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BMW has released pricing information on its new "M Sport Package" for specific 3 Series, 5 Series, and X5 models. The package allows buyers to purchase many of the "M-Technik" (aka Motorsport) go-fast cosmetics commonly found on the BMW M3 and BMW M5 in a factory package (sans the screaming V8 or V10 and the upgraded brakes, of course). While the "ZMP" package varies from model to model, it generally includes sport-tuned suspension, upgraded wheels, sport steering wheel, sport gearshift lever, a
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29BMW releases pricing for M Sport Packages
- Michael Harley
- Feb 20, 2009
- 29
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Update on YesitYesit is single and has two children. He lives in his parents' house where he has a living room, bedroom kitchen and bath. The house is adobe with cement floors and is located in the city of El Alto's Tarapaca zone.
He currently works driving his own car as a cooperative taxi with a fixed route itinerary from the Achachicala Alto zone with his stop being in the city of La Paz's Tembladerani zone. Yesit contributes to his parents' utility, food and clothing expenses.
He needs the loan to pay for his vehicle's mid-year service since it's his only source of income. Yesit's dream is to own a second vehicle to improve his quality of life.
This is his fifth loan request to Impro and second to Kiva.
Actualmente trabaja de chofer con movilidad propia como trufi, con recorrido y ruta fijos, desde la zona Alto Achachicala siendo su parada en la zona de Tembladerani de la Ciudad de La Paz; Yesit colabora en el pago de los servicios, comida y vestimenta, de sus papas.
El crédito lo requiere para el mantenimiento semestral de movilidad, ya que es su única fuente de ingreso.
El sueño de Yesit es poder contar con otra movilidad propia, para mejorar su calidad de vida.
Es la quinta vez que solicita crédito junto a IMPRO Y la segunda con KIVA.
Previous Loan DetailsYesit is single but has two children. He lives in a rented, three-bedroom house with adobe walls and dirt floor located in the city of El Alto's Villa Alemania zone. Yesit studied up to secondary school and is currently a partner in a cooperative taxi line working as a salaried driver providing... More from Yesit's previous loan »
Additional Information
About IMPROIMPRO is a small non-profit organization that has been offering micro credit to the working poor in the Bolivian cities of La Paz and El Alto since 1995. IMPRO's goal is to fight poverty by offering loans to small business owners who cannot access credit through the regular banking system due to a lack of guarantees or collateral.
To ensure that everyone has access to credit, IMPRO maintains a low interest rate by minimizing operational costs. IMPRO's partnership with Kiva, which began in 2007, has allowed IMPRO to expand its services while maintaining these low interest rates.
Concurrent and Successive Loans
Our Field Partners often work with borrowers over a series of loans as the borrowers build credit, take out bigger loans, and expand their businesses. In order to make it easier for our Field Partners to post loans for borrowers who have been listed on Kiva before, we allow them to post successive and concurrent loans for their Kiva borrowers. This means that our Field Partners are able to post a borrower's second, third, etc., loan on Kiva without having to re-enter all of the borrower's information.
This borrower has been listed on Kiva before, so you'll see an updated loan description, as well as excerpts of the original descriptions from earlier loans. Most borrowers take out loans consecutively, meaning that they receive a second loan after having repaid the first. However, sometimes our Field Partners give out concurrent loans, allowing borrowers to take out one primary loan and a secondary "add-on" loan along with it. These "add-on" loans are typically smaller than the borrower's primary loan and serve a different purpose. Because Field Partners can now post loans as successive and concurrent loans, you will be able to track borrower progress over time and see the various ways a borrower is working with our Field Partners through funds from Kiva's lenders.
About Bolivia
144View loans »
US Dollars
Success!! The loan was 100% repaid
- Repayment Term
- 20 months (Additional Information)
- Repayment Schedule
- Monthly
- Pre-Disbursed:
- May 7, 2013
- Listed
- May 23, 2013
- Currency Exchange Loss:
- Ended:
- Dec 17, 2014
Photo from previous loan
Kiva allows our Field Partners to re-use the same photo for individual borrowers that have been posted on Kiva's website once before in a 24 month period, and we allow them to re-use group photos for up to 24 months, provided that 80% of the current group's membership is represented.
Taking, collecting, and uploading photos of borrowers is one of the most challenging elements of using Kiva for our Field Partners. In order to make Kiva easier for Field Partners to use, we have allowed them to post successive and concurrent loans without taking a new photo of the borrower if the criteria above are met.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Mark Sakalosky | April 2, 2002 | Comments
Want customer metrics? ROI measurement? Effectiveness models? Think again.
Yesterday, I had a revelation.
A colleague of mine and I were presenting a marketing dashboard solution to a potential client. We were intently describing how the dashboard would provide key customer metrics on all his campaigns. This new data would allow the prospect to make better-educated decisions on where to allocate future marketing dollars to generate maximum return on investment (ROI).
The client stopped us abruptly and said, "I don't really want to know all that. I'm afraid of what I might learn. What if none of my campaigns are effective? They'll cut my budget. I'd rather not know; it's better that way."
That's when it hit me.
We marketers are making our own jobs too hard. We shouldn't apply scientific methods to our practices to increase the effectiveness of our budgets and generate incremental sales. In doing so, we raise the bar for our brethren and make everyone's job more difficult. We should be ashamed of how we're cannibalizing one another. The lack of humanity is simply repulsive.
I've seen the light. I'm lobbying for a return to the good old days, when spending marketing dollars without measuring effectiveness was not just accepted but encouraged. You remember strategy meetings back then, don't you? Throw some money at television, print, radio, or direct mail and hope something hits. Sometimes they all struck out, but like a home run hitter going through a slump, we rode out the bad times waiting until our swing came back. When we were put on the hot seat and were ordered to absolutely, positively deliver results, we jumped ship and landed a sweet VP of marketing job at a new company, where we repeated the cycle. As long as everybody plays by the same rules, no marketer is better than the next. Thus, we ensure job security. Isn't that what we all should strive for?
Everywhere I look, ads promote tools promising to increase campaign effectiveness. Right now, a WebTrends ad promising to help you "Learn how to make smarter decisions" is staring you in the face. Don't they realize that even if we marketers buried our heads in the sand and ignored the ad, someone in our company might see it anyway and ask us to explain why we haven't explored options like this to increase the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns? Doesn't WebTrends realize what an uncomfortable situation I'd be in if that were to occur?
While I'm at it, I'd like to take issue with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). It's done us all a disservice by promising to teach how to more efficiently spend our budgets. How long before my CFO asks if I'm employing any marketing intelligence for the company's benefit? Worse, the DMA lets anyone who's willing to pay attend the course. How are we veteran marketers supposed to stay ahead if anyone can be taught how to play by new rules -- that make us obsolete? I've got no problem letting the DMA in on our game. I'll enroll in one of the $1,800 three-day courses (at my company's expense), if the association holds it in an exotic locale and promises not to take attendance. Throw in a luau on the beach with hula girls, and I'll go to an even $2,000.
Remember the perks for spending marketing dollars in the "right" places? Dinners at fine restaurants, meetings in the Cayman Islands, tickets to major sporting events. What a wonderful life. We never crunched numbers or obsessed over which call to action was most effective at converting a prospect into a customer. Who had time to do that and keep his handicap in the single-digits while playing golf at someone else's club? The wonderful "I'll wash your back, you wash mine" machine we created has been crushed. We have no one to blame but ourselves.
It's time for a revolution. It's time to save our way of life before it's too late. Stop measuring the results of marketing campaigns. Stop trying to demonstrate that every dollar spent on marketing generates two dollars in incremental sales. I'd rather not know so I can continue to spend my budget where it serves me best.
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December 2, 2015
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Journal of Agricultural Engineering
Year 2014, Volume-51, Issue-4 (October–December)
Print ISSN : 0256-6524
Online ISSN : 0976-2418
Table of contents RSS Feed
Performance Evaluation of Spatially Modified No-Till Drill under Different Field ConditionsManjeet Singh, Aseem Verma, Jaskarn Singh Mahal
Design and Development of Ridge Profile Power WeederDeepak Sabaji Thorat, P. K. Sahoo, Dipankar De, Mir Asif Iquebal
Simulation and Validation of Airflow Distribution Patterns in Bins Filled with CanolaJ. A. Moses, D.S. Jayas, K. Alagusundaram
Some Physical Properties of Germinated Brown RiceSwati Bhauso Patil, Md. Khalid Khan, Santosh Rangrao Yadav
Effect of Fertigation Levels and Drip System Layout on Performance of Okra under Plastic MulchAnu Varughese, Jalaja S. Menon, E.K. Mathew
Research Note
Development of a Dynapod for Occupational Activities in AgricultureP.S. Tiwari, M. M. Pandey, L. P. Gite, A. K. Shrivastava


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Powerful stuff.
Israel/Palestine: Equality or ethnic cleansing/
The following piece is by Omar Robert Hamilton, a film-maker and a founder of the Palestine Festival of Literature. A version of it was also published on the Egyptian news site Mada Masr.
August 4th 2014
What has become clear during the latest assault on Gaza is that cycles of violence are perpetuated and reinforced by cycles of rhetoric. The Israeli PR machine works by constantly shifting the parameters of the discourse. Arguments are made and forgotten. Inquiries are held and dismissed. First principles are ignored and histories are erased by carefully trained spokespeople who excel in double-speak and a logic of empathetic violence audience-tested for optimum American palatability. Their mantra: it's not what you say that counts. It's what people hear.
The facts are all there to make, together, a damning case against Israel. The statistics, the photographs, the captured anguish do not lie - and yet it is the spin that gathers quickly around them that dominates the agenda. Since the beginning of this assault, the raison d'etre of the Israeli campaign has changed three times - each time centering around a buzz word that is repeated until there is no room for any other concept. The words have been: "kidnapped" (June 12th to July 2nd), "rockets" (July 7th onwards) and now "tunnels" (July 17th onwards), a word and concept which only seriously entered the discourse alongside the announcement of the ground invasion. The following day the death toll spiked, with 60 people killed in 24 hours, and a fourth buzz term entered the discourse: "human shield." Now that the tunnels are all allegedly destroyed, if another word is needed it will be "disarm."
KIDNAPPED: the Israeli government has now admitted that Hamas did not kidnap the three boys. They even knew they were dead after only a few hours but trumpeted the manhunt to enrage the public and instigate the pre-prepared operation "Brother's Keeper" to dismantle Hamas in the West Bank. Why? Because eight days earlier, after eight years of schism, a unity government between rival groups Hamas and Fatah had been signed.
ROCKETS: Israel boasts of its Iron Dome defence system, claiming it is a prime specimen of Israeli engineering that keeps its civilians safe. Yet Israelis also claim they live in a state of terror because rockets "rain down" on them. This contradiction cuts to the heart of the constructed national psyche of Israelis as a fearsome warrior people who live in constant terror. Ben Ehrenreich describes the rockets as "more like the ones you might have learned to build in high school shop class than any sort of 21st-century artillery: thick metal pipes with fins welded on, an engine at the base, a few pounds of explosive at the head, the latter usually insufficient for much by way of destruction. What little damage they do is caused mainly by the momentum of their impact." To date, two Israelis and one Thai civilian have been killed by these rockets, giving them a kill rate of 0.1%. The Palestinian death toll has, today, passed one thousand eight hundred.
HUMAN SHIELDS: From the hardest hawks to the softest of Israeli doves, the same justification is being proffered for the massive numbers of Palestinian fatalities: Hamas uses human shields. Even Amos Oz, the great conscience of liberal Zionists, could only muster this simplistic scenario:
Amoz Oz: I would like to begin the interview in a very unusual way: by presenting one or two questions to your readers and listeners. May I do that?
Deutsche Welle: Go ahead!
Question 1: What would you do if your neighbor across the street sits down on the balcony, puts his little boy on his lap and starts shooting machine gun fire into your nursery?
If this is the thinking of a great intellectual heavyweight of the Israeli left, then a truly toxic atmosphere has been successfully engendered, one in which regular soldiers need not think twice before pulling the trigger. The fact is that the UN's Goldstone Report into Operation Cast Lead found Israel had killed civilians "while they were trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white flags" and documented multiple instances of Israeli soldiers using Palestinians as human shields. But the Goldstone Report, so thoroughly damning in its findings of multiple and wide-ranging war crimes, has been all but forgotten.
TUNNELS: The BBC, ever mindful of the approved Israeli lexicon, refers to a series of "attack tunnels." So who are these tunnels attacking? They are, we are told, designed to penetrate Israel and kidnap Israelis. In 2006 Gilad Shalit, a soldier, was captured and held as a prisoner of war. He was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners - many of whom were rounded up again during Operation "Brother's Keeper". No civilian has ever been abducted through the tunnels. Clearly, their primary purpose is an economic one, born of the crippling, medieval siege that Israel maintains against Gaza. Along the Egyptian border it is not Hamas that builds the tunnels; They merely tax the goods being moved through by the entrepreneurs that dig and own them. Israel talks of a "terrorist organization [that] deliberately embeds its terrorist infrastructure inside civilians neighborhoods" when actually a system of loosely regulated capitalism is what governs the tunnel industry. If you own a house near the border you are very likely to get into the tunneling business because there's nothing else you can do. Furthermore, if Israel's operation is about destroying these tunnels, why has it cost 1,800 lives? There were thought to be over 1,000 tunnels between Egypt and Gaza which the Egyptian regime - not widely known for its ability to carry out security operations without slaughtering its citizens - destroyed with no loss of life.Read More
The war around us/
Here's the trailer for The war around us, on our friends Ayman Mohieldin and Sherine Tadros' coverage of the 2009 Gaza war. They went on to do great things covering the 2011 uprising in Egypt, also for al-Jazeera English, which they have both since left.
Egypt and the Gaza tunnels→/
Jared Malsin, reporting for Mada Masr:
"On the Palestinian side, they're just watching the destruction on the Egyptian side," says Mohammed Omer, a Palestinian journalist, describing the scene in Palestinian Rafah. "There is quite tight control. The Egyptian military are controlling across the borderline, which means they [the smugglers] cannot really operate, even if they can operate freely from the Gaza side," he says.
On the Palestinian side, they're just watching the destruction on the Egyptian side By all accounts, the Egyptian military's current operation has paralyzed the vast majority of the tunnel system. Of an estimated 300 tunnels operating before June 2013, approximately 10 were operating on September 21, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs. The quantity of goods moving through the tunnels is 15 percent of what it was in June.
Of Gaza and KFC/
What started out as a blurb on the Xinhua news site this week on the smuggling of KFC for US$30 an order into Gaza via Egypt - a tunnel trek that can take between 3 and 7 hours - has gone viral, prompting several other outlets to send correspondents into Gaza to report on the Al Yamama delivery company's entrepreneurial niche. The tunnels have been used to deliver everything from rockets and rebar to TVs and fiancées - up to 30% of all the strip's imports come through them, says Reuters - so fast food is not a stretch, even at the prices quoted.
Unfortunately, most social media responses to it have focused on the novelty at the expense of the context, even though the two fullest accounts I have read, from the NYTand Christian Science Monitor, do address the environment of the Israeli blockade and the tunnel economy that the Egyptians have been cracking down on so hard these days to try and interdict Sinai arms smuggling.Read More
Gaza blockade eased - not lifted/
↪ Israel eases Gaza blockade following truce deal | Egypt Independent
This is good news to be sure, but an interesting detail: construction material and other critical types of goods for Gaza's reconstruction must still go through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing, and not Egypt:
Israel is easing its blockade of Gaza to allow construction materials and other goods into the enclave under the terms of a truce deal mediated by Egypt.
The decision allows private companies and individuals to import construction materials that were previously restricted exclusively to international aid groups under the terms of Israel's blockade, AFP reported.
The truce between Israel and Gaza's leaders Hamas ended more than a week of Israeli air strikes and Palestinian rocket fire last month.
This is the first time Israel has allowed such goods into Gaza since 2007, said Palestinian customs official Raed Fattouh.
Starting on Sunday up to 20 trucks carrying gravel will be allowed into the strip daily Sunday through Thursday via the Karem Abu Salem border crossing in southeast Gaza, Fattouh said. Karam Abu Salem is the only commercial crossing open to the transport of goods and fuel and is closed on Fridays and Saturdays.
In other words, these Egypt-brokered talks are still steering away from lifting the blockade as Palestinians have called for along with Egypt-based activists. Whether this amounts to the ruling Muslim Brotherhood's recognition of the complexity of the border issue (including the fear that if the Rafah crossing is fully opened to commercial traffic Israel will simply dump the Gaza problem onto Egypt) or that General Intelligence, which is running the talks, has a veto power on this issue over the Morsi administration is not clear.
Hamas normalized, Israel marginalized/
↪ Adam Shatz · Why Israel Didn't Win · LRB 24 November 2012
I have the same read — as distasteful as it is to call winners and losers, Hamas (not Gazans) came out a winner in this war, Israel a loser:
Israeli leaders lamented for years that theirs was the only democracy in the region. What this season of revolts has revealed is that Israel had a very deep investment in Arab authoritarianism. The unravelling of the old Arab order, when Israel could count on the quiet complicity of Arab big men who satisfied their subjects with flamboyant denunciations of Israeli misdeeds but did little to block them, has been painful for Israel, leaving it feeling lonelier than ever. It is this acute sense of vulnerability, even more than Netanyahu's desire to bolster his martial credentials before the January elections, that led Israel into war.
Hamas, meanwhile, has been buoyed by the same regional shifts, particularly the triumph of Islamist movements in Tunisia and Egypt: Hamas, not Israel, has been 'normalised' by the Arab uprisings.
. . .
The Arab world is changing, but Israel is not. Instead, it has retreated further behind Jabotinsky's 'iron wall', deepening its hold on the Occupied Territories, thumbing its nose at a region that is at last acquiring a taste of its own power, exploding in spasms of high-tech violence that fail to conceal its lack of a political strategy to end the conflict. Iron Dome may shield Israel from Qassam rockets, but it won't shield it from the future.
Worth adding that in my opinion Morsi came a short-term winner and Egypt a probable long-term loser.
Sherine Tadros: Covering This Gaza War/
↪ Sherine Tadros: Covering This Gaza War
This piece by Sherine Tadros about the media and Gaza is so good that 1) I am breaking my rule against linking to HuffPo and 2) I cannot excerpt the good bits because all of it is good and should be read.
When Will the Economic Blockade of Gaza End?/
↪ When Will the Economic Blockade of Gaza End? - Robert Wright - The Atlantic
President Obama and Bibi Netanyahu are on the same page when it comes to the justification for Israel's bombardment of Gaza. Netanyahu : "No country in the world would agree to a situation in which its population lives under a constant missile threat." Obama: "There's no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders."
It's true that if, say, Canada were lobbing missiles into the US, the US wouldn't tolerate it. But here's another thing the US wouldn't tolerate: If Canada imposed a crippling economic blockade, denying America the import of essential goods and hugely restricting American exports. That would be taken as an act of war, and America would if necessary respond with force--by, perhaps, lobbing missiles into Canada.
Gazan Youth Manifesto for Change/
Via Mondoweiss, where you can read the full thing — Update: this is from January 2011, but it certainly feels relevant to the moment and their Facebook page is very much alive.
Fuck Hamas. Fuck Israel. Fuck Fatah. Fuck UN. Fuck UNWRA. Fuck USA! We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community! We want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and indifference like the Israeli F16's breaking the wall of sound; scream with all the power in our souls in order to release this immense frustration that consumes us because of this fucking situation we live in; we are like lice between two nails living a nightmare inside a nightmare, no room for hope, no space for freedom. We are sick of being caught in this political struggle; sick of coal dark nights with airplanes circling above our homes; sick of innocent farmers getting shot in the buffer zone because they are taking care of their lands; sick of bearded guys walking around with their guns abusing their power, beating up or incarcerating young people demonstrating for what they believe in; sick of the wall of shame that separates us from the rest of our country and keeps us imprisoned in a stamp-sized piece of land; sick of being portrayed as terrorists, homemade fanatics with explosives in our pockets and evil in our eyes; sick of the indifference we meet from the international community, the so-called experts in expressing concerns and drafting resolutions but cowards in enforcing anything they agree on; we are sick and tired of living a shitty life, being kept in jail by Israel, beaten up by Hamas and completely ignored by the rest of the world.
What Hamas wants (mostly from Egypt?)/
↪ Gaza Clash Escalates With Deadliest Israeli Strike - NYTimes.com
David Kirkpatrick reports:
Reda Fahmy, a member of Egypt's upper house of Parliament and of the nation's dominant Islamist party, who is following the talks, said Hamas's position was just as unequivocal. "Hamas has one clear and specific demand: for the siege to be completely lifted from Gaza," he said. "It's not reasonable that every now and then Israel decides to level Gaza to the ground, and then we decide to sit down and talk about it after it is done. On the Israeli part, they want to stop the missiles from one side. How is that?"
He added: "If they stop the aircraft from shooting, Hamas will then stop its missiles. But violence couldn't be stopped from one side."
Hamas's aggressive stance in the cease-fire talks is the first test of the group's belief that the Arab Spring and the rise in Islamist influence around the region have strengthened its political hand, both against Israel and against Hamas's Palestinian rivals, who now control the West Bank with Western backing.
It also puts intense new pressure on President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who was known for his fiery speeches defending Hamas and denouncing Israel. Mr. Morsi must now balance the conflicting demands of an Egyptian public that is deeply sympathetic to Hamas and the Palestinian cause against Western pleadings to help broker a peace and Egypt's need for regional stability to help revive its moribund economy.
Indeed, the Egyptian-led cease-fire talks illustrate the diverging paths of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, a Palestinian offshoot of the original Egyptian Islamist group. Hamas has evolved into a more militant insurgency and is labeled a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel, while the Brotherhood has effectively become Egypt's ruling party. Mr. Fahmy said in an interview in March that the Brotherhood's new responsibilities required a step back from its ideological cousins in Hamas, and even a new push to persuade the group to compromise.
Lifting the blockade would be unlikely to happen on the Israeli side, so it's essentially about the Egyptian side. Morsi did not want to be tackling this so early, and any solution will be quite complicated. He has not lifted the blockade thus far, although he could have, and that's because the Egyptian security establishment is nervous about being made responsible for Gaza — and the idea that the Israelis will just dump it on Egypt's lap and make Cairo responsible for it. Can't blame them on that.
Also see this.
Ehud Barak thinks the real war is against Egypt/
↪ Operation Pillar of Defense is Ehud Barak's test
Interesting interpretation by Aluf Benn in Haaretz:
Barak believes in the "leverage and pressure" method - first employed by Israel during Operation Accountability, in Lebanon in the summer of 1993. In this method, which Barak likes to demonstrate through the use of hand gestures and timetables, the goal of the warfare is to obtain a reasonable cease-fire arrangement between Israel and its adversary, whether Hezbollah or Hamas. The tactic is to apply pressure on the enemy's "state patron." Israeli firepower, or the threat of such, demonstrated through a wide call-up of reserve troops, is intended to signal to the patron state that its proteges are at risk of receiving a massive blow and it must intervene to calm the situation.
Egypt is the state patron of Hamas in the current round, and Israel's actions are aimed at prodding the new rulers in Cairo to stop the fighting and to act as guarantor of a future cease-fire. That is the role played by Syria and Iran, Hezbollah's sponsors, in the rounds of fighting in Lebanon. "It is obvious that Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood regime provides a tailwind for Hamas in Gaza," together with economic aid from Qatar, Barak said last Sunday during a lecture. He also warned that Israel would not quail at any military measure in order to restore calm and security to Israelis living near the Gaza border.
U.S. fears Israel-Hamas conflict escalates to ground invasion/
↪ U.S. fears Israel-Hamas conflict escalates to ground invasion
From CNN :
The major concern of the United States in the current Israeli-Hamas conflict is a potential Israeli ground incursion into Gaza, U.S. officials said Friday.
That would be a disastrous escalation that could trigger a larger conflict, a senior U.S. official told CNN.
"Escalation is what we are concerned about. We don't want it to escalate to the point where Israel feels it has to take additional action, specifically ground force action," the official said.
Perhaps US leadership should stop talking like Israel has carte blanche then.
Levy: Israel, Living By The Sword/
Daniel Levy puts forth a plausible outcome for Netanyahu out of the Gaza situation:
Netanyahu is much happier fighting this election on the terrain of national security than on issues of social justice, inequality, and being in bed with "swinish capitalism" as his critics are prone to brand him. Netanyahu can rely on his election rivals all lining up to support his military surge against Gaza, which has indeed been the case in the past 48 hours. Shelly Yachimovich (Labour leader) and Yair Lapid (leader of new YeshAtid party) have looked like they were auditioning for cabinet seats in Netanyahu's next government, which is very possibly what the future has in store for them. Netanyahu has been noticeably cautious and limited in the goals he has set for this military action, in contrast to the grandiose ambitions that his predecessor Olmert claimed at the launching of operation Cast Lead in 2008. It is not unreasonable to assume that a preferred scenario for the Israeli Prime Minster has him giving some variation of the following speech, ideally within a relatively short time (in 48 to 96 hours perhaps):
"As Prime Minister of Israel I set out realistic goals for this operation, unlike my irresponsible predecessor. We have achieved in Operation Pillar of Defence six important goals in preserving Israel's national security. First, while Gilad Shalit is back at home with his family, his captor, the arch terrorist al-Jabari, has met the same fate as Osama Bin Laden. Second, our deterrence has been restored. Every Hamas leader and terrorist in Gaza knows that they are within reach of the long arm of the IDF and that rocket fire on Israelis will not go unpunished. Third, while rocket fire against any Israeli target and certainly Tel Aviv is unacceptable, it is also something we knew was possible, but the threat has now been significantly diminished by our success in hitting the stockpiles of weapons accumulated in Gaza. That particular mission will continue. Fourth, and contrary to the childish scare-mongering in some of our media suggesting that Israel is now more isolated internationally, we have conducted this operation with firm Western backing. I have personally spoken to President Obama and Western leaders and appreciate their recognition of Israel's right to self-defence. And this time there will be no internal committees of enquiry or scurrilous UN Goldstone commissions. Fifth, we have proven we can navigate the choppy waters of a newly destabilised Middle East while retaining our freedom of military action. And finally, and perhaps most important, we have maintained national unity at home and I thank the leaders of the other responsible Zionist parties for standing together as one."
There are some additional wins Netanyahu would like to secure without necessarily including them in his victory speech. For instance, this operation will possibly postpone or at least reduce the significance of any vote on upgrading Palestine's status at the UNGA. Even if the vote happens, and even if Abbas secures a few more 'yeses' against the backdrop of operation Pillar of Defence, Netanyahu can reassure the Israeli public that what matters is that the Western powers stood by Israel during this military operation. Netanyahu could be sending a signal to Iran that his own track record of being circumspect regarding major military strikes cannot be counted on. And finally, he may have shrunk the space for Olmert, Livni and others to enter the election race, especially if he can show that his operation achieved better results than their Operation Cast Lead.
Will Arabs turn out for Gaza?/
↪ Will Arabs turn out for Gaza?
Lynch has this right:
Morsi has demonstrated his preference to pursue a pragmatic foreign policy here, offering some sympathetic rhetoric and a visit from his relatively anonymous Prime Minister but thus far avoiding dramatic gestures such as opening the border with Gaza or throwing Camp David on the table. But as much as Morsi values solidifying relations with the U.S. and the international community, and is constrained by the status quo orientation of the Egyptian military and foreign policy apparatus, he may also see real opportunities to gain domestic popularity and assert Egyptian regional leadership. Morsi's conversations with Erdogan may be implictly focused as much on coordinating to avoid a bidding war over Gaza which pushes both countries towards overly risky moves. But it is not clear that such a stance can be maintained if the tempo of protests and the human toll of the war escalates.
The coming days will, among many other things, offer some of the first real evidence about the strategic effects of the Arab uprisings. It is important to recognize how limited the response of the Arab public and leaders has been thus far. But it's also important to recognize how quickly this could change, and how unsurprising this would be should it happen. The Arab uprisings have introduced far greater unpredictability and complexity into everyone's calculations, raising the potential payoff to dramatic political gestures and decreasing the confidence of rulers that they can safely ignore public demands. All of those ready to confidently dismiss the possibility of such rapid developments should go back first to read what they wrote about Tunisia in December 2010, Egypt in January 2011, or Syria in February 2011. All the more reason for all parties to push hard for a ceasefire now, so that it isn't put to a test.
So far Morsi has handled this well: he has done enough in terms of domestic opinion and perhaps even more importantly the Brotherhood base. His inner circle feel content that they calibrated their reaction correctly. But that's today. If this continues, it may be that Morsi will be constrained by US threats and other considerations, for now, and take a humiliation that Netanyahu may be interested in giving him. But even if things don't change immediately, it will have set in motion the preparations for a strategy to act differently next time.
Another take on Jabari's assassination/
The picture above is of the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who had been held by Hamas and was freed after a prisoner exchange negotiated by Egypt. Ahmed Jabari, the Hamas military leader who masterminded the operation to capture Shalit and headed the negotiations on the prisoner exchange, is to his left. The man on his right is, I believe, Mohamed Raafat Shehata, then a senior Egyptian intelligence officer in charge of the Israel-Hamas mediation, and now the head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service.
Jabari's assassination removes a man who was a chief point of contact for the Egyptians, and who the Israelis were at one point interested in establishing direct contact with (during the talks, they asked this, Jabari refused). Of course, there are other contacts and Jabari will be replaced. But in the delicate type of negotiations Egypt has led in the last few years, personal relations are important. Over time, negotiators get to know their interlocutors and develop a nuanced understanding of their quirks as well as a personal relationship — which can be tremendously helpful in crisis situations.
In the Egypt-Israel relationship today, there is no political track: the elected leaders of both countries do not talk to each other, and appear unlikely to do so. Part of Israel's aims in the current Gaza bombings may be to force President Morsi to engage the political track. The Israelis are known to want that direct political engagement and recognition. Aside from the political track, the Egypt-Israel relationship today is chiefly conducted through other channels: through the diplomatic corps of the two countries for routine matters, through intelligence channels for all the important crisis-management and negotiations stuff, and to a lesser extent through the militaries for border issues.
In other words, Egyptian intelligence is Israel's best contact in Egypt, the only one with which it has both a solid relationship and that has real clout inside of Egypt (the diplomats don't have clout and the mil-mil relationship is not as deep as the intel-intel one). One can't help but think that in assassinating Jabari, the Israelis have hampered Egyptian intelligence's ability to conduct mediation as effectively as possible. It appears Israel's decision to assassinate Jabari was to show that, now that Shalit has been freed, his abductor has been killed: it's a trophy of sort, compensating for a capture that taxed Israel's political leadership. Whether it'll be worth the cost in terms of the relationship with the Egyptians — for instance the next time an Israeli soldier is held captive or Israel's leadership wants to negotiate with Hamas — is another thing. Both at the political level and at the intelligence level, the Egyptian leadership must be asking itself, long-term, whether it can do business with Israel.
Related posts:
Assassinating The Chance For Calm/
↪ Assassinating The Chance For Calm
Gershon Baskin, who has been conducting negotiations to secure a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, writes in Open Zion:
Yesterday morning, hours before Israel assassinated Ahmed Jaabari, my counterpart in Hamas presented the draft to Jaabari and to other Hamas leaders. Senior Hamas leaders on the outside had already seen it and had instructed him to check the reactions to it in Gaza. I was supposed to receive the draft yesterday evening to present to Israeli officials who were waiting for me to send it to them.
That option is now off the table. Jaabari is dead and so is the chance for a mutually beneficial long term ceasefire understanding. Why did Benjamin Netanyahu do it? The cynical answer already offered by Aluf Benn in Haaretz is elections consideration. Cast Lead was also conducted before elections. Hitting Jaabari, according to Netanyahu's thinking, would help him in the upcoming Israeli elections. Perhaps this is true, perhaps not.
It seems to me that some of the commanders of the Israeli army have been very frustrated that the previous agreements to return to calm left Israel in a weaker position, with Hamas calling the shots. They have been calling to rebuild Israel's deterrence. Let them in Gaza feel the pain of a serious Israeli attack and then they will think seven times before shooting more rockets, is what they proposed. In the last days there has been a lot of talk from politicians, military experts and officers to return to the policy of "targeted killings." This, they claim, would make the Hamas leaders hide for their lives and stop shooting at us. These military geniuses failed to realize that what never worked in the past will not work now either.
The meaning of Ahmed Jaabari's assassination/
"The IDF has begun a widespread campaign on terror sites and operatives in the Gaza Strip, chief among them Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets," the IDF announced this morning, signaling a new round of escalation under the name of Operation Pillar of Cloud. Ahmed Jaabari, head of the group's Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam brigades, was reportedly killed by the IAF. Further targeted killings of military commanders are expected. Rocket launching sites are also being bombed: so far, there is no hint of a ground incursion despite the rocket firing paralyzing civilian life in southern Israel though the IDF today announced that is it prepared to carry one out, a declaration it's made every time the two sides have exchange heavy fire since 2009.
While there's suggestions of this being part of an effort to prep world opinion for another war in Gaza Sol Salbe notes the similarities in the Israeli media's tone in the winter of 2009, right before Operation Cast Lead began, and the present this is also aimed at Hamas supporters in the region, intending to drive them apart and force their hands.
Since Hamas's leaders with their Fatah re-unity plans again on indefinite hold are now casting about for support from Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, the resumption of IDF assassinations is likely also meant to send a message to those parties.
And though it is unlikely Israel hopes to provoke an Iranian response here, it will have that effect and possibly drive Tehran and Hamas ever-closer together since Iran's statements and actions will obviously not be hampered by military agreements with the US. Here, for Iran, is an opportunity to reassert itself in Gaza, which is an unfortunate development for those in Hamas who've grown skeptical of the Damascus-Tehran alliance like its political chief, Khaled Meshaal.
✚ Gaza, Likud' primaries, and Egypt-Hamas relations/
✚ Gaza, Likud' primaries, and Egypt-Hamas relations
From a Tablet interview with Nathan Thrall of ICG:
What makes this different from other rocket barrages from Gaza, which have been going on for months?
What is the difference this time? This time we had hundreds of thousands of residents of southern Israel who are going into shelters and their kids weren't going to school. Forget about left and right in Israel. Basically, the entire political spectrum in Israel was saying very clearly that this was unacceptable and was in favor of doing something. And you had the various analysts and commentators and security officials saying things like, 'there's no good solution and if there was one, you would have seen it already.'
There are no good solutions for Israel for this problem and the fact is that nobody in Israel believes that whatever they do, whether it's another Cast Lead or something strong but short of that, if they go in with ground troops in a limited way, if they go in with ground troops all over Gaza, if they occupy just the border between Egypt and Gaza, if they split Gaza into three and occupy little strips, or if they occupy the whole thing, everyone believes that at the end of that, Egypt's not going to take it and Abu Mazen is too weak to be put back there, so what you're left with is Hamas control of Gaza again.
I think it's not unfair to say that the real difference this time is that we have a Likud primary in two weeks and Israeli elections coming up very shortly. It's simply untenable for there not to be a response as there had not been a response in previous rounds of these escalations.
So you absolutely see the influence of the upcoming Israeli elections in this operation.
I don't see any other explanation. Given that the other escalations have been even bigger, there have been more rockets. Not only that, but this thing started after people were already talking about a ceasefire. The front page of Haaretz this morning was talking about a ceasefire and there was a lull at four in the afternoon when Jabari's car was hit.
Likud looked very impotent the last few days. Everyone I talked to in Israel—whatever their political persuasion—was of the view that something had to be done. I don't see how it could have been ignored. I don't want to overthink it by saying 'well, this is the eve of Olmert's announcement of his reentering the race and he is someone who actually did quote-unquote "take care of Gaza," he is someone who actually did eliminate a nuclear program instead of just talking about it. Whether Olmert specifically plays any role, it's certainly the case that the elections made a difference.
✚ Egyptian revolutionaries and liberals call for Gaza protest/
✚ Egyptian revolutionaries and liberals call for Gaza protest
And of course the protest is not just against Israel's attacks, but also the Egyptian government's lack of reaction:
The statement argued that the attacks in Gaza over the weekend cannot be understood separately from current events in Egypt's Sinai peninsula. The statement accuses Israeli intelligence of involvement in the current security problems in Sinai, adding that the Egyptian government are also to blame for its "bad management" of the situation.
"We reject the situation whereby after a revolution, the government can continue to hide its deals with Israel and instead continue to blame the Palestinians for deteriorating security in Sinai," the statement read, further blaming the lack of Egyptian opposition to events in Palestine on the new regime and its "lies", and demanding that the Camp David peace treaty with Israel is made public "for citizens to know its catastrophic effect" on Egypt.
The statement was signed by a number of political organisations, including the Egyptian Popular Current, the National Front for Justice and Democracy, the Revolutionary Socialists, the Popular Committees for the Protection of the Revolution, the Alliance of Revolutionary Forces, the National Assembly for Change, the Free Egyptian movement, the Free Egyptians Party, the Free Front for Peaceful Change, and the Kefaya movement.
Just like under Mubarak: the government (in this case the Brotherhood) is sandwiched between an angry population and regime interests, the opposition is leveraging this to its own advantage and making requests that don't quite make sense (the Egypt-Israel peace treaty is quite publicly available, for instance — although perhaps they are referring to subsequent memoranda). The irony is that two years ago the MB would have been on the opposite side. I wonder how long this is sustainable for them before they are forced to take the lead.
Update: Of course the government — actually not the government or Morsi himself since they won't talk to Israelis, but General Intelligence — is mediating a truce between Hamas and Israel. Complicated world we live in.


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B2ST open independent label 'B2ST Music' in Japan + release first song 'One'
B2ST are branching out from musicians to businessmen as they've formed their own independent label, 'B2ST Music', in Japan! B2ST held a press conference on March 16 in Tokyo to celebrate their fifth anniversary in Japan as well as the launching of 'B2ST Music'. The label will be maintained by the B2ST members and a handful of composers as well as producers with member Junhyung as main producer.They'll be the first K-pop group ever to e
HyunA reveals her dance practice for Willdabeast cover
HyunA revealed her dance practice for her Willdabeast cover via Instagram.As usual, the sexy queen lays it all out on the floor as she whips her hair, does a booty shake, and more to the catchy beat with the help of another dancer. If you've been missing her signature dance moves and charisma, you can check out the video below! Although she's taking a break at the moment since solo promotions, she is also preparing for activities with
B2ST release album covers for their upcoming 'BEAST JAPAN BEST' album
B2ST has released the album covers to their upcoming 'BEAST JAPAN BEST' album!Their upcoming Japanese album will include a lot of their past hit tracks. However, there will also be a new song, a bonus track entitled "Kimi ga Omou Ijyou ni (More Than What You Think)," which was already revealed as a teaser for the album. Currently, the boys of B2ST are in Japan to promote their newest album, going around the biggest cities to get close to their f
B2ST unveil new song as teaser for Japanese best album
B2ST dropped a teaser for the release of upcoming album, 'BEAST JAPAN BEST,' which includes a lot of their past hit tracks. However, there will also be a new song, a bonus track entitled "Kimi ga Omou Ijyou ni (More Than What You Think)," which is revealed above as a teaser for the full album.The song is super sweet and easy on the ears, especially cooed by each member's gentle voice. 'BEAST JAPAN BEST' is a Japan best album that includes songs
B2ST finish up 'Good Luck' promotions through a special 'B2ST Unplugged Concert'
B2ST finished up their "Good Luck" promotions through a special concert!The boys held a 'B2ST Unplugged Concert' to 500 lucky fans on the 27th. The boys newly edited their songs to thank their fans. 100,000 fans submitted an entry to win a seat at the concert, and B2ST personally picked 500 of the entries to come see them at their live concert. The boys kicked off with "Lightless" and sang many songs, including "Midnight", "I'm Sorry", "The Fact
B2ST's Doojoon and Dongwoon used to have a complex about their eyes
B2ST released another entertaining episode of MBC Everyone's 'Showtime - Burning the BEAST' on June 19.In this episode, they had to pull off a mission by singing together to a writer who broke up with her significant other one month beforehand. It also showed some behind-the-scenes footage from their comeback preparations.During one discussion, Doojoon revealed, "I originally had a complex about my eyes." Yoseob pointed out it had a lot of w
B2ST's Doojoon talks about his school days on 'Showtime - Burning the Beast'
B2ST's Doojoon discussed his school days on the June 5th episode of 'Showtime - Burning the Beast'!He met up with his best friend of 10 years on the show, and his friend revealed, "He normally wasn't popular, but girls loved it when they saw him perform at festivals." Kikwang joked, "He was popular even though he had glasses?" Doojoon's middle school graduation photo was shown, and he definitely looked like a different person back then. What do y
Doojoon says affectionately there'd be no B2ST without Yoseob
On a new episode of MBC Everyone's 'Showtime - Burning the BEAST' that aired on May 22, B2ST's leader Doojoon showed his affections and concern toward main vocalist, Yoseob, whose throat was not in the best condition that day. Doojoon went to each member's hotel room with a camera to get some realistic footage. The first person he visited was none other than Yoseob, who had a towel around his throat.Doojoon asked, "What can we do about your voic
B2ST's Dongwoon reveals he was once kissed on the lips by Junhyung
Maybe it's because it's been four years since their last reality program, but B2ST did not shy away in the slightest for their entertaining 'Showtime - Burning the BEAST' show on April 10! On this episode, Dongwoon revealed a story with Junhyung that shocked even the other members.He said, "Once, when Junhyung and I were drunk, Junhyung kissed me on the lips then left." The other members said, "On the lips," and were unable to hide their shocked
Kikwang reminisces about fans peeking into B2ST's bathroom
On the first episode of B2ST's 'Showtime - Burning the BEST' on April 10, the members visited locations where they made a lot of good memories. Kikwang chose to go to their first dorm and peeked over a brick wall to see the window into what had been their only bathroom. He explained that back when they lived there together, curious fans had spied on the boys through the window. Kikwang shared, "Whether washing up or showering, they would..." and


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More than 50 people crowded inside with more than 20 standing in the hallway outside the Canisteo-Greenwood board room Monday night to criticize the district decision to eliminate the Redskin logo and name, plus protest how the choice was explained to students.
More than 50 people crowded inside with more than 20 standing in the hallway outside the Canisteo-Greenwood board room Monday night to criticize the district decision to eliminate the Redskin logo and name, plus protest how the choice was explained to students.
Several of the protesters wore shirts with the distinctive red logo of the head of a warrior wearing a feathered headdress.
Interim superintendent Charles H. Clemens was cut off as he tried to speak several times, but three times he said, "I screwed up."
Board President Michael L. Nisbet several times apologized for the process that led to classroom explanations to students and obtained student nominations for options to the logo and name.
Nisbet said the board has made "no decision. Our decision was to investigate the issue. We probably should have sought public input."
The board president admitted he has "no bias" about the issue.
Nisbet said the reorganization meeting July 8 in the high school auditorium will offer "more time to discuss the pros and cons of the issue." The venue will also offer more space than the small board room.
Nisbet said he and several board members said they "believe in majority rule. If we look at all sides and the majority wants (to go) one way or another, that will be my preference."
While not on the agenda, the issue was discussed for a solid hour before agenda items were addressed. The meeting became a heated discussion at times with some profanity and a lot of angry statements.
The board was told one teacher told a classroom of young children the term Redskins is "racist and derogatory," while others said they found out an assembly was held to change the name when kids were posting on Twitter. One resident said "people are watching Charlie."
Clemens responded, "Absolutely, and I have no problem with that. I said I screwed up, we'll make the changes and we'll move on."
Clemens said former Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey A. Matteson gave him the information on a possible name change, and he is moving forward with that information.
Board Member Dr. Bruce W. MacKellar said, "It's not our choice what's offensive to other people. We ought to respect other people's rights," especially when "someone does view (a term) as derogatory, where someone is offended."
He also agreed with Nisbet about the cost of a major legal fight about a name: Canisteo-Greenwood "can't afford a major legal battle" about a mascot.
Several parents said administration explanations about the name change confused some students. Some also asked, in the words of one parent, "if our administrators knew the board hadn't approved a name change."
MacKellar explained board members "gave (Clemens) permission to (develop) a plan (that could lead to) a potential name change."
Page 2 of 2 - Nisbet summarized that the board and interim superintendent "miscommunicated."
"Everything will be scrapped" that has been accomplished, including nominations for suggested name changes, Nisbet said.
The board president several times said he would give his three telephone numbers and e-mail address to District Clerk Chrissie Taggert. He pledged to respond to every call and e-mail inquiry.
Although several comments were made about the interim superintendent, Nisbet said "the buck stops here with the board of education."
MacKellar noted that the board is simultaneously "in the process of looking at several candidates" for the vacant position of school superintendent.
To explain how the board should have handled the issue, Nisbet used the example of the changes in voting districts: The board had no public comments despite discussion of the issue at three board meetings, the distribution of a newsletter to the approximately 3,600 district residents and news stories explaining the subject.
The board finally agreed that a trained group of seniors from an economics class should pose two questions to voters after they cast their ballots for the district budget and three candidates for the board of education May 21.
John Anderson contributed to this report.
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Fifty years later, remembering the civil rights march that moved a nationMar 25, 2015 - 02:36 pm .- Catholic leaders marked the 50th anniversary of the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. with praise for those who advanced racial progress, calling on others to "march on" toward unity of hearts and minds.
US bishops praise continuing Civil Rights movementSep 17, 2014 - 02:34 am .- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was "a monumental step forward" for human dignity, but continued work is necessary to fight the "destructive influence of racism," said the head of the U.S. bishops' conference.
US bishops to honor 50th anniversary of civil rights milestonesAug 28, 2014 - 12:41 pm .- The U.S. bishops are encouraging commemorations of the 50th anniversary of milestones in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, saying they should inspire further work for the common good.
MLK's witness continues to push for justice 'rooted in love'Jan 20, 2014 - 06:48 am .- The example of Martin Luther King, Jr., calls Americans today to renew their commitment to justice and charity, reflected the head of the Knights of Peter Claver ahead of the annual holiday recognizing the civil rights leader.
Crowds in DC urged to continue work of Martin Luther KingAug 28, 2013 - 05:50 pm .- Thousands of people gathered in downtown Washington, D.C., on Aug. 28 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s now-famous "I Have a Dream Speech."
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You can submitt your Blog ,website to various search engines including various google engines for free.But keep in mind that after submiting wait for few days to resubmit.
Free Search Engine Submission Tool
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You can submitt your Blog ,website to various search engines including various google engines for free.But keep in mind that after submiting wait for few days to resubmit.
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ok done but actually i was targeting for that keyword :P
Always try to SEO Your site naturally , do not Use Automatically Submission Tools. Remember google don't like spamming they love your sites when they grow naturally step by step ... So Always avoid these kind of tool ... just my thought by the way
i dont think so first use that then say,its not posting of ur links without any reason here and there.its just submission to various engine.but ur will and wish to use or not:P
good info dear sir Thanks for share
Originally Posted by ltimranjaved
Well i don't think i have to use these kind of tools , So sorry, And yeah what i said above was not just for your SEO Tool That Was for All Automated Submission tools , So don't take it hard
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well u r mixing two things diretcory submission and search engine submission.
what u mentioned is right for directory submission google will put it in the sandbox if too many links comeup suddenly by using automated directory programs but in case of search engine submission we are just submitting our site to search engine they are not going to list anywhere its totally upto them when they crawl or index our site.
frommy experience i think automated search engine submission i snot bad,i m on google search first page although my PR is 0
Thanks for providing such tool.
Naturaly,Search engine submission tools shows 100 s of search engine list on it.
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When Top 5 search engines posses the 98.69% of total search volume,submitting on 100s of ssearch engines is worthless job.
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Its good idea to submit ur xml sitemap on Google webmaster tool and yahoo site explorer.
Hope everything is ok about professional SE submission when we are talking about SEO.


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Rated 3.3 out of 5 by 402 reviewers.
Rated 5 out of 5 by deblack123 Wonderful Staff The staff were helpful, friendly and professionals. February 10, 2014
Rated 2 out of 5 by Maddiedog conference hotel Room was dirty, restaurant service slow February 9, 2014
Rated 5 out of 5 by oldwatch 5 star during tough time... Ice storm conditions, power outages all over the metroplex, a frozen city. I arrived at the Park Central early (9am) for my evening check in. It was that or not be able to get to Dallas at all. I was prepared to beg for a room or a place to store my luggage. Instead I was met with: Sure we can get you in a room right now. That evening I ate at the in house restaurant and had a good meal. The next morning at breakfast I had the same waitress as had served me the night before. She was exhausted, but she had stayed all night because so many of the staff were unable travel in for their shifts. It's the trying times that tell us what kind of business we are, so a tip of my hat to the Park Central Staff during a very tough event. They did a great job during a hard few days. February 7, 2014
Rated 2 out of 5 by ML30 Outdated Hotel This hotel was not what I would expect from a Westin. The rooms were extremely outdated (looks like Westin took over an old, low budget hotel and left the room as is). The lobby is renovated and familiar of Westin style. Also the staff is wonderful. February 2, 2014
Rated 4 out of 5 by ourDallasVisit Time in dallas We love the Westin bed so always try to stay there. As typical the rooms were great and the staff was able to meet our needs of connecting rooms. The only negative was restaurant. The food was ok but it didn't sit well with our stomachs (wife and i; kids were ok). February 2, 2014
Rated 3 out of 5 by EL3233 Room fragrance The room had a strong smell of Fabreeze or something similar. It was very strong, to the point of a headache. Prefer hotel rooms to be fragrance free like a home. Just clean and fresh. January 30, 2014
Rated 5 out of 5 by twrea This hotel has a great staff The staff at the Westin Dallas,Tx was excellent. Great !!!!!! January 27, 2014
Rated 2 out of 5 by Dancemom14 Not impressed for a Westin I have always elevated the Westin Line based on thinking it was an exceptional Hotel but this one in Dallas dashed that expectation. The Hotel needs updating really bad to keep up with the Westin legacy. January 27, 2014
Rated 2 out of 5 by Familyvacation2013 bad experience Front desk staff needs training opportunities!!, and additional staff at desk January 23, 2014
Rated 2 out of 5 by NewYear2014 Brown turbid water My wife and I stayed at this hotel on 12-31-13. We got in late after New Year's Eve festivities and were looking forward to a warm shower and getting cleaned up. To our horror, when we turned on the sink faucet, a turbid, brown debris-filled, watery sludge emerged. We tried the bath tub to find a similar brown fluid. Any water to be consumed or bathed in was not suitable for use. We collapsed in bed and decided to leave early in the morning and return home to safe, sanitary, clean water. We did not even trust the safety of the water that might be used in the restaurant! Eating there was definitely NOT an option! This was NOT how we wanted to end our stay. We are EXTREMELY disappointed in how this was handled by the staff. Our complaint to the front desk was met with an insincere, indifferent apology, a generic explanation that there had been a leak on the second floor, and that nothing could be done. We were brushed off. Our room was prepaid. You had our money. We were therefore of no consequence to the front desk clerk or anyone else. As we were making our complaint, we witnessed another guest, who spent substantially more than we did on several rooms, complain to another clerk of the same brown water issue. He was also met with the same indifference. I just don't understand how a leak could cause this kind of brown water problem. On reading other reviews now, I see that this brown water is a recurring problem. We understand that leaks and other failures do occasionally occur, but as a guest in your facility, we would have expected to be informed of major failures that would affect our stay. We would have expected a more proactive response that would have minimized our inconvenience and warned us of this potentially unsafe, unclean, unusable water. We were never informed. Why? Why were we permitted to be exposed to a potentially hazardous condition? This is just poor management, especially for a hospitality business! Our dissatisfaction is such that we are highly unlikely to choose to stay at this or any other Westin facility in the future, nor recommend this facility to others. When we chose Westin for our New Year's Eve stay, we expected a much, much higher quality of service and response to this issue than what we received, which was worse than what anyone would get at any budget motel. We expected Westin to act in accordance with its highly regarded reputation. Westin did not and it will take much for Westin, particularly Westin Park Central, to regain our patronage. January 1, 2014
Rated 3 out of 5 by Mwedding27 Ok Disappointed by the rude staff at check in who were too busy chatting rather than to check me in. They had no information on the shuttle to the Galleria or car services. Instead they instructed me to go outside and talk to the valet, who were very helpful. The bathroom was dirty with hair all over bathroom floor/tub. The second room had a dirty toilet seat which clearly had not been cleaned. The wedding venue was nice as was the hospitality room. Location is less than ideal December 23, 2013
Rated 2 out of 5 by Tom1960 No attendtion to detail tried to get someone to fix my toliet but never did and had to manual flush. The only thing that was done for me on checkout was some lousy points and we will have to fix it. not what I expected.. December 12, 2013
Rated 2 out of 5 by Turkeylover Old facilities & unfriendly information There are several things I think to be improved. First, the hotel facilities need to be improved. One of the elevators buttons were broken. When I pushed the door close button to go down but the elevator actually went up. The other thing, the small mirror in the bathroom almost fell off from the wall. Additionally, I think there should be information of telephone charge in a room. I used a room telephone to reschedule my flight which was cancelled by bad weather. I had to call so many times to reach the call center. It was a toll free number but I got charged by the hotel as many times as I called. I didn't know that until I received the bill. Either in the room or at the time of check in, the telephone charge should be informed to guests. Lastly, some reception staffs speak too fast to catch for non- native English speakers. Their explanation was not clear to understand. December 11, 2013
Rated 1 out of 5 by vgm04 Dallas 2013 The service I received from the reservations office in Austin was great, and they took care of all of my needs for me. However, when I arrived in Dallas, after stressful travel, the staff members told me that I was supposed to arrive the previous day, and since I had not they gave away my room and my card had been charged. When I explained I had changed my reservation with the Austin office, and asked to call them, they refused and were very rude! They made no attempt to check on the situation, and I had to call Austin and the corporate office in California myself to get the situation resolved(and my room, which they originally told me they had none). I felt lied to and very disrespected by the Dallas staff and management. They did not even apologize for being wrong and try to make it right! Thankfully the corporate staff members are competent unlike the Dallas Westin staff. December 11, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5 by EmilyTSPGPlat Wonderful Staff The front-desk staff at this hotel is great! I especially want to acknowledge Younis and Natt for their outstanding service during my weekend stay. When I checked-in on Friday, I inquired about getting an upgrade. Since I was booked on points I wasn't sure how much the hotel would accommodate me and not only that, the hotel was completely sold out due to a large event that was happening and the ice storm. Younis looked up all the availability and at first said he could move me to a junior suite the next morning, which I was perfectly happy about. Moments later, he looked up something else, and said he actually had something for me for the whole weekend. As it turns out, he had upgraded me from my corner room to their best suite! The room was huge, had a lockout style bedroom, an office, and a large living area with a granite dining table, powder room, and multiple sofas. I was also given a few complimentary breakfast certificates for my stay. Throughout that weekend, Younis and Natt provided nothing but exceptional service. Overall, I was very impressed by the level of care and service this hotel provides its platinum guests! December 10, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5 by aavee8or Pleasant stay I've stayed for the last three years and it has been a pleasant experience each time. December 9, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5 by Dino Great Stay This hotel was in a prime location for my needs. The staff was fantastic. I will stay here again! December 4, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5 by PlatinumJames The Good & The Bad This hotel is an amazing building with a great location. First, the good: The rooms here are huge, the food is very good in both room service and at the restaurant in the lobby and the Irish Pub. The club lounge was not open (weekend stay) so I cannot comment on that, but they did give me a voucher for breakfast in the restaurant. They have great amenities here with the gym and a nice heated pool. Pool is too small to do laps in it, however, but it was nice. I am a platinum member and wrote to them via email prior to my visit to request an upgrade to a corner room. I was staying on points so you never know how generous they will be. I received a response from the hotel shortly afterwards (which is actually rare, most don't ever bother to respond and some don't even read the email) which I was impressed by. The letter told me that they had upgraded me all the way up to one of their top suites! My suite was huge and spectacular with a great view and included a powder room, a bar area, a foyer, an eight seat dining room combined with a huge living room with multiple seating arrangements, artwork and accent furnishings and an attached bedroom (lock off style) which was just a typical room for the hotel, nice and large. The Bad: I hate to write anything bad about a hotel that gave me such great service, great upgrades but this is more for the OWNER (ARE YOU READING THIS?). You have milked the design of this hotel for far too long. The building was an eighties creation and it looks like it was remodeled in the early nineties and only had light fluffs since then. Everything is clean and in working order but upon closer inspection you see very dated interiors, furnishings and architectural failings. Little things like brass molding in the elevators falling away from the wood, too many layers of paint over the decades, materials in need of replacement. I want you to know that this hotel, properly redone, could be one of the top Starwood properties in Dallas. You can't just do a fluff anymore, it is time to gut and remodel and start fresh. Other than the exceptionally dated state of the hotel, which again is maintained very well, the only other complaint was that the internet was very slow even when I signed up for the upgraded faster service. I couldn't do anything on my computer with video, chat, or email even. Despite the negatives, the staff here keeps it a worth while choice and the pricing is very good and in keeping with current state of the interiors. I had an enjoyable stay, will stay again, and recommend it for anyone who doesn't mind a well run, well kept dated hotel. December 2, 2013
Rated 3 out of 5 by Lenora88 Was Expecting More I was expecting a lot more because of the name and price. There are definitely some opportunities at this hotel. Better room service needed. I had to call several times before someone picked up the phone. A co-worker was looking forward to using the hotels jacuzzi, and was disappointed to find out the hotel did not have one. The hotel offered limited Shuttle service. Also another Co-worker did not have ice on her floor for her entire stay. I would only recommend this hotel if someone had a meeting(s) at the adjacent office bulding. November 25, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5 by cabbott Great location We stayed here while visiting the Dallas Aquarium and Dallas Zoo. They are located approximately 15 minutes away. It was a nice clean hotel. My daughter and I used the workout facilities and they were clean and well maintained. We would definitely come back again. November 20, 2013
Rated 3 out of 5 by ScottT Not what you'd expect The common areas seemed to be recently updated. The rooms, however, look like they haven't been updated in at least 20 years. The bathroom mirrors were very old and losing the reflection in places. In the shower, you could see on the very old tile where they had a previous shower curtain rod still etched in. There is actually a clothesline IN the shower. Now, the shower head had been updated. There was a phone next to the toilet. The room wouldn't really cool down very well. There was no fridge/mini bar. Booking was supposed to have parking included, but it didn't, so that was an additional charge. Just really not what I'd think a Westin would be. There was nothing particularly bad about the stay, but nothing that would make me go back, either. The old girl has definitely seen her better days. On the bright side, there is an In-N-Out Burger across the highway. November 19, 2013
Rated 3 out of 5 by JJmama Little Mistake After registering Green choice, I request cleaning room for several times but only happen after four days. I don't want to blame them, but it was not a good experience. November 18, 2013
Rated 4 out of 5 by Jimmy48 Great Hotel Except For Wi-Fi Attended a conference at the hotel and the meeting rooms, food and conference services were first rate. The room was very nice as well. The only issue, and it was an irritant, was the slow wireless connection. Streaming video was out of the question. I also did not like having to make an additional payment for the substandard service. November 11, 2013
Rated 2 out of 5 by DRF62 This hotel was a disappointment. This was a 2-star hotel with a 4-star price tag. We were misled about the shuttle (we were told it ran 24-7 within five miles of the hotel- that wasn't true- it only ran twice a day to a mall). The hotel has two restaurants, one is way over-priced for the quality of food you get and the other (a pub, sports bar) never opened. Guy at the desk says it only opens about twice a year. It obviously would be a cheaper option so the hotel is kind of gigging you by keeping it closed. Décor was rough (wood chipped, carpets dirty) and light fixtures in our bathroom were falling out of the ceiling. November 10, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5 by Stormy2712 This hotel has great service and very clean. My stay was pleasant...comfortable bed, clean room, excellent food and room service. Kayshia went "above and beyond" to accommodate my needs. She's a beautiful person, very friendly, professional and helpful. She's a KEEPER! You need more like her to run that front desk. November 4, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5 by BT1234 Great service The staff at this hotel is exceptionally friendly and treats it's business travelers with great courtesy. I appreciate the way they make sure you have everything you need when you arrive. October 27, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5 by Shoop great job service level was terrific October 24, 2013
Rated 1 out of 5 by DCAB Find a different hotel This hotel nickels and dimes its clients. What looks like complimentary water is $3.50 per bottle, there are parking charges, no "breakfast included" menu. Overall, Motel Anything has the Westin beat. October 23, 2013
Rated 5 out of 5 by kempsga state fair stay Enjoyed staying here. Very nice to give free tickets to the the fair. October 20, 2013
Rated 1 out of 5 by David10 Supplier Quality Assurance Engineering Manager Rooms cold, plumbing fixtures to shower don't work adequately, china closet made loud noise and needs repair, beds not properly made - sheets shorted and very loose. Wireless internet service worst I've ever had and no resolution, even after 3 Tech support calls This hotel needs to be audited. Left message for a Manager to contact me to discuss to provide constructive inputs, but no call as of yet, several days later. October 18, 2013


text:
Seemed very good up until the ****** wubwub began.
An old school shoot'em up with a modern twist. Futuridium EP offers fast paced, non stop, hard as hell action, with an original 45 minutes soundtrack and colourful, glitchy graphic. Free, on Pc Windows, Mac and (soon) Linux.
Futuridium EP, the first game by MixedBag, is finally finished! Take a sneak peak to the latest screenshots and the new trailer. Game will be out on 20 june 2013!
Posted by Skyrise on Jun 9th, 2013
Futuridium EP is done!
Release on: june 20 2013 - PC/Mac.
Ok guys, after some months the game is finally FINISHED!
It's really exciting since this is the first release from out indie studio MixedBag: we are also working on forma.8 but since Futuridium was a smaller project we've decided to finish and release it first.
The game started as a small game for the gameprog.it Unity3d contest in december, then we decided to polish it a bit and release it as a free game. And well, we started adding new stuff, polishing, adding more levels, polishing a bit more, change some core gameplay mechanics and... here we are now, the game is a LOT bigger than we anticipated.
Just a quick recap:
- 13 levels
- 13 original music tracks, for a 50 minutes original soundtrack. You can skip them in games like a jukebox.
- A new energy based gameplay mechanic
- 4 different gameplay speed, unlockable finishing the game. The game can get crazy fast...
- 4 different graphic skins
- a total graphic makeover, with revised colours, new models, more particles and special effects
- online leaderboards (with full GameCenter and achievement support on Mac OSX)
- totally revised difficulty curve, the game is still super hard but more enjoyable
- a credit system: destroy cubes to get in game credits to continue and other goodies
- some cool easter eggs...
The game will be FREE, and will be out on june 20 for PC/Mac.
Here is the new trailer:
and some new screenshots!
If you like the game, follow us on:
Official website: Futuridium.com
Facebook: Facebook.com
Twitter: Twitter.com
We'll have more news in the upcoming days 'till the release of the game.
Seemed very good up until the ****** wubwub began.
We have 13 awesome music traks in the game, and you can skip them while playing. ;)


text:
Harris isn't the only virtual assistant making a mark in the Capital District. Rhonda Parker of Clifton Park is a virtual assistant who runs a business called Virtually Yours 925.
"I don't ever have to ask, 'Can I go?' I do the work on my time schedule and not theirs," said Parker.
Parker worked as an administrative assistant for 30 years for senior level management in the Albany area, including Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical company, and for the state Office of Facilities Development.
After Facilities Development merged with the state Dormitory Authority, the company downsized and Parker started working for lower pay. This, along with having to undergo major surgery and losing her mother within a short timespan, left her wanting a different career path.
She took computer-training classes and applied to temp agencies, but felt bigger companies were reluctant to hire her because of her age.
"I was like, that's it, I've had it with state employment," she said. "It's not about experience anymore, corporate America is greedy. They want to mold the younger ones into what they want them to be."
Now in her second year as a virtual assistant, Parker said she is happy working full-time for small businesses, taking care of the clerical and administrative tasks that small business owner shouldn't have to deal with. She consults and coaches her clients, assists them with mass mailing, scans their business cards and maintains their databases.
"Their work always gets done, but I'm able to do it on my own terms. It is in my best interest to help them be successful," she said.
Both Harris and Parker said being a virtual assistant is a great fit for the right person, especially stay-at-home moms or assistants who have been in the business for several years yet no longer desire to work in an office setting.
"We are extremely resourceful, we may not have all the answers, but we will find them because of the experience we have," said Parker.
For information, Harris can be reached at www.instantassistant.net or 598-2419. Parker is at www.virtuallyyours925.com or 641-1734.""
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Secrets of Success< Secrets of Success Main Page
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My Most Important Daily Must Do's
Although I'm a fairly new SparkPeople member (and loving it), I did bring with me 3 things that I learned from another program and are the make-or-break of my weekly weight loss.
- Submitted by CLAIRBROCK 1/8/2011 in Getting Started | 2 Comments
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