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What is the Rapid Delivery Service?
• A Free of Charge delivery service we offer on the products we have in stock at our warehouse.*
• Products delivered to your door as quickly as next day.**
• You can select your own delivery date while completing your order.
• Rapid Delivery products are highlighted with a distinctive logo.
• For large items we deliver Monday to Saturday to Mainland UK and Isle of Wight. For small appliances we can deliver via our courier DPD Monday to Saturday to Mainland UK, Isle of Wight and Nothern Ireland.
The following products are delivered via DPD on our behalf:
• TV up to and including 37"
• Home cinema
• Digital radio
• Vacuum cleaners
• Microwaves
• Table top fridges
• Small kitchen appliances
• Personal care
• Computing products
The above products will be classed as an all day delivery. DPD will text 60 minute timeslot on day of delivery. Saturday & Sunday delivery can be selected anytime up to 6pm on Friday.
DPD Delivery Cut Off Times - The table below corresponds to the time you place your order and the day you will receive delivery.
Order Time
Delivery Time
Monday before 5pm
Tuesday before 5pm
Wednesday before 5pm
Thursday before 5pm
All orders from 5.01pm Friday to 5pm Monday
Delivery of Major Kitchen Appliances and Televisions 40" and above
All Major Kitchen appliances (excluding table top fridges) are delivered via our own Home Delivery Service
Home Delivery Cut Off Times - The table below corresponds to the time you place your order and the day you will receive delivery**
Order Time Delivery Time Monday before 12:00 Tuesday Tuesday before 12:00 Wednesday Wednesday before 12:00 Thursday Thursday before 12:00 Friday Friday before 12:00 Saturday All orders from 12.01pm Friday to 12:00 Monday Tuesday
Order Time
Delivery Time
Monday before 12:00
Tuesday before 12:00
Wednesday before 12:00
Thursday before 12:00
Friday before 12:00
All orders from 12.01pm Friday to 12:00 Monday
**Postcode dependant
Delivery days do fluctuate depending on business volume and deliveries made to less populated areas. To obtain the actual delivery date to you, please click on the product required click on the delivery date button and enter your post code.
** Please note the majority of products and post codes are covered within 2 days with the following exclusions. AB, DD, FK, IV, KA, KW, KY, PA, PH, TD, Isle of Wight and Northern Ireland. To check when we deliver in your area, please click on the 'view delivery dates' button on the product information pages, this will show you the days we can deliver to you. At busy periods Rapid Delivery may extend to 3 days in selected areas. If for any reason your card has not been authorised, or addition security checks are required, this may prolong your delivery time. We will inform you of any issues within 24 hours of purchase.
All Home Delivery Service deliveries will include your product(s) being sited in the room of your choice and packaging removed for recycling. An email advising of the scheduled 60 minute time slot for your delivery will be emailed to you around 4pm the evening prior to your delivery date. Additionally a text message will be sent advising of your time slot.
Please note the 60 minute time slots are approximate and should be used as a guide only. Our Terms and Conditions still apply.
At The Co-operative Electrical we deliver Monday to Saturday to Mainland UK and Isle of Wight addresses only.
Major Kitchen Appliances and Televisions 40" and above available on Rapid Delivery are despatched free of charge via our own Home Delivery Service system. Should you not be available to accept delivery on the day arranged we reserve the right to bill you the true delivery cost. Redelivery will be charged as follows;
Home Laundry & Dishwashing £35
Refrigeration £35
American Refrigeration £55
Cookers £35
Range cookers £55
Large TV £35
Other items £10
Please note the above action is required due to the low margins we achieve. In the majority of cases any redelivery means we make a loss on that sale.
Home Delivery Service system - Code F
This service includes siting your product in the room of your choice. You will be required to inspect the product upon removal of the packaging which our driver will take away for recycling.
Notification of your Delivery Time Slot - Upon the routing of your order you will be advised of the scheduled 60 minute delivery time slot for your goods. This information will be sent to you in the form of an email and a text message at around 4pm* the evening prior to your selected delivery date. Please note that the time slots are advisory and should be used as a guide only. Our standard Terms and Conditions still apply. For more information please see Text Notification.
* Please note, during peak times the transmission of the text message confirming your delivery time slot may be delayed beyond 4pm.
Removals - If you would like us to take your old appliance away please check the box beside 'Removal of Old Appliance' on the products detail page. There is a charge of £9.99 for this service. Please note TV's 39" and above must be unplugged and disconnected. Laundry items must be disconnected and free of excess water. Refrigeration items must be disconnected and defrosted. Cookers can only be removed if disconnected and externally clean. For more information please see Appliance Removal.
Unfortunately Range Cookers, Audio and Small Domestic Appliances can not be removed.
Home Delivery Service charges
The following products will be delivered free of charge Tuesday to Saturday between the hours of 7am - 7pm. During busy periods this can be extended, however we will notify you in advance if this is the case.
Product Type
Tuesday - Saturday
Laundry and Dishwashers
Free Delivery
Free Delivery
American Fridge Freezers
Free Delivery
Free Delivery
Range Cookers
Free Delivery
TV's 40" and above
Free Delivery
Morning or Afternoon Delivery for Large Appliances - £9.99
• You may select a morning (7am to 12 noon) or afternoon (12 noon to 7pm) timeslot for the delivery of your large appliance for £9.99
• You will be sent a 60 minute timeslot the evening before your delivery
• Morning and Afternoon timeslots cannot be changed after 12 noon the day before delivery.
Courier Service - Code C
Small Appliances, Computing products, Floorcare, Microwaves, Audio products and Television's up to and including 38" available on Rapid Delivery, are delivered via DPD. The standard delivery service hours are between 7am and 7pm. You will receive a text with your 60 minute time slot on the day of your delivery.
*Courier Delivery Charges
Product Type
Delivery Charges
Personal Care items, Microwaves, Floorcare,
Monday to Friday (7.00am - 7.00pm) - Free Delivery
TV's up to 37 inch screen size,
Monday to Friday (7.00am - 7.00pm) - Free Delivery
Delivery Checklist
Before ordering, please check and provide us with the following information to ensure your product is delivered successfully.
• Please provide a landline or mobile phone number that you will be contactable on the day of delivery.
• Check the dimensions of the product you plan to purchase will fit in the space/unit where you intend to place it.
• If you are ordering a large kitchen appliance check your product will fit through internal and external doorways.
• Make sure you advise us in advance of any access issues for the delivery vehicle such as restricted parking etc.
On the delivery day, please ensure that:
• There is a clear access route through your home to where you want the product sited.
• Your floors are covered to prevent scuffing and any delicate objects are put in a safe place.
• Old appliances are disconnected, free of water and defrosted if you have paid for our removal service.
• You check your new appliance is the correct model and colour.
• You check your new appliance for any damage and that all accessories are included.
• Please ensure that you read the manufacturers installation and instruction book before you use your new product.
Delivery without a signature.
Unfortunately all our deliveries require a signature we can not leave products behind houses, in garages etc.
Damaged on Delivery
Very rarely do we deliver damaged goods – however due to the nature of large kitchen appliances sometimes white boxes do get damaged. Please ensure you inspect your product while the delivery driver is in your home, this makes the necessary action on this product a lot easier. If you are not ready to unpack your product at the time of delivery we strongly recommend that your product is unpacked, inspected then re-packed.
Our delivery teams are instructed to unpack your product, if they do not offer this service please remind them that you have paid for this service. Please note you must inform us of any damage within 7 days of delivery, any damage reported after this date will not be accepted.
The unpacking service excludes items delivered by one of our nominated carriers.
Delivery Time Slot
If you have ordered a Major Kitchen Appliance or a Television over 39", available on our Rapid Delivery Service your goods will be despatched via our own Home Delivery Service system.
Upon routing of your order you will be advised of the scheduled 60 minute delivery time slot for your goods. This information will be sent to you in the form of an email at around 4pm the evening prior to your selected delivery date. If a mobile telephone number is supplied a text message containing this information will also be despatched to you. Normally your delivery slot will fall between the hours of 7am and 7pm. During busy periods this may be extended. However we will notify you in advance if this occurs.
Please note the delivery time slot is a guideline only. In today's traffic problems of which we all experience, we can not guarantee your delivery will be within the slot. However we will try our best to achieve it
Text Notification
If you have ordered a Major Kitchen Appliance or a Television over 40", for your convenience a text message will be sent to you at around 4pm the evening prior to your selected delivery date. The message will advise you of the scheduled 60 minute time slot for your delivery. Normally your delivery slot will fall between the hours of 7am and 7pm. During busy periods this may be extended. However we will notify you in advance if this occurs.
In addition to the text message an email will be despatched to you detailing your time slot information.
Please note the time slots are approximate and should be used as a guide only. Our standard Terms and Conditions still apply.
All small appliances are delivered by our courier DPD. If you have ordered a small appliance including Food Preparation, Personal Care items, Small Audio Products, TV's upto and including 37", Microwaves, DVD Players, Hi-Fi Systems, Computing products, Floorcare and Fuel Effect Fires you will be sent your 60 minute time slot on the day of delivery.
Appliance Removal
As part of our delivery service we also provide an eco friendly removal service for old large kitchen items and televisions over 39" for a fee of £9.99. When delivering your new appliance the drivers can take away the old appliance; this will then be disposed of by us in an environmentally friendly manner. We also remove all the product packaging, which is taken back to our warehouse and recycled - following the directive from the WEEE regulations.
With effect from July 2007, the UK's Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations encourages business and consumers to arrange collection and recycling of household electrical appliances. Electronic waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams increasing 5% per year, it has been estimated that landfill space in the UK will run out within the next 10 years.
To fulfil our obligations as a retailer, The Co-operative have contributed to the Valpak WEEE Distributor Take Back Scheme www.valpack.co.uk
If you wish to utilise our removal service for TV's 39" and above, Laundry, Dishwashers, Cookers, and Refrigeration products, simply check the box beside 'Removal of Old Appliance' on the products detail page when placing your order.
Please note that TV's must be unplugged and fully disconnected from A/V appliances and be 'free standing' (not wall-mounted or built into a cabinet). Laundry and dishwashers will only be removed if disconnected and free of excess water. Refrigeration items must be fully disconnected and defrosted. Cookers can only be removed if disconnected and externally clean.
Unfortunately, we are not able to provide this service for range cookers, audio and small domestic appliances. To dispose of these items and to find out how you can minimise your effect on the environment please visit www.recycle-more.co.uk You will also find advice and tips on how to recycle waste electrical goods and other household items, making it quick and easy for everyone to recycle-more!
Fair Delivery Policy
We work in accordance with the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills' and their 'Statement of Principles for Parcel Deliveries' best practice guide,
to ensure that we do not discriminate against consumers on the basis of location; We do not levy a surcharge on customers on the basis of their location.
Follow this link to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills website to view the Statement of Principles for Parcel Deliveries and the best practice guide:-
Cancellation, Returns and Product Collections
Our Product Return Policy
Our Product Return Policy
If you change your mind and would like to return your product, we will arrange an exchange or refund of your purchase (within 28 days of delivery) provided that:
· The product has not been used
· The product is in its original packaging and the seal is in tact
· It is in a resalable condition
Product Return Procedure
Product Return Procedure
If you find that the item that you have selected is unsuitable and would like to arrange for the collection and return of the product, please contact us by email at firstname.lastname@example.com quoting your order number.
If you find that the item that you have selected is unsuitable and would like to arrange for the collection and return of the product, please contact us by email at email@example.com quoting your order number.
Upon receipt of your email we will contact you and arrange a suitable time for the item to be collected and returned to The Co-operative Retail Services.
Upon receipt of your email we will contact you and arrange a suitable time for the item to be collected and returned to The Co-operative Retail Services.
The Co-operative Retail Services
The Co-operative Retail Services
PO Box 730, Broadway, Barnsley, S70 9LW
PO Box 730, Broadway, Barnsley, S70 9LW
Please do not forward correspondence to this address.
Please do not forward correspondence to this address.
• All products are checked on return to our warehouse prior to exchange or refund.
In the event of the product being used, or an accessory missing, a full refund will not be processed. We will charge you the cost of replacing any missing item(s). Each manufacturer has a different cost per item however as an indication of potential charges please see prices below:
• Remote control approximately £40 including VAT
• Instruction book/manual approximately £10 including VAT
• Washing machine pipes approximately £20 including VAT
Please note that the manufacturer endeavours to offer a free repair service for all products that develop a fault, not caused by accident, misuse or neglect, within the manufacturers guarantee period.
If the product develops more than three technical faults in the first year of the guarantee period an identical or comparable replacement will be offered if requested.
In the event that the goods have already been despatched at the date of receipt of your cancellation of the order you must return the goods to us and we will credit your credit or debit card with the price of the goods within 30 days beginning with the day on which notice of cancellation was given. If you do not return the goods within 21 days of your cancellation, we will make a charge in respect of the cost of recovering the goods. Please note that when purchasing a product the delivery charge is subsidized, the full cost of returning the product will be charged. If you do not return the goods or fail to make them available for collection within 30 days of your notice of cancellation, you will be deemed to have accepted the goods, at which point a new purchase contract will be made and you will be charged for your order at the price set out on the web site. This does not affect your statutory rights.
We recommend that you obtain proof of posting. Please note that all goods return must be in their original packaging and with all seals in tact.
Your statutory rights are not affected.
There is a charge for collection, which are as follows:
Home Laundry & Dishwashing £35
Refrigeration £35
American Refrigeration £55
Cookers £35
Range cookers £55
Large TV £35
Other items £10
Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations
If you are not completely satisfied with your purchase you may cancel your order under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000, within 14 working days of delivery for an exchange or refund, even if you have opened the goods to inspect them, as long as you have taken reasonable care of the goods. To exercise your right under these regulations you must write to us at the address below or email us details the product you wish to return.
Please note: - The following address is for letters only:The Co-operatives E-store Ltd, 12th Floor, 1 Angel Square, Manchester. M60 0AG
or e-mail email@example.com
(DO NOT attempt to return purchases to The Co-operatives E-store Ltd address, there are no facilities to accept parcels or packages at this office.)
The following points must be observed:
Items must be returned in the best possible condition (and where possible with the original packaging) including any accessories or free gifts.
In the case of gaming or computer software purchased with a tamper proof seal these items cannot be returned if the tamper proof seal is broken.
In the case of goods where data or software can be loaded (eg laptops or digital cameras etc), the product must not have had any software installed or data inputted.


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How Bad Is the Getty?
After fourteen years of planning and construction, and at the cost of a cool billion dollars, America's most expensive art museum, the Getty Center in Los Angeles, formally opened on December 12 of last year. By now, most of newspaper-reading and television-watching America will have seen luscious pictures of the complex of buildings above the hills of Brentwood, clad in rich Italian limestone, and heard of the tram ride that ushers visitors to the summit. Nor, with notable exceptions, have the critics been chary of praise. Even some of the negative reviews have been wrapped in gorgeous photographic spreads that manage to make them look more like puff pieces, thus perversely reinforcing the notion that not architecture but public relations is the central art form of the late 20th century.
The roots of the Getty Center reach back to 1953, when the oil baron J. Paul Getty (1892-1976) created a museum in Malibu to house his collection of Greek and Roman antiquities. These were shifted twenty years later into a new building, a dignified and elegant recreation of the famous Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, destroyed in the eruption of Vesuvius. The architecture, hardly avant-garde, was typical of Getty's blunt and rather literal taste, though also recalling the way the robber barons of 19th-century America assembled their buildings out of fragments of what they had seen and admired in Europe.
At Getty's death in 1976, the bulk of his estate was left in trust to the museum, with a loosely-worded charge to promote "the diffusion of artistic and general knowledge." Since then, and particularly after Getty Oil was purchased by Texaco in 1984, the endowment has soared. Today it is estimated at about $4 billion.
The Getty trust first entered the art market as a major force in 1979, when it paid $15.7 million for two paintings, one statue, and four Gobelin tapestries. Although these were works of the highest order, the myth that developed in the early 1980's of an all-powerful, all-purchasing Getty surging through the auction houses and lifting international prices in its wake was ill-founded. Strict export laws now guard most European countries against loss of their cultural patrimony; even in the relatively permissive case of England, there has been no flood, and the paintings that have left have mostly been minor. Only in the area of drawings and watercolors was the Getty able to put together a first-rate collection.
Still, the Getty trustees seem to have been discomfited by all the talk of incontinent buying. Harold M. Williams, who in 1981 became president of the Getty trust, therefore redirected its focus from purchasing objects to disseminating information about art. In the next few years the Getty was transformed into a bouquet of separate bodies: a research institute, with generous resident fellowships and a program of first-rate publications; a conservation institute, to test and develop new techniques and to preserve endangered sites internationally; an education institute, to help integrate the teaching of art in elementary and high schools; an information institute, which now coordinates the growing number of computer databases that deal with art; and finally and perhaps most shrewdly, a continuing-education program for museum directors, which has become an engine for creating good will toward the Getty among professionals. With these five institutes—plus a vigorous grants program, which awards over $6 million annually—there is now virtually no aspect of art in this country in which the Getty is not involved.
If Williams succeeded at his first task, which was to change the public perception of the Getty, his second task was to create a building to house the institution he had so drastically transformed. In September 1983, he announced the purchase of one of the last major open sites in Los Angeles: 110 acres on which the Getty Center would be built, plus another 600-odd acres to be set aside as a nature preserve, all highly visible above the hills of Brentwood. Too visible, it transpired. The Brentwood Homeowners Association pressed hard for the buildings to be kept as unobtrusive and unmonumental as possible, and the Getty quickly complied. Just as it had worked to downplay its power in the art market, it now sought to assure the people of Los Angeles that the physical institution it contemplated would not be an arrogant citadel on a hill but, rather, accessible, egalitarian, and free of charge.
Moving with exquisite caution, the trustees took more than a year to find an architect. Instead of following the customary practice—sponsoring a competition and soliciting designs—the Getty selected 33 firms and asked them to submit letters and résumés, but no drawings: it was looking not so much for a specific design as for a man it could work with. At last, in October 1984, after an extended architectural tour of America, Europe, and Japan, the commission was awarded to the New York architect Richard Meier, then forty-nine.
Meier already enjoyed a reputation as a purist. He was the last of the Whites, a group of self-consciously cerebral architects who identified themselves with the European modernist movement of the 1920's, and in particular with the celebrated Swiss architect Le Corbusier. His formative years had been spent in the office of Skidmore Owings Merrill, the great postwar corporate firm that applied the lean, rational forms of European modernism to the demands of American commercialism. In the late 1960's, Meier struck out on his own with a series of small houses, arriving at his personal version of the Le Corbusier formula: a minimalist vocabulary of cubes and planes, festooned with stair ramps and thin railings of nautical crispness, the whole rendered in a one-note palette of hospital white.
The Getty's selection of Meier was at once daring and predictable. For all his stylistic pyrotechnics, he was the establishment candidate, honored in the professional journals and wrapped in a mantle of corporate respectability. To a selection committee wary of loose cannons, there could not have been a safer pick. After all, Meier had been building the same kind of building—including recent museums in Atlanta and Frankfurt—for fifteen years straight.
The design devised by Meier between 1984 and 1989 was in some measure predestined not only by his own temperament but by the brief given him. To house the Getty's separate institutes and the grants program, a loose and informal complex of structures was proposed rather than a monolithic pile. Meier scattered six separate buildings across the site, making what he calls a "campus" or—in a term he lets others use—an acropolis.
As on an acropolis, topography determined where the individual buildings would lie. Across the brow of the site ran two sharp ridges, meeting acutely at an angle of 22.5 degrees. This angle became important to Meier: he made it the geometric leitmotif of the entire design, repeating it endlessly in the orientation of various major and minor features. If the buildings were slung along the lines of the two ridges, at the intersection he placed the museum rotunda, the pivot of the design.
The result is certainly a museum experience—if not a museum—like no other. The visitor arrives in a twelve-story underground parking garage (for which a reservation is required), ascends by elevator to a tram station, and enters a white cable car that in a five-minute ride ushers him briskly and noiselessly to the summit. Here he finds himself on a broad open plaza, defined by a relaxed array of buildings: an auditorium and administrative offices to the left, a restaurant to the right, and a flight of stairs leading ahead to the museum itself. Each of these structures sits on a common plinth, from which they emerge discontinuously, like the superstructure of a ship, permitting views between them into the landscape. And, air quality permitting, these views are spectacular. On good days the snow-topped Sierras frame the vista to the east, while Los Angeles, and the Pacific beyond, open panoramically below. Only from the Getty, Meier has insisted in a typically heady claim, can that fractured and disjointed entity known as Los Angeles be seen as a totality.
The advance reviews of the Getty were almost universally adulatory, and for a time it seemed as if the good will that Harold Williams had so carefully solicited would exempt the institution from any truly harsh judgments. Even the few grumbles that became audible in the weeks before the opening were quite noticeably muted.
Thus, Lawrence Weschler's New Yorker article, "When Fountainheads Collide" (December 8, 1997), an exercise in architectural criticism by gossip, offered a lengthy look at the corrosive relationship between Meier and Robert Irwin, the landscape gardener and artist who designed the park alongside the complex. The story was told sympathetically from Irwin's point of view; the architecture of the Getty itself was mentioned only in passing, saluted for its "Aristotelian" character and its "rationalist, geometric rigor." Herbert Muschamp, the architecture critic of the New York Times, likewise abstained from directly negative comment, although he conspicuously declined to swoon over the Getty as he had done just recently over Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.
By the time of the opening, the momentum had admittedly shifted somewhat. Martin Filler, in the New York Review of Books, termed the Getty "frenetically overdesigned" and incoherent, while Robert Campbell, the architecture critic for the Boston Globe, stated what has since emerged as a consensus view: that there is no "single large ordering principle, no master narrative" at the Getty, and that the design contains no "place of centrality or rest." (Campbell also rushed to add, however, that "this isn't a pan.") In the architectural press, the Getty has by now been repeatedly compared invidiously with the Bilbao museum. It is a particularly rich irony that Meier the radical purist has received his most glowing notices in society magazines like Town and Country, which found the Getty "poetic and sophisticated, lively and monumental."
In fact, the Getty is worse, and worse in more ways, than even its critics have said. This is so beginning with its most admired feature, the use of cut stone.
Although the upper parts of the Getty's buildings are rendered in Meier's customary white, enameled-metal panels, he was persuaded to clad much of the lower parts in travertine, the quintessential stone of ancient Rome. Delivered from Italian quarries, this buff-colored material is used on the grandest scale, amounting to 29 acres of wall surface. It has been sawn (actually guillotined) into panels 30 inches square and eight inches thick, with the outer surfaces left as craggy as a quarry wall. In a complex of almost anorexic austerity, here, at least, is one note of tactile pleasure.
Yet Meier is not the architect one would pick to find a use for 14,000 tons of travertine. He represents a tradition that is relatively indifferent to materials, being much more interested in the formal properties of planes and lines; his walls are invariably thin continuous skins, serving only to define space. To the extent he has been preoccupied with materials in his career, it has only been to overcome their physical properties, to dissolve them in a shimmering wall of dematerialized white.
And so the entire travertine cladding has no more impact on the Getty's essential character than a paint job. The panels are not even truly a skin, for they are carried on metal clamps, riding above the actual surface with no mortar between them. "A plane is a plane," Meier has shrugged in response to criticism that the travertine might have been used in a way more expressive of the structural properties of stone. But wallpaper is also wallpaper, even if it is eight inches thick. Seldom has so much expensive material been used to less effect.
But the real problem with Meier's work is not materials. It is something much more fundamental, having to do with overall coherence and order.
The visitor arriving in the Getty tram car steps into a disorienting world. The buildings jostle across the site in a relentlessly rambling geometry, following, apparently capriciously, the line of one or the other of the two ridges. Everywhere are fragments and shards of axes, and interpenetrating rectangles. So busy is the complex that where a motivated bit actually appears, as in the big flange of roof that marks the entrance to the museum rotunda, it tends to get lost in the general hurly-burly.
The only resolved passage of the whole ensemble is the museum: a U-shaped arrangement, dominated by the rotunda at the north and opening at the south onto Brentwood and the valley below. To either side, a range of pavilions houses the various painting and sculpture galleries, each devoted to a different period or collection. The arrangement is a paraphrase of the great lawn of Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia, whose domed library presides over ten separate pavilions, linked by continuous arcades and forming a grand monumental axis. Meier himself clearly takes pleasure in the comparison.
Unfortunately, the comparison is not flattering to Meier. A monumental axis is perhaps the most ancient of all planning tools. It remains a peerless way for organizing and giving coherence to a great swath of space, and it can also give a sublime emotional lift. But Meier seems to have gone out of his way to thwart all this. His separate pavilions are a jumble, and the main view, which might have been a heroic procession, is blocked by a centrally-placed support on the rotunda precisely where a visitor might most advantageously place himself.
Even the view itself is a cheat. In another sop to the powerful Brentwood Homeowners Association, which dreaded the prospect of visitors peering from the edge of the promontory, the far end constricts to choke off the procession. The result is that Meier's great avenue has all the elements of a heroic vista—the axis, the framed vantage point, the terminating accents—except the vista itself.
What it comes down to is, paradoxically, geometry. Meier's buildings are absolutely marinated in geometry—in their siting, in their divisions and subdivisions, in the carefully devised proportional relationships among the elements, and above all in the 22.5-degree basso ostinato that quivers throughout the entire complex. It is just this fascination with the manipulation of geometry that has caused him to be labeled "Aristotelian," as if straight lines and a pose of seriousness make one a philosopher.
But the geometry that haunts Meier's world is more non-Euclidean than Aristotelian. He does not use axes and cross-axes to discipline his vast sweep of land and buildings, as in French classicism; instead, the paths of movement and the abstract order of the composition belong to entirely different systems. Rather than anchoring the hierarchy of spaces, Meier's geometry is nothing more than a design aid, based on an accidental feature of the site that is left invisible to the visitor.
Moreover, for all its display of geometric rigor and austere intellectualism, the Getty's architecture is not all that rigorous. In Building the Getty1 his own alternately revealing and obfuscating account of the commission, Meier recalls how for a time in the 1950's he had toyed with the idea of becoming an artist, and even kept a painter's studio. In particular, he became an avid maker of collages. After winning the Getty commission, he created his own portable collage kit, a wooden box containing scissors and glue that he could carry with him on planes. Bound in scrapbooks, these collages form a kind of abstract diary of the project.
They also form an insight into its missing formal order. Meier's collages are not the only place where the aesthetic ideas of 1950's New York still swirl. His Getty is itself a collage of sorts, with the same scattering of details and vignettes across a surface that never rise up to a resolution. In the capriciousness of the Getty's detailing (as when Meier introduces a curve or a fragment of a wall), there is a certain improvisational character, a stream-of consciousness method reminiscent of 1950's action painting, the all-over style of Jackson Pollock carried out in metal stairs and curving parapets.
In the end, what the Getty misses is a sense of inevitability, the feeling that no architectural part could be moved without somehow worsening the whole. That this is not an unattainable goal can be verified by a visit to almost any of the modern buildings of Louis Kahn, whose Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, has the unimprovable Tightness of a classic. With Meier's collage method, any of the arbitrary angles might be changed, many of them for the better, and the sense is of a Rubik's cube whose parts have been caught in a snapshot but which will continue to rotate, endlessly and unhappily, in search of some distant but permanently elusive order.2
Apologists for the Getty have suggested that it is the commission of the century. Perhaps so; but if buildings achieve greatness in part by addressing the central issues of their age, the Getty is great only by inadvertence. Built on the revenue of what was the world's largest oil company, in the first and still the most automobile-conscious city in the world, it holds both automobile and—more significantly—city at arm's length, tucked out of sight. If the Getty expresses any theme of our age, it is the declining relevance of civic life. The Getty is the first gated art museum.
If it is, in fact, a museum. A visitor might spend many hours at the Getty and never encounter a painting or a statue. Not even in the rotunda that forms the museum's centerpiece is there any sense of the presence (or even the proximity) of art, which is sequestered in the pavilions beyond. If the traditional museum was an architectural jewel box for the objects within, at the Getty the art sits in discrete containers, much like a corporate collection in a carefully manicured boardroom. Indeed, although Richard Meier refers to his complex as a campus, critics have likened the Getty to the anonymous, antiseptic headquarters of a pharmaceutical company. This is a thrust that hits home.
The Getty mimics corporate headquarters in another way as well. Without exception, the great museums of the modern world have been tied to a physical place, inevitably a city. From the Dresden Staatsgalerie to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, these are institutions built and sustained by patrons whose lives have been played out in the surrounding physical precincts. But in recent years our financial and commercial institutions have moved to suburban office parks, and with the change of venue has come a loss of interest in urban affairs. It is an open question how the modern art museum will change when its physical relationship to the city—and thus also to the community of artists—is severed. But such a move is certainly under way, and the Getty is not the only example of it. The Guggenheim, too, has embarked on an ambitious program of decentralization, of which the Bilbao building is only one manifestation.
The visitors who will assuredly throng the Getty will perhaps not notice the absence of art. As they stroll the galleries in silent awe, they may not even register how disconnected from the world of living culture is Richard Meier's ostentatiously cautious and cautiously ostentatious temple. But the trustees of the Getty, even while strenuously denying they ever intended to construct a citadel on a hill, have gotten exactly what they paid for, and presumably what they wanted. For the sake of our cultural and our civic health, one can only hope the model is not admired too much, or copied too freely.
1 Knopf, 204 pp., $35.00.
2 A hint of such order might have been provided by the relationship of the buildings to their landscape, but Meier's lack of interest in the land is one of the striking hallmarks of his work. The one idea he derived from the site—the intersection of the ridges—hardly served as a landscape form at all, but rather as an architectonic motif. Much has been written of the relationship of the Getty to its site, which is indeed splendid. But a splendid site does not a splendid building make.

subset: commoncrawl


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|Film Coordinator; Wide Receivers
Chip Erekson is entering his fourth season as film coordinator and wide receivers coach for the Southern Virginia University football team.
In the 2014 season he helped the Knights offense average 195.1 passing yards per game and have 16 passing touchdowns. The Knights also had 87 passing first downs.
Prior to joining Southern Virginia's coaching staff, Erekson was offensive coordinator from 2010-11 at White Pine High School in Ely, Nevada, highlighted by an 11-1 record and 2A state runner-up finish in 2011.
Erekson began his coaching career in 1993 at the junior high school level in Utah. From 1994-2000, he went to the high school level as wide receivers and defensive backs coach at Payson High School in Utah. Erekson then moved to Nevada and served as the head football coach from 2002-04 at Lund High School. In 2007, Erekson gained valuable collegiate coaching experience as film coordinator and wide receivers coach at NJCAA-affiliate New Mexico Military Institute.
Graduating in 1989, Erekson had a standout high school football career in Wisconsin at White Lake High School.
He lives in Buena Vista, Va., with his wife, Antoinett. They have nine children.
Recruiting Areas:
In-State Area: Roanoke, Southwest Virginia
Out-State Area: Arizona, Nevada, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania


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Using Migration Assistant
I'm trying to use Migration Assistant to go from an early Intel iMac to a brand new iMac. I have followed all upgrade directions given in the Apple Support Bulletin. The old machine is running OSX 10.4.11, as recommended, and the new one OSX 10.6.6. The helper update has been downloaded and installed for the older machine.
I have attempted to use Migration Assistant using both the built-in wireless in both computers. Both will connect to the Internet on Verizon Wireless, but when connected to each other, Migration Assistant will not connect. Migration Assistant also will not connect through an Ethernet connection (single cable connecting both machines, as recommended).
I am looking for a solution to get Migration Assistant to work before resorting to a brute force approach like turning on file sharing and just dragging stuff across piecemeal.
Try a firewire cable.
Most likely a firewire 400 to firewire 800 is what you need.
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Google updated its design spec recently. The material spec, which Google says is a living document (as evidenced by its ongoing updates), gained further guidance on floating action buttons, dialogs, updates on typography, and a lot more.
One less-advertised update was a change to the section in "Structure" concerning the navigation bar in Android.Read More


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Laura Emerson leaving FOX Toledo after 16 yearsWritten by Jeff McGinnis | | firstname.lastname@example.com
Once a year or so, WUPW runs a contest to choose a spokesperson who will introduce shows, appear in ads and promote the station. The winner is dubbed "The Face of FOX Toledo."
But someone who has had a legitimate claim to that title for 16 years is preparing to depart the Glass City. Laura Emerson, who has co-anchored FOX Toledo News since it began in 1996, has decided to leave the station.
Beginning in mid-January, Emerson will relocate to Paducah, Ky., where she will work for NBC affiliate WPSD.
"It's one of the two dominant stations in that market," Emerson said. "It's a hyphenated market that includes Cape Girardeau, Mo. and part of southern Illinois. But it's one of two stations gunning for No. 1."
Moving on
Emerson's final decision to leave Toledo was a recent one — she made up her mind in mid-December — but she'd been considering the move for some time.
"I've missed for a while being in a full-service newsroom. We do two shows a day, and I'm proud of the product we put on at FOX Toledo, but my previous two TV stations had morning, noon, multiple night newscasts. And it is helpful to have more coverage throughout the day, and I'm kind of excited to get back to that sort of a newsroom," she said.
"It's going to be a newsroom that does four and a half hours a day, versus the one and a half we're doing here, so it's significantly more."
So, she's leaving to do even more work?
"We'll have a lot more people, too," she laughed, noting WPSD's staff will be nearly twice the size of FOX Toledo's. "There's an advantage to keeping that 24-hour local news cycle going."
Emerson said shaking things up in her career is an appealing idea.
"Sometimes you're just excited about change, for the sake of newness. Change kinda wakes you up, and gets you excited about life again," she said. "And while it's a little bit stressful not to know what the new people are going to be like, or the new place I'm going to be living, I'm kinda excited about just change."
There is no doubt Emerson is leaving a considerable vacancy behind at FOX Toledo, one that is already being felt by those who have worked with her.
"We were very fortunate to have her as long as we did," said Shaun Hegarty, who has co-anchored FOX Toledo News with Emerson since 2006. "She's been a rock at this place for several years. The viewers have come to know her, come to like what she does. It is a substantial loss, but the news business goes forward."
The early days
Perhaps, but Emerson's tenure leaves a significant set of shoes to fill. Her run as one of the most prominent faces of the area's media began when the inaugural broadcast of FOX Toledo News — "Fox 36 News at 10" aired Jan. 28, 1996, following the Super Bowl.
"It was interesting being with a news operation from the very beginning, because you didn't have anything to build upon," Emerson said of the news department's early days.
"You could invent whatever you could dream up. And it was exciting to be a part of building that.
"Since we didn't have ratings to lose in the beginning, we were able to be a little experimental and try things that just sounded cool — some of which worked, some didn't. But that was kind of a fun, creative place to be."
She also noted the uphill battle the station's news department has fought to gain respect in the community.
"I'm proud of the way we've positioned ourselves as a news operation. It's kind of tough to be a Fox label in a Democrat town. Because sometimes when you're out covering something political, people automatically assume you are Fox News Channel, which we are not," she said. "We are a very moderate news operation. But sometimes, we've had to fight hard to convince various individuals and entities of that. But I'm proud that we've stood our ground and worked hard to get that point across and become accepted in the Toledo market as a news operation."
Karl Rundgren, managing editor and co-anchor of FOX Toledo News from 2003-08, said Emerson was a strong on-air partner.
"Laura was a huge help when I first started anchoring at FOX Toledo," he said. "I was figuring things out on live TV, and she was always incredibly patient with my mistakes. Before long, we developed a strong partnership where we could communicate to each other silently while still reading the news.
"Laura barely ever cracked up on camera, but I do remember one time that we both almost lost it. She was reading a story about a bizarre crook in lingerie who was robbing people, and actually talked about how he would 'shake his man-breasts' at the cops. We came back on camera, and I just turned and looked at her and said, '"Man-breasts," huh?' Then we both struggled to keep from breaking into peals of laughter. It just sounded so bizarre for the phrase 'man-breasts' to be read in her refined voice."
Starting over
Her time at FOX Toledo has also helped Emerson mature as a broadcaster, she said.
"[I'm] so much more confident, just from experience," she said. "Knowing how to handle breaking news, lots of years of helping young reporters write stories, being a mentor, making decisions, becoming a senior person in a newsroom."
How will she face the challenge of relocating to WPSD — going from the highest individual on the totem pole to starting over?
"I'm looking forward to it, because it really has been a long time that, you know, I've sort of been just part of the furniture, and everyone just sort of expected me to be here," Emerson said with a laugh. "I'm not saying [they] took me for granted, I don't want to say that, but just saw me as completely a part of the product.
"It's really going to be invigorating to be the one who is learning again. I have to learn a different style, a different philosophy, different newsroom computer system. I think all of that is going to be, while a little challenging, very exciting."
'Care about your audience'
But that excitement comes tinged with some sadness as Emerson prepares to depart a station and community she's worked so tirelessly for. "I'm proud of being a consistent presence that people could depend on — as a co-worker, as a person on the air, I've always been dependable, and you know what you're gonna get if you know me," she said.
"I've just been fortunate to work with a pro," Hegarty said of Emerson. "I've been very lucky to have somebody in here who knows this business inside and out, somebody who can give me guidance when I need to, and help us to be a big player in a pinch. It's not like I came in here working with a rookie. I came in here working with a pro, and not a lot of people can say they did that, and I did. And I'm lucky."
Asked what she will miss about the city she is departing, Emerson said her passion for the Toledo arts community, the good friends she's made and the giving spirit of the city's residents.
"I'm hoping I can find some of that in my new home in Kentucky, but all communities are different. I'm not taking for granted what I'm leaving behind in Toledo. There's a lot of good here," she said.
On that note, Emerson had simple words of advice for whoever is chosen to take her place at Hegarty's side:
"Please try to uphold good journalistic standards, and care about your audience every night. When you're looking over copy, when you're writing a story, just care about the audience. I believe in that as the No. 1 thing for journalists of all kinds. You need to care about your reader, you need to care about the people you're writing for. And do a good job for them, in addition to doing it for you."
Tags: FOX Toledo, Jeff McGinnis, Karl Rundgren, Laura Emerson, Shaun Hegarty, WPSD Paducah


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OAK CREEK — Wednesday, September 5th marked one month since a gunman opened fire at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin in Oak Creek — killing six and wounding three others. In remembrance of the tragedy, a candlelight prayer vigil was held on Marquette University's campus Wednesday night, September 5th with a tribute to the victims, one of whom remains in the hospital.
The tragic incident took the lives of six and left three critically injured before Oak Creek police brought down the gunman, 40-year-old Wade Michael Page.
Punjab Singh was one of three critically injured in the Sikh Temple shooting. Froedtert Hospital said Wednesday, September 5th Singh's condition was upgraded from critical to serious. Singh was shot in the head and critically injured in the August 5th shooting at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek.
FOX6 News spoke with Singh's family Wednesday, who say after the shooting, they were unsure whether Singh would survive. Singh had remained in a coma due to injuries sustained, but Froedtert officials said Wednesday Singh no longer requires mechanical support to breathe and was transferred out of the intensive care unit.
Wednesday night, burning candles held by mourners represented the light they want to shine on the victims' families.
Many Sikh community members gathered Wednesday night to remember the temple tragedy and pray for those still suffering a loss.
"Letting them know they are not alone and we care about love and peace and unity,"
These actions helped soothe wounds that are still fresh. Raghuvinder Singh is Punjab Singh's eldest son. His father was shot in the head and still recovering at the hospital.
"I want to say for more people to pray for him. I believe in prayers and with blessing of prayers, he will get up," Singh said.
Vigil organizers say it was a way to remember the victims and also spread awareness.
"This vigil helps us come together and recognize and learn more about each other,"
CLICK HERE for additional Sikh Temple shooting coverage via FOX6Now.com.


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The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Students' Union (HKPUSU) is a unique student-run institution that is autonomous from the University Administration primarily in terms of operations and budget. Perspectives and opinions about any issue vary, as such, to facilitate communication between the Union and the administration, Student leaders from various faculty clubs and non-faculty clubs volunteer to come together as the HKPUSU Council to address the concerns of their fellow undergraduate union members. The HKPUSU Council is spearheaded by the HKPUSU Executive Committee (HKPUSU EXCO).
The HKPUSU Council constantly strives to work towards upholding its vision of being a representative, inclusive and credible institution to promote, safeguard and uphold students' interest and welfare in HK PolyU. It hopes to be an approachable Union that can be useful to HK PolyU students during their time in University.
Every full-time undergraduate at HK PolyU is a Union (HKPUSU) member by default and everyone is entitled to voice their opinions about any university-related matters, especially in situations where they find that their welfare is being compromised. The avenue for them to do this is through HKPUSU feedback channels that are readily available and accessible on-campus, as well as online. Undergraduates can also choose to approach members of the HKPUSU Council directly in person – All representatives are prepared to listen and work to improve the lives of students on campus.
Often, HKPUSU works directly with the University administration, which encompasses almost all the HK PolyU offices and many other external offices to solve certain issues with regards to students' welfare.
In a nutshell, HKPUSU strives to amplify the voices of the students and at the same time act as a bridge between the students and the university administration to promote students' interest and welfare in HK PolyU.
Our Mission
- To promote and safeguard the interests of full-time HK PolyU undergraduates through active communication and engagement.
- To achieve fair representation while respecting differences among members of the Union.
Our Vision
To be a representative and inclusive institution advocating HK PolyU students' interests.


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The CEO of Blueberry Systems learned many useful things for operating a technology vendor while running community banks and mortgage lenders. But he also points to an earlier formative experiencelessons learned for future business use during the months he worked at Mother Teresas Home for the Destitute Dying in Calcutta.
It was mainly a religious (Christian) impulse that brought the 21-year-old Wil Armstrong to India, he tells me at the Mortgage Bankers Associations annual conference in Washington, but also an impulse to vary his experience growing up (he is the the son of former United States senator and successful radio and TV businessman Bill Armstrong).
Hot, is his first reply when asked how he remembered the teeming streets of Calcutta, home to 20 million people, four or five million of them living in the streets. I felt like I was on the other side of the world in those pre-Internet days, when it could take weeks for an airmail letter to reach him, he says.
He worked with the poorest of the poor, helping to bathe and shave men suffering from leprosy and other debilitating diseases. The experience stayed with him so vividly that he has brought his own daughters to India on service visits in more recent years, to the Dayadam orphanage.
He was impressed by the zeal of Mother Teresas workers to combat the effects of dire poverty. They expended their very beings to take care of the poorest folks, he says. That always moved me.
He notes my world widened from his time in India. Some of the conclusions he brought with him when he returned to the United States? I do not want to sell my soul to be successful, he says. I do not want to use people just to make money. I want to do business nobly and honorably.
He also found a useful business model in Mother Teresas example of using small groups of people to change the world. Thats always the case, he says. I want to have great people around me.
A self-described accidental technologist, he has spent a lot of time and energy assembling a dream team at Blueberry, which is based in Greenwood Village, Colo. He likes to have people with lending experience as that will have a big impact on how they go about serving their lender clients. The firms general counsel is a longtime mortgage banker. Armstrong himself has a background in community banking and mortgage banking before he, his father (who is chairman) and a third partner started Blueberry, a loan origination software vendor that got its name in part from Fats Dominos tune Blueberry Hill.
In fact Blueberry, which won a Top Service Provider designation from Mortgage Technology in both 2012 and 2013, has started a model office called Blueberry Mortgage, to think about their lenders problems and how to help solve them. Were on the ground with them, he says.
Blueberrys next challenge will be to help lenders adapt to the harsh new regulatory climate brought on by the Dodd-Frank Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that will kick into high gear following a Jan. 10 deadline.
Speed is really important, he says, to forestall the mass disruptions he sees possible in the first quarter of 2014.
His life-changing experiences in India happened a long time ago, but they are still close to Wil Armstrong. Literally. He reaches inside his shirt to show me something that hangs around his neck. It is a scapular medal, given to people who spent time helping Mother Teresa speed the arrival of a better world. It is obviously one of his most cherished possessions.


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If you're a homeowner who owes more than the value of your home, recent changes to Fannie Mae's Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP 2.0) make it possible to refinance your home loan at today's low rates. Even regardless of your current loan-to-value (LTV)! So no matter how much you owe on your mortgage, you may be eligible to take advantage of this great program. Hurry though, the program expires on December 31, 2015.
You may be eligible for participation in the HARP 2.0 program if:
Check to see if you're eligible for participation in this program: http://knowyouroptions.com/loanlookup
Terms of Use: The Point Loma Credit Union website is for the exclusive use of its members and non-members interested in the services of the credit union. Any unauthorized or unlawful use is strictly prohibited.
Disclaimer: Point Loma Credit Union is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of websites which we may provide a link to. While all efforts are made to maintain the accuracy of information presented on the Point Loma Credit Union website, we cannot guarantee that all information is current. Please contact the credit union call center directly for the most current information at 858-495-3400.
Copyright © 1998-2015, Point Loma Credit UnionAll rights reserved


text: Prev | Next Purchase this photo Billy Summers/The Putnam Herald On Friday, June 14, 2013, at the Eleanor Pool, young swimmer Hunter Slayton emerges after a dive from the board. Gallery: Putnam in Pictures, Friday, June 21 Jun. 21, 2013 @ 08:32 PM The Herald-Dispatch / 2015 Did you miss something in Putnam County this week? Chances are, one of our photographers was there. ()


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Viewers: in countries Watching now:
In this course,, visual effects guru Mark Christiansen covers the relevant new features of After Effects CS5.5, including the new Warp Stabilizer, 3D Stereoscopic workflow, and Lens Effects tools. The course also covers light falloff enhancements and workflow improvements in this release.
You don't need the After Effects camera to apply lens blur or depth of field to a composition. The new Camera Lens Blur effect is optimized to apply soft focus characteristics to any 2D layer or composition. Here we have just a shot of some waves rolling into a rock. I'm going to apply the Camera Lens Blur effect and I could search for it here, but I know it's under Blur. There it is. I'll just double click it, and you'll see instantly that the image goes a little bit soft and there's also this black border around the edge.
I'm going to go ahead and crank up Blur Radius. So it's pretty heavy, so the image is defocused. Now when I raise the Blur Radius this high, the image looks quite defocused but this vignette like effect around the edges is more problematic. To get rid of that, I'm going to toggle Repeat Edge Pixels. Now I'd like to animate an effect of the shot coming into focus. To do that, I'll just set an initial keyframe for Blur Radius right here.
Twirl down to reveal that keyframe. I will go a few seconds in and bring the Blur Radius back down to 0. Let's take a look at the result. So this simple effect transforms the shot from a static rock in the water to what could be perhaps the opening shot of a scene. It creates some interest by first disguising what we're seeing and then revealing it. Any 2D image or composition can be made to look as if it was shot in soft focus with Camera Lens Blur.
Despite all the calculations required to produce the effect, it doesn't add the performance hit of some alternative effects that have been available in the past in After Effects.
There are currently no FAQs about After Effects CS5.5 New Features.
Access exercise files from a button right under the course name.
Search within course videos and transcripts, and jump right to the results.
Remove icons showing you already watched videos if you want to start over.
Make the video wide, narrow, full-screen, or pop the player out of the page into its own window.
Click on text in the transcript to jump to that spot in the video. As the video plays, the relevant spot in the transcript will be highlighted.


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Hold down Control (PC) or Command (Mac) key + mouseclick to select more than one option
|Avg. Dinner Entrée
|Greater than $25
|$18.01 - $25
|$12.01 - $18
|$7.01 - $12
|Less than $7
Posted by Hard to please on 05/15/2010
I have tried other places throughout South Florida and the US whenever I travel. Out of all the sushi places, this gem is the absolute best. Awesome service, great prices, great atmosphere, and most of all fresh delicious food. It always smells fresh whenever I open the door to Sushi 1 and is the only restaurant I don't mind travling to from Downtown Miami. The fact that I have a sushi place next door to my apt. building in Miami, speaks volumnes about my opinion of Sushi 1. They will always be #1 and the scale in which I compare all other sushi places. Not to mention, best tasting seaweed salad with no fillers. Just the real deal all the way around.
Posted by hungry one on 01/21/2010
This tiny place offers tasty, healthful food for not a lot of scratch. Service is ultra-efficient and friendly. Lines can be long if you don't call ahead. Could delivery be an option down the road? Please say yes!


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Dead Back-to-School Society: What's Different Now
- Posted by blonde
- on August 12th, 2013
502 Bad Gateway
It's that time again. The time of year I have to write these words over and over again: "THERE IS NO MORE BACK TO SCHOOL." I know. Provocative words. However, Americans have been buying closer to need for years, and the recent correction in the market, and decline in personal income has made it all but impossible for the Middle Class to revert back to old-school spending patterns. With 25 million unemployed & underemployed Americans, it's worse than you think.
The irony is that in a business like retail, that prides itself on following consumer behavior and buying patterns, it seems most of these big retailers are the last to know. No longer are we lovingly sending our children away with a steamer trunk full of wool stadium blankets, Bass Weejuns and Brooks Brothers blazers, hoping they are outfitted properly until we visit them before Thanksgiving. We are a "buy now, wear now" society and long-term spending and shopping is no longer feasible.
Along with the downturn in the market, budget cuts, and the like, public schools are launching in to the school year earlier and earlier in an effort to maximize the school year. Many schools nationwide have been in session for three weeks or more already, which begs the question why retailers are spending so much of their advertising budgets after the fact in August and September. July same store sales were dismal at best, albeit the month is historically a clearance month.
The equity analyst community, as well as the trade, will desperately begin to craft missives on the INTENT of consumers to buy. However, its not that consumer's WON'T shop for Back –to-School, it's WHERE and WHEN. School supplies. Shoes. Health Care. Whatever one needs to get their kid in the door for school, that's the segment that will get share of wallet. Crocs $CROX, NIKE $NKE, $WAG Walgreens, $TGT Target, Wal-Mart: are all likely recipients of the lions share. Aside from the flight of the middle class from retailers like Sears $SHLD and $JCP to dollar stores $DLTR $DG and discounters like $WMT $TGT $KSS, there is something else going on: Technology has become a must-have for Back-to-School. For the moneyed set, Apple $APPL is a back to school necessity, if not a fashion statement, as is the Nike Fuel Band.
Victoria's secret is now advertising "Tech Toys" in it's campus bound collection "Pink":
With that share of dollars flowing into technology, it's not difficult to see why many teen retailers are feeling the twinge of desperation as disposable income rotates away from apparel. And its not just tablets, phones, and laptops. On-line retailers like Amazon $AMZN, and fast fashion retailers like H & M, Zara $IDTX, American Apparel $APP and the like, are making life extremely difficult for the specialty apparel space: Bebe $BEBE, American Eagle $AEO , Aeropostale $ARO, Abercrombie & Fitch $ANF -once the cool kids of retail, these names are going to be lonely at the lunch table.
Check out my conversation about this very thing on FBN's The Willis Report:
The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.blog comments powered by Disqus
Kristin Bentz is a former Wall Street retail analyst. She served as the product manager for consumer equities at Lehman Brothers. More »
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Dispelling Common Retirement Myths
On Monday the Metro West Daily News discussed some myths about retirement. Popular culture, water-coolers chats, and other daily interactions often spread misconceptions about what it means to plan for retirement and what it takes to be financially secure in the future. Many area residents put in a lifetime of hard work, and it is important that theirs effort not be compromised through misunderstandings about the retirement process or failure to conduct proper New York retirement planning.
The article noted that one of the biggest misunderstandings relates to the overall cost of retirement. It is often a mistake to believe that reaching a certain net worth or portfolio value will mean that one can retire in luxury. The expanding length of retirement is one of the main reasons that this is no longer true. Sixty years ago, most individuals retired at sixty-five years old and usually lived until they were seventy. With life expectancy now at eighty years and beyond, the total money needed to retire at a certain lifestyle has increased.
There is a significant difference between funding a five year retirement and one that may be twenty years or more. Most will not have a "magic number" that will guarantee decades of luxurious retirement. Instead, residents need to take what they have accumulated and conduct proper planning to maximize their retirement value while preparing for contingencies.
Another of the myths shared was that individuals need not worry about planning for nursing home costs, because Medicaid will cover it. However, as anyone who has had to go through the process can attest, it is not that easy. Various requirements of need must be shown before the program will provide aid. In particular, if nursing home care is needed, there is a five year "look back" period. That means that Medicaid investigators will examine the asset transfers that have been made in the last five years to determine if property was given to others that could have been used to fund long-term care. Area residents can avoid this issue by having a proper New York Medicaid strategy in place to protect assets while ensuring access to the care they need.
The importance of preparation is why the article mentioned that perhaps the most harmful myth about retirement is that someone does not need any help in planning for it. Retirement planning encompasses a variety of components, each of which may require complex understandings of tax, financial, and legal issues. Without assistance strategic mistakes are often made.


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Editorial: Too many lives, too much money go up in smoke
When it comes to policies and funding aimed at protecting their residents from death and disease caused by tobacco use, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky have done poorly, according to the American Lung Association.
Both West Virginia and Kentucky received grades of "F" in all four measures used in the association's "State of Tobacco Control" report released last week, while Ohio did only slightly better, receiving two grades of "F," one "D" and one "A." The four metrics used in the report included how much money was spent on prevention efforts, the level of smoking restrictions in state law, the rate at which tobacco products are taxed, and extent of insurance coverage for tobacco cessation programs.
The states' poor performance on those factors may well help explain why Kentucky and West Virginia have the highest smoking rates for adults in the nation, while Ohio isn't too far behind. In each of those states, a quarter or more of adults smoke, according to the ALA's report, and about a fifth of high school students use tobacco.
The consequences are significant, both in lives and in costs, the lung association contends. The report said that deaths attributed to smoking in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio totaled more than 30,000, with about 3,800 of those in West Virginia. The economic toll, including health-care costs and lost productivity, was more than $14 billion combined in the three states last year, the report said.
While the lung association rated each of the three states poorly, it did acknowledge local governments have taken steps to combat the effects of smoking. The report also graded counties on steps they have taken to control tobacco use. Twenty of West Virginia's 55 counties received an "A," including Cabell, where smoking in public establishments has been banned. Wayne was among the 19 counties scoring a "B," while Putnam County was one of six counties to receive an "F."
The efforts of those counties that have imposed restrictions on smoking have made a difference for the general public's exposure to smoke. But considering the high smoking rates that still exist, it's clear that officials in our three states should do more.
West Virginia and Kentucky have no provisions in state law to ban smoking in private workplaces and bars and restaurants. Ohio state government spends none of its own money on tobacco control programs. All fall short in requiring better insurance coverage for cessation programs. And none of the three make the grade regarding the level of the tobacco tax. Raising cigarette taxes has been shown to be a deterrent to smoking, particularly among youth.
Relying on local governments to take the lead on smoking restrictions still leaves residents in many counties unprotected. State officials should show the gumption to do what many local officials already have, and take stronger steps to discourage tobacco use and protect non-smokers from tobacco's ill effects.
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FIGURE 1.1. The earliest efforts to explore the brain arose from the same deep curiosity that draws researchers into neuroscience today. This Dutch woodcut from J. Dryander's Anatomie (1537) shows that the brain was already understood at this time as a structure composed of diverse parts. The woodcut identifies divisions between a frontal ("sinciput, anterior") and rear ("occipital, posterior") portion of the brain, and between lobes at the sides; these divisions still serve as landmarks for students of neuroanatomy. At the right, the letters A, B, C, D, F, and G distinguish the six layers of the cerebral cortex; in this century, observations down to the level of single cells make it possible to sort out the distinct functions of each of these layers. Source: The National Library of Medicine.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 500 Fifth St. N.W. | Washington, D.C. 20001
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Discovering the Brain.
Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 1992.
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A civil rights group accuses Memphis police officers of pulling women over for no reason and sexually assaulting them.
The group is quick to say a vast majority of cops do a good job, but it also has 200 complaints accusing officers of targeting poor neighborhoods.
WREG contacted MPD several times, but no one agreed to talk with us in person or on the phone.
All they are telling WREG is they don't know about the allegations.
Several women told WREG they've told MPD about the attacks.
"He was trying to touch all over me. He put his hands between my legs," a 16-year-old girl said.
WREG is keeping her identity hidden. The teen said she was with her mother in Frayser when a MPD officer pulled their car over and put her in his car.
"He was trying to touch my breasts and put his hands between my legs," she said. "I tried to fight him off."
She said when her mom noticed what was going on, he let them go and drove off.
They reported it to Memphis Police, but were never told if they found out who did it.
"Ever since Toney Armstrong became police chief, it's been hell in this city," said Pastor Wendol Lee with Operation Help Civil Rights Group.
Lee said that is just one of hundreds of horrifying stories their organization has heard.
In a stack of complaints he showed WREG, some women said officers were too aggressive. Some accused officers off forcing them to have sex.
Lee even showed us lawsuits against officers filed in federal court.
While MPD said Wednesday was the first time they've heard about the complaints, Lee said he's been filing reports with MPD, and even the district attorney, for the last year.
Since nothing was done, he went to Washington, D.C., demanding the Department of Justice step in.
"We go to Washington, D.C., and demand they take over or either you all do something about that police department," said Lee.
Lee admits not every officer with MPD is bad, and said, "I'm not against officers. I'm against crooked officers."
He said this is a small group ruining the image of the city and the innocence of women.
"Just please get rid of the bad police in Memphis," said the 16-year-old girl.
WREG contacted the federal agent Lee spoke to, but we're told he is out of town until Thursday.
Lee plans on going back to D.C. next month with all of the people who've filed complaints.


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Morrisons in Swadlincote raises more than £1,000 for Royal British Legion
Posted: August 05, 2014|
A SUPERMARKET in Swadlincote has helped to raise more than £1,000 for the Royal British Legion.
The Morrisons store in Coppice Side set up the public collection after being inspired by the D-Day 70th anniversary and the First World War centenary.
A total of £1,039 was handed to the British Legion and members of staff at Morrisons were rewarded for their efforts with certificates and flowers.
Royal British Legion branch secretary Glyn Jackson said: "When I found out that the store was collecting for us I was obviously very pleased.
"I came in on the Friday afternoon and again on Saturday morning to hear how the total was climbing and how Vanessa had stayed on after her shift to continue collecting.
"When I came in on the Monday to find out the final total I was overwhelmed. We know from our collections during the Poppy Appeal how generous the customers at Morrisons are but they cannot donate unless someone gives up their time to collect.
"We wanted to say thank you personally to the store and in particular to Vanessa for what they have done. We are very grateful to them."


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SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
Tracking changes in database via Cubes
Last Post 11 Jun 2009 05:57 AM by ma77g. 0 Replies.
New Member
11 Jun 2009 05:57 AM
I have cube that holds counts of records based on a number of dimensions. Its built from a data source view which is actually a SQL server view.
Our database data gets replaced with a completely new dataset every few weeks and I want to be able to add the counts for the updated data to my cube to compare the counts for this dataset to the last one. The date of the data load will be the dimension used to compare the two most recent data loads. The view has a field called 'rundate' which comes through fine to the cube.
Whats the best way of adding a whole new batch of aggregated data to the existing SSAS database rather than replacing/refreshing which won't keep the old counts for comparison? I am trying to avoid creating a new cube for each data update as I'm not even sure Excel can easily display two cubes data side by side.
SQL Server 2005
SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services
Acceptable Use Policy


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CANYON -- West Texas A&M University honors a special intern by naming them "Intern of the Year".
Tanner Lakey was recognized today for his outstanding contribution to an employer.
He was selected from 13 finalists.
Tanner spent the last six months as a seasonal account executive with the Wichita Wingnuts.
He is a senior sports and exercise sciences major.
Tanner will also be getting a $500 scholarship for next semester.
Copyright 2013 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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Drop files here to add tracks or artwork to your playlist
What I listen to every night to fall asleep. Enjoy
11 comments on I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know? (View all)
I've been listening to this playlist over the past few days while planning a big event: definitely feel less stressed! Thanks!


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|Return to lose.c CVS log
|Up to [DragonFly] / src / games / trek
WARNS6 cleanup (1803 warnings). ANSI function declarations. Staticize functions. Rename local variables that shadow globals. Use string functions from libc instead of creating our own. Remove void casts for unchecked function returns. Spell parameter correctly. Don't try to return a value from void functions. Remove compat library requirement (gtty -> ioctl). Add new function "dowarp" that calls warp() from play.c. (Taken from NetBSD). Change chars that are used for numeric values to shorts so they can be properly used as array indexes.
/* * Copyright (c) 1980, 1993 * The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. * * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions * are met: * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. * 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software * must display the following acknowledgement: * This product includes software developed by the University of * California, Berkeley and its contributors. * 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors * may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software * without specific prior written permission. * * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE * ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF * SUCH DAMAGE. * * @(#)lose.c 8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93 * $FreeBSD: src/games/trek/lose.c,v 1.2 1999/11/30 03:49:49 billf Exp $ * $DragonFly: src/games/trek/lose.c,v 1.3 2006/09/07 21:19:44 pavalos Exp $ */ # include "getpar.h" # include "trek.h" /* ** PRINT OUT LOSER MESSAGES ** ** The messages are printed out, the score is computed and ** printed, and the game is restarted. Oh yeh, any special ** actions which need be taken are taken. */ const char *Losemsg[] = { "You ran out of time", "You ran out of energy", "You have been destroyed", "You ran into the negative energy barrier", "You destroyed yourself by nova'ing that star", "You have been caught in a supernova", "You just suffocated in outer space", "You could not be rematerialized", "\n\032\014 ***\07 Ship's hull has imploded\07 ***", "You have burned up in a star", "Well, you destroyed yourself, but it didn't do any good", "You have been captured by Klingons and mercilessly tortured", "Your last crew member died", }; void lose(int why) { Game.killed = 1; sleep(1); printf("\n%s\n", Losemsg[why - 1]); switch (why) { case L_NOTIME: Game.killed = 0; break; } Move.endgame = -1; score(); skiptonl(0); longjmp(env, 1); }


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Don Walker offers news, notes and perspective on the sports business landscape
Bucks, BMO Harris Bradley Center eying six-year lease
The BMO Harris Bradley Center board of directors and the Milwaukee Bucks have been discussing a new six-year lease that, if approved by the National Basketball Association, will provide stability for both sides as discussion continues over the possibility of a new, multi-purpose arena.
Details of the lease were not released. Information on an extended lease came from the minutes of the BMO Harris Bradley Center's March meeting, which were released this week.
If approved by the NBA, a six-year lease would be, by far, the longest lease the two sides have had in years. In general, the Bucks and the BMO Harris Bradley Center have gone year-to-year on leases.
Assuming the NBA signs off on the lease, the agreement is more good news for the financially strapped arena. In late May, representatives of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, the Bradley Center, the Milwaukee Bucks and BMO Harris Bank announced a naming-rights deal. Coupled with new financial sponsorship commitments from some of Milwaukee's biggest corporations, including Harley-Davidson, Kohl's, Northwestern Mutual and Rockwell Automation, BMO Harris Bradley Center officials estimated the new revenue would total more than $18 million over six years.
It is notable that the lease and financial commitments are both for six years. That now seems to be the time frame BMO Harris Bradly Center officials, the MMAC and U.S. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), the owner of the Bucks, have concluded is needed to start thinking and planning for a new arena.
As of last November, the BMO Harris Bradley Center owed the Bucks $9.5 million, but those payments were extended out to as late as 2019.
In previous years, the Bucks have paid no rent at the arena and received 27.5% of total gross receipts from concessions other than programs and merchandise at all arena events. The franchise also received 13.75% of gross revenue from food and beverages sold in suites, and 30% of merchandise sales at Bucks' home games. It could not be determined whether those agreements are still in place.
The Bucks are the BMO Harris Bradley Center's main tenant, and generate as much as 40% of all revenue.
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Sharing a 'sense of peace' in dance theater performance
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan may be known for beauty, simplicity and the meditative quality of its performances. But when "Songs of the Wanderers" is on the program, they don't travel light.
The company will perform this 1994 work by founder/artistic director Lin Hwai-min on Wednesday at UNC's Memorial Hall.
For flights from Taipei, the company's home base, and along the tour route, their baggage check includes three and a half tons of rice. This grain plays an integral part in this production. It covers the stage and rains down on a "monk" throughout this 90-minute work.
This season marks the 20th year that Wong Rong-yu, an actor with his own theater company in Taiwan, has been playing the monk, Lee Ching-chun, the company's associate artistic director, said in a telephone interview from Montreal, Canada, where the troupe performed before coming to Chapel Hill.
At first, Lin had wanted to see how long the actor could stand still under the constant stream of rice dropped from a height of seven feet, Lee Ching-chun said. "It hurts," she added. It still does but only when the actor leans slightly forward and the rice hits him directly on his shaved head, Lee added. When this happens, Wong has learned to stop thinking about the pain by focusing on his breath and stillness, she said.
"Basically, he's in a meditative state. At 4 p.m. before a performance, he is already meditating," she said.
Meditation and Qi Gong, an ancient form of breathing exercise, are part of the company's training and preparation for performances, Lee said. Qi Gong aligns breath, movement and awareness. "We use the breathing to channel the body and bring the body to a different frame of mind," she said.
From a performer's perspective, she said, Cloud Gate performances are"very much a spiritual experience."
She should know. Since joining the company in 1983, she has performed many leading roles, including a solo in "Songs of the Wanderers." Lee performed the role last year but is not in the current show.
This role had been inspired, in part, by the prostitute character in Hermann Hesse's novel, "Siddhartha," Lee said. The novel had been a "springboard" for Lin's "Songs of the Wanderers." In the novel, a man leaves his life of privilege and takes to the road in search of enlightenment.
Lin did not say much to Lee about her role but he did give her some hints. "She's voluptuous, passionate," Lee said. Her movements become a ritual of cleansing – "to wash away the guilt. It's a holy experience," she said.
Lin had performers read Hesse's novel. And, over time, he shared another influence of his "Songs of the Wanderers" -- his journey in the summer of 1994 to the village of Bodhgaya in northern India. There, he sat on the banks of the Neranjra River and under the bodhi tree where Buddha had found enlightenment.
"Sometimes, I feel the work is a gift from Buddha," Lin said in 2002 when his company made its American Dance Festival debut with "Songs of the Wanderers."
"I'm just a medium. It came very easily … I'm so happy I can share that sense of peace I found in Bodhgaya," Lee said at that time.
The subject of peace came up again in an interview with Lin last summer when he received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was the first Asian to receive the award created in 1981. He founded Cloud Gate Dance Theatre in 1973 as the first modern dance company in a Chinese-speaking community.
Asked about the role of beauty in his work, he replied, "At a time like this, chaotic and depressing, beauty can be a weapon to go against the ugliness. I hope, for two hours, I can give the audience a sense of peace.'
Lin's company members also benefit from the spirit in which he creates his work and lives his life. "We tend to stay a long time," Lee said. She's been in the company for 30 years and counting.
"He does everything with a full heart," she said. "He cares about human beings. Therefore, we find it meaningful to work with him."