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Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Goin' on a VACA & Giving YOU a GIVEAWAY!
Tomorrow, after my 3rd straight day of summertime workshops, I'm heading out to the fabulous Cedar Creek Lake for a little mini vaca. (For those of you who aren't from Texas, or even if you are and you don't know, Cedar Creek Lake is near Gun Barrel City and Mabank...which are amazingly trashy, country bumpkin' towns!) I'm traveling with my mother to see her sister (my aunt) for her birthday.
Let me backtrack so you don't think I'm the meanest, most judgemental person ever. Really, I don't mean it negatively that I'm going to a trashy, country bumpkin' town. I'm REALLY SUPER EXCITED! It's an AWESOME place to do some major "junkin'"! My mom and I are definitely going to gather some fun stuff for our new Teapots & What-Nots! (Which, by the way, we will need to, because we are for sure getting a booth at McKinney Trade Days next month! Woo-Hoo!)
So, in honor of my whimsical junkin' weekend (and the fact that I finally finished one of my TpT packs that has been hangin' out on my computer for MONTHS now...really...it has...) I'm throwing a GIVEAWAY!!! YAY!!!
Ready for the prizes? First up is my NEW "1, 2, Measure With My Shoe!" TpT Pack! Yes, it did take me about 3 months to finish...my ADD was really bad with this one...but it's finally done!
This is a cute little project that I used with my kiddos last year, but I was trying to spruce it up a bit before I posted it online. So yes, it took me a while, but it is tried and true, and I love it! I hope you will, too!
The next prize is a fun set of 4 ADORABLE Chalkboard Clothespin Labels from our Etsy store, Teapots & What-Nots! The winner of the giveaway will get to tell me what *CUSTOM* colors she wants! How fun and special is that?! :)
So, now are you ready to enter? There's 3 ways below, one of which is a daily (if you so should choose!) I'll be back home on Sunday, and the drawing will end shortly after. Good luck! I'll be thinking about y'all while I'm on my mini-vaca! :)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Miss Me? Look What I've Been Up To...
Man, I feel like this summer has gone by so fast! I also feel like I've barely posted! (Well, it's more than a feeling, it's actually the TRUTH! I HAVE barely posted the past month or so!)
I promise I haven't dropped off the face of the earth or joined a cult. No, no, I've just been SO busy!!! Curious as to what I've been doing? Well, you already knew about the summer camp last week...but other than that, I've been starting a little side business with my mom! How fun is that! :)
We have combined her vintage collectibles with my upcycled and refinished furniture and decor to create our store: Teapots & What-Nots! Back in June, we got a small booth at a local antique mall, but now we also added a shop to Etsy! Here's a quick sampling (there's more at our Etsy shop) of what we have posted online so far....
You like? It's very eclectic, but it's stuff that both of us LOVE and would have (or have had) in our own homes! I'm even tempted at times to keep some of the things I make...like the vanity stool...love love love it, but no where for it!
So, on top of teaching, tutoring, and TeachersPayTeachers, now I have this, too! Whew! I swear, I really must be crazy (or just extremely ADD)!
But, I promise I'm still working to create lots of new goodies to post to TpT as the summer winds down a little bit. There's one math pack/homework that I'm especially excited about, but you'll just have to wait until I post it! :)
So, are you ready to help me out, and I'll help YOU out, too?? Of course you are!! Ready? Well I know probably EVERYONE out there (except for my mother) has a Pinterest account. So, let's make a trade! Here's what I'm thinking:
Step One: Pin one of my items from my Etsy store to help my wonderful mother and myself out.
Step Two: Then, stop by my TpT store and browse through my "Dollar Deals" (items that are $1 or less online).
Step Three: Come back here and leave me a comment. In your comment, leave me the link of your Pin. Also, tell me what item you would like from my "Dollar Deals" (yes, it must be $1 or less). Finally, tell me where to send it!
Step Four: That's it! :) But you have to hurry, because my deal only lasts until Wednesday morning (July 11) at 9 AM!
Think you can help me out? I'd SO appreciate it! Thank you Thank you Thank you in advance! You guys rock! Happy Sunday!!!!
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Happy 4th of July SALE for YOU & a BREAK for ME
Woo-Hoo! It's the 4th of July! Can you believe it??
I honestly cannot. My, how time flies (wow, I sound old typing that)!!!
I'm sure we're all super busy today-- out celebrating, cooking up some bbq, lounging by the pool, and all in all, just taking some time off. I know that I, for one, am glad to have some time off! This week, I've been teaching a summer camp in our district. It's a new experience, and let me just tell you how eye opening it's been!
Our camp is called "Adventures for Lil' Buckaroos"...it's a cowboy themed camp for 4-5 year olds! Yes, that's right...FOUR and FIVE year olds!!! (Remember, I teach 2nd grade!!) It is a whole different world!!!! Luckily, I have a co-teacher, my friend who used to teach 2nd grade with me a few years ago. Because let me just say, I don't think I'd make it by myself. I never, ever, never, ever realized just how needy the youngin's are! Aye aye ay! I was NOT prepared for crazy bathroom experiences (like a boy peeing off the playground ledge) nor was I prepared for all the whining and the fits (like having to come inside to eat lunch). But really, it has been fun, and I'm glad I've gotten to enjoy it with my friend, Andrea. In fact, here she is teaching the kiddos how to "lasso" :)
|P.S.- She'd TOTALLY kill me if and when she realizes I put this picture up here!!!
Oh, and be sure to wish me luck tomorrow and Friday. Hopefully I can put on a happy face and make it through my last 2 days with my itty bitty cowboys and cowgirls!! :)
Happy 4th!!!
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VIDEO: Haley Smalls EPK
Get to know a singer / songwriter that's been doing it for a minute now! I stay checkin' for her movements even though I've apparently totally missed the release of her mixtape / album "This Is Me" – which you can check out on her SoundCloud page or purchase on your friendly neighbourhood digital retailers.
"This Is Me" Is Now Available on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon & Spotify
Also Available For Free On DatPiff.com & Soundcloud!
Download Free Here: http://www.datpiff.com/Haley-Smalls-T…
Stream the entire mixtape on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiBVU…
Look out for my NEW mixtape dropping on December 16th!!
Previous: NEW MUSIC: HALEY SMALLS "WHAT DO YOU MEAN" (COVER)

subset: commoncrawl


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Thread: The way it should have been.
It took my broadband one minute to load, it was well worth it the wait.
Still loading..still loading...still loading....still loading.....this better be worth it...*pudder pudder*
I give up
I give up
Nooooo! Don't give up LadyFeawen ! Think of the danceing Aragorns and Legolases. And the mighty badger army!
It took my Comcast 1 second.
Mine too the second time.
Heeeehahahaha!!! I have to say TTT is higly improved! Took more than a second but less than a minute to download btw.
Waiting time was quite supportable and the result well worth that waiting!
"Server cannot be found"
Very funny It took my thing more then 10 minutes but it was worth it.


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AUTO Collision only employs I-CAR® trained technicians, so you can rest easy knowing the repairs done on your vehicle are being done safely and correctly.
So whether you are needing fender repair, major auto body repair, or minor auto body repair in Sandy, UT, AUTO Collision is here to help you! Give us a call today at 801.568.0305 and we can help get you back on the road!
May is no stranger to outdoor family fun in around Sandy, Utah! Check out one of these local auto shows near you. Remember When UNITY Rat Fink May 3, 4pm – 7pm (MDT) Bedrosian's Tile & Stone 3280 S. 900 W. Salt Lake City, UT Dash plaques for the first 100 cars! Enjoy live performance […]
YES, getting tire rotations will help extend the life of your tires and improve the overall performance of your vehicle! Why Are Tire Rotations So Important? Tire rotation is the practice of moving the wheels and tires from one position to another, to assist in even tire wear. If you have front wheel drive, the […]
Statistically, teens are at a greater risk to be involved in an auto accident. This makes sense because although their senses are the sharpest, they are the least experienced on the road. Not only are teens the least experienced, they are also more likely to be distracted by cell phones, or friends in the car […]


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Mini-Minions: New Collection
Jumper €12, print leggings €7, banana print t-shirt €7, pink vest top €5
The film, which serves as a prequel/spin-off to the hit Despicable Me series, focuses on the backstory of those loveable little yellow guys: the minions. As creatures that have existed from the dawn of time, the minions sole purpose is to serve all the biggest villains of the world, from Genghis Khan to Dracula. However, the minions find themselves accidentally destroying all of their masters, one-by-one, until the notorious female super-villain Scarlet Overkill comes along and the minions must compete to become her henchmen.
Vest top €5, banana print t-shirt €6
Pink banana print dress €7, COOL print sweatshirt €10, pink cute t-shirt €6, tie-front vest top €6, all-over print leggings €6
Whether you're buying for a toddler or an early tween, we have styles and patterns to suit every minion loving young one. With clothing starting at £4, you can definitely indulge the Minion Mania sweeping the younger generations this month.
We didn't just stop at clothing though – you'll find a wide range of children's accessories within the range – from hair-clips, to jewellery, to beach sandals and backpacks. If that wasn't enough, you can also find toys and swim gear so they can truly sport their love for the characters, regardless of where they happen to be.
Grey print t-shirt €7, blue swimshorts €8, New York print grey sweatshirt €12, beach scene t-shirt €7


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There has been renewed interest lately in the Hollywood practice of casting older male actors alongside much younger females in romantic interest roles. Commentators give various examples where 50-year-old men and significantly younger women are paired up romantically on screen. But are these just cherry picked cases? Exactly how prevalent is this practice?
Here at GraphJoy we're all about the data. In the first part of our inaugural series we chart the movie careers of 20 of the top male Hollywood actors from 1980-2015 and compare their ages with the women who played their on-screen romantic partners.
With more than 400 films from three-and-a-half decades to draw upon we find a recurring, intriguing pattern in the careers of the male actors that may surprise you. We also compare our data with the U.S. population of married couples to show that on-screen Hollywood age gaps differ wildly from real life.
The curious case of Tom Cruise
When it comes to A-list male actors from the past few decades Tom Cruise has remained one of the most prolific stars of the big screen. From Risky Business (1983) to Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Cruise has played opposite 23 different female actors in romantic situations. Although Cruise is just one of the 20 actors in our research group, his career serves as a useful way to introduce our findings.
Age gap of Tom Cruise and the female actors who played his on-screen romantic interest characters.
Perhaps the most striking observation from the above chart is that, apart from just four movies at the beginning of his career, Tom Cruise repeatedly pairs up with younger female counterparts, and the age difference between them generally increases over time. Across his career Cruise is on average seven years older than the women who act as his romantic partners and the biggest age disparity is a staggering 20 years.
An average age gap of seven years across his career may not sound unreasonable. But consider that Cruise is virtually the same age as his female colleagues until he reaches the age of 35; on average he is one year older in his first 11 films. This gender age equality can be observed in Cruise's graph by comparing the two lines up until Jerry Maguire (1996) where they start to diverge.
After turning 35 years old the average age difference for the remainder of Cruise's films increases to 12 years, which is a giant step up from one year. As Cruise reaches his fifties the women who portray his love interests are still in their early thirties; only twice do they reach a high of 37. This pattern repeats itself in the graphs of the other male actors in our group; as the men get older their female counterparts do not, and this mysterious age of 35 almost invariably acts as the turning point.
Tom Cruise and Olga Kurylenko in Oblivion (2013). At the time of its U.S. release, Cruise was aged 50 and Kurylenko was 33. Copyright Universal Pictures and its partners.
See the sidebar for more information on how we compiled the data, how we selected the 20 male actors, and our definition of romantic interest characters. The sidebar also contains individual charts for all 20 actors like the one above for Tom Cruise.
The league of extraordinary gentlemen
Although representative of the group, Tom Cruise's graph is specific to his own career. Aggregating the movie age gap data from all 20 male actors reveals a recurring pattern of Hollywood studios casting the men alongside much younger female actors as their romantic interests. But it's not until we split the age gap data by the male age of 35 years old that we see the startling results.
Gender age gaps when the male actors are aged 0-34 and 35+.
When the men are younger than 35 the median gender age gap is a tiny 0.75 years. Half of these films have gender age differences between -2 and 4.5 years (male age compared to female), while the full range (min to max) of age gap data is reasonably balanced from -10 to 14 years. There is a little skew towards the male actors being older, but it is small enough to conclude that there is no gender age bias in casting as long as the men are younger than 35 years old.
After the male actors turn 35, though, the median age gap leaps up to almost ten years and now in half of these films the men are 5 to 15 years older. Furthermore, a quarter of these movies have gender age differences of more than 15 years. The lower end of the data range stays virtually the same at -11 years but the upper end increases to 45 years. Incidentally, 25% of movie age gaps when the men are 35+ years old fully covers the range of 75% of films when the men are aged 0-34.
The following table lists each actor's average age gaps for the movies released when they are aged 0-34 and 35+ years old. A few interesting features stand out. All of the actors' age gaps increase after the age of 35 apart from Harrison Ford, who is the sole exception. Ford's average age gap stays virtually the same at around 14 years before and after the age of 35, defying the trend we have observed.
|Average age gap
|Aged 0-34
|Aged 35+
|Denzel Washington
|Harrison Ford
|Arnold Schwarzenegger
|Tom Cruise
|Michael Douglas
|Robin Williams
|Steve Martin
|Michael Keaton
|Bruce Willis
|Bradley Cooper
|Leonardo DiCaprio
|Tom Hanks
|Brad Pitt
|Matt Damon
|Will Smith
|George Clooney
|Kevin Costner
|Matthew McConaughey
|Russell Crowe
|Channing Tatum
Table of actors and their average age gaps when aged 0-34 and 35+.
George Clooney has no applicable films when aged younger than 35 and conversely Channing Tatum has none so far over the age of 35.
See the sidebar to view charts of each actor's career like the one above for Tom Cruise.
Most of the average age gaps increase by more than 5 years after the male actors turn 35 years old, although Brad Pitt and Matt Damon limit their increases to about 3 years. Bradley Cooper's average age gap undergoes the greatest transformation from almost seven years younger than his female colleagues when aged 0-34, to eight years older when aged 35+.
40% of our actors have average age gaps below zero when they are aged 0-34, meaning they are on average younger than their female colleagues. Excluding Ford, the highest average age gap while aged 0-34 is a little over four years. After turning 35 years old, every actor has an average age gap above five years, apart from Russell Crowe (and Channing Tatum as explained above).
We've shown that the average gender age difference increases dramatically after the men turn 35. But what about the frequency of the male actors appearing alongside older or younger female actors?
Number of movies where male/female actor is older when male is aged 0-34 and 35+.
After turning 35 years old the male actors appear in many more films with younger female counterparts than they do earlier in their careers. When the men are aged 0-34, they are older than their female colleagues in 58% of 106 cases. After turning 35, the men are older in 91% of 311 cases.
Some screenplays require significant age differences between romantic partners and we have not excluded these cases. For example, Steve Martin is 33 years older than Claire Danes in Shopgirl (2005) and Michael Douglas is 44 years older than Imogen Poots in Solitary Man (2010). In these instances the character age discrepancies are built into the stories and therefore influence the casting decisions.
There are only a handful of such cases, though, and it is interesting to observe, at least for this combined filmography from 20 male actors, that there are no movies where an equivalent age gap occurs in the reverse, let alone close to 33 or 44 years. In fact, the greatest age disparity where a female actor is older than any of our 20 men in a romantic scenario is 11 years in the film The Insider (1999), in which Russell Crowe and Diane Venora play spouses.
Men of a certain age
When we plot the ages of the male group as a whole together with the women who played their romantic interests we can observe where the gender ages diverge and by how much. For all the movies released when the men are in their twenties the average male age is 27.19 years. The average age of the women playing the romantic interest roles in these movies is slightly older at 27.61 but they are so close that we can consider them to be equal.
Average actor ages (by gender) grouped by male decade.
The gap starts to widen when the men reach their thirties. As the decades progress the gap continues to increase until the male age decade of 50-59 where the gap is at its maximum of 14 years. The difference only decreases slightly when we move into the male decade of 60-69.
|Male actor age decade
|Average male age
|Average female age
Average actor ages (by gender) grouped by male decade.
We can see the strong bias towards the males being older than the females when we plot their ages on a scatter (X, Y) graph. The blue diagonal line shows the 1:1 ratio between male (X axis) and female (Y axis) ages. The shaded gold area covers the range where the age difference is plus or minus ten years.
Age plot of male and female actor ages.
In 64% of cases the male and female actors' ages are within nine years of each other. Some readers may feel that a nine year difference is hardly controversial. But consider the distribution of the data: there is a heavy skew towards the males being older. It is much more likely that the male is older by 2-9 years than the reverse. Further, the remaining 36% is almost entirely made up of films where the men are older by more than nine years.
|Male age compared to female
|20+ years older
|15-19 years older
|10-14 years older
|6-9 years older
|4-5 years older
|2-3 years older
|Within 1 year (+/- 1 year)
|2-3 years younger
|4-5 years younger
|6-9 years younger
|10-14 years younger
|15-19 years younger
|20+ years younger
Distribution of age disparities in Hollywood movies (male actor age compared to female).
In more than a third of movies (35%) the male is older by at least ten years and in more than half of movies (52%) the male is older by six years. Conversely less than 1% of female actors are more than ten years older (4 movies to be precise), and a little less than 3% are more than six years older.
Distribution of age disparities in Hollywood movies (male actor age compared to female).
Stranger than fiction? Hollywood versus the U.S.
Some defenders of the Hollywood studio casting system may argue that these movies are only presenting a reflection of relationships in real life. But when we compare our film age gap data with the United States married population we find a wildly different result.
Age gap comparison between Hollywood movies and U.S. married heterosexual couples.
Using heterosexual U.S. marriages as the comparison to our on-screen heterosexual movie relationships, it is clear that Hollywood does not come close to matching the population. In 53% of U.S. marriages the men are either within one year or are 2-3 years older than the women (a range of -1 to +3), whereas in 53% of Hollywood movies the male actors are six or more years older than their female colleagues.
There is still a skew towards husbands being older than wives in U.S. marriages but the distribution of the U.S. marriage data has a wider spread and is also unimodal. That is, the married data is more varied (for example, it has data points at "15-19 years younger" and "20+ years younger" whereas Hollywood does not), and has one clear peak at "Within 1 year" compared to Hollywood's cluster of peaks.
It should be noted that we are comparing U.S. marriages from the 2013 census with movies released in the past 35 years containing on-screen romantic situations: everything from marriages, de facto relationships and romantic pursuits to ex-partners and one night stands. Nonetheless the difference in the data distributions is big enough to confidently state that romantic character age gaps in Hollywood movies starring the leading male actors of the past 35 years do not reflect society.
We aggregated the filmographies of 20 of the top male Hollywood actors from 1980-2015 and examined the age differences between these men and the female actors who played their on-screen romantic interests. We found a mysterious male age of 35 years old where the female actor casting pattern changes dramatically.
When the male actors are aged 0-34, they are frequently paired up on-screen with similarly-aged female actors. After the age of 35 years, though, the male actors are repeatedly paired up with significantly younger women: on average, ten years younger.
Before we can definitively prove a casting pattern, though, we need to look at the data from another angle. In part 2 we will reverse our analysis and examine the careers of the top female actors from 1980-2015, and the ages of the men who played their on-screen romantic interests.
Will the women remain consistently younger than the men or will A-list actors like Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Jodie Foster and Sally Field challenge our results? Stay tuned.
Data sources: IMDB, various film studio web sites, U.S. Census Current Population Survey (2013), Wikipedia.
Sidebar: How we compiled the data
Show the sidebar.
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Oh My Goddess! Colors [Library edition] (Fanbook)
Title: Oh My Goddess! Colors [Library edition]
Volume: Fanbook
Pages: 192
Distributor: Baker & Taylor
Release date: 2009-07-01
Suggested retail price: $28.95
What's inside? Let's start with what's outside: a metallic gold embossed cover with french flaps, featuring the Goddess sisters on the front, and Belldandy and her angel Holy Bell on the interior. Then the contents kick off with a wacky intro to the Oh My Goddess! saga, in the form of an eight-page "fan" manga by Neon Genesis Evangelion Angel designer Yoshitou Asari! Then, OMG! Colors's namesake: four classic Oh My Goddess! stories, each focusing on a different goddess, and colorized under Kosuke Fujishima's supervision. Finally, an exhaustive "Encyclopedia" section cross-references the people, places, and things of the first thirty volumes of OMG!, including the differences between the two English versions, and many in-jokes about the series never before revealed!
(added on 2010-06-18, modified on 2010-09-13)
- Encyclopedia information about Oh My Goddess! (manga)


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Getting the point across to fans and critics alike that his marriage is in perfect condition, "Boys "Round Here" singer Blake Shelton hopped on Twitter to announce he and his wife, Miranda Lambert are doing just fine.
The 37-year-old responded to a wide array of rumors and accusations, tweeting, "I just read back to back NEW stories that @mirandalambert and I are having a baby, divorcing, cheating and feuding with @cher. Must be true!" He found one particularly laughable comment suggesting that he and 29-year-old Miranda were in the midst of a $40 million divorce.
Again, he tweeted about this story, writing, "If it costs 40 million dollars to get a divorce then how will we ever afford it!!! We had that money set aside for health care!!!"
Blake also discussed the media attraction to his marriage to Miranda with Gayle King in April, saying, "I honestly do love it. I just know, to that kind of coverage, if I"m popular enough they want to put me and Miranda on that stuff, that"s awesome."
The "Over You" singer continued in a more private interview later, telling "CBS This Morning," "We had our ups and downs for damn sure along the way. I just could not imagine her not being in my life. I just couldn"t get over her, I know I can"t."


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A man and woman have been arrested in Indiana and charged with the kidnapping, imprisonment, rape, and beating of a woman they picked up on the street, authorities say. The couple allegedly kept the woman in a cage for close to two months.
Ricky House Jr. and his girlfriend Kendra Tooley of Stweartsville, Indiana were arrested this week after Tooley's ex-husband, Ronald Higgs, risked his life to free the 30-year-old captive from the couple's trailer home.
The woman, Joelle Lockwood, told police that on July 9 she walked out of her Evansville home after a fight with her boyfriend and was found walking on the street by Ricky House, a man with whom she had a casual acquaintance.
House offered the woman a ride, and she accepted. However, the ride ended at House's trailer home–40 miles away in the small town of Stewartsville.
There, Lockwood says, House and his girlfriend attacked her and used chloroform to render her unconscious. When Lockwood awoke, she found her clothing shredded. She was also fastened to a bed with zip ties and other constraints, wearing a dog collar and a leash.
The couple allegedly held the woman for nearly two months, during which time House repeatedly beat and raped her, according to law enforcement.
Lockwood told police that House intended to make her pregnant because his girlfriend, Tooley, could not conceive.
The woman's ordeal didn't end until Tooley invited her ex-husband, 61-year-old Ronald Higgs, over to their trailer home and allegedly bragged to him that they had a woman chained up in the back bedroom.
When a shocked Higgs saw Lockwood held captive, she pleaded with him to help her escape her two-month hell.
Higgs told police that right then and there he became determined not to leave without the young woman and ended up in a fight with House after attempts to buy the woman's freedom failed.
"I didn't really know what I could do because I'm nowhere near the man I used to be, but I'm not leaving this house without her. I don't care what I have to do. She's coming home," Higgs told the media.
House allegedly pulled a shotgun on Higgs, but the older man was undaunted.
"He stuck that shotgun right here under my chin with his finger on the trigger. He said, 'I'm going to kill you.' I said if you're going to kill me you better do it now or I'm going to take this away from you an beat you to death with it," Higgs recalled.
The three ended up in a fistfight that abated when House retreated to another part of the trailer. Higgs then told Tooley that he was going to take Lockwood away, but in an effort to get away clean, he assured the couple that he would not tell police what had happened.
After Lockwood was safe and House and Tooley were apprehended, though, Higgs had one piece of advice for police. "I told the police last night I hope you all have some real small cells. That's where they need to spend the rest of their lives, in a real small cell," he said.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at firstname.lastname@example.com


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Diesel locomotives, technically known as diesel-electrics, came into widespread use following development of Electro-Motive Corporation's (later, General Motors' Electro-Motive Division) EA/EB design, first tested on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O) in 1937. The motive power's genesis, however, dates back even further to the World War I period when an early switcher model entered service. The industry remained skeptical of the diesel for many years, relegating it to secondary status while steam remained the preferred choice for main line assignments.
This changed after General Motors successfully demonstrated the diesel's viability during testing of its FT freight design in 1939. The demonstrator set toured the country, convincing skeptic after skeptic that diesels were not only efficient and reliable but could also outperform the iron horse. Today's newest models offer even great advancement, heavily computerized to monitor almost every aspect of a locomotive while in service. As a result, the "old school" ways in which an engineer operated theirs has been taken away through technological improvements in models like the SD70ACe-T4 and ES44AC.
A diesel-electric's mechanics are rather straightforward although it is commonly mistaken that the diesel engine propels the locomotive. This is not the case. While the engine is the prime mover the energy it creates drives an electric generator, which in turn powers the traction motors found within the locomotive's trucks. The latter are responsible for turning the wheels and propelling the unit forward. The engine, itself, has no connection to the actual motion. In essence, the diesel is an electric locomotive with its own power plant. What is the difference? A true electric is provided power via electricity through either overhead catenary or third-rail while a diesel-electric carries its own (engine) on board. This motive power type has been around in one shape or form since 1917 when General Electric began testing an experimental model utilizing a GM-50 prime mover (a V-8 diesel engine designed by GE). A year later it launched formal production of these 225 horsepower machines; the line was largely considered a failure although a few were sold; one to the Jay Street Connecting Railroad (#4), another to the city of Baltimore and finally one to the U.S. Army.
A History Of The American Locomotive Company, Alco
Alco's Canadian Arm, The Montreal Locomotive Works
Alco's First Cab Design, The Experimental Black Maria
Competing With EMD's F Model, The FA Series
The Beautiful PA Series
The Century Series, Alco's Final Road-Switcher Catalog
The Early DL Design, The Company's Initial Cab Series
The RS-1, The Road-Switcher Is Born
The Joint EMD/Alco MRS-1 Road-Switcher For Military Service
The RS-2, Following Its Predecessor
The RSC-2 Variant
The RS-3, Alco's Best-Selling Road-Switcher
The RSD-4, Continuing The Six-Axle Design
The RSD-5, Higher Sales Than Its Predecessor
The RSD-7, Alco Struggles In The Road-Switcher Market
The RS-11, Unable To Keep Pace With EMD
The RSD-12, Another Poor Seller
The RSD-15 "Alligator"
The RS-27, Striving For Success
The RS-32, Another Failure
The RS-36, Last In The Road-Switcher Series
The C-415, A Most Unique Design
The C-420, Introducing The "Century" Series
The C-424, A More Powerful But Unsuccessful Model
The C-425, Still Lagging Behind
The C-430, The Final Four-Axle Century
The C-628, The First Six-Axle Century
The Big C-630 Line
The C-636, Powerful Yet Unpopular
The C-643DH Diesel-Hydraulic, An Experimental For SP
The C-855, A Beast Built For Union Pacific
The S-1, Alco Finds Success With The Switcher
The S-2, Continuing Strong Sales
The S-3, Another Moderate Success
The S-4, Yet Another Home Run
The S-6, The Final Standard-Model Switcher
The Intriguing T-6, "Transfer" Design
Undeterred by this experiment's lackluster performance the company pressed forward with a new design in 1923. This latest trial carried GE electrical components, a prime mover from Ingersoll-Rand (capable of 300 horsepower), and a carbody provided through American Locomotive (Alco). As the late historian Jim Boyd notes in his book, "The American Freight Train," the 60-ton boxcab was finished in 1924 and proved a success. It eventually sold to the Central Railroad of New Jersey (#1000) where it spent many years in switching assignments around New York City. Ironically, despite the company's pioneering ways it never launched its own formal locomotive line until the late 1950's. It did remain involved, however, by partnering with Alco providing it components (such as traction motors) while also pioneering early electrification systems and locomotives. In time, the Schenectady builder continued to lose market share against Electro-Motive, spurring GE to launch its own "Universal" line in 1959. While a commercial success the series was not particularly reliable (many of these so-called "U-boats" had a lifespan of only a few decades). Once more, GE did not give in and spent many years fine-tuning its design until it had overtaken EMD by the 1980's.
The early boxcabs are often credited as the first with a diesel engine although the very first railcar to utilize an internal combustion engine was the McKeen Car. In Brian Solomon's book, "The American Diesel Locomotive," the idea for this concept came from William McKeen, Union Pacific's chief of motive power. Even by the early 20th century railroads were attempting to cut costs on lightly patronized branch lines and UP's leader, the legendary Edward Harriman, approached McKeen in 1904 about developing a self-powered railcar for use on these secondary corridors. After many tests at the Electric Railway Test Commission in St. Louis they came up with an aerodynamic design powered by a 100 horsepower, gasoline engine manufactured by early pioneer, Riotte. The first unit, listed as #M-1 and given the name "Windsplitter," was completed at UP's shops in Omaha, Nebraska during March of 1905. Following a refinement which featured a longer frame and marine engine (producing twice the horsepower), Harriman was impressed. He allowed McKeen to setup production of the McKeen Railcar Company in 1908.
A History Of The Baldwin Locomotive Works
The Lima Locomotive Works, A Future Baldwin Partner
The Whitcomb Locomotive Works, A Division Of Baldwin
The VO-660, Entering The Switcher Market
The VO-1000, Baldwin's Top Sales Performer
The DS-4-4-660, Replacing The "VO" Series
The DS-4-4-750, Offering 750 Horsepower
The DS-4-4-1000, The Final "DS" Series Model
The S-8, A New Model Of Switcher
The S-12, Baldwin's Final "Standard" Line Switcher
The DT-6-6-2000, A Unique Design For Transfer Service
The RT624, The Final Transfer Variant
The DRS-4-4-1500, The First Road-Switcher
The DRS-6-4-1500, Struggling To Find Sales
The DRS-6-6-1500, The Most Successful In The "DRS" Series
The AS16, Unveiling The "Standard" Line
The AS416, Fighting To Maintain Market Presence
The Six-Axle AS616, The Most Successful "Standard" Line Model
The RS12, The Light Road-Switcher
The "Baby Face" DR-4-4-1500, Baldwin's First Cab Model
The DR-6-4-1500, A Failed Design
The DR-6-4-2000, Another Flop
The RF16 "Shark," Offering Improved Sales
The DR-12-8-3000 "Centipede," A Singularly Baldwin Design
A History Of Baldwin's "Sharknose" Carbody
The Company's First Carbody Design, The Unpopular "Baby Face"
Early on McKeen was successful but soon ran into reliability issues and sales had flattened by 1912. While the "Windsplitter" had its issues other companies were triumphant (including GE and Electro-Motive) in producing a reliable railcar for branch line service, the so-called "Doodlebug." Their achievements eventually led to the diesel-powered boxcab switchers mentioned above. These early examples proved their worth in branch line and secondary assignments. However, usurping steam's dominance in main line service was another matter entirely. The venerable Baltimore & Ohio was always a technological trailblazer and with the diesel it was no different. It holds the distinction as the first to utilize one for main line service, Electro-Motive's boxcab #50, manufactured in 1935. Electro-Motive took this boxcab and upgraded its prime mover with a rugged General Motors model 567 while shrouding it within a sleek carbody. This FT demonstrator A-B-B-A set, #103, began testing across the country in November of 1939. As Brian Solomon notes in his book, "Electro-Motive E Units And F Units," it proved itself time again, such as on Southern Pacific's Tehachapi Grade where it outperformed SP and Santa Fe steamers (the AT&SF held trackage rights in this territory).
A History Of Fairbanks-Morse's Locomotive Division
The Canadian Locomotive Company, FM's Canadian Arm
The H10-44, A Strong Sales Performer
The H12-44 Switcher, FM's Bestseller
The H15-44, The Light Road-Switcher
The H16-44, FM's Most Successful Road-Switcher
The H20-44, A Compact, High Horsepower Model
The Six-Axle H16-66, "Baby Train Master"
The Powerful H24-66, "Train Master," Too Far Ahead Of Its Time
The "Erie Builts," FM's Passenger Model
The Consolidated Line, "C-Liners"
According to David Morgan's article, "The Diesel That Did It," from the February, 1960 issue of Trains Magazine during their trials the locomotives traveled 83,764 miles on twenty Class I's in thirty-five states over an eleven-month period. Many, like the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific, were so impressed they immediately placed orders. Others, like New York, Ontario & Western purchased the model based on word-of-mouth. It would take the diesel nearly fifty years to equal the horsepower output of a single steam locomotive during its technological height. However, diesels made up for this disadvantage in other ways. They required far less maintenance, including heavy overhauls, and could operate much further between refueling stops. This meant diesels could spend more time on the road doing what they were designed for, paying the bills. In addition, thanks to MU (Multiple Unit) technology a single engineer from the lead locomotive could control several trailing units, increasing the horsepower output per train. As Mr. Solomon notes, while American Locomotive, General Electric, and Ingersoll-Rand spearheaded the diesel's development, it was General Motors/Electro-Motive which successfully mass-produced them for main line service. GM had already entered the auto industry and recognized that durable internal mechanics coupled with a rugged prime mover (the model 567) could mean big business. This led to cab designs packaged within an attractive carbody and the rest, as they say, is history.
A History Of General Electric's Many Locomotive Models
A Look At GE's First Road-Switcher Series, The Classic "U-Boat"
The U18B "Baby Boat," The Light Road-Switcher
The U25B, GE's Enters the Locomotive Market
The U28B, Following Its Predecessor
The Modestly Successful U30B
The U33B, The Fourth U-Boat
The U36B, Purchased Only By The SCL And Auto-Train
The U23C, A Light-Powered Late-Era Design
The U25C, The First Six-Axle
The U28C, Adding Power
The U30C, Providing EMD Competition
The U33C, Driving Alco Out Of The Market
The U36C, The Final Cataloged U-Boat
The U50, An Experimental, 5,000 Horsepower Monster
Another Experimental, Union Pacific's Enormous U50C
The Joint General Electric/Alco Gas Turbine Design
The B23-7, Replacing The U-Boat
The B30-7, Picking Up Sales
The B36-7, Four Axles And 3,600 Horsepower
The Popular Six-Axle C30-7, Looking To Supplant EMD
The Powerful C36-7
The "Super 7" Series Rebuild Program
The B32-8 Series, Offering 3,200 Horsepower
The B39-8 Variant, A Rare, Unsuccessful Design
The B40-8/W, The Last Four Axle
The Six-Axle, 3,900 Horsepower C39-8
The C40-8/W Series, Surpassing EMD
The C40-9/W Variant
The C44-9W, Cementing Its Dominance
The Popular AC4400CW, Designed For Drag Service
The AC6000CW, Providing 6,000 Horsepower
Continuing Its Reign, The Evolution Series
A History of General Motors' Electro-Motive Division (EMD), Today's Electro-Motive Diesel
EMD's Canadian Division, General Motors Diesel
Early EMC Switchers: SW, SC, NW, NC
The Interesting "Cow-Calf" Switcher Designs
The NW2, Offering Early Success
The SW1, Featuring The New 567 Prime Mover
The SW7, Another Favorite
The SW8, Providing Slightly More Power
The SW9, Maintaining Strong Sales
The 900 Horsepower SW900
The SW1000, Showcasing EMD's Second-Generation, 645 Prime Mover
The SW1001 Variant, Fixing A Problem
The SW1200, Continuing EMD's Dominance
The SW1500, Another Bestseller
The MP15DC/AC/T Series, EMD's Last Switchers
A General History Of The Passenger E Series
The E3, Replacing The Winton With The 567
The Burlington's Sleek, Stainless-Steel E5
The E6, The First Production Passenger Model
Rock Island's Unique AB6, Designed For The "Rocky Mountain Rocket"
The Successful E7, Debuting EMD's Iconic "Bulldog Nose" Carbody
The E8, EMD's Continues Its Reign
A Look At EMD's Popular Freight Line, The F Series
The FT, Replacing The Steam Locomotive
The Rare F2
The F3, Cementing Diesel's Dominance
The F7, The Blockbuster Covered Wagon
The Passenger Model FP7
The F9, Closing Out The "Bulldog" Design
New Haven's Unique, Dual-Service FL9
The F40PH Series
The "Cowl" F45 Series
The Notorious SDP40F Passenger Variant
The BL2, The GP Series Predecessor
The GP7, Debuting An Icon
The GP9, Another Phenomenal Road-Switcher
The Versatile GP15 Series
The Modestly Successful GP18
The Rare RS1325
The GP20, Entering The Turbocharged Age
The GP30, Offering A Timeless Look
The GP35, Finding Continued, Second-Generation Success
The GP38 Series, EMD Hits The Mark Again
The Successful GP40 Series
The Unsuccessful GP50
The Joint EMD/Alco MRS-1 Road-Switcher For Military Service
The SD7, EMD's First Six-Axle Road-Switcher
The More Successful SD9, "Cadillac"
The SD18, A Late-Era First-Generation Model
The SD24, EMD's First Turbocharged Road-Switcher
The SD35, Growing Six-Axle Popularity
The SD38 Series, Featuring The New 645
The Blockbuster SD40/SD40-2 Series, The Gold Standard
The Powerful, 20-Cylinder SD45 Series
The SD50, Electro-Motive's Downfall
The SD60 Series, Attempting To Rebound
The Successful SD70 Series
The SD75M/I Variant
Conrail's SD80MAC
The 6,000 Horsepower, But Problematic SD90MAC
Electro-Motive's Latest Model, The SD70ACe
Odd/Unique Designs
B Units
C&NW's Crandall Cabs
DDA40X, "Centennial"
Draper Taper
Krauss-Maffei ML-4000
Rock Island's AB6
Tunnel Motors
Notable Prime Movers
Alco's Model 244
Alco's Model 251
EMD's Model 567
EMD's Model 645
EMD's Model 710
Truck Types
AAR Type A/B
Blomberg Type A/M
Related Companies/Designs
Other Reading
Gensets/Green Goats
Rail Diesel Car, RDCs
Notable Events/Programs
Norfolk Southern's Heritage Program
Streamliners At Spencer
Union Pacific's Commemorative Series
Common Designs
The Switcher, Performing Yard Work And Other Light Duties
The Cab Unit, The Era Of Streamlining
The Standard Road-Switchers, Tasked With Handling Heavy Freights
The Unique Transfer Switcher Variant
Diesels have come a long way from the EMC and Alco-GE-IR boxcabs of the 1920's. Today's models, manufactured by Wabtec Freight (successor to General Electric) and Progress Rail (successor to EMD), are equipped with comfort cabs, air conditioning, and advanced electronics. During the early days there were more than just two builders. After Electro-Motive opened a new motive power market many joined in, including Alco, Lima, Baldwin, Fairbanks-Morse, and later GE. The former had been the longstanding "Big Three" steam manufacturers. They had produced thousands of high-quality locomotives during their heyday but unfortunately could never make the successful transition to diesel technology. Alco was the last holdout, finally closing in 1969. Fairbanks-Morse was a bit of an outlier with a history tracing back to the 19th century. It became a leader of the opposed-piston marine engine and decided to enter the diesel market during the 1940's. Unfortunately, it couldn't establish a foothold after a decade and gave up (but is still in business today). EMD never, truly recovered after losing its top spot in the 1980's, which led to its sale by General Motors in 2005. Today, the corporate division has been dissolved altogether and Progress Rail only uses the company name for marketing purposes. A testament to its first and second-generation models endures, however, as those built more than a half-century ago can still be found in revenue service today!


text: If you still haven't converted from your old phone to a new smartphone, maybe this is the opportunity you've been waiting for. If you want to access your email on the go, stay in touch with your friends on Facebook, access thousands of apps and games, Skype your colleagues and take pictures and videos all from one device, the Vodafone 858 smartphone can do it all. So maybe it is time to move on and get in on the smart action.


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HIGH POINT, N.C. -- The Limestone College women's lacrosse team tops the 2010 preseason coaches' poll.
Limestone will look to maintain its presence on the national scene this spring. The Lady Saints are ranked No. 9 in the 2010 Lacrosse Magazine preseason poll after finishing the 2009 season with a 17-3 overall (11-1 conference) record. The Lady Saints had an outstanding performance last spring as they claimed the Conference Carolinas regular season and tournament titles, and earned the program's fourth bid to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament.
The Saints return 18 players from last season including 2009 Conference Freshman of the Year Brigid Milchling, and fellow all-conference honorees Renee Albro, Katie Ilott, and Erin Growney. Limestone will also have a lot of depth with 16 newcomers on the roster.
The Pfeiffer University women's lacrosse team has been picked to finish second in this year's preseason coaches' poll. The Lady Falcons finished 2009 with a 12-7 overall record, finishing 9-3 in league play. Pfeiffer finished the season winning five-straight before falling to Belmont Abbey in the Conference semifinals.
Pfeiffer returns in 2010 with three seniors to lead the way including last year's all-conference selections Heidi Karaszkiewicz and Jessica Turner. Karaszkiewicz put home 45 goals last season to go along with her nine assists to pace the Lady Falcons. Turner, on defense, helped hold opponents to just 10 goals per match. Looking to step up and lead the offense for head coach Dawn Easley will also be all-conference selections junior Amanda Smith and sophomore Caitlin Ryan. "I am very excited to see what this year brings for our team" stated Easley. "The fall showed a lot of promise, especially from our underclassmen and newcomers."
Belmont Abbey College has been picked to finish in the top three in the pre-season coaches' poll. The Abbey women's lacrosse team returns its top two scorers from last season's team that established a school record with 14 wins, including the program's first win over Limestone. First year head coach Liz Ramsey will have her top two scorers from last season return for one final year in an Abbey uniform. Senior Tara Chmil led the Abbey with 34 goals and 27 assists, and Briana Dignan was second with 23 goals and 31 assists. Chmil was a first-team all-conference selection last year, as were returners Laurie Jordan and Amanda Jones.
Rounding out the women's lacrosse preseason poll 4-8 was: Queens, St. Andrews, Lees-McRae, Converse, and Erskine respectively.
Conference Carolinas Pre-Season Coaches Poll
(First place votes in parentheses)
1. Limestone College (7) 49
2. Pfeiffer University (1) 39
3. Belmont Abbey College 37
4. Queens University of Charlotte 33
5. St. Andrews Presbyterian College 27
6. Lees-McRae College 17
7. Converse 14
8. Erskine 8


text: In honor of International Women's Day, we decided to highlight some of the badass women of Concrete Beach who make sh*t happen every single day! Learn more about our amazing team! Becca Your role and tenure with Concrete Beach: Sales Manager since February 2015 (3 years). What do you love about working in the craft … Continued


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Muppets welcome Julia, a friend with autism, to Sesame Street
- Author: Salvatore Jensen Mar 21, 2017,
Mar 21, 2017, 2:07
The groundbreaking children's programme is introducing a new character - a muppet named Julia who has autism, revealed the show's creators on the CBS News show 60 Minutes on Sunday.
In the episode, Julia demonstrates common characteristics of autism, and when Big Bird is introduced to her, she ignores him.
Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop's senior VP of USA social impact, said families of children with autism have asked the show to address the issue for years now.
Could Julia help children understand autism? We're modeling the way both children and adults can look at autism from a strength-based perspective: "finding things that all children share".
The long-running television series, "Sesame Street", will be bringing a new Muppet onboard next month. And when a group of children decide to play tag together, Julia becomes so excited she starts jumping up and down.
An example is in the first episode featuring Julia.
The cool thing about Julia is she has Autism, a condition which means she sees the world a bit differently to other people. Rather than make fun of her or be scared by her unusual reaction, the kids make it part of the game.
"We chose [traits] we thought would be most helpful and most typical", Sesame Street's executive vice president of global impact and philanthropy, Sherrie Westin, said in an interview with the LA Times previous year.
'I would love her to be not Julia, the kid on Sesame Street who has autism, ' she added.
Julia was so well-received that the company chose to make her a permanent fixture of the television cast. They would have known that he plays in a different way and that's okay. Big Bird also had to repeat a couple of times what he said to her.
Do you or a loved one have a child with autism?
A yellow Muppet with green eyes and bright copper hair, Julia is four years old and has autism. Writer Christine Ferraro told Stahl that it's important for the show to normalize autism for children, especially since autism spectrum diagnoses have skyrocketed in the past 20 years or so. "There's so many people that have given her what she is".
Rosemarie Truglio, Senior Vice President for Curriculum and Content at Sesame Workshop, said she wanted Julia's character to be as true to reality as possible, while making the concept of autism not-so-taboo.


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Rwanda will import lions and rhinos from South Africa next year to help restock the country's wildlife population, a Rwandan official told AFP. Widespread poaching and devastating conflict have decimated much of the lion and rhino populations in Rwanda.
But South Africa is facing its own poaching crisis, as well. Statistics from the World Wildlife Federation show that 341 rhinos were killed in the first 10 months of 2011 in South Africa. The number is a record for rhinos killed by poachers, according to the charity.
In another disturbing record, Hong Kong customs officers recently seized 190 lbs of rhino horns hidden in a shipment from Cape Town, South Africa. The seizure was the largest ever in Hong Kong.
More from GlobalPost: "Flying rhino" video shows rhino relocation in South Africa
Rhinos are believed to have medicinal properties in some Asian countries, according to PBS.
The lions and rhinos will be sent to Rwanda's Akagera park, which is currently home to only one rhino. Lions disappeared from the park when refugees returning home after the 1994 genocide temporarily lived in the area, AFP reported.
"We have began fencing the park. The work will be finished in February 2012 and after that the reintroduction of these species will be one of priorities," tourism director Rica Rwigamba told AFP. He did not specify how many animals will be imported.
Highly endangered mountain gorillas are currently Rwanda's main tourist attraction. The animals are mostly located in the Virunga Mountains along the border between Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
More from GlobalPost: Lioness saves cub from cliff (Video)


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Spent the last bit of weeks taking phone and disposables in LA and back here in New York. Here are a few of random shots of the month:
Saw Swear and Shake at Webster Hall, so many people!
Admiring Ambers necklace in LES
Wearing Steve Madden booties while gossiping at the W in LA & munching on mangos
Claire at 11.11.11 Paper mag party
With leeann wearing Roxy after leaving the Roxy Event
Checked out the new SS12 Mango collection
With Natalie & Chrissy at the Victoria Secret after party. Dream Hotel
Wearing J brands and Steve Madden booties on 68th, in mid talk with Natalie
Smouching Shaun in LES
Weird conversations with Lindsay. Her Iphone 4s didn't really catch what we were trying to say...
At Rebecca Minkoff throwing up peace signs
John Varvatos party in LES
Halloween with a Geisha
China Town
Waaaay to close at Webster Hall
Admiring Raen in Soho
Rebecca Minkoff sample sale on 14th st
finding new places to rest on Mott.
My toes were throwing up gang signs....I really needed this (i hate my toes ew)
More peace signs in Harlem.
It wasn't even Halloween! East Village ape.
Dinner with new friends in LA.
Selena and me at a concert. We look so freakin happy.
I won't be able to post as much as I'd like to this week. Thanksgiving week is going to be a busy one. Be sure to check out my twitter though and my tumblr!
Gobble Gobble...Gobble
REMEMBER: Today is the last day to enter the PVL give away! So if you have not already you still have a chance CLICK HERE


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I had incredibly high expectations of this Vanilla Almond Crisp by Peace Cereals, and to be honest, it TOTALLY lived up to expectations! I LOVED it!
Although I have to say I prefer the ginger one I had before, but this is equally good!
Verdict – it will remain on the shopping list for the future!
I must apologise for the short, but sweet update – I promise you'll have a more detailed update from me and how i'm feeling soon!
Just a side note – there have been a few new additions to the blog – some tasty websites to look at, plus an all new about me section, which I know you're all DYING to read (not). I'll continue to update, hopefully you'll continue to read!


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In the old days , so the story goes, seekers used to climb remote mountains to engage gurus in deep discussions about how the world should be run.
Credit union marketing professionals, too, have come to believe that a step back from the daily grind can provide a whole new perspective. Their mandate may be smaller – and they tend to prefer conference rooms and hotel bars – but the wisdom still flows when they rub shoulders away from the demands of the office.
That's what makes the annual get-together of the Marketing Association for Credit Unions (MACU) so special, says the organization's chair, Shawna Miller. "MACU is the only marketing conference that targets credit unions directly," adds Miller, who is also vice president of governance and strategy at Saskatchewan's Affinity Credit Union ($4.7 billion in assets, 130,000 members). "It provides a unique opportunity to interact and exchange ideas about best practices, but also to rethink the way we do things back home."
This year's event, which took place between May 26 and 28 in Montreal, showcased the annual Achievement in Marketing Excellence Awards (AIME) finalists and winners. It also boasted a range of out-of-the-box thinkers and featured a trade show during which suppliers plugged their wares.
Fine speakers, fresh insights
Joëlle Adler, president and CEO of the apparel manufacturer Diesel Canada Inc., was one of many motivational speakers. She discussed her evolution from a results-oriented fashion executive to one who now more broadly incorporates charitable initiatives into her life. Credit union marketers, who also balance bottom-line demands with social responsibility, were particularly touched by Adler's story about how her husband Louis Adler's death motivated her to found the children's charity ONEXONE.
Also intriguing was Internet guru Mitch Joel, president of the firm Twist Image. He urged marketers to break through the "digital noise" and grasp the prevailing realities of the marketplace if they want to attract members and maintain their participation. "Physical locations are becoming a thing of the past," said Joel. "The new real estate out there is the screen, whether it be a desktop, laptop, mobile or a different device."
Another speaker, Jones Soda creator Peter van Stolk, described how he managed to garner media attention without resorting to the usual public relations and marketing playbook. Van Stolk, now CEO of the organic online grocer spud.com, recently opted to donate his entire speaking fee to Change for Children Association (CFCA), an Alberta-based charity that works with partners in Latin America and Africa to alleviate poverty.
Filling a void for small business
A hot topic over the two-day period: how credit unions are fighting to deliver better services to more members efficiently and effectively. As in any war, strategy starts with a review of the competitive landscape, those at the gathering agreed. The good news, they concluded, is that credit unions emerged from the 2008 financial crisis not only intact, but with their reputations as honest brokers enhanced. Moreover, recent developments, such as new legislation allowing financial services cooperatives to expand outside their home provinces, signal an even brighter future.
Clear opportunities are on the horizon, both in the consumer and small business markets, MACU participants indicated. The credit unions' main competitors, Canadian banks that form a de facto oligopoly, are showing lasting signs of losing touch with their clientele. Pressured by restless shareholders, who demand double-digit returns in a single-digit-growth economy, the banks have been relentlessly raising fees, closing branches and cutting services.
Doug Bruce, vice president of research with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), said in a post-conference interview that the effects of the big banks' behaviour show up in satisfaction surveys his organization has conducted. "Credit unions consistently score at the top in all key survey areas, including financing, fees, willingness to lend and account manager quality," Bruce added. "In fact, there is a huge gap between the lowest rated credit union, which far outperforms the best-performing Canadian banks."
A major selling point for credit unions is that their account managers, deeply connected to their local communities, have great relationships with their business and consumer clients, Bruce said. By contrast, banks have relegated their account managers to junior roles. In many instances, they're little more than keypunch operators, who enter client loan request data into computers that often make the decisions for them. "CFIB members continue to tell us that if they can avoid going to their bank they will," said Bruce. "There is a good opportunity for credit unions to come in and fill that void."
Heeding the membership
MACU's Shawna Miller admitted that many credit unions still face tough competition from banks when it comes to technology, however. Automation, mobile platforms and social media can be challenges for smaller financial services cooperatives, she pointed out. As well, like banks, credit unions are seeing reduced member traffic at the branch level along with increased online activity. This has forced credit unions to improve the ways they keep in touch with member needs.
One example: Miller said Affinity no longer conducts annual member satisfaction surveys as it has in decades past. Instead, it is asking selected members for feedback within 24 hours of a branch transaction. "Our brand resides in the thoughts of our members," Miller explained. "Because everyone is now connected through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, that image can change on a dime, which means we have to be flexible."
Affinity has been getting particularly good results from its participation in a Remote Deposit Capture (RDC) pilot project that stemmed, in part, from a demand identified by members. Its DepositAnywhere™ service, introduced last year and now widely used across the Canadian credit union system, enables members to make deposits to their accounts merely by taking a picture of their cheques with their mobile devices and uploading them (See "Cheque-Mating the Banks," Enterprise September 2013). Today, DepositAnywhere generates an average of nearly 2,500 user deposits at Affinity each month. Paying attention to the membership definitely pays off, more than one professional agreed.
"Most major credit unions are clients of ours," said Michael Rodenburgh, executive vice president of Ipsos Western Canada, a market research firm that provides advice on advertising and branding. "The ones that listen to their members identify opportunities earlier and mitigate the risk [involved] in launching or promoting a new service or idea." Richard Seres, vice-president of marketing at Vancity ($17.5 billion in assets, 501,000 members), and a longtime Ipsos client, attested to Rodenburgh's observation.
"We always make sure that what we are doing or saying comes from the perspective of a clearly identified member need," said Seres, adding that this approach helps Vancity determine its marketing priorities, too. For example, Vancity recently used an instant evaluation tool to see how people responded to a planned television ad.
"When you only have the budget for one 30-second spot, you need to make sure it's working as hard for you as possible to get your message across and get noticed," Seres said. "We learned a lot from the exercise and it helped shape the messages and visuals we chose to feature. For example, we saw that people reacted really well to iconic local imagery so we ensured that this showed through in the creative."
Credit union values
Conference participants agreed that consumers look askance at selfserving marketing claims, so the consensus was that credit unions need to be smarter in their approaches. "Members say to us all the time: 'Don't tell us that you are a credit union … show us,'" recounted Jean-Pierre Sablé, executive vice president of marketing, strategy and innovation at Quebec's Le Mouvement des Caisses Desjardins ($212 billion in assets, 6 million members). "We make special efforts to demonstrate the tangible value they get by dealing with us." Desjardins' promotional endeavours include supplying members with goodies, such as insurance renewal discounts, free Canadian Automobile Association memberships, access to their credit files and so on. Yet its strategists believe the marketing campaigns that work best are those that reflect the cooperative's real values. One longtime example is its School Caisse program, which seeks to teach children financial literacy. More than 100,000 students in 1,100 elementary schools across Quebec and Ontario participate in the School Caisse program, which enables them to open a bank account right in their classroom. (To give an idea of the 100-plus-year-old program's massive scale, the birthrate of Quebec, where the initiative is mostly centred, was 88,500 in 2011).
Because the program has been around for so long, Desjardins officials can't estimate how many students have participated in the School Caisse initiative over the years. However, given that many Quebec adults still maintain the accounts that they opened as children, the School Caisse program is clearly a major element in Desjardins' dominant market position in the province. More important, the program's success, which dates back to the time of founder Alphonse Desjardins, is rooted in its sense of social responsibility. "The program does not cover its costs," says Sablé. "But as a cooperative with a special mission, Desjardins maintains its involvement."
Anti-spam legislation an issue
Canada's anti-spam law (CASL), which came into force on July 1, was another major topic at the conference. Participants were concerned that it would add new constraints to the way credit unions do business. Catherine Bate, a partner with the law firm Miller Thompson LLP, explained how that could happen. She noted that anti-spam legislation requires senders of commercial electronic messages (CEMs) to get the express consent of the recipient. Although most credit unions have been careful not to harass Internet users, the legislation will nonetheless "have an immediate and lasting impact," Bate told some of the participants present. The reason: pre-checked opt-in boxes will not be sufficient. Nor will consent tied to the receipt of a service or entry into a promotion. As well, the new law mandates that certain material must be incorporated in most messages, including contact information and an unsubscribe mechanism.
The big takeaway
Jeff Elgie, founder of DIG, a consultancy that helps clients optimize digital assets, was one of the judges in the AIME competition. He cited Vancity's Change That Counts campaign as an example of marketing at its best. When the Canadian government discontinued the penny in 2013, Vancity capitalized on the event by producing a billboard mosaic comprised of more than 60,000 pennies, coupled with a crusade urging Canadians to start penny drives for good works in their communities. "They also generated a tremendous amount of earned media because of their efforts, which made the campaign doubly effective," said Elgie.
The big conference takeaway? Most successful credit unions are innovative and adaptable – traits particularly important when they must use precious resources to make themselves heard above the big banks. "The ideas that impressed me most," Elgie stressed, "were the shoestring budget submissions, in which credit unions did more with less."
Doing more with less. That's a mantra any guru could get behind. No mountain necessary. ◊


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AAME seeks Arts Achievement Award nominations
December 26, 2016The Arts Alliance Mountain Empire announces the call for nominations for its third AAME Arts Achievement Awards. The awards recognize five living individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the arts in the Tri-Cities area.
The awards come from these categories: Artist — Achievement in performing, visual and literary arts; Arts Educator — Achievement in arts education at a college or university, primary or secondary school; Arts Administrators — Achievement in the management of arts institutions; and Arts Advocate — Achievement in sustaining the arts through volunteering or financial support.
The selection is based on artistic excellence, perseverance, commitment and sustained contributions to the arts and the cultural community. The nominees should reside in the following areas: Washington and Sullivan Counties in Tennessee; Bristol, Kingsport and Johnson City in Tennessee; Washington County, Virginia; Bristol, Virginia; or Abingdon, Virginia.
Previous winners include Deanne Cole-Roberts, Charles Goolsby, Val Lyle, Laura Ann Warner, Rick Rose, Amanda Aldridge, Michele Plescia, Nancy DeFriece, Betsy White and Bill and Diane Thomas.
The Arts Alliance Mountain Empire is an arts council formed as a service organization for artists, arts organizations and other cultural endeavors throughout the Mountain Empire. The mission of AAME is to nurture, advocate and celebrate the arts. AAME fulfills its mission primarily as the publisher of A! Magazine for the Arts, but it also has published an arts directory, has held workshops on arts-related topics and sponsors an annual lecture series.
The deadline for nominations is March 1. Nominations can be made in two ways: online at aamearts.org or by completing the form on this page in this issue of A! Magazine. Mail the completed form to AAME, P.O. Box 94, Bristol, TN 37621.


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We are happy to present you an exclusive interview for Amanda Lear's Fan Magazine
"Love Story"
and this website. This interview was conducted in the end of 1997.
Q : You have recorded 10 Albums. What is the one you're the most proud of?
"Sweet Revenge"
of course. I've put so much of myself into it. I wrote the lyrics, created the double cover, chose the pictures. I've tried to tell a story. So, at least for me, it is the best one.
Q : How do you explain the continuous success of
" Follow Me "
2O years after its release ?.
I think it's an ageless, eternal song that talks about Love, Seduction in an unreal and mysterious mood. Everybody still keeps on loving it and want to hear. For instance in Moscow where I have recently performed.
Q : What's happened to your "alter ego" Anthony Monn ?
He has disapeared! After 5 albums with me, he has earned quite a lot of money and after some other productions, has run an hotel I think. Then he has had to face some money problems, a divorce. He's no longer in the music business.
Q : Why BMG-Ariola did not release all your 5 first albums in the CD format. I am not counting
"Sweet Revenge"
that was released on CD as well as your compilations (i.e. the most recent one in 1998
"Queen Of Chinatown"
My relationship with BMG Ariola is not very good. I personally am not interested in releasing "best of " stuff and I have not given my permission. You release best of packages when you're a "has been" and have nothing new to offer. Concerning my albums they were not all so good at the time so they will not be good today either.
Q : What is your best stage experience ?
It was in the end of 70's in Italy in the Verona arenas. There are huge classical arenas. Each year it is a place for song festival. I was in a strass dress in front of 15 000 peoples. I kept an excellent memory of it. Also RAI TV (Italian National TV Network ) filmed it.
Q : Do you have some plans to return to sing on stage ?
Absolutely not. I also decided not having tours.
Q : TV has brought a huge popularity for you in Italy, Germany and France. You have hosted many Tv shows. Which is your favorite one ?
Favorite one? Again, the one I had the idea to make. It is called: "Ars Amanda" (in latin it means the "art to love"). It is my talk show that takes place in bed in Italy. Even if it was not so well filmed, the idea was coming from me. All together there is not too many TV shows that I remember with nostalgy. Why? TV is so bad nowadays!
Q : Your passion for painting is well known! What are the technics beside oil painting you use?
No. Only oil painting, gouache and water colors on paper or canvas.
Q : What do you think of your home page on internet?
It's very nice. You should make your paper magazine on it now and use more recent photos !!!
© 1996-1998 Copyright by Eurodance Hits WWW
no part of this site can be used or copied without prior permission


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MAIDENHEAD RFC were crowned South West One East champions following a 38-19 success at relegated Reading Abbey.
The hosts started the brighter team, with strong carries from flankers Ed House and Omar Ellaboudy setting the tempo of the game as Maids struggled to assert themselves.
Mark Toland and lock Chris Shaw combined well in the line-out, but handling errors in contact denied the home side an early score.
The visitors threatened Abbey's try-line, but a crucial turnover found Gavin Dampies, who sprinted the length of the pitch, showcasing some immaculate footwork to step neatly across the line and allow centre Ollie Walton to convert.
Maidenhead (purple) go on the attack against Reading Abbey.
Maidenhead soon found their form, capitalising on a turnover deep inside their 22 to exploit Abbey's fragmented defence, which saw full back Tom Finnie slip through several tackles to score underneath the posts.
Moments later, Ross Muil added a second try after a period of exchanged kicks from either side.
The away side then sent a penalty kick deep into touch on the Abbey five-metre line.
A solid line-out allowed them to pass the ball through the hands to Finnie who was crossed despite a desperate defensive effort by Theo Everett.
A third successful conversion by fly-half Perry Jansen signalled the end of the first half with Maids up 21-7 in front.
The second half saw Abbey lock Chris Shaw release Dampies who in turn passed to Mitchell, and the wing sprinted the length of the pitch to score in the corner.
But Maidenhead responded with the same intensity and were quick to pounce on turnover ball, releasing Ed Keohane to reply to Abbey's try with one of his own.
Action from Maidenhead's win against Reading Abbey.
Abbey centre Tom Huggins then made an excellent break, and after some fine forward play then brought the hosts closer to the line, Bevan picked and crossed the whitewash.
But dominant Maidenhead closed the game on their terms, tries from Mark Childerhouse and hat-trick hero Tom Finnie securing them both victory and the league.
Maidenhead conclude their campaign at home to Royal Wootton Bassett on April 22.