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International Trade Committee on June 12th, 2012
Evidence of meeting #43 for International Trade in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament's site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was report.
A recording is available from Parliament.
On the agenda
MPs speaking
Also speaking
- Juan Diego Gonzalez Rúa Researcher, Escuela Nacional Sindical
- Jennifer Moore Latin America Program Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada
- Augusto Solano President, Association of Colombian Flower Exporters
- Carlo Dade Senior Fellow, School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa
12:10 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
We'd like to call the meeting to order.
We want to thank the members and the witnesses for being here. We will be joined by one more witness by video conference very soon.
What we want to do is explain to the committee that due to our extenuating circumstances I believe there's agreement to go until 1:30. I guess it will be 1:28, as I believe bells are going to ring again at 1:28. Nonetheless, we have agreement to do that. Business will be carried over to the next meeting. I believe Mr. Easter had a motion he'll present at that time.
So everybody is getting along here. It's in the House that we have problems.
Nonetheless, we want to welcome our witnesses to a continued study.... We're actually studying a report on the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act.
We have with us, from Colombia, Juan Diego Gonzalez Rua.
Are we coming through all right, sir? Can you hear us?
12:10 p.m.
Juan Diego Gonzalez Rúa Researcher, Escuela Nacional Sindical
Yes, I can hear you very well.
12:10 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
The floor is yours. We look forward to your presentation to the committee.
Go ahead.
12:10 p.m.
Researcher, Escuela Nacional Sindical
After a long debate during the negotiations of the free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia, in particular with a great number of questions asked about human rights violations and provisions dealing with trade union human rights violations and murder attempts as well against trade unionists, we think that what is happening in our country is an elimination of the trade union movement.
When the free trade agreement entered into effect between the two countries it was on August 15, and that free trade agreement represented for Colombia the first free trade agreement with what is called a developed nation. It was an attempt to agree to come to a final agreement aimed at moving forward in labour rights and in environmental rights, with some principles to ensure the protection of workers' rights, with the obligation to ensure protection of the environment.
The commitment was achieved through the negotiation of parallel agreements that established a number of obligations, and some mechanisms as well for cooperation. The purpose was to help strengthen institutions and programs in the relevant areas, namely labour and environment.
With regard to protecting trade unionists, labour, and environmental rights, there was the decision made to have an annual report to assess the human rights impacts of the fulfilment of the free trade agreement. The report that was presented by the Canadian government recently was very superficial, and there was no report presented by the Colombian government.
Furthermore, the Colombian government has not yet had any type of consultation with the communities and population groups that have been affected by the agreement. There has been no public announcement of the government's intention to establish any kind of policy with regard to the implementation of the free trade agreement in Colombia. So the idea of protecting rights in side agreements was progress and was an indication of intent and commitment, but it has not been fulfilled. There now needs to be a clearing up of the ethical problems surrounding the negotiations.
There has been a group of social organizations, union leaders, women, ethnic groups, and NGOs from Colombia and Canada who decided to begin a political and technical initiative to build a strategy that would make it possible to monitor and assess the impact of the free trade agreement on human rights in general. The purpose is to establish a baseline that can give an idea of what the current state of rights in communities is, and then be able to measure the human rights impact.
It is too early to make final conclusions about the impact of the agreement's implementation on human rights, but we do know what has happened since the agreement went into force. That is what we are doing to create the baseline so that we can have a reading of the major changes that have taken place in the sectors where Canadian investment is most present. From that baseline, then, we would establish a strategy for future monitoring, and we believe that monitoring should take place on an annual basis.
In the report we obtained an idea of the trade relationship between Canada and Colombia, with an emphasis on the presence of Canadian companies in the country. We focused on the main social, labour, and environmental impacts that have occurred due to the presence of certain Canadian companies in Colombia.
In the study we took into account two specific cases. The first case was linked to the presence of the Pacific Rubiales Energy oil company in Puerto Gaitan. The study addressed the violation of labour rights in recent years. Almost 10,000 people have been affected. The second case studied was the case linked to Gran Colombia Gold. That company wanted to have open-pit mining in Marmato, in the Caldas region. That would have meant displacing the town to another area.
In the executive summary you have in front of you, you will find some statistics that deal with the trade flows between Canada and Colombia. Some of these statistics will give you an idea of how much trade is taking place. A number of Canadian multinational companies are on Colombian ground, and there has been an exponential increase in the number of those companies over the last ten years. That presence has been concentrated in mining and natural resource extraction, mostly in coal, oil, and gold. The companies become established in the country by creating branches that undertake exploration and mining activities for all types of resources.
Canadian investment in telecommunications, oil, energy and gas, and transportation has increased steadily since 1994. In particular, in recent years new companies have begun to invest in mining, paper, shoes, educational software, and construction, among other things.
In addition to that trade presence, which began through foreign direct investment and the establishment of subsidiaries of major multinational companies in the country, Canada has played a significant role when it comes to defining legislative frameworks with regard to preparing the ground to welcome Canadian companies to Colombia.
CIDA is the main Canadian cooperation agency for Latin America. It has had a role with regard to, in particular, the reform of the country's mining code. In 2006 CIDA was involved in a code to liberalize Colombian gold mines. The purpose or the intent was to provide greater access for foreign mining companies. Before that, claiming to protect jobs and the environment, CIDA and the CERI decided to plan, starting in 1997, a project in which almost $11 million were invested to support the freeing up of mining and to create a legislative framework that could be used so that multinational companies could have easier access to mines in Colombia.
In the executive summary that you have in front of you, you will find some of the major findings of the study that was carried out in Puerto Gaitan and in Marmato, in those two municipalities. I won't go through those findings, as they are in the report, and I do not have much time.
I will finish my short presentation by talking a bit about the future. Less than a year after the free trade agreement between Canada and Colombia went into effect, the impact on human rights, labour rights, and environmental rights must be considered in a way that recognizes the technical conditions that exist to be able to measure the impact and also the political will of the official parties involved to conduct rigorous monitoring of the effects in both countries of the free trade agreement.
Given these considerations, it is important to point out that the official parties to the agreement, with regard to Colombia in particular, should not be responsible for establishing a monitoring system that measures the actual impact of the free trade agreement on human rights.
There is no public information available. The communities that are most affected have not had any role, and they have been shunted to the side.
12:20 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
I'm sorry, I have to interrupt you here. Your time has gone. It's such an abbreviated committee meeting that I want to be respectful of the others in the testimony.
12:20 p.m.
Researcher, Escuela Nacional Sindical
12:20 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
You may get some questions and answers on that; I'm sure you will.
We are now going to move to Jennifer Moore, from MiningWatch Canada.
I would ask those testifying to please keep their remarks as tight as possible in order to leave a little more time for questions.
Go ahead, Ms. Moore. The floor is yours.
June 12th, 2012 / 12:20 p.m.
Jennifer Moore Latin America Program Coordinator, MiningWatch Canada
Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to present to you this afternoon.
I will do my best to keep my remarks short. I do hope that Juan Diego has a chance in the questions and answers to continue his recommendations to the committee.
The implementation of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement comes at a time when human rights violations in Colombia remain at crisis levels on a global scale, as well as when Colombians are fighting hard to improve protections for their collective rights in the face of a booming mining sector, which is a key area for Canadian investment in Colombia and the focus of my comments today.
The Canada-Colombia trade pact is also very much an investment agreement. Given that Canada did not have a prior investment agreement with Colombia, it provides powerful new provisions for Canadian investors. Meanwhile, it lacks binding measures to help protect human rights, labour, and the environment.
The accompanying agreement to produce an annual human rights report on the part of both the Canadian and Colombian governments was a poor substitute for the recommendation, which we supported, for an independent human rights impact assessment prior to deciding on its ratification. The tabling of the Conservative government's non-report several weeks ago reaffirms earlier suspicions that this was mere window dressing to get the agreement passed.
At MiningWatch Canada, we continue to be very worried about the potential for mining investments to perpetuate, aggravate, or benefit from serious human rights violations in Colombia, as well as the likelihood that companies might use investor-state dispute mechanisms in the agreement to put a chill effect on stronger human rights protections and democratic policy development in the country.
As you've no doubt already heard from other witnesses, Colombia is still the most dangerous place to be a trade unionist, with the highest rate of internal displacement worldwide and an overwhelming number of human rights violations taking place, particularly in mineral-rich parts of the country. Over the course of 2011, we saw threats against human rights defenders on the rise, especially against leaders of displaced communities and those seeking return to misappropriated lands, mainly by paramilitary groups.
Regarding one of the cases that was examined in the Colombian study, short weeks after the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement was passed into effect last August, Father José Reinel Restrepo, a parish priest of the municipality of Marmato, in the western department of Caldas, was murdered. Restrepo was an outspoken opponent of Canadian mining company Gran Colombia Gold's proposal to construct an open pit gold mine that would require the displacement of an entire town. He had recently travelled to Bogota and spoken openly about his situation on national television.
This is not an isolated incident. There have been reports of an increase in mining companies publicly singling out communities that are speaking out about the possible impacts of their operations, which can be equivalent to a death sentence in Colombia, and there have been numerous cases of massive detentions of those protesting such megaprojects.
Protests have been frequent because, quite literally, thousands of mining, oil, and gas concessions have been granted or requested across some 40% of Colombian territory, creating a tremendous amount of insecurity, given overlap with protected natural areas and important sources of water, the territories of indigenous and Afro-Colombian people, and lands being worked for agriculture or artisanal and small-scale mining. As we're seeing elsewhere in the region, the rise in local level conflicts is also giving rise to national controversy.
In Colombia, the office responsible for granting mineral concessions has been highly criticized and has repeatedly suspended receipt of new requests for concessions during the last year. Given a backlog of some 20,000 petitions, the country also lacks the capacity to properly monitor existing mining operations, and the mining code reforms passed in 2010 were recently overturned for lack of prior consultation with indigenous organizations. Indications are that the mining code will soon be reformed again.
In other words, this is a situation that's ripe for policy reform and in which there are serious struggles to ensure stronger protection for water supplies, indigenous Afro-Colombian rights, and the livelihoods of small-scale and artisanal miners, as well as to remedy the serious harm that communities have already faced and are facing from forced displacement and armed conflict in mineral-rich areas.
With the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement now in effect, however, how might a Canadian company respond should its concessions or project be suspended, revoked, rejected, or otherwise affected by a significant shift or administrative decision? Might it sue or threaten to sue the state of Colombia? Recent experience would suggest this is a strong possibility. Currently there are 137 cases pending before the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, in Washington, up from three cases before the same tribunal back in the year 2000. One-third of these cases relate to natural resources and one-half are against Latin American states.
One example we have been monitoring is a lawsuit that Vancouver-based Pacific Rim Mining launched against the state of El Salvador in 2009 for more than $77 million, after failing to obtain necessary permits to develop a gold mine. Pacific Rim was carrying out exploration in the north of the country. Shortly after it went into exploration, opposition arose among local communities over the effects they were observing on water supplies, and it was feared that this would worsen if the mine went into operation.
The company's own testimony before the Washington tribunal indicates that rather than ensuring that it had fulfilled all the requirements in El Salvador to obtain needed permits, it worked its high-level contacts to try to obtain approval. Meanwhile, the local conflict went national, and public opinion turned against metal mining, given the existence of not just one but several dozen projects across the Salvadorian highlands, and given that this tiny, densely populated country is largely reliant on a single and already overtaxed watershed. This led to a national moratorium against metal mining, which has led to a strategic environmental impact study.
Because we don't have a free trade agreement with El Salvador, the company's response was basically to move a Cayman Island subsidiary to Nevada in order to file a lawsuit in April 2009 at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, under both the Central America-U.S. free trade agreement and a little-known Salvadorian investment law. At the same time, we saw violence occurring in the northern area of El Salvador, where the mine had been in development. Threats and murders took place and have yet to be fully investigated. Meanwhile, El Salvador has already spent some $5 million in fighting the lawsuit, and the process to reform the country's mining code drags on.
Now, in this sort of circumstance, could a group of citizens—Colombian citizens, for instance—exercise provisions in the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement to effectively protect their rights? It's very unlikely. Neither the labour nor the environmental side agreements include the possibility of any punitive sanction, and disputes will only be decided by consensus. The mention of corporate social responsibility in the text of the agreement is purely aspirational and completely unenforceable.
From our perspective, given the gravity of the human rights violations that Canadian investors could be aggravating or benefiting from in conflicted parts of Colombia, the non-report that the Conservative government tabled was very upsetting. Not only was there no serious effort made to document the human rights situation in which Canadian companies are investing, but neither was there much indication that a serious report will be forthcoming. A truly independent, transparent, and participatory human rights impact assessment of the implications of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement would still be a valuable step, and it should also be contemplated in other scenarios in which we're currently pursuing agreements, such as Honduras.
Based on our own observations to date, we also think that, in particular, the investor protections included in the agreement should be an element that needs serious examination in any human rights impact assessment of Canadian free trade agreements moving forward.
From our perspective and based on our observations, we think that these provisions that allow companies to sue states in international tribunals ultimately need to be removed, given how these can enable companies to leapfrog domestic law and undermine current and future human rights protections. We think this would be a serious step forward if we're serious about promoting democracy and human rights in the region, and certainly a necessary step towards balancing out the tremendous power differential that exists today between investor and human rights protections pertaining to the extractive industry abroad.
Thank you very much.
12:30 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much for that.
We'll now move on to Bogota, Colombia. From the Association of Colombian Flower Exporters, we have Augusto Solano, the president.
Mr. Solano, can you hear us?
12:30 p.m.
Augusto Solano President, Association of Colombian Flower Exporters
Yes, I can very well.
First of all, good afternoon. I want to thank the committee for giving us this opportunity to participate in this audience.
My presentation is going to be in four parts. First, I want to give you a brief overview of the Colombian flower industry. Secondly, I'm going to describe the labour profile of the Colombian flower industry. Then I will give the impact of the Colombia-Canada Free Trade Agreement, and then some final remarks.
The Colombian flower industry was established 45 years ago, and now Colombia is the number one supplier of fresh cut flowers to the United States. Colombia is the number one producer and exporter of carnations in the world and is the second-largest exporter of flowers worldwide, after Holland. Holland is way ahead of us. Colombia is exporting to 88 countries, and Canada is one of the main ones, maybe in fourth place. Last year Colombia exported $1.25 billion U.S. worth of flowers. On top of that, we generate about $350 million in air freight, because most of it is sent by airplane.
The industry has about 7,000 hectares under greenhouses and generates 150,000 legitimate direct and indirect jobs. This is very important, because in our country about 60% of the jobs are what we call informal: they don't have contracts or anything. In the flower industry, since the beginning, everybody has a contract and social security and many other benefits. We're looking at mainly 35% of the industry around Bogota, 20% around Medellin, and the rest in the coffee-growing areas, mainly for tropical flowers and foliage.
Security in cities like Bogota and Medellin depends very heavily on the flower industry, because we provide full employment in those towns and municipalities where the flower industry is. We support very much intellectual property rights, because we depend on the companies that are developing new varieties of flowers. Colombia is handling about 100 species of flowers, roses that flower, carnations, etc., and each one has different varieties. Altogether, Colombia handles about 1,600 varieties, which is more than other flower-producing countries.
In the labour and social profile, of these 150,000 direct and indirect jobs, 50% of them, or a little bit more, are direct jobs. They are jobs in the farms. Of those, about 65% are for women, most of them heads of households that didn't have any other opportunity in agriculture, because cutting cane or handling palm oil is very difficult for them.
In the past five years the industry has lost about 30,000 jobs because of the appreciation of the peso. I know you have suffered this very much and you know how it is. So it's mainly because of this and mainly because of what's happening in our main markets, which are the developed countries.
Asocolflores, the association, is going to be 40 years old next year. The main programs are social and environmental programs. We have a program called Florverde, which is 15 years old, which is a social and environmental code of conduct. We have partnered for these programs with many foreign entities, mainly USAID and GTC from Germany. We have housing programs and we have day care centres for the kids of the workers.
We also have oral health programs, and we have a program for cultivating peace in the family, which is something we established to help people resolve conflicts by non-violent means.
We publish our sustainability report, the GRI, the Global Reporting Initiative. Ours is the first industry association in the world that has used this methodology used by the UN. Usually it's only used by companies. We have also belonged for more than ten years to the child labour eradication program of the ILO. As a matter of fact, today child labour eradication efforts are being celebrated worldwide.
We're also members of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in Switzerland. We're founders of the chapter here.
In terms of unions, about 40% of the workforce is unionized. The average in Colombia is 5%, including government workers. Without them, we're talking about only 2% as an average for the country. So 40% is high compared to that.
Now I want to talk briefly about the impact of the FTA. In the case of the flower industry, it has been very important. Without the duties, we see that it is increasing. Just a few weeks ago we attended a trade show in Mississauga. We had 14 growers, and we were able to bring about 40 buyers from all over Canada, including Loblaws, which is one of the main buyers. I think this is going to increase. Right now, the sales to Canada are about $67 million, and total imports of fresh cut flowers to Canada are $130 million. We think we have some room to improve.
The main point I want to make, which the FTA has helped, is that on one hand, we're facing the challenge of the appreciation of the peso and the economic crises in our main markets. Having this market is a way to fight back against the peso appreciation and also the problems in the other markets.
I think the most important contribution of a free trade agreement like this, not only to the flower industry but to Colombia, which is not mentioned in the report, is that it's a very effective tool for fighting the drug problem in Colombia.
As we have mentioned in the past, giving people trade opportunities will create more jobs. What people here need are opportunities to have legitimate, decent jobs. The market in Colombia is not big enough. A lot of people in the drug business, especially those who grow coca and all that, are there because they are looking at that as a means of survival. I think this is really important in that sense.
I want to thank you all for the FTA and for approving this. The flower industry it is really important. We think we can improve that. I also want to mention that the way the agreement between Colombia and Canada was handled is a model for all the other free trade agreements. It was efficient. It was balanced. It was free. And it's working.
Thank you very much.
12:40 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
Thank you very much.
Mr. Solano, we have Spanish translation. You can either speak in English or speak in Spanish, and it will be translated here. Then Mr. Rúa can actually participate.
12:40 p.m.
President, Association of Colombian Flower Exporters
Perfect. I can speak Spanish. No problem.
12:40 p.m.
The Chair Rob Merrifield
With that, we have Carlo Dade from the University of Ottawa. He's a senior fellow from the School of International Development and Global Studies.
The floor is yours, sir. Go ahead.
12:40 p.m.
Carlo Dade Senior Fellow, School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa
Thank you.
Welcome to our guests from Colombia. It's wonderful to be here.
First, I would like to thank the chair and the committee members for inviting me to testify this afternoon. This is our second, third or fourth time together to talk about Colombia.
This time it's actually to celebrate the successful implementation of the free trade agreement and to look forward to the other agreements that are coming down the road.
It's good to see some familiar faces and several new faces on the committee.
Before I start, you'll be happy to know that I did learn the most important lesson for any witness testifying in front of this committee, something that really should be added to the instructions you send out to the witnesses, and that is to bring your own coffee.
12:40 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!


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Dutch Connection in Winter Bloom at the Eastman House
This blog was written by Jeff Mason.
When I moved to Rochester a little over six years ago I immediately fell in love with the George Eastman House. Coming from a small town in central Massachusetts there was not a lot to do – especially in the middle of winter. So the Eastman House became my default getaway destination when I wanted to see a good movie or view some inspiring photography exhibits. You'll understand my delighted surprise when one cold February afternoon I lazily strolled through the Eastman House only to discover that it was filled to the bursting point with an awesome collection of flowers not meant to bloom for months.
So happy to see the collections of tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, freesias, amaryllis, and alliums I made a promise to myself to come back every February just to relax in the museum and, if just for a moment, experience a little bit of springtime in the middle of winter.
On these the darkest and coldest days of the year why don't you head on down to the George Eastman House and take the time to close your eyes, breathe in the dewy scent of the 2000 flowers filling the museum, and think of the warm Spring days soon ahead.
The Dutch Connection 2010 runs from February 12-28th. This year Tropical orchids will also be on display courtesy of the Genesee Region Orchid Society and Sonnenberg Gardens and Mansion State Historic Park.
Now that we're thinking about warmer weather why don't you leave some comments below telling us about your favorite spring events in Rochester.
Jeff is a technical communications specialist for Lenel Systems International. He serves on the Eastman Young Professionals' Outreach Committee.

subset: commoncrawl


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by Anton Shilov
When formally announcing plans to release the world's first handheld game console with stereo 3D output, Nintendo not only revealed no information about hardware that powers the 3DS, but also did not unveil anything about the launch date for the product. However, an unofficial source has said that 3DS would be released in October, 2010.
Citing UK industry sources CVG web-site has revealed that Nintendo was readying an October launch for the system, which Nintendo intends to announce at E3. Although there are no concrete dates at the moment, one of the logical dates would be the 10th of October, 2010, or 10.10.10.
A high-ranking source among game developers indicated that a product launch two and a half months before Christmas may point to very high confidence of Nintendo in the 3DS project.
"It's a surprise – we were expecting it much closer to Christmas. But I suppose it gives Nintendo the opportunity to get it front and centre in people's minds nice and early. In my experience, you don't launch a product that early to Christmas unless you're confident in it – and going to spend a lot of money on it. We are reassured that Nintendo is going to give it some decent backing in Q4," the source is reported to have said.
Based on previously available information, it looks like Nintendo 3DS will feature more powerful hardware and will have a lineup of games that will exclusively work on the 3DS. It likely that Nintendo will have to install more powerful graphics core into the 3DS and also encourage game developers to create more visually attractive titles.
Nintendo did not comment on the news-story.


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We're arrived on the 150th anniversary of that oh so famous (and deliciously brief) speech �the one where President Lincoln momentously asked whether government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" would "long endure" or "perish from the earth." A fair question, I'd say. We have our moments, don't we? The query seems fresh and pointed just now scanning over the discussion we have on this blog and taking a measure of the supposed debate we have around this country. Do we still honor that ideal "of the the people"? Liberals and Conservatives alike talk about their fellow citizens with �let's say� something just shy a bit of respect at times. We fret about money in our politics buying elections in that it buys media to feed a doltish and suggestible public on half truths and distortions. Those with whom we disagree or those not "with the program" are the way they are because of their misguided misinformed ignorance and/or their corruption. It's pointless to engage in a discourse, persuade (or be persuaded) in candid constructive and inclusive debate. Our elections are about mobilized bases �maybe a little tactical suppression when push comes to shove. Winning or losing all.
So, today, what is it we have to say to Old Abe �or more importantly to those dead who hallowed our national landscape �those that he happened to honor with his notice that day 150 years ago?
"Conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" �what did those words mean then and what do they mean now? We still have to ask, don't we? Is liberty curtailed by a tax surcharge? How far do we take our dedication to man's supposed equality at the hands of his creator? In those days we confronted the institution of slavery �our own countenance of it. We still ask about basics like housing and education and healthcare �are these "endowments" outcomes or opportunities? Must liberty suffer for the sake of equality? What level of complexity and contradiction makes allowance for the truth of both? We have our differences along these lines.
What strikes me �as we confront these questions� is the pointedness of that first question, the one about of-by-and-for-the-people government. Do we still trust not just government but each other for the answers we need? �however provisional and qualified and compromised those answers might be for a given question �for a certain task? Did we ever really manifest that trust? How long and how deeply has our supposed democracy been the rule of a self selected power elite? Are we a system with ennobled self government as its ideal or is what we cherish really a foil of hobbled power �finding a cynical kind of virtue in the very limits "of" the people?
We have our moments don't we?
Yet, when I hear the speech I can't help but respond with some small amount of "increased devotion" �and by my own nature I identify with the notion of this country that creates and progresses and improves �that aspires. That more perfect union. When I consider the speech and the sacrifice it was intended to honor I think its power resides in the personal and spiritual level of appeal. We are asked each of us to look beyond the dead and the monuments and wreaths towards an action of more profound honoring �in continuing �in surviving such as we are �the people.


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Key Findings Report: Multicultural Marketing and Newer Media
March 10, 2011
This Key Findings Report includes highlights of an ANA survey designed to better understand how newer media platforms are being used to reach multicultural consumers. The survey finds that the majority of respondents are increasing spending on multicultural media overall, and more specifically newer media platforms, to reach multicultural customers—56% of respondents in both cases.
Members Only Content
This content is available to ANA Members only. Please login below or create an account.
You may already be a member. Find out if your company is already an ANA member.


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by waborat » Tue May 19, 2009 6:59 am
Swerb wrote:Sportsbook, craps, hold em, blackjack.In that order.
by eagles24 » Sun May 24, 2009 1:05 am
by waborat » Sun May 24, 2009 9:48 am
eagles24 wrote:Pai Gow is the most underrated casino game. By far the best to play in a casino
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waborat wrote:eagles24 wrote:Pai Gow is the most underrated casino game. By far the best to play in a casinoIt's a nice game when you just want to relax (morning sessions), you've lost most of your bankroll for the trip or you're so stinkin' drunk that you need the dealer to set your hands for ya...By best to play, I hope you mean personally satisfying because there are much better games as far as winning percentage goes in a casino...Paying that ridiculous 5% commision kills itTo love Pai Gow, then you must love hockey, soccer & tic-tac-toe for the "tie" factor involved Donovan McNabb would probably not get it too well???
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Skip to comments.Obama urges Americans to live up to Declaration
Posted on 07/04/2013 4:38:16 AM PDT by EBHEdited on 07/04/2013 7:24:29 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
click here to read article
If Americans really did this...we might look like Egypt this morning...
Does he mean the part about overthrowing tyrants?
This is how far we have come, we have an arrogant habitual liar, lying to your face and daring you to defy him. He has disgraced the office of the presidency.
Taqiyya aligned ass.
I urge President Obama, Congress and the Supreme Court to start living up to the words of the Constitution. All of it, not just the parts found useful for the moment.
Only Obama could make the Declaration of Independence sound like a pact with the Devil.
Does he understand the part about deriving power from the consent of the governed?
Shut up, Obama, just shut up.
Is there someone in the military we can call?
I urge Mr O to funk off.
The part he likes, he misinterprets: the "equal stuff". He wants equal outcomes for everyone except the elites—equal for you but more for me.
Karl Marx wasn't born until the next century.
Be careful what you wish for, Mr President...
The Chimperor obviously hasn't read it past the first paragraph.
Obama knows that it is coming down the road.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.
Be careful what you wish for. The time may be coming soon enough.
The really odd thing is that we could use the same document all these years later and the only thing that we would change is the tyrants Jane.
"Obama urges Americans to live up to Declaration"
Egypt did.
Name. I can't stand this keyboard
I dearly hope the pResident gets exactly what he asks for in this instance, seriously
Obama urges Americans to live up to Declaration
WOW! Funny...I guess we should start by impeaching you?
He knows not what he asks.
Please see my tag line. :-)
Is this from the Onion ?
Amen! Oh, Good Morning Utah! Happy INDEPENDENCE DAY!
Happy Independence Day To All Who Love America
And May All The Tyrants, Traitors And Posers Find True Justice
There he goes again, leading from behind. His inactions speak louder than his words.
This assclown has to be one of the most arrogant POS on the face of the planet. Wannabe dictators usually are.
HOLY CRAP I cannot TYPE what I'm thinking
Would we expect anything less of him?
He probably didn't read the first paragraph either. I'll bet the affirmative action president can't really read.
Yeah, it stood out to me also that he focussed on that part. He doesn't want real equality, neither does the race industry.
Does this man have the slightest idea of what he's saying??? Doesn't realize what the Declaration was all about? 'We the People' got fed up with the tyrant king George and the Declaration was our way of saying "Buzz off, ya twit! We don't want you anymore!"
Doesn't he realize HE is the one 'We the People' are getting fed up with?
No....he probably doesn't. I think it's time we show him.
LOL. It would be more plausible. Except that he targets "equality", while ignoring what that really means.
And, with guns with less than 10 rounds./sarc
And we must not forget, Moochelle was never proud of America until her husband cheated, lied, and schemed his way into the Oval Office.
No he is back here. Came back sometime between Tues/Weds.
It's in cursive.
I think 0 could use an all expense paid vacation to.
Wow..is he telling us to rebel ?
Now that, right there, is funny. And I don't care who you are.
Does Obambi realize that his government is doing exactly the same types of things that England was doing to us back when the Declaration was written?
I think that HE needs to read it. He and his cohorts in the House, Senate, and Supreme Court. They need to understand why we, the people, are truly and thoroughly PO'ed at our government.
Nearly all of our grievances are enumerated in the declaration, just as they were in 1776.
Such disgust i have for this Muslim Brotherhood piece of pig slop.
Do you think the SS would mind if i threw my shoe at him?
This is why I have said that America needs a Pinochet.
"free to think and worship and live as they please"
Uh, no, just ask the Catholics about your birth control mandate.
"Only Obama could make the Declaration of Independence sound like a pact with the Devil."
-or like it was written by Pete Seeger.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


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Thirty Three & 1/3 (stylized as Thirty Three & 1/ॐ) is an album by George Harrison released in 1976. As his first release on his Dark Horse Records label, Thirty Three & 1/3's making was beset with misfortune, yet Harrison was able to prevail by delivering one of his most celebrated albums.
After satisfying his EMI contract with Extra Texture (Read All About It), Harrison signed immediately with Dark Horse, which was still under distribution with A&M Records. A part of their agreement was that Harrison was to deliver his new album by 25 June 1976. Unfortunately, Harrison was stricken with hepatitis and was only able to start recording the record in late May. Conscious of the fact that he was not going to rush his debut album on his own label, Harrison put off A&M, telling them the album would be ready when it was ready. But with Dark Horse's other artists no longer doing so well, and Harrison's star on the wane, A&M decided they wanted to offload the label and promptly sued Harrison for late delivery of Thirty Three & 1/3 in September. Within weeks, Harrison had moved both Dark Horse and himself over to Mo Ostin and Warner Bros. Records, who were more than pleased to have him, and Thirty Three & 1/3 and its lead-off single, "This Song", the upbeat and sardonic send-up of the "He's So Fine" vs. "My Sweet Lord" court case (which Harrison lost in 1976) were both released that November.
Named for the fact that he was thirty-three and a third years old during its recording (as well as being the speed at which the vinyl album would be played), Thirty Three & 1/3 gave Harrison his strongest reviews since All Things Must Pass, including many positive and uplifting songs. It was clear that despite his legal woes, Harrison would not let his bad luck get him down.
Unfortunately, the damage that previously-perceived mediocre albums had inflicted proved irreversible, and while Thirty Three & 1/3 actually outsold both Dark Horse and Extra Texture (Read All About It) in the US, it reached a lower peak, cresting at #11 and going gold and selling about 800,000 copies. In the UK, it merely made it to #35. While US single Crackerbox Palace made the Top 20 (and "This Song" #25), no UK singles saw any chart action. In actuality, Harrison couldn't care less about his record sales at this point in time. Already a private person, he began retreating more from the music industry as the 1970's drew to a close and immersing himself into films and leisure activities.
Harrison's only major promotion for Thirty Three and 1/3 was an appearance with Paul Simon as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on 20 November 1976, and in some of the show's comedy sketches. The duo performed "Here Comes the Sun" and "Homeward Bound" together on the program. (The live Harrison-Simon performance of "Homeward Bound" was later included on the 1990 various artists' charity album, Nobody's Child: Romanian Angel Appeal and is also found on "The Essential Paul Simon" Paul Simon's greatest hits record released in 2007 on the bonus DVD disc.) A video of Crackerbox Palace, directed by Eric Idle, debuted on the same episode, featuring Harrison, various other celebrities, and a Pantomime Princess Margaret.
In 2004, Thirty Three & 1/3 was remastered and reissued both separately and as part of the deluxe box set The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992 on Dark Horse with new distribution by EMI, adding the bonus track Tears Of The World, an outtake from the 1980 sessions for Somewhere in England.
Track listing
All songs by George Harrison, except where noted.
"Woman Don't You Cry For Me" – 3:18
Originally written in 1969
"Dear One" – 5:08
"Beautiful Girl" – 3:39
Song started in 1969 and finished for Thirty Three & 1/3
"This Song" – 4:13
Harrison's tongue-in-cheek comment of the infamous copyright infringement case against "My Sweet Lord"
"See Yourself" – 2:51
Originally written in 1967
"It's What You Value" – 5:07
"True Love" (Cole Porter) – 2:45
"Pure Smokey" – 3:56
Harrison's second tribute to Smokey Robinson
"Crackerbox Palace" – 3:57
Crackerbox Palace is the name of a Los Angeles mansion owned by Lord Buckley
"Learning How To Love You" – 4:13
Dedicated to Herb Alpert and intended for Alpert to record
George Harrison - Lead vocals, Guitars, Synthesisers and Percussion
Willie Weeks - Bass
Alvin Taylor - Drums
Gary Wright - Keyboards
Richard Tee - Piano, organ and Fender Rhodes
Billy Preston - Piano, organ and synthesiser (on "Beautiful Girl", "This Song" and "See Yourself")
David Foster - Fender Rhodes and clavinet
Tom Scott - Saxophone, flute and lyricon
Emil Richards - Marimba
(Credit goes to Wikipedia)


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Stamina® AeroPilates® Pro XP556
About this itemYou achieve that long, lean body that only pilates can give plus you improve your cardiovascular fitness – all with one machine.
The Stamina® AeroPilates® Pro XP556 takes the traditional Pilates workout to the next level. You achieve that long, lean body that only Pilates can give plus you improve your cardiovascular fitness – all with one machine. And the Pro XP 556 gives you the features and the look of the upscale commercial reformers but is more affordable and sized to fit your home.
Plus you get the patented Free-Form Cardio Rebounder for one of the most effective low impact cardio workouts you can get. Because the AeroPilates Free-Form Rebounder is like jumping on a trampoline, the cardio workout is gentle to your joints and connective tissue yet you will reach and maintain your target heart rate as effectively as with a treadmill. And because you are 'jumping' while lying down, anyone of any fitness level will benefit. You'll lose weight and tone the hips, thighs, abs – all the areas you want to slim and tone!
- 4 heavy-duty resistance cords
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- Adjustable headrest and oversized high density foam shoulder pads offer additional support and comfort
Manufacturer Info
Stamina Products, Inc
Assembled Country
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text:
Wessex Cruising is an RYA Sea School in Weymouth offering all RYA yacht courses, own boat tuition, weekends or day sailing, ICC tests, skippered charter cruises, RYA VHF Radio and SRC update.. Visit web site
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text:
Skip to comments.Justin Bieber lands 7th place on '50 most popular women on web' list (Sarah 18th, Michelle 21)
Posted on 04/06/2013 5:39:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Lady Gaga has been named as the most popular women on web.
COED Magazine has compiled a list based on Google search results, sporting some surprises-Justin Bieber comes in at No. 7, ABC News reported.
The list also includes Washington's famous women like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin at No. 18, first lady Michelle Obama at No. 21 and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at No. 32.
Here are the top 50:
1. Lady Gaga
2. Kesha
3. Madonna
4. Beyoncé
5. Rihanna
6. Britney Spears
7. Justin Bieber
8. Miley Cyrus
9. Paris Hilton
10. Avril Lavigne....
(Excerpt) Read more at in.news.yahoo.com ...
So does that make Selena Gomez a lesbian?
So. This would appear to indicate that Justin Beeber is a heshe.
I hear the Bieb has a FABULOUS line of perfume and nail polish.
The People Want Sarah!
I will give this Michele a runners up (she deserves it more than the first Wookie)
sometimes the jokes just write themselves.
Like many freepers, Sarah was part of the reason I voted for Mcwhimp. Also, Congressman Bachmann was my first choice for President. When she dropped out after being unfairly attacked on that potentially deadly vaccine, Newt was my choice — but we know who we were stuck with :(
Chris Mathews didn't make the list? I am Shocked!!
Where on this list is Psy?
if only some people on our own side could see it :(
I see the list and go BLEH! At least now I know what it takes to be considered popular by libs, a lack of talent and morals!
Fabulous that Sarah Palin came in ahead of Moochelle Wookie!
LOL. This is just too funny!
Honestly, I wouldn't recognize him, were he sitting next to me.
That is because you possess a great deal of class Onyx my dear :) (((Hugs)))
Not that surprising - looking at that list, I'd bet 1-6 could beat up Justin Bieber. Well, maybe not Madonna, but the rest of them - no contest.
Thank you, but it's just that I don't know about him at all and don't care to.
That is why you know so much about Sarah, great minds think together! That is why you are one of my role models Onyx, I wish I was as smart as you :)
Oooh, I like Sarah Palin's glasses. She has the neatest glasses. I wish I knew whose brand they are. I'd love a pair just like them.
I think Selena found out he is gay. I also think Selena was attracted to him in the first place because she is a lesbian, like many of the young girls who are growing up with mothers as their father figures.
Beiber's beeber has been stuned by the news. When does his cosmetic line go on sale to the public???
Lady Gag?
More proof people are stupid
Sarah 18th? Michelle 21st? What about Sarah Michelle Gellar?
"Leave Justin Alone!"
They are "Kawasaki" Glasses.
I thought Justin Bieber was a young male freak, not a female.
Apparently she's a franchise.
I skimmed over it, did a double take, read it again to make sure I read what I thought I read, and burst out laughing! LOL!
Looking at the list, Lady Gaga and Kesha top it. That is a sad commentary on our society. Lady Gaga made vile music videos mocking the Catholic Church, and Kesha's video, "Die Young," is the most satanic mainstream music video I've ever seen.
What about "Sarah Michelle"? :)
Of interest to you. Pictures, more ammo.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.


text:
Bright Apartment with Sea Views
Størrelse75 m²
Etasje(med heis)
- Internett/WiFi
- Håndklær
- Heis i bygningen
- Familie / Barne vennlig
- Kjøkken
- Vaskemaskin / tørketrommel
- Barneseng
Oversikt over eiendommen
This is a quiet neighborhood with supermarkets, restaurants, ATMs and pharmacies, all within a 5 minutes walk.
Metro and buses to the center of town.
The apartment itself is located on the 4th floor of a modern building with a lift.
Astonishing sea views from the living room, that has been decorated throughout in warm tones, with quality furnishings and elegant modern touches.
With 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms there is plenty of space, the apartment can accommodate up to 6 people, making it ideal for a family or group of friends.
The master bedroom is spacious and cool and comes with a king size bed, ample storage space, and a private bathroom.
There is also a second bedroom with a queen size bed next to a second complete bathroom with bathtub.
One of the sofas in the living room provides a comfortable place to sleep to 2 more guests.
The kitchen comes fully-equipped with everything guests may need during their stay: a washer, a big fridge and freezer, oven, gas stove, microwave, dishwasher, toaster, coffe maker..
You will find shower gel, shampoo and a hair dryer in the bathroom, as well as other supplies you might need.
Bedlinen and towels are of course provided.
Feel free to ask if you have any question. I would be happy to help!
Husregler- 40€ cleaning fee to pay on arrival
- 200€ security deposit
- Check-in from 3pm to 9pm (After 9pm I will arrange a pick-up point for you to collect the keys).
Check-out before 11am.
Whenever possible I try to allow you to enter the apartment as soon as you arrive in Valencia and stay as long as possible on your departure day.
In any case you can leave your luggage in the place from 11am to 3pm while the apartment gets cleaned.
- A cot and a high chair are available for children under the age of 4 for an extra fee of 15€
- Airport / Station transfer available up to 4 people, with a baby chair included if needed.
. Valencia Airport transfer: 20€ (A taxi would cost you around 30€)
. Valencia-Nord or Joaquín Sorolla train station transfer: 10€ (a taxi would cost you around 15€)
- Free parking is possible in the streets nearby.
- Please be careful with the apartment contents and respectful with your neighbors.
- Please do not accommodate more guests than required in the booking.
|Pris for >4 gjester
|114 NOK pr. gjest/natt ekstra
|Innsjekking etter
|Etter avtale
|Check-in før
|Etter avtale
|Utsjekking før
|Etter avtale
Vurdering av denne eiendommen
This appartment is great. Very comfortable, light & spacious. Everything was clean. There were towels and there was bedlinnen. The kitchen is very well equiped. We could use basics like coffe, tea, salt, pepper. The location is also great. Very close to the beach (on what you have a beautiful view from the appartment), and very near to a nice, more quiet part of the boulevard and beach. And almost on every corner you can fetch the bus to the centre of Valencia.
Last but not least: contact with our contactperson Inés was very good. She is a very nice and hospitable lady and she made sure everything was ok for us.
We certainly will come back to this place!
Très bel appartement idéalement situé à 150 m de la plage ou se trouve de très bons restaurants
Rien ne manque pour passer un bon séjour à Valence, literie confortable cuisine complète et wifi impeccable, et si vous avez la chance de voir Inès elle vous ravira aussi par sa connaissance de la ville, ses bons conseils et son français plus que parfait.
Het ontvangst door Ines was zeer hartelijk en oprecht, zij was heel bereidwillig om je alle informatie en tips over Valencia te geven. Super Ines!
Het appartement was ruim en mooi ingericht, met een geweldig uitzicht.
Parkeren kan bijna altijd vlak voor de deur in deze periode (januari) van het jaar.
Supermarkten direct in de nabijheid, is heel prettig.
Jammer dat in Spanje de huizen gehorig zijn. De bovenburen houden daar niet altijd rekening mee.
Het centrum is goed bereikbaar met het openbaar vervoer, te voet is iets te ver.
Verder is ons verblijf prima bevallen en een aanrader.
- Kvalitetssikret innkvartering
- Hver vert er verifisert via telefon
- Sikker betaling med SSL-kryptering


text:
Hi Bellas,
So tonight i'm leaving to go to Charlotte with the BF. We're attending a real estate conference that's Friday-Sunday...you know trying to get rich! LOL, I hope it's not too boring though. I'm going to bring my labtop so hopefully I can make new posts. However, I can't promise anything because who knows how the internet will be in the hotel and yada yada yada.
Tonight i'll try getting my red lip video up. That way I can have something posted tomorrow to last everyone through the weekend :)
I really need suggestions for tutorials so please send them my way :)
I'm playing with all the pretty pigment samples I've received but I really need to get used to using them before I try to show others how to do it! Some of the textures are so different from regular shadows and yesterday I accidentally knocked one over on the floor and half spilled out :( I knew that was going to happen, i'm such a klutz sometimes. Sighhhh, at least half of it is still there, that should get me through about 5 applications tops. And it was such a pretty color...it's called platinum. I digress...
Well keep the comments coming, it's nice to hear back from you guys. If you don't hear from me this weekend, see yah sunday!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Updates-This Weekend
Posted by MakeupByRenRen at 3:26 PM
3 comments:
- christianadivine said...
I would love to see you do a tut with eyeshadows involving the colors deep purple and a vivid blue and/or teal. :D
- December 13, 2007 at 10:25 PM
- Mrs. Lynne said...
Hey girl. I actually like going to those conference things too although I'm such a sucker that I end up buying whatever it is they sell, lol. Anyway, hope you have a safe trip and a good time.
- December 14, 2007 at 4:23 AM
- Vanessa said...
Awww have a safe trip Ren!
- December 17, 2007 at 1:18 AM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Kristen Gay Hired as Head Women's Soccer Coach
Kristen Gay Hired as Head Women's Soccer Coach
Buena Vista University Director of Athletics Christyn Abaray has announced that Kristen Gay will become the university's next head women's soccer coach beginning in the fall of 2013.
For the past five seasons, Gay has been head women's soccer coach at the University of North Dakota where she led the program through its Division I transition in 2008. Her squads improved their overall winning percentage in four of her five seasons. In 2010, the Sioux went 4-2 in the Great West Conference and advanced into the conference tournament championship game before falling short on penalty kicks.
"I am thrilled to announce the hiring of Coach Kristen Gay as our head women's soccer coach," says Abaray. She impressed all with whom she came in contact, including the student-athletes. With her breadth of experience both playing and coaching, her commitment to our student-athletes' development and success, and her enthusiasm for taking our women's soccer program to the next level, I feel confident in the direction of the program for years to come. We truly welcome Kristen to the BVU Athletics family."
Gay is anxious to join the BVU family and is extremely excited about the direction of the program she is taking over.
"I want to thank President Moore, Dr. McKeon, the Search Committee, and especially Christyn Abaray for the opportunity to lead the BVU women's soccer program," says Gay. "I am really excited about joining the staff at BVU. The first thing I noticed was that it feels like a family atmosphere with the entire athletics department, as well as campus. The passion and excitement coming from those I spoke with is something I want to be a part of."
Before taking over as head coach of the Sioux in February of 2008, she had served as an assistant coach for the program since 2006. Prior to arriving at UND, Gay was the first assistant coach at Indiana State for two seasons and helped guide the Sycamores to their best two seasons in the program's history. Before that, she spent two years as head coach at Dana College in Blair, Neb., where she led the Vikings to a 27-12-2 mark and was named GPAC Co-Coach of the Year. She helped coach 14 all-conference performers during her tenure and a pair of All-Americans. Aside from her coaching duties, she also served as the sports information director for the athletics department.
Gay will be taking over a Beaver program beginning this year that has set numerous school records in each of the last three seasons. That is something she looks to continue building upon while helping the program reach the next level.
"We are hoping to build on that success as we change the culture at BVU," adds Gay. "I believe this team has shown a tremendous amount of resiliency and improvement the last few seasons. I am committed to doing everything I can to help build a championship program, and our team will continue to be successful in the classroom and extend our exposure throughout the community."
Gay began her career in coaching following a stellar playing career herself, primarily as a midfielder, at the University of Nebraska. She played for the Cornhuskers from 1995-98 and led the program to a Big 8 championship, along with Big XII regular season titles in both 1996 and 1997. The team advanced into the Sweet Sixteen twice and made an Elite Eight appearance in 1996. As a freshman, she led the team in scoring and was an all-conference and all-region selection in 1996. She served as a team co-captain in 1998.
Gay received her bachelor's degree in secondary education and special education from the University of Nebraska and her master's degree in physical education/coaching from Indiana State University.


text:
Make the most of your IBM investment
The SugarCRM solution builds on the value of your IBM investment through a comprehensive set of processes to ensure the most robust level of integration with IBM software and infrastructure.Tell me more See us at work
Tell us a bit about yourself
IBM Marketing Cloud and SugarCRM
IBM and SugarCRM are changing how organizations approach the entire customer engagement model. The combined solution we offer redefines what it means to create a customer-centric experience. The combination of Sugar and IBM Marketing Solutions provides an integrated customer experience across marketing, sales and service, and across digital and human interaction channels.
IBM Marketing Solutions
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SugarCRM and IBM Marketing Solutions for Retail
IBM Smarter Commerce – IBM and SugarCRM Partnership Provides Omni-Channel Customer Experience – Guest blog by Jeremy Cox, Principal Analyst, CRM, Ovum
Should there be an "i" in Smarter Commerce?
SugarCRM is Ready for Smarter Commerce
From Mad Men to Moneyball: Research and Hands on Tools to Guide your Marketing Journey, from Jon Busman, CMO Initiative Global Marketing Lead, IBM
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Fireside chat with Chris Wong, IBM VP, Strategy and Product Management, IBM Marketing Solutions, and Clint Oram, CTO and Co-Founder, SugarCRM, on the Future of Marketing and Sales
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Collaboration can play a critical role in the sales process of any company and many believe collaboration is a key attribute of a successful social business. Consider how sales professionals are required to work outside of their CRM system to engage engineering, legal or finance to evaluate, structure and negotiate a proposal. Leading companies are beginning to utilize enterprise collaboration environments to facilitate these robust conversations and provide a mechanism to refer, reference and repeat their successes.
The integration of SugarCRM and IBM's collaboration software portfolio will drive better communications within a selling organization and improve customer support by increasing effective communication and teamwork, both inside and outside your organization.
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Analytics – "tell me something I don't already know"
At SugarCRM, we believe in putting the "i" in CRM – helping the customer-facing individual (hence "i") such as a seller or a customer service person do their job better to create exceptional customer relationships. This means that a CRM system should deliver insight and analytics, in context, for those customer-facing individuals; the CRM system should tell those individuals something they don't already know about their prospect or their customer.
SugarCRM is integrated with IBM's comprehensive, unified portfolio of analytics software, embedding that insight and analytics directly and in-context in the CRM system.
For integrating advanced analytics directly into CRM, SugarCRM offers the Sugar Connector to IBM Cognos BI ("Sugar Cognos Connector" for short). The combination of IBM Cognos Business Intelligence (BI) along with the Sugar Cognos Connector is the ideal solution for integrating advanced analytics with CRM. IBM Cognos Business Intelligence turns data into past, present and future views of your organization's operations and performance along with advanced reporting and dashboarding capabilities. The Sugar Cognos Connector embeds Cognos BI directly into the Sugar UI with management integrations like single sign-on as well as an ETL tool for extracting from Sugar operational database. With the Sugar Cognos Connector, existing Cognos customers can leverage their existing Cognos investment with the ease of use of Sugar. And, new customers can purchase IBM Cognos BI from IBM or from an authorized IBM partner, plus the Sugar Cognos Connector, for an advanced analytics experience tightly integrated into CRM.
Sugar also integrates with SPSS to provide predictive analytics directly in context for a customer-facing individuals. Sellers or customer service agents can be more productive by taking advantage of rich analytics helping them to decide which opportunities are the most likely to close, which customers are at highest risk of attrition, or which service topics are likely to cause the most drain on company support resources.
SugarCRM was one of three partners invited by IBM to participate in the launch of IBM Watson Analytics, and is exploring the use of Watson Analytics integrated to Sugar.
SugarCRM is also working with joint IBM Watson and SugarCRM partner Findability Sciences to put IBM Watson cognitive computing technology into the CRM system.
Sugar Connector for IBM Cognos BI
Watson Analytics
One of Sugar's key strengths is its enterprise class CRM platform purpose built to support complex integration challenges for companies who require simple integration to spreadsheets or a multitude of integration requirements including guaranteed message delivery, data migration or connecting to an Enterprise Service Bus.
Access to on premise and cloud-based data sources and transaction systems allow companies to feed their customer facing professionals with the information they need to provide the best customer interactions every time.
WebSphere CastIron
WebSphere ESB
WebSphere MQ
The Sugar solution is optimized for a wide variety of IBM infrastructure, giving customers choice, protecting customers' investments, and reducing customer risk.
- SugarCRM customers can choose from a wide variety of IBM deployment methods and infrastructure options, giving customers full flexibility between scalability, cost, and speed.
- Sugar is tested and validated with a range of IBM infrastructure offerings including DB2 and a wide variety of IBM Power and Intel servers.
- Testing, validation, scalability tests and guidelines help reduce your risk and maximize your investment. Sugar supports IBM DB2®, IBM PureSystems®, IBM System i®, IBM System x®, System p®, IBM SmartCloud® Enterprise, SoftLayer®, WebSphere® Cast Iron® Cloud, and IBM PowerLinux™ and has achieved multiple IBM validations: Ready for SmartCloud Services, Ready for DB2, and Ready for PureSystems.
- Sugar customers now have additional deployment choices – to deploy Sugar on premises or across IBM's global network of Cloud Data Centers for greater security, data isolation and performance.
- Clients can deploy on bare metal servers on the IBM Cloud or select OpenStack-powered private managed clouds provided by IBM Blue Box, which offers private cloud as a service on premise or in the Cloud across IBM's global network of 46 Cloud Data Centers.
- In either case, the customer gets the best of the public and private cloud worlds – the elasticity, flexibility and agility of public cloud, with the dedicated infrastructure and security, data ownership, performance and regulatory advantages of private cloud. For more information, see here or read the blog post here.
- Highland Solutions leveraged IBM SoftLayer to create a dedicated private cloud based on bare metal servers to deliver a HIPAA compliant solution with the right level of data privacy and performance. Read more about ithere
IBM Dedicated and Private Clouds for Sugar
About the IBM Cloud
For more information, visit: Here
About IBM Blue Box
For more information, visit: Here
System i
System x
System p
SoftLayer / SmartCloud Enterprise


text:
The Forest Is Closed - Page 2
I holed up in the room pondering my dilemma. Outside, rain poured down so hard the flammable forest vanished from view, so I turned on the TV. That's when lightning cracked and blew out the power. So I sat in the dark with a flashlight listening to the monsoonal deluge and looking at maps of all the trails that were now illegal to run. They surrounded me.
In the morning I decided to pay the five bucks and hike Frazer Mountain on private property. I figured hiking would make it last longer than running, and it gave me time to think.
By the time I got to the summit and the coveted Wheeler Peak came into view, I was torn between going for it and toeing the line. On the one hand, only a few people in New Mexico that I knew of could keep up with me on a mountain trail, and I didn't think any of them were forest rangers. On the other hand, I couldn't outrun a radio. On the one hand, I saw no one out there but me. On the other hand, I was above timberline and easy to spot. On the one hand, the ground was still wet and I didn't have matches or a lighter. On the other hand, I was leaving clear tracks.
Perhaps luckily, I forgot all about peak bagging when a herd of bighorns walked up the hill right past me, and stopped on the summit. It was nice, marvelous even, to sit on top of the peak with bighorns, soaking up the scenery (and wet ground) together. I called it good, and turned back.
But, walking down the mountain, I envisioned a grim future. Our economy has been in the tank for a while and politicians are looking for new ways to earn revenue. If the government can close the forests and parks to everyone, they can just as easily open them back up and charge a user fee.
It's already happening in pockets throughout the West. Fee collection at Maroon Bells near Aspen, Colorado, is being hailed as a "lifesaver" by local White River National Forest officials. You can drive through Utah's Wasatch-Cache National Forest, but if you plan to park anywhere, you have to buy a permit. In Arizona, if you want to run the trail to The Wave, a geological wonder in the Vermilion Cliffs area, you have to buy a permit many months in advance, or take a chance in the daily lottery where only 10 people are selected for entry. I once watched a guy turn down a $100 bill for his permit.
As I strolled down the hill I recounted falling in love with trail running because it was free and easy.
Bernie gets his runs in while he can.


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By integrating the analysis of genetic and species levels, we expect to discover new emerging patterns that could inform about the processes that drive biodiversity.
Study of bulk samples of sequence data permits a focus on communities in addition to species-based analyses.
Our general model of biodiversity for interpreting site-based sequence data is based on stochastic (random) dispersal.
When analyzing a single site, neutral processes predict that total species diversity at a site (as a function of size, connectivity and age of a habitat patch) is positively correlated to the genetic diversity of each local species (as a function of population size and age).
SGDC provides a framework for testing diversity patterns at multiple hierarchical levels.
Diversity at both species and genetic levels can be assessed based on sequence data from bulk samples, using established procedures of sequence-based species delimitation and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to assess variation within each of these entities.
While highly suited to the site-based approach to the study of alpha diversity at multiple levels, the framework can be extended to patterns of turnover (beta diversity).
If continuous over time, stochastic dispersal is expected to result in a continuum of divergence among sites
As a consequence, similarity of communities decreases with spatial distance, and it does so in concert across hierarchical levels. Hence, spatial patterns evident at the lowest hierarchical (haplotype) levels should mirror those at higher (species levels), but at larger scales.
The correlation of species diversity and intraspecific genetic diversity
Panel A. Local communities shown as white rectangles are composed of multiple species (large coloured rectangles A-D) each with multiple haplotypes (small rectangles 1-12). Note that higher species numbers are correlated with the number of genotypes per species. Species may be not shared between both communities, resulting in β-diversity. These species (A, B, D) reduce the similarity between communities. Likewise, haplotypes of shared species may contribute to turnover at the haplotype level (i.e. 7,8,9). The metacommunity is connected among sampling sites by migration m, speciation and extinction, whose rates depend on abundance of a species and connectivity.
Panel 1B. Plots of pairwise community similarity (derived from the species and haplotypes shared, as shown in Panel A), as a function of geographic distance between these communities. The example shows the greater community similarity when studied at the species level of species than haplotype level, i.e. the β-diversity is greater for haplotypes. The predicted self-similarity at both hierarchical (temporal) levels over different spatial scales is shown by the arrows. Note that one species out of 4 is shared among both communities (S=1/4) but only 1 haplotype of 12 (S=1/12).


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It's You Babe® Creates Awesome
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Prenatal Cradle, Mini Cradle and our newest award-winning Best Cradle are favorites of doctors and other medical professionals as well as expecting mothers. We've also expanded our product line to include other types of support to address hip stabilization, vulvar varicosities, and a prolapsed uterus.
Visit our Products page for a brief overview of each maternity support garment. It is essential you select the correct size for proper support, safety and comfort. Contact us for sizing assistance, product help, or answers to questions you may have. Visit our Feel Better blog for recent information and a bit of fun.
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Topic: Advice for first deployment...
I'm ready to deploy an application... Its still in a test phase, but I need to get it setup somewhere where I can test how various PDAs deal with the interface.
I don't need anything very stable, or fast (fast enough to saturate a wifi connection would be good though...).
My normal hosting provider isn't very up on Rails.... They are able to install anything I ask for, though. My beta test server with them is currently primarily a PHP+Apache application. I'd like to leave that as un-impacted as possible. Running the rails stuff through Apache would be nice, but if you think Lighttpd on some non-standard port would be less intrusive, I'm sure I can make that work too. I suspect I'll need to do some DB tweaking to get everything configured enough for it to work.
I'm tempted to buy some el cheapo hosting service at some more experienced Rails provider, but I'd like to avoid that if possible.
Can anyone offer any advice?


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Mission on four wheels and a prayer
By M.E. BAKER
Published May 26, 2007
The sign over the windshield reads "Kneels on Wheels."
It sits on the front of a recreational vehicle that serves as a mobile home with a mission.
No longer destined for long hours of wheeling adventuresome road warriors down endless stretches of blacktop, the 36-foot Winnebago has been transformed by prayer. It's also an answer to a prayer.
Its vanilla-bland exterior is now dressed with images of puffy clouds and blue sky - a look toward the heavens. It is fitting, considering this vehicle stops only at spiritual destinations. It has been born again as a mobile prayer chapel.
The roving sanctuary is the inspiration of the Rev. Larry Dennis, superintendent of the Central Florida district of the Church of the Nazarene. In proposing the prayer mobile last year, Dennis hoped the vehicle would serve to "open up our hearts and lives and our church to a concerted focused prayer effort." He imagined that effort as "a 365-day, 24-hour a day, seven day a week prayer chain."
Dennis was out of state and not available for an interview. In a video announcing his proposal sent to all ministers in the district he said, "I'm not talking about 'now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep' kind of prayers. I'm talking about brokenhearted prayers. I'm talking about people who are pouring their hearts out to God."
The 1997 model Adventurer has been refitted in a way that seems to be a response to the biblical admonition that "when thou prayest, enter into thy closet ... ." The fold-out table, the stove, the bedroom -all the accoutrements of life on the road - are gone. Five "prayer stations, " oak kneeling rails that face the outside and rear of the vehicle, fill the space. It's a cozy, intimate ambience that aspires to that of a church sanctuary. Television screens softly playing religious music substitute for the choir. Stained glass decorates the pop-out wall, over which hangs a small cross.
Since the prayer mobile was put on the road last fall, it has made two- to three-day visits at almost all of the district's nearly 90 churches. Each church recruits volunteers for 30-minute prayers in the chapel, with the goal of having round-the-clock sessions during the stay.
Last week, the mobile chapel was parked at Victory Church of the Nazarene, 4401 58th St. N., in Kenneth City. It was the second visit to the church since January, and Pastor Rocky Hambrick said the effects of that first visit are still being felt.
"We've had more people praying on a regular basis since the prayer mobile has been here. We've had more people that have said that their prayer lives have been enhanced because they took the time to pray and they saw how easy it was to pray. So many Christians, they spend two or three minutes a day praying and they don't realize they can pray 30 minutes. We had so many people that went in there and prayed for that 30 minutes and went, wow, this is easy to do."
For Hambrick, the vehicle is part of a larger plan. "We define our roots in helping the needy, the hungry, the homeless, the sick, " he said. Over the past two years, the congregation has developed a "renewed interest" in outreach and community service. Saturday, Victory hosted a block party for the neighborhood, with inflatable play equipment for children, free food and a health fair. The chapel was part of the festivities.
Victory's outreach has had visible results. Over the past five years, Hambrick said the congregation had doubled to 200. Plans are in the works for a Hispanic ministry.
The Rev. Randy Rupert is pastor of Eastside Church of the Nazarene in Lakeland and the person who coordinates the prayer chapel's travel schedule. He noted that the vehicle has affected even people who aren't church members.
"We've had people walk in off the street needing help and encouragement. We had people come in off the street and ask for prayer."
The chapel is nearing the end of its year as a vehicle for round-the-clock prayer. Beginning in July, it will be used primarily for weekend prayer retreats, said Rev. Rupert. For now, the chapel is on the road again. It will be making stops at Nazarene churches throughout the Tampa Bay area through June.
If you go
Chapel stops
The Mobile Prayer Chapel is scheduled to visit these churches:
JUNE 14-16: Pinellas Vietnamese Church of the Nazarene, 1225 Ninth Ave. N, St. Petersburg
JUNE 16-18: Gulfport Trinity Church of the Nazarene, 1000 55th St. S, Gulfport


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Data Breach Issues in Email Marketing
April 27, 2011
Mark Melodia, partner, Reed Smith LLP, discussed data breach issues related to email service providers.
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kylestyle wrote:I agree with this user on imdb.com regarding the Let It Be film:Now that the original album has been re-mixed to take out the Spector influence, I think it's high time the film was made available in some format, or show it again on television, it must be 25 years since it was last aired. PLEASE DO SOMETHING!!!!!
Indeed. That OUGHT to be released a LONG TIME ago.


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Join us at Mr. Smith's of Georgetown to see your fellow alumni and catch up on the news at Immaculata. Tickets are available for $15 per person, which includes food and a cash bar.
For more information, visit www.immaculata.edu/ua or contact the University Advancement Events Office at 610-647-4400 ext. 3133 or email@example.com.


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A possible rail/trail compromise
As an avid bicycle tourer, I find the even grade of rail trails monotonous. Nevertheless, I have been drawn to quite a few of them in many states, and I have witnessed firsthand the resurgence of tourism when abandoned rail lines have been converted to recreational corridors across the nation.
The statistics back up my personal observations: Rails to trails, especially those that have small towns interspersed as destinations every 10 to 20 miles, draw people who are looking for outdoor recreation that is not too taxing, that gives families with young children and the old and infirm a safe corridor in which to have fun hiking and biking and taking in the sights. They arrive at those towns along the trail hungry and tired, looking for a break and eager to ply the town to see what it has to offer. They spend money on food, lodging, local crafts and other mementos, and bicycle maintenance and repair. The Tri-Lakes corridor would be perfect for this.
I have also stood outside the train stations in these three towns and watched the once- or twice-a-day tourist train pull into Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, the few passengers who get out, mill around a bit, looking bored and wondering what the big deal is. Few, if any, came to the region for the experience of riding a tourist train; even fewer ever take the train again. Anyone who has eyes can see it is a very expensive failed experiment that had 10 years to show its appeal. The $400,000 Tupper Lake taxpayers poured into their station remains an empty testament to the little engine that couldn't.
So I would suggest to you a compromise: Keep the tourist train that makes the short run to Old Forge from a population center that makes the route viable. Convert the Lake Placid-to-Tupper Lake stretch of the Remsen-Lake Placid Travel Corridor to a recreational trail, and put the long wilderness stretch between Tupper Lake and Old Forge on hold until we see which of the two uses grows more viable over time.
Allow the rails, which now lie rusting, to be salvaged and used to finance the recreational trail. The ties could be used to shore up the sides of what would be the recreational trail. Neither rails nor ties are in any condition to be used for a viable freight or passenger service, so there is no loss in tearing them up. Meanwhile, the snowmobilers would have the opportunity to demonstrate that the undeveloped section of the rail line would be used to the advantage of all involved. Retain the right to rebuild the rail line should such a corridor become viable in what everybody acknowledges is the not-so-near future.
Then set a new unit management review date 10 years hence. This way, with a recreational trail on the north end and a tourist train on the south end, both sides of the debate will have the opportunity to prove their merit and convince authorities of their point of view.
Ken Youngblood, a former Adirondack resident, lives in Taos, N.M.


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|ACIS Photos / Imgf1079
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Photos home page
Seedling lettuce plants at stand establishment in desert production
Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914, in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, James A. Christenson, Director Cooperative Extension, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, The University of Arizona.
The University of Arizona is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution. The University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or sexual orientation in its programs and activities.
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By Event
Wine Riot Boston 2016
Wine Riot Boston 2015
Wine Riot Chicago 2015
Wine Riot Boston 2015 - Spring
Wine Riot NYC 2015 - Spring
Wine Riot Boston
Wine Riot San Francisco 2013
Wine Riot Los Angeles
Office iPhone App Beta Test
Wine Riot Chicago
Wine Riot Boston
VinOlivo Grand Tasting
Rocketspace Rager
Second Glass Crash Course
Wine Riot DC
Living Social Crash Course
Wine Riot New York
Tastings on the Lawn 150th Anniversary Celebration
Newport Wine Festival
Monterey's 19th Annual Winemakers' Celebration
Australian Wines with No BS Presented by WTFLA
Pinot Days
Wine Riot Chicago
Gtrot Awesome Office Tasting
Wine Riot Boston
Pre-Wine Riot Tasting at Vino Divino
Wine Riot LA
Second Glass Staff Crash Course
Chef Louie Night
Kickass Wines from Spain and Portugal
Boston Wine Expo
LA Office Wine Tasting
Second Glass Wine Riot Boston
Mass Innovation Night #19
Tyler Goes to Spain
Boston Wine Week
Pre-Wine Riot Tasting at Boston Wine Exchange
By Style
Morgan F.
After too much wine I talk endlessly about
Trips I want to take! India? Japan? Portugal? Sydney, Australia? Chile?
The wine that got you into wine
Malbec's on a trip to Argentina!
If I could only drink one wine forever
Gruner Veltliner
Current watering hole
Eastern Standard
Drunken munchies
Anything soaked in truffle oil
When not drinking wine you can find me
vintage shopping, e-mailing from my iphone, running events, or hiking!
Showing wines matching:
Style: red
Tasted at event: Tastings on the Lawn 150th Anniversary Celebration
NV Charles Krug Zinfandel Port Lot XIV
USA, California, Napa Valley
she loved it!
2008 Charles Krug Zinfandel
USA, California, Napa Valley, St. Helena
she loved it!


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Show well supported
To the Journal editor:
The membership of the Hiawathaland Snowmobile Club wishes to remind you once again what a great place we live in.
We have been putting on the U.P. Recreation Show for over four decades and with the economy being as it is, and more "toy shows" taking place in recent years, we found a need for improving our show. Greater variety of items that appeal to a wider range of customers was our goal.
This year at Lakeview Arena, our vendor count increased and attendance was up and we owe thanks to several organizations that helped us greatly.
Of course there would be no show without our vendors, so a big thanks to all of our traditional and new vendors. Many compliments were heard about the show being better this year. Also, the staff at Lakeview Arena was Johnny on the Spot whenever help was needed.
Superior Design in Ishpeming brought us into this century by setting us up a website so we had visibility to more vendors. TV6 provided great advertising, with more spots at the best time slots. The Mining Journal newspaper ads were perfectly located and on the right days. And Eagle Radio group flooded the airwaves in helping us sell more vendor space as well as promoting the show to all those within listening range.
Not sure who to thank on this, but the extended winter weather also helped with attendance.
This all happened because of the assistance and expertise of Pat Black's staff from the Marquette Country Convention and Visitors Bureau. Seems their goals are to make business in this area more successful, and their performance is excellent. Our show committee learned much from this year's experience and we look forward to making future shows even better.
Major thanks to TV6, The Mining Journal, Eagle Radio Group, and Marquette Country Convention and Visitors Bureau, as well as all of those that attended to make this years show a success. You all are great assets to our community.
Snowmobile Club
Marquette County


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These days, Buzz Aldrin zips around on a JetSuite Embraer Phenom 100 instead of a NASA spaceship. While he is helping JetSuite promote its regional light jet charter service, he also finds that VLJs offer a convenient way to travel to speaking engagements and for space research projects and vacations.
March 22, 2012
March 19, 2012
William Shatner has been a staple of popular culture for half a century. He is perhaps best known for playing Captain James Kirk on the 1960s television series Star Trek and in more than half a dozen of the like-titled motion pictures that followed. He later served as the omnipresent discount-travel Priceline pitchman and portrayed the lovable lout lawyer Denny Crane on the TV series Boston Legal, for which he won two Emmys and a Golden Globe award. Turn on your television anytime in recent years and there he was, holding court on his cable interview show Raw Nerve, cooing over antiques with the History Channel guys on American Pickers, roasting bad-boy actor Charlie Sheen on Comedy Central, reading Sarah Palin's Tweets as poetry parody on The Tonight Show, appearing on the CBS sitcom $h*! My Dad Says, awakening the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery on their final mission or presenting a country music award.
February 24, 2012
Craig Sincock is the sole owner of Avfuel and has been CEO of the aviation fuel and services company since 1984. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he learned to fly and worked in the investment banking and consulting arena. One of his consulting clients was a regional aviation fuel supplier serving the Great Lakes Region named Avfuel Corporation.
February 7, 2012
Scott Ashton spent five years at Gama Aviation, where he started in aircraft sales and acquisitions and became chief commercial officer, responsible for aircraft management and charter programs. He joined Sikorsky-owned Associated Aircraft Group in August of 2011 as president and general manager.
February 1, 2012
To appreciate what John Hendricks has created, just spend some time watching his Discovery Channel. Consider, for example, the moment on the Curiosity show when Dr. Dunn rips a piece of tape off host Mike Rowe's eyebrow and finds what he is seeking: eyebrow mites.
February 1, 2012
Phil Mathews wanted to be a pilot since childhood, but bad eyesight precluded that dream. Instead, after graduating from England's University of Buckingham in 1989, he began a job as a check-in agent at London's Gatwick Airport. He was hired just for summer vacation, but he wound up being promoted to flight dispatcher and manager of general operations and spending four years there.
December 1, 2011
Although he has experienced low points as well as triumphs during his golfing career, Sergio Garcia has earned more than $27 million since going professional in 1999 and has regularly placed in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings.
December 1, 2011
When NBC's Today Show profiled Jared Isaacman in 2006, a reporter asked his father to name the biggest obstacle his son had faced in building his nationwide credit-card processing firm. The answer: "His inability to drive."
November 30, 2011
Theodore Forstmann, the private equity investor credited with turning around Gulfstream Aerospace, died Nov. 20 at age 71. His investment firm, Forstmann Little & Company, acquired Gulfstream in 1990 for $800 million. When the Savannah, Ga.-based aircraft manufacturer began experiencing financial difficulties, Forstmann took a hands-on approach and appointed himself chairman and CEO.
October 1, 2011
After reading Esther Dyson's résumé, you might conjure up a Type A executive juggling urgent phone calls behind a massive desk. Dyson, after all, has spent decades–and earned millions–advising, buying and selling companies and shares of companies.
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The Great American Comedy Festival was created in 2008 to pay tribute to the legacy of Norfolk's favorite son, Johnny Carson.
That same vision continues to hold true today.
Honoring his legacy as one of America's greatest comedians ever, paying tribute to his status as a TV icon and remembering with gratitude the fondness Carson had for the community he called home – that's the foundation of the Great American Comedy Festival.
He was born Oct. 23, 1925, in Corning, Iowa, to Homer "Kit" and Ruth Carson. But in 1933, the family moved to Norfolk. Six years later, Carson began his life as an entertainer, and he never stopped. He graduated from Norfolk High School in 1943, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1949. By 1962, he took over as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" and continued entertaining television audiences for30 years.
In 1981, he returned to Norfolk to tape "Johnny Goes Home," a documentary on his life. In 1992, he retired from "The Tonight Show."He died on Jan. 23, 2005. When Norfolk's previous community festival ended in 2006, an editorial in the Norfolk Daily News suggested creating a new festival in honor of Carson's memory. With that, the Great American Comedy Festival was born.
Eighteen months of planning led to the inaugural festival in June 2008. It's been a mid-June tradition ever since, growing each year in stature and scope. In 2012, the festival was named Nebraska's outstanding tourism event among the state's larger cities.
The festival continues its focus on Johnny Carson. His talent and career were hailed by many, but the words of David Letterman, a longtime friend of Carson's, perhaps say it best of all: "All of us who came after are pretenders. We will not see the likes of him again."