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TODAY'S MUST-SEE: "The Walking Dead," 10 a.m. today to 11 p.m. Sunday, AMC.
If you've been wondering what this whole zombie fuss is about, settle in for this marathon.
It starts with a cop emerging from a coma to find the hospital - and the world - overrun with zombies. Soon he's on the move, linking with the few other survivors. ...


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News Archive for 05/01/21
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AAPL Stock: 118.24 ( -0.64 )
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MacMice today announced that it will begin shipping its new GuitarPlug and MicPlug USB audio interfaces early next month. Both are cylinder shaped (measuring 2.3" by .7" in size), are USB bus-powered, have an on-off switch, and have a blue LED power indicator. Each converts mono analog audio to 16-bit, 48KHz better then CD-quality digital USB audio. They are USB class compliant, requiring no drivers to operate. The GuitarPlug has a 1/4-inch guitar plug for use with any electric guitar or bass, and the MicPlug has an XLR plug for use with any dynamic handheld microphone. Both products will begin shipping on February 10th for $50.
Developers of OpenOffice.org are no longer pursuing a native Aqua/Mac OS X port of the open-source Office-compatible suite, according to eWEEK. The report says that it has been 18 months since the last work on the native Mac version and that are no plans to do so with the upcoming Version 2.0. PointerClick here to read more about Version 2.0 of OpenOffice.org. The current release, known as OpenOffice.org/X11 Mac, runs in the X11 graphical windowing system, which looks and acts more like the Linux and Unix software than a Mac program....Edward Peterlin, one of only a handful of volunteer developers for OpenOffice.org/X11 Mac, attributes the lack of a native OS X effort partly to a lack of resources."
The Apple Store is offering refurbished 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBooks as well as refurbished AirPort Express units for $100. The 17-inch PowerBook G4 is available in the 1.5GHz/512MB/80GB/SuperDrive configuration for $2,400, while the 15-inch PowerBook G4 (1.33GHz/256MB/60GB/Combo) is available for $1,700. Apple is also offering both dual-1.8GHz (256MB/80GB/SuperDrive) and dual-2GHz (512MB/160GB/SuperDrive) Power Mac G5 models for $1,700 and $2,100, respectively. All three models of the new iMac G5 are also available as refurbished products, starting at $1,100 anb refurbished AirPort Extreme Cards for wireless connectivity are only $70. The pre-owned products are covered by Apple's One-Year Limited Warranty.
For Creative's Sim Wong Hoo, the iPod shuffle is "a big let down ... worse than the cheapest Chinese player." For Dell's Kevin Rollins, the iPod is "a fad" and the Mac mini poses no threat to the company's 17 percent market share. Yet, according to eWeek, analysts have already cautioned that both men might be mistaken about the impact that the iPod and Mac mini might have on the industry. Michael Gartenberg of Jupiter called Wong Hoo's comments "foolish." Gartenberg's colleague Joe Wilcox described the Mac mini as "a potential suitor to Windows users, particularly those who have iPods and enjoy the experience delivered by Apple."
Topics on the MacNN Forums today include: comparing a Mac mini to an upgraded Power Mac G4.... speculation about PowerBook and eMac updates as availability of current units declines.... initial reaction to the iPod shuffle from those who have purchased it.... the latest Mac OS X interface customizations.... availability of Apple's new iWork '05 suite.
The U.K.-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry or IFPI reports that the iTunes Music store leads all fee-based music download services. According to findings on the state of fee-based music download services this week, consumers in Europe and the United States downloaded some 200 million songs in 2004, a tenfold surge from 2003. Those downloads generated some $330 million in sales. According to Ipsos-Insight, about 35% of the U.S. population aged 12 and over has paid a fee to download a song. That translates to about 20 million people. The number of Americans who use file-sharing services to get their music is only slightly greater: 25 million at most.
FirewireDirect.com today announced the Pro Z-RAID for multi-stream, uncompressed SD, HDV and DV non-linear video editing. The Pro Z-RAID's high-performance external RAID storage solution offers ultra-fast hardware-based striping (RAID 0) over two internal drives and FireWire 800 connectivity for maximum performance. It is available in configurations with storage up to 1TB, can sit both horizontally and vertically on the desktop, and utilizes 7200rpm drives with up to 16MB of cache. Pro Z-RAID features an all-aluminum enclosure that matches the design of the Power Mac G5, near-silent, dual-fan operation, Mac OS 9/X support, and a 1 year warranty. It is available now in total capacities of 320GB ($300), 400GB ($360) 500GB ($420), 600GB ($600), 800GB ($990), and 1TB ($1200) as well as a enclosure-only model for $120.
Apple's Mac mini is now available from Target.com. The company is selling both the 1.25GHz/40GB for $500 as well as the 1.42GHz/80GB version for $600, the same prices as the Apple Store. Target lists a 2-6 week expected delivery time. It is not clear if Target will also sell the Mac Mini at its retail store locations across the US. The company currently sells the iPod and the iPod mini as well as iTunes Music Gift Cards and several iPod accessories.
Apple and Dell are the best positioned to gain marketshare in 2005, according to a new analyst report. Credit Suisse First Boston reiterated a "market weight" rating on the personal computer industry, saying growth will moderate in 2005 due to a lack of significant new product introductions, inelasticity of demand and a refreshed installed base. "Specifically, we expect unit growth in 2005 to be 8% following the 11% growth recorded in 2003 and 12% in 2004. For 2006, we expect unit growth of 7%," as customers await the launch of Windows Longhorn from Microsoft late in the year, according to Forbes.com. CSFB also said hard drive vendors and two-tier distributors are well positioned to benefit from current market conditions.
NextForce's Presentation Prompter 4 is a major upgrade to its teleprompting application for Mac OS X that scrolls text smoothly at an adjustable rate. Version 4 offers improved performance, a smaller application, and a redesigned interface as well as improved text editing features (spell-checking, better find/replace, ruler support, scrollwheel support, etc.) and both RTF/MS Word import. The teleprompting features now provide custom forward/reverse speeds, more customizable hotkeys, smoother overall scrolling, and more. A new feature called "text markings" also allows prompter controllers to mark errors in a document and correct them later. Presentation Prompter 4 is available for $65 with upgrades priced at $35.
Konica Minolta today launched its new compact DiMAGE Z5 digital camera with a built-in 12x optical zoom, 5.0-megapixel CCD, and a large 2.0-inch LCD. It features a 12x optical zoom lens and 4x digital zoom and a high-quality movie mode as well as a proprietary CCD-shift Anti-Shake System that enables shutter speeds of up to eight times longer than when shooting without an Anti-Shake function. Konica also says that the Rapid AF is the fastest autofocus digital camera. Konica today also launched its new DiMAGE Z20 5.0-megapixel digital camera with a built-in 8x optical zoom lens. Pricing and availability, however, were not announced.
Radical Breeze has released DoThisNow 2.0, a free update to its launcher and automation tool with support for hot keys and scheduling. Version 2.0 brings performance improvements, bug fixes, new preferences and other enhancements. "DoThisNow 2.0 provides maximum flexibility for Mac OS X users to automate just about anything.... With 22 distinct, customizable actions and the ability to run those actions by definable hot-key, schedule or a global menu item, the possibilities are almost limitless: Launch applications, run nightly backups, type commonly used text, etc." The application allows you to run a wide variety of customizable actions either at the press of a button, the click of a menu item or on a schedule. It runs on Mac OS X 10.3 or later and is available now for $20.
Bear Stearns raised its 2005 earnings forecast for Apple to $2.25 a share from $2.10, citing evidence that hard drive-based iPod sales won't see the normal seasonal weakness during the quarter ending March. The stock is up in current trading. Analyst Andrew Neff also raised his year-end 2005 stock price target to $97 from $87 and his 2006 earnings forecast to $3.05 a share from $2.80, according to CBSMarketWatch.
Native Instruments today launched Kontakt 2, the second generation of its flagship sampler audio application with a new sampling engine that features multiprocessor and AltiVec support for improved performance on G4/G5 machines. It also features comprehensive surround integration, the unique Kontakt Script Processor (KSP), integrated convolution effects, an improved interface and new "universal" import support. The company also announced Komplete Sound, a "massive" collection of NI's eight audio applications and Electronic Instruments 2 XT, an extended version of its Reaktor instrument collection. The company also introduced a new Absynth 3 Tutorial DVD for helping users with its semi-modular software synthesizer. Kontakt 2 is due in March for $580 ($170 upgrade).
Ableton today released Operator, a new software synthesizer instrument optimized for use inside Live 4, Ableton's realtime music production platform. Operator brings an eclectic spectrum of sonic possibilities and musical inspiration with the "fusion of depth and usability, allowing even the most complex sounds to be created quickly. Whether you long for evolving synthetic textures, rich expressive leads, gritty percussion, rhythmic atmospheres or anything in between, Operator has the cure." It features a set of highly varied and musical presets, sorted by category as well as two intuitive macro controls ('Time' and 'Tone') that can be used to modify the overall characteristics of the sound, handling complex operations through a single action. It runs on Live 4.1 and costs $150.
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Helloween -- Baltimore, MD -- September 23rd, 2008
Exactly the same setlist as previously mentioned, but figured I'd reinforce. If any of you guys were at the show and took some pictures, would love to see them. I took some with my phone, but the quality is 'ok' at best.
The show ROCKED!!!! One of the best shows I've ever seen, and I've been to 100s of shows. I used to think Kiske was great, but Deris is 100x better.
Crack The Riddle
Sole Survivor
March of Time
As Long As I Fall
A Tale That Wasn't Right
Drum Solo
Mr. Torture
Eagle Fly Free
If I Could Fly
Paint A New World
Dr. Stein
Encored with the Medley: (I Can/Where The Rain Grows/Perfect Gentleman/Power/Keeper of the Seven Keys)
2nd Encore with Kai and the rest of Gamma Ray on:
Future World
I Want Out
Something about 4 guitarists, and 2 bass players just throwing that much guitar sound at you is impressive.
Gamma Ray's set was:
Into the Storm
Heaven Can Wait
New World Order
Valley of the Kings
Rebellion in Dreamland
Heavy Metal Universe
Ride the Sky
Somewhere Out in Space
Encored with: Send Me a Sign
TOMMOROW NIGHT!!! I'm glad to see Gamma Ray added Fight I hope that stays in there.
Pictures From The Show
I took a few with my camera. They kinda suck but I sent you a PM anyway!
|All times are GMT -8. The time now is 01:33 AM.
Blah Blah Blah Copyright WWW.METALSETLISTS.COM 2008


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Police are looking for the man who robbed a Richmond hotel with a box cutter early Sunday morning.
It happened at the Econo Lodge along the Eastern Bypass. Police say the suspect was caught on tape entering the lobby and demanding cash from the clerk.
The clerk says the man then pulled out a box cutter and forced him to open the cash drawer.
The suspect is a white man with a buzz cut, standing around 5' 8", in his mid-20's.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or email@example.com.


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When you're pulling out all the stops to hire new workers, it's easy to overlook one obvious talent pool: current employees. Slash turnover--as IHS HelpDesk did--and you may uncover a hidden growth strategy
The company should have been growing like crazy. And there were numbers to prove it.
No matter how long SÉan Durham and Eric Rabinowitz spent poring over their exhaustive status reports--supplied each week by the full-time statistician they employed--they couldn't seem to pinpoint the source of one perplexing problem: why IHS HelpDesk Service's revenues were nearly 20% short of their projections. Durham is president of Leveraged Technology, a $21-million computer consulting firm in New York City. Rabinowitz serves as president of IHS, its subsidiary. In the seven years since Rabinowitz had written the business plan for IHS, the company's market segment--supplying on-site contract workers to staff internal technical-support lines at Fortune 500 companies--had exploded, which enabled IHS to double in revenues every year. Until 1996, anyway. "We thought we were concentrating on the right things to grow the business," says Rabinowitz, who notes that the two had aimed their efforts at marketing and recruiting. "But we were basically running in place."
Not that their efforts weren't plainly visible in August 1996. Thanks to an intensive direct-mail program, the company had no shortage of customers. In 1994, Rabinowitz had hired a marketing consultant who introduced him to a procedure called "drip." Modeled after hydroponics, a type of farming in which plants are cultivated in a water-based solution, the strategy entailed frequent mailings to prospects and clients to keep IHS firmly implanted in their minds, by showering them with such offbeat premiums as miniature crystal balls, packets of forget-me-not seeds, and worry dolls. What mattered most was not the contents of the message but the continual reminders of the company's existence. The system was paying off: IHS was receiving at least 60 requisitions--orders from a customer for an on-site analyst--a month, a sixfold increase in eight months.
IHS kept up with that demand as best it could. If Rabinowitz couldn't recruit folks with the ideal technical background, he wasn't above drafting particularly friendly busboys and flight attendants. Well aware that it took certain personality traits to work on a help desk--empathy, intensity, endless patience--in 1994 he had begun using personality tests to screen candidates. Unsatisfied with the 12 tests he tried, Rabinowitz enlisted a consultant to develop a customized test.
All of Rabinowitz and Durham's efforts were targeted toward boosting what they considered the company's critical number: the count of employees "on billing," or at a customer site generating revenues. In August 1996, IHS had 139 employees on billing; by December 1996 that figure had risen to 160. Still, Rabinowitz and Durham had projected sales of $13 million for IHS in fiscal 1997, but two months into that fiscal year, projected revenues were running closer to $11 million.
Rabinowitz and Durham couldn't deny that they had been missing opportunities to generate revenues: of those 60 to 80 monthly requisitions, they were typically able to fill only about half. Why was that, exactly? As they cast their eyes over the employee-trend analysis--a report that usually earned not much more than a collective glance--the answer started to come into focus. The report, which listed the weekly count of employee arrivals and departures, showed a distinctly unhealthful trend. During the summer of 1996, rare was the week when newbies outnumbered quitters. And the weeks were adding up. According to the company's statistician, annual turnover for 1996 was likely to set a record: 300%. What's more, 30% of new hires weren't staying even as long as three months. "Our recruiters were working double-time just to maintain the current level of business," says Durham.
The two had always fretted about turnover rates, but they resigned themselves to thinking that, unlike the other numbers they tracked, there wasn't much they could do to change them. In the computer business, that level of churn was just an accepted cost of doing business. Except that the generally accepted rate in the help-desk industry was 50%, on average. "It crept up on us," says Rabinowitz. "We had always been generating these reports, but our eyes were always on growth. We figured we could always find more employees."
But now turnover looked like an increasingly insidious threat. Sure, rising requisitions could absorb some of the costs. But for how long? What if new business fell off to the levels they had seen just six months earlier? "We thought, 'If the turnover continues and the reqs die off, we're in deep trouble," says Rabinowitz, who is 41. "Maybe even out of business." The key to future growth, Durham began thinking, might depend more than they ever realized on retaining employees. The two scratched out some calculations. "We figured if we just paid more attention to our employees, we didn't necessarily have to get any more business," says Durham, 39. "We could just keep the current customer base, take moderate inbound opportunities, and we'd grow very nicely."
It sounded simple enough. But not quite a year into their ambitious experiment, the most striking result can't be found in hard numbers--much to their chagrin--although annual turnover shrank from a projection of 300% to 25% for 1997. By yanking the thread that began with the shortfall in revenues, not only have Durham and Rabinowitz exposed the hidden toll that turnover can take; they've also tapped into the competitive edge that retaining employees can become. Here's how they've done it, step-by-step:
STEP #1: Calculate the Real Cost of Turnover
Hot as the opportunities were, and efficient as the company had become at prospecting for customers and employees, it seemed that IHS was leaving money on the table. But how much? Number-huggers that they were, Rabinowitz and Durham knew that it cost the company $3,000 a head to bring on new hires. That included $2,500 to recruit staffers and an additional $500 to process their paperwork, including paying state unemployment insurance, which Rabinowitz refers to as the "retention tax."
But he and Durham also began to wonder whether turnover was affecting more than acquisition and acclimation costs. Employee departures often have veiled effects on a company's top and bottom lines, such as decreases in customer satisfaction, worker morale, and overall company productivity. Not to mention the drag on managers' time. "We were getting pressure from internal staff," recalls Rabinowitz. "What were we going to do about all these people leaving? Our recruiters had to spend more and more time dealing with people who wanted to leave. When were they supposed to have time to recruit?"
Playing out those numbers in greater detail than ever before, Durham and Rabinowitz calculated that if they could nudge their average employee's tenure from 3.5 months to just 3.8 months, they would see a direct impact on their bottom line to the tune of $60,000. Get the average up to 7 months, and they'd uncover $275,000. And if they could somehow achieve an average stay of 18 months, they'd add a tantalizing $2.9 million to their net. As for the top line, Durham and Rabinowitz gauged the opportunities that the company had missed owing to insufficient staffing. Durham estimated, for instance, that had IHS been better able to retain its staff, its head count could have been as high as 250, rather than 160. So without a significant increase in overhead, IHS could have been nearly twice as large, pulling in $20 million in annual revenues versus $11 million.
But that growth would require a greater effort and expenditure than the pair realized. "We came to the conclusion that we could spend some money on this," says Durham. The two weren't sure exactly how much they would spend--nor could they have predicted that the cost would run upwards of a half million dollars. From their own experience, they believed it would be wise for them to hunt down external expertise, as they had for their direct-marketing and psychological-testing efforts. "It's easy to think that because you have experience, you know what to do," says Rabinowitz. "But the real geniuses in this world say, 'Do I really know?" Through a recommendation he received from an entrepreneurial peer group, Rabinowitz hired Joyce Gioia of Roger Herman and Associates, a firm based in Greensboro, N.C., that specializes in employee retention.
STEP #2: Capitalize on What You're Already Doing Well
Truth be told, the turnover problem didn't come as a total shock. In exit interviews, Rabinowitz had long been hearing that employees felt no special allegiance to IHS. (Ironically, the most personalized attention employees received was when they were leaving.) And the company had made only a few haphazard efforts to address that malaise.
One such attempt was the long-standing "pin program," wherein employees with a two-year record of exceptional customer service could receive a silver IHS pin and a $500 bonus; three-year veterans received the pin in gold and a bonus of $2,000. Rabinowitz had also instituted a program he calls the Wall of Fame, whereby customers could acknowledge top-performing analysts, whose pictures would be placed on the company's Web site and whose names were entered in a monthly drawing for $500. In early 1996, Rabinowitz had also hired Tammy Dowling as his assistant. Her mandate: to handle employee complaints. "We were dealing with problems reactively," he says. "By the time we heard about them, the problems were too far gone for us to make a difference."
Rabinowitz had worked on help desks for more than five years, so he knew that such positions were frequently thankless, high-pressure jobs, conducive to burnout. Callers were none too patient about getting their problems resolved. And despite the comprehensive knowledge and customer-service skills the job required, help-desk positions were typically low-respect slots, offering no sense of permanence or career progression. Between assignments, analysts were very often simply let go. Help-desk personnel usually felt like--and were treated like--temps, merely marking time until a "permanent" position came along and often giving as little as one day's notice when they found one.
Compounding the problem, most IHS help-desk staffers worked at customers' sites, so they naturally felt more a part of the customer's culture than that of IHS. "I used to get calls from people saying, 'Everyone at Johnson & Johnson just got a raise. Why didn't I get one?" recalls Rabinowitz. "We just gave them their paychecks." Even those paychecks were imprinted with a name employees didn't identify with: Leveraged Technology.
Rabinowitz and Durham knew that competition for help-desk staff was increasingly fierce. Annual surveys indicated that average salaries had reached $35,000 nationwide, and IHS was attempting to keep pace. But looking over the company's own data--there were always data--Durham noticed that most people who left didn't choose "more money" as their reason, instead opting for "other." When Durham asked the statistician to break down that category further, it turned out that people left because they didn't view their job at IHS as a full-time, permanent gig. Durham was very encouraged; that was a shortfall he felt the company could address. "It meant there were things we could do without necessarily giving them more money," he explains.
IHS had some atypical perks and programs--including a three-year-old employee stock ownership plan, in which workers could become fully vested after seven years--but some employees didn't even know about those benefits. Rabinowitz recalls an exit interview during which he asked a departing employee whether the ESOP had made any difference. He got back a quizzical stare, followed by a question: what ESOP? After Rabinowitz explained, the employee responded, "You know, if I'd known about that, I probably wouldn't be leaving." And the things that people did know about didn't seem to matter to them much. "Benefits, vacations, recognition programs--it didn't mean a lick to them," says Rabinowitz. "All these things needed to be packaged and presented to them as something that was part of a special company."
In February 1997, Rabinowitz began doing just that, applying the company's marketing expertise to its "internal clients," so to speak. "We needed to systematize what we were doing about retention," says Mark Dingley, an analyst whom Rabinowitz promoted to director of retention. "All the pieces were there, but the puzzle wasn't together yet." Rabinowitz also culled members of the management staff--including those from the recruiting, training, and human-resources teams--and asked them to join him in retention meetings every Friday at 9:30 a.m. to implement and track Joyce Gioia's recommendations, the most pressing of which was to improve communication within the company. "We really do care about these people," Rabinowitz says. "We just have to keep reminding them of that."
Gioia suggested instituting some form of regular reminder. So Rabinowitz created IHS Daily Helpings, a newsletter that has been faxed to all employees every morning for the past 10 months, offering technical tips and information about the company's various programs and incentives, along with trivia, quotes, and contests. In addition, Dowling began placing weekly calls to each of IHS's field employees to keep people abreast of new policies, ask them whether they were going to the company picnic, or even just say a quick hello. Gioia hoped that would help staffers put a face--or at the very least, a voice--on their formerly invisible employer. It mirrored the "drip" marketing program that worked so well with customers: what counted wasn't so much any individual action as the cumulative effect of constant contact. "The home base really maintains a line of communication with me out in the field," says Derrick Begin, who has been a help-desk analyst for one year. "I never really felt a tie before. There was no sense of camaraderie."
STEP #3: Identify What You--and Your Customers--Can Change
When Rabinowitz and Durham studied why 30% of recruits left within 90 days, they found another encouraging answer: frustration. As the newcomers left, they complained of feeling unprepared. "It was like we were throwing them onto the trading floor at Goldman Sachs, because that's the type of companies they were dealing with," says Durham. "They could have a massive coronary at the age of 24." New customers were often expecting new help-desk personnel to be experts in every aspect of their technology, including their proprietary computer systems. The resulting impatience drove the new staffers out the door with incredible efficiency.
Employees needed to know that the first four to six weeks would probably be difficult but that they should be patient. Gioia suggested expanding the company's employee-orientation program--which had consisted of informal one-on-one meetings with the human-resources staff, the time spent mostly filling out forms--to include a mandatory, all-day-Saturday group orientation. Groups of new employees would meet the staff, learn about the company, and even take a tour of nearby Madison Square Garden. "We wanted to make it a memorable experience," says Rabinowitz. The recruits noticed. "I've worked for numerous Fortune 500 companies," says Lloyd Tabb, a help-desk analyst since early 1997, "but this company had the longest orientation I've ever had."
Once employees were aboard, it was important that they not feel like temps. For the first three months of the new retention program, Rabinowitz and Durham met with each customer, adjusting expectations by explaining what learning curve was reasonable for new help-desk arrivals. (Customer-service reps have since assumed that function.) They even warned customers that if they referred to IHS staffers as temps, the troubleshooters would view themselves that way. "But if clients would just coddle them a bit," adds Durham, "it would keep our costs down, and they could spend less money for this kind of consultant."
STEP #4: Improve Employees' Prospects, Not Just Their Jobs
But if employees were going to regard their jobs as permanent, full-time gigs, Durham and Rabinowitz needed to turn their jobs into permanent, full-time gigs. When they were between assignments--"on the beach," in the industry lingo--employees needed to know that their jobs were secure. Previously, IHS let analysts go if they lingered in limbo for a couple of weeks. "It was a big mistake," says Rabinowitz. "We lost a lot of good people that way."
Now Rabinowitz and Durham promise their employees that when they're on the beach, they don't have to worry about being washed away. They can take that time to use the company's training materials to catch up on new software, learn about Web design, or even follow a company-paid self-study course for Microsoft or Novell network certification. About six months before they began focusing on retention, Durham and Rabinowitz had decided to beef up training. "We had considered it more a recruiting strategy," says Rabinowitz. "But we hadn't really thought about training in retention terms."
Tabb, for one, was at first unsure of what he thought about the management's new training policy. "I figured it meant they'd make sure I was working all the time," he says. "I thought there was no way they were going to pay me when I was between assignments. But they have. That was the true test for me, and that's what has kept me here."
Based on her discussions with IHS employees, Gioia suggested that in addition to training, IHS should offer its staff more long-range career prospects. "Employees felt that we didn't know and respect them as technical people," says Rabinowitz, who understood that few people wanted to sit at a help desk indefinitely. So last February he started to chart out career options at IHS, including a managerial route and a technical path, that would enable employees to become full-fledged consultants at Leveraged Technology.
Rabinowitz also began visiting each employee for annual check-ins, which gave him the chance to help employees set short- and long-term goals. At the sessions, Rabinowitz draws a T on a piece of paper, listing on one side what IHS will do to help employees reach their goals. On the other side he lists what IHS expects in return, such as professionalism and punctuality. "I also stress that if we are fulfilling our end of the promise, we expect them to remain employees of IHS," says Rabinowitz, who asks employees to sign the paper. It's hardly legally binding, he admits, but it does help firm up expectations.
STEP #5: Institutionalize Retention as a Management Function
To ensure that the retention tactics become a part of the company's regular processes, Rabinowitz and Durham have kept the retention team's weekly meetings as a permanent fixture. The team will also oversee the next phase of changes, which include a formal mentor program.
Also in the works is a process to formalize the training and career-path components in what Rabinowitz calls a "career orchestration." That will involve a two-year timeline for each employee, with benchmarks for when various phases will kick in. While the key components of the retention strategy are up and running in the company's eastern region, Rabinowitz and Durham have yet to roll the program out to all of their six national offices; Atlanta and Chicago, for instance, don't have it yet. "The problem is the training," says Rabinowitz, who hopes the program will be fully implemented by mid-1998. "We need to have a facility for people in different regions to go to for that."
Treating retention as they would any management discipline also means running numbers on it--constantly. But math mavens though they are, Rabinowitz and Durham claim that they haven't yet been able to calculate the program's return on investment. "We've been having problems with the calculations because of some lost data," claims Rabinowitz. "So we don't know exactly how well it's worked except from a gut feeling and some very basic stats that make it seem it's working very well."
Preliminary results show that annual resignations, which had been projected at 300% for fiscal year 1997 (which ended August 31), landed at only 25%--where they remained during the first quarter of fiscal 1998. And the percentage of new hires who fled within three months dropped from 30% to 12.5%. The number of people who are billing is currently up to 165 and rising, says Rabinowitz, possibly because customer satisfaction, as measured in surveys, has inched up to 3.3 (out of a possible 5) from its earlier average of 2.75. And Durham is encouraged that the company's growth seems to be resuming, with projections of $15 million for fiscal year 1988.
But there is no way to quantify some of the changes Rabinowitz and Durham are seeing. "More people have been asking for business cards," Rabinowitz says. "They want to show people that they work for IHS." The number of employee referrals is also up. Although employees do still leave, they at least give two weeks' notice. Last July the company picnic--which Rabinowitz had considered canceling, for lack of attendance--drew employees at comparatively Lollapalooza-like proportions: 175 showed up. "And I don't get people calling me and just bitching anymore," says Rabinowitz. "If they have a problem, usually Tammy will hear about it in her weekly calls. So in many cases, we preempt any need for them to leave."
Clearly, Durham and Rabinowitz still have employees to win over. As late as October 1997--eight months after the retention effort had begun--employee Tabb was sure that the company provided a 401(k) plan (which it doesn't) rather than an ESOP. "Either way, it doesn't mean much to me," says Tabb. "I'm not sure I'll be here long enough to benefit from either." Colleague Jeff Menzies, a help-desk supervisor for the past two years, observes that "not much has changed in my relationship with the company." By contrast, analyst Joanne Lutz says she can imagine leaving only if "all the communications and niceties stopped as the company grows." That, of course, remains the challenge for IHS: Rabinowitz and Durham are hoping that the company's retention efforts will spur growth. But as the business expands, maintaining that focus will likely become increasingly difficult.
Not that Rabinowitz and Durham are likely to simply drop it. So far, they estimate that the program has cost $600,000, mostly in consulting fees, travel costs, funds for training, and management time. Even if the company lost money in the short run, Durham claims, it was worth doing because "it forced us to think about all the elements that go into this 'simple' business--especially the human-resources processes--and to make it systematized."
And there's been another, unanticipated payoff: IHS's focus on retention has helped the company differentiate itself from its competitors. "We use it in our sales pitch," Durham says. At least one client claims to have chosen IHS because of its retention record. "I was hoping to see less turnover than I had previously," says Rich O'Brien, help-desk coordinator at Warner-Lambert, in Morris Plains, N.J. "It's nice to have a company that retains people. Getting support staff fresh off the street makes it harder for us to manage our services."
So, from what Rabinowitz can tell, the company's retention program is helping it generate revenues--which was the goal all along. "By stopping our rigid focus on sales," says Rabinowitz, "we've actually found a way to improve them."
Christopher Caggiano is a staff writer at Inc.
Tackling Turnover: Staying Power
Those employees marching out the door in droves represent a problem that isn't going anywhere. Fifty-three percent of U.S. workers expect to leave their jobs voluntarily within the next five years, according to a recent poll by Louis Harris & Associates. While some industries are merely feeling pinched (the turnover rate among printing production workers is 16%), others are already badly bruised (for convenience-store employees, the turnover rate is 103%). Still, few industries can afford to ignore the threat--which is why some have mobilized to plot out a strategy. Among them--
Industry: Trucking
Turnover Rate: 10%, and projected to stay at that rate through 2005
Coping Strategy: "We know that truckers like their jobs better if they have consistent, steady routes, so we're encouraging employers to do more in that area," says James Lewis, spokesman for the American Trucking Associations. "We're also looking at demographic categories that are growing--namely, women and minorities--that have not often been the demographic categories our industry has drawn its drivers from."
Industry: Software
Turnover Rate: 18.2% for technical professionals; 16.8% for technical managers
Coping Strategy: "Software companies realize that if good tech folks aren't there, then nothing is going to happen," says Ann Dondanville-Allen, manager of human-resources reporting at Culpepper and Associates Inc., a software-industry-research firm. "So they throw more resources and money into the technical area, in terms of recruiting." They sometimes appear to do so, she points out, at the expense of keeping employees in such nontechnical fields as marketing and accounting, areas that have higher turnover rates.
Industry: Fast-food restaurants
Turnover Rate: 140% among hourly workers
Coping Strategy: "It's important for a restaurateur to recognize the different types of personalities that work in our industry," advises Julie Malveaux, a spokesperson for the National Restaurant Association. "There are some pass-through employees, like students, who want a job only for a short period of time. There are some careerists who are looking for advancement opportunities. And then, of course, there are some people who should not be in the industry. Managers can prepare themselves by learning to recognize what distinguishes one type from the next." --Mike Hofman


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Q&A: Todd Haley 11/5
Following Chiefs practice today in Kansas City, Todd Haley met with the media. Here are the highlights:
On the new signs hanging around the Chiefs locker room:
"Just words that are important. They might have been signs that I've had at other places or thoughts that we came up with as a staff. I think you'll see more and more, you might see some you won't see others – just little reminders to the players to kind of keep them thinking in the direction we think they ought to be thinking."
Is there any reason in particular for putting them up at this time?
"No, no. I've got a coach assigned to signage and posters and he's just been slow. I won't say who it is."
You say it's for the players, but the poster was tweeted to fans and the media to see? Is there a message in there to the community and fans to see?
"Not intended to be. There is paint on other walls and I don't want to make any marks on this nice new building. That's a cement wall and the other walls are plaster. To me that hallway, even though you guys are in it, is still a sacred hallway and I don't think it's any different than you guys videotaping a guy walking down the hall naked or in a towel. So, me personally I think that stuff is off-limits. You get to see it with your eyes because you come through this area but I don't think it's any different of taking a picture of something else in that hallway."
So you're saying that sign is something we should not report on?
"That's just my feeling. I understood that the media could see some of those things. We've had posters in hallways where media was in other places that we've been that really hadn't been talked about. You all can make of it what you want but that's for us."
You talk about winning quarters of the season. How important would it be to get to 2-2 in this quarter?
"That's huge to us and that's all we're focused on and all we care about and that's in an effort to stay in the present tense and not in the past or the future. It's right now and that's the way you play your best football and the way you coach your best football, not getting distracted. Our focus is on the Jacksonville Jaguars."
Does playing in Jacksonville which is experiencing small crowds give you an advantage on the road? Do you coach it differently?
"The last time I was in Jacksonville my last year in Dallas it was a pretty raucous environment. They have good fans and, like I said, they are a good team. We had noise out here yesterday and we had it today and we'll have it tomorrow. We're preparing for a road game in the NFL. Games are tough enough to win let alone going on the road. We've got our work cut out for us but we're doing everything we can as coaches to prepare for this team to go into Jacksonville."
What's your favorite coach's quote that you've heard?
"The most recent to me is from Sam Rutigliano, who is a favorite coach of mine, who sent me a Winston Churchill quote which I thought was very apropos to me and I appreciate it very much. Winston Churchill said, 'the way you endure that which you must endure is more important than the crisis itself.' Coach Rutigliano is a great motivational speaker, awesome to be around, great coach. I've always had great fondness towards him and he's always kind of looked after me. Right now, that's my favorite one."
Can you see a percentage of players on teams that are able to do that given the experience with teams you've been around?
"I don't know if I can say percentage but we are making progress. There is not a doubt in my mind. There are individual players making progress and our team is making progress. We just now have to do it a little more on Sundays and then we'll have success and that'll create a little confidence."
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text: Town of Buxton Planning Board Minutes Monday, September 10, 2012 at 7 p.m. Recorded by Hilda Lynch Board Members Present: John Vedral, David Savage, Sr.; Christopher Carroll; Keith Emery; Nicholas Murray; and Lawrence Curtis Others Present: Henry Huntley, Cheryl Huntley, Code Officer Fred Farnham, Jason, Shannon, and Hayley Grant, Cliff Thomas, Bob Gorham, Harry Kavouksorian. " Chairman Keith Emery opened the Buxton Planning Board meeting of September 10, 2012, at 7:01 p.m. Pledge of Allegiance Public Hearing: for proposed amendments, additions or deletions to The Town of Buxton Zoning Ordinance. " John motioned, David seconded, to open the public hearing for the above. All voted in favor. John gave some background on the reason for the change in the ordinance regarding a nonconforming lot. Fred came before the Board to address this. "No lot size less than 40,000 sq. ft. may be built upon" was in the previous ordinance change voted on in June, which John believes is the reason it did not pass. More lots will be buildable if this new change in the ordinance passes. Keith asked if Fred had any comments. Fred stated that the reason this was presented was to provide some consistency in the wording - lot size, road frontage and lot width. Different words are sometimes used, so this is an attempt to make things consistent. Keith asked if Fred could work with this if the lot size is at least 20,000 sq. ft. Fred said that this is the way we want it. Henry Huntley said that he did not support the previous ordinance proposal. He believes the way this is changed now would meet with his support as he was not in favor of a minimum of 40,000 sq. ft. to be a buildable lot. Harry Kavouksorian thinks this ordinance change clarifies more than wording. He would like to ask the Board what consideration is being given to abutting property owners. John clarifies and said he doesn't believe having someone next door having control over a neighbor building on his/her lot would be right. Harry says the ordinance is being written to fit the land rather than the land fitting the ordinance. He believes there is more to zoning than whether a septic system can be built on a lot. Harry believes this goes beyond that. John believes everyone should have fairness concerning their land. He doesn't believe that more than the essentials should be considered. Harry believes that it takes away the power of abutting land owners having any say in lots lying next to their property. Larry says that one of his pet peeves is that we have bond issues or warrants put on the ballot. If they don't pass, many get re-worded and put back on the ballot for the next election. His biggest pet peeve is when someone is asking for money, gets defeated, and then comes back for it again. It doesn't feel right to him that it was voted down and now they're changing just one line and putting it back on the ballot. He'll vote against it for the principle of it. John said he voted against it because he believes the one change being considered now is highly significant. He believes it is being brought up again to correct an issue. Chris is wondering if any impact study has been done? He wonders how the voter would perceive this. John says the impact relates more to the number of lots that could not be built upon if the previous warrant article passed. The Code Enforcement officer and secretary put together a list they've presented to the Board. Harry says that he believes there were at least 23 lots. There could be as many as two abutters affected for each of these. Harry says he had to have a 5-acre lot to build in the rural zone, and he believes that others should have to have the same. Henry stated that the State declared a minimum of 20,000 sq. ft. He understood that lots in legal existence at that time were grandfathered. There won't be any more new lots. He thought that the State believed that a lot of 20,000 sq. ft. would be adequate. Henry believes this is more of a clarification. Owners have been paying taxes on these lots as if they were buildable. Harry says that buildable area has been in the ordinance since 1991. Keith does not agree with this because of septic systems and wells. We're on drilled wells, which can be contaminated. He doesn't believe a half-acre lot is big enough to build a house, put on a septic and well and meet all of the setbacks. John says the State agrees that 20,000 sq. ft. is adequate. Keith says it is not required to have a drilled well. John says he believes the Code Enforcement officer can require this. The surface water doesn't enter drilled wells. Keith says that just because the State doesn't require a larger lot, it doesn't mean the Town can't require a larger lot. Harry says that the rural zone was to keep the rural character of the Town. He believes the character of the town would be changed if this amendment passes in the November election. A lot has to meet all of the qualifications of the ordinance to be built upon as the ordinance stands now. Harry believes that this amendment relaxes the requirements. John says that this does further define the terms in this ordinance. John believes there are still lots that won't be able to be built upon. " John motioned, David seconded, to close the public hearing for the above. Six voted in favor. Public Hearing: Jason and Shannon Grant of 27 Highpoint Circle are requesting a Conditional Use Permit for Animal Husbandry to allow for one calf; located on Tax Map 1A, lot 66-7. " John motioned, Chris seconded, to open the public hearing on the above. Six voted in favor. Jason says they want to keep one calf. Larry clarified that they were keeping the calf for 4-H. Chris asked Jason about his well being contaminated. Jason has since bleached it, and he believes the cover was the problem. It tested positive for bacteria (e-coli). He had someone come and test it. A good piece of the well cap was missing. They haven't gotten back their most recent water test. They've always used bottled water because of the iron in theirs. Chris asked what the animals would be drinking, and Jason says they would drink the well water. John mentioned that Jason was going to add a pipe to the top of his well. John says he's noticed there are some dogs on the property. He would like to make it a condition that the well be fixed. Jason says he's going to have this done. The attorney sent some information on 9.8.C. John doesn't believe the attorney was very clear. He thinks there is a conflict in the code - in the Land Use Table. He says 9.8.C. doesn't apply to animal husbandry. Is it a lot of acceptable size for this zone? John believes it is an acceptable size in a subdivision. He mentions that the common area would be added to the lot size for cluster subdivisions. If one were to just look at the lot, it wouldn't meet the requirements. Larry asked if anyone would have an objection to reading aloud the information received by the attorney. He read the response and mentioned the 4 points. Larry says the attorney is saying "maybe," but he isn't 100 percent clear. He believes they all have their personal opinions. Keith doesn't know. He believes the lot itself needs to be the 3 acres. He can also see that a clustered subdivision would mean they've built on a conforming lot. The 3 acres is only in the rural zone on their table and refers to the footnote of 9.6.1 The Footnote 1 is only related to the rural zone. The applicant's property is in the residential zone. Keith asked if Fred has any comments. Fred doesn't have any comments other than 9.8.C. was added in June, '09. That was the result of one specific incident relating to two horses being on a nonconforming lot. This wasn't really thought out well but a reaction to a particular situation. He believes a cluster development would be entirely different. Keith asked if there were any abutters who wanted to speak. Bob Gorham is an abutter. He and his wife are in favor of their neighbor having a calf on their property. He says there is some kind of question about the size of the lot. The Board has done a site walk. Bob just received his letter as an abutter. Bob says the lot is all gravel pit all the way to the pond. Keith says he likes to see kids have animals they can show at the fair. His problem is how to interpret the ordinance. Bob says he and his wife are in favor of it. Keith asked if anyone from the general public wanted to speak. David says that, right off the bat, they thought it wouldn't be allowed. Because there were three acres, even though not all adjacent to their property, they agreed that they did have three acres. Keith says the common land belongs to everyone. John says they do have their pro-rated share. Enough would have to agree that this is adequate. John says he thinks the layout needs to come into consideration, too. He thinks they have an ideal location for the calf. Do they consider the two acres of common land? Keith says that if they do, it will set a precedent. John believes they have a lot more to consider than just the amount of acreage. He thinks they might have a different conclusion for lots abutting this one. John still thinks the Board has some control over the consideration of conditional uses in this situation. David agrees with John. The distance from the well is fine. He realizes that they're not going by 9.8.C. He appreciates Keith's comment, also. Chris believes there are a couple of strikes against this for him. The deed restriction and a problem with the water supply at the home, and the size of the lot. It would be unfair to other neighbors to be denied, he thinks. Keith says the deed restriction is out of their control. Chris says he believes this can be taken into consideration. Are there any comments from the general public? Bob says the property section he abuts is his woodlot section. " John motioned, seconded by Larry, to close the public hearing. All voted in favor. Keith says they'd need to figure out what kind of conditions would be put on the property if approved. John would like the condition that the well be repaired to prevent the entry of surface water. David would like to add that they should see the new water report. Nick would like a condition on the time of the project. Jason says they plan to start around March. Keith says if they decided to do the project longer than two years, they would have to come back before the Board. He wouldn't restrict it to two years. John mentioned that they did put a condition on a project last year relating to a sow. Keith says they can limit the number of animals. David asks if they're saying that this conditional use would not end. Keith says that if they don't start it within a year or if they stop for a year would be the only reasons for the conditional use ending. Jason says that his plan for this cow would be that the project would end at the end of the Fryburg Fair of 2014. Keith read the Standard Conditions of Approval. 1. All elements and features of the application and all representations made by the applicant concerning the development and use of the property which appear in the record of the Planning Board proceedings are conditions of the approval. No change from the conditions of approval is permitted unless an amended plan is first submitted to and approved by the Planning Board. 2. That the applicant be in compliance with all applicable provisions of Article 8.2.B & 10. 3. That the applicant be in compliance with all applicable provisions of Section 11. (if applicable) 4. All outstanding bills paid before building permit is issued. 5. Applicant is to have the well fixed. " John motioned, seconded by Larry, that they suspend the reading of 8.2.B. and find that the application to be in compliance with 8.2.B. Six in favor. " John motioned, Larry seconded, that based on previous discussions, we suspend the reading and find the application to be in compliance with Articles 10. Four voted in favor; Keith and Chris opposed. " John motioned, Larry seconded, that based on previous discussions, we suspend the reading and find the application to be in compliance with Section 11.3. Six voted in favor. " John motioned, seconded by Nick, to approve the application with the conditions stated and from previous meetings. Three in favor; Keith, Chris and David opposed - Tie Vote. Fred provided the statement - at least four affirmative votes are required for an item to pass. John says it is stated in the By-laws on page 2 that the motion does not pass. Keith believes that 9.8.C. played into his decision. He says the Town Council did tell them that they could try and change this - next June. Another option would be to repeal this ordinance. John says that it could be brought up for consideration if the Board wanted another vote on this issue. John says he hopes the people who voted against it would see that there is very little harm in allowing these people to raise an animal on this property. He hopes that if anyone is on the fence they'll reconsider their vote. " John motions, Nick seconds, that they re-consider the vote on the conditional use for Jason and Shannon Grant. Four in favor; Keith opposed; Chris abstained. Discussion from site walk for Ashley & Mike Brown of 281 Skip Road who are requesting a Conditional Use Permit for an In-home Daycare; located on Tax Map 1, Lot 145A. Not present due to an illness in the family. CEO Report - None Approval of Minutes: August 27, 2012 " Motioned by David, seconded by Nick, to approve the minutes as amended. Six voted in favor. Approval of Bills: None Communications: John Lockman is going to leave the SMRPC. Keith says he hates to see him leave. He'll be around part-time. Stephen Joffee would like the Board to consider when they notify people that they take in a bigger area. He refers to the consideration of the hours of the gravel pit. Keith says they only have to notify the immediate abutters. Stephen would like the Selectmen and then the Planning Board to consider widening the area. He thinks it is in people's best interest to have more voices represented. John recommends people signing up for e-mail notices of meetings. If you subscribe to the announcements, people would get any notices pertinent to the townspeople. There is no additional cost. John mentions an additional cost in application fees. David can see his point for this particular use. David is three miles from a gravel pit, but he can still hear the trucks banging when they dump their loads. Larry says that, in Buxton, who doesn't live near a sand pit? Larry says the Planning Board would love to have people come in to their meetings. Nick asked about other requirements. Keith and David thought they'd seen the notice of the meeting posted at the Town Hall and in some other places. Nick believes they do a good job notifying residents, especially for those engaged. Keith believes a letter goes to abutters when an application comes in; he thinks there's plenty of notification. David thinks they're doing everything they're legally bound to do. John mentioned that he could link to things through the newsletter he does. Keith believes they should look at 9.8.C for an ordinance change. Other Business: Larry asked for attendance at the site walk. All were there except Larry and Chris. John has prepared a change to 9.8.C. which he distributed this evening. John says they could repeal 9.8.C. or consider a re-wording of 9.8.C. that he has written, as follows: "The Planning Board may consider the minimum lot size for the zone and the configuration of the lot when considering an application for a Conditional Use." This would keep this from being a blanket restriction. Chris asked if the amendment is effectively a repeal. Larry thinks this is a compromise. John says his proposal has a "may" whereby the current ordinance has a "shall." Larry says they could change it to "The Planning Board shall consider…" John says there is more of an option for decision making with the way he has written it. Keith says this will have to go to the Town Attorney for an opinion. John doesn't want to see it rushed. Keith believes they need to have the wording worked out. Anything denied by the Planning Board goes to the Courts; if Fred denies, it goes before the Board of Appeals. In the meantime, they will be able to hear from the public. Nick would like to have the Code office reply to Stephen Joffee - to thank them for their comments and direct them to resources. Attendees may address the Board on the evening's business. Henry says that what John has proposed sounds reasonable. He asks if this would provide any relief to the Brown's. Yes, it would give them relief in the future. Henry says that where the lawyer had some ambiguity regarding the animal husbandry and no abutters spoke against, he felt that the decision was a good one. Henry spoke about Larry's pet peeve. He says this ordinance change is a continuation of what the voters were against. Larry says he would have been in favor of changing the definitions, but he would have voted against the lot size. He thought about his constituents. A lot of people were against the ordinance. Henry asked what they were against. Most were against the lot size of 40,000 sq. ft. Some thought the Planning Board was trying to pull a "fast one." He wasn't happy about it coming back in the next voting cycle and asking people to vote on essentially the same wording except for the last line, which does not seem right to him. Henry says the people he talked with were against the 40,000 sq. ft. Henry asked whether it was back now to provide some clarification for Fred. Keith asked when it was voted on. He refers to p. 7.1 and 7.3. He believes this can't be voted on again for a year and a day unless there is a unanimous vote of the Planning Board to recommend it. There was a question about the "governing body," which would be the town meeting. Larry says that before this goes to the Selectmen, he thinks there should be an opportunity to vote. There was discussion about why this came up in the first place - language clarification and making more lots conforming. John says that 20,000 sq. ft. is currently in the ordinance. There was considerable discussion about whether this ordinance change could go on the ballot in November. " John motioned, seconded by David, that the Planning Board recommend the amendment to the ordinance as written to the Selectmen to be put on the ballot. Four in favor; Keith and Larry opposed. Discussion: Larry questions whether this would even apply in 7.3. He doesn't think this is the exact same amendment to the ordinance. He would agree that the change from 40,000 to 20,000 sq. is a substantial change. He doesn't think it was voted on by the governing body, and this is not the same ordinance change. John says that this was voted on by the governing body. John says with his argument, he thinks it might not require a unanimous vote. They have a majority vote, but not a unanimous one. It says "the same issue cannot be considered on its merits by the governing body…" Keith says he'll have Krystal check with the Selectmen tomorrow. He wasn't aware that this was just voted on in June. " Motioned by David, seconded by John, to adjourn the meeting at 8:57 p.m. All voted in favor. Approval Date: _________________________________ _______________ Keith Emery, Chairman Signature Date 91012 Town of Buxton 185 Portland Road, Buxton, ME 04093 (207) 929-5191Town Office Hours: Mon, Tues, Thur, Fri 8:30am to 4:30pm & Wed: 11:30am - 7:30pm For departmental office hours please visit that department's home page. Virtual Towns & Schools Website


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Making A Difference Award
2012 - 2013 "Making a Difference" Award Recipients
The Family Law Section of the Florida Bar publicly acknowledges, through the 'MAKING A DIFFERENCE" award, those individuals who have made a difference in the lives of the underserved or disadvantaged within our State. The individuals who receive this award either provide outstanding pro bono services or engage in other types of outstanding volunteer community activities and pursuits that improve the lives of Florida's children and families.
October 2013 Award Winner - Kathryn M. Beamer
Our latest receipient is Kathryn M. Beamer. Congratulations Kathy, and thank you for your past and continued efforts on behalf of the children and families of Florida.
Kathy attended Duke University, where she completed her undergraduate degree in Sociology and Psychology. She graduated from the University of Florida, School of Law in 1978, although her first year of law school was at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Since 1991, she has dedicated her practice to the area of marital and family law. Kathy has been Board Certified in Marital and Family Law since 1994, and has served on the Family Law Certification Committee for 6 years, chairing the committee in 2009.
Not only has Kathy dedicated thousands of hours to the Center for Family Services of Palm Beach County, she has also devoted a portion of her practice to the representation of indigent clients in Palm Beach County. She received pro bono family service awards from the Palm Beach County Bar Association in 1993, 1996 and 2012. Further, she received Special Commendations from the Florida Supreme Court in 2004 for her pro bono work.
Kathy is also actively involved in the Family Law Section of the Florida Bar. She currently serves on the Executive Council and has served in leadership positions for several of the Section's committees.When Kathy is not engaged in other commitments, she enjoys ballroom dancing, a passion of hers for the past ten years. She has competed internationally on several occasions, the most recent being March, 2012 in New Zealand. Past competitions have taken Kathy to such extraordinary locations as Italy, Austria and Hungary. International travel is one of Kathy's yearnings, and she has also toured Spain, Greece and Australia. She further serves on the Board of Directors for her homeowner's association.
Download the "Making a Difference" Nomination Application
Previous Award Winners
FloridaProBono.org -
an excellent source of information for members providing pro bono services
and for those who are considering providing services.
The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision that should not be based solely on advertisements.
Before you decide, ask the attorney to send you free written information about their qualifications and experience.
The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice.
You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation.
© Copyright , All rights reserved. The Family Law Section of the Florida Bar.
You may reproduce materials available at this site for your own personal use and for non-commercial distribution.
All copies must include this copyright statement.


text:
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is graffiti?
- How is a community "hurt" by graffiti?
- Is all graffiti the same?
- What happens to a graffiti writer who is caught? Is it really illegal?
- What is the best way to prevent graffiti?
- Do legal walls really work?
- How do you remove graffiti?
- What is "Graffiti Hurts®"?
- What can I do to help prevent graffiti?
1. What is graffiti?
Graffiti is the words, colors, and shapes drawn or scratched on buildings, overpasses, train cars, desks, and other surfaces. It's done without permission and it's against the law. The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program considers graffiti vandalism.
The term graffiti comes from the Greek word graphein, which means, "to write." Graffiti today ranges from simple, one-color monikers (like a nickname), called "tags", repeated on many surfaces to complex compositions of several colors.[Back to Top]
2. How is a community "hurt" by graffiti?
Graffiti sends the signal that nobody cares, attracting other forms of crime and street delinquency to the neighborhood.
Graffiti drains tax dollars. Funds that could be used for schools, roads, parks, and other community improvements, are used for graffiti clean up.
Graffiti decreases a resident's feeling of safety. Neighborhoods with graffiti see a decrease in property values, loss of business growth and tourism, and reduced ridership on transit systems. Find out more about the costs of graffiti.[Back to Top]
3. Is all graffiti the same?
According to the National Council to Prevent Delinquency (NCPD), about 80% of graffiti is "tagger" graffiti". Another 5% are "pieces," or large visuals. Nationally, gang graffiti makes up about 10%. In some cities, however, the amount of gang graffiti may be higher.
Most non-gang graffiti consists of "tags," "throw-ups," and "pieces":
- • a "tag" is the graffiti vandal's moniker applied quickly and repetitively.
- • a "throw-up" is a more elaborate tag, usually done in two or more colors. Vandals often use balloon letters, which are filled in or left as outlines.
- • "Pieces," short for "masterpieces," are large, detailed drawings. They are colorful, can include cartoon-like characters, and may take an hour or more to complete.
Gang graffiti is used to mark gang territory, list members, offer drugs or contraband for sale, or send warnings to rivals. It may include letters, symbols, or numbers known only by gangs and law enforcement.
Generic graffiti (or conventional graffiti) includes random markings, initials, declarations of love, social commentary, profanity, graduation events--"Class of 1997"--and other non-threatening messages. Generic graffiti has no particular style.
Ideological or hate graffiti is any racial, religious, or cultural slur.[Back to Top]
4. What happens to a graffiti writer who is caught? Is it really illegal?
Laws, codes, and ordinances that deal with graffiti vandalism may vary from community to community, but graffiti is illegal. The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program considers graffiti vandalism.
Typically, graffiti falls under "institutional vandalism" or "criminal mischief." While a graffiti arrest may be considered a misdemeanor (a minor offense), more than one can add up to a felony.
Enforcement of graffiti laws may include any or all of the following:
- • Fines and restitution for graffiti markings.
- • Suspended motor vehicle privileges.
- • Arrest and imprisonment.
- • Graffiti misdemeanors being stacked to allow for a felony conviction.
- • Parents or guardians fined or ordered to restore property to its original condition or provide restitution.
In California, for example, a 2008 state law makes it mandatory for a court to order a convicted graffiti vandal to cleanup or repair the vandalized property—and keep it graffiti-free for up to a year. And Los Angeles enacted an ordinance allowing the county to recover costs of graffiti removal from parents of minors convicted of tagging property. In Phoenix, AZ, a 2008 law enables the court to require the parent or guardian of a juvenile convicted of committing graffiti to assist the juvenile in community service projects if the parent 'provided the juvenile with the means to commit criminal damages.'[Back to Top]
5. What is the best way to prevent graffiti?
Graffiti Hurts® advocates a three-pronged approach to graffiti prevention.
First, educate citizens about graffiti vandalism and empower them to take action. This includes targeted prevention strategies for businesses, homeowners, and other residents. And provide a way for citizens to report graffiti vandalism.
Second, remove graffiti promptly. While this may be difficult, studies show that removal within 24 to 48 hours results in a nearly zero rate of reoccurrence. Once graffiti is cleaned up, work to change the environment so that it does not occur again in that location. Simple Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) strategies, such as changing lighting, landscape, and access to property are effective prevention tools.
Finally, ensure consistent enforcement of local ordinances with strict penalties for graffiti vandalism. Work with local law enforcement to ensure anti-graffiti laws are enforced, and that there is follow through in the court system.[Back to Top]
6. Do legal walls really work?
Communities that have tried "legal" or "free walls," or areas that permit graffiti, typically find them ineffective, including over a dozen cities in California, Illinois, Connecticut, and other states.
While well intentioned, legal walls often cause more harm than good, and tend to attract graffiti vandals from outside the city. They may appear to work at first, but after a period of time, the surrounding areas also become covered with graffiti.
With a legal wall, governments or businesses essentially sponsor graffiti in an effort to rid a community of graffiti. This sends a mixed message. Data also shows no decrease in arrests for graffiti in cities where there are legal walls.
Communities that want to create a "legal" wall should be ready to take responsibility for any number of adverse effects, or liability and negligence issues. Following are just a few to consider:
- Who will monitor the wall?
- Will it be repainted regularly to provide a fresh "canvas"?
- What if someone writes obscenities on the wall? What action would be taken?
- What if the graffiti moves to walls nearby or surrounding the "legal wall"? Who will pay for removal? Who will ensure the safety of those removing graffiti?
- Who is allowed to use the "legal wall"? Will they be required to wear face masks? How will any "rules" be enforced?
- Are there laws in place that restrict possession of graffiti implement by minors? Who will enforce these?
- If you have any new data or information on legal walls, please e-mail Graffiti Hurts®.
7. How do you remove graffiti?
There are several ways to remove graffiti. The best method for removal is determined by the amount of graffiti, its location, and the vandalized surface. The low-cost method is a paint-out, which is simply to paint over the graffiti. Many city graffiti abatement personnel use solvents or chemicals to remove graffiti, and adopt-a-spot program will often provide a solvent in "cleanup kits" for small jobs. Power washing with water or other media is also used. Find out more about graffiti removal.[Back to Top]
8. What is "Graffiti Hurts®"?
It's a non-profit, community-based graffiti prevention program. Graffiti Hurts® was developed through a partnership between Keep America Beautiful, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to litter prevention and clean communities, and The Sherwin-Williams Company, maker of Krylon brand paint.
Graffiti Hurts® provides resources to help community leaders remove graffiti, initiate graffiti prevention activities, and educate youth and adults about the impact of graffiti vandalism on neighborhoods.[Back to Top]
9. What can I do to help prevent graffiti?
There are lots of things you can do! Consider organizing a paint-out or a paintbrush mural to cover a wall plagued with graffiti; adopt a wall in your school or community and make sure it stays clean and free of graffiti; report graffiti to the appropriate authorities; and lots more. Check out 'Ten Things You Can Do To Prevent Graffiti.'[Back to Top]


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Every day as a practicing psychiatrist, I confront my field's limitations. Despite the noble efforts of clinicians and researchers, our limited insight into the roots of psychiatric disease hinders the search for cures and contributes to the stigmatization of this enormous problem, the leading cause worldwide of years lost to death or disability. Clearly, we need new answers in psychiatry. But as philosopher of science Karl Popper might have said, before we can find the answers, we need the power to ask new questions. In other words, we need new technology.
Developing appropriate techniques is difficult, however, because the mammalian brain is beyond compare in its complexity. It is an intricate system in which tens of billions of intertwined neurons—with multitudinous distinct characteristics and wiring patterns—exchange precisely timed, millisecond-scale electrical signals and a rich diversity of biochemical messengers. Because of that complexity, neuroscientists lack a deep grasp of what the brain is really doing—of how specific activity patterns within specific brain cells ultimately give rise to thoughts, memories, sensations and feelings. By extension, we also do not know how the brain's physical failures produce distinct psychiatric disorders such as depression or schizophrenia. The ruling paradigm of psychiatric disorders—casting them in terms of chemical imbalances and altered levels of neurotransmitters—does not do justice to the brain's high-speed electrical neural circuitry. Psychiatric treatments are thus essentially serendipitous: helpful for many but rarely illuminating.


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AWH officially closed it's doors in August 2014. Our acupuncturist has joined the crew at Manchester Acupuncture Studio and is working at MAS locations in Nashua and Manchester. Please visit www.manchesteracupuncturestudio.org for more info.
Acupuncture Whole Heath offers safe, effective and affordable acupuncture care in a comfortable group setting. Located in Salem, NH we are convenient to Southern New Hampshire and Merrimack Valley communities including Methuen, Haverhill, Lawrence and Lowell, MA.
We have a $15-$35 sliding scale fee with a one-time $10 intake fee due at the first appointment. You decide what you can afford, no questions asked and no income verification.
The purpose of the sliding scale is to separate the issues of money and healthcare. We want to make it possible for you to receive acupuncture regularly enough and long enough to get better and stay better. We want our community to be welcoming to all different kinds of people. We want to create solutions to the healthcare crisis in our country and our community.
AWH does not receive grants, state or federal money, or insurance reimbursement.We exist because patients pay for their treatments – it is a sustainable community business model.
We have been privileged to see many, many cases of healing, even after nothing else worked. Please review the conditions treated page to see if acupuncture may be appropriate for you.
AWH is a proud member of the People's Organization of Community Acupuncture, a national co-op with the mission of making acupuncture available and accessible to as many people as possible. There are over 200 POCA clinics offering affordable acupuncture across the country. Patients can become members too, not just clinics and acupuncturists.
Acupuncture Whole Health
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Old Wagon Wheels, Beautiful Scenery Dot Net has free scenery pictures, and for this presentation, we have old western wagon wheels.
Here is a beautiful set of Three photos for a wall grouping of 8X10 pictures, great for 11X14 frames! Click on each picture to see the large version, then right click to save as background or to a folder you have created in your my pictures file.
Thanks for visiting BeautifulScenery.net, the home of the scenery dot net sites for royalty free beautiful scenery for your use!
Check out our other dot net scenery sites for a variety of royalty free photos!


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Call us now to have your old junk car picked up and disposed of in an eco-friendly manner. We offer the highest prices in the city because we are the biggest auto junkyard in the GTA.
Fill out our online form now, give us a call at 416-286-8686 or just drive your car in to our Toronto yard at 1216 Sewells Road, Scarborough, Ontario
We also offer the option for you to donate your car to charity.
Standard Auto Wreckers is a licensed Auto Recycler, in Toronto, Canada with a second location in the North Western New York area . We cater to all of your salvage and parts needs.


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December 1, 2015
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Police say a Louisville man who allegedly fled when an officer tried to pull him over crashed into a government building in central Kentucky and died.
The Courier-Journal reports on its Web site that 42-year-old Rodney Stewart was pronounced dead today at the scene after striking the government office building in Nelson County.
A report from Bardstown police says an officer in Mount Washington had tried to pull Stewart over for traffic violations, but he would not stop.
Mount Washington Police Lieutenant Colonel Roy Daugherty confirms the Bardstown police report but declined to comment further, deferring to that department's investigation.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Steve Hatherley
Professor James Catterall stated yesterday during a press conference at his secluded manor in Hampshire that he hoped to re-introduce the dinosaur into certain parts of the world. Such areas would include the South American and African rainforests, the Australian bush and maybe even parts of England, such as Dartmoor or the Norfolk Broads.
From discoveries made during his recent expedition to the source of the Congo river in central Africa, Catterall intends to chemically manipulate bird eggs and produce baby dinosaurs.
The eggs will be artificially regressed so that they devolve, rather than evolve according to Darwin's theories. Catterall believes that birds are the dinosaurs closest living relatives.
Other scientists have denounced Catterall's theories as rubbish.
Catterall is a recluse and works from his secluded manor in the centre of its densely wooded grounds. He is regarded as dangerous by his scientific peers, and has a record of cruelty. During the Great War he was rumoured to have performed much unnecessary surgery.
If any of the others of the expedition to Africa can be found, they will be reluctant to talk about the trip. Many bad things happened there.
1 Catterall is far ahead of his time and has already cloned several dinosaurs from their fossilised bones. The process was a gift from Nyarlathotep in Africa. He already has had some success and intends to display them in a years time, crediting them as early successes of his fake experiments.
2 The experiments work, but take much longer than anticipated. Eventually, some sixty years after they were started (and twenty years after Catterall's death) the first 'dinosaur' is born. It is intelligent - a bipedal lizard man. It is the pinnacle of dinosaur evolution but the dinosaurs died out before it had a chance.
3 Catterall is insane and his experiments are fakes. However, several of his assistants are Serpent People in disguise. They are using Catterall as a cover for their own sorcerous methods for bringing their own kind through from the Permain era, along with some of the proto-dinosaurs of that time.
(Inspired by the novel Carnosaur, by Harry Adam Knight.)
Copyright (c) 1990 Steve Hatherley


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World Cup 2014: 100 great World Cup moments - 11 days to go
BBC Sport counts down 100 of the greatest World Cup moments, as the 2014 tournament in Brazil draws nearer.
Today looks back to the 1990 World Cup semi-final penalty shootout, when England's Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle missed their spot-kicks as West Germany progressed to the final.
Available to UK users only.


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Bettman: League will look at rules after Emery-Holtby goalie fight
More NHL: Scores | Standings | League Leaders | Odds | Injuries | Power Rankings
The brawl that broke out between the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers on Friday night involved Flyers goalie Ray Emery skating the length of the ice and pounding on Caps goalie Braden Holtby.
While everybody seems to enjoy a good goalie fight, that one wasn't so much of a fight, more like a mugging. It didn't sit well with a lot of people as college Chris Peters pointed out. The fact that Emery said after the game he told Holtby to try and protect himself because he had no choice but to fight made it look all the worse.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wasn't thrilled with it either. He noted to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch when discussing the upcoming All-Star Game in Columbus that as far as any additional discipline for Emery, there wasn't a whole lot the league could do. Perhaps that will change soon enough.
"We constantly monitor and look at the game," Bettman said. "There was no rule that was violated to elevate things to the level of a suspension. It's something we'll continue to discuss.
"I don't think anybody liked it, liked what it looked like. Fortunately it's not something that happens very often. But I'm sure it's something we'll focus on, particularly with the general managers."
While it sounds good in theory, what can the league really do? Does the instigator penalty that so many people already despise become subject to supplemental discipline? Does the league make goalies crossing center ice something that's suspendable?
Point is, it would be difficult to find some kind of middle ground there where Emery could theoretically be accountable for more discipline for something like that in the future without drastic measures. It's especially difficult because there is no deying the popularity of goalie fights in hockey; they're rare and always get a massive response.
Bettman also talked about the apparent increase in suspensions for hits to the head this season, but that's a result of the league getting tougher on eradicating head shots from the game, saying the NHL is "effectuating a change."


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It's BLOG ACTION DAY once again and this year's theme is FOOD. Sharing my thoughts with you all
Since late August 2011, I have been travelling from one country to another attending a number of conference. I just realised that in one way or another, the issue of FOOD featured so much in all the three conferences.
Since late August 2011, I have been travelling from one country to another attending a number of conference. I just realised that in one way or another, the issue of FOOD featured so much in all the three conferences.
While some people in some parts of the world are fighting obesity, others in another part of the world are starving to death because they have no access to food.
The first of these series of conferences I went for was the One Young World summit2011 that took place in Zurich Switzerland from 1st to 4th September. With a scholarship from MTN, I was amazed at the number of young people who had convened to talk about issues that are currently affecting the world. One of them was HEALTH. The keynote speaker for the health panel was TED prize winner Jamie Oliver of FoodRevolution who spoke about global Obesity.
Some of my tweets during the session on health and food with the hash tag (
#fixhealth) were:
· "You and I need to educate each other about the food that we eat"
· "We need to act against wasting food"
· "We need to respect the fact that we have food and other don`t"
· "We all have passion for food, Yes, but do we have respect for farmers"
· "We need to change our lifestyle and change our eating habits too"
· "As we fight hunger and starvation in Africa, we should also sort out the issue of obesity in the US and Europe".
· "Food is a basic need and a human right"
· "The general children are borne in a junk food culture"
· "Food Security is not necessarily about improving production but increasing access to food".
The Second was the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) Annual High Level Regional Food Security Multi-Stakeholder Policy Dialogue 2011 which was held from 19th to 23rd September 2011 in Mbabane (Swaziland). The theme of this year's annual regional dialogue was "Advocating for the active engagement of the youth in the agriculture value chain". Top on the agenda was the issue of how youth can be engaged in achieving food security on the African continent. From the discussions, it was evident that few youth engage in Agriculture and yet the continent`s largest population is that of the young people. Her Majesty, Queen Mother Ntombi, Indlovukazi of Swaziland received the food security policy leadership award for her role in great role in Agricultural initiatives in Swaziland including one on the Marula fruit seed. Read more http://nawsheenh.blogspot.com/2011/09/fanrpan-annual-high-level-regional-food.html The question that remained on everyone`s mind was how we can make agriculture `Sexy` and profitable to the youth.
The final conference was the second Global Knowledge share Fair http://www.sharefair.net/share-fair-11-rome/about-the-fair/en/
As the world mourned world icons like Nobel prize winner Wangari and Apple`s Steve Jobs how many thought of the thousand dying of starvation just because they cannot afford a meal?
And who thinks that youth have a great role to play for the world and most especially Africa to achieve food security?


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Armstrong Apples owner Lisa Klein peers through trees at orchard, where her no fruit is growing on the Red Delicious trees. Early warm weather followed by frost killed off most of the apple blossoms this spring.
- Filed Under
Linda Struye's 20 acres of apple trees are bursting with foliage - but lack the essential red fruit.
This year's apple crop in Wisconsin and throughout the upper states east of the Mississippi River was crippled by unseasonably warm weather in March followed by a killing frost.
"I hesitate to paint such a black picture, but this is so widespread; it's devastating," said Struye, who owns the Little Farmer along Highway 151 north of Fond du Lac. ...


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Inherently Funny
As in "Hey, Funny Boy!". Said loudly after somebody made fun of somebody else, and somebody took exception. A swift beating then ensues, from one side or the other.
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November 30, 2015
Police in Jessamine and Garrard County want to catch up with three people who led them on high speed chase for three miles before ditching a truck on a farm.
Kevin Gilliam spotted three people trying to steal a trailer outside his Garrard County business.
"I called 9-1-1 and the people with the trailer took off," says Gilliam.
He soon realized the people in the truck were involved in stealing several appliances, including a washer and dryer, earlier Thursday night.
"I just couldn't let it go. It look like they we're going to get away so I got in my truck and I headed up behind them," says Gilliam.
Gilliam chased them for three miles while on the phone with police. Deputies soon jumped in the chase. That's when the suspects broke a guardrail and destroyed several fences on Terry Lunsford's farm on Greystone Drive, off U.S. 27.
It left Lunsford with more than $8,000 worth of damage and several horse broke free. One of the prized horses died when it was hit by a semi truck on Highway 27.
Police say the suspects ditched the truck before taking off in some nearby woods.
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It's very far away It takes about a half a day to get there If we travel by my dragonfly No it's not in Spain But all the same you know It has a groovy name And the wind's just right HEY! Hang on my darling Hang on if you wanna go You know it's a groovy (not sure about the lirics!!!!) It's just a little bit of Spanish Castle Magic
The clouds are really low And they overflow The cotton candy and battlegrounds Red and drown


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More Brussels Travel Tips in our online
The European Parliament has found an ideal home in Brussels (Bruxelles in French, Brussel in Flemish). This inland capital city of Belgium, bordered by The Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France, it is a multi-cultural and multi-lingual city at the very heart of Europe. Indeed, it claims with some justification to be the 'Capital of Europe'.
With a pleasant temperate climate ? warm summers and mild winters ? and a host of sights and delights to entertain, Brussels offers far more than just beer and chocolate (although excelling in both).
The first visit to Brussels, uncoloured by expectations, is therefore all the more rewarding. Narrow cobbled streets open suddenly into the breathtaking Grand-Place, with its ornate guild houses, impressive Town Hall and buzzing atmosphere. It would be difficult to find a more beautiful square in the whole of Europe. Bars, restaurants and museums are clustered within the compact city centre, enclosed within the petit ring, which follows the path of the 14th-century city walls.
With us searching for holiday apartments in Brussels is made easy:210 rentals in Brussels
A travel agent with local Brussels knowledge is at hand to answer all your questions and provide you with availability for your Brussels accommodation. Contact Velvet Support Brussels


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This Privacy Policy covers the treatment of personally identifiable information that OSA collects when you are on the OSA web site ("Site"). This policy does not cover the treatment of personally identifiable information that may be collected by other web sites ("Third-Party Sites") that OSA links to or is otherwise affiliated with.
OSA collects personally identifiable information when you register for an account or purchase services. OSA also collects information from your browser including browser type, browser version, browser settings, operating system, pages visited, your IP Address, and Cookies. OSA uses this information for general purposes such as allowing you to add products and services to your shopping cart, tailoring the content within the Site to match your interests, and ensuring that the site continues to operate properly with commonly used operating systems and browsers. Your IP Address will be stored and used for security purposes to prevent fraud and other illegal activity.
Children under the age of 13 are prohibited from submitting personal information. Federal Law prohibits websites from collecting and/or distributing personal information from children without parental consent. At this time, OSA has no effective means to obtain and track parental consent. Therefore, OSA must prohibit the submission of personal information from children under the age of 13.
OSA will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to anyone. OSA may also send your personal information to others when required to do so by law.
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Gun Strike XperiaPlay
by: PALADIN ENTERTAINMENT CO., LTD. | 114
by: PALADIN ENTERTAINMENT CO., LTD. | 114
Expert's review
by Emmanuel Lund, Appszoom
In Gun Strike you embody a bold mercenary that has been brought to the desert to kill hordes of insurgents. No one must stand up. That will require agility and careful aiming and, obviously, powerful weapons.
There are up to 21 replicas of real weapons, grenades and armors. However, you'll have to unlock them by completing missions: get enough money to buy better equipment, otherwise you won't be able to face skilled insurgents. Up to 80 levels through 8 maps and 2 bonus games are waiting for you. Likewise, there are lots of achievements to unlock and online leaderboards to submit your personal best and challenge players from worldwide.
3D graphics are quite good and that touch of humor on its designs makes it even funnier. Slide to aim and press right-bottom corner button to shoot. Shoot to the loots to grab them.
Challenge yet entertaining FPS.
Tags: juego de gun strike 3d , gun strike using xperia play , gun strike xperiaplay , gun strike xperia play , que requirira 5.0 , stars strik , gun strike 3d play game , gun strike 3d xperia play , strik gun
by Emmanuel , Appszoom
Oct 25, 2012
from 114 reviews


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- Filed Under
Brain Wrecks
Dana Paxson (Dana Paxson Studios, $2.99)
A collection of short stories that range across a universe of imagination, dream and startling reality. From the familiar landscapes of western New York to the alien brutality of a planet in a deadly struggle for survival, with detours into the weird and wacky nightspots of unreality, this bundle of tales covers just about everything. Paxson lives in Rochester.
The Muse's Hand
(The Genesee Writers Guild, $2.99)
This anthology contains science fiction, fantasy and speculative fiction short stories by Guild members K.A. Gillett (Brighton), Gary Mitchell (Chili), Miriam Grace Monfredo (Pittsford), Amelia Seiler (Brighton) and Lynn Spitz (Irondequoit). The anthology selections include "Windbaiter" (Gillett), in which a young girl faces a legacy of war to save herself from a future she refuses to accept; "The Risen" (Mitchell), in which Private Patricia O'Rorke confronts international intrigue, the legacy of her famous Rochester Civil War ancestor, and a series of resurrections taking place in Mt. Hope Cemetery; "Raise a Song, Sound the Timbrel" (Monfredo); "Becalmed on the River Styx" (Seiler); and "The Game's Afoot!" (Spitz).