text:
Four maxims to remember at all times when creating a fantasy world.
We all remember our first loves!...Thats right! I mean our first rpg characters of course. For many of us, it included a ratty piece of paper, a #2 pencil, and six sided die. Didnt need much more than that back then :D.
Got this idea while reminiscing with Scras. Just post your first character, a few lines to a paragraph, thats all I ask. In the words of Fiddler on the Roof, "Those were the days my friends."
Having no real place to put this thought I decided to put it here. This is to be read objectively. This is my opinion and my take on the voting system.
Many times the Old World has been mentioned in my works. Submitted for your approval…The Old World.
D'hui said, "What is "homebrew"?
Tyren isn't just another world for players to RP in. No, this setting goes far, far beyond that.
Torture…pure and simple.
It's time to break free of the lute's death-grip
Languages do not exist as unconnected entities; rather, every language will be related in some way to every other language…
I'm trying to think of alternatives for game-openings, to replace the standard "meet up in a tavern" or "adventuring group applying for a job" techniques. I know these can be easy ways to get people playing, but I'm certain there are more interesting ways…
Ever wanted to add a legendary artifact to your campaign, but you were worried about PC's getting their hands on it?
Or you put the Legendary item in your game and the PC's already managed to get it?
What to do, and how to fix it.
A guide on creating legal codes for games, history, examples, and why bother?
Players want their characters to be special, and a secret is one way to do it. It is also a way to better connect the character with the game world.
Critiques and critics are a necessary evil. Now before anyone gets riled up, let me explain. No one likes to have their ideas picked apart. But we put our selves out there and hope for the best. Here are some tips on being a better critic.
Sometimes, you just need a new plot.
Sometimes it is necessary. Sometimes it just happens. Whether to a PC or NPC, a curse is something nasty that changes their life significantly, and not for the better. You were warned.
Dreams are another way to announce the future, to add colour, to guide the characters or even mislead them. This is a scroll of various dreams.
One player. One Game Master. Roleplaying in this way is slightly different than with a group.
Reading through the animal thread and a conversation with Scrasamax lead to the creation of this thread. For the Adventurer with a taste for exotic meals…may I present. "The Official Strolen Citadel Cookbook".
GM's block is a serious problem in the roleplaying world. Related to writer's or actor's block, it prevents the GM from being creative and enthusiastic about their work.
For the people of Kuboloth, hell is not in the depths of the earth but in the cold of the windy air;heaven is in the warmth of the earth, lit by glowing jewels.


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Harajuku Lovers Super G Perfume
By Gwen Stefani for Women
Harajuku Lovers Super G Perfume by Gwen Stefani, Harajuku lovers super g is from gwen stefani, the singer, designer and song-writer . A part of the harajuku lovers fragrance collection, this perfume has a unique theme of the super girl who wants to fill you with sweet smell. It brings the cuteness and cuddling back into your mature world. The attractive flacon is adorable and irresistible. If you are longing for your childhood chirpiness to come back into your life, this super girl can create ... Read More ... Read More that wonder for you. The notes are scrumptious delight with the fruity excitement of banana, tropical zest of mandarin orange, raspberry and pineapple with the creamy gourmand vanilla. All products are original, authentic name brands. We do not sell knockoffs or imitations.
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Love the design on the bottles...
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Best Uses
Comments about Harajuku Lovers Super G By Gwen Stefani:
I tried this at a duty free shop 3 years ago and what I could remembered that it was a nice loud bright fruity scent. I loved it and thought it smells very good, but never been able to get it until recently which I placed an order online for this.
Today, I tried it but I have to say I'm really disappointed. It is not as great as what I thought before. I could smell mainly (just) coconut plus the terrible smell of mixing-too-many-scent into one... became unbearable smell. I couldn't smell any proper fruit notes other than just coconut+citrus.
I let my colleague to try it out and apparently she loves it, so I gave it to her at the end. I guess it's just my taste and preference. I love fruity fragrance, but this one does not live up to what I thought it would be.
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Hey Everyone,
I had set up the password option in to DUN, but whenever i try to access through my dial-up connection it shows the error message "incorrect password string ". I tried to reset my password option but it didn't work for me. Can any one tell me that why i'm facing such problem? Any help on this issue would be appreciated.
Thank you.


text:
GM Towers on the Hoffman situation: 'We just don't have the money'
Towers quickly engaged the Braves on Peavy in October. He said the Braves "made a good offer" for Peavy, but the two sides couldn't get a deal done. Complicating matters, Peavy's consent was needed and far from certain. "I didn't know if Jake would go to Atlanta," Towers said Wednesday.
The Padres offered $4 million to Hoffman in mid-October, which meant they were willing to cut ties with Giles if Hoffman accepted.
But as the November deadline approached to act on Giles, Hoffman had not accepted the $4 million salary. The club pulled the offer to Hoffman and picked up the Giles option.
"I think if Trevor would have accepted our offer, it would have been hard for us to exercise the option on Giles," Towers said.
Towers said during the winter meetings that keeping both Peavy and Hoffman was unlikely.
Even now, with Hoffman seemingly out the door, the Padres remain open to trading Peavy, whose salary would chew up nearly 30 percent of the 2009 payroll, as long as it makes baseball sense. Towers has said a much-discussed proposal from the Cubs "would fill several holes" on the roster.


text: Wackbag Keeper Hockey League Basic Rules: 12 team Head to Head 20 players/team: 2C, 2L, 2R, 1F, 1util, 4D, 6bench, 2G, 2IR 8:5 ratio- g, a, +/-, pim, hits (new to yahoo), ppp, shp, fw | w, gaa, sv, sv%, sho League votes No transaction maxes. Keeper Rules: 9 Keepers + 1 Farm Keeper There's no limit to how long you can hang onto your keepers. To qualify as a Farm Keeper, the player must not have played more than 20 NHL games in any season. Draft Rules: Initial draft order is randomized by yahoo. For the second year and after, it will be a reverse snake draft with one modification. The 6 teams that make the playoffs pick 7-12 in the first round, with the league champion picking 12th. The 6 teams that don't make the playoffs pick 1-6, with the winner of the consolation bracket picking first overall. This is to ensure competition after teams have missed the playoffs. LIVE ONLINE DRAFT TIME: MONDAY, OCT 4, 7:30pm Those are the rules, exploit em if you can! What's your fifth general order? Sir, the private's fifth general order is WBKHL sir. What's this league's password, Private? Sir, the league's password is ohunclepaul, sir! Private Pyle, you are definitely born again hard.


text:
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text:
Setting (and Sticking to!) A Holiday BudgetEmily Malone
Tis the season for bulging bank accounts. My husband and I have been carefully eyeing our finances for a few months now, and we finally implemented an official budget this month. Do you know how hard it is to start a budget in December? But I figure if we can do it this month, the rest of the year should be a breeze!
We broke down all the various household categories – groceries, car/gas, entertainment, clothes, baby, and more. We also created a "gifts" budget, that we'll use all year long for things like birthdays and holidays. But being so close to Christmas, we opted to extend our gift budget this month, making it quite a bit larger than most other months.
Now that I'm tracking every purchase, I find that I'm much more careful about what I'm spending. Here's how we're sticking to our budget…
1. Put it on paper. Well, 2012's version of paper – an Excel spreadsheet. The budget is updated every night, and I check it every morning. By looking at it every day, there is no pretending or forgetting. I'm much more aware of what we're spending!
2. Make a list. It's easy to feel overwhelmed during the holidays when you have a lot of friends and family to shop for. I like to start each season by listing who I'm buying for, and jotting down ideas next to the names.
3. Check it twice. Once the list and ideas are formed, go back down the list again, setting a target price point for each gift or each person. Tally up the total at the end, and make sure it's within your set budget! If not, go back and reevaluate where you can make some cuts.
4. Choose wisely. We're not really at the stage where Cullen is getting BIG gifts yet, but I know it will be here sooner than later. I think it helps to choose the big ticket items first. If you are giving your family an Xbox 360 this year, that should be the first item accounted for in the budget. All the smaller items can really add up fast, so they should be chosen after big items are taken care of. Also, something like an Xbox 360 can help save in other ways – you can use Netflix for movie streaming and cut down on cable costs. Or you can also use the fitness games to save on a gym membership!
How are you budgeting this year?
Thanks to Xbox for sponsoring this campaign. Visit xbox.com to learn more. Click here to see more of the discussion.


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Good genes and good style definitely run in these families. More
Good genes and good style definitely run in these families. More
These sisters share the same last name, but that's about all they have in common. More
The People's Choice Awards are happening this very evening, and we'll be bringing you pictures straight from the red carpet in real time. More
Emily Deschanel attended the closing ceremony for the 2009 Monte Carlo Television Festival in style today. She wore an exquisite rose strapless gown from Gustavo Cadile's Fall 2009 collection. The tulle and the tiered skirt add so much fairy-tale beauty … More
Emily Deschanel is really such a petite pretty gal. And we understand that everyone an have a bad day now and then. But what happened here? Does she look like an alien here, or is it just me? From the … More


text:
Colon screening can save your life
Colonoscopy both detects and prevents the second-leading cause of cancer death in U.S.
If you knew that there was a cancer screening that could not only detect indications of future cancers but also prevent a cancer from developing, wouldn't you sign up?
Then why have you been putting off having a colonoscopy?
Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, striking 1 in 19 Americans. It's also the most preventable major cancer, because small polyps can be removed during a colonoscopy before they turn cancerous. Despite this bad news/good news scenario, only 6 out of 10 Americans who should have regular colonoscopies get the screening.
March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and this is a perfect time to make the case for the colonoscopy. About 49,000 Americans die every year from colon cancer, and at least half of those deaths could be prevented if everyone followed the screening recommendations — adults over age 50 should have a colonoscopy every 10 years.
Dr. Edward Paredez, chief of gastroenterology at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, compared the colonoscopy to the mammogram.
"Just like in mammography to detect breast cancer, the colonoscopy can find and treat early cancers. But a colonoscopy is even more (effective) than a mammogram because it can also prevent cancer from happening by finding colon polyps and removing them," he said. "A colonoscopy can decrease colon cancer in a person by 90 percent — it's truly a screening and a prevention method."
Colon cancer usually starts as noncancerous polyps in the lining of the colon and rectum and very slowly develops into cancer. From the start of a benign polyp to the formation of colon cancer takes about 10 years. It's ideal to intervene before that process occurs.
"Colonoscopy is the most cost-effective cancer screening test we have," said Dr. Ananthram Reddy, a Sharp Grossmont Hospital-affiliated gastroenterologist. "It's been shown that the incidence of new cases of colon cancer has decreased significantly since more people are getting colonoscopies than ever before."
However, a 60 percent compliance rate is not good enough, he said. Everyone who is supposed to get a colonoscopy should get one.
The procedure, which involves the insertion of a flexible endoscope with a tiny camera on the end into your colon, is done under mild sedation. With the short-acting intravenous sedation used nowadays, not only will you not likely feel the scope, you'll probably never even see the scope.
The scope searches for polyps as it meanders through the twists and turns of the colon. The scope also includes a device for removing polyps — a small wire noose that loops around a polyp and tightens. The polyp then is removed for analysis.
Follow-ups are not generally needed, but it depends on what your risk for developing colon cancer is and what was found on your examination. If you don't have a family history and if your screening produced normal results, it's recommended that you don't have to go through the bothersome process for another 10 years.
The worst part of a colonoscopy is the bowel prep. The day before the exam, patients abstain from eating solid foods and drink only clear liquids, including Popsicles, Jell-O, clear broth and tea. But, that's not the bad part. You will probably have to drink large amounts of a nasty-tasting liquid that triggers diarrhea. Then it's off to the bathroom for most of the day and night.
Though unpleasant, this extreme intestinal purging is a critical part of the process. The more thoroughly the colon is cleaned out beforehand, the easier it is for a doctor to detect and remove potentially dangerous precancerous polyps.
Unfortunately, the prep can be so uncomfortable and time-consuming that it's often poorly executed or avoided altogether.


text:
GL204W Universal 4-cup Glass Coffee Replacement Carafe, White
Calculate your shipping price
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• Universal Design Fits Most 4-Cup Coffee Makers Including Pause and Serve Models (Betty Crocker, Braun, Mr. Coffee, Procter Silex) Greater thickness of glass for increased safety. Top rack dishwasher safe. Adaptors are included with the carafes and do not need to be purchased separately.
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My bike got stolen a few days ago and as I currently live in Shanghai, I desperately need a new bike to get around the city.
Am thinking about purchasing this Bianchi, but after hours of research, haven't been able to determine what frame it is. The seller claims that the frame originally was white, then painted black after having owned the frame for 6 years. He had also previously bought the bike from an expat who had been riding it for years before that. So I reckon the frame is around 8-10 years old, if it is indeed a real Bianchi frame.
Appreciate any help!


text:
ICPSR Council Minutes
27-28 March 2003
Council members present: Ilona Einowski, Elisabeth Gerber, Ann Green (Chair), John Handy, Mark Hayward, John Korey, Scott Long, Steve Ruggles, James Sweet, Bo Wandschneider
ICPSR staff present: Erik Austin, Rita Bantom, Bryan Beecher, Steve Burling, Dieter Burrell, Edward Czilli, Chris Dunn, Peter Granda, Sheila Grindatti, Bree Gunter, Myron Gutmann (Director), Hank Heitowit, Cynthia Hoxey, Michelle Humphres, Peter Joftis, Stacey Kubitz, Jim McNally, Mary Morris, JoAnne McFarland O'Rourke, Mary Vardigan, Janet Vavra
Visitors: Kevin Schürer, UK Data Archive; David Featherman, ISR Director
Director's Report
Myron Gutmann gave a PowerPoint presentation that outlined ICPSR's accomplishments since October. He presented information in the following key areas:
Staffing: ICPSR has filled two new positions since the last Council meeting. Amy Pienta will begin her position as Acquisitions Director on June 1, 2003, and James Lee has been appointed to several positions at the University of Michigan, including a position as a Faculty Associate at ICPSR. Gutmann also announced that Erik Austin has been promoted to Assistant Director of ICPSR.
Perry Building: The move to the Perry Building was successfully completed December 11-16, 2002, with computing down for only four hours. The furniture purchase came in under budget, and building security is currently being worked on.
Web and Collection Activities: The new ICPSR website was launched on March 10, complete with a new shopping cart function. There are currently 260 members of ICPSR Direct, and member downloads continue to increase. Since November 1, 32,669 files have been added to the archive.
Census 2000: The SF3 is now available online, and the SF4 is due out in April. Subsets from the SF1 are now also available. The 1% PUMS is due out next week. There is also a Summer Program course on Census 2000 scheduled for June.
Computing: An organization-wide desktop upgrade is nearly complete. Upgrades include standardized software, Windows 2000, and a new email system. The Administrative database has also been completed.
Administration: The Performance Management system continues to progress. The new budgeting and financial reporting system has been implemented, and staff are now working on new financial controls to meet University of Michigan requirements.
External Funding: The NEH proposal on undergraduate teaching and the NICHD proposal on Philippine ecomigration have not been funded.
The following external initiatives are pending:
- Disclosure Risk Analysis, NICHD
- Infrastructure project continuation, NSF
- ITR: Information Grid for Social Science, NSF
- Self-Management of Diabetes, NIA
- Grammars of Death, NICHD
- Immigrant Elders, NIA
- Kinship and Demographic Behavior, NICHD
The following external initiatives have been funded:
- Robert Wood Johnson renewal, HMCA
- NIJ renewal, converted to IA
- Child Care Archive pilot, Child Care Bureau
- Clean Process Data (Lillard Method), NIA
- Grassland Settlement, NICHD
Gutmann also reported that the retrofit codebook project has been completed. He commended the Electronic Document Conversion unit's hard work on this project, and presented Ann Green with the framed commemorative codebook.
Budget Report
Business Manager Stacey Kubitz provided a summary and overview of the current fiscal status of ICPSR. The original FY03 budget projected a $1,400 surplus for the year. Now staff is forecasting a $300,000-500,000 deficit for the current fiscal year. Causes of the deficit include 20% less spending on sponsored projects than forecast (resulting in less Indirect Cost Recovery--IDCR), and lower returns on our investments due to declines in the stock market.
To address these problems, specific steps have been taken:
- Staff reassignments from member-supported to sponsored projects.
- Delays in completion of Perry Building furniture purchases
- Close monitoring of non-salary costs
Kubitz then reviewed the status of ICPSR's reserves. We began the year with a fund balance in reserve of $1.9 million, of which $807,000 is required by our Memorandum of Agreement with ISR. The expected FY03 deficit, along with the planned expenditures for furnishing the Perry Building, bring our reserves down substantially.
The FY04 budget was constructed to address both expenditure patterns and the lowered level of ICPSR reserves. By implementing various adjustments to spending, we are forecasting a surplus for FY04 of $411,000. We have adopted a conservative approach to grant and contract income expected, including in the budget only those awards that have actually been received. (Pending grants/contracts may thus augment the total income received in FY04). In addition, we have decided to vacate the lower level of the Perry Building (consolidating all staff in the upper two floors of the building); this consolidation will save ca. $60,000 in rent in the coming year.
Kubitz set the current and upcoming fiscal years in historical perspective through display of several charts and graphs showing revenues and expenditures for 1999-2004. Across that period, ICPSR grew from a $6 million organization to a $9 million operation. Revenue from membership dues remained fairly flat across that period, while income from grants and contracts increased substantially.
Director Myron Gutmann next provided an interpretation of the current budget situation, to address why we have less money than we thought, as well as why staff created an austere member-funded budget for FY 2004. Graphs presented to Council illustrated budget trends, as well as gains and losses, for the period 1999-2004. A general upward trend in resources was accompanied by considerable variability in annual gains and losses, ranging from $952,000 in gains (2001) to $722,000 in losses (2002). The overall trend, however, has led to a nearly complete erosion of ICPSR's discretionary reserves. This required staff to stridently address the situation as they constructed the 2004 budget.
Gutmann explained that ICPSR expendable funds increased after its separation from the Center for Political Studies, and increased the size of its staff accordingly. Major areas of expansion included administrative staff (to provide necessary services as a stand-alone unit of ISR); recruitment of a senior academic as Director; and significant investment in Web services and technology. For 2002 and 2003, we overshot realistic expenditure targets and recovered less IDCR than expected, resulting in deficits both years.
The financial controls needed to anticipate and manage income and expenditures took longer to develop than we hoped, but are now in place. The approach that underlay creation of the 2004 budget was guided by several principles:
- member-funded expenses must be less than member dues revenue, with little reliance on IDCR
- we should reduce non-essential and non-personnel expenses first (hosting, rent, etc.)
- we should maintain investment in priority areas
- Reassign staff to new tasks if possible, rather than lay off staff
Gutmann reviewed for Council the operational areas paid for by our three major categories of income (member dues, grants and contracts, and IDCR). Member dues pay for:
- Half the cost of administering ICPSR
- General Archive collection development
- Other core services (Web, Data Library, User Support)
- Membership, meetings, and Outreach (conferences)
- Portions of Computing and Summer Program not paid for by grants and contracts
Grants and contracts pay for:
- Topical Archive collection development and outreach
- Parts of other core services (Web, Data Library, User Support, Programming)
- Research and Development activities
- Per capita shares of Computing
- Specialized Summer Program courses
Indirect Costs (IDCR) pay for:
- ICPSR's share of ISR Administration
- Rent ($230,000 for FY 2004)
- Half of ICPSR Administration
- General Organization expenses
- Proposal development
- Staff professional development
Other sources of funds include Summer Program Fees and interest income (from our investments).
For the 2004 budget, Gutmann described the good news: we continue a long-term trend of growth in both budget and member services, and pursuit of a research agenda is now underway, at no cost to the membership. Some challenges will face us, as well. They include possible delays in services to members, as a result of reductions in membership-supported budgets; the need to build back essential reserves; and the inability of IDCR to support core archival services. Accompanying these challenges are a set of key questions that Gutmann posed for the Council:
- What are ICPSR's core activities?
- Can these core activities by paid for by member fees?
- How do we develop and pay for core activities in the future?
- Is the current fee structure adequate to support the services expected by the members?
- What will the organization look like when the members contribute less than the current 30% of the budget?
Gutmann closed by announcing a staff review of ICPSR processes, including a reconsideration of everything we do. A report on this review will be delivered to Council at its October meeting
In the discussion that followed the budget presentation, Council members expressed a number of concerns. These included the need to convey to members the benefits accruing to ICPSR membership, including but not limited to long-term archiving, value-added components, and support for ICPSR as part of the social science "commons." Council members encouraged staff to study the financial consequences of ICPSR Direct; to explore various aspects of ICPSR operations in addition to data processing, including user support and Web design; and to develop estimates for costs of discrete transactions.
Plenary Session
Council asked about which ICPSR services will not be covered or are not now being covered due to budget constraints. Staff replied that there are currently none, but that there may be longer delays in processing studies in the General Archive due to staff re-assignments. PI's may call within days or weeks (with the average being about two months) wondering about when their data will be made available. These delays between when a study arrives and when it is publicly available now may be longer. Within Archival Operations, the first cuts have been made and will take effect over the next couple of weeks. Transfers within the General Archive began about one month ago. The delays resulting from staff re-assignments will remain longer until processes are re-designed or more staff are added. We will also contribute less to travel for ORs for the coming meeting, and we will spend less on hosting at the meeting. The bigger question will be how we choose to design essential services.
Council suggested doing a cost study and process study this summer, including even the "back office" tasks of the archive, such as determining the long-term costs of archiving each study and how we pay for it. With computing, we have the recharge rate, but that covers current costs. Council also asked about the long-term fiscal consequences of ICPSR Direct and whether it was saving money or costing more. The consensus was that it has a neutral budget effect.
Gutmann explained that we have not done a cost analysis, though we expect to save about $20,000 in mailing costs from eliminating hardcopy codebooks. However, we now have 1.5 full-time web employees, plus programmers that help implement and maintain web services. The net cost of operating the web has probably added marginally to cost but not substantially. Also regarding costs, it was noted that we lack an emphasis on benefits. Benefits tend to be buried, and we need to evaluate how people are using services and also note that member services do not necessarily have an immediately observable benefit, for example, the benefit of long-term preservation. Council suggested examining which activities have direct short-term benefits versus those that have long-term benefits, and stressed the importance of implementing a long-range plan rather than simply "counting bytes." Staff remarked that the cost of improving study descriptions may have important long-term benefits because this will allow us to add other tools.
Kevin Schürer commented that the UK has a download system that they thought would lower costs, but in reality, the costs have stayed level. The preparation costs went up, and the direct download capability also increased the number of users. The cost balance just transferred from handling dissemination to handling queries.
Schürer also explained that "activity-based costing" is required in the UK. They can tell exactly what it costs to process a study. They started two years ago, and the process has helped with decision-making and simplifying the system. Activity-based costing also helps prioritize internally and get external funds because they can now make an authoritative statement regarding precise costs. They conduct the analysis partly on a sampling basis instead of doing it continuously, which is less arduous and time-consuming for staff.
Council felt that more information is necessary regarding the definition of essential services, the long-term cost of archiving, the increased cost of better metadata, and any increases in user support resulting from ICPSR Direct. Gutmann pointed out that making a decision between important tasks is difficult, for example, choosing between funding long-term preservation and a new web design. Both are very important and both present challenges. When members drop, they are never concerned about long-term preservation because data are currently availably elsewhere. Council added that part of the problem is explaining the value of membership to members. We are usually focused on access but we also need to emphasize the research side, the linkages of our activities, and the value added activities of ICPSR. Bringing these activities back into the realm of membership services would be very valuable. We need to begin to articulate the value we contribute to data distribution.
Council indicated that that it is difficult to understand costs that are periodic versus those that are ongoing. At what point is something a loss, and when does a surplus begin? Gutmann provided the example of migrating backups to new media. If we plan for long-term preservation activities for five years, we can budget for them. It is more difficult to continue these activities when they are not specifically budgeted on an ongoing basis. Staff noted that the real challenge is that our core services have improved but revenues have stayed the same. If indirect cost returns will not pay for core services, then we need to evaluate our core services to determine what is most important. Efficiencies can come in process improvements but we need to keep in mind that services have also increased.
Planning and Policy
Council: Ann Green (Chair), Mark Hayward
Staff: Myron Gutmann, Erik Austin, Rita Bantom
Brief Updates
Intellectual Property: Myron Gutmann reported on continued discussions with University of Michigan administrators about the ownership of intellectual property created at ICPSR. While continuing to assert University of Michigan ownership of such intellectual property, the University tacitly agreed that any pecuniary benefit deriving from such intellectual property would accrue to ICPSR. Language to this effect was approved by both parties, and has now been incorporated into the Memorandum of Agreement between ICPSR and ISR.
DDI Alliance: Gutmann described ongoing deliberations leading to the creation of a "DDI Alliance" to continue the development of the DDI metadata standards begun with an NSF grant to ICPSR. It appears that there are currently 20 institutions likely to join the Alliance. Draft documents for the Alliance were available for review by the Committee. Gutmann expects that there will be a soft launch of the Alliance at the 2003 IASSIST meeting in Ottawa in late May.
Research Initiatives
Visiting scholars Guidelines: Staff presented to the Committee a draft document that outlines the guidelines for hosting visiting scholars at ICPSR. Scholars will be entertained at ICPSR if their visits promise to bring new kinds of knowledge to our organization or to stimulate our intellectual life. With rare exceptions (such as the Visiting OR Program), visiting scholars will be provided with modest support resources that include only office space, access to a desktop computer, and a small budget for long distance calls and postage. Visiting scholars will be expected to contribute to the regular life of ICPSR while in residence.
James Lee Recruitment: Gutmann briefed the Committee on the continuing efforts at the University, ISR, and ICPSR to recruit James Z. Lee, one of the world's foremost scholars of China. It is likely that Lee (now at Caltech) will accept Michigan's offer, and become Professor of History, Senior Research Scientist in the Population Studies Center at ISR, and Faculty Associate at ICPSR. He would be a tremendous asset to all three organizations. Lee submitted an NIH grant proposal in February that includes a significant component of ICPSR involvement.
Perry Building Issues
Perry Building space utilization: Staff reported on several developments for utilization of space in the Perry Building, by highlighting a number of the issues discussed in Myron Gutmann's report on the topic (included in the Council briefing book). Tentative decisions made by the Senior Staff (and subject to Council approval) include vacating the lower level of Perry except for utilizing conference rooms on that level for one-week sessions of the 2003 Summer Program. Gutmann and Facilities Coordinator Rita Bantom described explorations for locating the Summer Program in its entirety in the Perry Building, and the conclusion reached that the Perry space is not adequate for that purpose. Vacating the lower level entails moving staff located there to the top two floors, where adequate space has been found to house them. Considerable rent will be saved by this move, and it seemed incumbent on staff to realize this saving for the (already straitened) 2004 budget. The Committee joined staff in regretting the need to forego occupancy of the splendid space on the lower level in Perry, but acknowledged the fiscal necessity of doing so.
Perry Building Welcome Celebration: Staff has begun planning a celebration at the October Official Representatives meeting to commemorate both ICPSR's 40th anniversary and the 100th birthday of the Perry Building. A highlight of the celebration will be a session on October 10 tentatively entitled "Symposium in Honor of the 40th Anniversary of ICPSR: Privacy in the Information Age."
Relations with ISR
ISR Discussion of Center evaluation guidelines: Gutmann briefly oriented the Committee on a document included in the Council book on new principles of Center oversight within ISR. It is not clear that ICPSR would be covered by the principles enunciated in the document, as its enabling documents address most of the issues covered there. The document was thus presented to the Committee for information only.
ISR Discussion of Center Director Salaries: Council chair Ann Green Staff described in general discussions that she and ISR Director David Featherman had begun having about ICPSR Director Myron Gutmann's salary. Included in that discussion will be both the level of that salary for the 2004 fiscal year as well as the source(s) of support for the ICPSR Director's salary. Fifty percent of ISR Center Directors' salaries are paid centrally by University of Michigan funds, and that approach may be extended to the ICPSR Director's salary as well. Green noted that she will continue those discussions with Featherman, and report back to Council with developments, as they occur.
Resource Allocation and the New CSAT "Preferred Vendor" Designation
A very brief discussion was had of the staffing difficulties ICPSR may face in its successful venture to become a "preferred vendor" with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT). Short response time task orders will be bid under this arrangement, and "staffing up" for successful bids will be very challenging. The Committee offered its sympathy, but had no immediate solutions to suggest.
Nominating Committee Report
Green and Gutmann reported on the nominations for Council that had been made prior to the Council meeting by the 2003 Nominating Committee. Gutmann agreed to contact the first choices of the Nominating Committee to determine willingness to run for office and serve on the Council if elected.
Membership Relations Committee
Council: Elisabeth Gerber, John Handy, John Korey (Chair), Kevin Schürer (European Representative), Bo Wandschneider
Staff: Hank Heitowit, Michelle Humphres, Mary Morris
Membership Activity Report
The committee reviewed membership activity since July. Six new members have joined and one school has rejoined. Six schools will drop by June 30, 2003, and seven schools are suspended for non-payment of annual dues. Most of the schools dropping membership cited lack of use as the reason, although a few indicated financial concerns. Staff indicated that, with the current economic conditions, more suspension for non-payment of dues might occur in the next fiscal year.
Promotion of ICPSR Direct on Member Campuses
In response to the committee's request for suggestions to promote ICPSR Direct, staff presented several promotional activities. The activities were targeted at users at member schools that have ICPSR Direct (aiming to increase awareness and use of ICPSR Direct) and at ORs at schools that have not yet signed up for the services. The committee reviewed the suggestions and directed staff to implement those they felt were reasonable, given the current financial constraints. In terms of the schools that have not subscribed to the service, the committee directed staff to focus their efforts on those schools that download substantial amounts of data.
Update on 2003 OR Meeting
The committee continued the discussion of the 2003 OR meeting agenda that was started at the October Council meeting. Staff compiled suggestions from ORs and Council and combined them with the agenda from the 2001 OR meeting to develop a tentative agenda for the 2003 meeting. Although staff and Council will fine-tune the agenda at the June Council meeting, staff will start to contact possible presenters and panelists.
Update on UM Business School Initiative
Staff informed the committee that ICPSR's proposal seeking assistance in developing an ICPSR marketing plan, submitted to the U-M Business School, was not selected. Committee members asked that more details about the rejection be obtained to determine whether or not to resubmit a revised plan next year.
Update on Plan to Enhance Outreach to Non-members
At the October Council meeting, committee members directed staff to move forward with recruitment efforts. In response, staff categorized all non-member institutions by state, using the Carnegie Classification System. Very few institutions in the Doctoral Research Universities (Extensive), and Doctoral Research Universities (Intensive) are not members of ICPSR. And of those, most had been members in the past. The issue was raised as to how many of the nonmembers in other Carnegie Classifications would make use of ICPSR resources. Many are smaller schools with less emphasis on research activities.
Committee members decided that a personal contact at potential member schools might be the most effective way to proceed at this time. Staff will send a template to all Council members along with the list of nonmember schools. Council members were asked to send the template to acquaintances at those schools, copying their email to staff so that staff can follow up on the initial contact.
Staff also reported on a November 2002 member development trip to the Dallas, Texas area. Four member schools were visited, along with a nonmember institution. Staff indicated expenses for the trip were around $3000. The trip was met with varying degrees of enthusiasm by the member ORs, and there has been no positive response to joining by the nonmember. Committee members again suggested involving ORs in these kinds of membership efforts to reduce costs.
Proposal to the Ad hoc Membership Committee Regarding Federations
The Ad hoc Membership Committee was charged with reviewing and evaluating the entire ICPSR membership structure and, if warranted, proposing alternatives. After an initial meeting and the gathering of extensive information, the Ad hoc committee has been at a standstill. In an effort to move forward, staff proposed two changes to membership structure. The first was a proposal related to federations; it included grandfathering in existing federations, defining the composition of new federations, and creating a new dues algorithm for newly formed federations. The second proposal related to reclassifying member institutions that had changed substantially in terms of enrollment figures and programs offered since they joined the Consortium. In other words, if these institutions were to join ICPSR today, they would be classified differently.
After much discussion, the committee tabled these proposals and indicated that the Ad hoc Membership Committee should be reconstituted to address all the issues of membership structure. Jim Sweet will serve as the new Chair of the Ad hoc committee and will work with Ann Green to facilitate the committee's agenda.
Reconsideration of FY04 Fee Increase
Committee members discussed the proposed 3% fee increase and recommended going forward with it, while at the same time acknowledging that all universities are going through adverse economic times.
Archival Development Committee
Council: Steven Ruggles (Chair), Ilona Einowski, Scott Long
Staff: Peter Granda, Mary Vardigan, Chris Dunn, Amy Pienta
Goals for Future Data Acquisitions
Goals for future data acquisitions were discussed after Amy Pienta had been introduced to everyone. The discussion focused on how gaps in data holdings could be identified and how some of the most widely used datasets that were not contained in the archive could be located. A number of strategies were mentioned. These included using the Archival Development Committee to suggest data collections; focusing collection development efforts on the academic strengths of some colleges and universities that are not ICPSR member institutions in order to give them a reason to join; convening or using expert committees in disciplines with low levels of holdings in the archive; asking Council to systematically think about absent data collections from their own disciplines; and sending letters to section chairs of various professional organizations, asking them to recommend data to ICPSR. Discussion then turned to ideas about and issues related to new and unconventional sources of social science data, such as textual data and multimedia collections as sources of data or digital materials to be archived. The committee encouraged staff to be open-minded in the acquisition of new types of data and to pursue funding support by means of grant proposals to support experiments in the archiving of new types of sources.
Renewed Availability of IMF Data
An email received from Diane Geraci (ICPSR Council member 1997-2001 now working at the UK Data Archive in Essex) described in brief a new license agreement for IMF data for all UK Higher and Further Education institutions. This email stimulated renewed discussion about the possibility of obtaining the long-sought IMF data for ICPSR member institutions. Important pricing details of the UK license are confidential, so Peter Granda was asked by the committee to pursue additional information from IMF about a possible agreement with IMF to obtain the data. Further discussion during the subsequent report of this item to the full Council led to a Council recommendation for greater emphasis on and exploration of possible arrangements with the IMF for obtaining the data. Council encouraged staff to be open to pursuing creative and economically feasible alternatives for obtaining the data. A progress report will be made to Council at the June 2003 meeting.
Staff updated the committee on pursuit of the Latinobarometros data series for the Archive. A letter from Erik Austin had recently been sent, but no reply had yet been received. The Committee recommended that staff purchase the CD of Latinobarometros in order to assess the quality and value of the data.
Michigan Census Research Data Center (MCRDC)
The committee discussed the lack of any response to recent announcements to the ICPSR community about the availability of a research seat at the MCRDC sponsored by ICPSR. Discussion focused on the need to better target publicity materials about the MCRDC to potential end users. Suggestions included direct recruitment of researchers, publicity brochures in the packets received by all Summer Program participants, orientation sessions built into Summer Program classes and workshops as appropriate, and including a presentation about the MCRDC in the 2003 OR meeting. Mary Vardigan will take the lead on an action item to develop and distribute a publicity brochure to take to conferences and to distribute to Summer Program participants.
SDA Version of the World Values Survey
The committee discussed the conversion to SDA of the World Values Survey (WVS) data by JoAnn Dionne, the University of Michigan OR, and the access policy for those data. The WVS is currently available to anyone using it in SDA format through the UM Library site, including researchers who request the data directly from the PI. The committee identified a number of possible alternative data release mechanisms, but all of these raised major issues or had major unknowns. Free distribution of the data to anyone would open up a data collection previously available to members only and thereby reduce the value of membership. It was unknown whether the PI's colleagues in other countries could be provided with ICPSR Direct accounts. It was also unknown whether the SDA version of the data could be made available for analysis only to these individuals and downloading of the data blocked in SDA. Concern was raised by the committee about the general principle of allowing PIs to control who has access to data collections. None of these issues reached the point of resolution whereat an action agenda item could be framed. The committee conveyed to staff and Council that it is concerned about the many implications of opening up data to everyone or of providing data only to researchers designated by the original PI.
Standards for Persistent Dataset Identifiers
Mary Vardigan called the committee's attention to the two-page Council briefing book summary of issues related to the importance of maintaining stable links to ICPSR data. She reported that ICPSR was using new software that checks for broken hyperlinks on its Web pages. The committee agreed that this was an important issue and requested staff to continue to monitor developments and best practices concerning persistent data identifiers. However, the committee did not think that the issue warranted a large investment of work energy and funds at the present time in view of budget issues facing ICPSR.
Status Reports and Recent Proposals Submitted/Awarded
The committee took note of the additional materials in the briefing book about ongoing projects, grant proposals, and grant awards. Mary Vardigan commented that the on-line bibliography of ICPSR publications was proving to be a very popular and well-received resource. Within the past few weeks, a private company (EBSCO) has contacted ICPSR about a possible licensing agreement, which ICPSR staff are pursuing.
Data Processing Streamlining
Steve Ruggles asked the staff about a topic that Myron Gutmann had raised during his Director's Report earlier in the day, the proposed review of all of ICPSR's archival development data processing and management procedures. Staff noted that there were a number of areas in which improvements could be made in the streamlining of archival development and related dataset tracking and data management tasks. They noted that a number of different examples of duplicative work or delays had come to light as a result of initial work on the processing database as well as from improved communication among archival development and user support mid-level staff.
Budget Committee
Council: Ann Green, John Handy, Jim Sweet (Chair)
Staff: Myron Gutmann, Stacey Kubitz
FY03 Year-end Projection
Staff shared with Council that they were anticipating $300,000-$500,000 shortfall above and beyond the Perry Building Furniture. The primary driver of this situation was the assumption that excess indirect costs and interest revenue could subsidize membership activities. In retrospect, this assumption was not feasible and staff has budgeted very conservatively for FY04.
After 2 years of deficits, staff and Council agree that it is important to replenish reserves by building a surplus into the fiscal year operating budget for years to come. The committee noted that ICPSR is in a budget challenge, not crisis, and is projecting a $300,000-$500,000 deficit in 2003 (beyond furniture). This will deplete ICPSR's discretionary reserves.
FY04 Draft Budget
Some time was spent discussing the pros and cons of the new budget reporting format. Council requested a 1-2 page summary that highlights for them what areas of the budget to pay special attention to. Additionally, Council will be provided a summary of each Functional Area's historical finances in the format for comparative purposes.
Once the formatting issues were set aside, the details of the budget were discussed. Staff shared with Council that "outside" expenses (rent, I/O Split to ISR) are increasing; therefore, we must decrease our core membership activities to have a balanced budget. To accomplish this goal, the following actions have been taken:
- employees have been shifted off of membership funded activities and onto sponsored activities
- bring member funded activities down to 2001 levels
- decrease non-salary expenses across the board
Other cost-cutting measures discussed included reducing the Council meetings to twice a year or reducing them to one day rather than two. Staff and Council also briefly discussed the mechanism by which Computer and Network Services is funded partially by member dues.
Staff affirmed their comfort in the stability of sponsored revenues for FY04 and also mentioned there were a number of pending proposals that may contribute more indirect cost recovery to ICPSR's gain in FY04. FY04 budget returns to 2001 levels plus 10% for membership activities, which will ensure we live within our means and rebuild our reserves.
The committee also reviewed page 21 of the binder, which indicated that ICPSR is budgeting to spend $262,000 less in membership activities and $134,000 less in indirect cost funded areas than expected revenues. Although this is conservative, ICPSR is still at risk because our revenues may be less than budgeted. A substantial portion of the committee meeting was spent on interpreting the historical trend report. Council requested that staff formalize a procedure for budgeting and for receiving staff development and training support.
The committee noted a new item in the budget: the "Director's Contingency, " which totals $71,000. This will support bridging for sponsored staff between projects with member funds. Maybe a similar fund will be included funded with indirect cost recovery in the June version of the budget.
Council also requested staff to formalize procedures for requesting staff development and training funds.
Perry Furniture Payment Arrangement with ISR
The memo included in the binders was briefly discussed.
Information Technology Committee
Council: Ilona Einowski, Mark Hayward, Steve Ruggles, Kevin Schürer (European Representative), Bo Wandschneider (Chair)
Staff: Bryan Beecher, Peter Joftis, Janet Vavra
ICPSR Strategic Technology Plan
The committee discussed email conversion from POP to IMAP. Also noted was a pilot to evaluate alternative IMAP-capable, multi-platform email clients. The current choice, Eudora, has been widely used and has generally worked, but there are some problems. In particular, Eudora stores outbound mail on the local PC, which is inaccessible when users are away from their desktop machines. Council asked about the possible choice of Outlook as an alternative to Eudora. Staff indicated that an evaluation is planned to test other email software clients. The result would be formal specifications and evaluations that would provide criteria for deciding amongst the various choices.
An evaluation of smaller, less expensive Intel-based open UNIX-based machines is planned. These machines are very cost effective and inexpensive enough that spares could be kept to deal with maintenance problems.
Beecher's goal regarding the Computer Recharge is to remove programming and special project costs from the Computing Recharge rate. Development will be budgeted on a project basis. This will better tie costs to projects and allows for better planning for CNS staff commitments. Council commented that moving away from the seat charge mechanism for special projects is a good idea, but expressed concern that there be a mechanism for funding such projects. Staff responded that we are negotiating with unit heads to get an idea of the scope and needs of their projects so that we will know what resources would be required at the beginning of the next fiscal year. CNS would be better able to allocate staff, and projects would be driven by the budget process. Beecher pointed out that the recharge model worked well for desktop support and other "business as usual" operations, but not for special projects or purchases. Council also asked if replacement of basic equipment was done out of the recharge. Beecher explained that it was a mixed model: most purchases were taken out of the Recharge, but rental equipment for the Summer Program came out of the Summer Program budget.
Staff also presented information regarding DHCP for assigning addresses to mobile machines in Perry.
After reviewing the document, Council expressed concern with some of the wording of the document and suggested that staff clarify the following statements: The document alludes to 24/7 service but then describes extended business hours, 5 days a week; Council also questioned the appropriateness of a 12-1pm maintenance window; finally, the numbers on page three do not seem realistic given vendor's four-hour response time as stated on page four. The committee also noted that there is currently no on-call policy and recommended that to set expectations and be fair to staff, a policy should be created.
Disaster Recovery Plan
An Uninterruptible Power Supply has been priced at approximately $10,000. It was frozen in this year's budget because of cost considerations. Council expressed concern that this item not be dropped for financial reasons alone and felt that it should be a requirement of operation. Beecher pointed out that the next level of service guarantee requires replication of the system environment and data off-site. Such a warm backup would allow faster reloading of data and complete take over in the case of a catastrophic failure such as a fire.
Discussion focused on situations where down time could be more than a week while new equipment or new facilities were found. The committee discussed the possibility of a formal relationship with the UKDA or Minnesota Population Center to provide reciprocal warm backup services in a crisis scenario.
Beecher expressed a desire that the site be an Internet2-attached site and that it be situated where it was reasonable to send staff if necessary. It was decided that Beecher should research and report back on the necessary arrangements and costs. Council pointed out that there are projects being discussed that involve tighter coordination with ICPSR, including the mirroring of the IPUMS data and negotiations with the UKDA regarding more transparent access between resources held by the UKDA and ICPSR.
As ICPSR moves toward a services based rather than a data based operation, more "up time" is expected by users. Staff will continue to plan for an operation that supports expanded services to members and develop a more detailed plan with costs for a warm back-up arrangement.
Administrative Database Update
The Administrative Database project has been successfully reprogrammed and is in production.
Tracking Database Update
The Tracking Database was discussed at length. The committee noted that staff should start with a manageable task: replacing some of the legacy forms with electronic versions. This will provide less redundant entry and therefore improve efficiency and reduce data quality problems. Council commented that it will be difficult to implement one, well-integrated solution. Kevin Schürer also reported on how complex a process tracking workflow in the archive can be. He provided a disk with documents describing the four-domain model used at the UKDA. Vicki Neff demonstrated the current web-based pilot of the Tracking Database application. She emphasized that most of the first year had been spent gathering information from staff and getting agreement on the elements needed for the database. Council complimented staff on what has been accomplished to date.
Janet Vavra reported on the current status of ICPSR Direct. The key question is whether the current level of use is high enough (approaching 80% of eligible institutions) or if efforts should be made to sign up the remaining holdouts. The committee felt that current results were good, that the hold outs probably had to do with ORs at those institutions, and that continued low level effort, including contacting faculty at those institutions would be enough.
Vavra also reported on the migration of the tape archive from 3480 to the more modern DLT tape format. About 74% of the tapes have been converted. About 22% of the files migrated showed small conversion problem and have been put aside for later evaluation. Many files have trivial issues that can be repaired. Only a very small number (1%?) will have serious issues. The project will probably slow down in the next FY to control costs.
Quantitative Research and Training Committee
Council: Elisabeth Gerber, John Korey, Scott Long (Chair)
Staff: Dieter Burrell, Edward Czilli, Hank Hetowit
Report on the 2003 Summer Program
Staff gave an overview of the 2003 Summer Program. The number of courses and course content are similar to the 2002 Program and preparations are on schedule. Council expressed strong support for the important role that the Summer Program plays in the broad array of ICPSR activities. The committee pointed out that the Summer Program is a valued service and that ICPSR should, where appropriate, invest the needed resources in its success.
Report from the Committee on Quantitative Methods for Underrepresented Groups (QMUG)
John Handy summarized the January teleconference with the Mellon Foundation. Mellon expressed interest in supporting activities related to entering graduate students in the social sciences. Handy noted that, given the current legal environment, further QMUG discussions should be put on hold to await clarification of the legal status of these programs.
Report from the Instructional Materials and Information Committee (IMIS)
John Korey reported on the SIMI Committee's meeting in late January at UCLA including the SIMI Committee's discussion of Jim Oberly's draft charge of SIMI. This led to a committee discussion of the SIMI Project. One view questioned whether, in lieu of current budget considerations, ICPSR should continue to invest resources in the type of activities SIMI represents given that these activities have not historically, nor are presently, a core service of ICPSR to its members. The alternative view was that it is precisely now, during difficult budge times, that ICPSR should think ahead about the future of SIMI-type instructional activities. SIMI could be an important contribution to membership and ICPSR should continue the modest investment to lay the foundation for its success.
Scott Long reported that the committee had discussed whether current budget considerations recommend that ICPSR pursue this type of instructional materials activity at this time. Korey commented that these types of instructional materials could be an important aspect of membership for many institutions and that the current modest investment had laid a foundation for future growth that should be continued. Council then discussed various aspects of instructional materials including what type would be appropriate for ICPSR to develop, what expertise staff or interested faculty could contribute to the work, what sort of demand is latent or actual among college faculty, and whether commercial textbook or other vendors are supplying that demand.
Council discussed how ICPSR would know whether SIMI activities were successful or not. It was concluded that staff would develop guidelines and the methodology for an evaluation plan for the SIMI Project over the next couple of years. Council also discussed how to finance instructional materials at ICPSR. These activities are currently paid out of indirect costs. Alternatives include covering costs from membership funds or by attempting to obtain external funding.
Open Session
Council and staff reviewed the following action items for all committees:
For Archival Development, staff will be responsible for publicizing the Michigan Census Research Data Center, reviewing the availability of IMF data, and resolving the SDA World Values Survey public access question.
The FY04 budget and narrative summary should be completed by the June Council meeting. Stacey Kubitz will obtain feedback from the Business School on the MAP project rejection and also complete a trend analysis by functional area for FY1999-2004. She and Gutmann will draft a policy on staff development and training for review at the June meeting.
For Information Technology, Byran Beecher will be responsible for the following items: revising the Strategic Technology and Disaster Plans, initiating discussions with Gutmann and Kubitz regarding capital investment and the UPS, and exploring the possibility of mirroring ICPSR at another location.
Council approved staff's implementation of the ICPSR Direct suggestions that were presented during the Membership Relations Committee report and encouraged staff to draft a recruitment letter for Council to send to colleagues at non-member schools. Staff will also follow through with the recommended dues increase and continue planning for the 2003 OR meeting.
For Planning and Policy, Green and Gutmann will be responsible for working with David Featherman on the ICPSR Director's salary. Gutmann will also contact Council nominees and begin the replacement process for Frank Gilliam's seat on the Council. At Council's request, Gutmann will also research the possibility of Europeans paying for DDI membership in Euros.
Council approved a recommendation from the Quantitative Research and Training Committee to proceed with an evaluation of the Site for Instructional Materials and Information (SIMI).


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1.How do meiosis and sexual reproduction (fertilization) produce offspring that differ genetically from the parents? Be sure to talk about both meiosis and fertilization. 2. Describe one example of a human disorder that is inherited and also describe the specific inheritance pattern. For this question, pick disorders that result from mutations in DNA or chromosome number rather than examples such as a genetic tendency for a disorder such as cancer.
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- 253Promote
Let's Run Away: Forest Parkby Leah Flores
American Apparel T-shirts are made with 100% fine jersey cotton combed for softness and comfort. (Athletic Grey and Athletic Blue contain 50% polyester / 25% cotton / 25% rayon)
love this, Leah!
love it :-)
Thank you Theresa and Marie! Glad you guys like it! :)
Thank you Vasare Nar!
very nice! love the lettering you do.
Thank you Eric! Glad you like it!! I LOVE your work :)
I would like to run away from time to time
Especially somewhere pretty like a forest :)
great art!
Thanks for the lovely compliment Diego!!!!
So wonderful Leah!
Thank you, Ceren! Just saw your work - it's wonderful!
thank you so much Leah!! love your art very much too it's very energic and really beautiful! we were together at raaad sales!:))
Oh - that's awesome! I do remember seeing your work there - great stuff!
Awesome~ So fun! :D
Thanks! I should make some more banner-y prints :)
lovely typo!
Thank you, Tyler & Puchu!
I love this!
Thank you, Princess M!
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B. Douglas Ward
Other persons with a similar name
- Ward Douglas Maurer (aka: W. D. Maurer) — George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA
- Douglas Ward
- Douglas G. Ward
- Douglas R. Ward
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2010 – today
- 2014
- [j9]Guangyu Chen, B. Douglas Ward, Gang Chen, Shi-Jiang Li:
Decreased Effective Connectivity from Cortices to the Right Parahippocampal Gyrus in Alzheimer's Disease Subjects. Brain Connectivity 4(9): 702-708 (2014)
- [j8]Chenxuan Li, Zhixin Li, B. Douglas Ward, Melinda R. Dwinell, Julian H. Lombard, Anthony G. Hudetz, Christopher P. Pawela:
Enhancement of Resting-State fcMRI Networks by Prior Sensory Stimulation. Brain Connectivity 4(9): 760-768 (2014)
- [j7]Zhixin Li, B. Douglas Ward, Melinda R. Dwinell, Julian H. Lombard, Christopher P. Pawela:
FMRI and fcMRI phenotypes map the genomic effect of chromosome 13 in Brown Norway and Dahl salt-sensitive rats. NeuroImage 90: 403-412 (2014)
- 2013
- [j6]Arash Babaei, B. Douglas Ward, Robert M. Siwiec, Shahryar Ahmad, Mark Kern, Andrew S. Nencka, Shi-Jiang Li, Reza Shaker:
Functional connectivity of the cortical swallowing network in humans. NeuroImage 76: 33-44 (2013)
- 2012
- [j5]B. Douglas Ward, John Janik, Yousef Mazaheri, Yan Ma, Edgar A. DeYoe:
Adaptive Kalman filtering for real-time mapping of the visual field. NeuroImage 59(4): 3533-3547 (2012)
- [j4]Wenjun Li, Piero Antuono, Chunming Xie, Gang Chen, Jennifer L. Jones, B. Douglas Ward, Malgorzata Franczak, Joseph S. Goveas, Shi-Jiang Li:
Changes in regional cerebral blood flow and functional connectivity in the cholinergic pathway associated with cognitive performance in subjects with mild Alzheimer's disease after 12-week donepezil treatment. NeuroImage 60(2): 1083-1091 (2012)
- [j3]Gang Chen, B. Douglas Ward, Chunming Xie, Wenjun Li, Guangyu Chen, Joseph S. Goveas, Piero Antuono, Shi-Jiang Li:
A clustering-based method to detect functional connectivity differences. NeuroImage 61(1): 56-61 (2012)
2000 – 2009
- 2008
- [j2]Arvind P. Pathak, B. Douglas Ward, Kathleen M. Schmainda:
A novel technique for modeling susceptibility-based contrast mechanisms for arbitrary microvascular geometries: The finite perturber method. NeuroImage 40(3): 1130-1143 (2008)
- [j1]Christopher P. Pawela, Anthony G. Hudetz, B. Douglas Ward, Marie L. Schulte, Rupeng Li, Dennis S. Kao, Matthew C. Mauck, Younghoon R. Cho, Jay Neitz, James S. Hyde:
Modeling of region-specific fMRI BOLD neurovascular response functions in rat brain reveals residual differences that correlate with the differences in regional evoked potentials. NeuroImage 41(2): 525-534 (2008)
Coauthor Index
data released under the ODC-BY 1.0 license; see also our legal information page
last updated on 2015-07-22 05:51 CEST by the dblp team


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Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
The Sons of Liberty #1
by Alexander Lagos
No current Talk conversations about this book.
The Sons of Liberty is a different kind of super hero comic. At least, it's a different compared to the stereotype that I probably base that opinion on. It takes place in the 1700's, in the United States, and has a major focus on history and the politics of the time. Primarily because it is about two young slave boys and their attempt to escape their plantation. I'm not an expert on the genre, but I appreciate the added depth, for the same reasons I appreciated Neil Gaiman's Sandman series.
The art is also spectacular. It's done in full color, extremely bright and vivid, so it does a great job of catching the eye. The use of color is brilliant, the artist uses a limited palette on different sections of the story to really set the mood, and it works perfectly.
If you haven't explored comics or graphic novels yet, I'd probably point you in the direction of graphic memoirs like Persepolis, Fun Home, etc. But for those who are a bit more adventurous, I would absolutely recommend this series.
Cool cover, interesting concept, weird book. Clearly set up to be a series so I'll hold judgement on it being genius or just odd when the next comes out. Also thought the art was not as strong as it could be. Lettering also needed to be bigger, better.
Lagos, A., & Lagos, J. (2010). The Sons of Liberty. New York: Random House.
Appetizer: Set in 1760, Brody and Graham are young slaves on the horrendous Mr. Sorenson's plantation. After an accident in which they hurt Sorenson's vile son, the two must run away. Pursued by the villainous Walker, who works for Sorenson, and his many dogs, the two try to take refuge on the lands of Benjamin Franklin (Yes, that Benjamin Franklin!).
The two boys do not find any respite though, because they are captured by Franklin's mad son, William, who has been doing experiments with electricity and killing many animals in a cabin on the Franklin land. William does not hesitate to experiment on the two boys.
Benjamin Franklin does manage to find and save Brody and Graham, but the boys are changed. They can leap across the river with almost no effort.
Franklin and his friend Benjamin Lay vow to protect the boys and prepare them for a great future, fighting to create a country where slaves can be free.
In the spirit of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or Quinten Tarantino's Django Unchained, The Sons of Liberty draw inspiration from history to create a superhero origin story that is both inspiring and empowering. The website for the book series, http://www.thesonsoflibertybook.com, is pretty great. And although it wasn't online while I was writing this post, they're developing a fact vs. fiction page that could be a great resource for students.
While I loved the story, I do have to admit, I felt like the way the graphic novel came together was not 100% clear. I found that I had to read it more slowly than I would other graphic novels to make certain I was following. There were some gaps in the text during which characters would be in surprising places without explanation (William going from the Franklin home to Fort Ticonderoga...I missed that development). There was also a flashback within a flashback that was a little disconcerting.
The second book in this series is Death and Taxes. I'll check it out because I want to get to more of the superheroing and see the push toward freedom.
"The storytelling, both in its text and art, is poor. The story plods along, introducing characters and situations bit-by-bit that go nowhere, promising a payoff that never comes in this volume. [...] The coloring is more complex than the static and unclear pencil work it supplements, and the colorist has a strange habit of choosing one color for each page and bathing everything in shades of that color. Some pages are yellow, or blue, or purple-tinged; there is never a balanced mixture of colors, leaving each page feeling either washed-out or too dark. This is particularly harmful in the action sequences, which are unclear and poorly paced to begin with.
Overall, the book feels incomplete; incomplete visually, emotionally, and most of all, plot-wise. Everything is setup for future volumes, and we never actually see the heroes that are promised to us by the cover illustration, merely two scared little boys."
References to this work on external resources.
Wikipedia in English
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0375856676, Paperback)Forget everything you thought you knew about America's early days-history packs a punch in this full-color, two-fisted, edge-of-your-seat adventure!
Graphic novels are a revolution in literature, and The Sons of Liberty is a graphic novel like no other. Visual and visceral, fusing historical fiction and superhero action, this is a tale with broad appeal-for younger readers who enjoy an exciting war story, for teenagers asking hard questions about American history, for adult fans of comic books, for anyone seeking stories of African American interest, and for reluctant readers young and old.
In Colonial America, Graham and Brody are slaves on the run-until they gain extraordinary powers. At first they keep a low profile. But their mentor has another idea-one that involves the African martial art dambe . . . and masks.
With its vile villains, electrifying action, and riveting suspense, The Sons of Liberty casts new light on the faces and events of pre-Revolution America, including Ben Franklin and the French and Indian War. American history has rarely been this compelling-and it's never looked this good.
For more information and exclusive content, visit thesonsoflibertybook.com
(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:21:01 -0400)
"Graham and Brody are runaway slaves, fleeing a cruel master and his slave hunter. Before they left, they were instructed to find the abolitionist Benjamin Lay, but first they encounter none other than Benjamin Franklin. Unfortunately, his son, William, has been using his father's discoveries in electricity to play Dr. Frankenstein and subjects the two boys to electrical experiments. After they recover, they find out that they have gained an inexplicable and ill-defined set of superpowers."--Amazon.com.… (more)
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The Killers
Nevada's Killers aspire to be your '80s everything, baby—your U2, your Cars, and your New Order rolled into one shiny, fist-pumping, post-millennial package. They want your complete worship, your undivided adoration, your perpetual patronage. The band has the synthesizer chutzpah and guitar-hook chops to pull it off, but Brandon Flowers—despite his sugar-rush quiver of a voice and "Mr. Brightside" notwithstanding—lacks a lyrical, er, killer instinct. There's no shame in bringing in a little hired help to transform your gaggle of fashion-on-the-edge misfits into a sleek, lethal, unit-shifting machine; it happens all the time. The Matrix helped Liz Phair go pop, Dyke Van Parks put poetic platitudes in Brian Wilson's mouth and Smile was the result, producer Matt Serletic had a bit more than a hand in Matchbox Twenty's last couple of hits. Day & Age is quite a bit of arena-primed fun, but come on, Brandon. "Are we human/Or are we dancers"? Are you for real, dude? If you really expect us to be waiting with bated breath for the presidential term between your All That You Can't Leave Behind and your How to Dismantle an Atom Bomb, you've gotta do better than that. With M83. All ages.
Mon., Jan. 19, 7:30 p.m., 2009
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Photos: AFSA Memorial Plaque CeremonyBack to previous page
Secretary Kerry participated in the unveiling of names of fallen Foreign Service officers at the annual American Foreign Serivce Association plaque ceremony. State Department photos.
[This is a mobile copy of Photos: AFSA Memorial Plaque Ceremony]
Short URL: http://m.state.gov/md208962.htm
Short URL: http://m.state.gov/md208962.htm


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KFTV offers a large database of production services and crew, including Equipment Rental in Turkey. If you can't find what you are looking for, our directory also contains many other camera and other production equipment rental facilities located across Turkey.
Byzas Chauffeur Drive Istanbul, 34437, Turkey
GATE PLANET Antalya, 07160, Turkey
Lokomotif Kamera Istanbul, 34387, Turkey


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I was there today and had a good time! Lots of stuff to see and there was some good racing going on.
Seconded: a fun event. This is the first time that Interbike's demo has been open to the general public. so it presents an awesome opportunity to demo new bikes. I hear from more than one brand rep that demo load was light yesterday, which isn't the best way to encourage these folk to repeat the public demo days next year, so if you're near PVD, swing on down and try some great bikes!
Oh, and the CX racing is good, too.
2008 Pedal Force ZX3
2006 Jamis Eclipse
1997 Marin Indian Fire Trail
My cycling photos


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Quick Links
Florida science standards shooting for an A, says expert
Prof. who flunked Florida science standards says new ones are shooting for an A
Expert gave current statewide standards an F but new draft is "a dramatic improvement."
Texas education official forced to resign over evolution
Chris Comer, the director of science curriculum for the Texas Education Agency, was forced to resign after forwarding a short e-mail message announcing a presentation in Austin by Barbara Forrest.
Creationist geology in the news and on the air
Writing in The New York Times magazine (November 25, 2007), Hannah Rosin cast a bemused eye over a group of young-earth creationist geologists, assembled for the First Conference on Creation Geology, held in July 2007 in Cedarville, Ohio. "Creationist geologists are now numerous enough to fill a large meeting room and well educated enough to know that in rejecting the geologic timeline they are also essentially taking on the central tenets of the field," Rosin wrote.
Matzke drubs Behe in Trends in Ecology and Evolution
Adding to the chorus of informed criticism of Michael Behe's latest book, The Edge of Evolution (Free Press, 2007), is Nick Matzke, writing in Trends in Ecology and Evolution (November 2007; 22 [11]: 566-567).
"Not in Our Classrooms" lauded in BioScience
Randy Moore reviewed Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design is Wrong for Our Schools for BioScience (November 2007; 57 [10]: 885-886), writing (PDF), "Not in Our Classrooms is a small, impressive book that will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the various aspects of 'intelligent design' and the evolution-creationism debate." He was especially enthusiastic about Scott's contribution ("one of the best summaries available for
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text: i diddnt know where else to post this. i may be getting a 1983 olympic raleigh track frame. the seat tube is craked through at about 3 inches from the bottom bracket. does anyone know how to repair this without having to pay someone to do it. i am a mechanic,welder and can do some fiberglass work i just don't know what materials to use.


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SAN ANTONIO - Results of final, round 3 eliminations in Exhibition at the 2013 Nitro Jam Series, IHRA San Antonio Nitro Jam presented by CarSafe & Good Vibrations Motorsports Day One:
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed Bye 014 Richard Hutchins E3 ****WINNER**** 0.862 9.859 133.89 Prior rounds: E1 0.690 10.024 122.05A VW cab-forward with a big Chevy in the back. Should be a natural wheelstander, but this time out he was late bringing the front wheels up and they were back on the track around half track.
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed 905 Rich Hanna 105 Ken Hall E3 0.025 5.875 269.46 ****WINNER**** 0.030 5.867 272.56 Prior rounds: E1 (N On File ) 0.002 4.055 199.20 (N On File ) 0.039 4.066 201.70Another very close race between the two and this time it was Hall who turned on the win light (at the quarter-mile this time) by four thousandths, nipping Hanna in the lights.
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed TRAIN K.C. Jones JETTR James Paul Kelley E3 ****WINNER**** 1.423 7.123 196.42 -0.400 9.327 215.93 Prior rounds: E1 (J Paul Kelle) 0.281 6.738 234.13 (K Jones ) 0.436 7.031 224.44Kelley beat the green by a full bulb, giving Jones the easy win.
Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET---Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT----ET---Speed LES Les Shockley Bye E3 ****WINNER**** 0.541 7.774 209.59 Prior rounds: E1 0.000 7.311 209.59Shockley closed the evening with another fire and noise show.
IHRA: 10 Most Recent Entries [ top ]
May 11- Orlando Speed World Summit Pro-Am Tour Review
May 11- "Big Daddy" Don Garlits to headline World Series
May 11- The 2016 IDBL Season off to a Record Setting Start
May 11- Records Set at Season Opening Super Chevy Shows
Apr 27- NTS 11.50 to Compete at the President's Cup Nationals Fueled by Sunoco
Apr 27- Wilson, Rowland Make Clean Sweep as State Capitol Raceway Hosts Summit Pro-Am Tour
Apr 27- Shawn Hackman Named Chief Revenue Officer of IRG Sports + Entertainment
Apr 27- American Race Cars, Trick Flow Specialties and Imagine That Customs Team Up
Apr 07- Point Standings Following the IHRA Good Vibrations Texas Nationals
Apr 05- IHRA Texas Nationals Pro-Am 4/3/16


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Tijuana's leaders tout economic rebound
TIJUANA Tijuana's boom years of the late 1990s are long gone, as the city has struggled to emerge from the global economic crisis in recent years. But now government and business leaders are pointing to hopeful signs that Tijuana, with an estimated 1.75 million residents, is moving forward again.
A key indicator is the more than 25,000 new jobs registered by Mexico's Social Security Institute during the first eight months of this year, though unemployment has continued to hover between 6 percent and 7 percent.
The city's economy is expected to grow by 3 percent to 4 percent in 2012, according to the Business Coordinating Council, an umbrella group of the city's main business organizations.
And the industrial sector is seeing the return of some companies that had moved to China and the introduction of higher value-added services.
Tijuana "is gradually recovering," said Miguel Velasco Bustamante, Tijuana's secretary of economic development. "In 2011, we had a recovery, and in 2012, that recovery continues."
More than 385,000 jobs in Tijuana were registered with Mexico's Social Security Institute as of August. But many other workers — more than one in five, or a total of 117,000 — were employed in the city's informal sector (businesses with no formal audits), according to information for January through July from Tijuana's Municipal Planning Institute.
"There's a lot more positive outlook," said Flavio Olivieri, director of the Tijuana Economic Development Corporation, known as DEITAC. "There's a more realistic perspective of the future and more certainty of the things we need to do to get there."
Next month, the 10-day Tijuana Innovadora expo will highlight some of the sectors where business and political leaders are pinning their hopes, from software development to aerospace manufacturing to culinary arts.
The following is a look at five sectors in Tijuana that are commanding attention.
Medical devices
Medical-device companies in Tijuana produce everything from pacemaker components to catheters, IV sets and orthopedics. Though many are U.S.-owned, other foreign investors include Iceland, Sweden, England and New Zealand.
ProMexico, the Mexican federal agency that promotes trade and investment, in a recent report listed Baja California as the largest of seven medical-device manufacturing clusters in Mexico. The state accounted for roughly 50 percent of the sector's exports.
Baja California had 65 maquiladora companies with 41,649 jobs in medical-device manufacturing last year, according to Tijuana-based AXIS Strategic Intelligence Center. Tijuana accounted for 38 of those companies and 31,000 jobs.
Tijuana's economic development secretariat, SEDETI, estimated that the city's medical-device industry creates an annual market demand of close to $1.58 billion in materials such as plastics and services such as sterilization.
A key step forward took place this year — the groundbreaking ceremony for a Avantti MediClear facility expected to open in 2013. That company will use electro-beam technology to sterilize medical products.
Baja California's automotive industry last year had 82 maquiladoras that employed 25,789 people, according to AXIS. Tijuana's share was 51 companies with 14,414 positions.
A key development this year was the Korean company Hyundai's groundbreaking for a $131 million aluminum foundry for automotive parts. The facility is expected to open in 2014.
While other companies produce components, Toyota has been building complete Tacoma pickups in eastern Tijuana since 2004. Starting with a production level of 30,000 trucks a year, "this year we will get up to 54,000," said Joe Da Rosa, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Baja California.
He said reliable and efficient cross-border rail transportation is vital to the automotive sector's growth in Baja California, and has been advocating for rehabilitation of the Desert Rail line connecting the border to Plaster City.


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Shangri-La Revisited by raysheafWatch
©2012-2016 raysheaf
Did you say scarf design? Does that mean this will be made into a fabric design?
Yes, exactly. I have already 2 of my fractals done as real scarfs and one will be used also for a full collection 2013 - robes, shoes, bag etc. up to iPad/iPhone cases. However the guys were so stupid to not give a prize to this one, they are now going for absolutely idiotic and default kaleidoscopic patterns made with some premade filters, so I keep it for another boutique when this one starts production.
J'aime moins que les autres, même si cela reste toujours aussi bon.
this is serious art each and every color and shade of this reveals the effort and desire and the passion the artist has
you have just made me stand still in my thoughts , and that doesnt happen easy PHEW wow what a pic i salute you
this is serious art each and every color and shade of this reveals the effort and desire and the passion the artist has
you have just made me stand still in my thoughts , and that doesnt happen easy PHEW wow what a pic i salute you
Thanks a lot for the nice words!!! Soon will make one more of these for another contest as well. Also they are good projects for future traditional pieces.
I love your work: truly stunning. Good luck in the contest.
This is very pretty
Thanks a lot, dear! I'm very happy that I found kind of a more interesting style to make cityscapes. Btw, I made one of this recent fractals in acrylics too, and will make others as well. They stand very well in traditional too, you'll see soon.
What a dazzling work of art
Thanks so much!
I would spend too much time twirling this around my fingers to wear it for any length of time. It is lovely though.
Can I ask how you overlay your images? I'm trying to achieve a similar result for my university photography assignment and mine's a disaster lol. This has beautiful colours, by the way! I'd wear a scarf like this.
Doesn't matter in UltraFractal or PhotoShop, layers blending is pretty the same. I usually render as a PSD file and fine tune later transparencies in PhotoShop.
Great work! I'm very impressed and hope you do well in your contest.
nice work!
It's fantastic! Great!!
I loved the colors you used for this one!
Truly Stunning work here.
Quelle fresque splendide!
Oui, je pense a réaliser quelque chose pareille sur un mur de 4.50X1,60m. Bien sur ça dépend d'un ami que fait des projets d'intérieur