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Peace and Quiet in Historic Fredericksburg
Lavender Heights Bed and Breakfast • Fredericksburg, VA
Escape Kit
- A One-Night Stay for Two, Sundays through Thursdays ($150)
- Or, a Two-Night Stay for Two, Fridays and Saturdays ($290)
- Two Desserts or Beverages at Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen
- Daily Breakfast for Two
- Combine Vouchers to Stay for Up to Three Nights
This restored 19th-century bed and breakfast offers antique charm in the heart of historic Fredericksburg.
The Destination
Fredericksburg, Virginia, with its brick-facade buildings and rich history, has played an important role in the history of the United States. It was established in the early 1700s and witnessed two major Civil War battles, so sightseers will find no shortage of grand antique shops, battlefield reenactments, and museums. Art galleries and restaurants abound in Old Town, and the beauty of Virginia's wine country will charm wine lovers. Those hungry for culture can combine entertainment and fine dining with a night at the city's dinner theater.
The Digs
Lavender Heights Bed and Breakfast is located in a 19th-century home that was renovated and expanded in 2000. At Lavender Heights, rooms are outfitted with antique family furnishings supplemented with the latest comforts, the warm lighting of table lamps casting a glow on luxurious bedding. Outside the windows, water pours over a miniature waterfall into a koi pond on the carefully landscaped grounds, surrounded by gardens. Each morning, the staff at Lavender Heights provides a full spread of hot breakfast options with an ever-changing menu that may include quiche, brioche French toast, and more.
The Diversions
Explore. Old Town Fredericksburg
Enjoy. Riverside Dinner Theater
Remember. Chancellorsville and Wilderness Battlefields
Ride. Old Town Carriage Tours of Fredericksburg
Sip. Ingleside Vineyards
"Lavender Heights Bed and Breakfast is in a beautiful area with lots of history. The rooms are spacious and decorated with comfort and charm in mind. After a comfortable night's sleep, I was offered an exquisite breakfast."-- BedandBreakfast.com
escapes 30-day promise
LivingSocial gives you up to 30 days to return your unused voucher for a full refund. Once you've made a reservation, you are subject to the merchant's cancellation and refund policy. If you want to secure your preferred dates of travel, we strongly recommend that you complete reservation with the merchant within 30 days of your purchase—after that, LivingSocial will not issue any refunds.
the fine print
- Up to 2 vouchers may be combined to extend stay
- Only valid for stays now through March 15, 2015
- Reservations required and subject to availability
- Not valid toward existing or room block reservations
- Voucher includes two desserts or beverages at Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen, and daily breakfast for 2
- Nights must be spent consecutively; all inclusions must be redeemed during one stay
- Voucher valid for 2 guests
- Merchant cancellation/re-scheduling policy of 10 days in advance of scheduled arrival; voucher subject to forfeiture
- Taxes not included; payable directly to the property
- Incidental charges, charges for additional services and gratuity at the property are not included
- Blackout date(s): December 24-25, 2014; December 31, 2014; February 13-14, 2015; February 20-23, 2015
- Other conditions apply • PAID AND PROMOTIONAL VALUES EXPIRES ON March 15, 2015 • PAID VALUE DOES NOT EXPIRE • PAID VALUE EXPIRES ON March 15, 2020 • PROMOTIONAL VALUE EXPIRES ON March 15, 2015 • Enjoy By March 15, 2015
Other conditions apply
Except where noted in the fine print:
• Cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion
• Tax and gratuity are not included
• Merchant is responsible for the quality of the products or services provided to you at redemption
• LivingSocial Terms and Conditions - https://www.livingsocial.com/terms
Original Price:
- 0% savings
- remaining


text:
Lodge CRS12 DescriptionSKU: 261-CRS12
Standard Features and Benefits
- 12-in. diameter is ideal for sautéing
- Preseasoned 12 gauge carbon steel for long-lasting durability and easy food release
- Handle is held securely in place by 3 steel rivets
- Do not use in the dishwasher - hand wash only
- Made in the USA
Seasoned Skillet, 12", high heat, (3) steel rivets on handle, 12 gauge carbon steel
Lodge CRS12 Specifications
|12 in
|Fry Pan
|Preseasoned Steel
Lodge CRS12 Customer Reviews
"I use the Lodge 12 inch carbon steel skillet for preparing family meals nightly. This pan cleans up easy and reacts quickly to temperature changes with my gas range."
"One must understand how cast iron and carbon steel work before claiming they're bad quality. Lodge makes quality carbon steel and cast iron second to none."
"Haven't used this pan as much as the smaller 1, but I had hoped that evn tho they are cast iron I had hoped they would be better and not having the food stick to them and create such a mess to clean them. I hae oiled these pans before and after I cook and they are incredibly hard to get the food off."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
You didn't waste any time as you ran home. You where already late, and being much later would result in a much harder beating. You whipped around corners, your (h/c) hair flying out behind you. You reached the front door in 5 minutes flat. You slowly opened it, quietly calling out.
"Hurry up and go to your room, I've got someone over!" You heard the voice of your father ringing out.
"Y-Yes sir!" you replied. You ran past the living room, catching a glimpse of your father sitting on the couch, with a woman. You growled, but didn't stop long enough for your father to notice. You skipped every other step, out of habit. You quickly reached your room, and quietly opened the door, belly flopping onto the bed. You sighed as you sank into the feather mattress, running your hands up and down it. Your room was the only thing in this house that didn't look like shit and you where proud of that. You rolled over, staring at the white ceiling, watching a spider crawl along.
"Are you going to Scarborough fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
He once was a true love of mine." You stopped, and blinked.
"Why am I singing mom's lullaby?" you mumbled, rolling over on your side. You yelped, and rolled back over, gritting your teeth as you rubbed your arm. Waves of pain ran up your arm, increasing each time. You bit your lip, tears pricking the coroner of your eyes. The pain slowly passed until it was reduced to a dull throb. You slowly sat up, keeping your arm close to you. Your vision blurred, and you swayed, but it quickly passed. You stood up, and quietly made your way over the mirror. You hadn't looked in a mirror for so long that you where shocked at the person you saw staring back. You gingerly ran your fingers along the mirror, passing over your reflection.
"t-that's me?" You whispered, jumping as a loud bang rang out.
"Are you in bed yet?" You father shouted, banging on the door again. You quickly rummaged thru your draw and pulled out a pair of (f/c) sweat pants.
"Almost!' you replied, quickly putting them on. You father growled, and stalked down the stairs. You catapulted onto your bed, turned off the lamp, quickly and quietly falling asleep.
You awoke to the sharp beeping of your alarm clock. You shut it off, groaning. You ran your hands over your face, recalling yesterday's events. You felt your face heat up, and you quickly shook your head.
"I don't need him." You mumbled, standing up. "I don't even like him!" You rummaged thru your closet, grumbling about Alfred. You thru on a (favorite band) tee shirt, black sweatshirt, skinny jeans and sneakers. You grabbed your bag and sprinted down the stairs.
"Where you going?" you stopped and slowly turned your head, gulping as your father slowly made his way over to you. You closed your eyes and felt a sharp slap on your cheek.
"That's for yesterday." He said, and pushed you out the door. You stumbled down the steps, and regained your balance as you heard the sharp click of the door ring out. You turned your head, and sighed seeing that your father was inside. You put your hand up to you cheek and flinched as it made contact. You brought your hand back down, thru your hood up, trying your best to hide the all ready forming bruise. You walked 10 feet when someone slammed into you, making you stumble.
"What the
" you trailed off, and Alfred grinned at you.
"Sorry, I didn't think I was going that fast." He said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Its ok." you replied, cracking a smile. 'NO IT'S NOT!' you mentally screamed at yourself.
"That's good." He said, pushing his glasses back into place. You let your smile fade, and you turned back around, pulling on your hood.
"We should probably get going." You said, setting off at a brisk walk.
"Hey wait!" Alfred shouted, running after you. He quickly caught up, and matched your speed. You gulped, and instead of speeding up, you found yourself keeping a steady pace with him. 'What's wrong with me?' You thought, looking down.
"Is something wrong?" you glanced at Alfred, and shook your head.
"No, nothing's wrong, just-just lost in thought." You replied, brushing a stray strand of hair out of your face. Alfred shrugged, and opened the door. You quietly thanked him, and turned the corner; heading tword's the gym. You could have waited for Alfred, seeing as how you have the same class, but you needed a little time to think. You walked into the girl's locker room, checking to make sure that nobody was there. You quickly changed, and shoved your clothes into your locker before heading out to the gym. You sat down on the bleachers, surveying the empty gym.
"I saw." You turned your head, your eye's widening.
"I know about your little problem." She quick pulled up your sleeve, a faint smile coming to her lips. "You better stay away from Alfred, or I might just accidently slip."
The rest of the day was a blur. You couldn't focus, and every time Alfred came near you, you ran. The rest of the week went by like this, and Mackenzie enjoyed every minute of it. It disgusted you that she would stoop so low, but you couldn't risk anybody finding out.
"(Name)!" You speed up, but were pulled back, slamming against Alfred.
"Let me go!" you shouted, using all your strength trying to get out of his grip.
"Not until you tell me what's wrong." You stopped struggling. His voice was serious, almost commanding.
"You've been avoiding me for a week (name)." He stopped and turned you around, so you were facing him. "Tell me what's wrong." You hung your head, and felt a small smile tug at your lips.
"Believe me, I would if I could." You tore out of his grip, ignoring his shouts. You where oblivious to your surround's, you just didn't care where you went, just as long as you were away from Alfred. You stopped, taking short breathes. You were in front of a grave yard. You pushed open the gates, a shrill squeak echoing. You ran your hand along the tombstones, taking time to read each one. You found one that was fairly new, and you knelt down to take a better look.
"Dakota." You mumbled. He didn't have a last name, only the dates. 2003-2012. 'an orphan.' Tears welled up in your eyes, and they soon ran down your cheeks.
"You died so young
" your trailed off, and sat in silence; your eye's never leaving the tomb. A soft thump rang out. Your eyes darted to the side, and you were shocked to see Alfred sitting next to you.
"He was an orphan you know." You mumbled. Alfred nodded, smiling sadly.
"Nobody derives to die like that." He replied, reaching over to pick a small daisy and placed it in front of the tomb running his hand along it.
"You really wanna know what's wrong?" you whispered. Alfred looked at you, and nodded. You faintly smiled, and rolled up your sleeve.
"My mom died when I was 5." You cut him off, pulling you sleeve back down. "My father started drinking, and when he was drunk, he had fits, and he usually took them out on me." You looked back at the tomb and started up again.
"I was, well terrified, and I did the only thing that seemed logical to me, so I shut myself out. It was like that for 4 years, and then I finally made a friend.
"I was so happy, that I went to tell my father, and I brought her along. When I told him, he got angry, and he hit me in front of her. She ran, and told her parent's. They called the cops, but he got out of it." You stopped, not able to finish.
"You've been dealing with this since you were 5?" he asked. You nodded.
"Is that why you've been avoiding me?"
"No, Mackenzie found out."
"Oh." You sat in silence, the wind occasionally blowing.
"You should tell somebody." Alfred mumbled. You shook your head.
"I can't." You replied. Alfred looked at you his eyes full of concern.
"You can't tell anybody either." Alfred nodded.
"I won't, at least not yet." He whispered the last part. You stood up.
"I've got to go." You said, walking around the tombstone. Alfred remand silent, the wind gently blowing. You found your way out of the cemetery, and paused outside of the gates. You didn't want to leave, not without Alfred. You waited for a while, before he joined you. You two walked in a silence, settling on an unspoken deal. Alfred stopped in front of your house.
"I'll tell Mackenzie to quit whatever she's doing." He said. You nodded. Alfred started to walk away when you called out to him.
"Alfred wait!" he stopped and turned his head.
"Thank you." You mumbled. He smiled.
"You're welcome." he started walking again, as did you. Your confidence wavering as you walked up the steps. You opened the door and gasped as your father pulled you inside.
"You're in a lot of trouble." He growled, throwing on the floor. You grunted when you made contact. Your father then pinned your arms above your head.
"Who is he?" he spat. You closed your eyes and clamped your mouth shut.
"Who is he!?"
"I- I don't know what you're talking about!" you replied, yelping as your father slammed you against the wall.
"You know damn well who I'm talking about." He said, leaning up against you.
"That boy who walked you home, that boy you've been hanging out with, Alfred."


text:
July 20, 2012
Flipboard's 2nd Anniversary: The Team Celebrates in Palo Alto
Flipboard is turning two years old this weekend and celebrated its anniversary this past week in its Palo Alto CA parking lot with friends, family, employees, investors and Silicon Valley influencers.
For those of you who don't know what Flipboard is, you're missing out on a beautiful online experience. Pegged as a 'social magazine', Flipboard is an app for the iPad, iPod and Android which allows you to view content in a way that is stunningly delicious, where photos and simplicity rule.
Part aggregator and part stunning UI for content you already consume, it was listed in the 50 Best Inventions in 2010 by Time Magazine and they describe the experience: "Flipboard ends the chaos by grabbing updates, photos and links from your friends and other interesting people, then reformatting everything in a wonderfully browsable, magazine-like format." Well said and it's spot on.
The other thing that makes Flipboard such a cool app is the people behind it.
The team is headed by former Tellme head Mike McCue, who is a natural "marketing machine," precisely because he "isn't one."
Mike one of the most genuine, down-to-earth understated entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, with a heart and brain that are equally matched.
So, when the team said c'mon down and celebrate with us, how could I refuse?
They have attracted great talent who want to make a difference in the way we consume content today.
In a world where we're constantly barraged by irrelevant stuff, whether its from social media or websites and blogs, Flipboard lets you dictate what you want to see in a gorgeous format.
The casual outside party held a number of surprises, such as the photo booth where you could get your photograph taken in front of magazine cover, like Rolling Stone. You could also feel ten years old again, while you fished for a miniature teddy bear wearing a Flipboard T-shirt from a machine. And, they had a buffet of pork, beef and chicken barbecue as well as a variety of salads, beer, soda and wine.
Below Flipboard CEO Mike McCue and Klout's COO Emil Michael
We all know that Scobleizer aka Robert Scoble is a huge fan of the app :-)
Back to the local touch. Sinister Dexter who has an awesome sound, played blues, rock and hopping jazz for several hours and sadly by the time I wanted to kick off my shoes and swing dance to a number, they were starting to pack away their instruments.
Kudos to the Flipboard team for all of their successes to-date. I, for one, am a fan, and no I sadly don't have any stock or work for them.
Photo credits: team show in car and Emil/Mike shot from Eric Alexander of Flipboard, other photos by Renee Blodgett.
July 20, 2012 in America The Free, Europe, Events, On Technology, Photography, San Francisco, Social Media, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 09, 2012
Is Social Media Turning You Into a Low Self Esteem Anxiety-Rich Freak?
A University of Salford in the UK conducted a story which indicates that social media contributes to lower self esteem and higher anxiety.
Roughly half of the survey's nearly 300 participants, reported that their use of social networks such as Twitter, Facebook and others reduces the quality of their lives.
Confidence is affected, they say, self esteem is lower they say and two-thirds claim they find it difficult to relax or sleep after spending time on social networks.
This isn't rocket science. Ask anyone you know who spends a lot of time in front of a screen, glued to online games, social networks, management platforms like Hootsuite or sites where they're engaging in any way.
Roughly a quarter cited work or relationship difficulties due to online confrontations and more than half of the participants say they feel "worried or uncomfortable" at times they are unable to access their Facebook or email accounts. I have seen anxiety arise around me when people can't access their worlds online, including something as small as a Foursquare check-in.
Spend more time in an always on digital world and of course you're anxiety will increase. This isn't rocket science. But people are so hooked into the notion that it connects us 'more' that they don't look for the obvious negative side effects.
Sure, I can meet new people across the globe if I am constantly glued to my Hootsuite stream, and given that I run a travel blog, there's a lot of pluses to that, but bottom line, it takes us away from real human connections - there's only so many hours in a day.
It doesn't help that tools like Klout, Kred, PeerIndex and others assign us grades on a daily basis that encourage high school "who's the popular kid of the day" behavior. Offline for a day or a week and your Klout score goes down.
The tools are so one dimensional and dare I say "unheathily addictive" that it keeps you drawn into a social media online game you can never win, particularly if you want to have healthy relationships offline. Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to our Brains doesn't lie. Not a new book, but the behavior shift is real whether or not you agree with everything in the book. Also see my post from last year on multiple digital personas.
I find it ironic that a post entitled: How Social Media Makes Romantic Relationship Thrive is immediately above a post entitled: Social Media Fuels Low Self Esteem & Anxiety on Mashable, where I originally learned about the study. Here's a link to a video reporting some of the results.
People I talk to seem to be fighting to get quality time with their other halves and the main culprit in the way? Mobile Devices and their PCs. Enuf said.
July 9, 2012 in America The Free, Europe, On Geo-Location, On Mobile & Wireless, On Technology, On the Future, Reflections, Social Media, TravelingGeeks, United Kingdom, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 12, 2012
Relevenz: Your Mobile Calendar Marries Relevant & Hyper Local Promos
If the word of the day in the social media world isn't engagement or curation, then its geo-location or relevance.
Finding things that matter to you amidst the clutter (bring on smart and interesting curators please) is like finding a needle in a haystack. And truth be told, while the content needs to be interesting, it also needs to be relevant.
Relevenz is banking on the fact that people are starving for more and more relevance in a world where so much of what comes our way either doesn't spark our interest or has nothing to do with who we are or what we care about.
Relevenz is a downloadable app (they're starting with iPhone and Android with other mobile support coming later this year) that focuses on relevance within your social calendar. The idea is simple: share relevant plans with people who matter to you (Plancast has demonstrated that sharing events with friends is something people will spend their time doing), and within the parameters of that shared information, you can be informed of local offers, products and services that are most relevant to your world.
Additionally, you can make requests for products and services you want. Who would want to use this? Says co-founder Stephen Oman, "we're targeting people who have extremely busy schedules, such as husband wife teams with children who have a hard time synching up their schedules."
Obviously small business owners and consultants make logical targets as well. If you're a retailer or a vendor, you could use Relevenz to reach your customers in a very targeted way, get notified what your customers might be looking for and with the knowledge, allow you to make useful decisions to best bid for their business.
If you're a business, you can create targeted hyper-local offers in a simple self-service mode.
They have integrated with Google apps to give content "context." For example, if you put Austin Texas in your calendar, Relevenz knows your location so it can push relevant information to you within a few miles of your current destination.
When the merchant wants to throw up a specific offer, that offer will show up under a special "offers" tab to ensure your inbox or calendar doesn't get cluttered with promotions...yet, it's there under a customized tab if you're interested in exploring. Obviously the offer is hyper local adding to the relevancy. The vendor gets charged not the consumer - it's almost like a reverse Groupon.
As far as expansion and business model? They plan to open up their API so developers can build once there's more data. Check out their site for more information as well as links to download their app.
April 12, 2012 in America The Free, Conference Highlights, Europe, Events, On Geo-Location, On Mobile & Wireless, On Technology, Social Media, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 10, 2012
LocalSocial: The Bridge Between Mobile, Proximity Marketing & Great Deals
LocalSocial is all about the bridge between mobile and proximity marketing. Targeting business owners, retailers, merchants and venue owners, they're trying to make it easy to create offers and loyalty points rewards that can only be unlocked on the premises.
The goal of course is to drive footfall, repeat visits, and provides deep insight and social context for new and existing existing visitors. It turns anonymous walk-ins in to real people, enabling merchants to better engage with your customers in a way that's convenient and fun for them.
What they're doing is not new, but it is relevant and it is tapping into a massive market, one which a ton of players are banking on the fact that the power of proximity and location mapped with interests and culture will be a goldmine for brands.
LocalSocial's proximity framework uses Bluetooth and other technologies to detect physical proximity to other people and devices to enrich user experiences using multi-player games and marketing apps, presumably useful ones that will provide value to consumers not detract.
Here's How it Works:
Say you run a pizza takeout restaurant, a hair salon, coffee shop, pub or convenience store, LocalSocial allows you to create custom special marketing offers, ads and deals customers can 'grab' on their phones in real-time, so you can better engage with new and existing customers nearby.
The business model is pretty simple and makes sense. There's obviously inherent value in customer data, particularly data on a customer when they're close to your shop. Data this 'targeted' and 'relevant' can increase your customer base and turn existing ones into extremely loyal and "sticky" fans.
Essentially, businesses pay a monthly fee to participate in the network and a little extra for premium analytics.
Brands and Advertisers are already paying for this kind of data and analytics yet may not have the most accurate "proximity" and "behavior" figures. LocalSocial has a compelling "GridView" so you can see deals arranged by shop. What's most useful here however is that "proximity" is flagged, so that as a user, you know which shops are "right here, right now" and have offers of interest and value to you precisely at the time you're nearby.
If you're a retailer or small business, the service seems like a no brainer to check out, particularly if you have locations in various regions. are simply trying to drive more traffic to one of them or your only one.
If you're a Foursquare user or a "social media app" addict, it seems like you could just get hooked. After all, deals just might be more interesting and lucrative than what is being offered in the "fluff" pipeline today. If you're not an early adopter but just thrive on a good deal, it's also an interesting concept.
Remember that the company is still small and hasn't yet expanded to global cities, so give them time to expand their network before you get frustrated that they're not yet available in your country or city yet. The idea however holds a great deal of promise so keep an eye out for their updates and 'new market announcements.' LocalSocial is a very promising start-up with a mobile solution that offers something of value to both customers and small business.
April 10, 2012 in America The Free, Client Announcements, Europe, On Branding, On Geo-Location, On Mobile & Wireless, On Technology, PR & Marketing, Social Media, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Meet Volta, Home of Irish & Worldwide Independent Cinema Online
Volta is the home of Irish and worldwide independent cinema online.
A little history and background is in order for how it got 'its' name. Volta was the name given to the first cinema in Ireland opened by James Joyce in 1909. Over 100 years later, the Volta name remains synonymous with the best of independent Irish and International film.
Today, for anyone interested in independent film and creativity, Volta is a great companion (a non-subscription companion that is) where you can rent or buy top independent titles and interesting and intelligent articles. They are developing the market for "on-demand" film in Ireland.
Obstacles for getting this to expand as fast as they'd like include the obvious ones that nearly every country faces: broadband proliferation outside Dublin and another major cities. That said, there's a huge appetite for cinema in Ireland according to Tom Lawlor who heads up their marketing efforts. He says, "on a per capita basis, the Irish go to the cinema more often than any other European country. There's a hunger, especially for Irish theatre."
Since they're not subscription based, they don't compete with the likes of Netflix, a service albeit useful and popular, releases films a year later or more. Volta is focusing their efforts on "on-demand" independent film. As for how fast they'll grow and whether they'll expand beyond Ireland?
Right now, they're focusing their energy on the Irish market. "We don't see ourselves as a start-up because we're part of a large film company," says Tom. Volta has been developed for the Irish market by Element Pictures as part of the Universcine network.
The goal in the next few years is to increase the number of devices where people can access content, i.e., Android, iPads, connected TVs and so on.
They're also exploring the "social movie watching" concept, i.e., a social channel where people can watch films together and share comments in real time or after viewing. Coming soon is a Facebook player where you'll be able to choose a film, making notes while you're watching it if you choose or later on, if you want to "gift it" it share it with others. Social content is obviously a driver of traffic so it's only logical given the "engagement" aspect of it.
How Volta Now Works:
Simply go to their site and choose a film, which you can do a number of different ways: by genre, by director, by year, by actor, by keyword, by title and even by country if you want to explore. My first "gut" inclination was to search by keyword, but perhaps that's because I live amongst social media geeks in Silicon Valley. My guess is that my sister would search by genre. If you're local and familar with the players, it makes sense that you'd want to search by actor or director.
Once you've made your selection, you simply click on "Rent" (to rent the film for 48 hours) or "Buy" (to download the film to own).I chose "Dance" in my selection since I love everything related to dance and had a choice of how I wanted to view a 'dance' film called Red Satin (great name, non?)
If you go the "rental" option, you have two ways to watch your rented film – by streaming or by download. A film can be streamed by both Mac and PC users but the download option is only available to PC users for now. When you purchase a film to own, you must fully download the film to your computer.
Another thing I love about their site is the ability to read up on various films and updates about the film world. The UI is easy-to-use and quick-to-access; headlines are chunked in boxes on one page, much simpler than many of the newer but quirky and creative blog formats. This section combines a "blogging format" with a catelogue style of viewing, which makes it useful for quick access and catch-ups.
Lastly, and this is something I learned through a little research and a conversation with Tom and a few others. Ever hear of Section 481? Unless you're Irish or perhaps European and in the world of Film and Television, there's no reason why you would have.
Section 481 is the Irish tax incentive for Film and Television made in Ireland. Projects can derive benefit of up to 28% of their qualifying expenditure and this incentive is guaranteed to folks in this space until December 2015. There is a ceiling on each project of money that can be raised (E50m), but for independent film makers, that is a pretty healthy incentive.
If you're a foreign producer and many people who will stumble upon this blog post will likely be from outside the country, you can tap into some of these benefits by teaming up with a local Irish co-producer. More information can be found on the Irish Film Board site and more information on how to discover new "Irish" cinema and talent, check out Volta to learn more.
April 10, 2012 in America The Free, Arts & Creative Stuff, Client Announcements, Europe, On Technology, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 09, 2012
Kavaleer: A FORCE Behind Animation, Short Films, TV Series, Design & Interactive
I first met Andrew Kavanagh during a trip to Dublin a couple of years ago. Introduced to me as someone "interesting to know and meet" because I expressed an interest in arts and culture and write about it regularly, I was pleasantly surprised to discover an expansive world of expertise which unfolded as a result of a one-time "pub" meeting.
He drew an impressive animation sketch for me in some Irish pub way back when and so it comes to pass that Andrew is a huge creative force behind Kavaleer Productions, a well known, savvy and talented studio group, who have created a top notch reputation in the film, design, interactive, animation and television space around the globe.
We had the fortune of spending time together in Austin recently so I could learn about their latest updates. While most known for their creation of award–winning film and television projects, Kavaleer also creates animation, interactive and design services. Aside from creating their own TV shows, where they have been twice nominated for an Irish Film and Television Award and a British Animation Award, their film work has been selected by over 100 international festivals over the past ten years. Impressive, non?
Interactive has been increasingly playing a major role which is no surprise given what is having on the investment front in Silicon Valley, LA, London and beyond. Kavaleer is also a seasoned provider of interactive content and apps for the e-learning and games sector; no surprise given what's happening in the games industry recently.
In 2009 alone, Interactive services accounted for half of their turnover, so much so that they started developing their own apps in 2011. They have also developed a reputation for their e-learning work, a portfolio of apps that range from Sesame Street workshops (Elmo ABCs) to Disney and the e-entertainment world.
While these guys may be based in Ireland, their work is known globally. They continue to work closely with HMH on their Destination Math, Fusion Science and Texas Language Arts programs and have been providing San Francisco-based Playfirst Games with content for their hit iPhone /iPad based'DASH' games for the past year.
Kavaleer also produced an accessibility game for South Dublin County Council 'Jobot's Access All Areas' which was shortlisted for a Chambers Ireland Excellence in Local Government Award.
They're not shy about short film production either. Some of their latest results include the following "shorts."
In addition to film "shorts" and the fact that they're known for their work with Sesame Street on the TV side, they're also behind other TV series including: Bed Heads, theAbadas! (the adventures of Hari the Hippo, Seren the Bat and Ela the Fox), Garth & Bev (time-traveling siblings Garth and Bev live in harmony with nature in a village), Lifeboat Luke, which is set in and around the small seaside community of Donaghadoo, and So Mortified.
They've been around for ten years yet because their creative work is "so behind the scenes," many not be aware of their studio name or their incredible work. While Kavaleer has awards behind their name and a global reputation, Ireland has no shortage of talent in this space.
While many know Ireland to be a country of storytellers, I wonder how many realize its rich history in cinema, television, mobile, games and film. Ireland's animation and digital media sectors are growing both in size and reputation around the globe. For example, Brown Bag Films animated short, Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty, and Cartoon Saloon's animated feature film, The Secret of Kells, both secured Oscar-nominations in 2010. For more on Kavaleer, check out their work and blog. For more on Irish screen producers, take a meander here and for general information on the Irish Film Board, visit their site for more details.
April 9, 2012 in America The Free, Arts & Creative Stuff, Client Announcements, Entertainment/Media, Europe, Events, On People & Life, On Technology, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Billfaster Makes it Easy & Fast to Manage Money, Invoices & Your Business
I come across new start-ups on a weekly basis if not a daily one and when you are introduced to as many as I am, its easy to glaze over the details because so many of the pitches sound the same and are in similar categories trying to do the same thing.
I met with the founders of Billfaster recently who are working on a solution for real businesses with real problems around invoicing, accounting and money.
It is not a widget. It's not a social media or analytics tool and it's not some web app or vertical search engine that is likely to get crushed by Microsoft or Google.
Billfaster is essentially online accounting software as a service that targets small businesses, startups, freelancers and professional service contractors.
They offer a quick, easy and fast way to keep track of and manage money, as well as handle businesses and individual's accounting. You could say pieces of what they provide compete with QuickBooks yet it cleverly does things a little differently and the interface seems to be incredibly simple, at least from what I could tell from an in-depth demo in Austin last month.
Take a look at an overview of Invoice transactions from their system and you'll see what I mean:
Below is a screenshot of how you enter an expense with Billfaster and note the tax bracket piece that you can customize with a drop down menu:
For people on the go with busy schedules (that'd be me), they provide 7 second invoicing, 3 second expense tracking and automated accounting to enable users to be up and running quickly. (It made me think of the fast food ads from ten years ago - if you're not out in 10 minutes, the meal is on us). This is a compelling pitch and offer for those who struggle with complicated user interfaces that require skills of both an accountant and an engineer to figure out how to use.
They offer a free version that includes unlimited invoicing and clients, with premium versions providing more robust features such as reporting, CRM and inventory management.
Simplicity is their core message and so far, it seems to be working. While still a small company based in Ireland, they already have customers using the Billfaster software in over 70 countries.
Said CEO Rod Condell in an interview, "over 25% of our client base is in the U.S., with the UK, Canada, South Africa and Ireland next in line."
How did they succeed globally so quickly? Co-founder Chantel de Paor says that rather than customize tax forms and processes for each individual country, they have a generic tax form so it can be used anywhere.
Although they have a free version, their paid versions are reasonably priced. For $4.95 a month, you can customize forms by uploading your own logo. You also have access to tax reports, expense reports, cash in and out, and pending invoices. Below is what their cash management page looks like where you can view accurate daily, weekly, and monthly cash, sales, and expense reports.
For $9.95 a month, a mini-CRM system is integrated if you want to keep track of customers and customize invoices. It also includes simple Paypal integration which is useful for small businesses, particularly those doing business in multiple locations and who have a lot of online transactions.
Their top of the line is the Gold Edition, which is only $14.95 a month. Here, you get Accounting Journals, support for multi-users, cash planning, order processing, the ability to add and customize categories, and more. And what's also great is the added benefit of free support. Check out this page for more about their features and pricing plans.
It was refreshing to meet a startup focused on solving real problems and with a business model that makes sense. They actually charge monthly fees yet their fee structure is inexpensive...and, the math makes sense, especially given the fact that they have made it easy to go after global customers.
April 9, 2012 in America The Free, Client Announcements, Conference Highlights, Europe, On Money, On Social CRM, On Technology, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Entrepreneurs: Look Outside Silicon Valley for Innovation, Talent & Money
While Silicon Valley may be the "hub" for technology start-ups and where the world thinks the top creativity and talent reside, there is plenty of innovation coming out of other parts of the world.
In the states, Denver, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Portland and Seattle are all making strides.
Just this week, I was informed of a few start-ups out of Montana which just closed small rounds.
Outside the states, many entreprenuers and VCs alike know about the flood of activity coming out of Israel, the UK and mobile apps from developers in Eastern Europe, Asia and South Africa (Memeburn is a growing social media and start-up blog for the developing world and a hot new Cape Town-based start-up conference is unveiling in the fourth quarter).
Paris-based LeWeb is one of the hottest start-up and technology conferences around and given its growth and diversity, it's not just focused on Europe anymore. In the last six months alone, I've met 6 French entrepreneurs who are moving from Paris to the Bay Area to increase their likelihood of getting funded and hiring the "right" names. Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Singapore too are all sprouting up new initiatives and innovations.
I talked to the Singapore folks at SXSW who fed me fabulous chicken wings at their booth. They have a presence in Silicon Valley and are hoping to grow it in the coming months and years, as is Ireland with Enterprise Ireland, who is responsible for the funding, development and international growth of start-up companies in Ireland.
The popularity of the Dublin Web Summit and the F.ounders conference are both strong indicators that the number of entrepreneurs and smart ideas coming out of Dublin and other pockets of the country is on the rise.
Ireland also had a strong presence at SXSW with 30 companies on-site under the Enterprise Ireland umbrella. Part of their pitch to the social media and technology world was not just of their own talent, but to encourage others to bring their businesses to Ireland.
Ireland has a E10 million fund for international start-ups. While it may not be brand new, many may not be aware of it. Why Ireland, besides the natural reasons of it being a gorgeous country with landscape to die for and a country loaded with smart, witty storytellers?
What many may not realize is that Ireland has the most business friendly tax regime of any country in Europe or the Americas, which is pretty attractive when your budgets are small and you're trying to raise early capital.
It is obviously English-speaking as well, which makes it easy for Canadians and Americans to migrate east and Ireland's geographic position and EU membership provides easy access to money flow on the continent. The World Bank's 'Doing Business' report rates Ireland as the easiest EU location to start a business. And, the Irish Government has an assertive pro-business economic policy, offering a 12.5% corporate tax rate and 25% R&D tax credit.
For those soley focused in Silicon Valley, perhaps it's time to think a little more global. With more expansive thinking will come additional resources, capital and creativity not to mention interesting culture, social benefits and economic development outside of what northern California has to offer.
April 9, 2012 in America The Free, Client Announcements, Client Media Kudos, Conference Highlights, Europe, San Francisco, Social Media, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 03, 2012
Zartis Leverages Social Media & Existing Employees to Mine the Best Talent
There are still plenty of opportunities to create a lucrative business in the "job" and "talent" market. Not only was LinkedIn's entry into the public market a hit last year (its IPO brought the company $352.8 million), but this BusinessWeek article (a GigaOm re-post) from last May touts numerous potential acquisition targets that might complement their business. Among those targets include Hashable, Socialware, Yammer, Indeed and BranchOut.
Sprouting from Ireland, Zartis is a new player in this space, who see the growing difficulty in hiring, particularly technical talent. Jobs boards aren't returning great or even relevant candidates and recruitment agencies are expensive and can be time consuming.
Unemployment and economic recession issues aside, the growth of new technologies, mergers and acquisitions and start-ups with great ideas around the globe, offer tremendous new employment opportunities, but finding the right person for a position is often like finding a needle in a haystack, a very high and dense haystack.
Zartis, which is part of Enterprise Ireland, who had a major presence at SXSW last month, is an online service designed to help companies with between 5 and 500 employees to "look within" to find the talent they need through employee referrals.
They have taken a clever angle to recruit people, giving perks and incentives to those within an organization who can tap into their own networks to bring fresh new talent to the pool. The service allows a company to add a job, allocate a reward and invite its employees to promote the role to their contacts.
What's very cool about their offering is that an employee can actually tap into their personal social networks by publishing the "vacant" role to their Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook timeline. And, then they in turn get rewarded for successful outcomes.
How Employees Win:
When an employee logs into Zartis, they see the positions available and the rewards that are connected to the position. They can select a job and with one click have the message broadcast to their LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook connections.
They can also make recommendations within LinkedIn for a role based on keyword matching. The employee can then send their contact a private message telling them about the job.
When a job is distributed by an employee there is always a unique code embedded in the message which allows the company to track a job applicant back to the employee. This ensures that the referral reward is always paid to the employee.
Referral hires ensure that people work with people they like. Letting employees source new hires ensures they only recommend people that they actually like to work with which equates to longer term satisfaction for the employee and the "mate" they've brought into the company.
How Companies Win:
According to historical stats, companies already generate roughly 20% of new hires from existing employees, which is pretty good considering how much effort goes into finding new talent who isn't just a fit from a skillset perspective, but from a cultural perspective as well. Referrals from employees only increases the number of like-minded candidates, which is also a win-win from a corporate perspective.
Using Zartis, companies could actually get that employee referral number up to above 50%, which any good headhunter or HR exec will tell you, is significant. Bottom line, great people know other great people. Reliable. Honest. Ethical. Sustainable. And, existing employees are more likely to recruit others with like-minded in thinking, which means that they're more likely to be aligned with the corporate culture. Just look at how great Zappos is at recruiting and keeping people who fit within their corporate culture.
Zartis is designed to work within organizations but it also taps into the power of social media and sites that already do recruitment magic, such as LinkedIn. With the growth of employees using social media inside and outside the organization, it makes it that much easier to get a message out quickly to a wide audience.
If employees are already using social media in some capacity, throwing an incentive their way to go the extra mile to help fill positions only makes logical sense.
Consider this: an average employee has about 150 first degree connections on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
A company with 300 employees has theoretically 45,000 first degree connections. There will be overlap in these connections but even if you halved that number, imagine the leverage and power of all of these combined networks from all of your employees.
Another great feature from Zartis is their ability to help companies create their own careers site with a list of all their job openings and a professional application process that even works from a mobile phone. Says CEO John Dennehy, "with no knowledge of HTML, you can have an instant web page with all of your job listings. We also have it set up for mobile optimization."
Job seekers can submit their resume or LinkedIn profile which is sent to the company that is hiring. The careers site can be embedded in any website, WordPress site, or Facebook page.
Jobs can also be pushed to free job boards like Indeed.com and Twitter with one click. It's very simple to get up and running (no programming required) and they're obviously thinking about opportunities worldwide, as it can already be automatically translated into any of 11 languages.
When somebody applies for a job the hiring manager logs in to their secure site and can review all of the candidates in one place. They can add notes, send template rejection or call to interview emails, and share interview notes with colleagues.
Getting Started & Pricing:
If you want to "taste" the power of what Zartis can do, you can test it out for free. (one job posting is free and you can also get a month for free with all of their existing plans). For companies wanting more horsepower, their service is still incredibly reasonable.
To publish up to three job postings, it's only $9.95 a month and for 10 a month, it's $29.95 a month. For high growth enterprise companies with ongoing recruitment needs, it's a one time fee of $499.95 a year. When you consider what you pay a professional headhunter and other online services (often upwards of 15% of an annual salary), it's a very cost effective way to recruit new talent. Employee referrals are charged separately based on the number of employees added to the system.
Investors include AIB Seed Capital, Enterprise Ireland and SOS Ventures. Clients are global; companies using their service are based as far away as Cape Town and Kuala Lumpur, in Europe (Dublin and London) and in the U.S. with more and more customers being added every month. You can find out more about their service on their site and follow them on Twitter @zartis.
April 3, 2012 in America The Free, Client Announcements, Conference Highlights, Europe, On Innovation, On Technology, Social Media, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 22, 2012
TEDxBerkeley 2012's Inspiring Innovation Merges Magic, BioData & Technology With Film, Oceans & Plants
Most people in my circles know what a TEDx event is but for those of you who don't, it is a local, self organized event that bring people together to share a TED-like experience, in the spirit of ideas worth spreading.
This video gives you an idea of what these non-profit events are like, which extend far beyond Berkeley. Cities around the world are organizing TEDx events, with a goal to teach, share, collaborate, educate, faciliate and grow. Ideas worth spreading means that some of these ideas can revolutionize (and have revolutionized) the world because of a new relationship or partnership that has evolved as a result of the wider distribution of these ideas and the courage and dedication of people behind making the 'magic' happen.
It's the second year I've been involved as co-curator of TEDxBerkeley, an event held at Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall every February. In attendance were well over 1,000 people from a broad range of disciplines and minds - from academic, music and science to medicine, technology and the arts.
15 ground-breaking thinkers, leaders and performers entertained and educated the audience through storytelling, performance and anecdotes from their life experiences.
Given that UC Berkeley is involved, so were some of the professors and students, including the opening act by DeCadence (pronounced dee-KAY-dence, with a capital 'C'), a vocalist group that sports eye-catching blue and gold capes and creative dance moves at nearly every performance.
The musician in me couldn't help but call out music brilliance first and while we're on the topic of incredible voices, Charles Holt stole the stage with his storytelling and singing of "He Lives in You," my favorite Lion King number.
He had me at "go" is an understatement, largely because of his intuitive nature, the fact that he lives his life through that intuitive lense and his witty and incredibly honest stories of his mother and grandmother from the south, which will leave you crying and laughing at the same time.
From music to dance, Jodi Lomask then awed us through her dance troupe. Known for her work with an organization she founded called Capacitor 15 years ago, she works with world-renowned research scientists to create original dance works that draw attention to critical environmental issues.
I think about people I know who spend their life committed to understanding oceans and I think about the moment it was for me that I got one step closer: deep sea diving off the coast of Australia some 60 or so feet below the surface. In that world, that remarkable world, you truly understand the beauty of a world we need to cherish and preserve.
Her dancers showed us that beauty through a combination of violin, dance movements in and outside of rings in somewhat of a Cirque du Soleil style and environmental videos, all creating an outer world exerience for us to share.
One of my favorite moments of the performance is below...the intertwining of minds, hearts and bodies.
Also involved in conservation and the environment was Dr. Maria Fadiman who I had the pleasure of setting up with a new Twitter account (social media will get us all, the deep hidden voice says, lurking in the background), is a fascinating combination of geologist, comedian, nature lover and ethnobotanist, her work focuses on the relationship between people and plants.
From South Florida, her style was very informal for an academic crowd yet had people laughing as she pounced onto the stage with a machete in hand, telling one humorous story after another of her time in the jungle, the majority of her time spent in the rainforests of Latin America.
She has worked with Tibetan children in teaching them to record their own ethnobotanical traditions and is currently working on a global scale cross cultural study of people's use of a cultural keystone species (the flora and fauna that are deemed important to the survival of a culture), and how these plants can act as larger ecosystem preservation incentives.
AutoDesk's CEO Carl Bass walked us through five trends of innovation, using Kickstarter and Moon Express one example of companies doing something extremely unusual.
Digital fabrication is where you change the rules about how things are made, referencing 3D printers, showing us examples of various things which can be printed into a variety of materials, including rubber, plastic and metal.
It's amazing what can be printed on a 3D printer now...I ran into BitTorrent's Bram Cohen at SF Music Tech who showed me a very interesting 3D ring he was wearing on his finger. Additionally, imagine 3D buildings and even a 3D-printed human kidney.
We also heard about the rise of information, aka the wisdom of the crowds and the wisdom of the 'cloud.' Not only are we all becoming creators in our own way on our own personal platforms, but we're becoming curators as well.
Then, ARZU's Connie Duckworth, who took the stage in vibrant red, focused on international development sharing things learned from her work in Afghanistan. She says of the current state of international development:
- The international development industry is dysfunctional.
- Big money brings big unintended consequences.
- Hope can't thrive in the world's worse places.
She believes that we have an urgent call to change the structure of the international development industry, which holds in its hands the lives of billions of people at the bottom of the pyramid.
Their thinking is that somehow inherently flawed short term thinking will move into sustainable systems. Big money when not hosed in the right direction can create a lot of chaos. She asserts that its a key reason that so many people lose so much faith in their government.
She refers to another unintended consequence of big money going to the wrong places: Brain Tilt, which is when the most highly educated local people (engineers, professors, doctors), all end up working for expats in low level positions. Local smart people are working as drivers and clerks rather than working in higher level positions because they can get paid so much more in the other positions.
Connie defines the quest for peace as security. "We all see the world through our own lens of experience, so for me, success all starts with a job. This is how people start with a way to solve those basic level needs, such as the ability to eat and feed their family." She encouraged the audience not to just sit back and want peace, but believe in it and take action.
We went on a gratitude journey with Nipun Nehta of Service Space who asked us how we could all have more "Gif-tiv-ism" in the world?
Rather than focus on money, we wanted to focus on giving, in other words, the idea of unleashing the power of compassion capital. "Once you unleash compassion," he says, it's amazing what happens. "Stay focused on adding value and discovered untapped capital."
When small acts of giftivism get connected and activated, it rekindles a gift economy. A gift culture, he says, is marked by four key shifts:
- Shift from Consumption to Contribution – Instead of asking "what can I get," open with "What can I give?" He says if you open each door with a different question, about what can you give, it changes the entire dynamics.
- Shift from Transaction to Trust: Build synergy. He refers to Karma Kitchen, a restaurant in Berkeley, where you pay for the people ahead of you or behind you rather than for your own bill. 26,000 meals so far and people continue to pay it forward.
- Shift from Isolation to Community: it is not enough that we connect, but rather how we connect. When you serve other people together, you create a network of 'gift ties.'
- Shift from Scarcity to Abundance: Cultivate inner transformation to arrive at enough. "There is enough for everyone's need but not enough for everyone's greed."
Hear hear Nipun. From gift economies, we shifted to Gopi Kallayil from Google who talked about the power of social and a connected world, particularly during the 18 days of the Egyptian protests, showing us a video where Desmond Tutu is talking to the Dalai Lama on Google+, a clip which has now been watched 2 million times. This is a great example of how social media is driving innovation around the world.
We saw examples from Libya and Kenya to South Africa and Egypt, where during the protests, they were able to express how they really felt and more importantly, people were able to listen to those words on YouTube and other platforms. They sang, "the most important thing is our right and writing our history with our blood – if you were one of us, better not blabber and tell us to go away and leave our dream and stop saying the word "I". In every street in my country, the sound of freedom is calling. In every street in my country, the sound of freedom is calling." Powerful stuff.
From the vantage point of healthcare, intuition and communications, Dr. Neha Sangwan encourages everyone to be proud of yourself for "listening to yourself." Often, listening to ourself comes second to listening to opinions of others, whether they be friends and family or a doctor we're seeing for a particular issue.
She asks, "what if communication is the cure that we're missing? What is the way we talk to ourselves & whether we choose to lean into our discomfort & show up in the world? What is this is the prescription for health long before I need to write you a prescription?"
Her talk was highly emotional as she brought us a journey around the world to the Middle East, where she spoke to women, sharing with us insights she learned about their world, their pride and in turn, what we can learn from them in the western world.
A professor at Berkeley, Ken Goldberg who closed the talks, on nothing other than robots. Yes, robots...and what we can learn from them. As someone who worked in speech recognition for years and did a project for the Willow Garage guys (I love PR2 and even danced with one), I was eager to hear his insights.
Ken thinks robots can inspire us and that we have a lot to learn from them. Some of those insights from various projects over the years include: always question assumptions. It's amazing how quick we are to turn to other people's assumptions and make decisions based on them without digging deeper. Secondly, when in doubt, improvise.
I couldn't help but smile but when i realized that both of these recommendations btw are great ones for start-ups as well as for children. So is tihs one: When your path is blocked, pivot. In start-up culture, we learn to pivot a lot, something that Fortune 500 companies should pay more attention to...
Author and thought leader David Ewing Duncan focused on DATA and how do we make sense of it all?', something he thinks is an awesome achievement of humanity, for 'better or worse.'
Because of his background, he centered his talk around bio-data. He points out that today, we can get a micro-analysis of our blood work, which can tell us how just whether we have a high chance of cancer and chronic diseases, but how empathetic we are as human beings. He notes "more experiences, more tests leads to more data."
But, as so many of us know, we have so much data, that its often overwhelming, so much so we can't make sense of the data we have at our fingertips. This is David's point.
Whats needed, he asserts is a new mindset in every occupation. "Enough of all this data, what does this data actually mean?" he says. "We need a revolution in interpreting the tools and the data as well as a radical shift in resources. In other words, how do we go about testing 42,000 genetic traits?"
Clearly, we need a radical shift in resources. There's only 4% invested on translational medicine and he thinks there needs to be a reversal in resource allocation. He also pointed to trends in the future for all the students sitting in the hall: "we're going to need 500 million analysts in 6 years and we only have 100 million today." Clearly, these are the people who are going to be well versed at making sense of all that data and transforming it into something usable and most importantly, actionable by individuals.
Tapan Parikh, a Berkeley University professor brought us back into traditional technology and current trends. Tapan's research interests include human-computer interaction (HCI), mobile computing, speech UIs and information systems for microfinance, smallholder agriculture and global health.
He showed us photographs and results of some of his work in rural areas. Of his latest projects, Tapan has been designing, developing and deploying information systems in the rural developing world – initially in India, and now also in Latin America and Africa.
Tapan and his students have started several technology companies serving rural communities and the development sector. It was inspirational to see what they have accomplished so far and to see what is possible with resources, tearing down silos, sharing among communities and better access.
What he hopes to represent is the notion of showing respect for where you come from. He says, "Pick a challenge that is important to you" (for him, it was setting up real-time video conferencing, knowledge sharing and instant messaging in India), "and stick to it." He adds, "Don't assume you know what people need for their development - let them speak up, don't act for them."
I was thrilled that Tiffany Shlain was able to join us this year as I've always been a fan of her work. She has been making films for 20 years, and some of them have hit Sundance, Tribeca, Rotterdam and others and her films have won over 36 film festival awards.
Tiffany says, "each time we were able to change the way we recorded film and show reality, we were able to change reality itself."
She showed us snippets from her most recent film: Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology, A Declaration of Interdependence." Connected had its U.S. theatrical tour this past fall and is now available for people to host their own screenings.
The U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts (SCA) announced earlier this month the 29 films selected for the American Film Showcase, an international cultural diplomacy initiative that brings people together worldwide through film and Connected made the list.
The movie is enlightening and sad at the same time, taking us deep into what is happening around us in a connected world and how technology is shaping and reshaping us. Bravo!! I have a love/hate relationship with technology myself -- the timing of this film couldn't be more perfect.
"Do something radical and true," she says. "We as humans should declare our human interdependence." Film projects they're working on for others are centered on life's most emotional topics: engagement, power, money, wisdom, death, inspiration, the brain and others.
Now that we're back to Entertainment, the E in TED, the last two speakers this year were performers: magician Robert Strong and violinist Lindsey Stirling.
Robert Strong is known as 'The Comedy Magician' and in watching him, it's so clear that magic is his life passion. He has performed on every major television network, in more than 40 different countries, in all 50 states, and twice at the White House.
I never paid much attention to the word magic until I renamed my own consultancy with Magic in the name. Now, I see 'magic' everywhere and am a true believer that perception is reality and that we can create any outcome we want through our own belief systems.
Lindsey Stirling, who I first saw play at Idea Festival in Kentucky last fall, is often referred to as the Hip Hop Violinist. Her passion, energy, and presence is magnetic, so much so, that you can't help but want to get up on stage and dance as she jumps around, violin and all, around you. Here's some background on her work. Let's just say that I'm a huge fan.
Check out last year's (2011) TEDxBerkeley talks on video. And a few talks from last year to get you inspired were Chip Conley on remembering that we're human in business, Anat Baniel on flexibility and vitality, Lopas Brunjes on carbon reduction, Bryan Alvarez on living organisms in our body, and Shore Slocum on spiritual awakening and awareness and how this can transform your everyday life.
Photo Credits: Lightbulb - Kauffman.org, Speaker images by Renee Blodgett
February 22, 2012 in America The Free, Arts & Creative Stuff, Conference Highlights, Entertainment/Media, Europe, Events, Magic Sauce Media, Music, On Education, On Health, On Innovation, On People & Life, On Poems, Literature & Stuff, On Robotics, On Technology, On the Future, San Francisco, Social Media, WBTW, Web 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack


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These upcoming Russian Olympics are going to be hell for gay athletes...and even worse hell for gay people living in Russia. Sad, barbaric and a disgrace. We should boycott. There is no other way to protest.
DataLounge get your fix of gay gossip, news and pointless bitchery.
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It's About People
Our depth of experience with human information and identity management makes us a leader in our field, but it's our values that make us second to none. We work hard to seek out the right people to join our team and we work hard to keep them.
If you think you're a good fit for Nulli, .
Identity Management Consultant
Identity Management Consultant
Job Description
As a consultant, you will work to design and implement solutions that satisfy our clients' Identity Management requirements.
The varied dimensions of your work experience at Nulli include:
- Working with our client base, consisting of large corporations, governments and institutions located in both Canada and the US.
- Having a thorough understanding of our client's business processes as they relate to their security controls and policies.
- Recommending strategies and solutions to support these needs.
- Installing, configuring and customizing various Identity Management products.
- Building successful, long term client relationships.
- Contributing innovation and challenging the status quo.
- Sharing your expertise with other Nulli team members.
- Actively mentoring other team members.
- Recommending new product opportunities to Nulli management.
- Learning new technologies as the Identity Management field evolves.
- Travelling as required; in the best interests of both our employees and our clients, we work hard to minimize travel.
Your Qualifications
- Minimum of 2 years current technical working experience in the Identity Management field
- Post-secondary degree in Computer Science or equivalent
- Creative analytical skills; ability to build innovative solutions, thinking "outside the box"
- Superior programming ability
- Exceptional 'People' skills - consulting, communication and interpersonal
- Self-motivated team player
- Ability to work in both Canada and the US (Canadian Citizenship or American Citizenship with permits to work in Canada.)
We would greatly value any of the following:
- Experience in the Oracle Identity product lines
- Experience in the ForgeRock stack (OpenAM, OpenDJ, OpenIDM)
- Strong Java skills
- Deep LDAP directory knowledge
- Web Server configuration - Oracle HTTP Server, Apache, IIS
- Weblogic, BPEL, OpenSSO, OpenDS, Javascript
- Virtual Directories


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Outbreak Of Rare Algae In Caribbean Corals
Scientists take advantage of 'experiment of nature' to discover new insights into coral bleaching
A rare opportunity has allowed a team of scientists to evaluate corals–and the essential, photosynthetic algae that live inside their cells–before, during, and after a period in 2005 when global warming caused sea-surface temperatures in the Caribbean to rise.
The team, led by Penn State biologist Todd LaJeunesse, found that a rare species of algae that's tolerant of stressful environmental conditions proliferated in corals at a time when more sensitive algae that usually dwell within the corals were being expelled.
The results was published in the online version of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B on September 9, 2009.
Certain species of algae have evolved over millions of years to live in symbiotic relationships with species of corals. These photosynthetic algae provide the corals with nutrients and energy, while the corals provide the algae with a place to live.
"There is a fine balance between giving and taking in these symbiotic relationships," said LaJeunesse.
Symbiodinium trenchi is normally a rare species of algae in the Caribbean, according to LaJeunesse. "Because the species is apparently tolerant of high or fluctuating temperatures, it was able to take advantage of a 2005 warming event and become more prolific."
Symbiodinium trenchi appears to have saved certain colonies of coral from the damaging effects of unusually warm water.
"As ocean temperatures rise as a result of global warming, we can expect this species to become more common and persistent," said LaJeunesse. "However, since it is not normally associated with corals in the Caribbean, we don't know if its increased presence will benefit or harm corals in the long term."
If Symbiodinium trenchi takes from the corals more than it gives back, over time the corals' health will decline.
"'Experiments of nature' provide unique opportunities to discover important new insights," said Michael Mishkind, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, which funded the research.
"These scientists took advantage of just such an event–with the unexpected discovery that an alternate algal species was waiting in the wings. Whether this 'understudy' helps or hinders its host remains to be determined."
In 2005, sea surface temperatures in the Caribbean rose by up to two degrees Celsius above normal for a period of three to four months, high enough and long enough to severely stress corals.
The process of damaged or dying algae being expelled from the cells of corals is known as bleaching because it leaves behind bone-white coral skeletons that soon will die without their symbiotic partners.
During the summer of 2005, prior to the bleaching event, LaJeunesse and his colleagues collected samples of coral and algae from two locations near Barbados in the Caribbean.
By late November, water temperatures had peaked and many corals were bleached.
The team collected samples of coral and algae during the bleaching event and again two years after ocean temperatures returned to normal. In the laboratory, they sequenced the organisms' DNA to identify the species.
"During the bleaching event, we found that Symbiodinium trenchi, which is rarely found in the Caribbean, had increased in frequency by 50 percent or more in coral species that are most sensitive to warm water," said LaJeunesse.
"We also saw this species in corals where it had never been before. Two years later, we found that the abundance and occurrence of Symbiodinium trenchi had diminished significantly. Today the symbioses have mostly recovered to their normal state, and the corals have been repopulated by their typical algal symbionts."
Although Symbiodinium trenchi saved some corals from dying in 2005, LaJeunesse is concerned that the species might not be good for the corals if warming trends continue and Symbiodinium trenchi becomes more common.
"Because Symbiodinium trenchi does not appear to have successfully co-evolved with Caribbean coral species, it may not provide the corals with adequate nutrition," he said.
LaJeunesse plans to further investigate the relationship between Symbiodinium trenchi and Caribbean coral species.
"We're interested in looking at how it behaves in other regions of the world where it's naturally common," he said.
The research also was supported by Florida International University, Penn State University, and the University of the West Indies.
Image 1: This image was taken in October, 2005, during a coral-bleaching event in the Caribbean. Credit: Todd LaJeunesse, Penn State
Image 2: The white corals pictured have lost their symbiotic algae and appear "bleached." Credit: Todd LaJeunesse, Penn State
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This installment of the After Effects Apprentice series introduces 3D space in Adobe After Effects. Authors Chris and Trish Meyer highlight key design considerations for working in 3D and provide step-by-step instructions for enhancing a scene with 3D lights and cameras. The course explores integration between Photoshop and After Effects, including modeling 3D objects with Repoussé extrusions and creating dimensional still images, and offers tips on using the different Axis Modes and maintaining maximum quality in 3D. There's also a chapter dedicated to the ray-traced 3D renderer, introduced in After Effects CS6, which allows you to build 3D layers into your composites, with realistic motion blur, depth of field, and reflections.
The After Effects Apprentice videos on lynda.com were created by Trish and Chris Meyer and are designed to be used on their own and as a companion to their book After Effects Apprentice. We are honored to host these tutorials in the lynda.com library.
There are several ways to use Adobe Photoshop to create 3D objects that can then be imported into After Effects. The first one we're going to explore is called Vanishing Point Exchange. It's a way of turning a flat photograph into literally a 3D house of cards. Go to File>Open, navigate to inside your Exercise Files for CS5.5, open up the Sources folder, open up the 3D folder, then select building*starter.jpg.
This sort of image is a good candidate for Vanishing Point Exchange. Vanishing Point Exchange relies on you having a number of flat surfaces that connect at nice clean angles, that it can then convert into a series of flat surfaces that are folded together to create a three-dimensional outline of this building. Once you've selected your image, go to Filter>Vanishing Point and you'll open up the special Vanishing Point dialog. Make sure you have the Create Plane tool selected; it's the default, zoom in on your image; you can hold Command on Mac or Ctrl on Windows and press the plus key.
Then use the spacebar to pan around and look for a good cleanly represented first rectangle to use to define as your starting point. Now, these walls are nice clean rectangles, but unfortunately, I cannot see the ends of these walls because this photo was cut off. However, I do get to see all of this nice rectangular window. So I'm going to use that as my starting point and build out from here. With my Create Plane tool selected, I need to first click and select four corners of this rectangle.
Be very careful how you place these, because this is going to be the starting point for the rest of the entire image. Now, I'm carefully placing these points, clicking, then releasing at the four corners of the window, and Photoshop is going to use that information to decide what angle this window is at. If you click at some place that's clearly not a rectangle, like here, Photoshop will turn the outline red, indicating it doesn't really think that's a rectangle, and you should try again. So I'll undo and start again. I'll click once up in this corner, and again, don't be afraid to zoom in even more to see things with higher precision.
You will get an opportunity to change things a little bit after the fact, but get as close as you can on this first guess. You can see I'm being very careful, looking at my blue lines to make sure they go down the middle of my antialiased edge in that window and lining things up the best I can. I'll click, and then Photoshop will create a blue grid for me. Blue means it's happy; red means it's not. Now that I have my first rectangle, I need to expand that out to cover this entire wall. All you need to do is hover your cursor over one of these floor handles along the sides of your rectangle and then just drag.
Photoshop will keep the perspective until you get to the edge of your wall. Now, you notice I'm a little bit off here. That's okay. I'm going to get a chance to fix that. Let's go ahead and drag it up here, define the top edge of that wall, right around there. Again, if necessary, hold down the spacebar and drag to move your display around. I'm going to go off the bottom here, and you'll notice that it won't let you drag all the way off the bottom of the image. I'm going to hold Command or Ctrl, press minus to zoom down, and drag this plane down below the edge of my image.
And finally, I'm going to drag it out to this left side of that wall. So I've completely covered this flat rectangular wall. Now let's go ahead and clean up the perspective on this first rectangle. I'll Command+Plus or Ctrl+Plus to zoom back in, click on this point, Photoshop will let me drag it into that corner to make it right. I can see that it's falling a little bit off the edge of the building along here, so I'll click and drag to get it close. There is a slight difference between the straight lines that Photoshop draws and the real metal edge of this building.
That's probably an indication that there might be a little bit of lens distortion with this photo. If you're doing this for a client, you do want to spend some time taking a few trial passes, seeing if it works; if necessary, doing some processing in Photoshop, so just removing lens distortion to get nice clean lines. But in this lesson, I just want to give you an idea of the workflow, so we're going to forgive little errors like this. Press spacebar, drag down to the bottom, Command+Minus or Ctrl+Minus to zoom down, and grab this point down here and position it.
The other thing I'm going to be looking at is how these blue lines line up with these metal tiles and other details in this image. Go ahead and try to create as accurate of a first rectangle as I can. I'm falling pretty close in there, but I think if I drag down a little bit, I'll get a little bit better perspective. I'm going to zoom in and look. I think I'm doing pretty well. Yup, we're going to use this as our starting point.
After you've created your first plane, you will now start to drag out sides of that plane to cover your other sides of the building and define other rectangles. I'm going to zoom down a little bit, hover the cursor over this nubbin again, and this time I'm going to hold down Command on Mac or Ctrl on Windows, and that tells Photoshop change tools and define a new plane. So rather than extending the current plane, it starts drawing a new plane for me.
I'll make sure that whole wall is covered. Again, there's a little bit of distortion here, so I'm going to grab this point and drag it until things seem to line up. You notice that both walls are moving at this point. So I'm going to click in my other surface to make sure things still look pretty good for it. Now, that's a very good line actually, so I'm happy with this. Now that I've got these two walls defined, I can start defining these overhangs. Now, how far you go here depends how ambitious you are. If you are feeling a bit lazy, if you're a bit pressed for time, you could just hold Command or Ctrl, drag out to here, and just say, oh, that's the entire roof overhang.
In reality, this roof is in a couple of pieces. It comes out flat here, then goes upwards again here. So I'm going to go an extra mile here and define all of these edges. But you can be forgiven for just saying, let's just treat this as a flat roof for now and just go out to this point. I'm going to back up to this edging, right around this white area here. You'll notice that I'm not getting the entire overhang, because it extended the rectangle out from the dimensions of this rectangle underneath. That's okay. I can go ahead and grab an edge, I'm not holding any modifier key, and drag it out to get that edge.
Again, I might zoom in here, use the hand and drag and make sure I'm holding pretty close to these edges. There we go. There is a little bit of lens distortion, but again, we're going to forgive ourselves since this is just a test. Later on we'll talk about how to clean these up later anyway. Okay. Now, if I want to get this upward edges overhang, again, Command or Ctrl, drag straight up to make sure I've got it all covered. I'm going to zoom down to look at this from another perspective. And I see that I do have a choice here of what not to extend up and capture to the sky or to crop off part of the building.
Zoom back in here, pan around. I think I'm going to go ahead and capture as much of this as metal as I can for now. I will end up capturing some of the sky accidentally as well. Again, this is a problem with lens distortion; I'm not exactly getting this building right. But I can paint or clone that edge later on and we'll talk about how to do that. Okay. Now that I have that, I'll select this surface, Command or Ctrl and drag it upward as well, and make sure it joins nicely right up here with my other edge.
I'll zoom in again, get as close as I can, because if I don't do this right, my model pieces in After Effects won't line up either. All right. One overhang left. Select it, Command or Ctrl to start a new surface going off at a perpendicular angle, zoom in to get a better idea of what I'm doing. I'll need to make sure it joins up with the other line, which it does, and then finally, Command or Ctrl and drag upward to finish that overhang.
And again, I will repeat, you can be forgiven if you just simplify this roofline. I'm just doing this to show you what is possible and to get you thinking about steps for when you're doing a real photo for yourself. Obviously, this building has some interesting details, like these beams, that make it hard to exactly represent with nice flat planes. It's an imperfect process. You're going to have to make some compromises and make some decisions. Anyway, there's our building with all of our various planes defined for Photoshop to build into a 3D model.
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April - Stress Management
April - Stress Management
Stress is a part of life, but the healthier you are, the better able you are to manage stress when it happens. Chronic stress can impact your immune system, which lowers your resistance to getting sick. Approaching stress management from a wellness lifestyle approach can give you "money in the bank" when it comes to preventing stress, and can give you the energy you need to handle stress when it happens.
The Heart and Mind Connection
Everyone has heard the saying, calm down or you'll give yourself a heart attack. This may be shrugged off as a folk saying but there is a lot of truth to this statement. Prolonged, elevated stress has a negative impact on your cardiac health. By managing your stress you can help prevent damage to your heart.
Time Management
The best way to avoid stress is to plan. Although it may seem like a lot of effort up front, taking the time to plan in both your work and home life will have a significant payoff of reducing stress.
Vacation Therapy
Most of us live a fast paced lifestyle where we feel "the more we do the better we are" as individuals. This also means that we feel too busy to take a vacation. Taking time off to relax is important as it allows our minds to recharge. A vacation can mean coming back to working smarter not harder.
Relaxation to Soothe the Mind and Body
Even the best planning and preparation can not make you immune to stress. There are both positive and negative things in life that you have little control over. What you can control is how you react to those stressors.
Workplace Stress
Every workplace is filled with potential stressors. There are many easy ways to prevent stress from draining your energy way.
HR Links
- December: Personal Productivity
- November - Gratitude
- October - Exhaustion
- September - Cardio vs. Weight Training
- August - Preventative Care Exams
- July - Getting Active
- June - Men's Health
- May - Sleep Health
- April - Stress Management
- March - Nutrition
- February - Heart Health Awareness
- January - Goal Setting
- 2013 Topics
- Health & Wellness Monthly Bulletin


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EHS Compliance and Regulations Companies in Utah
Category: Health & Safety ×
Subcategory: EHS Compliance and Regulations ×
Employees number: 11-100 ×
Industry: Agriculture ×
Location: USA ×
Location: Utah ×
Tech Oil Products
based in New Iberia, LOUISIANA (USA)
Founded in 1980, Tech Oil Products, Inc. is known for the Enviro-Pak® line of compactors, balers, galley grinders, and other waste management solutions for the offshore and maritime industries. The company is also known for SafeSub®, an innovative solution for the handling and transporting of drilling subs, and its Recycle The Gulf® program for the Gulf of Mexico, a ...
Innov-X Canada
based in Vancouver, BRITISH COLUMBIA (CANADA)
Innov-X Canada is focused on the safe, responsible and effective utilization of XRF and XRD analytical equipment. In doing so Innov-X Canada brings a superior suite of non-destructive analyzers to market that provide qualitative and quantitative material characterization for detection, identification, quality control, site assessments, process control, regulatory ...
The Compliance Center (ICC)
based in Niagara Falls, NEW YORK (USA)
Since its inception in 1987, ICC The Compliance Center has been training and providing products to comply with dangerous goods regulations to safely handle and transport dangerous goods by air, ground or sea. ICC The Compliance Center has been operating for over 20 years throughout Canada and the United States, and has developed products that have become the de facto ...
Knowledge Management Innovations, Ltd. (KMI)
based in Oakville, ONTARIO (CANADA)
KMI is becoming the industry standard in flexible, scalable, and usable web-based software solutions that help companies operate more sustainably, safely, and efficiently. KMI enables companies to reduce injuries, increase the effectiveness of regulatory compliance initiatives, perform audits and inspections, manage Greenhouse Gas reporting, and initiate or improve ...
Titan Cloud Software Company, LLC
based in Brentwood, TENNESSEE (USA)
Titan offers the petroleum industry`s most powerful cloud software--the solution used by the largest c-stores, commercial fleet, and petroleum marketers in the world. This software protects your valuable underground storage tank (UST) and above ground storage tank (AST) assets by enabling proactive management of all regulatory and operational risks. Its full array of ...
Myron L Company
based in Carlsbad, CALIFORNIA (USA)
Myron L Company manufactures cost-effective high performance tools for solution control and water quality analysis, as well as calibration solutions, accessories and kits that keep instrumentation operating at peak performance in diverse applications. Our current product line includes handheld instruments, inline monitor/controllers and field test kits that measure ...
Quantum Compliance
based in Ann Arbor, MICHIGAN (USA)
Quantum Compliance provides Environmental Health and Safety (EH&S) software solutions that help businesses implement and maintain compliant and sustainable EH&S practices. Our cost-effective modules are available individually or as part of the integrated Q EHS compliance system. Founded in 1985 by a team of environmental engineering and computer science professionals who ...
Logical Technology, Inc.
based in Peoria, ILLINOIS (USA)
LOGICAL provides MSDS and Environmental Management Software and Online Solutions featuring exceptional regulatory compliance resources for your employees. LOGICAL has customizable solutions for managing MSDS sheets, providing Right-to-Know MSDS access, tracking chemical inventory, insuring permit compliance, and generating environmental regulatory reports. In addition, ...
Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants (CERC)
based in Cambridge, UNITED KINGDOM
Cambridge Environmental Research Consultants (CERC) is the leading provider of environmental modelling software and services, including the ADMS range of software for industrial and urban air quality management. Our software development team continues development of ADMS, GASTAR, FLOWSTAR and EMIT and provides custom made products. Our consulting team can help in ...
Citation Global, Inc.
based in Tempe, ARIZONA (USA)
Citation Global, Inc. (formerly Citation Technologies Inc.) is a world leader in environmental, health and safety (EHS) compliance management solutions driving operational excellence, business sustainability and improved decision making for executives.For nearly 20 years, Citation has helped the EHS industry comply with the ever-changing regulatory landscape. Today, ...
Need help finding the right suppliers?
Let the XPRTs do the work for you


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Saturday, August 29: Welcome to WPC
|8:00 am
|Check-in opens
|8:00 am
|Get settled in (update class registration, complete missing forms, move into resident halls, etc.)
|1:00 pm
|College Welcome
|10:00 am
|President's Coffee with Parents
|2:00 pm
|First-Year Learning Communities (FYLC) and Transfer Experience Groups (TEG) sessionsConcurrent: Family Session
|4:00 pm
|Multi-what? Engaging and Understanding Multicultural Student Programing
|5:00 pm
|Aloha Dinner
|6:00 pm
|Farewell celebration and dedication
|7:00 pm
|Knighting Ceremony and group activities (by PlayFair)
|9:00 pm
|Late night activities in Residence Halls
Sunday, August 30: Building Communities
|8:00 am
|9:00 am
|FYLC and TEG sessions
|10:00 am
|Worship: A Christ-Centered Community
|11:30 am
|12:30 pm
|FYLC and TEG City Search
|5:00 pm
|Dinner for returning WPC students
|6:00 pm
|Traditional Tree Planting
|6:30 pm
|Living in a Diverse Community: diversity training for new students
|8:00 pm
|Movie on the lawn: Godzilla
Monday, August 31: Common Day of Learning
|8:00 am
|9:00 am
|Common Day of Learning (academic learning sessions) for new students
|12:30 pm
|1:30 pm
|Student Affairs session
|3:00 pm
|FYLC and TEG sessions
|5:30 pm
|All Campus Mexican Dinner, Churros, and Salsa Dancing
|9:00 pm
|Living Community meetings
Tuesday, September 1: First Day of Classes
|10:00 am
|College Convocation


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Power cuts in mandal headquarters range from 4 to 5 hours and in the municipalities from 2 to 3 hours
Power cuts of varying durations have been imposed on mandal headquarters and municipalities within the purview of the Central Power Distribution Company Limited (CPDCL) for the last two days, reportedly in view of the existing short supply of power.
While no schedules have been announced officially, it was learnt that the power shutdowns in mandal headquarters range between four and five hours, and in the municipalities between two and three hours.
"In villages, however, power cuts were there earlier too. But now they have been extended to towns too. On Thursday, we had five hours of power cut," complained Arvind, a businessman from Ibrahimpatnam.
When contacted, CPDCL officials informed that load reliefs to the extent of an hour were being implemented in areas other than GHMC due to sudden shortfall in power availability.
There was a gap of 400 to 500 megawatts in the system, an official informed.
Despite water being available in reservoirs, hydel power was not being generated, as the company intends to maintain storage levels for rabi crop, he said.
Keywords: Power cuts, CPDCL, power supply, hydel power


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Takes Two Antenna Galaxies to Tangle
March 3, 2011
A new image of two tangled galaxies has been released by NASA's Great Observatories. The Antennae galaxies, located about 62 million light-years from Earth, are shown in this composite image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), the Hubble Space Telescope (gold and brown), and the Spitzer Space Telescope (red). The Antennae galaxies take their name from the long antenna-like arms seen in wide-angle views of the system. These features were produced in the collision.
Topics: Technology Internet, Barred spiral galaxies, Peculiar galaxies, Hubble Space Telescope, Antennae Galaxies, Space observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope, Interacting galaxies, Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, Galaxy, Spiral galaxies, Chandra X-ray Observatory, Great Observatories program


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Downsizing State Government Committee, Missouri House of Representatives (decommissioned)
The Downsizing State Government Committee was a standing committee of the Missouri House of Representatives.
Per Rule 22 of the House Rules, standing, conference, interim and statutory committees in the Missouri House of Representatives are appointed by the Speaker of the House, with minority members of regular standing committees being appointed by the Minority Floor Leader. Special standing committees are appointed by the Speaker with input from the Minority Floor Leader on minority leadership. The Speaker is responsible for designating the number of members of each committee. Unless provided for by the act or resolution creating a committee, partisan balance of committee membership is to match partisan balance of the chamber as closely as possible, save for the Ethics Committee, which is to consist of an equal number of majority and minority members. The chair and vice-chair of each standing committee are appointed by the Speaker. The Speaker, Speaker Pro Tem, floor leaders, assistant floor leaders and whips serve as ex officio members on all standing committees. The chair and a minority member of the Budget Committee serve as ex officio members on all Appropriations committees. Ex officio members do not hold voting power unless properly appointed.[1]
See rules: Rules of the House of Representatives - 97th General Assembly
|The Committee on Downsizing State Government may consider matters referred to it relating to reducing the size of state government and its programs.[2][3]
The following table describes committee membership at the beginning of the 2013 legislative session.
|Downsizing State Members, 2013
|Democratic members (4)
|Republican members (8)
|• Brandon Ellington
|• Paul Curtman, Chair
|• Ben Harris
|• Mike Kelley, Vice chair
|• Jeff Roorda
|• Kent Hampton
|• John A. Wright
|• Tom Hurst
|• Nick Marshall
|• Chrissy Sommer
|• Bill White
|• Paul Wieland
The following table describes committee membership for the 2011 legislative session.
|Downsizing State Government Members, 2011
|Democratic members (6)
|Republican members (11)
|• Bert Atkins
|• Cole McNary, Chair
|• Rory Ellinger
|• Paul Curtman, Vice chair
|• Leonard Hughes, IV
|• T.J. Berry
|• Jason Kander
|• Kevin Elmer
|• Sara Lampe
|• Chuck Gatschenberger
|• Jean Peters-Baker
|• Marsha Haefner
|• Nick Marshall
|• John McCaherty
|• Sheila Solon
|• Noel Torpey
|• Bill White
External links
- ↑ Missouri House of Representatives, "Rules of the House of Representatives - 97th General Assembly," January 16, 2013 (Rule 22)
- ↑ Missouri House of Representatives, "Rules of the House of Representatives - 97th General Assembly," January 16, 2013. Accessed January 21, 2014 Rule 25(15)
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributed to the original source.


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Is this the way to Amarillo?
Two of our members from the Tiger Bruvers Clan '[TB]', Shane and Biggles, created this video for the Guild Wars community.
Due to the overwhelming interest in this video and our clan at the moment we are looking into making more videos for the community.
All comments are encouraged and welcomed. :)
Thanks Monkeydash Golaine.
For those who are member of several of the Elite and Official Fansites will have seen me make this post several times this is so that the whole of the Guild Wars community can enjoy our videos.
Thanks again.