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Empirical evaluation of humpback whale telomere length estimates; quality control and factors causing variability in the singleplex and multiplex qPCR methods
1 Evolutionary Genetics Group, Department of Genetics, Microbiology, and Toxicology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, S-106 91, Sweden
2 Marine Evolution and Conservation, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies, University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, 97 CC, Groningen, The Netherlands
3 Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, 5 Holway Avenue, Provincetown, MA, 02657, USA
4 Section for Evolutionary Genomics, Centre for GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen Øster Voldgade 5-7, Copenhagen K 1350, Denmark
BMC Genetics 2012, 13:77 doi:10.1186/1471-2156-13-77Published: 6 September 2012
Telomeres, the protective cap of chromosomes, have emerged as powerful markers of biological age and life history in model and non-model species. The qPCR method for telomere length estimation is one of the most common methods for telomere length estimation, but has received recent critique for being too error-prone and yielding unreliable results. This critique coincides with an increasing awareness of the potentials and limitations of the qPCR technique in general and the proposal of a general set of guidelines (MIQE) for standardization of experimental, analytical, and reporting steps of qPCR. In order to evaluate the utility of the qPCR method for telomere length estimation in non-model species, we carried out four different qPCR assays directed at humpback whale telomeres, and subsequently performed a rigorous quality control to evaluate the performance of each assay.
Performance differed substantially among assays and only one assay was found useful for telomere length estimation in humpback whales. The most notable factors causing these inter-assay differences were primer design and choice of using singleplex or multiplex assays. Inferred amplification efficiencies differed by up to 40% depending on assay and quantification method, however this variation only affected telomere length estimates in the worst performing assays.
Our results suggest that seemingly well performing qPCR assays may contain biases that will only be detected by extensive quality control. Moreover, we show that the qPCR method for telomere length estimation can be highly precise and accurate, and thus suitable for telomere measurement in non-model species, if effort is devoted to optimization at all experimental and analytical steps. We conclude by highlighting a set of quality controls which may serve for further standardization of the qPCR method for telomere length estimation, and discuss some of the factors that may cause variation in qPCR experiments.

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A place to talk about the past, present and thoughts of the future
original performance art with an imagination to change the world
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Kratika, Ratan and Gurmeet
Kratika, Ratan and Gurmeet
Courtesy: Kratika Sengar
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Good morning Gurumeet...loved yesterday PV episode as usual u were greate with u'r expressions and emotions I am loving this caring and lovely Yashu..going to miss u sat and sunday
hahaha... dis is such an adorable n fun pic..
I love it...
Gurmeet Choudhary 022...
small screen Mr and Mrs Khiladhi. love their paring
I love this photuuu so much
gurmeet is the best in tv industry...keep rocking in punar vivah
Love u a lot my James Bond
James Bond with Desi gals!!!!
Gurumeet u r doing greate job in PV ...just loving u and u'r expression...
Gurumeet u were so good in yesterday episode...u r a true rockstar...amazing episode and u'r expresions out of the word...u were looking so handsome and u'r smile maar dala
i just love this pic:D:D:D...gurmeet-kratika rock together...they are simply amazing:):):):)


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U.S. Economy Topics
Democracy Now! stories, posts and pages that relate to U.S. Economy
- "We're talking about a democratic awakening," said Dr. Cornel West when he spoke with Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman during a visit Tuesday night to the Occupy Wall Street encampment. [includes rush transcript]September 29, 2011 | Web Exclusive
- Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez writes in the NY Daily News that the idea that local post offices, the most visible neighborhood presence of our national government for more than 200 years, face financial default on Sept. 30 is truly astounding. Yet, that's exactly what will happen unless the politicians in Washington act quickly.September 28, 2011 | Web Exclusive
- Oscar-winning filmmaker, bestselling author, and provocateur laureate Michael Moore joins us for the hour. One of the world's most acclaimed—and notorious—independent filmmakers and rabble-rousers, his documentary films include Roger & Me; Bowling for Columbine, for which he won the Academy Award; Fahrenheit 9/11; SiCKO; and Capitalism: A Love Story. In the first part of our interview, Moore talks about the growing "Occupy Wall...September 28, 2011 | Story
- For more than two decades, Michael Moore has been one of the most politically active, provocative and successful documentary filmmakers in the business. We talk to Moore about his new memoir, "Here Comes Trouble: Stories from My Life," which comprises 20 biographic vignettes that capture how his political and sociological viewpoints developed. He also discusses the numerous attacks and death threats he received after speaking out...September 28, 2011 | Story
- Today, postal workers and their supporters are holding events across the country to press their demand for repealing the benefit-funding mandate and push back against calls for their workplace to be privatized. For months, Americans have heard dire warnings about the impending collapse of the United States Postal Service due to fiscal insolvency and a drop in the use of mail service. In early September, the U.S. Postmaster General told...September 27, 2011 | Story
- It is day 10 of the "Occupy Wall Street" campaign. On Saturday, more than 80 protesters were arrested as hundreds took part in yet another march to Wall Street. Many of them were committing civil disobedience by walking in the street, but some say they were on the sidewalk when officers with the New York City Police Department used nets and physical force to break up the crowd. Videos uploaded to YouTube show officers pepper-spraying...September 26, 2011 | Story
- In part two of our interview with veteran journalist Ron Suskind about his explosive new book, "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President," he examines the challenges faced by President Obama and his evolution as a leader. [includes rush transcript]September 23, 2011 | Web Exclusive
- An explosive new book that draws a searing portrait of the Obama administration's failings, and early management of the economic crisis, has been met with sharp objections from officials within and outside of the White House. We speak with veteran journalist Ron Suskind, author of "Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President." He writes that U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner ignored an order...September 23, 2011 | Story
- On Monday, President Obama proposed a new tax on millionaires as part of his plan to close the deficit and responded to opponents who have labeled his plan "class warfare." Republicans have vowed to defeat the tax, even as one in six Americans live in poverty. We speak with Rev. Jesse Jackson about how Obama's plan also includes cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. "I would think, before we end up at that conclusion, we must go...September 20, 2011 | Story
- Demonstrators are marching on Wall Street today on the third day of a campaign dubbed "Occupy Wall Street," which began on Saturday when thousands gathered in New York City's Financial District. Inspired by the massive public protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square and Madrid's Puerta del Sol Square, hundreds have slept outside near Wall Street for the past two nights. We play a video report on the protest by Democracy Now!'s Sam...September 19, 2011 | Story
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Album Rating: 3.0hm. not sure this stuff is for me...
Digging: Znowhite - Act Of God
Album Rating: 4.5so much evil
hunting and gathering is epic as hell
Album Rating: 4.5megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért
Album Rating: 4.5biggest church
Album Rating: 4.5The end of of Alice is amazing I have to listen to this one again
Album Rating: 4.5Alice is so beautiful, and yeah i got this back from my friend a bit ago yet still havent listened, gotta change that
album is immense
was listening to this the other day actually. really good album, i think it's their best
Album Rating: 4.5I think it is, its got the most diversity and instrumentation and stuff
Album Rating: 4.5agreed. I love how they branch out more into ambient with Alice. That song is so perfect
Album Rating: 4.53 years later and alice is still one of the best songs i've ever heard
Album Rating: 4.5~~~~~megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért~~~~~
Album Rating: 4.0flight tho
Album Rating: 3.5was kinda disappointed by this, alice is fucking holy shit amazing yes more plz but the rest of it was kinda ehh
might just need to give it some time to grow tho
Digging: Weed (Van) - Deserve
Album Rating: 4.5hunting and gathering brings riff
Altar is fav sunn
Album Rating: 4.5def
Dam son
Album Rating: 4.5i'm walking on MVNVLITHS AND DIMENSIVNS
Bands: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


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Sailing from Tampa to Key West
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Re: Sailing from Tampa to Key West
I went through the Big (?) Sarasota Pass at low tide in a Catalina 30 with 4 foot draft. We asked the Boat US captain who was docked at Marina Jacks for some local knowledge. He warned us not to rely on the markers out at the entrance, and to keep going for another 1/2 mile at least before turning. The houses were so close to us in the Pass I thought we'd able to reach out and shake hands with the people, but there was enough water in the very narrow channel. We didn't hit, but we went slow and kept a good watch. It depends on your draft and the tide. Sarasota Bay is great, you could go down the ICW after you leave the Manatee River, motor to Marina Jack's, then motor out through the Pass. I'm planning this trip myself this fall, maybe Thanksgiving, my current boat is a C&C 32, with 5 - 8 draft, so the we might pass the Pass. We'll see...there is a lot of good stuff online about this trip, a lot of people do it from Tampa Bay area.
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Will a colorful iPhone 5S arrive in June?
Somehow this seems unlikely
'Tis the season for analysts to gaze into their crystal balls (original background: Shutterstock)
Don't hold your breath for this comparison
Article Summary
Apple's 2012 releases have come and gone. The company won't likely announce anything new for months. Analysts and Apple fans have to stay entertained somehow, however, and one of their favorite hobbies is spinning the old rumor mill. If the latest bold prediction holds any weight, you may spend next June staring at your gorgeous blue iPhone 5S.
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LIFO Effect on Oil Company Profits Draws New Scrutiny
Last week's drop in oil prices resulting from the terrorist plot against airliners bound for the U.S. is likely to prove temporary, as economists predict continued escalation in global demand for fuel. And U.S.
Aug 14 2006
Hindu Memorial Day Observed August 14
Hindus worldwide will observe Memorial Day on August 14 at 7 p.m. Indian Standard Time (2:30 p.m. GMT).
Aug 13 2006
More SOX Relief for Smaller Companies, Foreign Private Issuers
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued two releases granting further relief from compliance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) to smaller public companies and many foreign private issuers.Advertisement
Aug 10 2006
Aviation Threat Level Raised, Additional Restrictions on Carry-on Baggage
In response to news that officials in Great Britain have interrupted a plot to destroy commercial airline flights between the United States and the United Kingdom, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has raised the U.S. threat level to High, or Orange, for all commercial aviation operating inside the U.S. and for flights from the U.S. to the United Kingdom. The threat level for commercial flights flying from the United Kingdom to the U.S. has been raised to Severe, or Red.
Aug 9 2006
Prosecutors: Former Media Baron Lying about Finances
Indicted newspaper publisher Conrad Black enjoys a "free flow of millions of dollars," from his wife's private company, say federal prosecutors, who want Barbara Amiel-Black to reveal her finances under oath.Advertisement
Aug 8 2006
U.S. and Canada Unravel Cross-Border Tax Scheme
Officials of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) have announced that the agencies have made significant progress in unraveling an abusive cross-border tax scheme involving hundreds of taxpayers and tens of millions of dollars in improper deductions and unreported income from retirement withdrawals.
Aug 7 2006
Accenture Closes Acquisition, Enhances BPO Services
Accenture has enhanced its finance and accounting business process outsourcing (BPO) capabilities by closing the previously announced acquisition of Advantium Inc., including related entity XPAN LLC, and Meridian Informed Purchasing Ltd.
Aug 7 2006
SEC and CESR Launch Financial Reporting Work Plan
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) on Wednesday published a work plan to be implemented immediately as a guide for the SEC-CESR Dialogue. The focus of the work plan is the application of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the U.S.
Aug 4 2006
Airlines Facing Protectionist Threat To Foreign Investment
The Bush Administration wants to change the percentage of foreign investment in U.S. airlines, but the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 19-6 last week to bar the rule starting in the year beginning Oct. 1. This action may threaten an aviation agreement with the European Union, according to Bloomberg.Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) proposed a question to Bloomberg. He asked if a U.S. airline, owned in part by foreign interests, would allow the transportation of U.S. troops in wartime. Stevens added, "They're not just carriers.
Jul 27 2006
Community News
CGA-Canada Accepts Independence Standard
The Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (CGA-Canada) welcomes the Canadian Public Accountability Board's (CPAB) decision to accept the CGA Independence Standard, giving effect to the required rule change as of June 20, 2006."CGA-Canada is responsible for setting professional standards for itsmembers and has an obligation to protect the public and ensure CGAs maintain the highest ethical standards," says Anthony Ariganello, FCGA, CPA (Delaware), President and Chief Executive Officer of CGA-Canada.
Jul 26 2006
A Look Inside IFAC's Global Forum on Challenges and Opportunities Facing SMEs
Earlier this month more than 130 people from 35 countries attended the International Federation of Accountant's (IFAC's) first global forum focused on small and mid-sized entities (SMEs) and small and medium size accounting practices (SMPs). "Small- and medium-sized enterprises drive economic growth, foster innovation and provide employment in developed and developing countries around the world. IFAC fully recognizes this role and is committed to supporting them at an international level," IFAC President Graham Ward emphasized in a prepared statement.
Jul 25 2006
IASB and FASB Seek Nominations for Lease Accounting Working Group
On July 19, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) announced a joint project on leasing to their respective agendas.
Jul 24 2006
Before Coming to America
American taxpayers going abroad have tax responsibilities here in the U.S. This is because our country taxes Americans based on their citizenship and even those with "green card" residency, according to ExpatExchange.com. Tax residency is determined by circumstance tests combined with the determination of residency facts, as well as tax ties to other countries.Worldwide income is the extent of income taxes in most countries where one is a resident or citizen, according to ExpatExchange.com.
Jul 24 2006
FASB Adds Joint Lease Accounting Project with IASB
Concerns that current lease accounting does not accurate reflect the resources and obligations of lease transactions, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on Wednesday officially added a lease accounting project to their agenda.
Jul 20 2006
Practice Management
Daimler Plan to Outsource Accounting Sparks Opposition
DaimlerChrysler may outsource some of its accounting work to countries that pay lower wages, German media sources reported.According to the company's works council, the German-U.S. car manufacturer is considering the Czech Republic and India for some of the company's accounting work. The works council opposes the outsourcing plan and has threatened a veto. "We are saying without a balance of interest this simply won't fly," said Erich Klemm, head of the council, according to a report in Monday's Stuttgarter Zeitung.
Jul 13 2006
IFAC Issues New Standard on Auditor Competence
"A primary way that the accountancy profession protects the public interest is by requiring that all audit professionals have the necessary skills and training to perform their roles effectively," Henry Saville, International Accounting Education Standards Board (IAESB) chair, said in a prepared statement announcing the new standard.
Jul 5 2006
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Japan's Oversight Board Faults Operations, Controls at Big Four Firms
Japan's Certified Public Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board (CPAAOB), a subsidiary of the Financial Services Agency (FSA) with independent investigatory power, asked the FSA on Friday to issue business improvement orders to Japan's Big Four audit firms, Mainichi news reports.
Jul 5 2006
U.S. Returns to Top Ten in Economic Freedom
The United States has regained its position as one of the most economically free countries in the world, ranking ninth on the 2006 Index of Economic Freedoms. After falling to 12th place the previous year, the U.S. increased economic freedom by narrowly cutting government spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and lowering tariff rates (as a weighted average).
Jun 29 2006
Finance and Accounting Outsourcing Lags; New Technology May Spur Growth
On shore shared-service centers have taken the lead in performing finance and accounting processes, according to a recent study published by the Hackett Group, a strategic advisory firm, with 58 percent of the companies surveyed using the shared services model, globalservicesmedia.com reports. Only seven percent of companies relied on offshore shared-services centers. Twenty-seven percent of financial processes are still performed in-house or in some decentralized manner, according to the study.
Jun 27 2006
Terrorist Finance Tracking Program Disclosed
Treasury Secretary John Snow announced last week the existence of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program, according to a prepared statement.
Jun 26 2006
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If you think the most crucial part of your child's educational programme is maths or grammar, you might be overlooking an element that is fast becoming essential in today's stressful world - cultivating inner resiliency. This is a guide to helping children quiet their minds, calm their bodies and manage their emotions.Edition/Copyright: 08
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Which tv show would you revive ?
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06-02-2013, 01:50
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Gladiators!! But will make me sad, because whatever they do, it won't be as good as the original series. The revival was okay, but it didn't touch the original, no way near. The best part of the new one is when they legends returned. I may have got a bit too excited.
I would love to see the oldies again, but they are all 45+ now pretty much, and a few don't have the power they had (obviously) as shown when they returned. But Ace and Lightening proved that they are still incredibly strong despite their age! I wish it was the 1990s again so I can relive it every week for 8 years.
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text: With Pivot East just concluded where we got to see several startups pitch, it is important to remember the road to success for a startup is hard and often many do not make it past even the first year. Often several factors ranging from team dynamics to a lack of capital can lead to a start up failing. According to a report released byGSMA surveying startups in the country, "Fewer than 50 per cent of founding teams at any stage felt they had all the skills necessary to run the company. 65 per cent of founders stated they have a business or technical mentor; however nearly all startups expressed the need for morementorship in addition to what they already receive." Perhaps it is this lack of necessary skills that leads a startup to fail and often for a lot of entrepreneurs this knock out in the first round could mean throwing in the towel all together. Failure within our society is often looked down upon, which leads us into this month's topic of African Tech Bits reinvention. We delve into the stories of entrepreneurs who tried,failed, dusted themselves of but at the end of the day did not give up. For some it meant sacrificing the startup all together and starting fresh, for others it was about pivoting their original idea.


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Warming Vegetable Soup
1 medium onion, chopped
3 or 4 carrots, chopped
1 large potato, cut into 1 1/2 cubes
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 cups vegetable broth or water
1 tablespoon olive oil (extra virgin is best)
1 cup frozen spinach
1 cup refried beans or 1 cup cooked beans, mashed well
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon molasses or sugar
salt and pepper to taste
Heat a medium-sized sauce pan with olive oil over medium heat. Add garlic, onion, and some salt and pepper and saute 4 or 5 minutes until translucent, adding some of the broth if needed to keep onion from browning. Add potatoes, carrots, broth, beans and molasses and cook for 10-15 minutes until potatoes and carrots are tender, but not mushy. Add spinach, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook another 2-3 minutes for spinach to cook and flavors to combine. Serve hot with a good crusty bread.
Notes: The cinnamon and nutmeg might seem a little strange, but they make the soup smell wonderful and give the taste a warm background. It would also be good with pumpkin pie spice or a little allspice. The refried or mashed beans help to thicken the broth a little, but you could just put in a cup of cooked beans without mashing. You could also use sweet potatoes, parsnips, winter squash, or radishes (saute them until they're a little soft and brown first) in this as well.
Just made this, and it is delicious! The cinnamon adds a unique flavor. This soup is a great way to make alot of food without breaking the bank. Thanks so much, will make again! ;)b
I ventured to try this, because I had about everything on hand (except the carrots). I thought it was alright, not spectacular. I added extra refried beans to thicken it up and an extra potato in place of the carrots. I think I will add more seasonings next time. Maybe the potatoes just sucked them all up. I liked the flavor. It's good way to make soup without tons of salt, if you add more molasses and cinnamon.


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Chelsea striker Didier Drogba admits he won't consider playing while injured.
Drogba has warned he will not be rushed back from the knee injury that ruled him out of Saturday's 0-0 draw with Blackburn and is a major doubt for tomorrow night's Champions League clash with Rosenborg.
He said: "All will depend on the evolution of this injury, I do not want to set it off again. I want this fixed."


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I Love my reading glasses I can see good as well as look good! And I received them fast.
Love theses readers! They are unique, fun and sophisticated.
I ordered the Esmeralda reading glasses in blue and in purple. Both pair are just beautiful! It's a pleasure referring people to Debs Specs so that they can order glasses of their own.
Thank You!


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Southall murder: Life sentence for man who stabbed friend's boyfriend then hid from police under the bed
A knife attacker discovered by police hiding under a bed after murdering his friend's boyfriend has been jailed for life.
It's showtime! The Mayor of London presents the largest ever FREE outdoor arts festival over the next seven weeks. From 21 July to 9 September you can enjoy the most fantastic performances and events that will make this a summer like no other…and the party starts this weekend.
19 July 2012
Singer and TV talent show judge Tulisa Contostavlos will today formally settle her legal action against an ex-boyfriend over a sex tape of the couple which appeared on the internet.
12 July 2012
The awful weather can't dampen London's spirits as Rihanna and co roll into town for another weekend of gyrating pop stars, fireworks and ecstatic crowd sing-alongs
09 July 2012
Maroon 5 are back on top of the singles charts after being knocked off by Will.i.am for one week.
09 July 2012
After the hit of Hackney Weekend, from today comes Hyde Park's Wireless, which will repeat the urban music formula to create a quintessentially London festival
06 July 2012
Fashion brand Converse announces 'Represent' series of special events celebrating musical diversity
27 June 2012
The extravagant rapper hired a private jet and an S-Class Mercedes to get from Doncaster to Birmingham for the latest leg of his Watch The Throne tour with Jay-Z.
26 June 2012
Hoops. Beats. Life. The celebration of all things basketball hits the UK with exhibitions and a headline show from Outkast's Big Boi
26 June 2012
DJ Trevor Nelson and Plan B are among the local stars inspiring young talent at Radio 1's Hackney Academy
22 June 2012
How London's entrepreneurs are bucking the economic gloom
18 June 2012
Our critic David Smyth shares what he's listening to this week
15 June 2012
It was a night of A-list premieres at Cannes with Kylie Minogue, Kristen Stewart and Kim Kardashian all showing up on different red carpets.
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Kanye West will be in Cannes today to debut his new film Cruel Summer.
23 May 2012
We snatched sixty seconds with new hotshot DJ and producer Maya about dance tracks, inspirations and Field Day festival
22 May 2012
The Voice judge Will.i.am carried the Olympic flame in Somerset in front of thousands of fans yesterday.
22 May 2012
Rap royalty reigns supreme with two greatest hits sets for the price of one
21 May 2012
Emerging superstar Rita Ora was joined by UK rapper Dizzee Rascal last night
16 May 2012
Fresh from her sellout London gig, we snatched sixty seconds with idiosyncratic Canadian artist Grimes, to talk idols, her iPod and her appearance at Field Day festival in June.
14 May 2012
So you're going out. Maybe it's a date. Maybe it's a work thing. Maybe it's a school reunion or a hen night, or a wedding where an ex will be lurking. Either way, you're going out and you have to look hot. If you don't look hot, then you'll cancel. Ruthlessly. You don't care if you bugger up the placement or make the birthday girl cry. If you don't look hot, you are retiring to bed. End of.
11 May 2012
Beastie Boys rapper Adam Yauch, also known as MCA, has died. He was 47.
04 May 2012
Manic and raspy, the former Fugee just about gets away with it after an extended hiatus
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Rizzle Kicks, the Brit School duo, talk about bringing old-school hip hop back to the charts and how they no longer need chat-up lines
10 April 2012
New challengers to US hip-hop hegemony, or temporary phenomenon?
30 March 2012
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A sumptuous sartorial history.
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Rapper Professor Green's life has been anything but ordinary. He talks about his troubled past and why now, at 28, life is finally looking rosy.
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Hip-hop singer Lauryn Hill is set to make a triumphant comeback to the UK stage after a hiatus of five years.
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Ill Manors addresses the anger of Britain's underclass with real footage of last summer's riots
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Hyper Brighton duo make their big hits counts at first sell-out show
16 March 2012
Our pick of which dance floors to hit this month.
28 February 2012
Rob Broderick of Abandoman explains how he invented a new entertainment genre
15 February 2012


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Pioneer Pet Ceramic Raindrop Drinking Fountain
Sorry, the item is out of stock
This pet fountain helps your animals to drink more water because they are attracted to moving water. Ceramic construction and raindrop design make this pet fountain right at home in your kitchen. Shop our full selection of pet accessories at Kohls.com.
- Circulating drinking water is naturally appealing to your pet.
- Replaceable charcoal filter keeps water clean and pure.
- Fountain plugs into the wall for added convenience.
- Ceramic construction helps prevent bacteria growth.
- Details:
- 5"H x 9"W x 12"D
- 60-oz. capacity
- Ceramic
- Dishwasher safe
- Assembly required
- Manufacturer's 1-year limited warranty on pump
- Model numbers:
- White: 6022W
- Black: 6022
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Characteristic morphological features
Members of Rosaceae are generally woody plants, mostly shrubs or small to medium-size trees, some of which are armed with thorns, spines, or prickles to discourage herbivores. The genus Rubus (blackberries, raspberries, and brambles) chiefly contains arching shrubs or scramblers of irregular, often tangled appearance. Herbaceous perennials are found in several Rosaceae genera, most notably Fragaria, Potentilla, Geum, and Aruncus. Most members of Rosaceae have alternate leaves, with opposite leaves being found in a very few species. Small leaflike structures called stipules are routinely present at the base of the leaf stalks.
The flowers in the rose family vary from small to large and range from white to various shades of yellow, pink, orange, lavender, or red. Blue flowers are rare in the order. Typically, the flowers are rather flat or shallowly cup-shaped, produce nectar, and are pollinated by a variety of insects. The basic structure of flowers in the family is relatively primitive. They are almost always bisexual, with both male (stamens) and female (carpels) parts present in the same flower. When separate male and female flowers exist, they may be on the same or on different plants. The flowers are usually radially symmetric. The sepals and petals usually number four or five. The sepals and petals are almost always free from each other. Flowers of Rosaceae species have some type of hypanthium, or floral cup, from whose rim the sepals, petals, and stamens arise. The hypanthium is often lined with nectar-producing tissue.
The stamens are often numerous, and they occur in whorls of four or five. The filaments are usually free; when a hypanthium is present, the stamens attach to its rim. Each flower typically has two to many carpels. Only a few groups have one carpel, notably the genus Prunus (plums, cherries, peaches, and apricots). The carpels are free from each other in most cases, as exemplified by the spirea and rose subfamilies of the rose family. In the apple subfamily, the carpels are completely united into a compound gynoecium. The ovary is most often superior, and the sepals, petals, and stamens are inserted below the base of the ovary. When a hypanthium is present, the flower parts (sepals, petals, and stamens) are attached to the rim (perigynous), although they may appear to be attached to the ovary. The apple subfamily of the rose family normally has a distinctly inferior ovary with the sepals, petals, and stamens arising above the gynoecium.
The rose family shows a wide diversity of fruit types. Many have dry fruits (follicles) that split open at maturity to release the seeds for dispersal; follicles come from one simple carpel. Some dry fruits in the family do not open at maturity, examples being the achenes of some members of the rose subfamily. Fleshy fruits are frequent in the family. Drupes, characteristic of Prunus, and drupelets, such as raspberries and blackberries of the genus Rubus, develop from simple carpels. The rose family is divided into four very distinct subfamilies based primarily on fruits: Spiraeoideae (Spirea subfamily), with follicles; Rosoideae (rose subfamily), with achenes or, in Rubus, drupelets; Amygdaloideae, also called Prunoideae (plum subfamily), with drupes; and Maloideae (apple subfamily), with pomes. As a member of Rosoideae, strawberries have achenes, although this is not obvious to the casual observer, as they are tiny and occur on the surface of the enlarged flower axis, or receptacle. The pome is unique to Maloideae and is a fleshy fruit in which the carpels are surrounded by an enlarged hypanthium. In most, but not all, Maloideae, the carpels are partly to completely fused to each other and to the sides of the hypanthium and are thus inferior to varying degrees. Some pomes are fleshy throughout, others have a membranous, or papery, core, and others contain hard nutlets. Examples of pome fruits are apples, pears, quinces, loquats, serviceberries, mountain ashes, hawthorns, and fire thorns.
Members of Rhamnaceae, or the buckthorn family, are characterized by woodiness, stamens (male) alternating with sepals (opposite petals, when present), a disk of tissue developing under or around the ovary, and joined bases of flower parts that form a cup (hypanthium) surrounding the ovary. The Rhamnaceae family is characterized by simple leaves, well-developed sepals, stamens opposite petals, a prominent hypanthium, and a two- to five-chambered ovary in which ovules arise basally. Most fruits are either berrylike (with an inner hard layer) or dry capsules that shed their seeds. A notable tendency in the family is its members' adaptations to dry climates: small and crowded leaves, shortened branches, thorniness or spininess, and a low, shrubby, intricately branched habit.
Elaeagnaceae, or the oleaster family, contains shrubs to small trees, which are often armed with spines. Leaves are simple, entire on the edges, copiously covered with white hairs, and usually spirally arranged on stems. The flowers are bisexual, with four sepals inserted on a hypanthium but with petals lacking. The fruit is fleshy and drupelike, with one bony seed.
The single species of Barbeyaceae, Barbeya oleoides, is a small opposite-leaved tree with male and female flowers on separate individuals. The flowers are wind-pollinated and lack petals. The single-seeded fruit is a nut. The two species of Dirachmaceae (Dirachma socotrana, D. somalensis) are shrubs that possess small strongly-toothed leaves. The flowers are relatively large with both sepals and petals. The fruit is a capsule that splits open to reveal dense woolly hairs inside.
Plants of the remaining families in Rosales (Ulmaceae, Cannabaceae, Moraceae, and Urticaceae—often referred to as the suborder Urticineae) are evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, vines (both woody and herbaceous), or herbs (mostly in the family Urticaceae). They commonly have mucilage cells and canals and often have cystoliths (which probably serve as protection from insects), as in Urticaceae, or laticifers (latex cells), as in Moraceae. The leaves are usually alternate, rarely opposite, in Moraceae and Ulmaceae, but commonly opposite in Urticaceae and some members of Cannabaceae. Most leaves are simple and often oblique at the base. A few species have pinnatifid or palmately incised leaves (palmately lobed in Humulus, palmately compound in Cannabis).
In some species of Ficus, including the strangler figs, birds and bats drop fig seeds onto the branches of other trees. There the seeds develop aerial roots that grow down along the trunk of the supporting tree, enlarge, and gradually crush the host to death. Banyans (F. benghalensis), which grow thick prop roots from their wide-spreading branches, may reach an immense size and resemble a dense grove of trees.
The four families of the suborder Urticineae are distinguished from the other families in Rosales chiefly by floral characteristics. In most members of the suborder, flowers are unisexual; that is, male and female structures occur in separate flowers. The ovary (female) has two carpels (ovule-bearing structures) but contains just one ovule (potential seed), which produces a single seed. Male flowers have only a few pollen-bearing stamens. Flowers are inconspicuous, lack petals, and are composed of four or five small greenish sepals. The fruits range from one-seeded dry achenes (sometimes with wings as in elms), to fleshy drupes (as in hackberries), to fleshy syconiums (figs), or frequently multiple fruits (fruits in which the ripened ovaries of many adjacent flowers are borne in clusters; these resemble the fruits of blackberries or raspberries, but in these the clusters are made up of the ripened ovaries of only a single flower).
Although a complex and highly evolved method of insect pollination is seen in Ficus, most species of these four families are wind-pollinated, and some species have adaptations that enhance this process. Pilea microphylla (artillery plant), for example, ejects its pollen in tiny explosive puffs. Many genera, particularly in the family Urticaceae, exhibit the same phenomenon. In the flower buds of the nettles (especially species of Urtica), the stamens are bent inward and held under tension (inflexed) in the bud. When the flower opens, the stamens are suddenly released and spring out with such violence that the anthers, or pollen sacs, are turned inside out, ejecting their pollen in a cloud. The pollen is then carried by the wind to the large brushlike stigmas of other flowers. Like most wind-pollinated flowers, these flowers tend to be inconspicuous, green, and lacking in petals.
Some species of Moraceae are pollinated by insects, particularly the figs, where complex interdependencies between the plants and their insect pollinators have evolved. Pollination is accomplished by small wasps called fig wasps or gall wasps, of the genus Blastophaga. In the figs, separate male and female flowers are borne in a specialized inflorescence that consists of a hollow pear-shaped stem tip with the flowers on the inside. This structure, called a syconium, ultimately matures into a fig. The male flowers are usually arranged near the small opening at the upper end of the syconium, and the female flowers, much more numerous, line the interior. The female flowers are of two types, long-styled fertile flowers and short-styled sterile ones. The long-styled flowers eventually produce a single small one-seeded hard-shelled fruit termed the achene. The fig itself is actually a collection of many of these achenes surrounded by the fleshy tissue of the syconium. The short-styled flowers are called gall flowers; they do not develop fruits but are used as egg-laying sites by the gall wasps, which pollinate the other flowers while laying their eggs. The gall flowers then become a mass of pulpy abnormal plant tissue, the gall, on which the wasp larvae feed and in which they develop.
The three flower cluster types—male, long-styled female, and short-styled female (or gall flowers)—are produced in three distinctive syconia. The first type of syconium, produced in the spring, contains male flowers and gall flowers; each of the latter may contain one of the fig wasp eggs, deposited there in the spring by wasps that had just emerged from overwintering in another type of fig. These eggs produce wingless male and winged female wasps later in the summer. The male wasp bites through the wall of a gall containing a female wasp and mates with her. On leaving the fig to search for a suitable place to lay eggs, the female wasp becomes covered with pollen from the male flowers near the small exit hole at the tip of the fig. The second type of syconium, the true fig, bears only long-styled fertile female flowers. The female wasp, searching for egg-laying sites in summer, enters these figs and pollinates the flowers inside but does not lay eggs, because the styles are too long to suit the egg-depositing anatomy of the insect. The third type of syconium, produced in the autumn, contains only short-styled gall flowers. The eggs that are laid develop in the gall flowers and produce the following year's fig wasps.
Members of the tribe Urereae (also known as Urticeae) are among the most conspicuous members of the family Urticaceae (the nettle family) because of their stinging hairs. The stings are frequently a short-term irritant, but contact with some species can cause pain or numbness that lasts for several days. Fatalities have been reported in humans and domesticated animals from contact with the stinging hairs of Urtica ferox and some species of Dendrocnide and Laportea. The stinging hairs commonly have a bulbous or enlarged base and a slender tubular portion containing silica bodies. The tips of the stinging hairs break off on slight contact, leaving a sharp point that readily penetrates the skin, much like a hypodermic needle, allowing the fluid of the stinging-hair cell to enter the flesh. The compounds producing the stinging sensation in Urticaceae include histamine, acetylcholine, and serotonin. The stinging members of Urticaceae are among the most noticeable, because of their irritating nature. In addition to the stinging members of the nettle family, a few other plants in the suborder Urticineae can cause skin irritations on contact.
Another feature characteristic of the nettle family and many members of the mulberry family (Moraceae) is the presence of cystoliths, deposits of calcium carbonate inside enlarged epidermal (surface) cells. They are visible as dots or variously shaped marks, especially in pressed, dried leaves. They may serve as some kind of protection from leaf-eating insects or other animals. Calcium carbonate deposits occur in another form in Chlorophora excelsa, the source of iroko wood, which is very durable and practically immune to termites and wood-rotting fungi. The wood in about 3 percent of the trees carries streaks or lumps of calcium carbonate called iroko stones, which are hard enough to dull woodworking tools.


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Good CIO, Bad CIO
The front page of a business newspaper carried an interview of some of the big 5 IT services company CEOs that had me engrossed as these industry captains shape the direction for the industry, influence decision making and are consulted by global CEOs on IT strategy and direction. Thus the interest was high to gain from the collective wisdom as they talked about their experiences with global CIOs, decision making process, budgets, successes and finally their perceptions of where CIOs could and should be.
Top trends
There were some clear messages:
- The global economy will continue to remain under pressure for the next couple of years
- Outsourcing deals will be smaller and of shorter duration as IT budgets will see a lot more rigor in the discussion
- Talent shortage will squeeze growth for IT companies and Cloud computing will keep the hardware industry challenged.
- The CIO-role will change again with technology evolution–the difference between the good and the challenged CIO will widen.
A vested interest?
They outlined the differences on how CIOs across geographies and industries outsourced core and non-core activities to focus on what matters, i.e. you guessed it right, the business. But then they also mention in the same breath that CIOs that did not outsource remained challenged to align the IT objectives to business. Whether it is remote infrastructure management (RIM), or application maintenance, and everything in between, the message was clear, outsource or perish, get relegated to reporting to the CFO.
Huh? Now that is simplistically stretching a facet of the CIOs role to create a perception that outsourcing can be equated with strategic intent. If you don't outsource, then you and your team is busy with things that do not matter to the business and thus you are likely to remain alienated. Was there a vested interest in the words from these CEOs who have been struggling to grow their business? Some had taken over from ousted CEOs with a clear mandate to bring back the old days of high growth.
Time to introspect!
While I am a proponent of outsourcing and have partnered with IT service companies big and small to give away the technical or operational activities, in my experience there have also been cases of outsourcing not delivering to promise. CIOs connected with the pulse of the business draw the line on what needs to be given away and what should be retained. The company's focus, perceptions of core, and finally the financial health determine what operating model should be adopted by the CIO.
The CEOs went on to talk about CIOs need to engage their stakeholders on what matters. People in a glasshouse do not throw stones at others. My plea to the same CEOs is to introspect a bit before preaching to their customers, the CIOs. The sales heads of the same companies want to engage with the CIO on nitty-gritties of technology that even the next level in the IT department rarely gets involved in (OMG, I saw a data center). They do not practice what they preach. A few CIOs I met the next day agree!
So what separates the good from the challenged? I do not for a moment believe that it is as simple as outsourcing operations or infrastructure or total outsourcing; a good CIO is a well-rounded leader who manages people and perceptions while ensuring that the delivery of promise is consistent with quality that is visible. S/he communicates effectively in all situations and is able to challenge business and IT partners/vendors in a discussion on the right solutions to business problems enabled by technology.
Is this the finite list? No again, there is no checklist that determines the difference; you have to find your balance.
A good resume
Recent times have seen some distinguished CEOs and leaders biting the dust literally when some untruths were discovered in their resumes, a clear case of unnecessary padding. A few did not possess the qualifications they professed, some had not been to colleges they put in there. These are not run of the mill average Joe kind of people, they are in high offices and have shaped the future of many. It created news for a short while, and then everyone moved on relegating the tainted ones to oblivion.
To expand the team, I recently started hiring fresh and experienced talent and was flooded with resumes. It was a task to navigate through pages of hundreds of eager professionals looking through spell check errors, acronyms that I have no clue what they mean, grammatical goof ups, and multiple formats that challenged me to find information in a maze game. These were not freshers, unexposed to corporate culture; they included experienced professionals with decade-plus behind them.
I did not challenge the veracity of the information presented even in cases that stretched conventional wisdom, though annotating to explore further in the interview. I discovered that IT folks are largely truthful and sometimes too much; if they have been on a project that involved a leading edge technology, they will ensure it catches your attention. Only on digging deeper you realize that their role could have been just testing or documentation; or maybe peripheral and not technical or functional.
The conscientious mentioned every project, every assignment, and every new company even if they spent only a few months in each; though the interesting ones were the gaps which during the interview were explained in shy and embarrassing tones. They believed that if you join a company and realize that it was a mistake, don't mention it; skip the experience that does not reflect well on your resume. No mal-intent here, just that not always in interest of keeping an abridged and concise representation; just to put the best foot forward.
So how to get the real person out of a few pages of history including education, experience, achievements, personality, potential, technical skills, and what have you. There are umpteen reference websites that offer to teach the art of interviewing and getting the best out of the person sitting across the table, the potential candidate. The intent though not adversarial is to assess everything possible about the person in the typical less than an hour spent, lateral thinking and what not.
I am not sure if this would make sense, but it is not just the responses to the questions that help us in the selection process, there is a lot more. The first few minutes have already decided the way the interview goes; subconscious mind or body language, you already know if you will like the person. The resume and the detailed planning are then thus pointers to the discussion. I have rarely seen a situation where the candidate was able to swing it around though many did not live up to initial expectations.
Coming back to the moot point, why do people manipulate resumes? Is it just to look better than who they are or a desperate urge to get something that is not rightfully theirs? Is it misplaced self-esteem or belief of personal value? I don't know; everyone probably has different motivations; do they realize that in the end they are really undermining their integrity and the way people see them? Or has the value system changed in a way that we are comfortable with little lies if they go unnoticed?
The new MPLS networks
In the monsoon season, clouds are a good subject to discuss. The last event I attended headlined clouds of all types; public, private, hybrid, that had everyone exchanging notes on experiences in drought and rain.
Participants from public sector and government agencies, companies–big and small, service providers, and a few academics, all found something to talk about and share. The organizers were beaming and so were the participants; networking at its best, which most events promise.
There were a few small groups that decided not to move out of the conference hall during the breaks finding comfort in each other's company. It was evident that they were not at ease in reaching out to strangers and discussing subjects of mutual interest. Our IT teams have many such people who lack the social niceties and behaviors that are normal in, say, the marketing team. Such individuals are present on social networking sites albeit as silent observers rarely posting or sharing anything at all.
Importance of soft skills
Over so many years I have wrenched such individuals from my teams from their machines and pushed them into the big bad world of people who are unpredictable, emotional, talkative, demanding, lively, aggressive, and overall human in their demeanor. The above-mentioned IT folks cringe at the thought, but slowly and steadily open up and realize that it is not so bad after all. Most are able to transition over the boundary into the normal, the rare few who do not constitute groups like the one I saw.
In a hyper-competitive world that demands higher performance every day to stay in the same place, the balance between soft skills and domain (or technical) expertise is important. Everyone talks about the traits CIOs need to embrace; the teams are left to fend for themselves, and in most cases, at the mercy of the individual CIO to elevate the level at which the IT team operates. Successful CIOs who nurture talent and high potential performers invest in their teams giving them the platform and reason to grow.
Drawing a parallel
So what has all this got to do with MPLS networks? By definition MPLS networks were defined to create efficiency over existing networks in the mid-90s. With evolution they became the preferred option for many. Network administrators loved them for reliability and performance; they hated the opacity by virtue of the cloud architecture. It was big evolution for many and most techies adapted well. This is evident from the fact that most enterprises embrace MPLS over other network types.
In the real world of people, recent times have seen disruptive changes due to social networks. It has had the world excited, the marketing teams worried, and everyone wondering on whether there is a ROI in social network. Consultants have thrived and definitely made some money. It cannot be denied that Most People Love Social Networks. They provide freedom of expression in a level world. IT organizations clamped down with security concerns. Now, social media policies have replaced dictatorial censorship.
Taking the lead
Some mature companies have seen their CIOs take lead in this arena and drive social media strategy successfully and a few also found a way to make money. These CIOs and IT teams belonged to the MPLS network groups, did not talk about old paradigms like BITA, had higher success in customer engagement and continue to be the envy of the world at large.
I believe that MPLS is the way forward for everyone. IT has to lead from the front and not follow in the back. Where are you today? Part of the MPLS gang?
Respect for the CIO
Talking to a few CIO friends on the much debated and discussed subject of "what next" for us, the CIOs, many aspired to be CEOs. Now that is a good thing given that CIOs are setting their goals high; some are also achieving it within IT companies, a few in other industries too. Making the transition was possible for them as they graduated from technology enabling to business enabling to business itself. Their leadership was acknowledged and when the opportunity arose, they were considered rightful choice.
Emerging as a leader
Trust and respect from peers is garnered step by step everyday with the word and the deed. Conviction that comes out of past experience, the ability to consistently deliver against odds, the cohesion of the team in committing to the stretch and unreasonable, the ability to engage in conflict resolution focusing on the issue and not the people involved. They are always happy to help, sometimes even with personal sacrifice. This separates chalk from cheese.
You would say that this is just a sample of everyday behaviors that make a successful leader and CIO; it is also shaken quickly with hearsay and frequent missed steps. Respect is always earned, rarely conferred if at all; it comes out of consistency in delivery, walk the talk, articulation, coaching and mentoring others selflessly. The mojo develops with practice and stays with them as long as they continue to stay grounded through the journey. Nothing new here too? Hold on a bit.
The gap between perception and reality is based on the demand supply management between IT and business. When CIOs manage this well, they remain relevant to themselves, the business and the enterprise. The progression is determined by the interventions outside of their realm and "out of comfort zone" discussions. The CXO has no boundary defining Job Description; they only have a primary allegiance to a function.
Path to becoming the CEO
So when a successful CIO asked me the path to becoming a CEO, I wondered what qualified me to give advice? While I am a CIO and have held a few P&L responsibilities in my career, I am not a CEO. Having mentored a few people and learned a few tips from the world's best coach (Marshall Goldsmith), I decided to probe further. He was determined to get there and was willing to work hard. We discussed his winning formula, did a SWOT, and identified a few behaviors that needed attention.
Defining the road ahead was easier than I thought; crafting the evolution plan took some time and then we agreed upon a follow up plan and progress report. I felt humbled by the experience, his faith in my words, and suggestions on his actions which he ardently believed will get him to his goal. Reflecting on what my virtual guru referred to, "I don't coach losers because they are not willing to change", I too believed in his plan and hope as he was willing to change. I believe sooner or later he will get there.
And then last week someone asked me the question, "When will we see you as a CEO?", I started wondering if I should be reading more into these questions and discussions! Flattery is good, but it should not be taken to heart lest the fall hurt the inflated ego!
CIO brand value
Every enterprise has an IT function though the name it goes by may be different. Not many call it EDP or MIS anymore, IT is the most prevalent, BT is catching up and there are a few variants which I wrote about sometime back. Similarly the title of the leader has manifested itself in many ways, CTO, CIO, Head, GM, VP, SVP, EVP – IT and some not so common ones that are either legacy, futuristic, or far removed from convention.
Every person in the enterprise has a view on IT and the persona it represents; this is determined by personal experience and hearsay. Sometimes it is relative to past experience in other companies, in most cases it is based on (un)fulfilled expectations and the buzz in the company. The industry, its associates and partners add to or confuse the perception with their views. CIO and the team collectively are thus labelled based on these facts, experiences and views.
CIOs and IT organizations like all beings driven by Maslow's hierarchy yearn for acknowledgement and recognition. They work hard to create their aura and earn respect with solutions and dialogues that demonstrate understanding beyond technology. They walk the talk, meet customers, and engage with stakeholders to stay ahead in the race. In many cases they succeed in creating a lasting brand value, in few they remain challenged despite doing everything right. Why?
The basic foundation of IT branding happens every day with desk side support on the laptop, desktop, printer, application, network access, email, and various other things that we take for granted. No one cares until something breaks and that incidence ends up being the tag by which IT gets labelled. One incident gets extrapolated to generic statements of (in)efficiency. Some IT organizations have active communication processes to manage this; most don't leaving a wide gap on how they are seen.
How many CIOs invest in building the brand they and their team represents? Business IT Alignment (BITA) is not only about projects being executed or the discussion the CIO has with the Management teams. BITA happens every day with every interaction anyone within IT has with any other non-IT person (normally referred to as user) within the enterprise. This cannot be left to passive management; it has to be actively managed across the levels.
External branding is another aspect of visibility and credibility that requires a strategy and plan. Go to any conference, event or panel/ roundtable discussion, you will find the same old faces on the stage. It would appear that CIOs were born with stage fright; most are happy to be part of the audience, their views rarely get aired (everyone has a view). Nowadays social media and internet presence too contribute towards the identity of the CIO who represents the IT success of the enterprise.
The combined persona is finally the way s/he is portrayed to the world at large. If the CIO does not actively manage this, it will be managed by forces that s/he does not control. The CIO could then just be an entry in a database or one of the featured ones in a search. If people read about you and read what you stand for, your views on varied or specific subjects, it adds to the perception of who the person is. Some manage this well, the rest leave it to divine intervention.
I believe that CIOs should invest in building the brand not just internally, which is easily done by constant communication and discussion beyond transactions. They should also actively manage their visibility and branding across the IT industry and their chosen industry; participation in industry specific events, membership to bodies, talking to tech journalists and participation in social media make a great combination to get started. Is there more? It all depends on where you want to go!
"I don't have time" is the first lament (please read 'Being Busy'), "how do I get started" is the second; ask the ones who have made it or wait until I write about it.
I saw a data center
Last week, one of the global IT biggies invited a bunch of CIOs to their R&D Center with the defined agenda being a discussion on future trends and movements in their technologies; the idea was to get some early traction with old and potential customers and field testing that helps fine tune a product. Apart from all this were the good old peer networking and some high spirits if you know what I mean. So I was enticed enough to join the group to give away a weekend in the name of learning and networking.
CIOs in captivity!
Like all such gatherings it was a good start with key leaders and guys oozing tech from their ears talking about new disruptive technologies are coming our way in the next 2-4 years. They held sway in the graveyard sessions post-lunch, with sleep overpowering only the infirm or the bored indifferent (which did not matter). Most cynical CIOs on the wrong side of forty acknowledged the prowess and the future opportunity. Good things don't last and this one too didn't.
After the first two sessions started the mundane, the irrelevant and the hard sell; data center density, cooling, and power consumption. Virtualization and private cloud are good, a higher virtualization ratio even better, but 20K VMs in a rack? Why do I need 20K virtual servers? The nail in the wall was when someone decided it's a good idea to teach CIOs how to configure a VM and then move it across racks with no downtime. I am not sure if CIOs want to be doing that or enterprises want high cost CIOs to do that!
I mean does a CIO teach the technology architect the finer nuances of VM management? To rub salt into the wounds, they extended the session over the coffee break to cover private cloud extension to the public cloud. Now I am sure that my server admin would be kicked by this demo, none of the CIOs in the room were. They expressed their displeasure in no uncertain terms, some decided to leave the premises as soon as the break was declared closed. Patience too has its limits.
The point of culmination
The climax was waiting for the following day; a visit to the R&D facility! We all got into a bus, arrived at the big building, signed in with sobriety and were taken to the show. We entered a room with biometric authentication to be faced with rows and rows of racks with cables dangling from some. Proudly the scientist pointed to one of the racks and started talking about why it was different and the innovation that went into making the hardware inside and why we should immediately order it.
I could not remember the last time I had visited a data center (even my own); digging deep into memory it dawned that it was more than a decade back. I whispered to the CIO next to me and he too reminisced a long time back. A few others had been to their outsourced or co-located data centers when they had signed the deal. I wished my infrastructure head was present; maybe he would have appreciated the significance. To us, the CIOs, it was a lost experience, we did not share the enthusiasm.
Does or should the data center matter to the CIO? The vehement answer would be 'yes' from many. Then what about the cloud? Have you visited the Google or Amazon or Salesforce.com data center? Do you know when you buy SaaS where it is delivered from? I believe that we need to come out of this obsession; the vendors need to start defocussing the data center and start engaging on business outcomes. Yes, the data center makes the IT run, but to pick a line from Nicholas Carr, the data center does not matter anymore!
Out of scope or scope creep
When I wrote about requirement gathering versus solving business problems last week, I did not anticipate the kind of comments I would get. The agreements and flurry of lateral thoughts gave me enough impetus to continue the chain and focus on some of the views. Almost everyone agrees that we need to solve real business problems; the challenge is the definition of the business problem and changing the mind-set of our customers to stop thinking about technology and really tell us about what they want.
We talk about IT folks not speaking plain English or Spanish or whatever is the lingua franca, business tries to talk IT lingo and confuses the blazes out of the Business Analysts. Every industry has its slang and acronyms that add to the confusion (domain experts know this, but keep quiet). Between the domain expertise and the attempt to straddle the gap, the real problem gets lost in the chasm or some finer nuances remain uncovered. This then leads to what we classically refer to as out of scope functionality or scope creep.
The word creep somehow makes my hair stand up, that is the way of creepy guys or gals. Scope creep however indicates that no one articulated the problem or thought that it was unimportant or irrelevant to the discussion or just simply forgot to talk about. There are also instances of assumptions where the giver assumes that the taker has the knowledge by virtue of it being public domain or so obvious that it does not merit being explicitly being specified.
Translated to a document which the developer (read coder) in some faraway place sitting in a cubicle totally disconnected from the discussion is now writing the software that will be put up to the business. S/he does not have domain expertise and depends on the document to decipher what should be. We all have faced the end results that have missing pieces and functionality since it was not captured. Even when the development is undertaken internally these gaps exist albeit to a lesser extent.
So now the IT team gets beaten up and the Business Analyst bashed up for not translating adequately the business problem. Then the dance starts on what was said, how it was interpreted, and why does not IT make efforts to understand business. Escalations get nasty with the CIO having to face the music. While I generalize the problem, I have not come across too many instances of stupidity or wilful exclusion of documented features or functionality.
The skill of the Business Analyst to ask the right questions and probe are critical to the definition of the problem and thus the document that becomes the Holy document on which the system will be based. Leave out anything and you have a system that does not meet requirements thereby giving rise to "change requests", the bad word for any developer, business user, IT team, CIO, CFO and whosoever is a stakeholder in the success of the solution.
Is there a way out? I believe that the CIO needs to play an important role in setting expectations upfront and defining the rules of engagement. S/he should educate the business teams on the criticality of the discussion and the necessity of clearly spelling out every aspect of the business and process irrespective of how stupid it looks or its obvious nature. A system is as good as the people who define it; trainees and junior staff with shallow expertise will provide only that, an incomplete system. Creepy no?
Requirement gathering
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a small step; similarly, the development or deployment of systems and solutions begins with requirement gathering. Conventional wisdom has it that IT teams talk to business users to gather their requirements, and then go about creating or finding a solution which fulfills defined selection criteria. When an agreement is reached between the users and IT, the system is then implemented. No user requirement, no solution.
Scope creep
Over the years many research papers have been written on the methodology and science of gathering requirements. Consultants created templates and promised success with common and uncommon sense. It has also been the subject of ridicule with challenged implementations, many of them attributed to requirements either not being articulated adequately or changing requirements leading to scope creep and thus sliding timelines. The most famous amongst these has been the pictorial representation below.
Image courtesy: © Paragon Innovations
When I reflect back on the time I was a rookie programmer, I too went through the journey albeit with not too many such experiences. I remember instances when the disconnect was complete while in many the users loved the solution and the benefit delivered right first time. It never occurred to me at that time to analyse why I got it right sometimes while everyone was miserable in other instances. Eighty percent success was deemed good and that kept everyone happy.
Seeking some expert advice
So last weekend over dinner when I met a CIO who recently inherited a legacy of many challenged projects, I was curious to find out how he planned to overcome history and get everyone moving in unison in the right direction. When he took on the new position, the buzz in the market was that the veteran of many industries and acclaimed implementations had taken on more than he should have. Everyone wished him luck and wondered what went wrong in his previous company for him to take such a risk.
The first month was spent assessing status, understanding and cataloguing projects, getting the team to wake up from inertia, and getting the business teams to start talking. In the company with many custom solutions, there were many stories on what went wrong in the past with fingers pointing at lack of business domain, incorrect interpretation of requirements, discipline, engagement, low skills, sliding timelines with projects not delivering even with 200% escalation in time and budget. The IT team was demoralized and had given up all hope.
Many months into his new role the vendors were on fire hearing about the transformation, change and the investments that had suddenly mushroomed. Old projects rejuvenated, new initiatives being aired; there was a direction where none was thought possible. The story had believers inside as well as outside. Having heard about this I was excited to be in his company to extract some insights on how he went about solving the unsolvable problem.
The CIO smiled at the questions and said, I coached my team to ask all the right questions and did the same myself with the CXOs. He elaborated user requirements will always contain not just what they need, but also what they think they want or should have. The requirements always contain many elements that are nice to have and not necessarily aligned to current reality. That is why they are referred to as "requirements". So what are the right questions?
Ask the right questions
"What is the business problem you are trying to solve?", "What will change for you or your customer once you have this new capability?", "Is the benefit measurable in money or time or efficiency?". We all ask these questions but not too often; we are happy gathering requirements and then executing solutions which are then sub-optimally used. Requirements tend to get unwieldy with all the exception conditions being mapped; in the end it does not solve the original problem but creates new ones.
Winning teams today do not focus on requirements, they ask the questions above and create solutions that solve real business problems or capture real business opportunities. I believe that the future holds a lot of promise to those who follow the new way of thinking and discard the old requirements lead approach. What do you think?
IT productivity improvements
Earlier in the month I was invited to a session by a senior well-known IT Research Associate who advises many global CIOs on tactical and strategic agenda. He is a good story teller and had the audience of 20 odd CIOs spellbound with his anecdotes, examples and occasional taunts which most took sportingly or sheepishly depending on how you interpret the expressions on their faces. His consistent grouse was that while CIOs have done a lot for enterprise productivity, they have neglected IT productivity improvements.
Internal IT under scanner
Tracing through history he illustrated the role IT has played in enterprise process re-engineering and productivity improvements driven by automation, new tools and technologies, mobile enabling the enterprise, and providing time sensitive information in the hands of the decision makers. However during this era the IT team has not demonstrated commensurate improvements; solutions still take as long if not longer than what they did many decades back. He postulated despite progress across the industry, the in-house IT team has lagged behind by a big margin with no major visible improvements.
He went on to compare internal IT teams with the work being done at start-up and tech innovation companies globally. Across comparison parameters on innovation, time, productivity, quality, or sheer volume of work done, IT departments lag behind. He blamed this on mind set, archaic beliefs focused on process compliance to whatever framework the IT team had adopted. ITIL, COBIT, PMI, CMMi were boon in the past; they are the bane now. Agile development methodologies find rare favor with IT.
A reality check
He did not offer any empirical data or prescription, but no one from the audience disagreed. They sat there silently reflecting on their own realities. Post the hour, I sat ruminating over the discourse trying to figure out if this was indeed universal truth; if it was so evident, how is it that no one has thus far talked about it because everyone loves beating up IT and if it was so evident a simplistic comparison, it would have been well searched and figuring in the Top 5 priorities of the CIO and every vendor!
How do we measure IT productivity: Lines of code per day? That no longer seems relevant with the shift from procedural to new way of creating programs. How about number of people to support per 100 compute or network assets, or servers; even that is now irrelevant with virtualization and clouds taking over. Maybe number of locations, or solutions in the IT portfolio, time to respond or time to repair; most of these activities are anyway outsourced with SLAs.
Business value of IT
The baseline has been shifting and IT has adapted well to the change. In linear motion it is easy to measure a shift; in the real world it is a little difficult to quantify. So what efficiency parameters should the CIO use to demonstrate improvements if at all? The CIO dashboard and reports have evolved from technology availability to business value. Productivity gain is not specific any more but interconnected and interdependent. People do not measure activity but outcomes.
IT-influenced results are business agility, competitive differentiators, low cost of operation (Business and IT), and growing revenue faster than market. If the CIO is indeed driving these and well accepted and recognized by the enterprise, does it really matter if the lines of code generated by the IT team is lower than the industry benchmark?
Negative selling
The pitch was passionate enough to keep the audience awake. The speaker and his assistant were animated in professing the virtues of their products. They kept on imploring the CIO to consider their wares instead of the market leader, even though they had only 10% market share in comparison to the leader's 60%. The CIO who had listened patiently for more than 30 minutes thanked them for the presentation signaling an end to the meeting. The entire sales team was aghast! No questions?
It was a large deal that had every vendor wanting to show their wares with a hope of getting the business. The company had embarked on a major transformation after many years of hibernation. Thus there was a sense of expectation in the market and rightly so since whosoever bagged the order would become the standard supplier for a long time to come. The total business potential was very large commercially as well as from market visibility perspective.
For the vendor having discussed the architecture and the overall strategy with the IT team, the final stage to qualification was expected to be the meeting with the CIO. So the vendor pulled all plugs and brought together the best possible team for the presentation to the final decision maker. They knew that they had a chance of making the cut since the market leader had no presence as yet in this account. The CIO was also known to be fair in his approach and that added to the expectation.
The meeting started well with the setting of expectations and illustration of the approach, product features, open standards, and recent wins across industries. So far so good, but midway something broke and the fervent pitch turned awkward; rather than discussing merits of their product, approach and solution, the sales head started talking about the problems the CIO is likely to face if they selected the leader's products. Now it was not about what they did but what the leader did not do.
It was not evident to them that they were no longer connected to the audience and had lost. The CIO patiently heard them out through the leader bashing; he proceeded to close the meeting with a polite remark that once the decision was finalized, it would be communicated to everyone who participated in the evaluation. As they left there was a sigh in the room; the CIO and team sat quietly trying to shrug off the negativity. Nothing needed to be said; everyone unanimously agreed that this was curtains.
Why do some people resort to negative selling? Why do they not sell on merit? Don't they realize that it puts off the environment and has an adverse impact on the outcome? Is it the desperation of targets or month/ quarter/ year end, and the need to sell at any cost (ends justifying the means) that brings to fore such behaviors? Despite losing almost every such deal (I am sure CIOs can see through this clearly), the tendency remains to put down others to show superiority.
I believe that good is not always relative to something else where the other has to be proven not good. This maxim has to be understood for the behavior to change. A product or service can be classified superior by illustrating the benefits or features; let the recipient of the information decide in his/ her frame of reference whether it is a better fit than others. Everyone does not use the same yardstick neither does everyone compare the same products/ services every time. It would be great if our IT vendor community understands this and starts creating better services and products.
As a CIO I would love to do business with such a company, wouldn't you?


text:
On pidgin, I could set what my nickname is for a chat room by changing the room settings. I do not seem to have any such option to change nickname (or alias) for "favorite rooms" in Empathy.
In pidgin, I could also use the
/nick command to change my nickname. This also does not seem to be supported.
How do I change my nickname for a favorite room in Empathy?


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SGU Stargate Universe: Season 1, Episode 20
Incursion: Part 2 (11 Jun. 2010)
The battle between the Lucian Alliance and the crew of the Destiny continues with the Lucians seeming to gain the upper hand. Camillle Wray takes charge of the negotiations after the failed... See full summary »
Director:Andy Mikita
Writers:Brad Wright (creator), Robert C. Cooper (creator), 2 more credits »
Stars:Robert Carlyle, Louis Ferreira, Brian J. Smith | See full cast and crew »


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Two French soldiers were killed in combat in Central African Republic's capital, President Francois Hollande's office announced on Tuesday, the first French casualties since he ordered a stepped-up military presence in the restive former colony to help quell inter-religious violence.
The Elysee Palace, in a statement, provided no details about the killings in Bangui late Monday other than that they died during France's mission to restore security, protect civilians, and ensure access for humanitarian groups in the impoverished country.
French officials have warned of the dangers of the enhanced military mission alongside African Union troops, authorized under a muscular mandate approved last week by the United Nations Security Council. France's defense minister has warned militia groups to disarm peacefully or French troops will do it by force.
The announcement of the deaths came shortly after the presidential palace said Mr. Hollande would travel to Central African Republic on Tuesday after attending a memorial in South Africa to Nelson Mandela.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said French forces were conducting patrols by foot and vehicle through the dusty streets of Bangui. At one point, they intervened to pull away a Muslim man, who claimed to be a merchant, from a mob that accused him of being a rebel leader.
Muslim rebels known as Seleka overthrew the government of this majority Christian nation nine months ago.
Bouts of violence in Central African Republic took an especially bloody turn last week with more than 400 deaths in two days of violence between Christians and Muslims. World leaders including U.S. President Barack Obama have called for calm.
U.S. to join French military intervention
The United States on Monday announced to deploy its military planes to transport troops from Burundi to the Central African Republic as part of a French-led effort to help quell violence there.
US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel issued such a direction to US AFRICOM to begin transporting forces from Burundi to the Central African Republic, in coordination with France, the Pentagon said.
The request in this regard was made by the French Minister of Defense Yves Le Drian during a telephonic call with Hagel.
"Minister Le Drian requested limited assistance from the United States military to support this international effort.
n the near term, France has requested airlift support to enable African forces to deploy promptly to prevent the further spread of sectarian violence in the Central African Republic," Assistant Press Secretary Carl Woog said.
Mr. Hagel spoke with his French counterpart about the security situation in the CAR, where, under the authority of a UN Security Council Resolution, French forces are assisting the African Union-led international support mission to provide humanitarian assistance and establish an environment that supports a political transition to a democratically elected government.
"The United States is joining the international community in this effort because of our belief that immediate action is required to avert a humanitarian and human rights catastrophe in the Central African Republic, and because of our interest in peace and security in the region," Mr. Woog said.
"We continue to work to identify additional resources that might be available to help address further requests for assistance to support the international community's efforts in CAR," the Pentagon official said.
The fighting in CAR began after the government of the majority Christian nation was overthrown by Muslim rebels nine months ago. Muslim rebel groups tied to an alliance organization called Seleka are clashing with Christian fighters.
Keywords: United States, French military intervention, Central African Republic, CAR unrest, communal clashes, AFRICOM, African Union


text: Mary Franck's live visual work is based on a real-time aesthetic of audio-driven machines, organic textures and alien landscapes. Using her own performance software, she creates intimate, visceral experiences that stir the non-rational aspects of the human mind. Mary cut her teeth at Obscura Digital programming and operating architectural projection shows internationally.


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Email: firstname.lastname@example.com | Twitter: @WWLTV
BAYOU BLUE, La. -- Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office officials are looking for information connected to an aggravated burglary that occurred in Bayou Blue over the weekend.
Early Saturday morning, deputies responded to a call in the 100 block of Lady Bug Lane, saying that one or more unknown subjects were inside their home.
When the deputies got to the home, they found the residents hiding, but the suspects had fled.
According to the sheriff's office, detectives discovered the front door had been kicked in and the breaker box had been turned off. The residents were not harmed and no items were stolen but two shot were fired into the floor before the suspects left.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-743-7433


text:
Latest News
Singapore's cafe wave not a smooth ride for entrepreneurs
Soaring rents and food costs, alongside labour shortages and stiff competition, have proved to be a tough wakeup call. -CNBC
Singapore high-end homes back in vogue with foreigners
DTZ analysis shows that units costing over $5m make up 19 per cent of their April purchases, up from 6 per cent in Q1. -BT
First batch of smart HDB homes to launch this week
Both projects will make available 1,402 units across 12 blocks, with 546 units of two-room, 112 units of three-room, 519 units of four-room and 225 units of five-room flats. -AsiaOne
Bishopsgate GCB sold for record price of S$2,190 per square foot
Its S$2,190 psf on land area tops the S$2,110 psf in Leedon Park in 2012. Separately, Ridout site is said to have been sold for over S$90m. -BT
From kaya toast to rolling in dough
Kopi boy snubs safety of civil engineering job and makes it big with branding venture. -ST
Asian countries told to build up rice stocks soon
Asian countries need to build up rice stocks as global supply may shrink due to growing demand from major buyers like China and India. -Jakarta Post/ANN
It will either be tears of joy or anguish for 20,000 MAS employees
No GLC in Malaysia has ever sacked nearly everyone and this could well be the most number of people ever sacked in one day in Malaysia. -The Star/ANN
Volkswagen still bugged by consumer complaints
It drew the most grouses for new cars sold, according to data from Case. -ST
IE Singapore gives pointers on tapping an integrated ASEAN market
Local firms should focus on economies such as Thailand and Indonesia. -BT
Sodexo opens regional hub in Singapore
New office in Fusionopolis will support operations in 15 countries employing some 60,000. -BT
Toshiba pullout not likely to hit retailers here
Toshiba products make up only 10 per cent of his business, so the move to stop sales would not hurt much. -ST
Keep it simple, sweet
Kiss 92FM DJ Maddy Barber learns that natural is the way to go when decorating her marital home. -BT
Developers face hefty extension charges over unsold units
They may incur up to S$90m from April to December this year and S$238m in 2016 if the market stays quiet: C&W. -BT
S$593 million in GST from imported goods
Data was known earlier because GST payments were made before imported goods were released by the Customs Department. -The Star/ANN
Global banks admit guilt in forex probe, fined nearly $8 billion
Four major banks pleaded guilty on Wednesday to trying to manipulate foreign exchange rates and, with two others, were fined nearly US$6 billion in another settlement in a global probe into the $5 trillion-a-day market. -Reuters
Stock Market
Most Read
Personal Finance
4 inconsiderate ways Singaporeans pressure their friends to spend money
There are many people in our midst who are pretty much oblivious to the fact that not everyone may share their carefree spending habits. -MoneySmart
More than 9,000 new flats launched in largest HDB exercise
Of the 9,431 flats launched, 4,044 are BTO flats in Punggol, Sembawang, Clementi and Tampines. -AsiaOne
Majority of executive assistants feel unappreciated at work: Survey
Now in its third year, the campaign coincides with a recent survey finding that most secretaries and executive assistants feel unappreciated at work. -AsiaOne
SME Central
Taking a stand for eatery's brand name
Phyllis Ho speaks to Standing Sushi Bar about trademarking its brand and logo. - ST
- Singapore Budget 2015: 2015 fiscal year has projected deficit of $6.7 billion
- Singapore Budget 2015: Top marginal tax rate for higher income-earners to be raised
- Singapore's DBS Q4 profit misses forecasts as China bad loans jump
- Goodies for all expected in Budget 2015
- Bloc of 16 units at 111 Emerald Hill sold for about $75m via sales of shares
- Minimum Sum options starting from $80,500?
- A fortune in fish
- Reclamation for Forest City 'to resume after Chinese New Year'


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Book your room at Oaks Charlotte Towers
Standard Apartment, 1 BedroomMax Occupancy: 3 guests (up to 2 children, 2 infants)
Executive Room, 1 BedroomMax Occupancy: 3 guests (up to 2 children, 2 infants)
Standard Apartment, 2 BedroomsMax Occupancy: 5 guests (up to 4 children, 4 infants)
Standard Apartment, 2 Bedrooms (B&B)Max Occupancy: 2 guests (up to 1 child, 1 infant)
Standard Apartment, 1 Bedroom (B&B)Max Occupancy: 1 guest
Executive Room, 1 Bedroom (B&B)Max Occupancy: 1 guest
Family-friendly Brisbane apartment in Brisbane CBD, walk to Queen Street Mall
A luxury stay in Brisbane awaits you at Oaks Charlotte Towers. Within a 30-minute stroll, you'll find popular attractions like Queen Street Mall, Roma Street Parkland, and Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. Highlights at this family-friendly property include a restaurant, an outdoor swimming pool, and an indoor swimming pool.
You can enjoy flat-screen TVs with cable channels, and all 290 apartments feature washers/dryers, balconies, and wired Internet. In-room dining is easy with kitchens that come equipped with refrigerators, microwaves, and stovetops. Additionally, DVD players, hair dryers, and irons/ironing boards are available.
The restaurant, Chilli and Spice Thai, serves Thai cuisine and is open for lunch and dinner. Enjoy the fitness center and sauna. Added amenities include barbecue grills. There's also the convenience of self parking.
You'll be 2.3 km (1.4 mi) from Suncorp Stadium and 3.1 km (1.9 mi) from The Gabba with a stay at this 4.5-star Brisbane CBD property.Information missing or incorrect? Tell us!
Hotel Amenities
Hotel Amenities
The apartment offers a restaurant. In addition to an indoor pool and an outdoor pool, Oaks Charlotte Towers provides a sauna and a fitness center. Onsite parking is available (surcharge).
- Total number of rooms - 290
- Number of floors - 44
- Barbecue grill(s)
- Fitness facilities
- Sauna
- Meeting rooms
- Restaurant
- Self parking (surcharge)
- Number of buildings/towers - 1
- Indoor pool
- Outdoor pool
Family Friendly Amenities
- Family Hotel
- Outdoor pool
- Indoor pool
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Kitchen
- Washer/dryer
- Refrigerator
- Microwave
- DVD player
Available in all rooms: Wired internet access ( 18.00 AUD per 24-hour period )
Self parking (surcharge)
Room Amenities
- DVD player
- Balcony
- Air conditioning
- Microwave
- Kitchen
- Refrigerator
- Daily housekeeping
- Hair dryer
- Iron/ironing board
- Rollaway/extra beds available
- Washer/dryer
- Stovetop
- Cable TV service
- Flat-panel TV
- Wired high-speed Internet access (surcharge)
- Cribs/infant beds (surcharge)
Where to Eat
Chilli and Spice Thai - This restaurant specializes in Thai cuisine and serves lunch and dinner.
Pane Vino Italian - This restaurant serves lunch and dinner.
Spoon Cafe - This café serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Nearby Activities
An indoor pool and an outdoor pool are on site. Other recreational amenities include a sauna and a fitness center.
Hotel Policies
Minimum check-in age is 18
Check-in time starts at 2 PM
Check-out time is 10 AM
Payment types
You need to know
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.
Government-issued photo identification and a credit card are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
Parking height restrictions apply
Please note this property charges a fixed percentage fee on credit and debit card transactions. For details, please contact the hotel using the number provided in the booking confirmation.
- Fee for in-room wireless Internet: AUD 18.00 per 24-hour period (rates may vary)
- Fee for in-room high-speed Internet (wired): AUD 18.00 per 24-hour period (rates may vary)
- Fee for wireless Internet in public areas: AUD 18.00 per 24-hour period (rates may vary)
- Self parking fee: AUD 25 per day
- Deposit: AUD 150 per stay
- Crib (infant bed) fee: AUD 20.00 per night
- Rollaway bed fee: AUD 44 per night
- Onsite credit card charges are subject to a surcharge
National Rating
Official Australia STAR Rating provided by Star Ratings Australia
Star Ratings Australia assigns an official STAR Rating for accommodations in Australia. This Self catering property is rated 4.5 stars.


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