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Heather Nyberg-Schlotzhauer
Beacon Correspondent
Fortuna will be singing their way into the season with their 36th annual Christmas Music Festival. Choirs, orchestras, and a wide array of talent will fill the River Lodge on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
The All Seasons Orchestra kicks off this year's festival at 12:30 p.m. followed by the Humboldt Harmonaires at 1:15 p.m. The Scotia Band will perform at 2:15 p.m. with the Ferndale Community Choir at 3 p.m. The College of the Redwoods Concert Band will play at 4 p.m., Tuba Christmas at 4:30 p.m., Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Choir at 5 p.m., Fortuna High School Music Department at 5:30 p.m., and the grand finale at 6 p.m.
The grand finale is a sing-along with the audience featuring "Silent Night" and the "Hallelujah" chorus. The lyrics will be on the program.
The Christmas Festival is free to everyone. There will be several charitable groups on hand accepting cash donations, toys for the Santa's Sleigh Service, and non-perishable food items for the St. Joseph's Pantry Shelf Fortuna Holiday Food Drive.
Fortuna River Lodge is located on Riverwalk Drive on the west side of Highway 101. Overflow parking is available behind the Best Western Country Inn on Alomar Way or in the River Steak House parking lot.
For more information you can contact the Fortuna Chamber of Commerce at 725-3959 or the Fortuna Business Improvement District at 725-9261.
photo caption:
Photo by Heather Nyberg-Schlotzhauer
The All Seasons Orchestra will offer instrumental and vocal entertainment during the Fortuna Christmas Music Festival on Sunday.


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If you put three beads onto a tens/ones abacus you could make the numbers 3, 30, 12 or 21. What numbers can be made with six beads?
Lee was writing all the counting numbers from 1 to 20. She stopped
for a rest after writing seventeen digits. What was the last number
she wrote?
I am less than 25. My ones digit is twice my tens digit. My digits add up to an even number.
This activity has been adapted from one of BEAM's Maths of the Month resources.
Printable NRICH Roadshow resource.

subset: commoncrawl


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Angelina Jolie And Brad Pitt Give Birth To The Most Beautiful Baby In The World
Yes folks the time has finally come. And baby makes five. Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt (which is actually a very pretty name) was born the night of May 27, 2006 in Namibia, Africa. No more details have been released at this time. The chosen one is finally amongst us. Now we eagerly await that first glimpse of the little one.
We can assume that Jennifer Aniston is royally pissed off at Brangelia for the birth of the "Golden Child," the same weekend her big film The Break Up opens. Once again we have the couple trying to steal her thunder. Look for Aniston to spend the weekend binge drinking with Vince Vaughn, to help mute the pain from the most likely poor box office receipts, and seeing the name Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt splashed all over the news.
The new parents, along with kids Maddox, 4, and Zahara, 1, have been staying at a luxury resort in Namibia since April, where their personal security team and Namibian police have shielded them from paparazzi.
Last week, the Namibian government said foreign journalists wishing to cover the birth must have written permission from Pitt and Jolie to enter the country and obtain a work permit.
The new girl is the couple's first biological child. Jolie adopted Maddox from Cambodia in 2002 and Zahara from Ethiopia last year. Pitt is in the process of legally adopting both children.
The baby is the latest step in a life-changing year during which Pitt and Jolie went from costars (in last summer's slick crime thriller Mr. and Mrs. Smith) to supercouple to, finally, Mommy and Daddy.
Angelina & Brad Have a Girl! [People]


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129 members
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I'm an Italian architect and I'm planning an experimental bioclimatic nZEB for Mediterranean climate with high thermal mass and capacity internal, (inertia between 13-21 hours), superinsulation with…Continue
Tags: natural-ventilation, mechanical-ventilation, high-energy-efficient-Buildings, indoor-quality-air, heat-recovery-system
Interesting to get the European perspective
I am always amazed at the regional difference in homes I have seen from my travels over there
Welcome to the two groups I launched here!
Please like us on Facebook, Walker Miller Energy Services. Thanks. Nice profile and pics.
Hi Bart,
Welcome to Home Energy Pros! Feel free to join the conversation in the Forum and Groups. And share your energy efficiency photos, videos and upcoming events. If you're blogging about home performance, this is the place for you!
Don't forget to add your location on our Member Map. We'd love to see Italy represented!
Diane, HEP Moderator
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text:
I also have HD5650 on HP 3030TX laptop, and haven't seen this mentioned on the forums yet, so that's how it worked for me.
After (or before?) installing the latest driver, first, set "radeon.modeset=0" as per instructions above; once the driver is installed, set "aticonfig --initial", then BEFORE you reboot, look up the set of commands for aticonfig (aticonfig --help): one of the commands towards the end lets you set the card to run in discreet graphics mode (using one GPU instead of both), would be like "aticonfig -p" or something to that effect. Once I've done that it began to work perfectly. Now if I can just get the GPU to be recognized by pyrit, and stop desktop effects from being disabled on every startup, everything will be perfect.


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Groene at the Legislature: Teacher absences, substitutes
Mail: Southern statues symbolize suppression
More opinion
Senate: Vote no on Graham-Cassidy health care plan
Fall: Good time to spray musk thistle in rosette stage
More Ag News
At the Mid-Plains Community College Board of Governors meeting on Feb. 26, the board agreed not to change tuition, fees, housing and meal rates for the 2013-14 academic year.
A student taking a full complement of classes (15 credit hours) will pay a total of $1,380 in resident tuition and fees per semester.
Non-resident rates will remain the same as well. Those students will pay $100 in tuition and $15 in fees for a total of $115 per credit hour.
The board also unanimously voted to not increase room and board for the upcoming 2013-14 academic year. A student in MPCC housing at North Platte or McCook will pay a base package amount of $2,575 for housing and 15 meals per week per semester. Additional meal plans and private rooms are available.
[That puts the basic cost around $4,000 per semester, plus books and additional meals.]
Research shows that MPCC housing is affordable and significantly less than other institutions in the state.
We have held our property tax levy pretty consistent over the past five years while continuing to raise student costs. The national perception is that college costs are getting too expensive. We are in a good financial position, so we decided to freeze all costs of attendance at their current rates, said Ryan Purdy, President of Mid-Plains Community College.
While the Governor began the discussion with his proposed tuition only freeze with the state college and university system, we felt we could do better and freeze all costs with the exception of books, which is out of our control, he added. We hope the students are appreciative of this freeze and hopefully well see an enrollment increase as a result.
Flatrock Publishing, Inc.
1300 E 4th St., Suite F
North Platte, NE 69101


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Gibson prefers to have more time with replay
D-backs skipper will have only six spring games to brush up on rules
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- There was only one call challenged in Monday's D-backs-Angels game under the new replay system, but that didn't mean there was not a lot of talk in the Arizona dugout about it.
"Replay consumed a ton of the game," D-backs manager Kirk Gibson said referring to the talk between coaches in the dugout. "I think it's much more complicated than we thought. We had a lot more conversations during the game."
Angels manager Mike Scioscia challenged a play in the second inning when his player -- Luis Jimenez -- was ruled to be tagged out while trying to steal second.
After two minutes and 31 seconds spent reviewing the play in the first-base camera well, the umpiring crew ruled that the play would stand as called.
That left Scioscia with no challenges for the remainder of the game, and while Gibson did not wind up challenging anything, he did think about it on at least two occasions.
Once when Paul Goldschmidt was ruled out on a bang-bang play at first base in the fourth and the other in the sixth when there was a close play at the plate.
D-backs video coordinator Allen Campbell watched the game in the clubhouse video room on Monday and communicated with Gibson via walkie talkie. During the regular season, Campbell will have a better system.
"In Chase [Field] we'll have a system where he'll be able to go back immediately, he'll see every view and he'll be able to click on it and review it right away," Gibson said.
The D-backs have six more games this spring where replay will be used.
"I wish we had more," Gibson said.
Steve Gilbert is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Inside the D-backs, and follow him on Twitter @SteveGilbertMLB. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text:
Anna "Annie" Castor Glenn, a 1941 graduate, is a nationally known advocate for children, the elderly and persons with disabilities. She has served as a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center for Survivors of Childhood Abuse and serves on the Advisory board for the National First Ladies' Library as well as the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Health.
After having spent the first 53 years of her life suffering from a significant speech impairment, Mrs. Glenn successfully completed a 1974 speech therapy program at Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, and today is a role model and an inspiration for everyone who wishes to achieve their personal best.
Honors for Mrs. Glenn include receiving the first national award of the American Speech and Hearing Association, an honorary degree from Muskingum College, and the Distinguished Service Award from Muskingum College. In 1999, she was inducted in the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges' Hall of Excellence.
Along with her husband, John H. Glenn, Jr., Mrs. Glenn serves on the Board of Trustees of Muskingum College where she was honored in 1998 with a special appointment to the faculty as "Distinguished Alumni Fellow in Speech Communication."
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text:
Help Desk: A Man's World?
Help Desk is where I answer your queries about making, exhibiting, finding, marketing, buying, selling–or any other activity related to contemporary art. Submit your questions anonymously here: http://bit.ly/132VchD. All submissions become the property of Daily Serving. Recently I was invited to join an artists' group that meets about once a month. These meetings have no particular agenda outside of socializing and conversation, and so I[…..]


text:
In a valley, between flat little mountains lies my hometown Krinik. The round market place was the center of the shtetl. Two rows of stores the source of Jewish retail income were divided by so called gates that united both sides of the market place. People bought and sold there during the day and walked around during the evening until late at night. Endless circuits were made until the couples became tired and marched away to Shishlevitzer Street. Then past the bolnitzes [hospitals] further down the road, often going as far as Shemianitze.
[p. 177]
The main employer in the shtetl was the tanning industry. The workers fed the storekeepers, bakers, shoemakers and tailors. Every young boy dreamed of becoming a tanner a man, a wage earner.
It would remain engraved in the memory of every visitor to Krinki, that a shtetl such as this had laid down sidewalks, arranged a municipal electric works with a Jewish engineer, Golinski, and a Jewish technician, David Zack.
Jewish automobile owners in Krinik would drive passengers through the streets of Krinki to Bialystok and Grodno five times a day. This was called the Spulke Ekspres [spool express]. The entire town would go to an automobile every several hours to get a look at who was arriving and to get newspapers.
Later all this was nationalized and the Jewish automobiles were no longer allowed to be used to drive passengers, so Jews waited for the trucks that helped Jewish commerce in the shtetl.
The Pazharnikes (firemen) were the reflection of the town administration. Twenty pazharnikes all Jews; the elder was Vladko Anisimovitch and Vice-Commandant Chemia Meyerovitch. And it was the same at the city council. The majority of councilmen were Jews. There was a Christian Mayor, Pavel Tzarevitch and a Jewish Vice-Mayor. The Christian mayor, Pavel Tzar, as people called him, was a very friendly man, spoke Yiddish well and had a good relationship with the Jews.
[p. 178]
Standing from (on) the left Moshe Grodski, secretary
The Sabbath Guardians (an Orthodox group) had a little bit of work, but only Friday afternoons. It is before lighting and blessing the candles a disturbance, running: it is already late, it's the Sabbath! The doors and shutters of the stores are closed, Ben-Tzion Donde calls out over the entire market place: Jews, go to shul [synagogue]! Young boys yelled after him: Go to shul!
Friday night the Society of Sinners (a secular group) shaved themselves. The Sabbath Guardians carried out a violent war against them.
Several people from Krinki community life honor their memory:
Velvel Weiner (the carpenter), who gave up a large part of his life to activities in the municipal government, Heder HaKlali [Public Boys' Grade School], and Orphans' Committee.
Meilech Zalkin was an important social worker in the Tarbut [Zionist Hebrew School] School, the Jewish Community Council, the Folks-Bank and in the Poali Zion [Zionist party] political party. The Nazis burned him in Treblinka.
Yankel Levi, der Klorer [the clearer], a man who gave his great energy to community activities in the bank, the Jewish secular school organization, in the Bund, a councilman in the municipal government and alderman to the city council. Murdered in Auschwitz, January 1943.
Abraham Shmuel Zutz, Zishe the eternal light, became blind while in one of the Tzar's prisons and held a position in the brand new Jewish library, always active in the secular school organization, in the Bund and with youngsters. Perished together with his sisters Itke and Mulinke.
Nachum Bliaher Secretary of the Tanners' Union, a strike could not be taken care of without him. During the ghetto period, at his house there was a working, illegal radio and people could listen to foreign news broadcasts. This news would later be spread throughout the entire ghetto. He gave up his soul in Treblinka.
And so that is the line-up of the very public figures in Krinki Jewish life.
[p. 179]
Krinki Institutions and their accomplishments.
The mainstay of the Jewish economy in the shtetl was the local Folksbank. Its money would be loaned to small storekeepers and artisans those always hard-pressed to make a living. The major figures in the bank were Jacob Chaim Grinshchinski, Yankele Shafir and Kaganovitch (the Ardent).
Linat Hazedek [medical assistance society] provided the entire Jewish population with a doctor and a pharmacist. The poor would receive free medical help, according to a receipt, stamped by the secretary Mordchai-Shimon Grodski. Also a lodovna [ice cellar] was built a real public treasure, because to get a piece of ice for a patient during the summer was not a small thing. Every Purim there was a special campaign for the good of providing ice.
A beautiful activity was the development of the Jewish Home for Orphans with half-board [day home] for several dozen small children. During the time it was active, a tailor school under the direction of Blumke Zakheim was established and from then on dozens of orphans ended up with a trade.
At the GmilesKhosdim [loans without interest] fund, a Jew could get a loan, with a promissory note, without government taxes (free of the stamp tax) and without interest.
[p. 180]
Rachke Caplan, Beylke Korngold, Shmuel Levski, Itshke Shishlitzian,
Rishke Mendelevitch, Wolf Weiner, Shprintze Shnayder,
Boruch Garber, Falia Lev, Hashke Shuster.
Dear, kind Moshe Ekshtein (Pintl) was the technical secretary there.
From my first years in heder [boys' grade school] I remember how in school, at the right side of the ante-chamber (foyer), we would fight against knowledge from Israel the melamed (a teacher called the tin beard). Others related that they would often receive their small share of wet towels and even a day standing in prison. Later a public Heder was created a modern heder where boys from the surrounding towns - Amdur, Brestovitch, Yalovke and Horodok - would come to study.
About fifty young men sat in the Chai Adom besmedresh [meeting place of study] and studied with determination the eternally beautiful gemore [a section of the Talmud ] pages, and their tunes, that came from deep in their hearts, would never frighten the Christians passing by.
Young men with ear-locks wound around their ears would spend their eating days at dozens of Krinki families. Step by step, a large and good yeshiva became active in the shtetl. The head gabe [manager] Reb Naftali was in charge of recruiting yeshiva students from the entire area. But dialects from a lot of Galicianers and Polish young men, who came to study in the Krinki yeshiva, could also be heard. The yeshiva was considered one of the best and graduated several rabbis.
JewishGen, Inc. makes no representations regarding the accuracy of
the translation. The reader may wish to refer to the original material
for verification.
JewishGen is not responsible for inaccuracies or omissions in the original work and cannot rewrite or edit the text to correct inaccuracies and/or omissions.
Our mission is to produce a translation of the original work and we cannot verify the accuracy of statements or alter facts cited.
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Updated 6 Dec 2003 by LA


text:
And Chris Paul. Isn't he on the board? I'm sure he's received some input from his teammates in Flop City as well.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
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And Chris Paul. Isn't he on the board? I'm sure he's received some input from his teammates in Flop City as well.
hopefully it's actually enforced. This was a must cause flopping is getting out of hands. We see every flop now thankfully to replays. Players are making flopping a skill which is not real basketball. Even 2k13 put flopping into their game. wtf?
apparently this is the video that defines what will be fined/not fined.
Keyword is over-embellishment
The Clippers will be broke by midseason...
If that's the official video, I definitely like the selection of flops. Parker, Wade, other big names used as examples of a fine-worthy flop. And the last example of a non-fine flop shows Paul George getting away with a savvy veteran "nudge" in the back.
It's a new day for Pacers Basketball.
This will still be a challenge. When a 260-lb PF or C bumps into a 215-lb wing player, the forty-five pound difference is going to make it tough to determine if this is simply the physical consequence of mass and speed hitting a smaller mass (which may or may not have speed) or extra acting. Hopefully this process won't be subject to someone like Mike Breen - who's really bad at this as an announcer - declaring every time a bigger guy hits a smaller guy that the smaller guy is flopping.
If all announcers start getting this wrong the way Breen does, then I propose that we as fans get to watch a video tape of Breen taking small bumps from James, Shaq, and even medium-sized NBA players like Anthony and let's see if he goes flying (he will) and let's see if the small guys are always being accused of flopping going forward?
Obviously, the biggest thing this will help is when there is no contact and Manu (I love him anyway, get over it!) keels over like its a gunshot wound. And by no contact, I mean Ike Taylor how-the-heck-did-you-call-that-pass-interference? vs. Santonio Holmes types of no contact. Not a judgment call of "did he actually hit him that hard"?
Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
And life itself, rushing over me
Life itself, the wind in black elms,
Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you
I love that we still seem to be under the skin of the Miami area media:
"Reputation may play a big role in it," Battier said.And that's exactly what Indiana coach Frank Vogel is hoping will happen this season when the NBA begins administering its new "anti-flopping" rule."
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/0...#storylink=cpy
"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better." - Albert Camus
"Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well." - Voltaire
"Everyone's values are defined by what they will tolerate when it is done to others." - William Greider
The league should let Jeff Van Gundy be in charge of reviewing the flops....
"Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel
"And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "


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Asset Reliability Coordinator
EP Editorial Staff | October 1, 2000
The maintenance planner might better be described as asset reliability coordinator. Here's why.
The rush to reliability, fueled by rising global competition, high fixed costs, capital intensity, and the pressure for greater on-stream performance, is providing the planning and scheduling function with an opportunity to add further value to its business objectives. The maintenance planner might better be described as asset reliability coordinator.
Across the landscape of industrial plant maintenance, the asset performance picture is not all that good. Consider the following:
- Thirty percent of newly overhauled machines fail on startup
- An estimated one-third of the money spent on preventive maintenance is wasted
- Sixty percent of premature bearing failures are due to improper fitting, maintenance, and handling
- Maintenance and operation account for 70 percent of the money spent on pumps.
To rise above these shortcomings, plants have redundant systems and spared equipment to assure process availability. The average refinery runs at nearly 95 percent average availability, but studies have shown that downtime affects the bottom line by smaller profit margins, decreased yield and quality, reduced safety, additional environmental incidents, and missed delivery dates.
Additionally, plants have had to spend scarce capital to build more capacity to meet the fluctuations in their demand patterns and compensate for process unreliability.
Use of maintenance craft resources is even more alarming: average craft productivity, measured through "wrench time" studies, is typically in the 25 to 35 percent range. Productive work is held up by time spent waiting for materials, tools, instructions, and clearance and time spent traveling to the job.
Inefficiencies in craft utilization, many of which are beyond the individual craftperson's control, contribute to additional expense for outside contractors, rush charges for materials not planned to be on hand, excessive overtime, and work that had been identified but was not performed in a timely manner.
Perhaps the greatest cost for these inefficiencies is lost production resulting from process interruptions from unreliable equipment. Some examples illustrate the magnitude of benefits that flow from improved asset reliability:
- If an average size refinery were to increase its availability from 92 to 96 percent, with a $3/barrel margin, it would generate an additional $6 million/year.
- For an electric utility with a 1000 MW steam system, each 1 percent availability improvement might be worth over $300,000/yr in power transaction capability.
- Each 100 Btu/kWh improvement in efficiency might be worth over $400,000/yr.
- A 1 percent sustainable improvement in availability for a 1000 MW system means 10 MW of future power plant that does not have to be built. When construction prices are $1200/kW, which is worth $12 million in capital expenditures.
One of the best weapons for fighting these deficiencies in maintenance performance is the competent planning and scheduling of maintenance activities.
The benefits of good planning
The benefits of good planning fall into several major categories:
- Productivity. Planning affects productivity most in the reduction of delays. Implementing a fundamental planning and scheduling system should help improve productivity to about 45 percent. Then, as files become developed to prevent recurrence of problems of past jobs, productivity should increase to 50 percent. Finally, a good enterprise asset management (EAM) system should boost productivity to more than 55 percent. This increase in productivity alone, from 35 percent to 55 percent, boosts a 90 person maintenance workforce to the equivalent of 141 people.
- Quality. Having the work scope, instructions, parts, tools, and crafts all correctly identified and ready before the job starts has a direct positive effect on quality. Quality is indirectly affected by the boost in productivity because the freed-up workforce can spend more time on difficult jobs and proactive work.
- Shift to proactive work. Proactive work includes root cause failure analyses on repair jobs and corrective maintenance to fix small problems before they get out of hand. It also includes project work to improve less reliable equipment and increased attention to preventive and predictive maintenance. Greater productivity creates, in effect, greater resources. In a company with much reactive work, these additional resources are used to put out fires. A company with reactive work under control can leverage the additional resources to do more proactive maintenance work, dealing efficiently with situations and preventing fires. World-class companies with preventive maintenance well in hand invest those resources in training to further increase labor skills and in projects to improve equipment or other work processes.
- Increased availability. When more time is spent in proactive and preventive work, process interruptions become less frequent and less severe. With more time to plan ahead and anticipate equipment needs, planners can develop a more closely integrated schedule that accommodates both production and maintenance needs. A collateral effect is the reduction in on-hand maintenance, repair, and operating (MRO) inventories and total spending on spares.
- Improved efficiency. Almost by definition, better-running equipment and processes provide improved quality in terms of both final product and conversion of raw materials into finished products.
- Deferred capital investment. When the availability of existing equipment is increased, the need for additional new capacity can be postponed. Or in situations with relatively stable demand, the number of productive assets can simply be reduced. Either situation can have a considerable financial benefit to the company and its shareholders.
- Reduced unit costs. When all of the potential benefits are consolidated, per-unit costs are reduced, providing a sustainable competitive advantage for the already efficient producer and a potential lifeline for the substandard producer. Thus, as process efficiencies level off, or as additional gains are no longer cost effective, asset performance and reliability become central to profitability. One of the key drivers for additional reliability is the ability to integrate production and maintenance activities into a single, comprehensive plan that maximizes output at lowest possible costs.
At this point, the asset reliability coordinator assumes a pivotal role.
Asset reliability coordinator
Traditionally, the maintenance planner has been selected for personal knowledge of the technical side of maintenance (the whos and whats of equipment care), rather than the management side (the whys and whens). There is a need for personnel who understand the value of objective data on equipment condition, reasons for failure, and the protection of the economic value created by asset reliability.
Following are summary descriptions of the responsibilities of the recast asset reliability coordinator, using new tools and techniques to focus on asset reliability and availability, by making the crews not only more productive, but "smarter" by arming them with increased knowledge:
Job planner role
Central to the coordinator's ability to add value is his or her primary work product: highly focused work packages that contain not only a listing of which craft skills are required for what periods of time, and the likely parts to be used, but more supporting documentation, for example:
- The location of the MRO parts that have been kitted or delivered to the jobsite
- Digital photographs of the asset and work area
- Safety procedures, including lockout-tagout requirements, zero-energy requirements, process safety requirements, confined entry permit forms, and environmental concerns
- Original manufacturer and internal documentation of wiring, layouts, dimensions, and tolerances
- A full bill of materials, with stores catalog numbers, in the event unanticipated damage is found
- Special equipment and tools that may be required
- A history of the most recent condition readings and work performed on the asset (repairs and replacements, preventive maintenance checks, predictive maintenance findings, instrumentation readings, operator logbook entries, etc.)
- Results of the coordinator's jobsite visit and comments on the work to be done
- A feedback form to record "found, fix, and fault" information by the crew.
The level of documentation should be commensurate with the requirements of the work. Routine repetitive work should require relatively little documentation, probably nothing more than a standard job template, which exists in a library of such plans.
Work scheduler role
The second primary work product of the coordinator is the work schedule, actually a series of interlocking schedules with progressively more detail as the anticipated work time draws closer. In industries such as petrochemicals, with major turnarounds and long lead times, a long planning and scheduling horizon is critical to success.
The schedules are a joint product of operations, maintenance, and engineering and reflect all of the work to be accomplished. The coordinator generally chairs the scheduling meetings and comes prepared with a standard schedule incorporating production requirements (and windows of opportunity that normally arise), the condition of operating equipment and potential liabilities, and the manpower that will be available for the upcoming time period. Best practices call for detailed scheduling at least a week ahead, with less stringent requirements for the upcoming two weeks. Each functional group will have reviewed the work-order backlog to ensure that critical work has been identified, planned, and made ready for scheduling.
Analyst role
A longer-range and potentially more critical function of the coordinator is to develop the ability to forecast future maintenance requirements. Today's EAM systems allow for a three-way view of asset performance: historical, looking backward to determine the most common root failure causes; real-time condition monitoring (typically through the plant's distributed control systems); and forward, analyzing each asset's mean time between failure and forecasting when the asset is most likely to affect the production process again. Failure information is critical to these views, and the coordinator must be zealous in gathering and recording that information.
The coordinator is also the database administrator for the records maintained in the EAM equipment history and condition files and the person in charge of the open backlog. This second function is extremely important in providing life-cycle management of all work requests and work orders. Timely and accurate knowledge of the current status of all open work orders allows maintenance and operations to take advantage of unforeseen opportunities and maximize the use of unscheduled downtime.
Facilitator role
A key trait for success is the coordinator's ability to influence the actions of others. In most organizations, the planner, now coordinator, has no staff, no organizational authority, and no budget. But he or she is charged with coordinating the activities of a diverse group whose short-term goals may or may not be in alignment. Facilitation skills and a clear vision of the longer-term objectives will serve the coordinator, and his organization, well. Such skills can be learned and will improve with repeated practice.
Communicator role
Finally, the coordinator must be able to clearly communicate the desired direction he or she is recommending, in terms that are relevant to the audience, whether it is operations (more throughput), maintenance (fewer breakdowns), or management (financial impact). Again, such skills can be learned.
Technology support
None of the higher-level functional requirements of the coordinator can be achieved without enabling technologies. At a minimum, the support systems must include the following:
- A modern EAM system capable of capturing and analyzing both static and dynamic information on equipment condition and the likely time frame to the next critical production interruption.The system must contain critical equipment information, including performance parameters, bills of material, and component-level tracking, and be fully integrated with the human resources and financial systems. Additionally, the system, or allied systems, must be able to display, manage, and distribute documents and perform higher-level analytical functions on data in the system. The coordinator must be trained to easily navigate the complexities of these systems and to interpret the details and convert them into usable information.
- Man-machine interface software connected to the EAM that monitors equipment parameters and downloads the information directly. Using previously established set points, the EAM system may generate a predictive or corrective maintenance work order before a costly and disruptive process interruption occurs.
- A decision-support system that integrates the information from multiple systems and promotes data-based decisions. The information model developed by the Machinery Information Management Open System Alliance (MIMOSA) provides an excellent definition of how an integrated system would function.
- Standards-based, distributed-component architecture that facilitates the adoption of enhancements as they become available. Considerable efforts have been devoted to removing the "islands of information" situations in which plants with multiple systems find themselves.
Best business practices
No functional area exists in a vacuum. The relationships among various functions are described by business rules that specify roles and responsibilities, decision points, data flows, and evaluation criteria.
A starting point is the description of a vision of how the company's assets will be maintained:
To ensure that the assets of the company will be reliable. This goal will be achieved by anticipating deterioration and addressing its root cause by technical means and education of company personnel. The timing at which these actions will be initiated will be set through a mature financial appreciation that takes into account the optimum time at which items can be removed from service.
The next step is to define the relationship between operations and maintenance. The elements of such a definition might include the following:
- Production owns downtime data and meticulously records failures, being particularly careful to log the reason for downtime.
- Production attempts limited inspections, in keeping with their technical expertise, but raising their awareness of the condition of the assets they use.
- Production moves to a greater sense of ownership of the assets, demanding more detailed information from maintenance regarding the condition of the equipment and the service provided and required by maintenance.
- Maintenance reviews the history of their performance, particularly focusing on breakdowns. Where could work have been anticipated?
The two groups jointly review the inspection program in the light of information raised under items 2 and 4.
Additionally, the basics of asset care must be in place and rigorously practiced every day:
- Work is identified early and jointly approved by maintenance and operations
- Work packages are developed reflecting the nature, scope, and complexity of the work to be performed
- Work schedules are developed in accordance with the lowest-cost combination of maintenance, operations, and asset repair and replacement elements
- Asset care is based on historical information of performance and current condition monitoring
- Rigorous attention is given to understanding, capturing, and analyzing the root causes of asset failures.
The starting point for improving maintenance planning is the interface between operations and maintenance, to identify sources of uncertainty that would adversely affect planning and scheduling and the execution of maintenance tasks. In particular, the focus needs to be on the ability of the two groups to work together to reduce the total costs of operating.
The most critical skill required for improving reliability and availability is understanding the root causes of failure. This knowledge, in turn, leads to the development of an intelligent and cost-optimized plan for asset care and the prevention of production interruptions.
The asset reliability coordinator is in a pivotal role to use information available through a combined view of historical, current, and forecast asset performance. MT
Robert Wilson is director of client assessments at Performance Consulting Associates, Duluth, GA; (770) 717-2737


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Best Buys: 2 for the price of one in Breckenridge
October 6, 2012
This week's best buy is a large retreat split in two. It is being sold as one property, however there are two separate living spaces divided by a common wall. In other words, a full duplex. If you wanted to have a caretaker or mother-in-law apartment, or just rent out the other side, this is the perfect luxury retreat for you.
There is enough space in this beautiful, contemporary log home. The home comes fully furnished, has 6,530 square feet with six bedrooms and six baths. The architectural detail is exquisite. The home sits on 3.66 acres and has amazing ski area views, lots of sunshine and privacy as well. There are soaring post-and-beam ceilings with numerous glass windows surrounding you to enjoy the spectacular views. For your entertainment, there is a large game room with a pool table, an outdoor hot tub and sauna to relax in after a hard day of skiing.
If you are a chef, you will enjoy the beautiful chef's kitchen, or sit out on the expansive deck and barbecue with your built in barbecue area. There are numerous fireplaces to keep you cozy and warm. The home also features a large three-car garage.
This is one of the finest homes in Breckenridge and is located on the bus route. John Pfeiffer of Slifer Smith and Frampton is offering this home for $2.65 million.
For more best buys or if you are interested in selling, contact Leah Baxter, RE/MAX Properties of the Summit, GRI, CRS, firstname.lastname@example.com, http://www.leahbaxter.com or (970) 389-6367.


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Leonard Cohen Readying New Album, 'Popular Problems,' for Fall Release
Leonard Cohen's 80th birthday will occur on Sept. 22, and he's celebrating by releasing his 13th studio album.
The new set, reportedly titled 'Popular Problems,' arrives just under two years after his last effort, 'Old Ideas' — a blistering pace in the context of Cohen's discography, which has twice found him taking close to a decade to painstakingly complete an album's worth of songs.
Rolling Stone reports that the news was broken by Jarkko Arjatsalo, a devout Cohen fan who's assumed responsibility for the singer's official website. "Leonard has worked hard on his next studio album of entirely new songs," Arjatsalo's quoted as writing in the booklet for the recently held Leonard Cohen Event 2014. "He asked me to let you know that 'Popular Problems' will be out at the end of September, shortly after his 80th birthday."
Although Cohen's records have never been huge sellers in the U.S., 'Old Ideas' gave him his highest-ever Billboard ranking, peaking at No. 3, and he's toured heavily in recent years, partly as a way of replenishing funds stolen by his longtime manager. His recent road jaunts helped Cohen work out material for the new record; as he told Rolling Stone in 2012, "I rehearsed some other songs on the road — new songs that didn't make it onto ['Old Ideas']. So I have a new record [after this one], at least two-thirds of it, anyway."


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Hi, I'm Louise and thank you so much for visiting me here. I am a mixed media artist, who loves color, nature & positive energy, living my passion daily.
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SHEPHERDSVILLE – Bullitt Central football coach Danny Leasor will have honors raining down on him this weekend as the school where he has coached for 15 years pays tribute.
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A Hennepin County judge has set a May 31 hearing on Amy Senser's motion for a new trial or to have the verdicts thrown out.
Earlier this month, a Hennepin County jury convicted the wife of former Vikings player Joe Senser of two of three felony counts of criminal vehicular homicide in her hit-and-run trial. Jurors found her guilty of leaving the scene of the accident, and of failure to notify authorities in a timely manner. They found her not guilty of gross negligence, but guilty of a lesser charge of careless driving.
Amy Senser, 45, admitted to driving the car that hit and killed Anousone Phanthavong, 38, along an exit ramp as he was putting gas in his car August 2011.
In a note the jury's forewoman gave to Judge Daniel Mabley just before announcing the verdict, jurors said they believed Senser believed that she had hit another vehicle and not a person.
Senser's attorney Eric Nelson says Minnesota law requires a defendant who knowingly hit a person to be convicted of vehicular homicide. Nelson said the judge should have told jurors this. Nelson also says the judge should have told attorneys about the jurors' note immediately.
The hearing is scheduled before Judge Mabley.


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Tokyu Hotels Locations
Hakata Tokyu REI Hotel
Rebrand Information
Experience spacious, pleasant interiors with multi-functional showers, queen sized beds, and lots of other anemities. At Tokyu Hotels, we offer the finest hospitality and services in comfortable spaces that you can enjoy in your own style.(Google Map)
Relaxing Guest Lounge
Sit back and enjoy fragrant coffee along with entertainment including cinema and sports...you'll feel right at home in the Guest Lounge.
The floor especially made for female guests
The floor is designed for female guests to enjoy a relaxing, comfortable and secure stay.
High Quality Beds
Beds that perfectly confirm to your body soothe your mind and body, ensuring that you experience a fantastic night's sleep.
Restoring energy with breakfast
The start of the day is prepared with a variety of freshly baked bread, fresh ground coffee and nutritious soup.
Indulgent Showers
Our multi-functional showers will make you think you're enjoying soaking in a bath tub and are the perfect place to refresh both mind and body.
The scent of aroma in the lobby
The refreshing aroma in the lobby welcomes the guest and smoothly guided to their rooms by using the self terminal unit.


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Scotty McCreery, Lauren Alaina Debut on Billboard Hot 100
For Scotty McCreery, it was close, but not close enough.
The 'American Idol' season 10 winner's debut single, 'I Love You This Big,' failed to crack the top 10 on this week's Billboard Hot 100 chart, instead coming in at number 11.
Still, it wasn't all bad news for the 17-year-old country crooner. He debuted significantly higher than last year's 'Idol' winner, Lee DeWyze, whose 'Beautiful Day' cover came in at a dismal 24. McCreery also spent a good chunk of time last week atop the iTunes singles charts.
Meanwhile, season 10 runner-up Lauren Alaina debuted at number 20 with the help of her single, 'Like My Mother Does.'
Listen to 'I Love You This Big' below.


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SHELLEY Rudman faces an anxious finale to her winter campaign as she battles to ensure her momentum towards next year's Olympics in Russia is not derailed.
Pewsey slider Rudman is chasing top performances in the final two rounds of the FIBT World Cup series and next week's World Championships to keep her level of Lottery funding as high as possible for next season.
The 31-year-old, who was crowned World Cup champion for the first time last year, is attempting to rediscover top form after being struck down by a chest infection and flu over Christmas.
Rudman (pictured) was seventh in round seven of the World Cup at Konigssee in Germany last week, an improvement on her 16th place in Altenberg the previous week when she climbed off her sick bed to compete.
But the Wiltshire slider needs to improve on her overall seventh spot or face the potentially savage blow of a cut in funding.
"I still have to get another top six result to remain on funding or that will be suspended so the clock is ticking,'' she told the Gazette & Herald ahead of this week's World Cup meeting at Igls, Austria.
"(Travelling) out to Altenberg I assumed I was coming through it, but when I arrived I went down with a fever of 38.8 and full-on flu and was in bed for three days.
"I raced but I was there mainly to pick up any points possible. I've got through the worst now.'' After Igls, Rudman goes to St Moritz in Switzerland for next week's World Championships – a title she has never won – before the final World Cup round at the 2014 Olympic venue of Sochi.


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Topic: Recent publication about CC
Hi everyone,
God bless you
I just found this recent article and i think it is very new and interesting.
It is alot to read and to digest but i would like your opinion about it.
Here it is the link:
http://www.discoverymedicine.com/Daniel … t-cancers/
And, because i am in Belgium, i will read you in the night.
hope to hear from you,


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Long Hills1 of 5
For long hill workouts, Marritt likes sending her athletes to a hill that will take two hours to climb, with a nice 30-minute warm-up ride to the base.
Climb for 15 minutes in your saddle, then shift down two gears (harder) and pedal for five minutes while standing. Repeat this pattern, which should total close to six rotations in two hours.
Short Hills: Repeats2 of 5
Marritt believes hill training involves building up strength.
"Lots of hill workouts I have my athletes do are strength training specific—they're doing their leg strengthening on the bike," Marritt says.
When riding up hills in the big/hard gears, your heart rate doesn't get as high and the work is a lot more muscular. These kinds of cycling interval workouts can supplement weight training in the gym and target more specific and relevant muscle groups.
1. Find a steep hill that's only a few miles long with a relatively steady incline the whole way up.
2. Make your first ascent seated with your chain in the big front sprocket and a harder gear than you would normally want. (Your cadence should be slow, around 50-55 rpm.)
3. Concentrate on keeping your upper body relaxed and working your legs through a steady, strong motion, applying constant pedal pressure throughout the whole revolution. When you are done, cruise back down the hill.
4. On your next climb: Ride the whole hill standing up in an easier gear, keeping your rpms closer to 80.
Short Hills: Continued3 of 5
5. Next ascent: Go up while seated in an easy gear, with nice, smooth pedal strokes and a steady cadence the whole way.
6. The final climb: Shift into the big ring in front with a harder gear in the back. Do 10 pedal rotations seated, 10 standing, and continue this pattern all the way up the hill.
7. Ride back down, and do at least a 30-minute cool down at a high cadence in easy gears, spinning out some lactic acid buildup in the legs.
"What you do at the end of your workout helps you recover for your next workout," Maritt says.
Working With a Trainer4 of 5
A great way to simulate hill climbing without being on a hill is with a trainer, but you have to be careful.
"A lot of people use harder gearing to simulate a hill, but they don't change the positioning of the bike," Marritt says.
Marritt suggests propping the trainer up so that the front wheel is raised. "This changes where the body is relative to the bike," Marritt says.
Simply increasing the resistance "doesn't recruit the same muscle groups as climbing—it more closely resembles wind training," Marritt says.
If you prop up the front wheel, you'll engage the right muscles, which will help boost your ability to conquer those hills.


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LAKE FOREST – It's almost Christmas, and you are in a giving mood.
So you drive to El Toro High on Saturday to give a gift. To yourself. Four quarters of basketball featuring players in it simply for the joy of the sport and nothing more.
You have no idea that, two full days before the day, you'll be giving yourself the year's big present, the one usually set aside to be unwrapped last of all.
"There might be better basketball players than Harrison, but there aren't better people than him," Edison coach Rich Boyce says. "He's just a phenomenal kid. He's unbelievable. He's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of kid."
Harrison Brunelli scores only five points in the Chargers' 50-49 victory over Laguna Hills in the JCtees.com North vs. South Challenge. He makes two field goals and a single free throw, which he banks in.
Teammate AJ Garrity is named the game's MVP. Edison's Brae Ivey makes bigger shots. Laguna Hills' Francisco Nunez has more impact.
Brunelli is a star anyway, a star before and after the game, more so than during. He is a reminder of what sports can be about if we give the games a chance to be games. He is a student-athlete in an increasing athlete-student world.
And before you walk into this gym, you've never heard his name.
Brunelli is a teammate, a team player, a Charger. He is a high school kid playing because that's what some high school kids still do.
"He's got all the qualities you want," Boyce says. "He just works hard. He cares about family. He cares about friends. He puts those people before him. He has a civic-minded duty. He's always helping people out."
Brunelli, 18 and a senior, has a 4.43 grade-point average. He's currently taking three Advanced Placement Classes. And pre-calculus. Next year, he plans to begin pursuit of a double major – English and something involving politics or international relations.
He considered UCLA, Cal, Johns Hopkins, George Washington and Columbia before, on Friday, deciding to attend his first choice: Penn.
He was drawn by the campus and also by The Kelly Writers House, a 13-room home that serves as a gathering place for writers from all over Philadelphia and beyond.
"I really enjoy writing fiction," Brunelli says. "And they have one of the best faculties for writers."
And you, a writer, suddenly find yourself thinking one thing: This kid's future is brighter than my present.
Brunelli is involved in Edison's Model United Nations program. Most recently, he went with a group of students to Princeton to debate the subject of South Sudan, arguing about things like how best to set up the governmental infrastructure of the new country.
Also president of the school's English Honor Society, he helped launch a tutoring program to aid students struggling to write term pages and such.
It was his idea to put together a student writing anthology, a collection of poems, essays, articles and pieces of fiction. Why?
"There are a lot of talented writers at Edison," Brunelli says. "I thought that would be a good way to display the talent of some of them."
And what will happen with the anthology when it's complete?
"I'd like to give it as a present to each of the A.P. English and Honors English teachers as a way give back to them and say 'thanks,' " he explains. "Honestly, the English program at Edison, I think, is one of the best in the county…I really respect the teachers."
Yes, the kid's future is bright, all right.
Last season, Brunelli started every game for the Chargers. He's a reserve now, the senior sixth man on a team that starts four sophomores.
His thoughts on the development: "I want to do whatever Coach thinks is best for the team. So I'm going to support him in whatever he wants to do. I'll just play hard no matter what."
No, Brunelli isn't perfect, but who – 18 or otherwise – is? What's more important is he's trying. He's still a kid, one who, like all kids, surely finds ways to puzzle his parents at times.
Boyce has been coaching for 29 years. He's known as a good X-and-O guy and an intense presence on the sidelines. He has encountered hundreds of players and even more people.
When he talks about Brunelli, he's doing so from a perspective much wider than the lane, much deeper than the 3-point arc. It is the perspective of a coach but also of a father.
"He's the son you want," Boyce says. "I'm afraid my own son (Kyle, 10) will read this, but, of course, I would love for my son to be just like Harrison. He's phenomenal. That's the word for him, phenomenal."
So, as you leave El Toro High now, you're thinking of another word to describe Harrison Brunelli, a word that fits the occasion and the purpose and the kid. Fits each perfectly.
The word is gift.


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Rangers Ballpark renovations progressing nicely
ARLINGTON -- Rain did not stop Manhattan Construction workers from putting in another day of work at the Ballpark in Arlington on Tuesday. The Rangers feel confident that the latest renovations will be completed well in time for the team's home opener on April 5 against the Angels. "I feel good about where we are," said Rangers vice president of ballpark operations Rob Matwick. "Substantial completion date is March 22. We have a college game on March 19 between UTA and TCU. We need to be ready for that."
Most of the renovations are being done in the concourse and private club behind home plate. Get ready for the "60-foot-6" area leading from the concourse adjacent to the Home Plate Entrance into the lower seating bowl. Baseball fans recognize that as the distance between home plate and the pitcher's mound, but it's also the width of the newly created entry way that's the centerpiece of the renovations. The idea was to give fans an immediate view of the playing field and access to lower bowl seating as they come through the Home Plate Entrance. But the more tangible benefit is the greater room and less traffic that will be created with the renovations. The former West Side ticket office is being turned into a retail store, but four new permanent concession stands are also being built in that area. What the Rangers are planning on is the new permanent food venues will replace the portable kiosks that blocked the way in a high-traffic area of the Ballpark. "Those portable concession stands caused a lot of traffic," Matwick said. "One big benefit is this will open up the walkway. It was pretty bad." The private club, which will now be called the Capital One Club, continues to undergo significant renovations. New rows of seats are being put in place behind home plate and both dugouts are being widened an extra three feet. "It gives the players more breathing room," Matwick said.


text: Experimental piece. Base hand made felt (wet method). Tyvek, shreaded, knitted and crochet coloured with liquid acrylic, heat zapped, stitched in place. machine embroidered, hand embroidery and beads applied. The tassel I think is a waste of space and spoils the whole piece. Further images and the inspiration page from my sketchbook are on my profile page.


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Los Angeles, Nov 1 (IANS) Actress Jennifer Lawrence has confessed that she gets inspiration from Meryl Streep and Cate Blanchett.
The 23-year-old said that the two have been her role models and she would like to live her life like Streep, almost following in her footsteps.
"I don't know if I'd necessarily call her an idol or a role model, but someone I admire, who's an incredible actress, is Cate Blanchett. I think she's extraordinary," Lawerence said in a statement.
"Meryl Streep as well, not just because of her acting but because she's Meryl Streep and I'd like to live my life the way she has lived hers.
"The way she went away with her kids, we never saw pictures of her babies. I respect that a lot. And it's not like I'm that way, because generally I want to do tons of things. I want to produce, I want to do this or that and have a heart attack at 25. But she's only an actress and I like that," she added.
Lawrence will be seen as Katniss Everdeen in the sci-fi movie "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire", that releases in India Nov 29.
It also stars Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth.


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SWINDON Robins will be staging a full six-heat second half of junior racing after tonight's main match against King's Lynn.
Several of the sport's rising stars from the 250cc and 125cc scene will be on show, with each class having three races.
Robins promoter Alun Rossiter said: "It's something extra for the supporters, and with the weather now hopefully on the upturn at last we are looking at other similar events for future weeks.
"These youngsters are very talented and I know they've put on a good show wherever they've raced, so I hope our fans will stick around after the King's Lynn match and take a look.
"Also with my Great Britain hat on it's a good chance for me to take a look at what we could have coming through in the long-term future, and we'll be pleased to welcome the boys tonight."
Robins fans are reminded that tonight's match against runaway Elite League leaders King's Lynn gets underway at 7.30pm prompt.


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Twins go with Fryer, May pairing
BALTIMORE -- The Twins didn't have the luxury of a getaway day game against the Royals on Thursday, so they didn't land in Baltimore until roughly 4 a.m. ET after playing 10 innings in Kansas City.
But the Twins still rolled out their normal lineup against the Orioles on Friday outside of one change, as manager Ron Gardenhire gave catcher Kurt Suzuki a rest, starting Eric Fryer behind the plate.
Gardenhire said it was also done because he likes to pair rookie right-hander Trevor May with Fryer given their familiarity from their time at Triple-A Rochester. Fryer caught May nine times at Triple-A this year and has now caught three of his four big league starts.
"We played a late night last night and we looked at the pitching matchups here the next few days so this made sense," Gardenhire said. "Fry-man and Mays worked in the Minors together. So it makes sense for everybody involved. It gives Kurt the chance to hang out in the dugout and drive me crazy."
Rhett Bollinger is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Bollinger Beat, and follow him on Twitter @RhettBollinger. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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The Stock of Year 2013
Over the past few years (2010-2012), Altisource Portfolio Solutions (ASPS) was my stock of the year.
The shares of Altisource Portfolio Solutions, which traded at around $15 a share in late 2009, rose to nearly above $130 a share several months ago....81 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days.
There's no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert.
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I fear the slippery slope theory, but the 2"X2" shoulder patch doesn't really bother me at all.
As far as ticket prices, I think I have 2 good seats mid arena and pay $25/seat. I think that's a fair price for live entertainment at the highest level of the sport. I guess my eyes were opened when I paid for live show tickets in Vegas and now pricing Broadway show tickets in New York when it's time to go there for vacation. Hell, 2 people can easily drop about $25 to see a first run movie here in Indy without the goodies from the concession.
Last edited by Roaming Gnome; 07-21-2012 at 02:39 PM.
...Still "flying casual"
This is going to be very, very bad for me. I am so averse to advertising that I may eventually completely stop watching the NBA after this. I simply cannot stand corporate commercials and advertising. I take every available measure to block them. AdBlock, Netflix, DVR and fast forward, ect. If I can't escape the corporate ads anymore because advertising is all over the players themselves, that may be it for me. It may sound extreme, but I hate corporate advertising far more than I love pro basketball. I'm certainly not going to watch 48 minutes of corporate commercials.
@OldBlu My current post count represents what I think about advertising on jerseys.
@SycamoreKen I didn't say corporate sponsors shouldn't exist. I just want to be able to avoid them if that's what I prefer to do. It's not necessary to cover players with ads within games to sell products. I have no interest in watching that.
Last edited by IndyPacer; 07-22-2012 at 01:41 AM.
Well, if this is your last post here, you picked an interesting number to stop on......
You do realize without corporate advertising television, radio, magazines, newspapers, and most other forms of media would not exist?
Maybe it's a generational thing, I don't know, but I'm 28 and I can't be the only one that sees advertisements EVERYWHERE in sports and just doesn't care right? I mean hell, they're advertising in video games now. Maybe I've just grown up with it so much that it's like it's not even there, I don't know.
Until Superstar X does/doesn't sign with Team Z because they don't have so and so sponsor, I honestly don't get why it's such a big deal. Unless we're all of a sudden against the people that own the teams we love so much making money off of those franchises, which is a different argument. All the pro sports teams can't be the Packers, or just an NFL team for that matter. We just gave Roy Hibbert 58 million dollars over the next 4 years, where exactly do people think that money comes from?
Who's saying anything about objecting to advertisements? All I want is for them to leave the ****ing jerseys alone. I don't think that's too much to ask.
You look so much older....... I am 65 and it doesn't bother me at all. It is just a change that was bound to happen and once it does and you it a few times, you will zone out and not pay attention to it. I am surprised there are not ads here on PD.....
I understand that advertising is a reality that isn't going to go away, ever. And, like you, I'd still like it to stay off the damn jerseys.
"Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better." - Albert Camus
"Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well." - Voltaire
"Everyone's values are defined by what they will tolerate when it is done to others." - William Greider


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Justin Wolfe supporters rally for his release outside Cuccinelli fundraiser
FAIRFAX STATION, Va. (AP) - Supporters of a capital-murder defendant whose release has been delayed held a rally outside a fundraiser for Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.
The group Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty gatehred in Fairfax Station to support Justin Wolfe. He is facing death-penalty charges for the 2001 slaying of a northern Virginia drug dealer.
The rally comes after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay sought by Cuccinelli to delay Wolfe's release.
District Court Judge Raymond Jackson in Norfolk had said the state's prosecution of Wolfe was irreparably harmed by prosecutors' misconduct in allegedly coercing testimony from a key witness and failing to turn over evidence that could have helped the defense.
Jackson ordered Wolfe released by Thursday until the appeals court intervened.


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The Downtown Library was built as the replacement for the Albert A. Wells Memorial Library, located on North Street. Now the home of the Tippecanoe Arts Federation, the former library is known as the Wells Community Cultural Center. The Downtown Library was constructed through a bond issue in 1988 and opened in October of 1989. The Downtown Library opened with over 140,000 volumes. By 2011 the number of volumes had expanded to over 301,000 and in 2011 the Downtown Library had over 500,000 people pass through our doors.
The Downtown Library of the Tippecanoe County Public Library System is approximately forty-eight thousand square feet which includes our youth room, Swezey Room of Indiana History, 1 study room, the Alfred J. and Dorothy N. McAllister meeting rooms, both A and B, and the Friends of TCPL Conference Room. The design is the work of architects: Pecsok, Jelliffe, Randall & Nice/Schuette, Mohler & Associates. Since its construction the downtown library has had 3 interior remodels. krM Architecture from Anderson, Indiana designed expanded meeting rooms and office space in 2005. In 2008, the Youth Room was remodeled with advice from Robbins Library Interiors, Indianapolis. In 2012, an interior remodel designed by The Troyer Group, Mishawaka, created The Portal and renovated parts of the nearby Stein Building for office use. The Downtown Library also features the fully operational Heartland Odyssey Sculpture in our youth room.
Our one floor library hosts a collection of over 301,000 materials available for checkout including books, movies, nonfiction, materials in Spanish, CD-ROMs, audiobooks, music, magazines, and online resources. We also have approximately 50 Computers for adults and children including stations for: Internet, Express Internet, online resources, word processing, and youth educational games, youth bilingual games/software, TIPCAT online catalog, and Wi-Fi access for those with personal computers.


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After nearly a decade of debate, Lake Tahoe land-use regulators are prepared to take action on a sweeping plan that will guide development for decades to come at the Sierra gem.
The bi-state Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's governing board is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the proposed Regional Plan Update for the lake straddling the California-Nevada border.
Business interests contend the plan represents a long-overdue overhaul of burdensome regulations that will jump-start Tahoe's ailing tourism economy while also protecting its environment.
The Sierra Club maintains it's a "radical plan" that will forever change Tahoe by allowing overly dense, taller urban development.
But the Reno Gazette-Journal reports ( http://on.rgj.com/121ti24 ) the Nevada Conservation League views the plan as a compromise.
TRPA will consider the plan at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in Stateline.
Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, http://www.rgj.com


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When would-be folksinger Rachel Boucher is raped and impregnated by former high school crush Jason de Klerk, the ensuing custody battle tears apart Athens, Ohio. That the aimless, unemployed de Klerk would have any parental rights at all is only part of what puzzles in Rachel's Blue, Zakes Mda's deeply peculiar novel.
Rachel, 23, is a would-be folksinger and nascent activist who lives with her grandmother, Nana Moira.The "Blue" of the title refers to the Amish ragdoll Rachel remains oddly attached to:
When everyone was gone, Blue was the one to have stayed. There was Nana Moira, of course, but she didn't count that much. Blue, on the other hand, was always with Rachel. She was not apt to die in a war or disappear in a fog of drugs.


text:
The Central Coast Section girls volleyball playoffs are scheduled to open today, and four teams from the area will advance to the quarterfinals without breaking a sweat.
Los Altos, St. Francis and Homestead highs are seeded high enough to earn first-round byes, while Pinewood School is in a playoff division with only eight teams. The Eagles, Lancers, Mustangs and Panthers are scheduled to host quarterfinal matches 7 p.m. Saturday.
Los Altos drew the No. 2 seed in Division II after posting a 30-5 record and placing second to Homestead in the challenging SCVAL De Anza Division. The Eagles await the winner of tonight's match between No. 7 Los Gatos (20-12) and No. 10 St. Ignatius (18-15).
St. Francis is the third seed in Division II, finishing 23-12 after last week's loss to Valley Christian in the West Catholic Athletic League semifinals. The Lancers face No. 6 Woodside (21-11) or No. 11 Branham (15-14) Saturday.
Homestead, which won the De Anza Division title outright for the first time in school history, is the No. 2 seed in Division I.
Coach Gary Carroll, whose team has four Los Altos residents, believes his Mustangs (23-7) are focused on claiming the CCS crown.
"Our goal is to win it this year," he said. "We are mentally stronger than last year, and we (aren't fazed) by anything – not runs by our competitors, not questionable calls, not what people think, not extraneous stuff in our lives."
Homestead hosts No. 7 Gunn (14-14) or No. 10 Oak Grove (18-11) in the quarterfinals.
Pinewood (13-11) is the third seed in Division V following a fifth-place finish in the West Bay Athletic League Skyline Division. The Panthers entertain No. 6 Trinity Christian (14-7) Saturday.
Quarterfinal winners move on to the semifinals Nov. 20.
Mountain View is the lone local team not headed for the playoffs. The Spartans finished 1-11 in the De Anza Division and 8-22 overall after league losses to Gunn and rival Los Altos last week.
Cross country
The Los Altos boys captured the SCVAL El Camino Division championship meet for the fourth straight year – and it wasn't even close. Fifty-eight points separated the Eagles from runner-up Wilcox Nov. 5 at Crystal Springs.
Los Altos placed six runners in the top 10, each of them setting personal records on the 2.95-mile course: Ben Zaeske (second, 15:40), Andreas Godderis (third, 16:12.7), Dane Tippett (sixth, 16:18.8), Kevin Anawalt (seventh, 16:23.6), Konrad Niemiec (eighth, 16:24.3) and Kevin Glass (ninth, 16:26.6). The Eagles came three seconds shy of the team record for Crystal Springs, according to coach Dan Oren.
The Los Altos girls finished fourth, led by Lauren Jacob (second, 17:48.9) and Katie Klein (ninth, 19:58.7). Gunn, behind champion Sarah Robinson (17:04) of Los Altos Hills, placed first and Mountain View took second. Melissa Reed paced the Spartans (third, 18:53.3), followed by Amy Lynch (sixth, 19:07.7) and Carina Gwennap (seventh, 19:21.1).
All these teams have qualified for the CCS championships, slated Saturday at Crystal Springs.
The St. Francis girls and boys will join them after finishing first and second in their respective divisions at the WCAL III meet Nov. 6 at Crystal Springs.
Julia Bounds won the girls race in 18:14, the fastest freshman time in St. Francis history, according to coach Roberta Chisam. Gia Kim was third (personal-best 19:07).
Seniors Gabriel McLarnan (16:02) and Gaurav Begur (16:07) led the Lancer boys by placing seventh and ninth, respectively.
Boys water polo
Los Altos, Mountain View and St. Francis have made the CCS Division I playoffs and begin play this week.
No. 9 Los Altos (10-16) was slated to face No. 8 Leland (17-7) Tuesday night at Mountain View, after the Town Crier's press deadline. The seventh-seeded Spartans (12-10) were scheduled to play right before them against No. 10 Salinas (19-7).
Mountain View is coming off an 11-9 loss to rival Los Altos Saturday in the third-place game at the SCVAL De Anza Division Tournament.
If the Spartans bounce back to beat Salinas in their CCS opener, they would take on idle No. 2 St. Francis (11-16) Saturday in the quarterfinals at a time and place to be announced.
If Los Altos defeats Leland, it would meet top seed Bellarmine (16-10) Saturday.
Girls water polo
WCAL champion St. Francis (23-2) is the top seed in the CCS Division I playoffs, earning a first-round bye. The Lancers Saturday are slated to face the winner of today's 7 p.m. game between No. 8 Los Altos (11-16) and No. 9 Carlmont (12-8) at Palo Alto.
No. 10 Mountain View (17-7) – the SCVAL El Camino Division champ – is set to host No. 7 Pioneer (20-6) 7 p.m. today. The winner takes on No. 3 Los Gatos (24-3) Saturday.
Girls tennis
Los Altos and St. Francis are set to host CCS second-round matches 2 p.m. today.
The No. 4 Eagles (15-5) will face Leland (15-5) or Castilleja (12-5). The No. 6 Lancers (13-5) meet Carmel (18-3) or Aragon (11-8) at Cuesta Park.


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The Social Skills of a Web Developer - or lack thereof!
I've been thinking about this topic lately and comparing myself to other Web Designers/Developers out there. I find personally that I'm pretty approachable, an all rounder and pretty "ok" at what I do. It made me think of the characteristics, traits and social attitude web developers need to have to get by in this business.
The old myth or viewpoint of a computer nerd has changed somewhat to when I first started with web design and development. Usually one thought that you (a) had zero social skills and (b) you wore black thick framed glasses, black clothes and hibernated in your bedroom all year round! :shifty: (if you're still keeping this look up, it's time to change buddy!)
I guess my question here is more focussed on the social aspect of this line of work rather than the technical side of things. Do you find it difficult to interact with clients? Perhaps all your work is sourced exclusively via the web for this very reason? Maybe you're great at networking and can offer up some tips on how to solve the previous question?
For me, I'm OK at socialising - within reason. If I have to meet with clients, attend functions, conferences etc I will of course but it is still a struggle for me nonetheless :confused2 I think the initial stages of this i.e. actually going there and meeting with clients or attending functions is the biggest step for me, once I'm there I'm glad I made the effort - but it's just that little kickstart I constantly struggle with :rolleyes:
When does it get easy? Is being socialable something that comes natural? You either have it or you don't? Is this something you can learn? I know a couple of people who are fantastic web designers but their social skills are non existant - zero confidence in themselves not their ability but they hide away because of fear essentially because of this whole social element! Do you have any advice on how they can combat this issue and get over this barrier? Maybe you've once been like this yourself and finally mastered your fear?
Welcome your thoughts guys
As a naturally fast speaker aswell I find it unbelievably difficult to slow down and work to a lesson plan - it's always a struggle to keep things on schedule and if I'm passionate about what I'm talking about it gets worse! :lol: I don't believe alot of people realise just how hard it is to talk about something for x amount of time - when you have say 3/4 full pages of content to discuss this may only add up to 5 mins of delivery! It is a real art when you do find a great teacher/presenter who effortlessly works through their schedule with perfectl timing and delivery :tup:
I believe it's easy for people who are living with say their partner, family etc when it comes to working at home (to a certain extent) - you have some level of social interaction whereas with those who are living on their own I can imagine it to be more of a major struggle for them :confused2
I know that issue well, I've been getting a bit of the cabin fever lately from working away in the house (even though I chat here all the time).
I know a few single telecommuters and you're right that it does take a certain mindset to pull off. You have to force yourself to go out and network, or work from a coffee shop every so often to break the isolation. It's not easy to deal with if you can't motivate yourself, but so is telecommuting in general.
I've been working at home for the last 4 years. That can be isolating (I haven't seen any of my co-workers since 2007) and I think working with others in an office again would be an adjustment for me, but I don't think I've lost my social skills because of it. If anything I like that it forces me to have a varied social life and seek out new friends outside of work.
I also don't get too nervous about meeting new clients and things like that. In those situations, you and the client are talking about what you know well (your work, his/her business), so to me it's a more natural conversation.
Presenting to big groups is another story though. I tend to rush through that and have to remind myself to slow down and stop mumbling
I believe being anti-social does matter on the whole - unless you're a hermit you're going to deal with people in one way or another on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis...and when you do, you really would like to be able to communicate properly wouldn't you?
I don't believe it's about whether or not you're happy with yourself - it's easy to say that "I'm me...like it or lump it"...I agree that you should be happy with who you are but I don't think you should be stubborn to change or use it as an excuse not to interact with people in terms of "that's just not a "me" thing to do"
You're last line describes what the problem is... we just aren't all like minded people and in most cases we don't have the luxury of talking to people who are on our level and that's where the problems start :x
Haha, true. Funny now that you say "scare off immediately" — I guess some people are a bit startled by the very "direct" and efficient communication style we usually apply even from the beginning.
Finding a few like-minded people and being happy with who you are doesn't make business go around and it doesn't pay the rent. It takes a bit more effort than being laid back and waiting for clients to pop up by themselves.
I don't think geeks are that anti-social, it's rather interesting actually that with the rise in computer usage, the geek has turned from the "freaky kid" who lives in a basement to an idealistic type role which most people these days recognise and see as a decent job type. I read a scientific study from psychologists that are now saying that geeks have actually become a more "sexually attractive" type of persona (possibly due to the way society is moving). As for the personality tests, it's easy for you to say "Yep that sums me up" but it's worth noting that saying you are that kind of person and actually being that kind of person is VERY different. People very often have false persona's that they reflect upon themselves and you're far too subjective as an individual to pick a personality type and say "that's who I am". Being social is something you learn, it's not a natural thing. If you examine those cases of feral children where they had no social interaction, they grew up with no social skills and essentially went native. This thread's pretty much just stereotypes and old arguments. Some people are more social than others, some people like being a web professional as they can hide behind a screen, others like it because of the potential for further contact, there's no right or wrong answer.
I'm an INTJ as well, introvert strategist and as such pretty asocial. I like working from home, alone in my studio which I've set up nicely.
My clients are happy. It limits my work in the way that I as a startup have to push myself to get clients as I'm not social by nature. I believe in Jason Fried's philosophy that meetings are toxic, and prefer email or structured collaboration via a nice PM software.
When I do get clients, they tend to stick with me though. Never had one leave, never had one that doesn't take what I say seriously and listen to me. Probably will at some point, been "lucky" until now.
There's your answer. Now send over some clients. Seriously, I could use them.
That sums me up as well. Not because it's cool or geeky, but because I'm set up that way, and I've been born an introvert (long before the internet/computer days).
I think that's quite typical for an INTJ. Those we don't scare off immediately tend to appreciate us and stick around.
Does being anti-social really matter?
If you are happy with yourself, and your life then I don't see why it should be an issue. So long as it doesn't affect your work or life in a negative way then you should just be happy with who you are.
It's just a case of finding like minded people that you can relate too, to have meaningful conversation with.
Most people think I am a MMA fighter, construction worker or a cop. I have never had any guess I was a software developer.
I think web developer is not quite the same as old school developers. For starters, web development in todays languages (PHP, Python, etc) are far more abstract and I suspect require the use of a different side of the brain than low level, algorithmic problem solving. I think there is less analytical thinking in building web applications, than writing system code in a mix of C/ASM.
That being said, all developers are experts at understanding systems and how they work.
Solving large complex problems requires the minds of many, unlike small but equally complicated problems that require seeing the small picture as opposed the large picture. For that reason I believe that web developers (high level developers) are more collaborative and thus more communicative. Just a guess.
I think as long as your business is running good then there's no problem with it. What matters most is you earn using your own ideas that works for yourself... no matter if you're a social kind or not... (though you really had to become one so you can deal with your client easily)
I'm an INTJ, so socialising isn't my thing. My usual behaviour is similar to that of a grizzly bear in a foul mood. And a toothache.
:shifty: ok, well that's a bit scary! Do you find that your behaviour limits you with your work Tommy? Considering your above statement I'm assuming that you can put on a "happy socialising face" when required?
I think I've a split personality, I tend to be an Introvert with Extravert type tendancies :rofl: Maybe it just depends on my form for that day, how confident I feel or perhaps just who I'm talking to! Even as a teacher, I can get up there and deliver a class to 30 if not more but it's like the flick of a switch, suddenly I'm bubbly, socialiable and no one would know that minutes before I would struggle to just get up there in the first place! When I'm up there and doing my thing, I'm loving it and having a laugh - it's all very weird :shifty:
With my web design - Meeting with clients is ok but sometimes I can't seem to push myself to actually get out there and socialise more to obtain more business - I just wish there was something I could learn or do to get over this barrier that stands in my way, I'm not a lazy person at all :confused2
Any advice for my reclusive web design friends? I think ultimately it's a personal confidence issue for them, this is not going to change overnight I suspect :shifty:
Not me, but perhaps my co-workers?
Nope. I don't do cute. But I've trained my colleagues to walk on their tiptoes around me and not to contradict me unless they have very good arguments.
I didn't know the term INTJ, but what I read in the article fits me perfectly, especially
Perhaps the most fundamental problem, however, is that INTJs really want people to make sense.
I really don't like it when people say stuff that doesn't make sense to me (or seems unimportant to me for that matter), or if their thoughts appear to be all over the place; that easily confuses and agitates me.
For me this is not always a problem, it really depends on the person or persons I'm talking too. If the other person(s) in the conversation is able to keep a linear line of thought and doesn't say too many useless things I'll be able to get along with them. If they do however say useless things (which is subjective, I realise) most of the time I don't know how to respond and simply say nothing or "nice" or something. This invites some strange looks every now and then.
I guess I'm just one of those people who doesn't talk much but says a lot, instead of talking a lot and not saying much.
I sometimes do that comparison thing too. I'll watch videos of Web Designers / Developers / Techies giving conferences and key notes and so on and I'll think to myself how I might be in that situation.
I'm a pretty confident person when it comes to talking to anyone about technology and Web Design stuff, I love talking about it...When I meet someone who wants to talk about it. When I'm discussing things with clients we'll have a laugh, a giggle, and also be very serious and understanding of each other. The problem I have though is kicking a conversation off. I don't have the confidence to say hi to someone or talk to anyone I like, I don't have that confidence. But once someone has started talking to me, I'll natter on!
There are a lot more 'cooler' looking and 'fashionable' computer geeks in the world now so I think the viewpoint of computer geeks has changed to something positive altogether really. Also, I don't think many people have a choice these days with what's on sale in stores - Computer geeks of today can't wear clothes that computer geeks of yesteryear wore. :lol:
I don't find it difficult to interact with anyone aslong as they have kicked off the conversation I do find it difficult to talk to girls though, I'm totally shy and all "Oh bloody hell...What should I say now?!" around girls.
I guess it could be something that comes natural to some people. I don't know for sure whether I was a confident / socialable person or not before I went to secondary school, but after I was in secondary school I was confident enough to do solo performances at school at perform the Royal Albert Hall (after many many vocal lessons, might I add).
That is a very interesting read! I'd like to think I'm like that, but hey, who knows. I don't.
Haha, anyone who knows you shouldn't need training for that! I would strongly advice anyone who was about to meet you that they don't mention XHTML...At all.
Andrew Cooper


text: Kind of an odd question but - I saw some characters on the back of a Buddha medallion. From what I can tell, the characters are "exit, enter, peace, and safe". The question is this - in the context of Buddhism, what would that mean? Something like "enter and exit the world in peace and safety"?? See below pic - it's the bottom four characters on the right medallion.


text:
Opening Keynote: The Media Revolution
February 25, 2013
Bob Liodice, president and chief executive officer of ANA, discussed what actions need to be taken by advertisers, agencies, and media to improve measurement, build transparency, and demonstrate that self-regulation, not government regulation, is the answer.
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