photoshop Recovery Free is a recovery tool for the damaged Photoshop files.
Eahoosoft, Inc.
Eahoosoft DVD to HD Converter can convert DVD to various HD formats.
Fix Toolbox
Photoshop Fix Toolbox repairs corrupted PSD files of Adobe Photoshop.
Engelmann Media GmbH
It is a plugin for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements and Photoshop compatible apps.
AutoDWG DWG Converter
It allows you to convert PDF files to editable DWG and DXF files.


text:
Saturday, June 26
Blueprint: Early reading program works, review finds
An independent evaluation of the Clarke County School District's Early Reading First program shows that it's preparing preschool students to move on to kindergarten.
Thursday, June 24
Bread for Life helps those in knead
About five sets of hands worked a wheat dough into golf ball-sized plops Monday, cutting and rolling and molding them until they were all uniform.
Friday, May 21
Blueprint: Young pirates on the hunt for literary treasure this summer
WATKINSVILLE - Swashbuckling kids celebrated the start of summer reading Thursday by painting cardboard pirate ships and launching into a water balloon battle on the lawn of the Oconee County Library.
Monday, May 17
Friday, May 14
Blueprint: Small-scale project builds interest in history
For as long as Jeremiah Whitaker can remember, he's dreamed of flying.
Tuesday, April 20
Monday, April 19
Schools favoring charters
Two Northeast Georgia school districts are taking steps to gain more spending flexibility and freedom from rigid state regulations under laws that give schools the option of setting up self-governing systems.
Monday, April 05
High school students persuade Commerce officials to clean up city reservoir
COMMERCE - When they saw that town leaders were overlooking obvious problems at the city reservoir, one group of Commerce High School students stepped up to protect the lake from the litterbugs, partiers and mud-boggers who were putting the public water supply at risk.
Friday, April 02
Fair amount of science displays
Several students clustered around Elliott Chung and his small, black, wheeled robot Thursday to watch a video of the robot moving on command.
Wednesday, March 10
Barrow County schools aims to prove there's an art to learning
In some Auburn Elementary School classrooms, students aren't just learning how to read words — they're pulling them apart and turning them into music.
Sunday, December 06
Lanoue convinces dropouts to return
Almost a dozen dropouts accepted Philip Lanoue's challenge to come back to school after the Clarke County School District's new superintendent sent out personalized letters urging them not to give up on their education.
Sunday, November 22
Oglethorpe band holds fundraiser for booster
Donna Magnus is one of the Oglethorpe County High School's biggest band supporters.
Wednesday, October 21
Fowler Drive science teacher wins prestigious award
Every week, Fowler Drive Elementary students peer through microscopes to look at cells or don protective goggles to study chemical reactions.
Wednesday, October 07
Governor rewards Oglethorpe for boosting SAT scores
LEXINGTON - Oglethorpe County High School achieved a feat few schools have accomplished and received accolades from two of the state's top executives Tuesday.
Sunday, October 04
Blueprint: Successful schools make it a family affair
School administrators could spend thousands of dollars each year on teachers and programs, but none of it will help students do better unless parents are involved, according to a leading expert on families and schools from the Annenberg Institute for School reform.
Powered by Non-Profit Development Alliance
A Program of Community Connection of NEGA
ACTION Inc. Oconee County
Intake volunteers, Office volunteers, Cereals, Canned meats, Personal items for senior
The Ark
Baby diapers, Grocery giftcards
Athens Area Emergency Food Bank
Macaroni and cheese, Dry pasta, Pork and beans
UGA athletes set up Salvation Army toy shop
Members of the University of Georgia baseball and women's tennis teams helped the Salvation Army prepare for its annual Christmas distribution scheduled for Dec. 18 by transporting toys to the distribution center at Athens Church and setting up a "toy shop." This year the Salvation Army will serve 810 families with more than 1,600 children by providing each family with a box of food and a bag of gifts including clothing and toys.
WCA-Floyd Memorial 5K and Kids Fun Run
February 6, 2010 • More Photos
United Way Annual Meeting and Banquet
February 3, 2010 • More Photos


text:
Global utilities:
Audience menu for:
Section: Academics
Academics menu:
The Criminal Justice program offers two degree options to meet the needs of students interested in careers in criminal justice.
Students interested in criminal justice are employable in many areas of law enforcement. Some frequently chosen occupations are:
© 2014 Harford Community College
Harford Community College
401 Thomas Run Road
Bel Air, MD 21015
443 412 2000


text:
To reheat, microwave the sauce in a small cup for 30 seconds at a time, stirring between each heating, until smooth.
Real Simple DECEMBER 2001
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream and corn syrup to a boil. Remove from heat and whisk in the chocolate until melted. Stir in the vanilla.
Pour into jars and cool completely before covering or refrigerating (otherwise the sauce will become granular). Keeps up to 1 month in the refrigerator.
Go to Full Version of


text:
Archive for July, 2009
Tony Fitzgerald's challenge to Queensland
On Tuesday Tony Fitzgerald returned to Queensland for the 20th anniversary of his landmark Inquiry to make a powerful statement about the nature of patronage and power. Fitzgerald's extraordinary 1987-1989 "Commission of Inquiry into Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct" set new legal standards for commissions of inquiry. By giving indemnities in return for evidence, it not only exposed a corrupt police force, but also toppled the entrenched 32 year reign of the National Party Government. This week Fitzgerald was back in Brisbane's to point the finger at Labor's two decade domination of Queensland.
Yesterday the Courier-Mail was only too happy to repeat his speech in full as part of their long-running campaign against the government. "Dirty Dozen" ran their page one headline (article not online) saying Fitzgerald speech "savages Labor's 12 years in power". But Brisbane's only daily newspaper somewhat missed the point he was making. Fitzgerald was not gunning for the government; he was issuing a warning based on the history of the last 20 years in Queensland.
That was obvious from Fitzgerald's first sentences. He began by praising Labor's reform agenda in the early 1990s. The political program outlined by the Inquiry was pushed through by Premier Wayne Goss and his active Attorney-General Matt Foley. It was enthusiastically administrated in the revamped public sector by Glyn Davis and Peter Coaldrake (and by their fellow horsemen Kevin Rudd and Wayne Swan). As Peter Beattie would later say Fitzgerald was Queensland's Berlin Wall. "It washed away an old regime and heralded in a new era."
But the new era didn't happen as fast as many would like. Fitzgerald did not mention the timidity of the first term in 1989-1992 when Goss was forced to move to the right to shore up the vote. And although he grew more confident in the second term the voters misread it as hubris. Like everywhere else in Australia, Queensland swung to the right in the mid 1990s. Under newly installed state secretary Mike Kaiser, Labor hung on in the 1995 election by one seat. But in early 1996 the Court of Disputed Returns ordered the Mundingburra by-election in Townsville in February 1996. Labor lost that seat and with it their majority. To the surprise of most, Goss immediately resigned saying hoped "he'd left Queensland a better place."
But as Fitzgerald said, the new National government was uncomfortably similar in voters' minds to the corrupt one who lost in 1989. After it was revealed that Rob Borbidge's government had struck a deal with police to repeal many of the Goss reforms, they were turfed out at the first time of asking. Goss' replacement Peter Beattie, cobbled a majority with the support of independents to rule. He decided to move to the right to gain more certainty as premier. Beattie shut down the examination of the past and made peace with Joh Bjelke-Petersen. As Fitzgerald said, Queenslanders were encouraged to forget the repressions and corruption that had occurred and the social upheaval that had been involved in eradicating those injustices.
Labor's return to power also marked the end of Fitzgerald's influence in Queensland. In 1998 he "accepted" the time had come to resign and he moved to Sydney. Beattie claimed today that the real reasons Fitzgerald quit was because he missed out on chief justice and because he was annoyed with the friendship Beattie had forged with Joh.
But eventually Queenslanders forgot about Fitzgerald and reform. Beattie's cause was helped by the resources boom. China was eager to import as much coal as Queensland could provide. Aided by ample funds in the exchequer and a tyro leading the opposition, Beattie won a landslide victory in 2001 and repeated it in 2004 and 2007. The sins of the past were forgotten in the largeness (and largesse) of victory. Fitzgerald says younger Queenslanders "know little of that era and are largely ignorant of the possibility that history might be repeated."
And while Peter Beattie's own personal probity was never an issue, he was let down by faction-appointed ministers. Also many of his advisors migrated out into business where their connections with the centre of power were highly valued. Fitzgerald described the consequences: "Access can now be purchased, patronage is dispensed, mates and supporters are appointed and retired politicians exploit their political connections to obtain 'success fees' for deals between business and government," he said.
None of the scandals of the era touched the Teflon Premier. But after nine years in the job, Beattie suddenly had enough and quit in 2007. His wife Heather called him a "tired, exhausted, man with bags under his eyes". In an orderly succession, he handed over power to his deputy Anna Bligh.
Bligh hung on in this year's election but recent events such as the Gordon Nuttall prosecution and the CMC (Crime and Misconduct Commission) report into renewed police misconduct have weakened her position. Bligh acknowledged the state of affairs in her own speech leading up to the Fitzgerald Inquiry anniversary. She said Fitzgerald's Inquiry was the reason she entered politics. She hailed the $43m CMC and its broad mission to oversee and investigate allegations of public sector misconduct and major organised crime. There are also new FOI laws, a Lobbyists Register, new political donation laws, and laws banning ministers from holding shares or company directorships.
Bligh says the fact that the problems have been found shows that the system works. "The drive for reform is never over," she said. And as Mark Bahnisch says, openness and transparency are not just the responsibility of the government. He reminds us the media also have a role. But Queensland media are not healthy. The Courier-Mail and ABC local radio have gone tabloid, the state 7.30 report has gone weekly and "there's no new Quentin Dempster to put the pollies and coppers under the microscope." But Fitzgerald is saying we cannot afford to wait for new Quentin Dempsters to put probity under the microscope. "[E]ven if we cannot rely on politicians to voluntarily curb their excesses or tell the truth," he wrote, "a well-informed community that is committed to doing so can influence the way it is governed."
Over to us.
Robert McNamara: strange mists
In every decade of his long public life Robert Strange MacNamara was at the centre of whatever the world's most intractable problems were at the time. In the forties, he dealt forensically with fascism. In the fifties he used market research to put some sense into the newly booming car culture. In the sixties he was on the front line of the Cold War and in the seventies he ran global finance at the World Bank. Towards the end of his always busy life he campaigned against nuclear arms and worked on solutions to reduce poverty.
His death at 93 earlier this month robbed the world of one of its great technocrats and fiercest thinkers. But almost every obit focussed almost exclusively on the 1960s and the flawed nature of his leadership of the war in Vietnam. His seven year role as a Kennedy-appointed Defence Secretary was also central to the documentary SBS showed in his honour tonight. The Fog of War is Errol Morris's Oscar-winning 2003 documentary about "11 lessons from McNamara's life".
The "fog of war" was coined by the nineteenth century Prussian military thinker Carl Von Clausewitz. In his magnum opus On War, Clausewitz warned about the uncertainty of all data. It was a peculiar difficulty, he said, because all action is "planned in a mere twilight, which in addition not unfrequently—like the effect of a fog or moonshine—gives to things exaggerated dimensions and an unnatural appearance." McNamara could certainly identify with the chaos of war as seen by those immersed in some component of it.
Much of McNamara's time as Defence Secretary (1961-1967) were spent immersed in a war fog of one kind or another. His recollections to Morris were an attempt to view the fog through the clarity of hindsight. But while McNamara was happy enough about the title he was not happy about the 11 lessons subtitle. Morris put these in very late in the editing process. McNamara complained bitterly to him, "these are not my lessons; these are your lessons". But Morris would not take them out, he was making a movie and was determined to paint the story as he saw fit. "It's a Horatio Alger story, Morris told Tom Ryan, "the story of a man who comes from relatively humble origins – his parents didn't finish high school – who becomes this incredible achiever". Morris called it a very powerful story about a man who believes in rational solutions to economic, social and political problems.
McNamara saw a lot of action in the Pentagon hot seat. He had to deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassionations of Ngo Dinh Diem and Kennedy within a month of each other, the difficulty of doing business with Johnson, the Gulf of Tonkin incident which escalated the war in Vietnam, and the authorisation of the deadly herbicide Agent Orange in that war. He attempted to rationalise his way through all of these difficult decisions. But in one of the lessons of Morris' film he is forced to admit that "rationality will not save us".
Yet there was little evidence from the rest of McNamara's life that he had abandoned his belief in rationality. His 13 year reign as President of the World Bank transformed the stuffy cautious institution he inherited. The Bank began to address problems of income disparity and poverty. It diversified into sectors of activity where progress was inevitably slow and unspectacular. It was also taking more of an interest in the economic and social conditions of its borrowers. McNamara called the bank "an innovative, problem-solving mechanism…to help fashion a better life for mankind in the decades ahead."
Though McNamara still had two decades of his own life to shape after 1981, Vietnam continued to haunt him and dominated the public discourse about his legacy. 25,000 Americans and a million or more Vietnamese died during his reign as Secretary of Defence. He claimed his role was to soften President Johnson's hawkishness. But he told his biographer Deborah Shipley he was never sure enough of his doubts about Vietnam to act on them.
McNamara knew his was a tough reputation to defend. But defend it he did using Shipley, Morris and many other proxies to tell his story. He also wrote his own memoir, In Retrospect published in 1995. Morris probably got his "lessons" idea from this book which was subtitled "The tragedy and lessons of Vietnam". McNamara claimed it was a book he planned never to put on the public record. He did not want to "appear self-serving, defensive, or vindictive" and found it hard to face his mistakes. "But something changed my attitude and willingness to speak," he wrote. "I am responding not to a desire to get out my personal story but rather to a wish to put before the American people why their government and its leaders behaved as they did and what we may learn from that experience."
Writing about the book, Noam Chomsky witheringly noted that McNamara did not have much of an idea of what was going on around him, neither then nor now. And to some degree this is true, McNamara has always been embroiled in the fog of war. But what Chomsky does not deny is that McNamara was at the centre of major decision making constantly confronted by the uncertainty of the data he was using. He may not always have been right, but he could always plausibly justify his course of action. This alone makes him worth learning from.
Making Health better: Bennett's call to arms
(Photo "Health Dept" by Kate in Sydney)
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd put off the decision today for six months whether to implement a $16b public health revamp suggested by the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission. Rudd says he is not frightened to tackle the issue but will consult with the public and health professionals before taking recommendations to the COAG meeting at a date to be announced late this year.
The revamp was outlined in a report released today by commission chair and BUPA Australia chief medical officer Dr Christine Bennett. The executive summary is available here in in PDF format. The report had five recommendations across the areas of indigenous health, mental illness, rural issues, dental care and access to public hospitals and suggested moving full funding of the system transfer from the states to the Commonwealth.
Though the additional funding required is problematic, the transfer of powers is not as big a deal as it sounds. The federal government already runs the health system at a macro level. As Medicare Australia says, Canberra has the primary role of developing broad national policies, regulation and funding for the industry.
It also does much of the spending. The department's 2007 factbook (pdf) revealed that Canberra spent 46 percent of the total health budget with states responsible for another 22 percent (individuals spend 19 percent with "other private" bodies on 13). But it is the states that have primarily responsible to deliver and manage public health services. It is NSW, Victoria and the rest that also maintain direct relationships with most health care providers, including regulation of health professionals and private hospitals.
Bennett is not so much interested in taking power away from the states as giving individuals more power. Her stated motto is "wellness begins with you" and the aim of the document released today is to ensure the Department of Health lives up to its name rather than being a Department of Sickness, Injury and Death. This is reflected in the name of the report released today: "A healthier future for all Australians".
The report had five major recommendations. The first was improving health outcomes for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders (ATSI). It recommends a new authority to run ATSI health. The new body will be better funded, target nutrition, and train up an indigenous workforce. All this are good ambitions but a holistic health plan must take into accoun the impact the appalling imprisonment rates are having on ATSI life expectancy.
The second priority is improved care for the mentally ill. It wants more "sub-acute" (which defines a stage of illness between acute and chronic) services in the community with 7 x 24 "rapid response outreach" teams to provide alternative to hospital treatment. The third priority was support for people in remote and rural areas. This concept of universal service obligation (USO) is borrowed from telecommunications and insists that rural and remote citizens get treated the same as urban citizens. This is admirable but often impractical in a country the size of Australia. To address the shortage of doctors, nurses and facilities in remote and rural areas, the report suggests top-up funding to match communities who have better access medical, pharmaceutical and other primary health care services.
(Photo: 7 Day Dental by flickr_b3rn)
The fourth key recommendation is improved access to dental care. One in three Australians put off dental visits due to costs and there are 650,000 people (3 percent of the total population) on the public waiting list. The report recommends education of dentists and schools and a new universal scheme called Denticare Australia where basic services can be paid by private health insurance or the public purse.
The fifth and final recommendation is improving timely access to public hospitals. It says large public hospitals should have emergency beds available at all times, as well extra funding to reduce waiting lists beyond the budget moneys allocated to 2010-2011 (Health's $52b annual budget is scheduled to be slashed in half for 2011-2012). It suggests a national access target to measure whether people are getting access to health services when they need it.
The report is talking about fundamental re-design. Bennett wants to embed prevention and early intervention, connect and integrate health services, and move to what it calls the "next generation of Medicare" to review comprehensiveness, the USO and safety nets. Crucially it will also examine what pharmaceuticals and services get onto the lucrative Medicare benefits schedule which is five percent of the total health spend.
The report says COAG needs to agree on a Healthy Australia Accord to realign roles and responsibilities for health. This talks for the need for "one health system" under full Commonwealth funding control of primary health care, as well as dental, aged and ATSI care. The Commonwealth would pay the states "activity-based benefits" for public hospital care to share the risk caused by increased demand and provide an incentive for better care. It will start at 40 percent of cost of every public hospital admission and will eventually rise to 100 percent at which time the federal government will be in de facto control of Australian public health.
It suggests a timetable for the Accord to be 2010 and says the reform plan will cost between $2.8b and $5.7b with a further $4.3b to $7.3b in infrastructure. The Denticare plan will cost an additional $3.6b which could be offset by a 0.75 percent increase in the Medicare levy. This taxation hit will be difficult to sell. But as Bennett says in the report "[governments], the community, health professionals and health services are…ready to embrace reform". Let's hope COAG sees it that way.
Citizen Byte conference part 3: Political blogging in Australia
This is the third and final post about Friday's "New Media and the Informed Citizen" symposium held at Brisbane's South Bank. See links to parts one and two.
In his perceptive book Blogwars (2008), American academic David Perlmutter says that too many news and information blogs read like reporters' notes prior to going to press. He quotes the famous dictum of Washington Post publisher Philip Graham who said that journalism is the first draft of history. Blogs, said Perlmutter, could now be considered the first draft of journalism. But where exactly blogging and journalism intersect has always been a thorny subject in the Australian political and media landscape and this was one of topics Graham Young touched on in his speech to the Citizen Byte forum.
Young is well qualified to speak to this theme having vast experience across blogging, the media, and politics. He blogs at Ambit Gambit, conducts online polling at What the People Want and also the chief editor of one of Australia's most important Internet journals, On Line Opinion. In the 1990s he was the vice-president and campaign chairman of the Queensland Liberal Party. He was successful too – the Liberals last election victory in 1995 occurred on his watch. But Young was always too iconoclastic to be a Liberal hero and is now outside the fold.
He began by discussing how the Internet was affecting Australian politics. He quoted the 2007 Nielsen Internet Technology Report which found the technology was pervasive and that 72 percent of all Internet users use it for news, sport and weather updates. However when he looked at the data, he found that despite the existence of thousands of political blogs, online users were consistently turning to existing media organisations for their news. In order of frequency the most accessed were (with Alexa ranking in brackets) Nine MSN (9), News.com (11), SMH (14), ABC (21) and The Age (26). The exclusively online organisations were well down the ladder with the biggest Crikey at 40,977 and Young's own On Line Opinion further down at 142,137.
The message from this data, said Young, was that "tyrants rule" in Australia. Existing brands count, he said, as do the number of resources at their disposal, their national presence, and the fact that Australia is such a small and competitive marketplace. The few exclusively online operations that have been successful serve niche markets. Young also found that geographical proximity counted on the Internet and 30 percent of On Line Opinion's users were from Queensland (which has 20 percent of total population).
This accentuation of the local was repeated in the Youdecide2007 citizen journalism project which Young was also involved with. This 2007 federal election site was an initiative of the Creative Industries faculty at QUT, funded by the Australian Research Council, and supported by project partners On Line Opinion, SBS and Cisco. The intention was to provide hyperlocal news and information on a seat-by-seat basis. However, audiences and stories from Queensland predominated (including the site's one 'gotcha' story crategate) and this can be attributed to the fact the project was run out of Brisbane.
Young also noted how what he called Australian "para-parties" use the Internet. In the last election, 200,000 people joined the union-based Your Rights At Work campaign to fight the then-Governments Workchoices legislation. Activist group Getup! has an even bigger membership with 325,000 people registered on their books. Young disputes whether these are "members" in a traditional sense. He see Getup! as a harvester of e-mail addresses to which it then targets fundraising and single-political issue campaigns. According to AEC returns Getup! raised $1.2m in the election year of 2007 and it campaigned heavily (with mixed success) in the seats of Bennelong and Wentworth against Liberal heavyweights John Howard and Malcolm Turnbull respectively.
The mainstream political parties haven't embraced the Internet as much as the "para-parties". Young says there is a good reason for this – the old fashioned methods still work. TV ads and direct mail remain the most successful media campaign techniques. According to Young, Liberals used the Internet the most (with 44 percent of candidates having websites) with Labor second on 30 percent. The minor parties such as the Greens and the Democrats were well behind, preferring to use their scarce funds on more traditional advertising. Despite their apparent net-friendly credentials, these parties were only too aware where the real priority was when it came to spending money. (This is not a unique Australian problem; Perlmutter notes in his book that despite being a very adept blogger, Iowa Democrat governor Tom Vilsack was forced to drop out of the 2008 presidential race because didn't have the money to buy television time).
Young then turned his attention to what he called the problem of "the failure of the blogosphere. He gave his version of an a-list of blogs he called "the domain" which included Larvatus Prodeo, Jennifer Marohasy, Homepagedaily, John Quiggin, Club Troppo and Henry Thornton. Young said that with the possible exception of Thornton who writes a fortnightly column in The Australian, none have successfully made a breakthrough similar to US blogs. Possible reasons for this include their point-of-view, a competitive market, the unwillingness of the MSM to interact, and the lack of a sustainable financial model. Young conceded some polling blogs have succeeded in impacting the agenda but he said this was hardly a mainstream interest. He also suggested that the highly educated people that ran most of his "domain" blogs may not be talking about the issues relevant to everyday Australians.
Because, he said, in the mainstream "brands count". Media companies rely on severe audience inertia acting against change. Commercial television stations know that the 5.30pm slot is the most important because if they can lock in viewers prior to the high cost ads of the 6pm news, the likelihood they won't change the channel – remote or no remote. Other issues affecting the ability of blogs to impact on politics here include the central control of party funding and candidate selection and the fact that Australia, generally speaking, is well run. What that means is that people generally don't need to think about politics in daily life – they have more exciting things to do. The reason almost 100 percent of people voted in Iran's recent election, said Young, was because there was a burning desire to fix a problem. The same desires don't exist here. The blogs have their community but have not crashed through to a greater public. According to Young, "the days of the Interknight errant never arrived".
Citizens bite: Part 2
And speaking of changing ways, I must begin with a correction. I gave the impression that Brisbane media did not attend the Citizen Byte new media symposium in Brisbane yesterday. That simply wasn't true. Graham Young (OnLine Opinion, Ambit Gambit, What the People Want) was an invited speaker and there was also Wotnews.com.au and Woolly Days. I have since found out that other journalists and academics would have attended with more notice. In any case, the proceedings were filmed and I hope will be available in the public domain soon enough.
Citizen Byte is a community research project whose stated purpose is to "examine what the implications of the new media environment are on politics and the political sphere both in Australia and in Malaysia." One of those implications was that new media was having a bigger impact in Malaysia than it was in Australia. Last night I discussed the role of keynote speaker Steven Gan. The editor of Malaysiakini is the "new media" go-to person for the White House and the New York Times and he has transformed a small online venture into Malaysia's most popular news site. But tonight I want to discuss some of the other Malaysian wisdom on offer at the symposium. Tomorrow I will conclude with some great observations by the conference's only Australian speaker, Graham Young.
Not the least wisdom came from a member of Malaysia's media elite: Datuk Azman Ujang. Datuk Azman is chair of the Malaysian Press Institute and the Editorial Adviser at both national news agency Bernama and its broadcasting arm Bernama TV. He took up the latter two jobs having retired as overall GM of Bernama. Datuk Azman is an experienced powerful insider who can get away with calling a spade a spade in the corridors of power. He told his Brisbane audience how the government admonishes him for being "too honest" but it does not dare censure him further. Yet even he was disturbed by the last election result which he said was a wake-up call for the media as well the government. Datuk Azman said that entrenched government support within the media has resulted in biased news for 50 years. The arrival of new media suddenly made their credibility a marketplace issue for urban voters. Malaysiakini took up the challenge and inspired other news portals. Meanwhile opposition politicians took to blogging in numbers to enhance their appeal with younger audiences and crash through their lack of coverage in the MSM. They also used the world's highest mobile penetration to good effect to spread viral political messages.
But most of the villages don't have the Internet or mobile phones and the government won the election overall 60:40. The poorer states, particularly East Malaysia voted for BN. There is entrenched corruption in Sabah and Sarawak that has survived for half a century which KL turns a blind eye to. And the government uses regulation of the broadcast spectrum and annual licensing of newspapers to keep the media in check. Datuk Azman said there were "unwritten laws" which depended on the circumstances and mood and attitude of the government at a particular time.
Mohd. Zulkifli was the next to speak. Zulkifli is a content manager at Media Prima Berhad. Media Prima Berhad is Malaysia's largest media company with a diversified portfolio of assets including four free-to-air TV channels. Zulkifli is bringing the power of new media to bear on many of those assets. He said audiences had to register to the websites but the content was free. 838,000 Malaysians have signed up.
Zulkifli says their biggest differentiator is video content but they are also providing Tweetdecks, SMS alerts (with video alerts starting next month), streaming content on mobiles, as well as interacting with television shows in innovative ways that would please fan theorists like Henry Jenkins.
Their websites are full of blogs and online discussions with network stars and there are discussion rooms where audiences can go to have their say and possibly affect the plots of soap operas. There is also an "Indie showcase" channel that deliberately attempts to "push the boundaries of censorship". In 2007 Berhad released Malaysia's first made-for-web drama. "Kerana Karina" or KK tells the story of overnight pop star Karina in 20 four-minute episodes. Though he didn't mention in the speech, Zulkifli took time out from his day job to write the lyrics to the KK theme song.
What he did mention was that Berhad's investment in new media (including 60 staff) is starting to pay off. The most popular site TV3.com gets 41 million hits each month. His job is to keep the revenue high otherwise, he said, he "wouldn't be here next year". Zulkifli says that social media is the big challenge of the next couple of years. Somehow, I don't expect him to fail this challenge – Mohd. Zulkifli is definitely not "more of the same".
Malaysiakini editor speaks in Brisbane
When Barack Obama's campaign team and the New York Times online editor were scouring Asia-Pacific for innovative ways to harness the power of new media, they avoided Australia. There was little going on here they did not already know. Where they did go to was Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which is home to some of the most cutting-edge use of media in the world. The person both organisations sought out was journalist and editor Steven Gan. Gan is the editor of Malaysiakini (MK) an online citizen news service that has become the most trusted media organisation in the peninsula. MK publishes in Malay, Chinese, English and Tamil and has also expanded into video.
Today, Brisbane was fortunate enough to host Gan and several other key Malaysian new media players at an all-day symposium called "New Media and the Informed Citizen" at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music at South Bank. The conference outlined the vibrancy of the industry in Malaysia in front of audience of about thirty people. It was a shame more people in Brisbane didn't get the chance to listen to how the media is being shaped in new directions in our part of the world.
"Malaysiakini" means Malaysia Now and celebrates its tenth anniversary in November. Up to around 1998 the Malaysian Barisan National (BN) government (which has ruled since independence in 1957) had a monopoly on news in cyberspace. But after visiting Silicon Valley, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad introduced the Multimedia Super Corridor (now MSC Malaysia) to kickstart the local IT industry. One of things Bill Gates and others told Mahathir was that he should not censor the Internet. While Mahathir had misgivings (particularly over pornography) he saw the business benefit and agreed. Malaysiakini rose to exploit the loophole, starting up with just four journalists.
But despite the liberal censorship rules (by Malaysian standards) the new publication still attracted the unwelcome attention of authorities. In January 2003, police raided the offices of MK looking for details of an anonymous letter writer who satirically compared a politician to the Ku Klux Klan. The politician was not amused and sent police in to find out the identity of the letter writer. Gan, as any good journalist would do, refused to divulge his source. Police seized four servers and 15 central processing units from its office and interrogated Gan and senior staff. The move provoked an outcry with spontaneous protests outside the office and led to a coalition of groups condemning the raid. Police never formally raised charges and returned the now obsolete boxes two years later.
MK continued to grow as its attacks on government corruption attracted a new readership unhappy with the servile nature of Malaysia's mainstream press. In 2006 they broke the Petronas story over lies the oil company boss told about its activities in Sabah. The following year they took on Abdul Taib Mahmud the long-term corrupt leader of Sarawak over logging kickbacks to Japanese shipping firms. And last year MK played a pivotal rule in the general election (where the MSM all supported the government) and BN had its worst result in 50 years, losing control of five states.
MK now employs 30 journalists and has moved into video at www. malaysiakini.tv. They have also trained up a team of citizen journalists and provided them with video cameras to report on local news across East and West Malaysia. MK grew steadily with a subscription only model (the advice he gave the NYT) and a large bed of content.
As the election got closer in 2008, Gan made an important decision. He opened up the site for free for the entire period of the election. By the time of the vote on 8 March it had overtaken The Star newspaper as Malaysia's most popular political site. Gan called the election a tsunami that almost completely overturned Malaysia's political system (a later speaker said it wasn't a new chapter in Malaysian politics – it was a new book).
Thanks to a corrupt government and the biased MSM, Malaysiakini quickly established itself as the most trusted media brand and brought in thousands of new subscribers after the election. The badly shaken BN government admitted they lost the Internet war and have now started to negotiate with MK and the other online outlets.
MK is now a thriving media organisation that has made a profit in each of the last four years. Gan says they were lucky they started their subscription model early. And after the election he says that big advertisers have started to take notice. He described one of his proudest moments as a video they released of a "nude ear-squat" form of prisoner punishment the government claimed had not been used in decades. The video scandal caused a Royal Commission to be set up to investigate the affair. "A half minute video changed practices that were going on for years," he said.
Muphry's Law and Sarah Palin's resignation letter
As an Irishman I know Murphy's Law only too well. I have often been bitten by it and occasionally made bitter by it. The law says that if anything can go wrong, it surely will – and usually at the worst possible moment. Yet Murphy has to be admired as an unbending issuer of Rhadamanthine justice who cautions you to be wary that a serious snafu is always just an ill-timed moment away.
Yesterday I found Murphy's literary cousin has a similar rule. Called Muphry's Law, it states that if you are going to correct someone's grammar you will undoubtably foul up the correction. This post is another attempt at breaking that important rule.
I learned about Muphry in the comments of a wonderful article in the Punch. "Mind your language if you're making a parse at me" was a "lucethought" from JJJ journalist and news reader Lucy Carter. Carter described herself as a rarity amongst her peers: "a 22 year old who adores a well constructed sentence." In 'mind your language' she tells the story about how her flirting with a barista went off the rails when she automatically corrected his grammar.
Because as she ruefully admitted, "nothing says 'we should go out' like a grammar check".
Amusing, but Carter was making a serious point. She was discussing our education system – a subject the state of NSW is making laws to stop you talking about. Carter doesn't think there is anything wrong in the way newer-style education forces people to examining theme within literary works. But she says the loss of grammar in the curriculum means that she cannot "parse" sentences like her mother could. What Carter was realising was that grammar is a useful tool for deconstruction.
This was amply demonstrated by the article's comments thread. The first commenter "Allan Cox" (who missed a good opportunity to legitimately use the misnomer "frist") said the article had restored his faith in "gen-yer's" but also suggested this group were more analytical than they were letting on – particularly when it came to money.
The second commenter was BD. It was BD who introduced me to "Muphry's Law": anybody who writes about poor grammar will inevitably make at least one grammatical error. BD sternly picked apart several mistakes in Carter's copy and gave the mark "must do better". But BD had not thought through the concept.
The third commenter, The Punch's own Tory Maguire, pointed out the pot-kettle moment when she mentioned BD's own mispelling of the "fist letter of University". Maguire was smart enough herself to keep her fist out of her mouth – she posted just one sentence which was gramatically correct. Muphry's magic ended temporarily. It would appear again in later comments.
Because Muphry, it seems, is an unavoidable consequence of large-scale correction. Take the case of Vanity Fair's story about Sarah Palin's Alaskan governor resignation speech. The magazine used a high-powered team of the magazine's executive literary editor and representatives of the research and copy departments to unpick the speech line by rambling line. The trio took to the task with gusto and red, green and blue pens scrawled hundreds of corrections. It was great editing work. My only quibble was the resulting pictures weren't easy to read and Vanity Fair did not provide a cleaned up version (presumably that was Palin's job).
Oddly enough, Palin may have taken notice. Another report what she actually said had some (but not all) of Vanity Fair's corrections.
But I wanted to see the finished article and felt compelled to write out my own post-Vanity Fair version of the farewell speech. I found just one Vanity Muphry (marked with 'sic') but there may be others. It almost certainly has fresh Muphry-ness introduced by me.
Yet Muphry or no, the communications question is: is this remashed version still identifiable as Palin's speech?
Thank you all for coming here today to Lake Lucille. You are a source of inspiration for my family and me. And I'm thankful that Todd flew in last night from commercial fishing grounds in Bristol Bay to stand by my side as always.
It is the eve of our celebration as a nation a time to remember those souls who sacrificed selflessly so that we might live in freedom. From the shores of Maine to Texas and California, to the tip of Barrow, we live in peace because 233 years ago so many brave men and women fought for something far greater than themselves, and so many continue to fight for us today. Therefore I say God bless our military on this eve of Independence Day.
People who know me know that except for God and family, nothing is more important to me than our beloved Alaska. Serving her people is the greatest honour I can imagine. I want Alaskans to grasp what can be in store for our state. We were purchased as a territory because a member of President Andrew Johnson's cabinet, William H. Seward, heard of this great land's hoard of vast riches and beauty and recognised its strategic placement on the globe. He boldly looked to the future but later endured ridicule and mockery for his vision. His adversaries called his great dream "Seward's Folly".
Seward however, secured Alaska realising that Alaska could help secure the United States.
Alaska is strategic as a crossroads of the world and a gatekeeper of the continent. Seward and other early visionaries saw that Alaska would play a key role in America's destiny.
That destiny includes developing the natural resources of the land, its wildlife and minerals, its oil and gas.
Serving this important state is a humbling responsibility. I trust you know me by now, I promised four years ago I would show independence and put an end to politics as usual. My administration's accomplishments speak for themselves.
We created a Petroleum Systems Integrity Office to oversee safe development. We held the line on Point Thomson. And now with our co-operation you're seeing drilling up there for oil and gas.
[Alaska Gas Inducement Act] AGIA, the gasline project was a massive and bi-partisan victory. The vote was 58 to 1. Like many other projects of its kind, this one is very competitive perhaps the largest private sector energy project ever achieved in this state.
[Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share] ACES, another bi-partisan effort is working as intended to work and industry is publicly acknowledging its success. Alaskans will no longer be taken advantage of. ACES provides incentives for new exploration and development. It also provides for new jobs unlike the system under a monopolised North Slope Oil Basin.
We ushered in bi-partisan ethics reform and we slowed the rate of government growth. We worked with the Legislature to save billions of dollars for our future. I made no new lobbyist friends with my hundreds of millions of dollars in budget vetoes. Living beyond our means today spells chaos for tomorrow.
We took the dairy business away from the government and put it back into the hands of the private-sector where it belongs. We provided support for education. We finally filled long-vacant public safety positions, including the doubling of Police academy recruits. We built a sub-cabinet to deal with climate change. We took heat from special interests for what I believe are our biologically sound practices to deal with wildlife management and predator control.
We broke ground on the state's new prison.
We eliminated such luxuries for government employees such as jets, chefs and personal entourages. The lieutenant governor and I said no to pay raises. For our success in this first term I am proud to take credit for hiring the right people. Our goal was to achieve a gasline project, more fair oil and gas valuation, and ethics reform in four years. Thanks to our group's astounding work ethic, we are well on the way in just two. I wish you would hear more from the media about your state's progress and how we tackle the special interests and bodies that would stymie our state and force the heavy hand of federal government into our communities.
I have taken criticism for exercising my veto when I knew it was the right thing to do but I'm convinced it is better than being popular. I felt that some of those special interest dollars would harm not only Alaska but also America. I turned down those dollars because they would add to the obscene national debt we're forcing on our children because of today's big Government spending. It is not just immoral, it doesn't even make economic sense.
Our Department of Law protected state's [sic] rights. In just the last two weeks U.S. Supreme Court reversals came down against the liberal Ninth Circuit, deciding in our state's favor over the last two weeks.
You don't hear much of the good stuff in the press and some say things changed for me on August 29 last year, the day John McCain tapped me to be his running mate. It was an honour to be his running mate. It was an honour to stand beside a true American hero. But I say others changed and let me elaborate on that for a minute.
Political operatives descended on Alaska digging for dirt. The ethics law I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months I've been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations from holding a fish in a photograph to wearing a jacket with the logo of my husband's snow-making sponsor on it while answering reporters' questions. Most of these ethics complaints have been dismissed. We won but it cost us. The State has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out nearly 200,000 of your dollars to respond these attacks. That's money that won't be going to fund teachers or troopers or safer roads. Because of this politics of personal destruction Todd and I are looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills to set the record straight.
And what about the people who brought up these silly accusations? It doesn't cost them a dime so they're not going to stop spending the public's money in this game. It's insane. My staff and I spend most of our day dealing with this stuff instead of working for our state.
If I have learned one thing, it's that life is about choices. You can choose to engage in things that tear people down, or build people up. I choose to work very hard to build up this state and our great country.
Life is too short to waste time and resources. Though it may be tempting to listen to those who tell you to stay in line and shut up but that's the quitter's way out. I think one big problem in our country today is apathy and I refuse to just hunker down and go with the flow. We're fishermen so we know only dead fish go with the flow. Productive people know where to put their efforts and how to utilize precious time. There is such a need now to build up our state and fight for our country. I'll work hard for those who believe in free enterprise, smaller government, and strong national security, who want to support our troops and protect our freedom.
I will support others who willing to serve in or out of office inside or outside of Alaska. I don't care what party they belong to.
But I won't do it from the governor's desk. So for the sake of my family, I have chosen not to seek re-election as governor.
As I thought about this announcement, I also thought about how much fun some governors have as lame ducks. Many politicians travel around the state and other states, maybe even go overseas on international trade missions. But then I thought, that's wrong just to hit the road and draw a paycheck. I'm not going to put Alaskans through that.
I am not wired to operate under the same old politics as usual. I promised you that four years ago and I meant it. It's not what is best for Alaska.
Therefore I've decided it's best to transfer the authority of governor to Lieutenant Governor Parnell so that this administration, with its positive agenda and its accomplishments can continue without interruption to achieve administrative and legislative success.
We know we can effect positive change outside government at this moment in time and actually make a difference for our priorities. So we will, for Alaskans and for Americans.
Let me apply an analogy that seems comfortable to me and that's basketball. You'd be naïve if you didn't see a full-court press picking away right now. A good point guard drives through that full court press, protecting the ball, keeping her eye on the basket. She knows exactly when to pass the ball so that the team can win. That is what I'm doing – keeping an eye on the ball that represents sound priorities. Those include energy independence, smaller government, and national security. And I know that it's time to pass the ball for victory.
I have given you my reasons candidly. My last day won't be for another few weeks so the transition will be smooth. In fact, we will look forward to swearing in Sean Parnell up there in Fairbanks at the conclusion of our governor's picnic at the end of the month.
I don't want to disappoint anyone with my decision so all I can do is ask you to trust me.
Maybe some Alaskans don't mind wasting public dollars and state time but I do. I cannot allow all that time and money go to waste just so I can hold the title of Governor. Some people are going to question the timing. Let me just say that this decision has been in the works for a while and only comes after much prayer and consideration.
I polled the most important people in my life – my kids – and they were unanimous. I asked them do you want me to make a positive difference and fight for all our children's future from outside the governor's office. It was four yeses and one "hell yeah!" That "hell yeah" sealed it.
For the kids, their approval had to do with the kids seeing their baby brother, Trig, mocked by mean-spirited adults. I only wish folks could understand how much we learn so much from someone like Trig. I know he needs me, but I need him even more. The world needs more Trigs.
My decision was fortified by my trip to Kosovo and Landstuhl, to visit our wounded soldiers overseas. We can all learn from our selfless troops. They're bold and they don't give up, and they know that life is short so they choose not to waste time. They choose to serve something greater than self and to build up our great country. These troops are where the worthy causes in this world can be found today. And that is where our public resources should be spent, instead of wasteful political bloodsport.
We've got to put first things first. For me, that means Alaska. It hurts to make this choice but I am doing what's best for Alaska. My parents have a little magnet on their refrigerator that says "don't explain: your friends don't need it and your enemies won't believe you anyway." But I have chosen to give you my reasons. I've had my fill of usual.
I'm taking my fight for what's right for Alaska in a new direction. However, I don't want to dissuade any Alaskan from entering politics after seeing the real climate change that began last August. We need hardworking, average Americans fighting for what's right. And I will support you because you can effect change, just as I can, too, outside the political arena.
We need more people who will respect our Constitution, resist big government takeover and protect individual rights, who will have the good sense to know when conditions drastically change and who will pass the ball when it's time so that the right team can win! That is what I'm doing here today.
Remember, Alaska, America is more than ever looking north to the future. God bless you. You have my heart. We're all going to be in the capable hands of our lieutenant governor, Sean Parnell. Lieutenant General Craig Campbell will assume the role of lieutenant governor. And I promise you that I will be standing by, ready to assist. We have a strong, positive agenda for Alaska.
Take the words often attributed to General MacArthur, "We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction."
Again I say thank you, and God bless you, Alaska.


text:
UTMB Fall 2013 - page 2
hello! I searched the site and seen no one made a topic about the people trying to enter in Fall 2013 so here is it :up: I am applying to UTMB for Fall 2013. I've written my personal statement and filled in the application. Now... Read More
- 0Dec 14, '12 by carlajeanx3Clementine, how long did it take nursingCAS to process all of your stuff? Also, what was the supplemental application like? I am leaving the country the week after next and my family might have to fill out my supplemental application for me so hopefully it is pretty simple!
- 0Dec 14, '12 by clementine17It took about a week for NCAS to receive my transcript, and a day for them to calculate/verify my GPA after I've submitted my application. The supplemental application was dead simple, it asked basic questions like: did your parents go to college, what was the last college you attended, and some other stuff I cant remember.
( A side note: I submitted my application through NCAS on Nov 19 and I received my supplemental app today Dec 14)
- 0Dec 15, '12 by jshanice11i was wondering the same thing about the transcripts. cause i am done with the rest of my application but they haven't received any of my transcripts so i'm not sure if i should submit or not.
- 0Dec 15, '12 by carlajeanx3Thank you! That is good to hear I was a little worried about it. It kind of took them a long time to get everything in! Hopefully I don't miss the dealine :/.
Js, you can submit your ap before they get your transcripts!
- 0Dec 15, '12 by gwin2015Hi Carlajeanx3, I first submitted my application and I immediately sent/ordered official transcripts from all colleges attended. It is better if you use the NursingCAS transcript request form since it has your NursingCAS ID so that your transcript can easily be matched to your application file. This worked perfectly for my summer, 2013 entry application as my file is already complete much earlier than the application deadline (01/03/2003). Very important is that send your official transcripts well in advance (several weeks, if not months) before the application deadline. After they received my transcripts, it took NursingCAS more than two weeks to verify my transcripts. For UTMB, TEAS scores are directly sent to the school NOT to NursingCAS. It is my hope that we will be accepted to either UTHSC-Houston or UTMB, or both!!
- 0Dec 15, '12 by carlajeanx3Oh wow yeah I wish I could have finished it all earlier but I did not have 40 hours until this semester finished and my school is weird about ordering transcripts so we can't order it till next week.. So frustrating... Maybe I can still make it in time! Ive already finished everything for uthsc so hopefully we get into all of our choices and then just have a tough decision!
- 0Dec 16, '12 by jshanice11i was debating if i should wait until my final grades to be up for this semester but it was going to take too long so i just sent in the hours i had, i believe its 40 on the dot. i submitted my app just waiting on them to receive my transcript. ive been preparing for the TEAS and praying lol
- 0Dec 17, '12 by tessthebestI've already submitted my application just having to wait till tomorrow morning to send my transcripts I'm like a Lp of people I wanted to wait to have this semesters grades on there because I'm actually done with all of my classes after this semester I just hope They get everything processes in time
- 0Dec 17, '12 by Bippy798Hey everyone, I am also submitting my application for the Fall at UTMB. I just finished my personal statement and will upload it tonight when I get home and hit the scary submit button. I luckily took the TEAS back in May so that I wouldn't have to worry about it now (for those wondering, I checked with the nursing adviser and it does not go to NCAS, just to the college). Fingers crossed for everyone!
Does anyone have a clue how many applicants vs. spots there generally are?


text:
A faulty computer in the Supplemental Restraint System (SRS) can cause a false "Side Airbag Off" light to illuminate. The SRS computer will need to be replaced for this issue.
Car Problem Reports
Honda CR-V Side airbag off light on due to faulty SRS computer
Honda CR-V Problem
1 Report
Model Year Affected: 2002


text:
Chicago and Its Loop
4 hours ago
We can always count on Buzz for bold words... let's hope someone listens. I have been wading through the 157-page report in stages when time allows, and I am alternately excited and having gut feelings of DOOM. So much potential!!
ps- thanks also for mentioning my contest :)
There used to be an image of the T-shirt here, but it's no longer showing up. I was just using a URL from your website, so maybe it's been moved.
© 2007-2010 Astronaut for Hire.


text:
The Cavision PFA03X58/DFA04X58 is a fish-eye lens attachment. This attachment allows a 65% wider vision than the camera lens alone and fits directly on 58mm diameter camera filter threads.
Note! With this attachment some may be marked with PFA03X58 and some with DFA04X58, this is the exact same item.
- Application
- Used with camcorders featuring a 58mm or 52mm (with adapter) filter thread, this device will widen the angle of view by 65%; this distorts the image in a spherical fashion for specific special effects.
- Universal Design
- The universal design allows this attachment to work well with a variety of camcorders using this size filter threads.


text:
'Strong Performance Thanks To New Intel Quad Core Processor'
'satisfactory performance'
'simple black keyboard'
'with a slightly faster processor (a 1.73GHz Core i7 740QM vs. a 1.6GHz 720QM), a Blu-ray combo drive, and improved battery life (2.5 hours vs. 1.75 hours), the G73Jw is definitely an upgrade.'
'perfect gaming laptop'
'decent graphics'
'speedy processor'
'high-end performance'
'great gaming notebook'
'strong performer'
'Excellent gaming performance.'
'No 16. 9 display.'
'Attractive design, Good workmanship'
'The M17x's keyboard is massive and solid'
'pure, unbridled performance'
'The BBC's series on Blu-ray Disc looked awesome on the big screen, as well, and showed no signs of smearing or motion artifacts.'
'which makes the M17x feel very sturdy.'
'great performance'
'the new M17x is worth checking out.'
'The U45Jc-A1's full-size one is responsive and comfortable.'
'black, chiclet-style keyboard'
'the ASUS U45JC-A1 is great for most people, you can use it to do anything you want.'
'general-purpose notebook'
'modest battery score'
'good graphic card'
'brilliant business notebook'
'good general performance'
'Good performance'
'Connectivity is complete, with connectors spread out along the edges of the notebook.'
'The graphics card on this computer is absolutely amazing.'
'Solid performance'
'The integrated video processor is able to help decode HD videos (AVC/VC-2/MPEG2) , e.g., for a fluent Blu-Ray playback with slow CPUs.'
'The screen is quite large and provides a larger visual area to work with.'
'elegant and powerful laptop computer sports'
'great laptop'
'Customer Reviews
To put it all in a nutshell this laptop is excellent.'
'On one hand the glossiness makes the notebook look more attractive, but on the other hand it reduces durability and makes it a real chore to keep clean.'
'impressive $800 notebook'
'such a cool MSI laptop'
'solid performance'
'all-around performance'
'good processor'
'WEJ02.003 Laptop Computer
The Gateway P-7908u FX Laptop Computer is perfect for anyone who needs lightning-fast computing on the go and incredible graphics.'
'So-so keyboard'
'optimal performance and storage'
'decent laptop'
'extremely fast DDR2 memory'
ReviewGist helps you find the best products to buy by making sense of online reviews.
We are currently aggregating 360,836 reviews
covering over 28,844 products. See what the press says about ReviewGist here.
The Best Cellphone Buying Guide for 2014 is the definitive starting point for your next cellphone purchase.
© 2007-14 ReviewGist.com. All Rights Reserved.


text:
Tighten flabby skin in your thighs and butt with this skin care set. Hurry and grab this chance to pay only $29 for Sculpt Skin Couture Body Thigh Butt Firming Bundle ($94 List Price)! Firming lotion and exfoliant target cellulite and outbreaks of body glitter around the thighs and posterior. Active ingredients caffeine and sea grape coccoloba polyphenols work to combat the formation of fat. Free shipping
Set includes:
- One 4-ounce bottle of Firming Lift Lotion for Body, Thigh, Butt
- One 2-ounce bottle of Aha Enzyme Body Exfoliant
Check out this deal >>> Sculpt Skin Couture Body Thigh Butt Firming Bundle


text:
Welcome Guest,
Be the first to review this product
Manufacturer # LBCN
Our Stock # EP88721645
« Back to Main Product Info
Double click on above image to view full picture
(based on 1 review)
Reviewed by 1 customer
Displaying review 1
Back to top
(3 of 3 customers found this review helpful)
Don't let the price fool you.
By D.Lew
from Shanghai, China
About Me Semi-pro Photographer
Best Uses
Comments about Lensbaby Composer for Nikon:
I've seen many photos with this lens and a friend has an older model. The Composer is a nice update mainly b/c you don't have to manually push/pull the lens left/right/in/out to get a shot - all you have to do is compose your shot, focus and tilt the lens to your liking (it locks into place).You can really have fun with the Composer from casual shooting to shooting even a wedding with it. I gives awesome Bokeh and you can skew them into unbelievable shapes too. If you want to be challenged and even put more "interest" back into your photography, this lens will definitely help open you mind to a different world in photography.I highly recommend.
Bottom Line Yes, I would recommend this to a friend
Was this review helpful? Yes / No
- You may also flag this review
Comment on this review
© 2014 Ritz Camera, Inc. All rights reserved.


text:
A Scene from Kanye West's Larry David-Inspired HBO Pilot | Video
Everyone knows that Kanye West is a very talented soul. He's becoming quite the Renaissance man as he is dipping into fashion, reality T.V. with his baby mama, and other parts of the arts. It seems that the "series" life was on his mind a few years ago when he developed the desire to do T.V.
Partnering with HBO some time ago, Kanye was working on a "Larry David-esque" series, very similar to the HBO series, Curb Your Enthusiasm. That show was definitely one of a kind and hella funny. Given the fact that Kanye was trying to create that must indicate that he is some kind of funny. The cool and sarcastic funny. The clip below shows where he was trying to go with it. The clip was taken from Allison Quinn's reel and has been lingering since 2010. In this little snippet, Kanye meets with a little boy named Jaleel who is participating in the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Wait for the funny…
Signed, Tamika Frye


text:
Not for the office or casual. This is definitely a very dressy piece. Nicely boxed for gift-giving. I'll take it on a curise soon and it will be perfect with black dress...lots of color and shine. Earrings bigger and more dangly than usual for me, but for dress-up, just fine. Can't wait to wear it.
The picture was beautiful on line, but in person even more magnificent. The shine and the variety of jewelry incorporated in this set is just remarkable!!
Purchased this as a Christmas gift, looked great upon arrival, the recipient loved it
I was surprised to find the jewelry so sparkly and shiny, but it is very pretty. I ordered the multi-colored one and the cobalt one for Christmas gifts. I am not sure I would wear them myself unless to a formal event (not during the day), but I am keeping them nonetheless. They are very pretty, and I hope the recipients will enjoy them. The mix of marbles and crystals is very interesting and pretty to admire.
I have had very good comments on this set! Liked it so well I bought an extra set for christmas gift.
Can't beat this for the price - it will go with lots of things. I've only worn one time but it did get some nice compliments.
one of the earrings was already broken as I first opened the box. The necklace is bigger than I expected and Really cheap, cheesy. I will never wear it. My daughter took it and said she might wear it sometime? Wasn't worth spending the $ to ship it back, I may not order jewelry from this site again. Was Really a bad purchase and looks like the picture but so cheap. Don't fall for it like I did!
will have to buy another,my daughter-in law saw it and fell in love with it
I bought this dressy looking necklace set since I am a Bleek2sheek jewellery fan, its a good piece of necklace with rich colorful glass beads, they are heavy. I have not worn yet, looking forward to wear it with a red dress on a warm evening. It can be matched with any color dress because the beads are colorful, I am only giving 4 stars as the beads were not as dark/bright colored as shown in the picture, they were on a lighter shade. And again, would be glad if it came with a matching bracelet which will make it a complete set. I hope Bleek2sheek would consider this suggestion.
I bought this based solely on the favorable reviews. I have only worn is once since i purchased it almost a year ago because I find it to be an odd piece of jewelry. Really looks like actual glass marbles and not custom blown glass as I had hoped for. Wishing that I had bought something else instead. Feels like a heavy quality piece - no complaints there.
Delivered by Christmas *
Items must be returned in new or unused condition and contain all original materials included with the shipment.
More details
Our standard shipping method is ground shipping. We also offer expedited shipping for most items. Your final shipping cost and estimated delivery timeframe will be available at checkout.
Standard shipping details
Expedited shipping details
* For your protection, all orders are screened for security purposes. If your order is selected for review, our Loss Prevention Team may contact you by phone or email. There may be a two business day delay to process your order.
** Most Oversize orders are delivered within 1-4 weeks. Some orders may take 6 weeks to be delivered.