text:
The Potential of F-Commerce for Sports Organisations
Guest Post: Rebecca Helmer is Business Development Manager for leading German Social Commerce developer Ondango.
Recently there have been multiple debates about selling directly on Facebook. According to the BIZ Report, f-Commerce has failed. SMI is questioning if 'Facebook is drowning not waving' and the Pando Daily invokes: 'Stop trying to make f-commerce happen'.
On the other hand, many voices predict a big potential for Facebook as a sales channel including Social Commerce Today, Fresh Business Thinking and Social Innovations.
The failure of big brands like Gap Inc, Norstrom, Gamestop and J.C. Penny to succeed with F-Commerce have common roots, and their mistakes have allowed the whole industry to understand better what to do and what not to. Companies willing to establish an e-commerce presence on Facebook must avoid the following pitfalls:
- Don't simply replicate your normal online shop on Facebook: It doesn't make sense to offer exactly the same products on Facebook, Fans expect additional value on this channel.
- Don't shoot app requests: Facebook users don't like annoying app requests. According to our experience, app requests decrease the conversion rate of Facebook shops by up to 80%.
- Don't send your fans out of Facebook: Many brands redirect their fans outside of Facebook to their "normal" online shops. The longer purchase funnel and the broken shopping experience have a negative effect on the conversion rate.
E-Commerce on Facebook works best, when your fans perceive the value of buying on Facebook, experience it as an individual adventure, and feel emotionally attached to your brand. Here are some best practices that we have learned from our customers:
- Attract attention with exclusive discounts: Offer personalized or time-limited products and do fan-only promotions.
- Don't be intrusive; respect the privacy of your fans. Use a shop solution that doesn't need to be installed as an app.
- Rotating your products. Your fans get bored quickly, offer them always fresh content.
- Optimize your EdgeRank. EdgeRank is Facebook's algorithm that decides what content is displayed in news feeds. On average, users see about 16% of the content generated by their friends and the pages they have liked.
According to futurebiz.de is Notebooksbilliger.de a great example for a successful time-limited fan-only promotion on Facebook. The online retailer of computers and gadgets offered a special deal exclusively on Facebook: 500 Nintendo 3DS with a 30% discount. All units were sold in less than 24 hours.
Another thriving campaign comes from the football industry. A German Sports Club, FC Ingolstadt 04, of the second Bundesliga, is selling products exclusively on Facebook and offering Daily Deals for Fan-only promotions. Their first sale was the Football T-Shirt 'away jersey' with a discount of 50%.
Nicolas Maltry from the Club's New Media Department claimed, that "this hot deal was sold out within 96 hours. We reached a 4-digit volume of sales and increased the fan engagement and the number of fans by 15%."
In terms of great communication, interaction with fans and appealing campaigns, Heinz Soup UK has to be mentioned. They ran a Facebook shop for four weeks, selling personalized cans of 'Get Well' Soup for Facebook fans. Once you bought a can you could leave an individual message on it and sent it to a friend. Heinz UK reported a sale of 2.100 cans within a month, doubled up their number of fans and increased the interaction of over 40.000 fans.
If done properly, Facebook Commerce does work, and Sport Clubs in particular can profit from this, as they are in the middle of what we call "the sweet spot for F-Commerce".
- All their fans are on Facebook: The can reach almost their complete fan base through this channel.
- They are "real fans": Sport Club fans identify themselves with the organization in a deeper way than with other brands. As a consequence, they are more likely to share their purchase with their friends, expanding the virality of the shop.
- Merchandising products are cheap: At an average price of less than 30€, merchandising products are great candidates for impulse purchases.
Do you agree with Rebecca? Love to hear your thoughts below….
About author
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text:
Remember that once-in-a-lifetime, mondo bizarre Apple iPhone incident a year ago when an Apple engineer left a prototype iPhone 4 in a San Francisco bar?
Then two guys picked it up, realized what it was and sold it to a Gizmodo reporter for $5,000?
Then Gizmodo ran a bunch of reviews and analyses of the best evidence anyone had ever seen of an unannounced Apple smartphone until Apple's lawyers quit sending threatening letters and started sending thugs (actually a police special-operations unit) to break down the Gizmodo writer's door and search the place?
Then Apple got so mad that the phone wasn't there that it told Gizmodo it had to give back the iPhone 4 immediately or Apple was going to sue, and maybe do worse things, like declare everyone at Gizmodo Not A Genius™ and maybe excommunicate them so they'd never be able to be represented as a cool, dancing silhouette with no face or depth (the kind of customer Apple prefers, actually)?
So Gizmodo gave back the phone and Apple went back on its meds and everything went back to its neurotic, paranoid normal in Cupertino?
Except the whole place closed up even tighter, as Apple installed the giant scrolled-iron gates from the defunct Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, put armed Oompa Loompas in the guardhouses and at the doors and everyone knew there was no way anyone from Apple would ever be allowed out the gate with a prototype of anything being made on the inside, ever ever, on pain of death or disdain of Steve Jobs?
Someone left an unreleased iPhone in a bar in San Francisco's Mission district sometime in late July, prompting frantic searches by Apple, offers of rewards, and house-to-house searches by hordes of Apple storm troopers, according to an exclusive scoop from CNET (except for the part about the storm troopers, which is my own contribution to the balanced discussion of best practices in the management of employee security and intellectual property protection).
The otherwise undescribed unreleased iPhone was taken from a "tequila lounge" and Mexican restaurant called Cava 22 and may have been sold on Craigslist for $200, though CNET doesn't cite a source for that information.
It does say Apple refused to comment, the San Francisco Police confirmed Apple filed no police report about a lost prototype phone and that Craigslist also refused to comment.
But, remember, your iPhone secretly tracks your location, even when you don't want them to?
So do Apple's iPhones.
"Apple electronically traced the phone to a two-floor, single-family home in San Francisco's Bernal Heights neighborhood, according to the source [described earlier in the story as asking for anonymity while begging CNET to hide him from Apple's goons].
When San Francisco police and Apple's investigators visited the house, they spoke with a man in his twenties who acknowledged being at Cava 22 on the night the device went missing. But he denied knowing anything about the phone. The man gave police permission to search the house, and they found nothing, the source said. Before leaving the house, the Apple employees offered the man money for the phone no questions asked, the source said, adding that the man continued to deny he had knowledge of the phone. " – CNET, Greg Sandoval, Declan McCullagh, 8/31/11
No more is known about the mysteriously disappearing iPhone, though the house to which Apple traced the phone was destroyed mysteriously later that night in what neighbors called a spectacularly well-designed series of explosions with no obvious source, though some neighbors did report seeing what looked like the featureless silhouettes of stealthy attack drones shaped very much like the three-dimensional drones armed with Hellfire missiles the U.S. Air Force has used to kill the No. 2 leader of Al Queda 127 times during the past 10 years.
Apple denied any involvement. "We don't even know Al Kayda, OK?" according to a spokesman. "All terrorists are PCs anyway. We're a Mac."
Read more of Kevin Fogarty's CoreIT blog and follow the latest IT news at ITworld. Follow Kevin on Twitter at @KevinFogarty. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Plot No 24 Maambo Way, PO BOX M64
Tesis Konumu
When you are at Livingstone International Airport move on to the road leading to the town centre and you must arrive at the junction of Mosi-oatunya road.Turn to the left and drive towards New Fairmount hotel. arrive at a road known as Mose Street,turn left and move on cross JohnHunt Way Move on and cross Likute Way.after crossing Likute Way look on your left hand side of the road and you will see the sign post for Comfort corner guesthouse.
Hostelworld Mobil Uygulamaları
Yeni Hostelworld mobil uygulamalarıyla hareket halindeyken rezervasyon yapın.


text: On 02/10/2010 09:11, Vincent FAUQUEZ wrote: > Im trying to get PC-BSD VMWare Image > (32bit)<http://www.pcbsd.org/content/view/21/11/#vmware> on > PC-BSD web site but all the links are dead. When i look into different FTP i > cant find the file : > > PCBSD7.0.2-vmware.zip > > Is it available ? > > And if yes, can you tell me where i can get it ? > > If no, can you tell me what is the last release for PC-BSD Virtual machines > > Thanks a lot for your returns. I really need a PC BSD on my office under a > VMWARE to test some stuffs... > > Best regards, > > Vincent > Paris > France > Vincent, We no longer supply the vmware images to PC-BSD, since they we're a pain to maintain and few used them. However you are more than welcome to grab the ISO files, and just install it into vmware, which is all the image was anyway :) -- Kris Moore PC-BSD Software http://www.pcbsd.com


text: Hi, I have recently installed PCBSD, uname shows me this FreeBSD rufous 9-STABLE-p2-p2 FreeBSD 9-STABLE-p2-p2 #0: Fri Jul 19 19:40:31 UTC 2013 root at amd64-builder.pcbsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64 After this, I cannot seem to use my touchpad horizontal and vertical scroll loader.conf hw.psm.synaptics_support="1" I have tried it in loader.conf.pcbsd as well with no results. # sysctl hw.psm hw.psm.tap_timeout: 125000 hw.psm.tap_threshold: 25 hw.psm.tap_enabled: -1 Is there any change that messes up synaptics? -- Mike Of course, you might discount this possibility, but remember that one in a million chances happen 99% of the time. ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.pcbsd.org/pipermail/support/attachments/20130725/b297381f/attachment.html>


text:
The Steelers find themselves in a precarious position just a few days away from the NFL Draft.
The Steelers need running backs … bad.
However, they don't have the money to get a veteran via free agency thus putting a tremendous burden of coming away with a handful ball carriers this weekend whether it is in the draft's seven rounds or after the draft via the undrafted free agency market.
The Steelers currently have three running backs on the roster – Jonathan Dwyer, Isaac Redman, Baron Batch — which is not nearly enough. Last year, the Steelers started training camp with seven running backs –Redman, Dwyer, Batch, Chris Rainey, John Clay, Rashard Mendenhall (PUP list).
The year before that? Yup, seven running backs again. The year before that they had six running backs.
"Really, it depends on how the draft unfolds and what we do prior to the draft," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said on Monday. "Obviously, we have a number of days before the draft. Like Kevin (Colbert) has said numerous times, as have I, we're interested in adding to this football team within all the avenues afforded to us within the system. Obviously, that's free agency and the draft and we don't lean one way or the other in terms of utilizing any of those vehicles."
The Steelers would love to bring in a veteran and more established running back but just may not be able to.
They are only $600,000 under the salary cap, and even if you account the $5.5 million that will come the Steelers way on June 1 because of the release of Willie Colon, it still likely won't be enough to entice a decent running back to town like an Ahmad Bradshaw.
"It's not like we are going to hit the lottery (with the June 1 $5.5 million)," Colbert said. "We still have to compensate for these draft picks. The eight draft picks will start to count against the cap once they are signed. That's all part of the money that we will pick up in June. There is still potential to sign a veteran free agent here or there depending on how we come out of this draft. We have to be ready to add a player if we think they can help us."
Take in account that Colbert likes to hold back a little more than a million dollar in case of an emergency and the Steelers must add multiple running backs by the end of the week.
Knowing that, it looks like that Dwyer and Redman will be your running backs again this year. And if both stay healthy, that might not be a bad thing.


text:
"The nearest house or filling station is at least a mile up the road," volunteered Penny.
"But you'll have to meet me at Carter's filling station," she cautioned.
Well, she went either to the restroom or into the filling station.
Finally, soaked and muddy, they reached the filling station.
In Quito the others found a filling station, the operator of which agreed to send out a truck to the monoplane to fill the tanks.
"That was sure some storm," he remarked to the filling station man.
Now, it seemed necessary that he and Landy ride down to the filling station seeking news of the missing ones.
Already the trucker was starting to pull away from the filling station.
No cops had seen that the gray sedan which had driven into Burkey's filling station had come out a blue sedan.
"This is a regular cloudburst," the filling station attendant remarked, watching the rain pelt against the window.
noun phrase
A very small town; jerkwater town (1940s+)


text:
Eric Bana Arrests the Possessed in New 'Deliver Us from Evil' Trailer
by Ethan Anderton
May 14, 2014
Source: Machinima
We've gotten a good look at Scott Derrickson's latest horror thriller Deliver Us from Evil with the spooky teaser trailer and a longer international trailer showing off ore of the story. Now a new online trailer gives us the best look yet as Eric Bana deals with an influx of perpetrators who all appear to be crazy. But soon he learns there may be something more sinister at play when he joins forces with a priest (Edgar Ramirez) who seems to know what's going on. This looks pretty bad ass, and has an original spin on the idea of people being possessed by demons as a grounded detective encounters a variety of spirits. Watch it!
Here's the new trailer for Scott Derrickson's Deliver Us from Evil from Machinima:
NY police officer Ralph Sarchie (Eric Bana), struggling with his own personal issues, begins investigating a series of disturbing and inexplicable crimes. He joins forces with an unconventional priest (Edgar Ramirez), schooled in the rituals of exorcism, to combat the frightening and demonic possessions terrorizing their city. Based on the book by the same name, written by Ralph Sarchie & Lisa Collier Cool, which details bone-chilling real-life cases. Deliver Us from Evil is co-written and directed by Scott Derrickson, of The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and Sinister previously. The film is produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Screen Gems. Deliver Us from Evil hits theaters July 2nd this summer. Creepy?
Follow Alex's main profile on :


text:
Gilles Detillieux (email@example.com)
Wed, 10 Mar 1999 10:50:06 -0600 (CST)
According to Antti Rauramo:
> I'm confused: I have the following three test pages:
> http://www.edita.fi/netmarket2/tuotteet
> http://www.edita.fi/netmarket2/tuotteet/testi.html
> http://www.edita.fi/netmarket2/tuotteet/testi2.html
> with just links to the two latter pages on the index page, and the
> htsearch at
> http://www.edita.fi/cgi-bin/htdig/htsearch?config=nm2
> A copy of the nm2.conf is at
> http://www.edita.fi/netmarket2/tuotteet/nm2.conf
> Now, if you try searching with a word like "iskusana", you'll see that
> the resulting $(DESCRIPTION) is empty, and the $(DESCRIPTIONS) has an
> empty slot, and (valid?) punctuation missing.
> It's obvious that there absolutely are no more than a single link
> pointing to the files, so it seems that the $(DESCRIPTION) is not
> showing the first link text as it should.
> The question is: WHY?!? Help is appreciated! Htdig is 3.1.0 on Solaris
> 2.6.
Very good question. I've looked over the code, and I can't make a lot
of sense out of it. The reason the spaces and punctuation are stripped
out of the $(DESCRIPTIONS) entry is because of the
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
tag in the index page. For whatever reason, htdig/HTML.cc still collects
href tags and their description words when indexing is turned off, but
doesn't collect the spaces and punctuation between words in this case.
This seems inconsistent - it ought to collect either the whole description,
or none at all.
I couldn't figure out from the code why there was an empty slot in
$(DESCRIPTIONS). As far as I can see, it only adds empty descriptions
for tags like these:
<meta http-equiv=refresh content="url=...">
<frame src="...">
<area href="...">
Also, for whatever reason, htsearch seems to set $(DESCRIPTION) to the
second entry in the $(DESCRIPTIONS) list. I really don't know why that
is. Maybe the author of the code for that feature could shed some light.
-- Gilles R. Detillieux E-mail: <email@example.com> Spinal Cord Research Centre WWW: http://www.scrc.umanitoba.ca/~grdetil Dept. Physiology, U. of Manitoba Phone: (204)789-3766 Winnipeg, MB R3E 3J7 (Canada) Fax: (204)789-3930 ------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from the htdig mailing list, send a message to email@example.com containing the single word "unsubscribe" in the SUBJECT of the message.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Mon Mar 15 1999 - 08:57:45 PST


text:
WARRINGTON has been ranked as the worst local authority in the country for early years children reaching a good level of development if they receive a free school meal.
Youngsters up the age of five are less likely to achieve well in comparison to other towns and cities in England, a report has revealed.
But a council spokesman has hit back at the report, claiming that the findings are not 'an accurate reflection of children's performance'.
A report published by Ofsted revealed that only 18 per cent of early years youngsters achieve well in communication and language, physical, personal, social and emotional development and within literacy and maths.
Warrington fell significantly behind neighbouring local authorities for improving the outcomes for deprived children in the community.
Forty three per cent of children achieved a good level of development in St Helens, with Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester reaching 36 per cent and 31 per cent respectively.
A council spokesman said: "Warrington's current performance has been assessed under a new framework for the early foundation stage, which was introduced in September 2012.
"Under the previous framework Warrington has always performed well so, while we are now taking on board the changes within the revised framework, it is fair to say that the dip in performance is more a reflection of the need to allow time for the new framework to embed rather than an accurate reflection of children's performance.
"We have already alerted schools to this data and are working with moderators to revise our support to early years groups and schools.
"We recognise it is within the early years that we can make the biggest difference in transforming the lives of our most vulnerable children and will be working closely with groups to ensure the new framework is embedded."


text:
Sociology/Anthropology 263:
The Karen of Northern Thailand
Michael Leming, Ph.D.
Sara Dahl, Mee Vang, Caroline Hilk
Heidi Larson, Betsey McLain, Alecia Swenson
Annika Harrington, Heidi Lellman, and Ann Westby
Lillian Harris, Beth Henry, Dan Kuehl, Angela Miller
Brad Lindbergh, Sonja Renander, Sara Ursin, Amy Kirchner
Karen Tribal Museum
Although one can not hold a mountain in one's hand or experience all mountains just by seeing one, the mountains to the Karen are just as much a part of their lives as any other cultural artifact. Northern Thailand is a mountainous region inhabited by the foothills of the Himalayans, home of the largest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. The mountains in Tee Mae Ker Lah however are no where near that height, but for a Minnesotan they are a strong and majestic presence. The mountains are covered with coniferous forest and a little farther up the mountains, beyond the village, the rain forest begins to grow. This forest is the home of one of the most diverse species of trees and plant life on earth. The Karen have always been closely connected to this beautiful land which sustains them. The bountiful land is not always so forgiving and it has made outside communication difficult.
The road from Chiang Mai is a long 5 to 8 hour journey of bumpy, cracked and divided, dry red dirt. The roads have apparently been improved upon but the rainy season makes traveling on them a bit hazardous, if not impossible. Speculation has led me to assume that because of the mountainous home of the Karen they were able to stay fairly culturally and physically secluded as long as they did. Just this year they received decent electricity and now they are able to go down the road to the local store and buy an ice-cream. Ice-cream is just one in a list of products that are being delivered to the area now.
The ecology of the land is changing as well as the lives of the people. Because of the roads there is more erosion. Due to increased knowledge of pesticides and fertilizers learned from the Royal Project there are more water pollution problems. However all is not lost the Thai government is interested in preserving the forest as well as the Karen people themselves. Tongdee, village musician/entrepreneur, says that the Thai government and the Karen have different concepts of water, dirt, forest. Therefore the environment is a big issue in Karen/Thai relations. The Karen have always been environmentally aware and have avoided farming methods which cut down trees. Tongdee says they feared the spirits so they didn't cut down trees, but now the spirit(God) is the law. This connection with nature is part of what it means to be Karen.
Lily Harris
Karen Home
Perched above the ground the small house looks very unassuming, but the rather simple looking architectural design serves several functional purposes in the Karen lifestyle.
Characteristic of most rural homes in Thailand are stilts, which raise the structure an average of 5-7 feet off the ground. Elevating the house helps protect against flooding, insects, and the intrusion of farm animals. As an added benefit the stilts help to keep the house clean as well.
Primary building materials used in constructing the Karen homes are: bamboo, teak leaves, and various kinds of timber. The frame of the home is constructed out of a sturdy wood, if the family is wealthy they might use teakwood being that it is resistant to termites. As teak becomes more and more scarce and expensive villagers use cement blocks to form a kind of foundation for their homes which also helps prevent insect infestation. Walls and floors of the traditional home are formed with bamboo. Although bamboo has the appearance of being unstable and weak it is capable of supporting a great deal of weight. Frequently now villagers use planks instead of bamboo because wood provides better insulation against the extreme climate changes of the hills.
For the roofing materials the Karen fold several teak leaves over a thin piece of wood and then bind the leaves to each other and to the wood. In constructing the slanted roof the rows of leaves are layered on top of each other creating a thatched roof effect. Teak leaves are popular because they are sturdy and last a long time and do not begin to decompose quickly like banana leaves. Each material used in the construction of a house serves a specific use making the Karen homes both aesthetically appealing and well built.
The layout of the Karen home also illustrates the simple life centered on the family. A sheltered porch common to all traditionally built homes provides a place for socialization. One main room of the house serves as both kitchen and bedroom, with the family usually sleeping around the fire for warmth. Above the rectangular fire pit, which does not have any special designated place in the room, stands a metal shelving system. Two shelves provide storage place for the cooking ware and also a place to dry produce or other foods. The presence of the cooking area within the bedroom serves a dual purpose. When the fire gives off smoke it protects the inhabitants from the swarms of mosquitoes.
At the outset the construction of the Karen home appears simplistic with little decoration or stylistic variation, however, variations on the traditional style continue as families earn more money and can afford bigger homes. What does remain consistent is the practicality of their architecture serving the facilitation of family life and comfort in the face of a harsh climate.
Sonja Renander
The Karen, like most people of the world, play both traditional and contemporary music. To play these two styles there is also a difference of instruments used.
The traditional music is played on a pentatonic (five-toned) scale. This is made up of the first, second, third, fifth, and sixth notes of what we know as a modern octave. They keep a loose structure of what pitch and rhythm the song should be sung in, allowing compensation for peoples' variety of voices and emotion to the song. Traditionally the music is in a minor key, causing a saddened sound to emerge.
Of the traditional instruments of the Karen are harp, Jew's harp, bamboo guitar or fiddle, xylophone, flute, graduated-pipes, gourd bag-pipe, wedding horn, drums, cymbals, and gongs. The instruments were made by the villagers out of elements around them, except for the drums, cymbals, and gongs, which came from the Burmese. The Karen would use the music played by these instruments for dancing, ceremonies, calling to each other in the brush, courting, or just a way to pass the time in musical enjoyment.
Along with Christianity coming to the Karen, the missionaries brought Christian hymns from their land. The Karen enjoyed the hymns, and although not forced to, began to drop their traditional songs for these hymns. Only a few of their traditional songs have been modified into hymns and added to their hymnbook. However, efforts to preserve traditional songs are increasing.
Contemporary music can resemble western music, using guitars as the base for the music. Depending on who has influenced the village, such as missionaries playing songs on guitars, the village follows likewise. Some people who play music a lot prefer to bounce between traditional and contemporary music. They may do this by playing a traditional song on their Karen guitar, followed by a western song on their western guitar. Others use their Karen instruments and create new songs.
The man photographed is Boo Na, a medicine man in Mu Si Khee. He plays traditional instruments but not only plays traditional songs, but also writes some of his own. On our last night in Mu Si Khee, he played a song for our group that he made up. The verses are paraphrased as follows:
Verse 1: Our [Karen] parents are different than other parents because we are poorer. We don't have as many things as they do.
Verse 2: We want to have relationships with others, but we can't because we don't speak their language.
Verse 3: We meet with the educated and rich people. We are not against them - we try to have a good relationship with them. We respect them, humbling ourselves for them.
Chorus: Thanks (to us) for coming to Mu Si Khee. Thanks to God. I hope not to forget you. Without the love of God, we cannot love each other.
Boo Na played this song on a traditional Karen guitar and sang in Karen.
Some information is from page 161 in: Marshall, Harry Ignatius. 1922. "The Karen People of Burma: A Study in Anthropology and Ethnology." University at Columbus.
Dan Kuehl
Mens Shirt
The Karen mens shirt has been a symbol of Karen identity well before the Karen began migrating into Thailand over seven-hundred years ago. While all Karen shirts to very somewhat, enough similarity occurs between families and shirt styles to provide for a sense of community to be developed through the wearing of the traditional dress.
Traditionally worn with black or dark colored pants, the traditional Karen shirt is always red in color. Woven often by the woman of the family, or a close relative, the mens shirts were formally dyed red using all natural dyes from the forests which surrounded the Karen. But as time as prevailed and as evident in the provided example, the Karen have begun to use artificial coloring and dyes to give their clothing a more vibrant look. Upon interview of many Karen men who often wear the traditional red shirt it becomes apparent that the origins of the use of the color red in the mens shirt is not commonly known among the average Karen. Many Karen men are simply full of pride knowing that they are wearing red, simply because red is the color of the Karen.
The base red color of the Karen mens shirt is often accompanied by many other colors patterned in horizontal and vertical lines. While the accompanying colors vary on every shirt, blue, green and white most often provide the accessorizing hues. Most, if not all Karen shirts are finished with a blue and white braid attached to the arms and neck of the shirt, as well as long unwoven strings hanging down from the front and side of the garment in various lengths and colors. The bottom half of the Karen shirt is often reverse woven, leaving lines in the fabric, which protrude out from the natural line of the fabric and form a horizontal pattern on the lower half of the shirt.
As Thai influence has increased in the village areas and assimilation has occurred. The use of traditional dress has waned among all but the oldest members of the Karen Tribes. Western styles have infiltrated the Karen and it has become difficult to distinguish many Karen from their Thai counterparts outside of the village setting. To combat this problem villages such as Tee Mae Ker Lah have developed traditions in which traditional dress is worn both to school (for children) on Wednesdays, and to church on Sunday in an attempt to keep the art of traditional dress alive.
Brad Lindbergh
Shoulder Bag
The traditional Karen bag is a necessity for every villager. On any given day, more than half the people walking around a Karen village will be carrying a Karen shoulder bag. This includes school children, adults, as well as the elders of the village. The bags can be used for carrying anything, including schoolbooks, food, and clothes. To the Karen, their shoulder bags are as important to their culture as their traditional clothing.
The Karen bag is similar in style to other hilltribe shoulder bags in their construction. The Karen women weave the bags by hand and are made from two separate pieces of cloth. One piece comprises the strap and the other makes up the majority of the bag itself and the two pieces are sewn together. Although the bags are resemble other hilltribe bags, on examination, the unique characteristics of the Karen bags become apparent. The Karen bags come in a variety of colors, but the majority of them are pastel shades. The bags sometimes incorporate a dark or royal blue, shades of brown, as well as dark red. In the same way the bags are woven and sewn by hand, each bag is dyed by hand through the use of natural dyes.
The bags always have a form of design, which can cover the entire bag, or only the top and bottom sections. Most designs have a geometric style to them such as triangles, squares, or rectangles. Designs that cover the entire bag usually consist of a pattern of lines. Shapes also give character to the Karen bags. Many bags have stars, trees, or small patterns along the top and bottom.
Betsey McLain
Unmarried Womans Dress
Karen girls wear this dress until their day of marriage. It is loose fitting and reaches in length to mid-calf. The dress is made of hand-woven white cloth with red accents around the armholes, v-neck, bottom and below the chest. The bands of color around the bottom and below the chest are approximately one inch in width and often include multiple colors or patterns. Long strings of colored thread hang down at the center of the neck opening in the front and back and also in various other places on the dress. Traditionally, girls wore this type of dress for everyday use but now it is saved for specially occasions such as church, tribal day at school, dancing and celebrations. It is quite acceptable for girls to wear T-shirts or pants underneath their dresses when it is cold. Many younger girls dresses become brown with dirt before they are washed.
The women of the village make these dresses. The process is very involved and time consuming. Thread is spun or bought and a loom is set-up to begin weaving the fabric. Four long columns of fabric are made for the four panels of the dress: two in front and two in back. The pieces are then hand-sewn together with a similar thread used for the weaving. Then, colored thread, either dyed naturally or chemically, is then sewn in. Many girls decide the pattern for the strips on their dresses, incorporating crosses or other geometric patterns. Traditionally these strips were completely red. Finally, the red thread around the neckline and armholes is braided and attached leaving long strings hanging down below the openings.
Caroline Hilk
Womens Skirt
The skirt or sarong is part of the married womans costume for Karen women of Burma and Thailand. A thickly woven V-neck tunic accompanies it. On her wedding day, a Karen woman changes into a woven skirt that she has made herself. Until then, Karen women and girls wear a long white dress.
A traditional Karen skirt is intricately woven of dyed threads. The womans skirt is made of threads dyed red from the kho plant. Other colors used to complete a skirt design are gold, green, black, blue and indigo. After the threads have been dyed, they are tied in a special pattern personal to the woman. The designs of the skirt differ depending on whether the Karen woman is Sgaw or Pwo, a mountain or valley dweller, living in the North or South and on how recently she has arrived from Burma.
The weaving is done on a simple back-strap loom. It takes a woman approximately 16 hours to completely weave her skirt. When finished, the skirt is wrapped and bunched around the womans waist and held up with a cord or metal belt. These days elastic is being used more and more as a waistband.
Amy Kirchner
Karen married womans shirt
The married womans shirt is the focal point of the married womans outfit. It is made of hand woven cotton with the fabric color usually being either black or blue. The shirt is spacious and easily removed in order to accommodate the early months of pregnancy as well as convenient access for breast feeding. Often during the morning women will wear a shirt underneath their tribal shirt as the married womans shirt fails to provide much warmth The shirt is short sleeved with an elegant v-neck which is frequently hemmed with colorful threads. The top half of the shirt remains the solid color but the bottom half is festively decorated. The main color for the decorative threads and beads is red, which in the Karen culture includes shades of brown, orange, and pink. All of the shirts have some embroidery and when the sewer is finished embroidering they leave the ends of the string hanging down from the front or the sides of the shirt. Another common adornment on the shirts are white or yellow beads that are sewn on the bottom half of the shirt into the embroidery pattern. The bottom of the shirt can either be left frayed or can be hemmed. A Karen woman first adorns the stunning married womans shirt on the morning of her wedding as it serves as identification of ones marriage status. Women continue to wear the decorated shirts for the remainder of their lives.
Sara Ursin
Karen Necklace
The cultural artifact I chose to feature is the womans necklace worn by most married Karen women in Tee Mae Ker Lah and the surrounding areas. The necklaces are simple in design. They consist of small beads that are strung on a cord or string. The beads go all the way around the neck and are about one-half of a centimeter in diameter. The necklaces usually hang down to about the middle of the chest, just below the V-neck
in the womens blouses. The color of the necklaces is bright yellow and they are worn in multiple numbers with the clothing of a married woman. The contrast of the bright yellow with the bright blue or black blouses worn by the Karen girls gives the necklaces a striking visual effect.
The necklaces are made out of plastic usually and the materials for them are generally bought in Chiang Mai or other larger cities. The particular necklace that makes up this artifact was donated to the group by Ajarn Tete from her own necklace collection. Since the necklaces are not made from materials naturally found in the village, they have probably not always been a part of the Karen culture. It is unknown how long these necklaces have been a part of the married woman costume. The current form of the necklace could be a relatively new addition to the Karen culture, or it could be a more modern form of another kind of necklace worn earlier by the Karen women.
Sara Dahl
While walking through a cemetery near the village of Mu Si Khee, one of the villagers who works as a cook at Mu Si Khee, Tattoomo, found a gorgeous iridescent bug. The bug is called the Ludee. Although it is not an artifact, Tattoomo explained that it was used in dying thread. Tete had another idea about its usage. She thought that since the Ludee is rare, that it is now not used for dying. In her village, in Northern India, the Ludee was used as elaborate headdresses for the women. Some members of the group traveled to Koh Samui and found the Ludee bug on necklaces. The idea that the Ludee is rare is interesting. It could be grown for a tourist gimmick, therefore, indeed being rare in the wild, or Tete might be incorrect. It might be very common. In any case the Ludee is a beautiful, fascinating bug.
Angela Miller
In Southeast Asia, there are many tools used in the home, fields, and even the cities that most Westerners have never seen. While studying upon Karen culture, in Northern Thailand, the students in my Sociology class ran across the Wheat Pounder.
The Wheat Pounder is made up of a long slender log. The log is about twenty-five feet in length. The log is then mounted on other wood pieces so that it resembles a teeter-totter. Along one end of the log is attached another log perpendicular to the longer log. This little log runs almost one or two feet long. Then, where this log hits the ground is a hole in the earth. Sometimes, rather than a hole, there is a bowl. Either way, this hole (or bowl) is made up of cemented sand, in order to withstand the log, as it is let go and pounds into the cemented bowl.
In the Hmong and Karen villages, this device is used to pound the wheat (or rice shells) when the rice is harvested. The name of this device in Karen is uncertain but the Hmong call it Cos. Usually, two people would work on this device. One person would step on the stepping end of the tool to raise the log so the other person could toss the wheat (or rice grains) to loosen them up. Also, this toss of the grains is done to reassure so that all the grains are pounded.
In addition to gravity, as the stepping person lets go of his (or her) feet from the log, the log will fall into the bowl and pound the wheat (rice) grains. This device has proven to help ease the chores of many housewives; because after all the wheat is pounded, they are put into a rice shaker. The rice shaker is a separate tool used to loosen the rice shells from the wheat and clean the rice for eating. Without the Rice Pounder, this would be a very hard task.
Mee Vang
Rice Basket
After the rice is pounded, a few cupfuls of rice are spun around in a basket in order to separate the hard shell and any other leftover remnants of the rice field from the grain of rice. The villager continuously moves the basket in a circular motion and flips the rice in the air to help separate and collect the hard shell and remnants in the middle of the basket. Once the shells and remnants gradually accumulate in the middle, the villager discards them and starts the routine over again. This process usually has to be done three times before the rice is ready to be cooked.
The basket is made of bamboo and also a plant similar to bamboo but is not hollow. Along with the Karen, other hilltribes including the Lahu, Akha, Hmong and Lisu, use the rice baskets as well. Although most of the villagers make their own baskets, they can be bought in the market for 40 Baht, which is a little over a dollar.
Not only do the villagers use the basket for rice, but they also use it for other purposes. Additionally, they use it to dry things, such as tea, flowers, and rinds of passion fruit, which they use to make drinks. Every once in a while, they dry fish on it. Furthermore, it can also be used as simply a surface to cut vegetables or crack peanuts.
Alecia Swenson
Bamboo Cowbell
I had the pleasure of bringing home with me a very special remembrance of the Karen Hill Tribe: a cowbell! The cowbell is made of Bamboo by a wonderful old man named Boon Na. He hand carved the bell that serves as a beautiful sound which leads farmers to their cattle. In the hill tribes the cattle are free to roam the land. There are very few fences to be seen. It is my feeling that the concept of a fence, (to keep something in and another thing out), doesnt coincide well with Karen culture. Their community seems to be based on trust and sharing, and caring for ones neighbor.
The bell is carved out so that the hollow inside will make a resonating sound when the two pieces of bamboo come in contact with it. The bamboo is smooth. The outside is pale green, while the inside is white. A rope is strung through the top of the bell and tied loosely around the cows neck. It is a sweet sound to the hears as the cattle slowly walk with a clumsy hobble.
Annika Harrington
The Bamboo cup is one of the many handmade crafts that are used in the daily lives of the Hilltribe people. The cups are not limited to casual use; they are also the cups used for formal occasions such as marriage and anniversary celebrations. Bamboo trees are highly prevalent in the region, so attaining the material is not a problem. Also, being naturally hollow, the production of the cups takes a very short period of time. Both of these factors allow the hosts of the celebration to gather the necessary number of cups without a large financial problem.
The cup is made by taking a bamboo branch and dividing it, utilizing the partitions naturally in the branch to be used for the base of the cup. As a result, the size of the cup is not uniform; however, the cups generally stand between three and five inches tall. Variations to the cup include carving out the lip to accommodate the nose, such that when one drinks out of the cup, the nose does not hit the cup. These carvings have been made increasingly large as more Westerners (who have larger noses) come to the area. The Westerners were appreciative of the modifications.
This particular cup was made by the medicine man in the Tee Mae Ker Lah area, Boo Na. Boo Na stands as one of the elders of the community. A growing concern is that these individuals will die before passing on the skills to create such crafts as the bamboo cup.
Heidi Larson
Opium Weights
Opium production was common among the hill tribe people of Thailand. It was made illegal by the Thai Government, but that has not stopped the problem. There are still many hill tribe people in Thailand who are addicted to opium. These elephants are weights, they were used to measure out the opium. Methods have gotten more advanced, the drugs are coming to Thailand from neighboring countries, and opium is not the only thing. Heroine and amphetamines have become popular, and the drugs today are sold in a more pure form.
Elizabeth Henry
Beetle Nut Jar
Beetle nut, or also known as, Karen gum, is like chewing tobacco in the West. It was chewed for ritualistic along with practical purposes. First a kind of bark is chewed on for awhile. Next, you wrap up the beetle nut in a leaf and put the whole thing in your mouth. It not only makes you a little dizzy but also is used as a form of lipstick. If you chew long enough, your entire mouth will be a brilliant red. The beetle nut is stored in these lacquer boxes. Since beetle nut chewing is not as common of a practice as it used to be, the jars are not easy to come by. The older jars, with a hint of smell still in them are considered to be of some value. There are actually about three jars in one. It is expanding to fit separate containers for both the beetle nut paste and the leaves.
One would think that this would be more of a male ritual, as it is in the West. The truth is, the majority of beetle nut chewers within the Karen society are the women.
Heidi Lellman


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NEW ORLEANS — Caleb Johnson scored the game-winning touchdown on an 8-yard run with just 29 seconds remaining, lifting Port Allen High to a 22-14 victory over McMain in Class 3A bidistrict football action Saturday night at Pan American Stadium.
With the win, No. 21-seed Port Allen (7-3) advances and will host No. 5 Livonia (9-2) in regional action Friday night.
"It was a back-and-forth game," Port Allen coach Guy Blanchard said. "Even when they went ahead, these guys never gave up."
Jestin Kelly returned a McMain fumble 15 yards for another Pelican TD. McMain, a 3A semifinalist a year ago and the No. 12 playoff seed, finishes 7-3.


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Leaving a job can sometimes be just as daunting as starting a new one.
But one of the most confusing things about resigning is the difficult task of handing in your notice, but luckily we've got a simple guide to talk you through it.
Not every employer will have the same expectations, but the length of your notice period normally depends on how long you've been in your job and what your contract says.
If you've been employed for one month or more, the minimum notice period required by law is one week. However, it's likely your employment contract will include notice in its terms, so check whether you should be giving longer.
If your contract doesn't state a notice period you should still be giving reasonable notice and this will depend on your seniority and how long you've worked there.
Ideally you should always give as much notice as possible, especially if you've worked for the company for several years or are in a senior position as they'll ideally want to find a replacement before you leave. The only time you don't need to give any notice is if you feel you've been forced to leave your job (also known as constructive dismissal).
The best way to hand in your notice is in the form of a letter. Check out our free templates, which can help you write the perfect resignation.
Sometimes leaving a job isn't your choice; occasionally an employer will make that decision for you. But just because you're being dismissed, you still have rights. Your employer must give you at least the statutory minimum period of notice. This period depends on how long you've worked there:
If you're not an employee (e.g. a freelancer or contractor), or if you're employed in a specific job (e.g. some civil servants or members of the armed forces), you might not be entitled to a minimum notice period.
Your employer can dismiss you without notice (summary dismissal) if you've committed gross misconduct. If your employer's behaviour is so unreasonable you're forced to leave then you can do so without giving notice (constructive dismissal).
If your employer doesn't give you a notice period, they could be breaching the terms of your contract. If you believe this has happened, it's always best to chat with your employer informally first. If this doesn't work, follow your company's grievance procedures or consider taking it to an employment tribunal.
The only time employers can dismiss employees without notice is in cases of gross misconduct, where they can remove you instantly from the company.
Yes, you're normally entitled to your contractual pay and benefits during your notice period.
No. You're only entitled to your regular contractual pay and benefits if you follow the correct procedure. So if you leave your job informally, you'll lose the right to be paid when you leave.
If you break the terms of your contract, your employer can even take action, especially if they suffer a financial loss because of your actions (e.g. they had to hire temp staff until they filled the role).
If you need to leave your job sooner than the notice period allows, always talk to your employer first, leaving without notice and on bad terms isn't going to get you the most glowing reference in the future.
PILON is money paid to you as an alternative to working your full notice period. It might be set out as an option in your contract, or used to cover potential damages for breach of contract.
PILON should normally cover what you would have earned during your notice period: basic pay and commission, bonuses or compensation for loss of benefits (e.g. personal use of a company car or medical insurance).
Your employer might ask you take gardening leave when you resign which means you'll have to stay away from work during your notice period.
Gardening leave is normally used to prevent an employee taking sensitive information about the company to a new job with a competitor. You still have contractual duties (e.g. confidentiality) until the end of your notice, and you can be brought back to work if needed. You're entitled to your normal pay and any company benefits.
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BHP profit joy for super funds
Chief executive
The new investment target compares with an average project return cited by former chief executive Marius Kloppers 18 months ago of 15 per cent, according to Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Young.
Mr Mackenzie still expects to maintain annual capital expenditure at $US15 billion – $US16 billion, after this year's $US16.1 billion ($17.8 billion), meaning its investment rate will roughly double rival
"It's more a reflection of the rich opportunity set that they think they've got right now," Mr Wood said. "It does look like BHP is much more willing to invest through the cycle."
BHP believed it could "run this business for a long time optimally at or around the current levels of capex of $US16 billion," Mr Mackenzie said, after BHP reported a chunky 31 per cent increase in underlying net profit for the first half, easily beating expectations.
BHP will weigh up investments in new projects against potential additional returns to shareholders, probably as early as the full-year results in August, when debt should be approaching the target of $US25 billion.
Favoured projects include the expansion of iron ore and port capacity in Western Australia's Pilbara region, an expansion of the Spence copper mine in Chile, and continuing investment in shale in the US petroleum business.
The $US10 billion-plus Jansen potash project in Canada is still in the background, while the expansion of the Cannington silver mine in Queensland is also in the wings.
At the end of December BHP had 10 major projects worth $US17.5 billion under development, dominated by low-risk brownfield expansions.
They include the cost-effective greenfield Caval Ridge coking coal mine in Queensland, due to start up this June half.
Eagle Ford the focus
BHP has earmarked $US4 billion a year on US shale, with a focus on the lucrative Eagle Ford in southern Texas.
Mr Young said returns in the Black Hawk venture in the Eagle Ford would top 40 per cent, helping boost the average to the target of over 20 per cent despite returns from Jansen expected at just 14 per cent.
But amid weak prices for metallurgical coal, and sub-par returns in the business of just 7 per cent, Mr Mackenzie ruled out further investments there beyond projects already under way.
He was also cool on the Olympic Dam project in South Australia, where a $US30 billion expansion was shelved in 2012, and which suffered a loss before interest and tax of $22 million in the first half.
Mr Mackenzie said while he was confident Olympic Dam could return to profit, subject to copper and uranium prices, the operation would be "worked hard" to further cut costs.
"In my view it needs to get its cost base closer, if not equivalent, to what we're able to deliver at Escondida to be strongly competitive in the portfolio," he said, referring to BHP's world-class copper operation in Chile.
He said a number of exploration activities that were unlikely to "bear fruit" or be needed to drive growth for decades had been cut, while some assets could be divested on similar grounds.
"Anything that we have out there that we feel does not pass a very high challenge to be tier one we will look at, especially if it is something that is undeveloped and we don't think we will develop for quite a while," he said.
BHP's net income for the first half surged 83 per cent to $US8.11 billion on revenues that rose 5.9 per cent to $US33.95 billion, helped by better than expected iron ore prices. The first half was lifted by $US2.2 billion of divestments. "BHP has seen its first beat on consensus on the net profit after tax line since the first half of 2011," IG Group noted.
The interim dividend was raised by just 3.5 per cent to US59¢, missing consensus forecasts by US1¢, and lagging well behind Rio's 15 per cent increase in its final dividend last week.
But investors marked BHP shares higher, cheered by a potential share buyback in August. The stock jumped 2.3 per cent to $38.89, its highest close for a year, outperforming the 0.2 per cent rise in the broader market index.
Underlying earnings from iron ore surged 36 per cent to $US6.5 billion, on record production. Earnings from copper softened less than anticipated, down 6.5 per cent to $US2.9 billion.
Earnings before interest and tax from petroleum and potash dropped more than anticipated to $US2.5 billion.
|Sales ($USbn)
|Pretax ($USbn)
|Net ($USbn)
|Int div*
|March 26
|Shares (last)
The Australian Financial Review


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What makes a successful mom? For Mother's Day this year we caught up with a mom who knows a thing or two about success. Her name is Laney Griner and she's known for bringing Success Kid into the world. Because Mother's Day is a special day where we recognize that special woman in our life who helped raise us, I caught up briefly with "Success Mom" to learn more about her and her son Sammy and her love for 3D printing.
Laney and her son Sammy along with 3D printed Success Kiddesigned by Ryan Kittleson.
1) What does being a mom on Mother's Day mean to you?
Sammy is such a great, fun kid. I feel fortunate to be his mother all year long.
They aren't memes, but I love all of the skeletal ones, human and animal. The whole process (3D printing) is just so cool.
We'd like to know what does Mother's Day mean to you? Let us know by commenting below or tweet us with the hashtag #3DMothersDay


text: OverviewBack to top Bluebonnet Nutrition - Animalz Vitamin D3 Natural Mixed Berry Flavor 400 IU - 90 Chewable Tablets Item# :111559UPC# :743715001947 Brand:Bluebonnet Nutrition Size/Form:90 Chewable Tablets Ship Weight:0.40 Servings:90 Dosage:1 Chewable Tablet(s) Flavor:Natural Mixed Berry Flavor Bluebonnet Nutrition Super Earth Rainforest Animalz Natural Mixed Berry Flavor Vitamin D3 400 IU Chewable Tablets with Whole Food Fruits and Vegetables - 90 Chewable Tablets If children grew up in the rainforest, they'd get most of the nutrients for proper bone health and density from whole foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and fish. Nutrients that are often missing from today's diets. Bluebonnet Super Earth Rainforest Animalz Vitamin D3 400 IU helps bridge this nutrient gap, providing vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), super fruits and vegetables in one yummy chewable tablet. EarthSweet is a nourishing blend of fruit juice concentrates (wild blueberry, cranberry, prune, cherry, strawberry, raspberry and bilberry fruits, grape seed, raspberry seed) and natural cane crystals. **Two free Rainforest Animalz tattoos inside product box!** Meet Teddy the Toucan!Hello, my name is Teddy. I am a toucan, living in South America's Amazon Rainforest. You may be wondering why the toucan's colorful beak grows so big. Scientists do not know. It is as long as the toucan's body, but very lightweight. Teddy uses his beak to find food and play catch with his friends. They gey rather noisy. Freddy the tree frog can hear Teddy now! Can you find Freddy the tree frog hiding on the product's box? Did You Know... The Amazon Rainforest, where Teddy the Toucan lives, produces 20% of the world's oxygen. Toucans sleep in rainforest tree hollows - all rolled up in a feathery ball. The biggest threats to the rainforest are ranching, mining, and tree cutting. Help Protect the Rainforest Learn as much as you can about the rainforest and why it is disappearing. Reuse and recycle the Earth's resources. Support programs that protect the rainforest. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble nutrient that requires conversion in the liver and kidneys to form the physiologically active form of vitamin D, calcitriol. Active vitamin D functions in the body as a hormone; however, its function to increase calcium absorption, which helps form and maintain healthy bones and teeth, is one of the most significant. The other physiological functions of vitamin D include maintenance of normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus. There are two forms of vitamin D: D2 and D3. Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) is found in yeast and plants that have been exposed to ultraviolet light. Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), however, is found in animal products and is also made in the body when sunlight triggers its synthesis in the skin. VitaminsVitamins differ from macronutrients like carbohydrates, proteins and fats by virtue of the amount required. Typically, minuscule amounts are needed in comparison. Plus, vitamins are not used as an energy source. Instead, they are critical for the normal functioning, growth, repair and maintenance of cells and tissues and are required in individual units rather than long chains of smaller units. However, like carbohydrates, proteins and fats, vitamins are organic compounds, meaning that they are carbon-containing and are essential to one's overall well-being. In fact, a deficiency of just one vitamin can have a profound effect on the body and health. Nutrition to the Fifth PowerBluebonnet Nutrition was founded in 1991 on the basic principle that they offer the cleanest, purest, most natural nutritional supplements offered exclusively through independent natural food retailers. 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Committee Working to Formalize Service Learning at U of A
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas is working to increase and organize opportunities for students and faculty to take part in programs that both teach and serve community needs. The U of A Service Learning Initiative is a joint effort by the Office of the Provost, the Honors College and the Division of Student Affairs, and represents a partnership between academic and student affairs.
"Service learning is a vital component of any great academic experience," said Sharon Gaber, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. "It is important for students and faculty to be able to take what they are learning into the community and apply it to improve real-life situations.
"The University of Arkansas has several excellent service learning programs, some through individual colleges, some through study abroad. This initiative is aimed at coordinating these types of programs, establishing protocols to ensure that our service learning activities align with the mission and standards of the university, and to facilitate the creation of more of these opportunities."
Among the current service learning programs at the U of A are the Mozambique service learning study abroad; the Belize service learning study abroad; the Lunch Buddies service learning program; the biliteracy tutoring service learning program; the TEXT program service learning; and the nonprofit marketing service learning program.
The provost appointed a Service Learning Committee in May to map out the goals of the initiative. The committee is co-chaired by Jennie Popp, professor of agriculture and agribusiness in the Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, and Angela Oxford, director of the Center for Community Engagement. The committee includes faculty, staff and students representing the full range of academic resources on campus.
"Service Learning strengthens students' knowledge as well as their sense of civic responsibility," said Popp. "It has been very exciting to work with this committee to provide a framework that enables students to apply their academic course work to community-based activities, helping real people in real situations who would not get this assistance otherwise."
The committee has developed a proposed definition of service learning and a proposed set of criteria that all service learning courses should meet. Both can be found at the newly launched U of A Service Learning website. The proposals are currently under review.
In addition, the committee is working to identify service learning enhancement opportunities for faculty, such as providing travel awards for faculty members to attend the Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement in Little Rock.
The Service Learning website is also intended to provide information and opportunities for faculty, students and community partners. Faculty and staff interested in contributing to the discussion or in receiving more information regarding the committee's activities can join the new service learning listserv by contacting Morgan Atwood at firstname.lastname@example.com.
In addition to co-chairs Popp and Oxford, the committee members are:
- Greg Herman, associate professor of architecture, Fay Jones School of Architecture
- Casey Kayser, visiting assistant professor of English, J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
- Fran Hagstrom, assistant dean for health professions, College of Education and Health Professions
- G. Scott Osborn, associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering, College of Engineering
- John Pijanowski, professor of curriculum and instruction, Teaching and Faculty Support Center
- Jeff Miller, professor of agricultural education, communications and technology Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences
- Molly Jensen, clinical associate professor of marketing, Sam M Walton College of Business
- Meredith McKee, HEI program coordinator, Office of Study Abroad
- Carol Gattis, associate dean, Honors College
- Angela M. Doss, instructor, School of Law
- Lora Lennertz, director, academic and research services, University Libraries
- Morgan Atwood, service learning graduate assistant
- Administrative News
- Libraries
- Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design
- Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences
- College of Education and Health Professions
- College of Engineering
- Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences
- Graduate School
- School of Law
- Walton College of Business
- Student Affairs
- Honors College
Jennie Popp, co-chair
Service Learning Committee
479-575-2279, email@example.com
Angela Oxford, co-chair
Service Learning Committee
479-575-4365, email@example.com
Steve Voorhies, manager of media relations
University Relations
479-575-3583, firstname.lastname@example.com
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"Lights! Camera! Arkansas!" Comes to Crystal Bridges Summer Film Series
U of A faculty to present an in-depth look at movies with an Arkansas connection, from the artful to the awful.
Fleischer Scholars Present Business Plans for Entrepreneurial Projects
Twenty-five high school students from Arkansas recently spent one week on campus to learn about entrepreneurship, business plans, presentations, teamwork and community improvement projects.
Game Day: Spy Edition University Programs Event to Feature Water Guns on Union Mall
University Programs hosts Game Day: Spy Edition, a water gun competition, today from 2-5 pm on the Arkansas Union Mall.
Wali Caradine, First African-American Graduate of the Fay Jones School, Passes Away
Wali Caradine Jr., an architect and alumnus of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas, passed away July 10, 2017, in Little Rock. He was 68.
Recent U of A Graduate Now Working for Sen. John Boozman
Jace Motley, of Conway, graduated from Fulbright College in May and started working as a staff assistant for the senator in June.


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Single molecule techniques improve our understanding of the photon and light. If the single photon double slit experiment is performed at the "single photon limit" of a multi-atom light source, faint light pulses with more than one photon hamper the interpretation. Single molecules, quantum dots or defect centres in crystals should be used as light source. "Single photon detectors" do not meet their promise—only "photon number resolving single photon detectors" do so. Particularly, the accumulation time argument, the only safe basis for the postulate of a strictly particle like photon, has so far not yet been verified.
The particle aspect of light appears to be an undisputable fact. However, in the context of the photon, the definition of the term "particle" is not as straightforward as one might believe, with consequences for the meaning of the wave-particle dualism of light. Sometimes, the field quantization of light is interpreted as particle character, assuming delocalized quanta as photons. Experiments proving quantization, for example the Compton-effect or absorption of single light quanta by single atoms or molecules in a cavity do not strictly require that the photon be a particle in the common sense view. Certainly, the early pioneers of the wave particle dualism had a photon in mind which was related more strictly to this common sense view of a particle. Therefore the "accumulation time argument" was coined, which requires that the spatial dimensions of the photon be much smaller than the absorbing atom or molecule and that its whole energy content be concentrated in this limited volume. Otherwise the extremely short interaction time of a few femtoseconds would make it impossible that a single atom or molecule can absorb a single, freely travelling photon. It is this strict particle view, and not the fact of quantization of the light field, which is now challenged by single molecule experiments. The fact that light can be described as a quantized field is not disputed. For some, this distinction might appear simply as philosophical fine-tuning, but scientific rigor requires that a clear distinction is made between a strict particle and a more delocalized light quantum. It does make a difference if light is a beam of particles in the sense, which probably Newton (and even today most in the scientific public) had in mind, or a quantized electromagnetic field consisting of delocalized photons. The accumulation time argument (see for example [
In the classical double slit experiment (or corresponding modifications thereof) billions of photons at a time fall on the two slits and finally generate an interference pattern which reveals the wave property of light. In versions of the double slit experiment required to additionally reveal the particle property of light, exactly one isolated photon at a time is thought to be present in the apparatus. The essential claim of true single photon double slit experiments is that, when many of such single photons have passed the double slit, one will not see the classically expected result, namely intensity maxima directly behind the two slits, but the same interference pattern as in the classical double slit experiment. Since, on the one hand, single photons are thought to have been fed into the double slit and, on the other hand interference is a hallmark of waves, this experiment has coined our present notion of a wave-particle dualism of light.
A typical experimental realization of this experiment is as follows: the light source is highly attenuated and the detector(s) are tuned down so far that they reveal only one click per time interval. This is typically interpreted as single photons (single photon quantum states, Fock n = 1 states) passing the double slit. Many experimenters are careful enough to speak of "single photon pulses" and not of single photons. In reference [
Understanding numerical details on generating single photons from multi-atom light sources is absolutely mandatory. However, these details are rarely discussed in experiments crucial for our understanding of the nature of light. Some "dry" calculations are required, which are essentially always omitted in discussions of experiments on the nature of light. For the following it is useful to recall that the small energy portion of 1 nanojoule represents still a very large number of photons, namely 2.5 billion in the case of green photons of 500 nm wavelength. Assume that a 0.1 Watt Titan Sapphire laser at 500 nm with a pulse-duration of 100 femtoseconds is used. At a typical pulse repetition rate of 100 MHz, each one has an energy of 1 nanojoule = 2.5 × 109 photons. If this beam has a diameter of a millimeter and the apparatus has an entrance slit of a micrometer, 1 ppm (=2,500 photons per pulse) are admitted to the apparatus. This corresponds to a very sharp spatial filtering. For simplicity assume, certainly much too optimistic, that the error of the just described process is zero. The 2,500 photons have now to be attenuated to 1 photon by removing 2,499 photons. This attenuation probably has a Gaussian error of √ 2499 = 49.99. The result is on the average 1 photon over many, often empty, pulses with a Poisson-distribution among the individual pulses. The critical point is that the standard deviation is 49.99 photons. Thus, concluding that one works in the "single photon limit" when one has attenuated to an average of 1 photon per time unit is risky. Therefore, experiments on quantum information transfer and non locality working in the single photon limit do probably not provide the physical information they are often thought to provide.
Even if the statistical problems described so far could be solved, another, so far unrecognized complication emerges: bunching of photons even from a two molecule source. Two terrylene molecules are embedded in a
Essentially the only argument in favour of a strict particle-like photon is the "accumulation time argument". It says that the "flyby" time of an extended (non particle like) photon would be too short to allow absorption by a single atom or molecule [
Richard Feynman is convinced "
Occasionally it is suggested to use single photon detectors and to tune an experiment so far that even a multi-atom source provides single photons. This approach has its own pitfalls. A number of companies provide "single (optical-) photon detectors". All of those, which have so far been asked, how these detectors were calibrated, had to concede that calibration has not been performed using a single molecule source but using attenuated pulses, with exactly the problems described in the previous chapters. Detectors based on a photoelectron multiplication process can indeed detect one photoelectron. They do, however, not register the number of photons required to generate this photoelectron. Thus, a single click in the detector, though it may indeed result from a single photon, may also result from a light pulse containing many photons. In other words, a click in the detector needs not to be caused by a single, particle like photon, as it is claimed in many discussions on experiments thought to prove the wave particle dualism of light. Real photon-number-resolving single photon detectors are required. The only class of optical photo detector which approaches that aim is that working on a calorimetric principle [
An experiment which is often claimed to have proven indivisibility of the photon is the one of Grangier
Muthukrishnan and Roychoudhuri state: "the indivisibility of the photon thus remains an open question and one that we can use to probe the foundations of quantum electrodynamics" [
In conclusion, neither the strict particle nature of the photon nor its indivisibility has so far been safely proven. The assumptions of Einstein, Bohr and others have never been fully satisfied. The edifice of a strict wave particle dualism of light is still based rather on
The geometry in a real multi-atom or molecules light source. Always billions of emitters are involved and cooperating bunches are emitted. Even a poor-quality source reveals some coherence (see also next section).
Left panel: B: Occupation probability and C: fluorescence intensity at slight de-tuning of a laser source for two emitters at a distance of 12 nm. Right panel: A: Antibunching when the laser is tuned either to molecule 1 or to molecule 2. B: Bunching when it is tuned to the cross peak. Reproduced from [