text:
The logic of the bureacratisation of academia, forcing academics to 'publish or perish' and cut corners when it comes to teaching, has more to do with the marketisation of universities than learning and scholarship.
Sadly, just as the principle of free higher education is under assault as never before, so too is the idea of the academic as a free-thinking intellectual, particularly in the UK. In the first place, rather than being allowed to pursue ideas for their own sake, increasingly British academics are pressured into meeting university and departmental demands for the five- or six-yearly Research Assessment Exercise (lately renamed the Research Excellence Framework). Introduced in 1985/6 as a means of evaluating the 'quality' of academic research across the various disciplines, the RAE requires university departments to submit four publications for each full-time member of staff selected for inclusion. Departments are then ranked according to their research outputs, research environment and indicators of esteem by a panel of subject specialists (there were 67 panels for the 2008 RAE). And it is these rankings that determine the allocation of quality weighted research funding each university receives from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), a non-departmental public body currently overseen by the Secretary of State for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. But the pressure to perform well in the RAE has resulted in academics being subject to ever-increasing layers of micromanagement and performance indicators whose logic are more corporate than they are academic. In actual fact, the roots for this bureaucratisation of scholarship can be traced back to the elite US Ivy League business schools and management consultancy firms such as Bain & Company, the Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey.
The upshot of this academic drift is that the 'publish or perish' imperative is now endemic within academe. And not just any old publication will do. The sheer volume of submissions to the RAE (over 200,000 outputs were submitted as part of the 2008 RAE) makes it virtually impossible for panel members to read through each and every article, which invariably means that common assumptions are made about the 'quality' of articles published in top peer-reviewed journals vis-à-vis those published elsewhere. But what this supposition overlooks is all the very good quality research published by those academics who refuse to play the RAE 'game'. Indeed, it has been argued that only publishing in the 'top' journals forces academics to fashion their research around what those journals want, which can result in an unwillingness to push beyond the narrow confines of specialist fields of study and, ultimately, intellectual inertia[11].
Moreover, with sails trimmed tight, increasingly academics are forced to cut corners if they are to meet the next publishing deadline, particularly newly qualified academics who are expected to combine research with heavy teaching loads and endless administrative duties (a problem whose sheer scale and mind-numbingly tedious and pointless nature appears to be exclusively British). 'What ever you do, don't over-prepare': 'You only need to be one step ahead': 'Just cover the basics, ignore the rest'. These are just some of the suggested coping strategies one encounters when starting a new lecturing post. So much for the idea that the university is a place where teaching is carried out in an atmosphere of research, and vice versa. And this says nothing of the way in which the instrumentalisation of research has undermined collegiality by atomising any sense of a collective academic community[12]. It is no wonder that many junior academics, though grateful to finally have got their feet under the desk, find the early years of their careers strangely alienating and dispiriting, not quite knowing where to begin, what to prioritise or who to turn to[13].
Other 'McKinseyian' performance indicators include the unyielding pressures academics now face to secure external sources of funding (otherwise known as 'grant-capture'), which often involves the preparation of long and tedious application forms for ever decreasing amounts of money and worsening odds of success. To compound matters, most academic funding bodies have rolled out award schemes that encourage collaborative research with a non-academic partner, which necessarily means a further narrowing of research aims and objectives. That many present-day universities so prize 'cultural partnerships', 'corporate sponsorship' or 'third-stream funding' in an effort to offset the shortfall in government funding muddies the waters yet further insofar as one sees increasing numbers of academics posturing as 'consultants' in the belief that research which has an economic or technocratic function is the surest way to gain promotion. And should the forthcoming Research Excellence Framework go ahead with the proposed 25 per cent weighting for so-called 'impact' (the premise being that academics and university departments will need to demonstrate how their research has impacted on and benefited the wider economy and society) the situation will almost certainly become even worse. In terms of the humanities specifically, the effect would be, as recently noted by Stefan Collini, 'potentially disastrous', not least because the implication is that academics will 'be judged and rewarded as salesmen' and thus forced into 'hustling' and 'hawking' their intellectual wares[14].
Which brings us to the crux of the matter: as market-driven research and corporate partnerships are accorded even more importance in higher education due to ever decreasing amounts of public funding, it is increasingly likely that we will see yet more universities adopting a subordinate relationship with possibly corrupt and manipulative power elites. This is all the more reason for academics to adopt the position of truth-teller and to question anything and everything that facilitates the growing marketisation of higher education or undermines academic freedom. However, defending the university requires much more than academics representing truth through democratic criticism and moral indignation. Also needed is a much broader social movement comprising all UK university workers, students, other public sector employees and the trade unions. Only then might politicians start to rethink their present assault on higher education, indeed, on the welfare state at large.
In the meantime, it would seem that the onerous responsibility of speaking truth to power has fallen on the student movement. It is they who have taken the upper hand and who are asking difficult questions. And, who knows, if student occupations spread up and down the country, perhaps we will see the uncovering, just as Warwick's students did, of yet more evidence of ethical wrongdoing. If such a situation were to occur, however, universities will of course accuse students of irresponsible behaviour and do everything in their power to bring them to heel. In fact, there are already disturbing signs that the state itself may yet 'police' matters (in and through its many ideological apparatuses) should student dissent intensify. There is no question that those students singled out for 'public misconduct' in the months ahead risk all kinds of draconian sanctions, indeed, they run the risk of jeopardising their future careers. And all because they have the conviction to defend the idea of the university as a vital social and public institution. One only hopes that academics will express equal commitment and courage, not just in their writings, but in their actions too.
[11] See Simon Head, 'The grim threat to British universities', New York Review of Books, 13 January 2011.
[12] See Ronald Barnett, Beyond All Reason: living ideology in the university (Buckingham: Open University Press, in association with the Society for Research into Higher Education, 2003), pp. 108-10.
[13] For a full analysis of the changing academic experience in the UK higher education sector (based on survey evidence), see Malcolm Tight, The Development of Higher Education in the United Kingdom since 1945 (Berkshire: Open University Press, 2009), pp. 271-97.
[14] Stefan Collini, 'Impact on humanities', Times Literary Supplement, 13 November 2009, pp. 18-19.
From: http://www.counterfire.org/
The bullying of academics follows a pattern of horrendous, Orwellian elimination rituals, often hidden from the public. Despite the anti-bullying policies (often token), bullying is rife across campuses, and the victims (targets) often pay a heavy price. "Nothing strengthens authority as much as silence." Leonardo da Vinci - "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men [or good women] do nothing." Edmund Burke
November 07, 2011
The academic as truth-teller
1 comment:
- Anonymous said...
As I understand it the REF requirement for publication in particular journals considered by the powers that be to be important has been dropped, which is a good thing, if that turns out to be the case.
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text:
Have you inherited a mattress from a smoker or found an absolutely great deal on one coming from a home that isn't smoke-free?
My guess is that this happens pretty often, but there are only a few articles and forums on the web that offer any advice on removing the smoke smell and none of them actually give step-by-step, proven instructions on what to do.
That changes right now.
Whether a smoker you know (family or friend) gave you their mattress or you are an avid Craigslister/DIYer who found a deal you just couldn't be passed up, this article is for you.
My husband and I recently purchased I house. Super exciting, right!? Except we had very little furniture and couldn't afford to buy all new stuff. So, of course, I hit the ol' Craigslist circuit and perused for some good deals. Eventually, I found a bedroom suite I really liked.
What was included: dresser, side table, headboard, bedframe, box spring, mattress
Price: $250
Keep in mind that I would not normally consider buying a mattress on Craiglist due to sanitation issues, but this mattress was almost brand spanking new, extremely nice, and immaculately clean. Not only that, but the other furniture pieces were top-notch.
The only problem? The woman selling it was a heavy smoker. Ultimately, we decided it was worth a try anyway.
Here is a list of everything I did in order to remove the cigarette smoke smell from our mattress.
Putting your mattress outside is one of the simplest ways to eliminate odor. Of course, it isn't a quick-fix. I set my mattress (and box spring) up outside on saw horses and let them soak up some rays every day for about a week.
Note: the mattress was only outside during daylight hours. I moved it in at night.
Baking Soda
Baking soda is great at absorbing odors. I poured some on my mattress day one and rubbed it in all over, then continued to I let the mattress sit in the sun. Halfway through the day, I flipped it and put baking soda on the opposite side.
This was the messiest technique I used. I don't recommend doing it inside and it is helpful if you have a nice vacuum with a wand to lift leftover baking soda from the material. I didn't quite get it all off, but that ended up being fine.
Vinegar Water
Another great odor absorbent is vinegar. Get a spray bottle and fill it with one part vinegar, one part water. After brushing excess baking soda off , spray every inch of the mattress. Make sure you get around the edges.
I did this every morning, afternoon, and evening – and a few extra times just for the heck of it. For the most part, the vinegar smell dissipates. My husband claims he could still smell it a little, but I couldn't smell it. Besides, a faint vinegar smell for a few days is still significantly better than the smell of smoke.
You can also avoid the mattress smelling up your home or room by setting out a bowl of pure vinegar. It will soak up some of the odor.
Coffee Grounds
You can buy a cheap can of Great Value brand coffee grounds and pour some onto two separate paper plates. I did this and left the plates in the room with the mattress at night. This does two things: (1) absorbs the smell of the smoke (2) masks the smell of the vinegar. Win-win.
OdoBan is great for eliminating odors. It's also a disinfectant, which certainly can't hurt! Amazon has it on Prime, so if you order it today you'll be able to start using it about the same time I did. The lavender scented version was quite pleasant.
It was day three before I added a good OdoBan spray-down to my process. I used it once a day for about three days after that.
Please note that these are affiliate links, so purchasing this item through them provides me with a commission!
Purchase OdoBan Disinfectant and Odor Eliminator, Lavender Scent, 32 oz on Amazon
Mattress Cover
It's always a good idea to get a mattress cover. The cover will seal in any unwanted smells and help the mattress last longer.
I chose Sleep Defense System, which is waterproof, bed bug proof, and encases the entire mattress instead of just fitting over the top. I have been incredibly pleased with this product and highly, highly recommend it.
Again, these are affiliate links, so purchasing this item through them provides me with a commission!
Purchase Sleep Defense System – Mattress Encasement, Queen on Amazon
Most importantly, you are going to want to dedicate some time to removing the cigarette smoke smell. I did all of these tasks consistently for about seven days. If you can't quite manage doing it that consistently, that's okay! Just take these measures as often as you are able until you can no longer smell the smoke.
It's worth noting that we left the wooden furniture we bought in the same room with the vinegar and coffee grounds as well. After a week, we were able to set up our entire bedroom and it looks and smells beautiful!
And that's it!
Start working through this process today to eliminate the cigarette smoke smell from your mattress.
Let me know if you have any questions about my process or any other suggestions I didn't mention here. Please also leave a comment if you try it out and it works! That'll really help others in the future.

subset: commoncrawl


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How to convert SHIMANO Shadow Plus RD into 9-speed
Nov 23, 2012 at 13:45
Shin Tanaka
Shadow Plus RD has the best ever feature on its entire development history.
Its one-way clutch delivers desired silence and jam free riding on trails.
Only the disadvantage is that the feature is applied only on Dyna-sys or 10s drivetrain.
I would like to explain all the way to make the dream comes true for the person who desired to use Shadow Plus RD
on 9s drivetrain.
First of all, I have been running SLX(RD-M675-GS) with SAINT 9s Shifter(SL-M810).
It works OK while putting aside that I should double tap the lever when needed and could not use the two sprockets
on the lower side (in my case; 34T and 30T) while climbing.
I used to ride like
"-" means a single click on lever operation
Saying it simple, it works as 7-speed.
So, as SHIMANO already said, Dyna-sys is completely no-compatible with 9s drivetrain components.
I have been trying to get used to that, but I found the forum:
Hochspannung für alte 9-fach Schaltwerke: Die Geschichte vom "Kettenglück" on IBC
Although the best solution is shown; dig a hole on the RD, but I am wondering mis-machining.
Then the idea comes to my mind.
Fortunately the difference between Dyna-sys and 9s is only the leverage ratio.
Leverage Ratio is only determined by the Length shown as A and B in the following picture.
To make the high quality conversions, we need to determine the exact Length by shortening from B to A.
I think it is hard to measure the accurate length, because it depends on each model, but it is not the exact target.
So I will show how to determine that but for only telling the number of the length here
The main target is how to get the accurate leverage ratio.
We need to determine the exact
Length A
to achieve this!
Here is the listings to prepare:
- Brand-new gear inner cable
- Zip-Ties (called simply as Ties for later instructions)
- Proper sized Phillips Head Screwdriver
- A tiny Flat-bladed Driver or Needles to release locking of a tie.
- Knowledge on how to adjust SIS on RD
Step 1: Set the capacity of swinging range.
Simply follow the SHIMANO instructions on SIS TOP/LOW adjustment.
Step 2: Tighten the clamping bolt
Tighten the bolt which clamps inner cable at proper length on the smallest sprocket.
This step determines the tension on the cable. No big adjustment needed so far if you have done this correctly.
Step 3: Set Ties
Set Ties shown as below.
Do not over tighten these ties as shown in picture on this step.
These Ties are called Ties A, B and C for later instructions.
Note that Ties are well positioned as shown in the picture.
Of course, this is only an example.
If you could find the better position, like set Ties around lever pivot, it must be better.
But as I experienced, positions of zip-ties may be restricted by its width.
Step 4: Push the chains on the largest sprocket
Pull the inner cable all the way up by operating the lever on rear shifter more than 8 times.
Pushing RD towards the brake rotor side while turning the cranks for a while will help you to do this easily;
I call this technic "RD Push" for later instructions.
Step 5: Tighten Tie B and C to preset the Length
Tighten Tie B and C as far as you can till the upper pulley get well under the tooth of the largest sprocket.
Step 6: Tighten Tie A to hold the Length
Tighten Tie A well enough to hold the Length A and support Tie B.
Step 7: Determine the exact Length A
This is the most important and difficult step but you can achieve that by following the instructions shown below.
In this step, you need to find out the right spot on the
Length A
by tightening
Tie B and C
Process Flow:
1. Set chains on the largest sprocket by using shifter (fully pull the inner cable) and do the RD Push.
2. Fully release the inner cable by using shifter to RELAX the cable around Ties B and C.
DO NOT turn the cranks!
3. Tighten Tie B or C slightly.
DO NOT over tighten! A single click on the tie makes big change!
4. Set chains on the smallest sprocket by turning the cranks for a while.
5. Check that every each click on shifter does only a single gear shift.
If not, repeat whole process, from 1 to 5, until you get the right spot.
Note that If you have over tightened Ties, they won't let the RD move enough to set chains on the smallest sprocket.
Technics that relaxing ties by using needles might help you.
Step 8: Confirmation
Do the fine adjustment on the inner cable tension following the instructions from SHIMANO.
Step 9: Finish
Test riding is always needed!
If it works in real world, finish up these steps by cutting off the extra length of ties.
Unfortunately, this work takes up much more time than regular installation when replacing whole gear cable or
only a inner cable.
Every time you replace a cable, every time you need to do this.
Since zip-ties are easy to break when received high intensity impacts, this trick might not be last long enough.
But it delivers benefit you desired for and I hope you will soon get used to this.
Please put your comments on detailed technics you did or the Length A on your set up.
It will makes others easy to find out the right spot.
Any other great ideas are welcome!
Hope you enjoyed!
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2 Comments
+ 2
(Oct 17, 2014 at 3:45)
In the time you took to work that out and post it on here you could've worked an extra shift and bought a 10-speed shifter...
+ 2
(Aug 29, 2014 at 0:10)
You could try using a stainless steel tiny hose clamp. Screw adjustable too.
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Last week saw the culmination of a unique project involving children from both St. Brigid's and Ballykeel Primary Schools.
Whilst the Borough has seen many worthwhile programmes focusing on the Catholic and Protestant communities, this 'Town of Three Halves' project aimed at fostering closer relations between children from these cultural backgrounds and children from the Eastern European community.
Both Ballykeel Primary and St. Brigid's determined to develop closer relations through a range of fun and educational activities and TAG rugby was seen as an engaging activity which would be enjoyable whilst getting the children to work as part of a team.
The rugby element of the programme saw over 90 P7 children attend Ballymena North Sports Centre where Tom Wiggins and Jamie Smith from Ballymena RFC were assisted by Shaun Bloomfield from Ulster Rugby in organising 3 sessions to give the children an introduction to the basics of TAG rugby.
Shaun said: "Ulster Rugby were delighted to get involved in this project. This was a great opportunity to assist our local club in such a novel programme."
Rugby is a game which is growing in all communities across the Province and it was great to see children from the three communities coming together to enjoy some TAG sessions'.
Tom Wiggins, Ballymena RFC's Community Development Officer was also delighted with his club's involvement in the programme.
Tom said: "When we were approached by St. Brigid's and Ballykeel to become involved in this venture we did not think twice.
"We have provided rugby sessions to both schools in the past and I have worked closely with Jim Brady on a number of cross community projects. The chance to become involved and foster closer relations between the three communities through their engagement in rugby was a tremendous opportunity.
"Whilst coaching 90 children indoors was a massive challenge the enjoyment the children took from the programme made it all worthwhile," added Tom.
The rugby element of the programme saw the children attend the recent Ulster v Scarlets game at the Kingspan Stadium where they met local rugby star Ian Humphreys.
On the last day of the indoor sessions, rising Ulster star Stuart Olding came along and took part as well as being grilled in a 'question and answer' session.


text:
Priest Lake Art
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What Shall I Say about the Irish
Never predictable,
Sometimes irascible,
Quite inexplicable Irish?
Strange blend of
Shyness, pride and conceit,
And stubborn refusal
To bow in defeat.
He's spoiling and ready to argue and fight,
Yet the smile of a child fills his soul with delight.
His eyes are the quickest to well up with tears,
Yet his strength is the strongest
To banish your fears.
He's wild and he's gentle,
He's good and he's bad,
He's proud and he's humble,
He's happy and he's sad.
He's in love with the ocean, the earth and the skies,
He's enamoured with beauty wherever it lies.
He's victor and victim, a star and a clod.
But mostly he's Irish . . .
In love with his God.
-Author Unknown
This block of lettering
shows the Irish Uncials inwhich
this piece is lettered
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Early Medieval Carvings and their Origins.
"Your God himself, whom you have served so faithfully, will have to save you" (Book of Daniel, chapter 6, verse 16.
These words, spoken by King Darius the Mede as he had the prophet Daniel thrown into the den of lions for the crime of refusing to worship him, have echoed down the centuries. Daniel's God did indeed save him, and ever since he has been taken as an example of faith and righteousness, together with Jonah and the three young men in the fiery furnace. His trust in the Lord and his innocence are seen as a protection against evil. It is not surprising therefore, that images of Daniel are found from the earliest years of Christianity, until medieval times; indeed Daniel may be taken as a prefigurement of Christ Himself.


text:
A new Commodore 64 game is finally released!
Code: CSixx/Mayday!
Gfx & Snd: Saul Cross
Pickle is in a pickle! Rescue all the podlets on each level by pushing them toward home. Avoid the creatures or send them flying with a spitball.
Pickle's Pod Patrol was released as an entry in the C64 16KB Cartridge Game Development Competition. Check out all the great releases at www.rgcd.co.uk.
Download Pickle's Pod Patrol here:
Original Cartridge Version
D64 Version w/trainer+4 by Laxity


text:
- Home
- Government
- Mayor's Corner
Mayor's Corner
The Annual Community Remembrance & Tree Lighting
Join us for our annual community remembrance and tree lighting ceremony as we begin the celebration of the holiday season by lighting the Christmas trees. Share in the evening by placing a symbolic ornament on the remembrance tree in honor or memory of your loved one.
I would like to share with you my own personal experience as to why the community remembrance and tree lighting ceremony has become so important to me.
Last year's lighting of the community remembrance Christmas tree was indeed an honor for me as your mayor and was done so with a very heavy heart. Reason was because I was feeling as though I lacked the spirit of the holiday. You see, I was, and continue to be, on my grieving journey over the loss of our daughter Brianna. During the holiday season, the memories of our loved ones and the wonderful times we spent with them become more vivid. We look back at the traditions we established and memories created. So, while I could imitate a smile and go through the motions of the holiday season, it was done so with an extremely aching heart. To me, that tree holds the love and memories of those in our community who are no longer with us around our Christmas trees and tables at home. It also represents the fear of making a new memory that may be replaced or cherished more than the one made with our loved one who is no longer with us.
This year's lighting of the community remembrance tree will take place on Sunday, November 18th at 6pm inside the Community Center. My family and I would be honored if you stood beside us and the families in our community who are also missing their loved ones during this holiday season. Christmas is filled with special joys, and the very best of all is contemplating those dear to us, and the memories we recall.
Looking Ahead to 2019
It's hard to believe that 2018 is half over and we're looking ahead to 2019! I hope you've had an opportunity to spend time with family and friends and recharge!
The word patience seems to be the best word to describe this season of road construction. We have many streets around the City being reconstructed and resurfaced as part of our commitment to invest in our community and continue to make Becker competitive. MN DOT is reconstructing the eastbound lanes of Hwy 10 and will be installing a Reduced Conflict Intersection (RCI) at Hwy 10 and Sherburne Avenue. This a link to MN DOT's RCI explanation: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/roadwork/rci/ We accept and thank MN DOT for the capital investment in the area and their efforts to reduce crashes in Becker.
This past April I testified on behalf of the residents of Becker at the House Capital Investments Committee. Our goal was to ask the 2018 Legislature to help fund improvements in our industrial park to solve existing transportation issues, improve safety, and anticipate future transportation needs. With this letter, I am excited to announce that Governor Dayton signed the bonding bill fulfilling the City of Becker's request for a $3.3 million grant that will make Becker more competitive for large-scale industrial improvements. This project will connect Hancock Street South to Liberty Lane and Sherburne County Road 8 within the Becker Industrial Park. We anticipate construction project to kick off in 2019!
With summertime comes increased water use. With a lower amount of rain than years past, we have noticed that our wells are pumping longer to help supply enough water to all City residents. One of my goals as your Mayor is to secure another municipal well location. Even though finding a location with adequate supply and quality is challenging we are on the right track to accomplish this goal. The Becker City Council commissioned our engineering firm, Short, Elliot, & Hendrickson (SEH), to study the area's aquifer. The study has been delivered to the City Council and we have taken the next step to secure future water needs of the community.
Along with summer comes the preparation of the 2019 tax levy. Our City Council spends many hours in meetings walking through each department's budget which accounts for the overall levy. Preliminary levy numbers are established in September and are continually tweaked until the final levy is approved in December. The city's debt level when I started on Council back in 2009 was $27.9 million and in 2019 it is expected to drop to $8.7 million of which $6.9 million will be covered by Liberty Paper Inc. (LPI) as part of a public/partnership to recapitalize our industrial wastewater treatment facility.
On August 23, we will have a ribbon cutting ceremony to help celebrate the completion of the CSAH 24 trail that will connect our community members who live on each side of the Elk River. Join me for a stroll, roll or a bike ride on the path that evening.
MPCA's Northern Metal Follow-Up
In response to the questions asked during the MPCA's open house on the Northern Metal Recycling project, we would like to take a moment to answer a few questions.
As many of the questions at MPCA's meeting were related to the air permit and environmental assessment worksheet (EAW), the best way to get those questions answered would be to submit an official comment to the MPCA by the Friday, May 18th deadline. The MPCA stated that they would respond to each comment that gets submitted. The link to the full EAW and draft permit can be found on the MPCA's website - http://www.pca.state.mn.us/publicnotices - you will need to scroll to Monday, April 16th to find the Northern Metal Recycling documents.
At the beginning of the presentation, the MPCA mentioned the EAW and air permit would not discuss a handful of items, including the City's zoning. We recognize there were a couple questions near the end that were directed towards the City. As this was the MPCA's meeting and focused on the environmental pieces, the City did not participate in the question and answer session per the advisement from MPCA so that information and authority of permitting wouldn't be confused.
We would like to reiterate that the new state-of-the-art facility will have the metal shredding and sorting processes fully enclosed. This is unlike their Minneapolis facility and according to the MPCA, "unlike any other facility in the Country." Even though there are reporting and monitoring requirements that the company must follow, the facility itself will be built to a much higher standard. The MPCA, the City, Sherburne County, and Northern Metal Recycling are going to work collaboratively to make sure pollution mitigation is as strong as it can be. As the MPCA mentioned during their meeting, even in the "worst-case" modeling, the facility will be operating well below health risk levels. The metal shredder and metal recovery plant will be operated within buildings and controlled by particulate matter control devices over and above state and federal requirements. Building openings, such as conveyors and vents, will be covered with plastic strip curtains or vented through control equipment such as air collectors, fabric filters, and thermal oxidizer.
As part of our transition away from the coal energy and coal economy with the retiring of two of the three Sherco units in 2023 and 2026, we are marketing property for industrial development. Northern Metal will be located on a 75-acre site by the coal pile. The 75-acres is owned by Xcel Energy. In regards to the land transaction, the City has no participation or authority, since it is a transaction between the two businesses. The City's authority falls within the planning and zoning portion of the project. The site is zoned for heavy industrial and the Northern Metal Recycling industrial process of shredding metal and sorting for shipment is a permitted use within that district. With permitted uses, there is no public hearing or City Council decision.
Even though City Council does not need to make any zoning decisions regarding this project, the company has been working with us to schedule meetings to provide the public, City Council members, and City staff time to ask questions and learn about the project. The first meeting was held in March 2017.
The full video of the meeting can be found on YouTube by searching "Northern Metal Informational Meeting 3-3-17" or by going to this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWldBThWa3M&t=3s.
The City hosted a second public meeting, which had information tables set up by City Staff, Northern Metal Recycling, the project engineers, and the MPCA, on July 26th, 2017 at the Community Center. The MPCA's open house was the third public meeting, which was hosted specifically for the air permit and EAW. Publicizing the meetings is important to us and each meeting was publicized. Even though the EAW and air permit meeting was hosted by the MPCA, we had it on the City website, posted it multiple times on Facebook, listed on the City Hall's sign, and it was in the local paper. The Mayor also gave a State of the City address to the Chamber of Commerce, which included the MPCA's meeting information.
This project brings new capital investment, job opportunities, and renewed interest in industrial development.
State of the City Address - 2018
Delivered: May 9, 2018, to the Becker Area Chamber of Commerce
My main focus today will be what the City of Becker is doing in our community development efforts to ensure our local economy is strong and maintain our excellence. But to start us off, I would like to give a quick review of 2017 and highlight a few great accomplishments.
In review, 2017 was another successful year for Becker. Our streets department completed a variety of streets projects and new home construction had increased. Our water and wastewater department completed a variety of infrastructure upgrades and were most recently awarded a certificate of commendation from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and a fluoridation quality award from the Minnesota Department of Health. The governor signed the gas plant bill which will assist the Sherco power plant in transitioning away from coal-powered units to a new natural gas unit. Also, the Becker Police Department implemented the use of body cameras for more accountability. There was so much more that happened, but I am really excited to share with you the projects which are up and coming.
As I mentioned, the City has a focus on ensuring we are a strong thriving community long into the future. As many of you know, two of the three Xcel Energy Sherco power generating units will be decommissioned in 2023 and 2026. I understand the nervous reaction to these upcoming events, but I stand strong in my sense of hope and excitement for what is coming next for Becker. The transition from a coal-based economy is an opportunity for new collaborative efforts in leveraging the current assets of this community for a better tomorrow.
In order to smoothly and strategically leverage the assets we have, the City of Becker is participating in a rail impact study in partnership with Sherburne County, the City of Big Lake and the Initiative Foundation. This study is currently in process and will help us better understand how our current mainline rail infrastructure can be expanded to assist in the economic transition. The study will provide the city with different concepts and best practices to help boost private local investment.
The City is also partnering with other area jurisdictions to analyze the opportunity for a new Mississippi River Crossing. Currently, to get to I-94 from highway 10 you can utilize Clearwater or Monticello. As many of you have most likely experienced, the Monticello route can be quite congested at times. With current needs and anticipated regional growth, our area is working together to establish a site for a new river crossing to improve the regional traffic flow. This will not be a quick project, but it's an important piece of our economic future. This project is different than the high-speed crossing debated about a decade ago. This monumental task of building a bridge over a river, when completed, will spur commerce, reduce traffic congestion, and positively impact the people of Sherburne and Wright Counties.
As the community pursues a more diversified tax base we are anticipating the need for improved transportation connections within the Becker community. The City completed an Industrial Rail and Transportation study to provide the City with multiple concepts on how to move traffic safely, effectively, and efficiently around Becker and onto Highway 10. The ultimate goal is to improve mobility and accessibility to the I-94 interchange in Clearwater. The study analyzed concepts for changes to County Road 8 to realign with Minnesota State Highway 25, a new frontage road within the Industrial Park and an extended frontage road on the commercial side of Highway 10.
Along the same lines of transportation improvements, the road construction season has already kicked off for 2018. Maintaining our current infrastructure is also a high priority for the City and our partners. The City Council awarded a contract in April for the 2018 street improvements that will be taking place this summer. In addition, Becker is working with the Minnesota Department of Transportation with the goal to improve safety at the intersection of Sherburne Ave and Highway 10. During the 2018 construction season, MN DOT will be resurfacing the eastbound lanes of Highway 10 between Clear Lake and Big Lake. As part of the project, MN DOT will be installing a Reduced Conflict Intersection (RCI) at Highway 10 and Sherburne Avenue.
For more information on the RCI or resurfacing project, visit: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/d3/2018/clearlaketobiglake/
MNDOT will also be working on Highway 10 in Elk River and Highway 24 from Clearwater to Clearlake. There will be a lot of construction, but we look forward to the smoother ride, extended life of the roads, improved traffic flows, and improved safety and accessibility within our region.
Not only are we ramping up the rail and road planning, the parks and rec department has launched a parks and trails system plan study to assist the city on the shaping the future of area parks and trails. The City is proud to partner with the Becker School District on the athletic facilities portion of this study, as we already collaborate, share space and work together to provide the best facilities and spaces possible for our community. The study will provide the community with a better understanding of our current strengths and shortfalls as measured against national standards and peer communities. The study will also identify opportunities and challenges we may face in the future. There will be many occasions for input from all interested parties, including online surveys, pop-up information events, and community engagement opportunities.
Not only is the City promoting economic development, but Xcel Energy is also promoting the Becker community and the many assets and amenities that we have to offer to attract jobs and capital investment. Xcel Energy has started to market property around the Sherco plant. Northern Metal Recycling has committed to purchasing some of the Sherco property for a new state of the art metal shredding facility. The property is well suited for Northern Metal as it has great access to rail line and roadways and will support expansion of the Industrial Park. The site they are looking to purchase is larger and more appropriate for their operations compared to their current location. I believe this project will act as a springboard for the next big economic development project for the community.
With economic development comes the demand for water. In an effort to prepare for new industry and expanded residential developments, the City is exploring the next steps in establishing additional wells and water infrastructure. This will ensure the needs of current and future users are met.
Lastly, I want to say thank you to the Chamber, participants, and guests that came to Celebrate Becker. 2017 saw the kick off of the annual fat tire bike race and 2018 kept up the momentum. It is fantastic to see the community come out and enjoy each other during these events. With summer around the corner, Becker Freedom Days is on the horizon. I hope to see all of you there!
Enterprise Fund vs. Special Revenue Fund
When asked about Pebble Creek Golf Course and what they were trying to accomplish, the founders of Pebble Creek, stated clear and concise goals for why a golf course in Becker was a great investment in the City and its residents. The idea behind Pebble Creek was to build an attraction to draw people to Becker, use the City's financial position to leverage the building of a community rich with amenities while fostering a high quality of life and showcasing existing amenities like the local schools. In addition, Pebble Creek was intended to create another opportunity to recreate locally and was conceptualized to provide jobs for our kids and our retired residents.
Some of the founders also shared that Pebble Creek wasn't necessarily built to be financially independent. In fact, it was built knowing the likelihood of a profit, especially in the early years, was not going to happen. Early on, Pebble Creek was envisioned to be a special revenue fund as opposed to an enterprise fund; profit was not meant to drive the decision to build or not to build. Pebble Creek was built to be an amenity and improve quality of life; it was intended to be an instrument of development and a place for entrepreneurs to conduct business. A vision for generations to utilize for years to come for business and pleasure.
During the 2017 budget cycle, the Becker City Council had conversations centered around its entire book of business and how to best manage, maintain and improve the community. Those conversations eventually included Pebble Creek Golf Course and redefining Pebble Creek from an enterprise fund to a special revenue fund. The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) defines each fund:
Enterprise Funds may be used to report any activity for which a fee is charged to external users for goods or services. Activities are required to be reported as enterprise funds if any one of the following criteria is met. Governments should apply each of these criteria in the context of the activity's principal revenue sources.
- The activity is financed with debt that is secured solely by a pledge of the net revenues from fees and charges of the activity. Debt that is secured by a pledge of net revenues from fees and charges and the full faith and credit of a related primary government or component unit—even if that government is not expected to make any payments—is not payable solely from fees and charges of the activity. (Some debt may be secured, in part, by a portion of its own proceeds but should be considered as payable "solely" from the revenues of the activity.)
- Laws or regulations require that the activity's costs of providing services, including capital costs (such as depreciation or debt service), be recovered with fees and charges, rather than with taxes or similar revenues.
- The pricing policies of the activity establish fees and charges designed to recover its costs, including capital costs (such as depreciation or debt service).
Special Revenue Funds are used to account for and report the proceeds of specific revenue sources that are restricted or committed to expenditure for specified purposes other than debt service or capital projects. The term proceeds of specific revenue sources establishes that one or more specific restricted or committed revenues should be the foundation for a special revenue fund. Those specific restricted or committed revenues may be initially received in another fund and subsequently distributed to a special revenue fund. Those amounts should not be recognized as revenue in the fund initially receiving them; however, those inflows should be recognized as revenue in the special revenue fund in which they will be expended in accordance with specified purposes. Special revenue funds should not be used to account for resources held in trust for individuals, private organizations, or other governments.
Regardless of the fund type, the expectation of the Becker City Council is performance. Performance that meets budget expectations, remains transparent, minimizes expenses and maximizes revenues each year so as to minimize the burden on residents. Pebble Creek as an enterprise fund has become a barrier to maintaining Pebble Creek.
The City Council's objective is to maintain and improve all of the City's holdings, regardless of the fund type, including Pebble Creek Golf Course. The goal is to make certain we protect all City assets and invest in future generations. The Becker City Council does have the authority to make this fund change. The City Council, in consultation with its finance professionals, is conducting research on the mechanics of the change and how it will be implemented. In addition, the Becker City Council commissioned a long range financial plan that will be completed in 2018. This financial plan will help the City Council better manage its entire book of business from a long-range or legacy perspective. This long-range approach will systematically and methodically maintain and improve all City assets and amenities.
For years the City's audit firms have made a case for a different approach for accounting for Pebble Creek's finances. That is to say, the data shows that Pebble Creek has not been self-sustaining and maybe a different approach should be considered. To that end, the Becker City Council plans on continuing the conversation to move Pebble Creek to a special revenue fund as it will produce a budget process that is more robust, transparent, and accurate.
Exciting Projects on the Horizon
Hello, Residents of Becker,
2017 has been a catalyst year for growth within the City of Becker and surrounding communities!
The Streets Department recently completed the 2017 street improvement projects along with the newly expanded parking lot in T-Town. We are planning ahead with our Streets and Engineering team for the 2018 projects. Not only will the City be completing multiple street projects, MnDOT will also be completing an intersection safety improvement project at the intersection of Highway 10 and County Road 23. The intersection is known as a "Reduced Conflict Intersection" or also known as "J-Turn" or "RCUT." With the higher number of accidents at this intersection, we look forward to the necessary safety improvements.
You may have also heard about the Transportation Report that was completed in August. This plan helps us visualize the possibilities that could be implemented within the Industrial Park to better leverage the great assets already in place to better position Becker for industrial growth and development. With the transition of the Sherco Power Plant, now is the time to leverage the upcoming economic transition to promote Becker's valuable infrastructure and current assets. With I-94 a short distance from the Industrial Park, local linkages via County Road 8 and Highway 25 are going to be indispensable for a healthy economy. The Transportation Report gives City Council multiple ideas and options for transportation improvements that would provide for better access to the Clearwater I-94 connection to make our Industrial Park even more competitive and attractive. If you are interested in reviewing the concept layouts, the report is available on the City's website. A specific layout has not been adopted, but it is a great development tool to help the City move forward.
As you can imagine, transportation and infrastructure improvements can be costly. City Staff is collaborating with area partners to prepare applications for submission to the Federal Economic Development Administration and other government grant programs to assist in the new infrastructure construction costs. We are confident that our strong public and private partnerships will make our grant applications competitive.
The City of Becker is also partnering with area communities to conduct a study to establish the most feasible location to build an additional crossing over the Mississippi River between Wright and Sherburne Counties. The increase in mobility between Counties and throughout our region will help grow our regional and local economies and strengthen our tax base.
The City of Becker recently purchased the tan and brown corner building at the intersection of Hancock Street and 1st Street. With the Highway 10 Corridor improvement plan that was adopted in early 2016, the City began implementing the plan to transform the highway corridor into a more attractive, economically vibrant and mixed-use corridor. Such goals include the expansion of the City's 1st street right-of-way to improve safety along the corridor's local streets. The City is working with the current renters on a new lease. At this time there is not a set date for demolition, but the acquisition of the building is a great step forward for the Highway 10 - 1st Street Corridor Plan.
With so many exciting projects in the works and on the horizon, we look forward to a groundbreaking 2018!
Tracy Bertram, Mayor
City of Becker, Minnesota
State of the City Address - 2017Below is the State of the City Address as delivered by Mayor Tracy Bertram on May 10,
A PowerPoint Presentation was given in conjunction with the presentation and is incorporated in the address below. To view the PowerPoint presentation individually click here.
I am very pleased to be able to spend time with you all this afternoon to provide another annual update on the state of our city.
We can begin with the basic assessment first: Becker continues to be in a very good state, and we continue to be well-positioned to stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Becker continues to benefit from a strong local and State economy as well as our excellent location within the region. We can be proud of our employment base, businesses, innovative and forward-thinking school district and educational institutions, our great parks and trails system and other amenities, as well as our solid transportation connections.
2016 was a great year! An abridged version of accomplishments, including:
- Recapitalization of the industrial wastewater treatment plant;
- Realignment of Hancock Street South to improve safety, traffic flow, and to position the city to implement a Train Whistle Free Quiet Zone;
- Improvements to the Becker Community Center as we invested in an air handling/dehumidification system that was twenty-two years old.
So much of what gives us those advantages and assets in which we can take such pride comes from the hard work and commitment of the people who live here, work here, own businesses here, volunteer here, and care about their community.
I believe the best thing we can do as the local unit of government is be sure that everything we do contributes to the success of all those other efforts – or at the very least stays out of the way of those efforts.
These priorities have developed through our community's vision, and in my opinion serve as a useful means to measure where we are. The priorities include:
- Financial Sustainability
- Community Growth and Development
- Promote a Safe and Healthy Community
- Partnerships and Collaboration
- Improve Becker's Brand
You will also notice that as we converse, each and every topic we discuss today will fit below one or more of the above priorities. By design. We want to become stronger as a community. We will work smarter. We will work more efficiently. We will leverage our current resources to better position our community for the next generations.
As you may have heard, Xcel Energy will be decommissioning two of the three coal fired power generating units in the next decade or so. One of our top priorities will be to collaborate with Xcel Energy in an effort to change the tax structure from taxing equipment to an energy production tax. This change will help stabilize the City's budgeting process and financial future as this new structure will allow the city to forecast future revenue and better plan for our distant future.
Even though the decommissioning may have seemed like the end of the road for us, I believe it is just the beginning of something bigger. For example, the 2017 Legislature (Representative Newberger, Senator Mathews, and Senator Brown) passed a Bill and Governor Dayton signed it into law to build an 800-megawatt natural gas fired power generating plant right here in Becker. This $800 million gas plant will not be a retrofit to one of the retired and mothballed units. This will be a brand-new freestanding facility that will create a large number of construction jobs as it is being built. In addition, the transmission line will create additional opportunities as we will have additional gas capacity.
The collaborative efforts that lead up to the Natural Gas Plant bill signing has created stronger relationships between the City, Xcel Energy, Sherburne County, the MN Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) and the Governor's office. The City had the honor of meeting with the Commissioner of DEED and the Governor's office regarding the transition from a coal based economy to a more diversified economy in the coming years. The Governor has instructed DEED and other departments and staff to assist the City with our transitional efforts. This is a great opportunity to bolster our economic development efforts with extra resources from the State of Minnesota.
Xcel Energy is also partnering with the City on economic development projects. Our Community Development Department has been working tirelessly to get our City owned industrial park lots certified and marketed as "shovel ready." These certified lots allow the City to broaden the marketing efforts of our Industrial Park. Not only is the City promoting business to locate or expand in Becker, but Xcel Energy is also promoting our community as a great location for businesses to build and grow. In fact, just last week at the Greater St. Cloud Development Corporation annual meeting I witnessed firsthand Xcel promoting the City of Becker. Not only are we talking about them, they are talking about us on a regional/national level. In addition, Xcel Energy is marketing Xcel-owned property for future growth of the industrial park. One example that stands out as a potential new resident is the site acquisition slated for Northern Metal Recycling. This 53-acre site would be used to locate NMR to property close to the Sherco plant and close to the BNSF railroad.
Mayor's Welcoming Message
Hello Residents of Becker!
I am humbled by the opportunity you have given me to lead the City of Becker. Becker is on the cusp of something great and I'm absolutely thrilled to be part of this community during these exciting times.
My family and I have called Becker our home for over 20 years. One of my family's favorite things to do here in Becker is to take in the sights of Snuffy's Landing while kayaking on the Mississippi River. One of my personal favorites is the people who call Becker home. I am amazed every day by the community pride each of us has. I have met a lot of you at various community activities, while sitting on various committees throughout Becker and by being on City Council for the past 8 years.
My family's values fit well into what I see as the city's priorities:
- Augmenting the City's collaborative efforts;
- Promoting economic vitality;
- Continuing to strengthen the City's financial position;
- Reinforcing the organization as a number one employer;
- Enhancing our community's safe, healthy and sustainable lifestyle.
Becker has so much to offer:
- Great schools;
- Great recreational opportunities;
- Great transportation;
- Great corporate partners;
- Superb volunteers;
- Competitive tax rate.
The Becker City Council and I have hit the ground running. It is true we have some challenges in front of us. It is also true that we look forward to meeting those challenges. We have exciting times ahead!
You have my pledge to make Becker a better place, our government more effective, and our image more positive. I have great confidence in what we can accomplish as we move into the future.
Becker truly is a great place to live and will only become better!
Tracy Bertram, Mayor
City of Becker, Minnesota


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Marg Helgenberger
Actress Marg Helgenberger (CBS's new drama "INTELLIGENCE") visits the ladies of THE TALK, Monday, January 13, 2014 on the CBS Television Network. From left, Sheryl Underwood, Sara Gilbert, Sharon Osbourne, Marg Helgenberger, Aisha Tyler and Julie Chen, shown. Photo: Lisette M. Azar/CBS ©2014 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved


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Trademark law gives companies the discriminatory precise to use a specified cross or design, titled a "mark," for the target of distinguishing the derivation the of that company's merchandise or services. Trademark law is an incentive-based set of laws. Because it gives companies the unshared proper to use a mark in connection beside certain products or services, the group can concoct a brand name that is known by the consuming public. That characteristic would be related with and incorporate into all advertising the enterprise runs for its stock or work. Repetition of those advertisements containing the hallmark causes consumers to mix the mark beside the artefact and, with decent repetition, consumers buy the commodity.
A brief, but related, content. We all cognise that if you see a commodity publicized recurrently enough, the service will supply. You could even be one of the folks who buys the wares. The rational course of action by which you reached the ruling to buy the article of trade is not an intellectual, rational course of action. It's a mathematical function of the way the human heed complex. Continually audible range a perennial phone call makes the communication more familiar, more than real, and, eventually, more so. As the saw says, "even the boldest lie becomes the fact if you shriek it noisy plenty and hourlong plenty." I call upon this the "Lie = Truth" Adage. Sadly, I ofttimes combat the "Lie = Truth" Adage in proceeding. I also cognize of few politicians and violent masterminds who are experts at exploiting this certainty of quality character.
Back to trademarks. The ad departments at furthermost companies cognize the "Lie = Truth" Adage can be incredibly palmy in public relations. The disagreeable person would mechanical device his manus in the air holler "Down next to the corporations, and authority to the people! All the corporations carefulness something like is attractive our funding at all costs!" While we can factor to quite a lot of new examples that possibly will spawn it challenging to wrangle hostile this viewpoint, as to the overwhelming, beyond measure majority of companies, that panorama simply cannot be substantiated.Post ads:
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Trademark law creates impressively rugged incentives for companies to put together the top feature article of trade practical and to pile it on their intrinsic worth and attributes accurately. Aside from the information that companies put anywhere from tens of thousands to trillions of dollars into their trademark(s), all it takes is one bad goods file to discoloration a companies figurine in the mind of the consumers who buy their products. Both of these factors hit companies where it hurts them most: in the pocketbook. So, time companies intelligibly have to act a reconciliation act of creating a broad ability product, compliance costs down, and actuation in as various purchasers as possible, they have thoroughly authoritative incentives to devise a talent wares that they will point the finger at with their hallmark.
To be desirable for any level of earmark protection, a mark must be "distinctive" and not barely "descriptive" of the artefact or work. Whether a mark is typical and "how" characteristic or persuasive the mark is can be unfaltering by a slippery enormity. Marks can be (1) fanciful; (2) arbitrary; (3) suggestive; (4) descriptive; or (5) taxon. Whether a specific mark is sheltered by stylemark law depends on the force category into which it falls.
A unusual mark is one that is made-up for the only one of its kind end of man a characteristic. For example, EXXON is a creative mark. It is a idiom that does not be alive in the English poetry and was created singular for the purpose of distinguishing the oil and gas organization.Post ads:
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An capricious mark is as usual an active sound that is at random practical to a article of trade or employ that has naught to do near the linguistic unit. For example, the mark APPLE as applied to gross sales of computers.
A implicative mark is a mark that suggests a trait or typical of the stuff or employment. Suggestive first baron marks of broughton take a number of stratum of creativeness to bridge the connexion concerning the mark and the article of trade. For example, the mark PENGUIN as practical to refrigerators.
A descriptive mark is a sound that merely describes a talent or symptomatic of of a merchandise. Descriptive marks are not entitled to hallmark protection unless they have obtained "secondary meaning" under the earmark law. An example of a descriptive mark would be LIGHT to set a light notebook computer.
A taxon mark simply identifies by signature a extraordinary goods. Generic marks are ne'er eligible to characteristic trust. An illustration of a illuminating mark would be MODEM in tie beside electronic equipment sales. If hallmark sanctuary were allowed in this instance, the joint venture could inherently extract the word "modem" from the English expressions.


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The Final Trailer For Beauty And The Beast Has Been Released
The final trailer for Disney's Beauty and the Beast is finally here and it has us SO excited for the film's release.
In case you missed it, the film stars Emma Watson as Belle, alongside Dan Stevens as the Beast, with Emma Thompson as Mrs. Potts, Ewan McGregor as Lumiere, Ian McKellen as Cogsworth, Luke Evans as Gaston, Josh Gad as LeFou, and Kevin Kline as Maurice.
If the final trailer is anything to go by, it's going to be I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E.
Check out the trailer above.
The film doesn't hit our cinemas until March 23rd, in the meanwhile - check out all the trailers and promos HERE.
Source: Screenrant


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Friday, July 31, 2009An Extraordinary Story
I am always fascinated by people who live outwardly very simple lives and yet die with extraordinary amounts of money. Of course some of them are just plain crazy, but other seem to have transcended the need for materiality. This, via NPR and DailyGood.org is one such story:
July 27, 2009
Every day on NPR, listeners hear funding credits — or, in other words, very short, simple commercials.
A few weeks ago, a new one made it to air:
"Support for NPR comes from the estate of Richard Leroy Walters, whose life was enriched by NPR, and whose bequest seeks to encourage others to discover public radio."
NPR's Robert Siegel wondered who Walters was. So Siegel Googled him.
An article in the online newsletter of a Catholic mission in Phoenix revealed that Walters died two years ago at the age of 76. He left an estate worth about $4 million. Along with the money he left for NPR, Walters also left money for the mission.
But something distinguished Walters from any number of solvent, well-to-do Americans with seven-figure estates: He was homeless.
Walters was a retired engineer from AlliedSignal Corp.; an honors graduate of Purdue with a master's degree; and a Marine. Walters never married, didn't have children and was estranged from his brother. But he wasn't friendless.
Rita Belle, a registered nurse, met Walters at a senior center 13 years ago.
"He always came in with a little backpack on and a cap on," Belle tells Siegel. "And always kind of looked at me, but [was] very reserved. And I'm very outgoing and outspoken. So I said to him, 'Hey, you got a minute can we sit down to visit?' And we'd have coffee there at the senior center."
Belle and Walters became friends. Belle stayed with Walters when he was ill. She became his nurse and ultimately the executor of his estate — as well as one of the beneficiaries — despite fundamental differences between them.
"He was an atheist and I'm a very profound practicing Catholic, and I'd never met an atheist," Belle says. "And that just blew my mind that somebody could not believe in the Lord."
Belle volunteers at the mission in Phoenix, which like NPR and several other nonprofits got about $400,000 from Walters.
Belle knew him as a very well-informed man who could fix her air conditioning — someone she just assumed had a place to live. Then he told her that he had no home. She heard that he slept on the grounds of the senior center. He told her he ate at the hospital and used a telephone there or at the center.
"And I'm sure that's when he was making his trades and so on," Belle says. "He was involved in investing; we talked investments a lot." Belle says Walters even did his own income taxes.
When Walters retired, he evidently retired from the world of material comforts. He didn't have a car.
"He just gave up all of the material things that we think we have to have," Belle says. "You know, I don't know how we gauge happiness. What's happy for you might not be happy for me. I never heard him complain."
Evidently, among his few possessions was a radio. Hence those announcements listeners hear now and again on NPR stations.
Posted by Paul Kaye at 1:52 PM
Keywords: Abundance, Letting Go, Security
Comments [2] | Leave Your Comment
Thursday, July 30, 2009Yes, A Debt-Free City Exists!
Thanks to dailygood.org an extraordinary video of a ten time mayor of a debt-free city in Canada with $700 million in reserves and an approval rating of 92%. And best of all, and the reason to see this, is that she is 88 years-old.
Scroll Down past Tags on right hand side.
Posted by Paul Kaye at 11:06 AM
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Monday, July 27, 2009Boomer Factoids
From a Business Week article "The Incredible Shrinking Boomer Economy" (from a McKinsey study):
The rising savings rates in the boomer population will drain $400 billion out of consumer spending for the foreseeable future.
The boomer's were such an integral part of the spending culture that the group (79 million) accounted for 47% of national spending before the credit and real estate bubble burst, yet was responsible for just 7% of national savings.
The boomers were responsible for 78% of the spending growth in the economy from 1995 to 2005.
The peak year for spending in the boomer community was 54; whereas for the generation ahead of them (a thriftier bunch), the peak year was 47.
The share of boomers aged 54 to 63 who say they are "financially unprepared for retirement" comes to 69%.
Add to the above that interest rates and minimum payments on credit cards have risen and you can see that the life is being sucked out of one of the major drivers of consumerism. And it has been consumer that has driven the U.S. economy in the past.
As I have been saying for a while in MSIA parlance, it is going to get "interesting." This weekend I will do a longer post on why this all shouldn't matter to us.
Posted by Paul Kaye at 4:44 PM
Keywords: The Economy
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Friday, July 24, 2009Happiness
Thanks to Nancy for pointing out this great article by Pico Iyer on the Dalai Lama.
My favorite part:
Think in terms of enemies, he suggests, and the only loser is yourself.
Concentrate on external wealth, he said at Town Hall, and at some point you realize it has limits — and you're still feeling discontented. Take his word as law, he constantly implies, and you're doing him — as well as yourself — a disservice, as you do when assuming that any physician is infallible, or can protect his patients from death in the end.
None of these are Buddhist laws as such — though in his case they arise from Buddhist teaching — any more than the law of universal gravitation is Christian, just because it happened to be formulated by Isaac Newton (who said, "God created everything by number, weight and measure"). I've been spending time for 18 years in a Benedictine monastery, and the monks I know there have likewise found out how to be delighted by the smallest birthday cake. Happiness is not pleasure, they know, and unhappiness, as the Buddhists say, is not the same as suffering. Suffering — in the sense of old age, sickness and death — is the law of life; unhappiness is just the position we choose — or can not choose — to bring to it.
Posted by Paul Kaye at 5:39 PM
Keywords: Happiness, Letting Go
Comments [0] | Leave Your Comment
Tuesday, July 21, 2009No Such Thing As Multitasking
At last, an article that articulates my thoughts on this matter. It's all about attention.
In Brain Rules, Medina points out that the brain cannot multitask:
"Multitasking, when it comes to paying attention, is a myth. The brain naturally focuses on concepts sequentially, one at a time. At first that might sound confusing; at one level the brain does multitask. You can walk and talk at the same time. Your brain controls your heartbeat while you read a book. A pianist can play a piece with left hand and right hand simultaneously. Surely this is multitasking. But I am talking about the brain's ability to pay attention… To put it bluntly, research shows that we can't multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously."
If you've ever put on a CD to listen to while working, and then noticed with surprise that the music has finished and you can't remember hearing any of it, you'll know what Medina is talking about. Because we can only concentrate on one thing at a time, when we try to do multiple tasks that require attention, we end up switching between tasks, not doing them simultaneously.
Business coach Dave Crenshaw, author of the book The Myth of Multitasking, makes the same point:
"When I speak of multitasking as most people understand it, I am not referring to doing something completely mindless and mundane in the background such as exercising while listening to this CD, eating dinner and watching a show, or having the copy machine operate in the background while you answer emails. For clarity's sake, I call this 'background tasking'.
When most people refer to multitasking they mean simultaneously performing two or more things that require mental effort and attention. Examples would include saying we're spending time with family while were researching stocks online, attempting to listen to a CD and answering email at the same time, or pretending to listen to an employee while we are crunching the numbers."
So there's no such thing as multitasking. Just task switching - or at best, background tasking, in which one activity consumes our attention while we're mindlessly performing another.
Posted by Paul Kaye at 9:19 AM
Keywords: Art, Attitude, Health, Success
Comments [4] | Leave Your Comment
Tuesday, July 14, 2009The Economy
Just back from New York City on the Spiritual Warrior circuit where I did a workshop/booksigning with J-R and Jsu, featuring Serving and Giving, Spiritual Warrior, and The Rest of Your Life. We'll do a reprise in London in October, by which time I hope I will get it together to give some some reportage and show some pictures on this blog.
If you still do not have a clue with what has going on with the economy this paragraph from Rolling Stone may make you feel better (well, not really):
As complex as all the finances are, the politics aren't hard to follow. By creating an urgent crisis that can only be solved by those fluent in a language too complex for ordinary people to understand, the Wall Street crowd has turned the vast majority of Americans into non-participants in their own political future. There is a reason it used to be a crime in the Confederate states to teach a slave to read: Literacy is power. In the age of the CDS and CDO, most of us are financial illiterates. By making an already too-complex economy even more complex, Wall Street has used the crisis to effect a historic, revolutionary change in our political system- transforming a democracy into a two-tiered state, one with plugged in financial bureaucrats above and clueless customers below.
The big financial debate is whether we are going to have inflation or deflation. Actually probably both as, after all, when have you known prices to go down in our lifetime? Nevertheless, the backdrop may be deflationary which, as we say in MSIA, is going to be interesting. Fortunately, it need not concern us as we practice the principles of abundance and prosperity, however it doesn't hurt to be aware of what is out there. You may find these two extracts helpful:
1) From Niels C. Jensen
The point I really want to make is that the inflation v. deflation story is the single biggest investment story right now and being on the right side of that trade will effectively secure your investment returns for years to come. If I am wrong and inflation spikes, you want to load your portfolio with index linked government bonds (also known as TIPS for our American readers), gold and other commodities, commodity related stocks as well as property.
If deflation prevails, all you have to do is to look towards Japan and see what has done well over the past 20 years. Not much! You cannot even assume that bonds will do well. Recessions are bullish for long dated government bonds but a collapse of the entire credit system is not. The reason is simple - with the bursting of the credit bubble comes drastic monetary and fiscal action. Central banks print money and governments spend money as if there is no tomorrow, and all bets are off. Equities will do relatively poorly as will property prices. But equities will not go down in a straight line. The market will offer plenty of trading opportunities which must be taken advantage of, if you want to secure a decent return.
All in all, deflation is ugly and not conducive to attractive investment returns. It is also not what governments want and need right now. With a mountain of debt hitting the streets of Europe and America over the next few years, as the cost of fixing the credit and banking crisis is financed, one can make a strong case for rising inflation actually being the favoured outcome if you look at it from the government's point of view. The problem, as the Japanese can attest to, is that deflation is excruciatingly difficult to get rid of, once it has become entrenched. I am in no doubt which of the two evils I would prefer, but we may not have the luxury of choosing our own destiny.
2) From Van R. Hoisington and Lacy H. Hunt, Ph.D.
The combination of an extremely overleveraged economy, ineffectual monetary policy and misdirected fiscal policy initiatives suggests that the U.S. economy faces a long difficult struggle. While depleted inventories and the buildup of pent-up demand may produce intermittent spurts of growth, these brief episodes are not likely to be sustained. In several years, real GDP may be no higher than its current levels. However, since the population will continue to grow, per capita GDP will decline; thus, the standard of living will diminish as unemployment rises. These conditions will produce a deflationary environment similar to the Japanese condition.
Posted by Paul Kaye at 12:08 AM
Keywords: Getting Ready, The Economy
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Wednesday, July 1, 2009Staggering
The more I read about the world and the state of its finances, all I find myself saying is thank God for the spiritual principles of abundance and prosperity with its emphasis on gratitude, grace, and connection with the Divine. From Yesterday's Financial Times:
Just why is there so much debt in the Anglo-Saxon world? Bankers and regulators know well that it is in nobody's long-term interests to have allowed borrowing to escalate to a position where the US now owes far more, as a multiple of the economy, than at the start of the Great Depression.
The answer is capitalism's dirty little secret: excessive lending was the only way to maintain the living standards of the vast bulk of the population at a time when wealth was being concentrated in the hands of an elite.
The amount by which the elite has benefited is startling, and illustrates the problem with lightly regulated free markets: the rich get much richer while the rest do not get richer at all. According to Société Générale economists, the inflation-adjusted income of the highest-paid fifth of US earners has risen by 60 per cent since 1970, while it has fallen by more than 10 per cent for the rest. As was recently pointed out in the New York Review of Books, the Walton family, of Wal-Mart fame, is wealthier than the bottom third of the US population put together – about 100m people.
Posted by Paul Kaye at 9:52 PM
Keywords: The Economy
Comments [2] | Leave Your Comment


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For more help and advice on running events in Rotorua, please contact the Major Events team on ph: 07 351 8654 or click here to email the team.


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Marc Caputo: Ex-Rep. David Rivera — a parent's nightmare
David Rivera isn't just a scandal-plagued ex-lawmaker and current congressional candidate.
Rivera is also a parent's nightmare.
Last week, that awful truth came home to the parents of Ana Alliegro, a 44-year-old political operative who has been sitting in jail for almost six months over a campaign-finance conspiracy that, she admitted Tuesday, was hatched by Rivera.
"If Rivera was indeed her friend, he should have come forth long ago to accept or refute the allegations," Alliegro's father, Anselmo Alliegro, wrote in the comments section of a local legal blog.
"She has suffered enough expecting Rivera to come [to] her defense," he wrote. "A person that shows such callous disregard for a friend's sacrifice does not deserve loyalty."
To call Ms. Alliegro "loyal" is an understatement. She was more like a cult adherent to Rivera. Yes, she willingly broke the law, but she was also under his thrall.
The devotion to Rivera, at least at first, was somewhat understandable. He's charming. Funny. Smart. Hardworking. Powerful. He also has a few media apologists, mainly Spanish-language, who praise him or attack anyone who questions him.
For Alliegro, Rivera implicitly promised political and social status. He also could get his hands on lots of money.
Rivera is also a serial strangler of the truth. I once told him he was congenitally sneaky, and he laughed.
Faced with a simple way to do things or a deceptive and complicated scheme, Rivera at times chose the latter.
Consider what happened when the owners of what became Magic City Casino wanted him in 2006 to lead the successful referendum in Miami-Dade to legalize slot machines. Rivera, then a state legislator, didn't want anyone to know he was getting paid. So Rivera had the money, as much as $132,000, routed through his mother's company.
Rivera then falsely denied he was getting even "a penny" from the referendum.
When state investigators learned he had been receiving payments through the gambling deal and failed to report the income, Rivera claimed the money was a loan that he didn't have to report on public disclosure forms.
Rivera then got money from his mother and her friend to pay back the "loan" to his mother and her friend — coincidentally only after the news broke. Investigators suspected he doctored evidence to avoid charges.
At one point, Rivera claimed he wasn't even under state investigation — even as his attorney was secretly meeting with prosecutors to successfully prevent a 52-count indictment on the grounds that the law was unclear or the statute of limitations had run out.
State ethics investigators couldn't make some of the charges stick in a civil proceeding, but an administrative law judge this year recommended that the ethics commission charge him with corruptly handling his finances as a legislator.
Rivera also lied about being a contractor for USAID. The federal agency said it had no records of his employment. Rivera, giving some complicated and shadowy explanation about a friend in Mexico, failed to produce any documentation refuting that.
The Internal Revenue Service also investigated his finances. Rivera denied that was happening as well — even though a lawyer who helped negotiate his Magic City deal told the Miami Herald that federal investigators had interviewed her about the situation.
And, most recently, Rivera also denied that there was any investigation into him as a result of the case that involved Alliegro.
But U.S. District Judge Robert Scola on Tuesday made sure Rivera couldn't tell that untruth anymore.
When Alliegro admitted guilt, Scola forced the prosecutors to declare that her co-conspirator was Rivera. Scola then asked Alliegro whether everything the prosecutor said was true.
"Yes," Alliegro said.
In that case, in 2012, prosecutors say Rivera and another person met with Alliegro at the Catch of the Day restaurant, where he told her to fund the long-shot campaign of an unknown named Justin Lamar Sternad.
Why? Because Sternad was running against Joe Garcia in the Democratic primary for the newly drawn Congressional District 26 seat that stretches from Kendall to Key West. Rivera, a Republican, was running for that seat, and faced the prospect of losing to Garcia in the general election.
With Sternad doing Rivera's dirty work with more than $81,000 of illegal money, Garcia was getting hit from the left and the right.
The plan didn't work out, though. The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald blew the whistle on Sternad's suspect campaign-finance reports and suspicious fund-raising. Garcia won the primary and then the general election.
Sternad was indicted, then pleaded guilty. He said he was used.
In the meantime, Alliegro — allegedly with Rivera's help — fled the country to Nicaragua. There, Rivera visited her (sometimes entering the country via Costa Rica to throw reporters off the scent) and helped support her. She was informally extradited earlier this year, told FBI agents that Rivera was part of the conspiracy, and has been in jail for almost half a year since.
Rivera then inexplicably decided to run to regain his District 26 seat. When the press got bad, Rivera used a phony excuse about activist judges (it's complicated) and claimed he was suspending his campaign.
Another lie among many. Rivera continued to campaign.
Yet Alliegro remained loyal.
Then, however, her mother fell ill.
"Her mother asked her to consider how her situation has affected the family and her health," her father wrote. "If she knew that Rivera had actually used her, to come forth with the information."
Alliegro did that.
Rivera then essentially claimed she was being used by prosecutors.
There was a time when the Alliegro family might have believed him. But no longer.
Now the question becomes how many or how few voters in District 26 understand the lesson the Alliegro family learned the hard way?


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I hope you're all busy celebrating freedom & the other good gifts He's given us in super super fun ways. We are celebrating by having breakfast with old friends, driving back home from a super fun family wedding weekend, and hopefully not being overwhelmed by the amount of laundry we arrive home with.
BUT: I come bearing gifts today friends.
A of all, giveaway winners!
Sweet Sarah F won the set of three bows from Top Knotz and Sarah Brinton won the super cute headband from Lalalu Designs! I will connect you all by email shortly and I hope you really enjoy your winnings!
B of all,
because I love you and I think you're all winners....
a free print for you to download and enjoy via Naptime Diaries.
In the shop, I plan to keep it mostly scripture/bible-based, but if I'm giving it away as a gift, I see no problem in making a print with what we all have in our heads today.
And thus, a little Katie Perry to inspire your walls.
Download it. Enjoy it. Resize it. Print it. Share. I'm throwing it in my kiddos room since I sure like to sing this song to them during Connolly 4pm dance hour.


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At 12:23 12/16/98 -0500, email@example.com wrote: >Well, I think I understand why ranges didn't work. But if I'm correct, I >can't understand how the example program, range.c, works. HTTPReq.c formats >the HTTP stream for output. In routine HTTPMakeRequest(), the relevant code >reads: You are right, I added this piece of code to the request class when writing the range sample app. I may have forgotten to send out a notice to that respect - you can find the log at http://dev.w3.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/libwww/Library/src/HTReqMan.c?r1=2.72&r2=2.73 linked from http://dev.w3.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/libwww/Library/src/HTReqMan.c After that, HTLine doesn't have to set HT_C_RANGE anymore. Does CVS work on mac? If so then it may be worth getting libwww sirectly from CVS - otherwise, you can get snapshot from http://www.w3.org/Library/cvs.html Henrik -- Henrik Frystyk Nielsen, World Wide Web Consortium http://www.w3.org/People/FrystykReceived on Wednesday, 16 December 1998 13:20:21 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 21:33:48 UTC


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The Truth About Public Breast Feeding
Things That Belong In A Uterus
Appeals Court: Gov't Can't Force Groups To Oppose Prostitution
From Reuters: In a split 2-1 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that nonprofit groups could not be forced to adopt a policy opposing prostitution in order to receive funding from a 2003 spending bill passed by the U.S. Congress.
This is a more important ruling than it might seem. In recent years Congress has been more eager than ever to tack "thought police" provisions onto important legislation. This has long been the government's way of forcing private (and often non-profit) organizations to support and adopt Sexual Dark Age policies and ideals so they can get funding they critically need.
In this instance, United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003 included a provision stating: "no funds made available to carry out this Act . . . may be used to provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution."
So, the government will help fund the fight against three horrendous diseases, but they'll only help organizations that explicitly support right-wing values. This is the same general kind of bullshit that was recently used in an attempt to strip all federal funding from Planned Parenthood. Thankfully 2 of 3 judges in this particular appeals court, which happens to be in New York (don't look for rulings like this in Idaho), are still willing to slap Congress back in line once in a while.
The ruling says, in part: "Congress's spending power, while broad, is not unlimited, and other constitutional provisions may provide an independent bar to the conditional grant of federal funds…the government may not place a condition on the receipt of a benefit or subsidy that infringes upon the recipient's constitutionally protected rights."
Regardless of your personal opinions on prostitution, you should be thanking these judges for propping up our embattled First Amendment. In case you're not, I'll do it for you.
Thank you, judges Barrington Parker and Rosemary Pooler, for slowing the demise of American civil rights and doing a bit to keep Congress in check. They're not there to legislate social policy.


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A Global Perceptions Survey has revealed that South Africans are pessimistic about the country, especially after the FIFA 2010 World Cup.
The survey, which was conducted by the Reputation Institute and launched at the Wits Business School, ranks the 70 countries based on a broad range of factors including governance, business environment, friendliness and safety.
702's Azania Mosaka asked listeners to share what it is they like about South Africa.
Listen to the interview below:
South Africa is alive with tons of opportunity. You turn to every little corner, people are moaning, complaining about corruption, teenage pregnancy... There are so many problems there but I look at these problems and find solutions for them.— Teboho, caller in Alberton
South Africa is great and what makes the country great are the people... There's a lot of opportunities in this country, we just need to develop them.— Delora, caller in Boksburg