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Every website should include striking infographics, but creating them can be time consuming or expensive if they are being produced by someone else. One answer is Easelly which is a new-ish app that helps the user create infographics in a quick and easy way. It boasts a number of templates which the writer then customises using drag and drop. It isn't the last word in infographic creation, but it is very simple to use and rather handy.
There are now lots of examples of great long form content online which marry strong images, interactive graphics and smart video. If you use WordPress and want to experiment with long form content then Aesop's Story Engine is a good place to start. It is a WordPress app that enables the user to grab elements - images, video, graphics and lots more - and seamlessly integrate them on to a page. There are also now themes which storytellers can use which enable the user to create striking looking content out of the box too.
This is a very useful content analytics tool. You input a website URL, permalink or key word and it will show you which content has been most successful in terms of its social shares. It is fascinating information and you can set up email alerts on key words, sites etc. to keep you up to date.
If you find that your mind is endlessly wandering when you are supposed to be creating content then Focus Booster could well be the app for you. It is basically a digital vision of the Pomodoro Technique which assumes that your work best in short bursts. So it aims to keep you free of distractions via a colour coded timer which you follow. It sounds a little odd, but it really does significantly increase your productivity when writing.
Put simply this is the easiest to use and most popular search engine optimisation tool for WordPress available. If you want to ensure that your content is a Google friendly as possible then Yoast, which gives you a series of fields to fill in, will help considerably. It not only judges how SEO ready your content is, but makes suggestions as to how you can improve your story's Google/Yahoo/Bing compatibility.
Commissioned by The CMA


text: I want to create a layer and place a grid in it. I want the other layers (they have the walls, doors, stairs, ...) to be on top of the first layer, covering the grid. I tried placing the grid with ctrl+' but the grid always comes on top of all the other layers. Does anyone know how I can "lock" the grid on one layer, so it can be seen only in rooms and corridors?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
dust collector Companies in Latin America
Babcock & Wilcox MEGTEC
based in De Pere, WISCONSIN (USA)
Babcock & Wilcox MEGTEC provides environmental compliance solutions that make economic sense. B&W MEGTEC offers a portfolio of proven, high-efficiency technologies including wet electrostatic precipitators, scrubbers and liquid atomization systems for particulate and acid gas control, DeNOx and evaporative gas cooling, regenerative thermal oxidizers (RTOs) for VOC ...
Wuxi Natural Environmental and Technology Co.,Ltd
based in Wuxi, CHINA
We are manufacturer specializing in all kinds of environmental products. Our major products and service as follows:1. Air purification goods: fume and dust collectors-cartridge dust collectors, bag dust collector, accessories and parts for dust collectors.2 Equipment and project plan & design for water and sewage treatment.3. Our subsidiary Labcells` cuvettes business.
Donaldson Torit
based in Minneapolis, MINNESOTA (USA)
Donaldson Torit has offered manufacturers the most advanced and reliable dust collectors and filters available.The pairing of these industry-leading collectors and filters helps increase manufacturing efficiencies and provides a cleaner environment for employees.When efficiency is maximized and employees are at their peak, so is the manufacturer`s productivity—and ...
Macrotek Inc.
based in Markham, ONTARIO (CANADA)
With more than 80 years of experience, Macrotek Engineering offers a variety of air pollution control systems to suite a broad range of environmental requirements. Using some of the most innovative and effective technologies available in the industry, Macrotek provides cost-efficient applications for industrial air purification. Our mission is to produce customized ...
Bazhou FeiYuan Filtration Equipment Factory
based in Bahzou, CHILE
We are a Chinese specialized manufacturer of industrial air filters. We started our business since 1991. Our factory manufactures each kind of type the Dust Filters cartridges.Our products include: Filter Cartridge For Dust Collector, Filter Cartridge For Fume Collector.
Sly Filters Europe Ltd
based in Leicester,, UNITED KINGDOM
We`ve been manufacturing dust collection systems since 1874, longer than any other manufacturer, which means we can offer you unrivaled experience and expertise in delivering reliable and cost effective dust filtration and odor control equipment. No other manufacturer can match our flexibility and quality control when it comes to dust collection systems because we ...
Airex Industries Inc
based in Laval, QUEBEC (CANADA)
Since 1975, Airex Industries has been committed to the development of quaity commercial and industrial dust collection, filtration and air cleaning equipment. Airex will perform the initial evaluation and will then execute the design, the implementation, as well as the maintenance of its enginered systems. Our experienced and knowledgeable personnel can manage any ...
Beckert & Hiester Inc.
based in Saginaw, MICHIGAN (USA)
Beckert & Hiester has evolved to become a true Global business with representatives located in different countries throughout the world and installations provided to many industries located around the world. Manufacturer of industrial size pulse jet dust collectors, cyclones, sawdust collectors, and oil mist and smoke collectors and air quality control equipment. Supplier ...
based in Charenton le Pont, FRANCE
CHIKO AIRTEC was founded in 1998 in the Kansai region of Japan, and specializes in the miniaturization of fine particulate extractors and air purifiers. The needs arising from recent technological advances, the discovery of nanotechnology, the development of laser applications and the gradual generalization of micro-processing have led CHIKO AIRTEC to create high ...
Camfil Air Pollution Control (APC)
based in Jonesboro, ARKANSAS (USA)
Camfil Air Pollution Control (APC), being one of the top dust collector manufacturers worldwide, cleans up manufacturing processes. Just about every manufacturing process creates some type of dust or fume. Camfil APC makes a dust collector to fit just about any type of dust or fume.


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Family Law
Family Law Questions? Ask a Family Lawyer Online.
Thank you for contacting our JA team.
Unfortunately, the forumla for determining child support is primarily based on the parents comparative income. However, the friend of the court may also consider the earning capacity of your daughter's husband in recommending any child support order. The state of Michigan does not have anything in place to compensate a spouse while the other is not working/paying child support. While the divorce is pending, she may attempt to obtain a temporary order for support while the divorce is pending, but will likely be unsuccessful in collecting, at least in the short-term since the father is unemployed.
Spousal support is reserved for special cases, primarily where the marriage was of long duration and one spouse quit a job or does not possess skills to obtain a job because they were the primary caregivers for the children. However, there are other factors a court would assess in determining whether spousal support is appropriate. I do not have enough information here to form an opinion on this other than it is not routinely granted.
I don't know whether your daughter has an attorney. If not, it is highly advisable that she retain an attorney under the circumstances, even if she has to borrow the money. A good place to begin searching for an attorney is www.lawyer.com. Please look for a divorce attorney in her area.
The best of luck to you, your daughter and grandchildren.
Note: If I adequately answered your questions, please press the "accept" button so I will be paid for my time. I am available for follow-up questions or clarification you may need. Thank you.
DISCLAIMER: Answers from Experts on JustAnswer are not substitutes for the advice of an attorney. JustAnswer is a public forum and questions and responses are not private or confidential or protected by the attorney-client privilege. The Expert above is not your attorney, and the response above is not legal advice. You should not read this response to propose specific action or address specific circumstances, but only to give you a sense of general principles of law that might affect the situation you describe. Application of these general principles to particular circumstances must be done by a lawyer who has spoken with you in confidence, learned all relevant information, and explored various options. Before acting on these general principles, you should hire a lawyer licensed to practice law in the jurisdiction to which your question pertains.
The responses above are from individual Experts, not JustAnswer. The site and services are provided "as is". To view the verified credential of an Expert, click on the "Verified" symbol in the Expert's profile. This site is not for emergency questions which should be directed immediately by telephone or in-person to qualified professionals. Please carefully read the Terms of Service (last updated February 8, 2012).


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Stop the presses – it looks like Groupon is finally going to do something about its steadily sinking ship. After the company missed the mark for the third consecutive quarter last month, posting $568 million in earnings instead of the expected $573 million, we had pretty much written Groupon off as an inevitable loss. As if to prove our point, last Monday the company's stock value slid another 10% on the news that merchants were losing interest in the daily deals game. However, all of that is apparently in the past now, because this week Groupon announced its plan to revive the business with a brand new service – credit card payment processing.
As part of its plan to woo small business owners back into those daily deal campaigns that lost so many of them a fortune, Groupon is now offering to process all of their credit card transactions at a discount. The service is known as Groupon Payments, and it's supposedly the cheapest mobile processor on the market.
Groupon Payments uses a downloadable app in conjunction with an attachable card reader to process payments, much like Square and PayPal Mobile. Unlike Square and Paypal Mobile, though, Groupon Payments charges much less than the going rate for its services: a 1.8% fee plus 15 cents for all Visa, MasterCard and Discover transactions, and a 3% fee plus 15 cents for all American Express transactions. That's a steep discount compared to the 2.75% fees charged by other mobile processors.
The only problem is that it's difficult to envision Groupon actually profiting from the service with rates like that. Mihir Shah, Groupon's VP of mobile and merchant products, is reluctant to comment on the new service, and that seems to confirm that the company will be operating its payments division at a loss, at least for a while. "I wouldn't comment on profit or loss," he told CNN. "It doesn't make sense to do that. But I can say that we want to make a real business out of this."
The notion of taking a major loss to drum up sales is something Groupon is very familiar with, since that's the strategy behind the Daily Deals campaigns that made it famous in the first place. Merchants would sell a voucher or a coupon for a product at less than face value through Groupon's site. The merchant would lose money – in some cases a lot of money – but the deal would attract a ton of buyers who would then return as regular customers to the business.
Or at least that's how it was supposed to work. In reality, most of the people who bought the vouchers would show up for their free cupcake or half-off massage and then never return, if they even bothered to redeem their vouchers at all. The campaigns pissed off the merchants, lost Groupon a ton money and got the company sued for false advertising. Though the company has managed to keep itself afloat and even go public, it's been running about as efficiently as a rusty steam engine.
And now Groupon is using this same failed strategy to seduce small businesses into using its payments app. It's even offering to process Daily Deals for free, because hey – maybe merchants have forgotten how terrible those are.
Forgive us for being skeptical, but from where we're sitting, it seems like this can end in one of two ways. In the best-case scenario, everyone hops on the Groupon Payments train at first, and then 90% of them hop back off once the company raises its rates. The end result? Groupon loses money. In the worst-case scenario, nobody bothers with Groupon Payments at all and business continues as usual. Again, Groupon loses money.
Maybe we're wrong. Maybe Groupon knows something we don't. Perhaps this will actually end up making the company attractive to investors again. Maybe it'll raise shares from $5 back to the $20 they were worth when the company went public.
Maybe, but probably not.


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Business Case for Diversity, My Foot
May 27, 2016
It is with great pleasure that Workforce celebrates the winners of Optimas Awards 1995:
City of Hampton, Virginia
A decade-long reengineering effort has helped the City of Hampton offer better service to residents, cut tax rates, and revitalize its downtown. HR has been at the center of the effort; it created self-directed work teams, revamped compensation, focused on incentives, and more.
Mirage Resorts Incorporated
Selective staffing and a commitment to training have helped the hotel and gaming chain slash turnover and maintain an enviable occupancy rate.
Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation
Extensive financial training for employees has helped workers understand how to contribute to the bottom line. Cost savings, increased revenue and even employee-run start-up operations are the results.
Colgate-Palmolive Corporation
Following an initiative to refocus the company into five key business areas, Colgate-Palmolive formed a global HR strategy team to better align HR with the business needs. The year-long development process that followed yielded a set of international values, a new emphasis on teamwork, and a continuous improvement plan.
Hotel del Coronado
To help employees who were working at the San Diego hotel but living in Mexico, the HR function established the first HMO in Mexico.
The Seattle Times Corporation
A comprehensive diversity initiative and content audits have helped the Seattle newspaper change to meet the needs of the changing community it serves.
Intel Corporation
Intel managers taught quality management to administrators of an Arizona school in exchange for involvement in shaping the curriculum to help develop the workforce of the future.
|Qualityof Life:
Calvert Group
This mutual funds investment firm pioneered socially responsible investment. Its commitment to employees also reflects the belief that business can be socially responsible and still earn profits.
PepsiCo Incorporation
A stock-option program for all full-time employees supports the company's entrepreneurial culture.
A long-term strategy has helped 3M limit downsizing while still recruiting new talent.


text:
The day you have all been waiting for has finally arrived. Yep, that's right. You can now enter to win a customized Tim Duncan 2014 Silverado truck.
I'm not really a truck guy myself, but it looks pretty sweet and it was customized with Tim Duncan's limited edition package, so it's gotta be top class.
Anyways, you can thank me after you win the truck. Good luck!
Also, what's with this look, Tim? Couldn't have come with a stronger alphet for the commercial?


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Nestled in the Longwood Estate, Owslebury is a delightful log cabin which is an ideal wedding venue. Longwood Shooting Lodge is surrounded by stunning views outstanding wildlife and countryside.
An ideal place for a marquee and Hog roast as with Neil and Helen's wedding.
To get more information please enjoy these photos and you will see a link at the bottom of this post, Sue and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
See more amazing photography from an Awesome photographer now or Contact Jules and Sue now to secure your date!
Please read this 15 reasons why you should book us to photograph your wedding


text:
ibm.com Community
From SOX to GRC: a CRO's Perspective
John Kelly 270004J7VQ firstname.lastname@example.com | | 0 Comments | 185 Visits
The ultimate goal for many GRC professionals is to arrive at a converged GRC program with a supporting technology platform. We often tell our customers that it is important to take a phased approach when planning an enterprise deployment of a GRC management solution and that they should set expectations and goals for each phase as their risk management program matures.
For instance, implementing an effective and non-disruptive Sarbanes-Oxley initiative can do more than just meet regulatory compliance. In fact, it can play a key role in moving to a successful GRC initiative. Eric Krell, a contributing writer to Business Finance magazine who focuses on GRC, wrote in a recent blog that
Eric recently interviewed Dun & Bradstreet's CRO Charles Pavlounis who concluded in Eric's blog that ERM success hinges on "getting SOX [compliance] to be something that is not disruptive, that is almost embedded in the core DNA of the company." To learn more about D&B's ERM program, look for Eric's interview with Charles and the D&B case study in the December issue of Business Finance.


text:
University of Oxford
The Oxford MBA programme is a challenging and thought-provoking degree delivered through an engaged community of faculty. A top ranked one-year full-time programme comprising an intensive
series of stimulating lectures, energetic seminars and small group work, which can take students anywhere in the world.
The Oxford Executive MBA is designed to help senior professionals realise their potential whilst delivering international general management competence to their organisations. The EMBA is delivered in a more flexible format of 17 one-week modules starting in January each year. More than 70% of Oxford EMBA participants do not live in the UK.
The Oxford 1+1 MBA programme allows you to pair Oxford University's one-year full-time MBA programme with one of a selection of one-year MSc programmes offered by other University departments.


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Named after Jonas Bergtheil, this museum is situated in the leafy suburb of Westville midway between Durban and Pinetown.
Much of the museum is housed in Westville's oldest building featuring massive stone walls and hand-hewn timber floorboards. The park like surrounds add an atmosphere of tranquility.
Exhibits mostly focus on the first German settlers that Jonas Bergtheil brought to Natal as director of the Natal Cotton Company and their associations with the settlements of Westville, Claremont and New Germany.
Visiting hours are 8:30 – 16:00 Monday to Friday, 8:00 – 12:00 Saturdays. Closed Sundays and Public Holidays. Entrance is free.
*Distances are shown as the crow flies and are not necessarily the actual travelling
Built right on Catalina flying boats' Control Tower on Wilson's Wharf, Catalina Theatre's theme and decor reflect the ambience of a creative and dramatic flying machine!
Catalina Theatre is the dream of Durban thespian, director, producer and performing arts personality, Themi Venturas. New productions are staged every two to three weeks and vary from comedy and the classics to drama and rock music.
At Catalina there is a seat in the house to suit every artistic taste and personality. Bar staff are funky, the drinks are cold and the harbour view is breath taking. Say no more!
The BAT Centre is Durban's vibrant multi-purpose arts centre merging visual and performing arts under one roof. The bright mosaic and mural-covered building has undergone a complete transformation from its former navy hang-out days. Here you will find galleries, artists-in-residence, plus performances of folk music, poetry and spoken-word. The auditorium is the site of the main events held at the BAT Centre. It can hold up to 750 people or 500 people
seated and has dressings rooms and ablution facilities.
Why BAT? Acronym for 'The Bartel Arts Trust' this centre is also an urban-based community art centre that is a venue and facility for skills training, promotion and exposure of disadvantaged and emergent artists. The focus of the centre is local arts, culture, crafts and entertainment that reflects the Zulu, Indian and Western heritage of KwaZulu-Natal. The difference at BAT is the grassroots, the experimental, the cross-arts trends and the innovation that is promoted at the centre.
The Blue Caterpillar Art Gallery is situated in the Butterflies for Africa complex in Pietermaritzburg. The gallery was established in 2001 and exhibits both local and international artists.
There is a wide variety of paintings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, and photography on display. The different styles and subject matters include sublime landscapes, quirky French villagers and contemporary woodcut prints.


text: Some residents are blaming rotting railroad ties for derailing of a train in Elizabeth City. Four cars derailed over the weekend at a track-switching point. No one was hurt, but residents there have complained to city officials that some of the railroad ties on the line are rotting and don't look sturdy enough for cars to stay on the rails. They're especially concerned because the train tracks extend past a natural gas pumping station.


text:
Sign up for Office 365
Learn more about Office 365
Couple of things.
1. Can the portal homepage be modified? I ask this becuase the office web documents save all documents on the one folder, i would like seperate folders for each app. e,g, Word Docs, Excel Docs etc rather than just Documents.
2. I've made a complete mess of Sharepoint breaking the create office web app buttons on the front portal page. This was mainly due to my inexperience with sharepoint and deleted many things and emptied the recycle bin. Can the team site be restored to its original default state as when the trail first started?
Paul Devine
Thanks for the feedback.
Hi Paul,
For your first question, the sign in Home page for portal.microsoft.com is set without modifying action.
You may send feedback about your concern for this with the following link:
<mymfe.microsoft.com/Microsoft Online Services/Feedback.aspx?formID=210>
For your second question, you might be able to re-create a Team Site by following the steps below:
1.Sign in to the Office 365 portal.
2.Browse to the Site Settings page of the root site collection. To do this, type the URL of the Site Settings page of the root site collection in the web browser. For example, type one of the following URLs:
For the Office 365 for professionals and small businesses default domain, type https://YOURDOMAIN.sharepoint.com/_layouts/settings.aspx
(Please change YOURDOMAIN to your own domain name)
For the Office 365 for professionals and small businesses custom domain, type https://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/_layouts/settings.aspx
3.Browse to the All Site Content page. To do this, click All Site Content. Or, type the URL of the All Site Content page in the web browser. For example, type one of the following URLs:
Office 365 for professionals and small businesses default domain, type https://YOURDOMAIN.sharepoint.com/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx
Office 365 for professionals and small businesses custom domain, type https://www.YOURDOMAIN.com/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx
4.Click Create, and then click Site in the navigation pane on the left side.
5.Click Express Team Site.
6.In the Title box, enter a title for the site, and then type TeamSite in the URL name box.
7.Click More options.
8.In the Permissions area, under User Permissions, click Use unique permissions.
Note: Step 8 prevents anonymous access on the new site.
9.Click Create.
10.Select the site permissions that you want to configure, and then click OK, thus a new Team Site will be created.
Here is a link for your reference:
Anna Guo


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"Early in my hog hunting career (obsession as my wife calls it) I had to pass up a shot on a HUGE old boar because he would not give me an angle that would not require very deep penetration to get into the vitals (basically kept his ass facing me). I was hunting with a caliber/bullet that I knew would not penetrate up into the vitals so had to let him pass. For those of you that hog hunt you know how rare a chance at a 300#+ boar is and you really hate to miss an opportunity. After that I moved to a .30-06 shooting Barnes X bullets and then on to one of my all time favorites a .358 Win shooting 225gr Nosler Partitions. I never missed another chance at a hog with either of these.
Since we started the 6.8 project I have hunted exclusively with it. I'm just now getting enough terminal experience to know what it will and won't do. The Barnes 110gr TSX or TTSX are the only bullets that will allow marginal shots on a big hog with a 6.8. The 110gr TTSX will penetrate both shoulders of a 200# hog, 12″ of water behind it, then dent and knock over a 3″x14″x24″ oak board with expansion to just under 1/2″!!!!! The TSX will expand a little more and give you about 80% of the penetration.
I prefer rapid expansion on deer and use the 110gr Nosler AB or 110gr Sierra PH. The new Barnes 95gr TTSX is shaping up to give us plenty of penetration for big hogs, but with a bit more expansion to help make it a better deer bullet also!"
Bill Wilson
Your research….your knowledge….and insight is invaluable.Thank you sharing:))


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Dr. Walter Block: The FSP Is A Fresh, Practical Idea for Promoting Liberty
"You people are doing the Lord's work. The FSP is one of the freshest practical ideas for promoting liberty that has come out of the libertarian movement in the past few decades. May you succeed beyond your wildest dreams, and thus demonstrate in yet another empirical way the benefits and blessings of liberty."
Dr. Walter Block, an Austrian school economist and libertarian/anarcho-capitalist philosopher, is Professor of Economics at Loyola University New Orleans and Senior Fellow with the Ludwig von Mises Institute.


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Jeff Bridges hosted Saturday Night Live (video below), yet another example that his public profile, post-Crazy Heart Oscar and with new releases TRON: Legacy and True Grit, is higher than it's ever been. (He's also been ardently pursuing a music career.) Remember, Bridges is infamous, Star Man and The Big Lebowski excepted, for being a beloved character actor who has never been a movie star. He never put butts in seats. But maybe that has changed. The box office performance of the Coens' True Grit (trailer below) will be a test of that--as will nabbing another Oscar nomination.
Here's Bridges' interview in Cowboys and Indians magazine.


text:
Skip Navigation Links
Helpdesk FYI
By Richard Sanzone, CITC Helpdesk Manager
EUID Passwords
EUID "Enterprise" passwords expire after 120 days. You can receive an email notification prior to your password expiring by logging into the Account Management System (AMS) at http://ams.unt.edu and enabling the "Password Expiration Notice" option.
There are two ways to reset your password:
It is suggested that you go through the Change Password
process prior to your password expiring to avoid having to go through
the more lengthy Reset Password process.


text:
Enter Contest
Official Rules
Rivers Of Hope Sweepstakes Official Rules
1. How to Enter. Enter online at cbs8.com. No purchase necessary to enter or win. One valid online entry per contestant per individual entry period for a total of twelve (12) entries during the Sweepstakes Period. KFMB/Midwest Television, Inc. is not responsible for lost, damaged, late, misdirected, incomplete or illegible entries, or technical problems incurred while entering via the internet. Contest entrants agree to abide by the terms of these Official Rules and by the decisions of KFMB/Midwest Television, Inc., which are final on all matters pertaining to the contest. If unable to enter online, entrants may also mail entries to KFMB Stations, Attn: Contests, 7677 Engineer Rd., San Diego, CA 92111. Mailed entries must include the contest name, specific entry period, first and last name, email address, full postal address and phone number on a single sheet of paper or postcard and are subject to the same entry period and rules as online entries.
2. Sweepstakes Entry Period. Sweepstakes will consist of twelve (12) individual sweepstakes (each an "Individual Sweepstakes") from January 17, 2012 through December 23, 2012. Each Individual Sweepstakes will consist of: (i) an entry period (each an "Individual Entry Period") that will begin on the date and time ("Individual Start Date/Time") provided in section 2a below and end on the date and time ("Individual End Date/Time") provided in section 2a below during the Sweepstakes Period; and (ii) twelve (12) random individual drawings conducted on or about the daily drawing dates ("Individual Drawing Dates") provided in section 2a below from among all eligible Entries received during the corresponding Individual Entry Period. Entries into one (1) Individual Drawing will not be rolled over into the next Individual Drawing.
2a. Individual Entry Periods.
Period 1: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 5:00 A.M. – Monday, January 23, 2012 at 11:59 P.M. Drawing will be held on or about Tuesday, January 24, 2012.
Period 2: Friday, February 17, 2012 at 5:00 A.M. – Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 11:59 P.M. Drawing will be held on or about Friday, February 24, 2012.
Period 3: Saturday, March 17, 2012 at 5:00 A.M. – Friday, March 23, 2012 at 11:59 P.M. Drawing will be held on or about Monday, March 26, 2012.
Period 4: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 at 5:00 A.M. – Monday, April 23, 2012 at 11:59 P.M. Drawing will be held on or about Tuesday, April 24, 2012.
Period 5: No Entries
Period 6: No Entries
Period 7: No Entries
Period 8: Friday, August 17, 2012 at 5:00 A.M. – Thursday, August 23, 2012 at 11:59 P.M. Drawing will be held on or about Friday, August 24, 2012.
Period 9: No Entries
Period 10: No Entries
Period 11: No Entries
Period 12: No Entries
3. The Prizes. One (1) prize winner will each receive one (1) Prize for each individual entry period. Each prize and estimated retail value will be announced at the beginning of each indvidual entry period provided in section 2a above via the contest website. KFMB/Midwest Television, Inc. reserves the right to substitute any prize with another prize of equal or greater value. The Prize is nontransferable and non- assignable.
4. Selection of Winner. One (1) prize winner will be drawn at random at the conclusion of each individual entry period as provided in section 2a above. Winners will be notified by email and/or telephone. If a winner is unreachable after seven (7) days, or if that winner is unavailable for prize fulfillment that prize will not be awarded. Prize vouchers/Gift Cards must be claimed no later than 30- days after notified at the KFMB Stations or prizes will be forfeited. Failure to accept and take delivery of the Prize within this time period will result in forfeiture of all rights and interest in the Prize and it becomes property of KFMB/Midwest Televison, Inc.. The KFMB Stations are located at 7677 Engineer Road, San Diego, CA 92111. For directions to the KFMB Stations call (858) 571-8888. Local winners will be required to present valid identification to redeem prize.
5. Eligibility Requirements. This contest is void where prohibited or restricted by law. Subject to conditions below, the Sweepstakes is open to all legal U.S. residents of San Diego County who are 18 years of age or older at the time of entry. The following persons are not eligible to win Prizes or otherwise participate in this Sweepstakes: employees of KFMB / Midwest Television, Inc., other Sponsors (see "Sponsors" below at section 7), their respective parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising sponsors and promotional agencies, and the immediate family members of each are not eligible.
6. Odds. The odds of winning depend on the total number of eligible entries received.
7. Sponsors. Sweepstakes sponsors are UPICKEM, KFMB/Midwest Television, Inc. and The Rivers of Hope Foundation("Sponsors").
8. Winner's Responsibility. Each winner is solely responsible for payment of all prize related fees or expenses not specifically mentioned, and for payment and reporting of federal, state and local taxes and may be required to complete an IRS form W-9. Decision of KFMB/Midwest Television, Inc. is final. Each winner, by acceptance of the prize, agrees to release all Sponsors, and their parent and subsidiary companies, their officers, directors, employees, agents, shareholders, affiliates, suppliers, distributors, and advertising agencies from all liability, claims, or actions of any kind whatsoever for injuries, damages, or losses to persons and property which may be sustained in connection with the receipt, ownership, or use of the prize or promotion.
9. Conditions of Entry. By entering, each entrant grants permission, without further compensation, to KFMB-TV/Midwest Television, Inc. and their agents, licensees, to use the entrant's name, voice, photograph, likeness and biographical material for broadcast, online and promotional purposes in connection with the contest. For a complete list of winners, please send your request, along with a self- addressed, stamped envelope to "KFMB CONTEST- Rivers of Hope" c/o KFMB TV, 7677 Engineer Road, San Diego, CA 92111. This list will be available for a 30-day period 7-days after the contest has officially ended.
10. Internet. If for any reason, the Internet-related portion of this contest is not capable of running as planned, including Internet crashes or slowdowns caused by network congestion, viruses, sabotage, satellite failures, phone line failures, electrical outages, natural disasters or acts of man or God, or any other cause which corrupts or threatens the administration, security or integrity of the contest, the Sponsors reserve the right, in its sole discretion, to terminate or suspend the contest or any portion of the contest. Any attempt to damage or undermine the fair and legitimate operation of this contest will result in disqualification from the contest. Due to breaking news coverage, the end date of this promotion can be extended as needed. KFMB/Midwest Television, Inc. reserves the right to change the rules at any time without notice.
11. Copyright. The Contest and all of the related pages, contents and code are copyrighted by UPICKEM, Inc., and/or KFMB/Midwest Television, Inc. and/or The Rivers of Hope Foundation. Copying or unauthorized use of any copyrighted materials, trademarks or any other intellectual property without the express written consent of its owner is strictly prohibited.
Official Rules
Rivers of Hope Contest
Powered by ©
All rights reserved.
| Copyright © 2012 Midwest Television, Inc.


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Ghosts do some pretty bizarre things to get our attention. As someone who has interacted with ghosts since I was a child, I've seen and heard some pretty amazing things.
And they continue to happen…
Like the other night when I woke up to the sound of pacing in my hallway. There were two different sets of footsteps that night. One had a heavier step and a different pace from the other set. They seemed to be worried about something and they paced for hours.
After a while I was able to block out the noise and I went back to sleep. I realize that sounds like an unusual response, but unexplained noises happen so often in my life I just flow with it most of the time. Too, ghosts are really very egocentric. To them the only problems that exist are theirs.
They crave attention. Which is why they make the noises they do. They go through their days and nights mostly being around people who can't see or hear them. So they do what they can to get noticed. Being noticed often becomes a life purpose for many ghosts since they feed off of that attention.
I received an email recently from a reader who is regularly visited by spirits and we began discussing the creative ways in which ghosts and other spirits work to get our attention. Flashing lights, computer and other electrical disturbances are definite favorites.
That night I woke up at 3 a.m. and went into the bathroom, accidentally dropping something and making a loud noise. "Shhhh.." a bodiless voice said from inside the bathroom. It startled me but I knew she was just enjoying my attention.
She left quickly, so, off I went back to bed. I knew she'd be back. The next day I was downstairs with the kids when suddenly the upstairs toilet flushed. Since no one was upstairs at the time, we all thought this was a little suspicious.
About 15 minutes later it happened again. So, we all went upstairs for a while, and there was no flushing. Back we went downstairs, and again, more flushing!
I left the house for a little while and when I came back my husband said the pattern had continued. As long as someone was upstairs the toilet was quiet. But whenever we all went downstairs, the flushing continued.
Later that night I went up to my bathroom and found the ghostly gal who was working so hard to get our attention. Her name was Sandy and she told me she was lonely and bored. She felt angry and resentful over hard times and betrayals from her life as well as a tragic death. Her energy was a little threatening and distrusting. So, rather than running the risk of losing her again, I quickly turned the conversation to going home. She was ready and with my help, went to the Other Side easily.
Usually people think that ghosts haunt or make noise to scare or intimidate. Sometimes that's the case, but more often than not they make noise to get attention. Ghosts are stuck and unhappy and make noise for attention and help.


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I thought SAS' callsign was "Scandinavian" but have on a scanner (in Scandinavia) frequently heard them using "Scandi". So is this just within Scandinavia (home region), or is it normal to abbreviate callsigns, wherever you are?
Please check your spelling (press "Check Spelling" above)
©Copyright 2016 Demand Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved


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I am doing just great. I have a mission again. The Challenge is back and I will be all over that 100 mile course in August. I am so excited! The Philly 100 miler is THE bomb.
I also decided to rejoin the YMCA and start swimming again. Back in my triathlon days I use to hit the pool 4-5 times a week.


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The defending world champions from Fenway Park and their historic nemesis from the Bronx have been joined in the American League East hunt this year by the Baltimore Orioles, who left Cincinnati a month ago in first place. It's nice to see the Orioles back, though 12 losses in 17 games leading to the All-Star break indicate they might not be back for long.
Even with Sammy Sosa slumping so badly that he's been dropped in the batting order, the Orioles march up a nice little wrecking crew, particularly from their infield. Leading this intriguing group is the irrepressible Rafael Palmiero, who probably will reach 600 homers and 3,000 hits while the pundits debate his credentials for Hall of Fame inclusion.
Many are of the mood now to say Palmiero caught the tailwind from the home run explosion of the 1990s, accounting for his consistency at producing 40-homer seasons without earning consideration as a great power hitter. It certainly wouldn't hurt his case as he nears the end of the line if he were to lead a Baltimore surge to the postseason, but the road is long for the Orioles, especially with their pitching staff, which is ninth in AL ERA (4.41) and 10th in WHIP (1.39).
That said, the Reds Sox are defending the championship with an even worse pitching staff (11th in WHIP, 12th in ERA), though help is on the way with Curt Schilling's return from the disabled list. The Red Sox disabled relief ace Keith Foulk last week after surgery to repair cartilage damage in his left knee. Between Schilling's availability for only 17 innings so far and Foulke's 6.23 ERA, the Red Sox hold first place in the AL East due to one of the league's top-tier offenses, the others belonging to the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees.
Where the Yankees fit remains one of the summer's hot items. Like the Orioles and Red Sox, their downfall is pitching. Between them, Randy Johnson and Carl Pavano, $25 million in new pitching for this season, are 13-12 with a 4.43 ERA. For their top five starting pitchers, the Yankees are paying $65 million, more than half the major league clubs spend on entire rosters. Yet Yankee hurlers are being hit for a .771 OPS, worse than any other AL clubs except Kansas City and Tampa Bay.
At the All-Star break, Baltimore, Boston and the Yankees sat within 2 1/2 games of each other in the only AL division race that stands to take the national stage this summer. But all is not lost for whoever doesn't win that division, because the wild card is wide open with competition from Minnesota, Cleveland and Texas, with Oakland, Detroit and Toronto on the outside.
Texas, like New York and Boston, is a good-hit, mediocre-pitch club. Minnesota and Cleveland are more solid across the board and better because of it. It's impossible right now to choose confidently between the Twins and the Indians, so, in the spirit of carelessness, take the Indians for the wild card.
The other AL divisions are paced by very similar clubs. In the AL Central, the Chicago White Sox took a nine-game lead and baseball's best record (57-29) to the break, setting themselves up as the club with the most to lose and the most losing to do to lose it. The Los Angeles Angels lead the AL West by five games. Both are medium offenses, but they are among the league's best pitching staffs, making them hard to overtake.
Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland and Freddie Garcia give the White Sox the best front three of any AL rotation, and no closer is more reliable now than Dustin Hermanson. In those aspects, the Angels aren't quite as good, but Jarrod Washburn, Bartolo Colon and Paul Byrd are three stingy starters and Francisco Rodriguez is a strikeout show in the back of the bullpen.
The National League evidently sets up only one good divisional race because the St. Louis Cardinals are unbeatable in the NL Central and no one isn't beatable in the NL West, where only San Diego went to the All-Star break with a winning record.
As it stands, the Braves lead the wild card race on a 91-win pace, with Florida, Houston, the New York Mets, Philadelphia and the Chicago Cubs all right around .500, all about five games behind. As it shakes out, though, the NL wild card club this year will finish closer to 85 wins than to 90. The pace for the wild card will cool as the season develops and the Braves overtake the Nationals, who will come back down to the pack.
The Nationals produced a magical first half with bounces and mirrors. Before too long, though, the Braves will go back to being the Braves, the Nationals will go back to being the Expos, the Braves will win the NL East and the wild card race will blow wide open for anyone who can win a little more than they lose.
Once this race turns serious, the Nationals will stop winning all those one-run games. Over 162 games, the teams that are supposed to win are the ones that win. It always comes down to talent and just knowing how to win. Don't be surprised if the Nationals end up winning right around 85 games.
And because every other wild card contender goes at this with glaring weaknesses, we're looking at a treadmill on which every club runs as hard as it can, making no progress. Only the Cubs might be well-enough equipped to separate themselves from the wild card pack. Were it not for a combined 164 days on the disabled list for pitchers Kerry Wood and Mark Prior and shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, the Cubs probably would be walking away with the wild card already. They can thank Derrek Lee's fantastic first half (a .378 batting average and 27 homers) for keeping them in the hunt so far.
Now Prior and Wood are back taking turns in the rotation, and the Cubs think Garciaparra can come back in August. The timing would be just right for the Cubs to make a push. Which raises the possibility of a truly intriguing October spectacle -- the Cubs and the White Sox in a Windy City World Series.
The White Sox are the AL's best club right now, and the Cubs are poised to pounce when all their parts come together. At this early stage, that's a stage worth setting.
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christian singles
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Formed in 1961 in the Jamaica district of Queens, New York City, this aptly named group originally included Brenda Reid, Carol Johnson (1945, USA, d. 7 May 2007), Lillian Walker and Sylvia Wilbur. The sister act to local doo wop quintet the Masters, the group was originally known as the Masterettes. Wilbur was replaced by Penny Carter and then the Masters Herb Rooney (b. New York City, New York, USA), the groups sole male member. Changing their name to the Exciters, the quartet first came to prominence with the vibrant Tell Him, a US Top 5 hit in 1962 (also a hit in the UK for Billie Davis in 1963). Produced by Leiber And Stoller and written by Bert Berns (under his pseudonym Bert Russell), the singles energy established the pattern for subsequent releases. Do Wah Diddy Diddy (later a hit by Manfred Mann) and Hes Got The Power took elements from both uptown soul and the all-female group genre, but later singles failed fully to exploit this powerful combination. The group had lesser hits with I Want You To Be My Boy (1965), a revival of A Little Bit Of Soap (1966) and You Dont Know What Youre Missing (Till Its Gone) (1969), but failed to recapture the verve of those first releases. They re-entered the UK charts in 1975 with the disco hit Reaching For The Best.
Ronnie Pace and Skip McPhee later replaced Johnson and Walker, while Rooney and Reid (who had married in 1967) had a minor 1978 hit as Brenda And Herb, releasing one album in 1979, In Heat Again. After separating from Rooney, Reid created a new line-up of the Exciters to tour the oldies circuit. The couples son, L.A. Reid, is a leading producer and label executive.
Source: The Encyclopedia of Popular Music by Colin Larkin. Licensed from Muze.


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why are Tri saddles shaped the way they are?
I find I often ride the front part of my road saddles and only occasionally sit back (but I do)
can I use a Tri saddle for other things like long joyrides or commuting?
why are Tri saddles shaped the way they are?
I find I often ride the front part of my road saddles and only occasionally sit back (but I do)
can I use a Tri saddle for other things like long joyrides or commuting?
cycling is like baseball ~ it doesn't take much to make it interesting
If you think how far forward you have to lean to get into the aerobars, you will answer your own question. There has to be some place for your genitalia to go.... I tried to ride my road bike with aerobars and a regular road seat and it made me go numb in a few places.
I just installed a Selle Italia SLR T1 on my CAAD5 road bike. So far, so good. I'm training for a few tris later this season, and wanted to be more comfortable in the drops (or aerobar, should I go that route). The wider, plush nose/point is way more comfortable when I'm "on the rivet."
The shape of the saddle is such to provide more support on the front part of the saddle, assuming you spent a lot of time on the aero bars. That said, I do not like Tri saddles (or have not found one that likes me yet). On my 2 Tri bikes I am using road saddles pushed pretty forward on the rails. On one I have a Bike Blue saddle and on the other a San Marco Royal.
still stuck in the '80s; '70s were good as well, but i severely dislike tubulars.
I tri...
I use a serfas tri saddle and in the latest build pic you can see the effects of me using the nose to support my aero position... its friggin bent!!!
Even using a selle Italia SLR TT saddle me and the boys where starting to lose some feeling !Its actually the pressure on your perineum which causes the numbness.
I switched to an ISM adamo racing saddle .http://www.ismseat.com/products_racing.htm
Took about 2-3 rides to get used to which I reckon is a lot quicker than actually getting through the saddle sores most people endure when they first start doing more than an hour a day on the bike
I have never had any numbness at all since I started using one of these.Also the gap between the blades means if you hit a pothole it will not make the saddle smash straight up into your perineum potentially damaging you for life
You can use it like a normal saddle and sit back but the chances are you will have to alter the saddle position if you are going to sit up and ride as they recommend a slight tilt down to open your pelvis up a little bit and if you are sitting back with the nose tilted down it will put a lot of pressure on your hands and wrists and you will most likely get numb hands.
better than numb nuts and erectile dis-function which ever way you look at it !


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Lessons for the knowledge economy
Kettering teamed up with the Genesee Intermediate School District to develop more effective methods of teaching K-12 math and science.
Dr. Bahram Roughani, professor of Applied Physics and program director for Applied Physics, is working with the Genesee Intermediate School District (GISD) on middle-school course development to help prepare area school children for the knowledge economy.
Roughani received a two-year grant with the GISD, from the Michigan Department of Education, to involve four Kettering faculty members to help develop middle school courses in science and math using the "Lesson Study" approach. "We are targeting the middle school age level because it is a critical stage in preparation for high school and prior to finalizing their program study plan after middle school, which can determine college preparedness," said Roughani.
"We need to engage students in math and science before high school," said Roughani, "it's almost too late to prepare them for advanced study if they are not interested when they come to high school," he said.
The grant also has a component to connect Kettering University to all K-12 schools in Genesee County via GenNet (part of FanNet). This electronic connection would enable Kettering faculty to teach course material, offer live or taped broadcast of various laboratories and have Kettering student talk to high school students about their academic and co-op experiences through video streaming technology. Roughani is working with other Kettering faculty to develop this opportunity to provide outreach activities directly into GISD classrooms.
The Kettering faculty involved in this project are: Dr. Irina F. Sivergina, associate professor of Mathematics; Dr. Peter Stanchev, professor of Computer Science; Matthew S. Sanders, associate professor Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering; and Mo Torfeh-Isfahani, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Lesson Study is a professional development process that Japanese teachers engage in to systematically examine their practice, with the goal of becoming more effective. According to the Teachers College, Columbia University web site, teachers work collaboratively on a small number of "study lessons" planning, teaching, observing, and critiquing the lessons. Each lesson has an overarching goal and related research question to explore. The lesson is presented by one of the teachers in a real classroom (as other group members observe the lesson). The group then comes together to discuss their observations of the lesson, make necessary revisions and frequently another teacher implements the revised lesson in a second classroom.
Derived from the Japanese word jugyokenkyuu, the term "lesson study" was coined by Makoto Yoshida, it can also be translated in reverse as "research lesson," coined by Catherine Lewis, which indicates the level of scrutiny applied to individual lessons (from the online edition of RBS Currents, Spring/ Summer 2002).
The Kettering/GISD collaboration involves a committee of four to five middle school teachers and one Kettering faculty member, whose role it is to bring an applications aspect to the particular Lesson Study subject. In other words, showing how the subject matter is applied to real world uses, according to Roughani.
The first subject the group tackled was math. "When we meet we spend the day developing processes for teaching a particular module," Roughani said, "we anticipate the questions student may have and factor in different learning styles, then one of the teachers implements the module in a real classroom while the other team members observe the students during the lesson," he explained.
Team members observe the students rather than the teacher to analyze student reaction to the lesson and method of delivery. After the team makes revisions they repeat the process at a second school and then finalize and package the module.
"One of the focus points is to create units/activities in areas that are traditionally hard to teach and hard for the students to comprehend," said Larry Casler, director of the Genesee area Math/Science Center for the Genesee Intermediate School District.
"Toward that end, we are accumulating the work done by our Genesee County team and combining it with work done by several other groups across the state," Calser added, "I would say that when this activity base is completed and available to all teachers in Michigan, will be the best product developed so far."
Once finalized, the Michigan Department of Education can make the module available electronically to every middle school teacher in the state, according to Roughani. He would like Kettering to also be a resource for delivery of the modules, he said.
Currently four counties in Michigan are conducting Lesson Study programs through grants from the Michigan department of Education.
"This grant has solidified our working relationship with GISD and helped us work more closely with them," said Roughani. "I believe that in the Lesson Study teachers have the ownership of the process, while the STEM faculty are the so-called knowledgeable others who bring relevance to abstract ideas by providing application examples, as well as being a source for research ideas in teaching and learning"
Instead of bringing students to Kettering's campus, the project sends a Kettering faculty member to the middle schools to observe and offer suggestions on how to revise the module.
"It is a learning process for us," said Roughani of himself and other university faculty involved in the project, "seeing the difficulties K-12 teachers face gives us a different perspective of the educational process," he said.
"This particular group has been giving very positive feedback regarding the process and the opportunity to work with other teachers in different teaching situations and the Kettering faculty," said Casler.
"There is no question that we would partner with Kettering faculty again, the professors involved have been outstanding!" Casler added.
Other related projects include integrating workforce development into education - involving Automation Alley, Oakland University, GISD and Kettering.
Kettering has formed an alliance with GISD to write a grant - tentatively called the MSP group (which stands for Math/Science Partnership), as a subgroup of the Automation Alley workforce development committee.
For more information about the Kettering/GISD Lesson Study project contact Dr. Bahram Roughani or Larry Casler.
Written by Dawn Hibbard
|What is the Lesson Study process?
Teachers choose lesson study goals that focus on skills or dispositions that they want to foster in all students, across all grades, and in a particular content area (e.g., fostering autonomous thinking in students when they do mathematics). Teachers then generate research questions, which have to do with exploring how to develop these skills or dispositions in children. In addition, specific content goals are also articulated for each study lesson.
Lesson study is practiced in every content area from language arts, to math, and even gym. Lesson study provides a process for teachers to examine their practice in order to answer questions about how they can serve their students more effectively, and this can be done in all subject and grade levels.
In a single school, lesson study often brings together teachers from all grade levels and different areas of interest. This diversity of participants is seen as providing a rich perspective to lesson study activities.


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Even better, the simulation was extremely detailed, and the game came with 2 manuals that practically laid out most of the guts of the game it terms of mechanics, formulas and tables (but unfortunately not all, most notably the AI algorithm). I my infinite wisdom, I figured I could do it in the 3 weeks available to me, and in some fashion I did have a workable, albeit very buggy, version just in time for the Faire, with over 760 lines of code so far... A minor miracle. Clearly the program would not fit in one piece, and so I had to break it up into 3 separate programs chained to each other, exchanging variables via a common data file. I have nearly completed all the debugging, and am working at optimizing the AI a bit more, although at it stands it will shred you to pieces if you are too cavalier (see below), but there is still a lot of improvement to be made if it is to provide a decent challenge to a strategically astute player.
My main problem now is that it simply takes too long to load each chained program when it is called, even though the execution speed itself is quite acceptable for XB. As a result, a single turn from ship movement to combat to status display will take about 2 min and 14 seconds, most of it spent waiting for the programs to load. You might as well be playing chess... Do you guys have any suggestions for improvement here? I am aware of prescanning, but my early experimentation has not resulted in huge improvements because most of the loading time is taken by the data file which contains a large number of variables, each occupying a single file record thanks to the designers of XB...
When I play the game in Classic 99 with CPU overdrive on my high end Alienware desktop, the delay is only a few seconds, but for the average computer, the delay was still quite substantial as the owners of laptops at the Faire figured out as I harassed every one of them to try to run my game prior to the demo
In the mean time, here are some snapshots of a game I played this morning:
There are 8 built-in historical scenarios, but you can also create your own.
You can set the sails and then the ship direction, taking into account the wind, sailing speed, and points of sail.
If you get too close, you may grapple to enemy ship. There is also a chance your sails will become fouled.
Fire away! You control your guns' loadout which in turn affects the ballistics and the range of the guns. Reloading is not instantaneous either and is affected by the number of gun crews, gun damage factor, and type of load.
If your ship is grappled or fouled, you may attempt to board. This can be devastating to either ship in terms of crew casualties...
I'm in real trouble here, with all of my port guns destroyed and a third of my masts and sails gone!
My computer opponent on the other hand is fairing much better...
Edited by Vorticon, Sat Nov 12, 2011 5:43 PM.


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A most striking emerald cut emerald of an estimated 2.05 carats immediately catches the eye. Superb clarity and fine medium green color make the colloquialism "green with envy" into a truism.
A scalloped shaped surround of eighteen (18) old single cut diamonds is set in silver bringing a color explosion of green to the forefront. The facts: .40 carats in total, I-J color, SI1-I1 clarity for almost all white inclusions. The addition of a shank of 18k yellow gold composed of open work lozenge forms graces the ring and add a touch counterpoint to the entrancing cluster.
Comes with a full appraisal for your peace of mind and insurance purposes.


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In this age of the interweb, information is easy, cheap and available. But it is also CRAP much of the time.
Here is what I found just now, looking on you tube for steamed puddings. A "chef" teaching us how to use instant out of the can crud. Get rid of him!


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On Thursday 5 May 2011, there will be a referendum on the voting system we use to elect MPs to the House of Commons.
Learning Pool has created a free and comprehensive e-learning module all about the Alternative Vote in time for the referendum.
A referendum asks us to vote yes or no to a proposal. For this referendum, we will receive a ballot paper with this question:
'At present, the UK uses the 'first past the post' system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the 'alternative vote' system be used instead?'
There will be a public awareness campaign starting from early April when Electoral Commission will be dropping a booklet through all our doors giving information about the elections and referendum.
You can view the booklet here (pdf).
The booklet will be supported by television, radio and online advertising, as well as media relations work. The main message of the campaign will be encouraging people to look out for their booklet.
The Electoral Commission has also designated the official lead Yes and No campaigners for the referendum on the UK voting system on Thursday 5 May.
The Commission designated 'Yes in May 2011 Ltd' (campaigning as Yes to Fairer Votes) as the lead 'Yes' campaigner and 'No Campaign Limited' (campaigning as NO to AV) as the lead 'No' campaigner.
The two campaigners will now have access to benefits including an increased campaign spending limit of £5 million each, a public grant of up to £380,000 each, referendum broadcasts, a free delivery of campaign material to voters and the use of public rooms.
After completing the Learning Pool Alternative Vote Explained module the learner will know:
- about the context for the forthcoming referendum
- how the current system work
- show the alternative vote system will work
The module also presents the cases for and against the proposals to help citizens make an informed choice, and there are links to further resources on the subject.
Learning Pool subscribers can download the module and deliver it to your staff, via your DLE if you have one and also put the module on your corporate website for your citizens to take*.
*to do this simply download the zip file as normal, unzip into position on your corporate website and then link to the index.htm file to launch.
We would like as wide a distribution as possible for this free e-learning module so if you think you have other uses for it then please let me know. The module will also be available shortly for all visitors to the Learning Pool website to take, without any registration.


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GRANBURY, Texas (AP) — As an adolescent, Vicente Ocura didn't really know how to process losing several family members within four years: grandparents to illnesses, his teenage cousin to murder and his newborn brother to a birth complication.
"When you're dealing with death, it's one thing when there's only one," said his father, Juan Ocura. "But when you come to the second one, the third, the fourth, the fifth, it becomes a burden on you because you don't know how to react."
The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/1pIEGIZ ) reports Vicente Ocura suppressed the sadness, the confusion.
But the 16-year-old's emotions caught up with him when he, his sister and his uncle started attending Camp El Tesoro de la Vida, a weeklong summer camp for youngsters between ages 6 and 17 who have dealt with a death in the family.
El Tesoro de la Vida, which means "the treasure of life," is on 232 acres in Granbury. It is run by Camp Fire First Texas, a youth developmental agency in North Texas.
Participants go through the traditional camp activities, including hiking, swimming and canoeing, and an hour of group therapy every day. The therapy addresses causes of death from prolonged illnesses to crimes.
"Our ultimate goal is for a child to know that he or she is a kid first and a griever second," camp director Denis Cranford said. "They don't have to be anyone's big sister. They don't have to be the man of the house — all of the . roles they take when someone dies."
About 130 youngsters are participating in this year's camp, which costs $645. Sixty-seven percent of the campers received scholarships to cover all or part of the fee.
This is Vicente's third year — and possibly his last — at Camp El Tesoro.
On Monday, the second day of camp, Vicente and some of his fellow campers clustered around a small remote-control airplane.
Counselor Shane Mudge sat on the grass, holding a laptop as he charted a flight plan. While they waited, campers peppered him with questions. What time was it? How long would the planning take? Was the plane going to work?
Mudge put them at ease with his calm voice and collected demeanor. He pressed a button on the black remote control and the plane whirred off into the distance.
Later in the day, though, Vicente and his camp cluster, made up of about 11 teenage boys, participated in a more serious exercise: the trust fall.
When it was Vicente's turn, he took off his black-rimmed glasses, pulled himself up on a ledge and covered his eyes with a black-and-white bandanna.
"Spotters ready?" counselor and therapist Brian Miller shouted.
"Ready," the boys replied.
"Faller ready?"
"Ready," Vicente said before he fell backward off the ledge and landed in the arms of his camp buddies.
"We got you buddy, we got you," one of the campers said as Vicente got back on his feet.
After the exercise, Miller moderated a discussion about trust.
"You guys just fell off a platform that could have injured you pretty bad. But you trusted us to be there and catch you, right?" he told the boys. "There's a lot of parallel to that when we sit down in a circle, talking about stuff we don't talk about."
Meanwhile, a few acres from Vicente's group, Houston resident Sofia Del Villar and the girls in her camp group were relaxing in their cabin, taking a break from the sweltering heat outside.
Del Villar's dad died in 2011 after a localized cancer spread throughout his body. She started coming to the camp about three years ago.
"It's kind of to get away from the world," she said. In daily life, "you don't really get to talk to people about who passed away because they look at you really awkward. But here, it's a normal thing."
Miller, a mental health therapist since 2001, said Camp El Tesoro's format — 90 percent fun and 10 percent therapy — helps youngsters talk about the person who died and realize that death is a part of life.
Vicente said he initially struggled with anger but has learned to channel the emotions into something productive: cross-country.
"Before I went to this camp, I had bad thoughts — sad thoughts," he said. "Ever since last year, all my anger just went away. . I still get mad, but not as much as I used to. When I get mad, I think about camp and I miss it."
Camp El Tesoro also leaves an imprint on its 80 volunteers, many of whom take time off from work to participate.
Volunteer Corinthia Campbell's mother and stepfather died in a murder-suicide when she was 13. She didn't really grieve until she joined Camp El Tesoro as a camp buddy in 2008.
"It took me decades to even acknowledge that I had a grieving process to go through from my own parents' death," she said. "Once I got up here, it was even more eye-opening to see the kids who were at the age when I lost my parents."
As his days at Camp El Tesoro wind down, Vicente said he is ready to move on emotionally, just not ready to part with his counselors and friends.
"I don't want it to end at all," he said. "I'm probably going to cry at the end."
He hopes to return as a volunteer so he can help others juggle life and grief.
Information from: The Dallas Morning News, http://www.dallasnews.com


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« Does Kylie Jenner Have A New Man In Her Life? | Home | Survivor: Cagayan Interview — Garrett Adelstein Explains What Happened To His Hidden Idol »
Survivor: Cagayan Interview — David Samson Says J'Tia Taylor Was Useless
February 27, 2014 04:41 PM by Ryan Haidet
David Samson, president of the Florida Marlins, took a crack at Survivor — and struck out after three days. The big-time sports decision maker quickly found himself as the first person voted out of Survivor: Cagayan — Brains Vs. Brawn Vs. Beauty. In our interview with David, he predicted his tribe's future success, gave his opinion on which team he felt would have been a better fit for him and unleashed his feelings on J'Tia.
Question: The choice to get rid of both you and Garrett seems like a really bad move, and it looks like the Brains tribe could be quickly decimated. What do you think their chances are of doing well? What do they need to do?
David Samson: After what J'Tia did with the rice, I cannot find how Garrett was voted off. It makes no sense. It just confirms our label of the anti-Brain tribe. We were six leaders and no followers. We were not able to accomplish anything during my short stay with the tribe, and it certainly looked like after I left, not much got better. There's always a new sunrise and there's always a new opportunity to get better. To me, J'Tia has sealed her fate. When you're a couch contestant, maybe you think there's a green room with a bunch of food waiting for you when the cameras are off. But it isn't that way. There is no food. To get rid of food like that, to me, seems like an inexcusable act that should have cost her. But frankly, she shouldn't have had the chance to because she should have been the first gone.
Question: What did you make of the Beauty tribe?
David Samson: When we got onto the mat, we didn't know it was Brains Vs. Brawn Vs. Beauty. I looked around and I saw Jefra, Alexis and Morgan were on the same tribe. I saw Tony, Cliff and Sarah on one tribe. Then I looked at us and thought, "There's something going on here." It became very clear. I think the Beauty tribe has a lot to offer. I think it's gonna be very interesting to see how it plays out. If I had to choose one, I'd always choose Brawn because you can be really smart and really good looking, but at the end of the day, having strength is so important. I can't tell you the difference between watching a challenge and doing it. Those treasure chests were so heavy. We were so hungry, so thirsty, so malnourished and so grumpy that it made it tough.
Question: It does seem as if many of the castaways this season could fit into the other tribes. Do you feel your label as a Brain was the right place for you?
David Samson: What we learned after the first three days is pretty clear: I shouldn't have been on any tribe. We certainly didn't act brainy and I certainly don't think anyone is mistaking me for Brawn or putting me on the cover of "Vogue." So I'm not sure where I should have been. Having said that, I'd like to think that I could have played on any of the other tribes because it's a game where you just have to mesh with who you're with and hope the chips fall in the right place.
Question: Do you wish you would have done something differently at Tribal Council?
David Samson: It's terrible to say because I lost, but there's not one thing I would have done differently because it would never have occurred to me that J'Tia would survive the first vote. No matter how strategic people are being, no matter how big a threat they thought I was, why get rid of me after three days? Do it to me later. J'Tia was so useless that I literally thought it was gonna be 5-1.
Question: What was the reaction from the Marlins when they found out you were going to be on Survivor?
David Samson: They were not shocked because they know I like doing things that are a little out of the ordinary and a little crazy. They were not surprised. The poll on me was that I would either be voted out first or win. I will never know if the latter is correct, but they certainly got the former right.
Question: How would you compare what you do for a living to the game of Survivor?
David Samson: With the Marlins, we stay in hotels, not shelters built by nuclear engineers. We have a lot of food in the clubhouse. There's a lot of drinks and I've got baseball players around who are very good at listening if I need help. So, it is nothing close to it. The only thing the job prepared me for, was the ability to make decisions because not all of them are gonna be right. But when you're a decision maker, people just count on me to make a decision. Knowing that some of them are going to be wrong. But in Survivor, you don't get a chance to make it better. I got voted out. In baseball, if you have a bad game, you get to play again tomorrow. There's 162 games in a season and there's always a chance tomorrow a new day will come. But once your torch is snuffed, the season is over. … They didn't really show enough of how hungry and thirsty and malnourished and lack of energy we had. Then we tried to start fire and we literally got nothing done. It was very depressing to go into a challenge and feel as though everybody had a 30-minute head start.
What are your thoughts on what David had to say? Do you think he could have won the game? Are you happy he was the first voted out? Sound off and leave a comment in the section below.
Survivor: Cagayan Premiere Recap — Brains Tribe? How About Dumbass Tribe?
Meet all 18 castaways
Survivor: Cagayan premiere comes later than usual
Topics: CBS Reality TV Shows, Survivor |
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One Response to "Survivor: Cagayan Interview — David Samson Says J'Tia Taylor Was Useless"
Sidney Ashley Says:
May 1st, 2014 at 6:21 pm
Oh Boy, Spenser on the "Brains " team ? ? ? ?
He has had an opportunity to get Tony off, Then He had the opportunity to get rid of Woo. Simply by giving his idol to first Morgan, and then the next time to Jeremiah. Spenser is a wimp. I sure hate to see Tish, or Tony win.


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LANDOVER, Md. (WUSA) -- Monday afternoon, a Prince George's County police officer saw a man carrying a five-gallon water jug full of money in Landover, and went to talk to him. The man then dropped the jug and ran.
The incident occurred in the 1700 block of Countrywood Court. Afte the officer called for backup, officers spotted the man near a wooded area and chased him.
Nineteen-year-old Demetrius Jerome Coles of Capitol Heights was arrested.
Police say officers also recovered a flat screen television in a wooded area. They also found the front door of a home had been kicked in on the street the officer first spotted Coles, according to police.
The jug contained approximately $750.
Police say Coles faces first degree breaking and entering and other charges.


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a good partner for them. We got together and worked out this opportunity that is beneficial to all parties involved."
The ELA Way
Singleton and Rutledge hammered out a solution, in fact, that works to both parties' benefit. That solution came in the form of an enterprise license agreement (ELA). An ELA is not a new concept in government IT. But it is relatively new to government IT security, according to Singleton and Rutledge.
The ELA between New York and McAfee includes a total of 11 products that secure state IT resources end-to-end, including mobile devices. Using the established model of procuring IT security solutions with state rates on state contracts, it would have cost nearly $32 million to achieve this level of protection, according to Singleton. The McAfee deal cost less than $2 million and frees the state to offer unlimited licenses to its agencies. Also part of the negotiation was allowing New York to extend the agreement to counties, which like many state agencies could typically afford only the security pieces that were absolutely necessary.
"One of the reasons we fought so hard to include [the counties] is because we got a lot of input and feedback from the counties that said this is something they would like," Singleton said. "There are counties and small agencies that are paying $30 to $40 per user. When now, with the state enterprise agreement they are going to be able to get it for $3 to $4 -- whatever the cost equals out to. So it's a huge opportunity that they would not previously have had. I've already had a number of counties reach out to me that want to sign up and participate."
The $30 million question is what makes it so much cheaper to do it this way? Singleton said it's all about standardization. Across 200,000 PCs, laptops and mobile devices, and more than 100 state agencies, breaking through the silos and moving to standardization is the key.
"We can manage all 11 products with one client and one agent running on desktops across the agency, across the enterprise," he said. "That's a huge administrative advantage for us."
But getting agencies to standardize is difficult. That's where the ELA came in, as a carrot and stick.
"We removed cost from the equation, we made it more affordable, we gave them the opportunity to deploy as much as they wanted to protect their environment," Singleton said. "We're hoping as a result of that we're going to see an increase of uptake into the adoption of these other products, securing our environment, lowering total cost of ownership for the state."


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UK Law
Get UK Law Questions Answered by Verified Experts
Good afternoon
I believe that the new rules on citizenship come into effect from July 2010. I would suggest that you submit your nationality application as soon as you have 12mths under ILR in January 2010. Currently, turnaround at UKBA has been remarkably quick for straightforward cases (5-6wks).
Kind regards
There are a number of changes being made to the citizenship rules. The legislation is in force but the changes outlined therein will be phased in.
The new registration route to citizenship is to commence in January 2010. This would not affect your situation. Most commonly, it is children under 18 yrs that have to be registered as British nationals.
You would need to make a naturalisation application on the spouse route (3yrs residence requirment as spouse with 12mths ILR as spouse). I have made further enquiries and believe that the changes to naturalisation are not planned to come into effect until summer 2011. This is an extended date than July 2010.
This is good news for your case. Once you have 12mths ILR in January 2010, make your naturalisation application on Form AN1. If your case is deemed straightforward by UKBA then it could be turned around much quicker than the 6mth processing time that is usually highlighted in guidelines.
Hope that clarifies your question. Kind regards
My advice remains unchanged. The changes being brought in for Jan 2010 are for the registration route. Your application on non-spouse route comes under the naturalisation rules. For that reason, I believe that you can still apply under the current rules for naturalisation.
Hope that clarifies the situation. Kind regards
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Port of Seattle police are trying to determine how a woman whose body was found last week on Blake Island ended up in Puget Sound.
Before the body of 46-year-old Collete Scotta Russell was found Jan. 21 on the shoreline of Blake Island, she was reportedly last seen on a vessel in the Port of Seattle, according to an email from Deputy Scott Wilson, a public-information officer for the Kitsap County Sheriff's Office.
"It's believed that she was a member of a fishing boat or fishing trawler as a crew member and that boat was moored or docked in Seattle," Wilson said. "We believe, based on casual conversation, that she somehow fell off the boat."
Her cause of death has been determined as saltwater drowning, but the manner of death is yet to be confirmed, according to the Kitsap County Coroner's Office.
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Peter McGraw, a spokesman for the Port of Seattle, said Russell worked for a vessel called the Seafisher owned by Ocean Peace. Russell was reported missing to the Port of Seattle Police Department around 10 a.m. on Jan. 16.
Crew on board the vessel notified authorities she was missing when she did not make her shift as a galley cook, he said. On the day she was reported missing, McGraw said, the vessel on which Russell worked was docked at the Port of Seattle's Terminal 91.
McGraw could not say how Russell died or whether she was last seen on the vessel.
"The circumstances surrounding her death are currently under investigation by Port of Seattle Police," he wrote in an email.
Russell's employer expressed its condolences to those who were close to her.
"Our thoughts and prayers go out to Ms. Russell's family and loved ones," Corine Rosado, the director of human resources and operations for Ocean Peace, wrote in an email. "We understand the police are investigating and we will have no further comment."
According to Russell's fiancé, Mitch Wilson, 51, they had been a couple for 18 years. They lived in Brinnon, Jefferson County, and Russell had been working in the fishing industry even before they met.
Wilson said Russell was a "sweetheart" who was liked by many and "had a smile that would light the whole day up."
Even though they were engaged for almost 18 years, the couple never got around to having an official wedding ceremony, he said. Wilson said Russell wore both an engagement ring and a wedding band.
She said, 'I'm not gonna wait to put the other one on,' and I said, 'Well, that's fine,' " Wilson said.
Russell was also fond of the outdoors. The couple would go hiking, shrimping, crabbing and camping. She even did a bit of gardening, and the two of them often went for walks.
"I think my favorite thing is she just always woke up with a big smile and lots of energy and wanted to do something," Wilson said.
Wilson said he plans to take her ashes to a family gathering in Montana in the spring.


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DVD RE-RUN: Jehane Noujaim On "Control Room": "My Loyalties Are to the Characters"
by Erica Abeel
[EDITORS NOTE: "Control Room" will be released on DVD this week; indieWIRE interviewed director Jehane Noujaiim earlier this year.]
If ever a film could be termed incendiary, it's "Control Room." Helmed by 29-year-old Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim (co-director of "Startup.com"), it scans the inner workings of Al Jazeera and comes up with a balanced view of the Arab satellite news agency, even suggesting it might traffic more in truth than our own news media.
That takes cojones -- Al Jazeera, with its 40 million Arab viewers, is routinely demonized in America as "Osama bin Laden's mouthpiece." Officials here get riled by the network's "inflammatory" counter narrative, which has the nerve to foreground the suffering of the war's Arab victims, broadcasting graphic visuals of the ongoing carnage.
Yet Al Jazeera is also a filmmaker's dream: it continually makes news while covering it. In late April, Colin Powell censured it for "politically motivated" reports that undercut our efforts at "reconstruction" in Iraq (or, um, program for economic/political domination of the region.) And as I write, Bush chose lesser channels to apologize for abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, making Al Jazeera conspicuous by its absence.
"Control Room" also testifies to Noujaim's remarkable coup in gaining access to Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha, Qatar. Talk about "ideal" timing. Noujaim (Harvard by way of tony prep school Milton Academy) started shooting two weeks before the invasion, offering a courtside view of the onset and outbreak of the Iraqi war. Cutting back and forth between American broadcasters and Al Jazeera, the film lays out the divergent ways the war was reported by the Arabs and the West. Example: the toppling of Saddam's statue, according to the Arab channel, was orchestrated as an American media event, with teen participants who were not even Iraqis.
Despite its incendiary aura, though, Noujaim's film, a standout at Sundance and Lincoln Center's New Directors/New Films, is less political broadside than a riveting account of how the news is created and packaged. It chronicles the chroniclers, zooming in on a cast of complex characters who rarely fail to enlighten and surprise.
Most fascinating is Sameer Khader, Al Jazeera senior producer, overworked, chain-smoking, brimming with mischief. Also featured is former BBC reporter Hassan Ibrahim, a witty Sudanese Brit who opposes the U.S. presence in the Middle East, ("you are the most powerful nation on earth... you can crush everyone... but don't ask us to love it as well") while praising American democracy. Young female producer Deema Khatib wryly analyzes Western war coverage from her control booth vantage point. And at nearby U.S. Centcom, American press liaison Lt. John Rushing manfully struggles to justify the American position to the Arab press (and perhaps to himself.)
Jehane Noujaim is tall, jet-browed, ivory-skinned, with a disarming smile and zero pretension. She wears pointy lizard cowboy boots, and carries the responsibility for this gutsy film with grace. Recently she took time out from last-minute tweaking of the final cut to talk with indieWIRE. Magnolia Pictures opened the film on Friday at New York's Film Forum; it will roll out to the rest of the country in June.
indieWIRE: What's the response so far to your film?
Jehane Noujaim: Amazingly positive. I was worried that people here would be upset by it. In Egypt they told me I wouldn't be able to release the film in the United States. But people have been moved, grateful, appreciative. They tell me it's been a real eye-opener.
iW: What was the initial impetus for going to Qatar?
Noujaim: The idea came from a few different sources. Al Jazeera is demonized by the United States, yet in Egypt my father would be watching it. Another contradiction is between its popularity within the Arab populace and how hated it is by many Arab governments. It's been kicked out of several countries for criticizing their rulers -- because it doesn't offer sheltered news. It will have an Israeli debate an Islamist, as part of its democratic mission, And Arab royalist regimes are uncomfortable with that. They say, Why debate? You're not going to find any answers. I figured, if Al Jazeera makes so many governments upset, yet is really loved by the population as a whole, they must be doing something right.
Also, Al Jazeera's main location is in Qatar, and the U.S. military established their Centcom about 20 miles way. It was an amazing nexus in this tiny Persian Gulf country the size of Rhode Island. All the information the world received about the war was coming out of this place.
iW: How did you gain access to Al Jazeera?
Noujaim: I got in through Abdullah Schleifer, a journalist who teaches at the American University in Cairo. He set up our initial meeting with Al Jazeera, and he also brought us to Centcom, where he was interviewing Lt. Rushing for his paper.
iW: I assume you encountered resistance from Al Jazeera. How did you sell yourself?
Noujaim: I told them I was working completely independently, and promised to use small cameras, no lights, and stay in the background. But the people who really gave us access were our characters.
We met Hassan and Sameer, both chain smokers, in the Al Jazeera cafeteria. We sat around and drank a lot of coffee. They believed in us -- you need someone on the inside who trusts you. They saw we were trying to understand how the news was being created at Al Jazeera and Centcom, rather than trying to forward some agenda. And they saw we were interested in them as individuals within this system.
Schleifer, who became our executive producer, led us to Lt. Josh Rushing, who was interested in what we were doing and very open.
Deema, after watching us for a week or so, felt that we weren't after the "veiled woman behind the controls" cliché, and said she wanted to be part of it.
iW: How did the staff at Al Jazeera react to your filming?
Noujaim: We were moving around people accustomed to film shoots, so my camera became invisible to them. However, they understood the power of images and editing, so we had to gain people's trust to get them to speak openly and act naturally around us.
iW: How did you get an established journalist like CNN's Tom Mintier to level with you?
Noujaim: We went up to pretty much everyone who was working at Centcom. There was a lot of fear among journalists at the time: Peter Arnett had just been fired for talking to Iraqi television. But Tom Mintier was always questioning Centcom's methods of operation -- for instance when he speaks about Centcom "burying the lead" of the taking of Baghdad by focusing on the Jessica Lynch story.
iW: Did you ever feel in any danger?
Noujam: Well, I'm sure my phone was tapped in Qatar. They have translations in 50 languages at the ready, and if you so much as mention the words "bin Laden" or "tapes," you're tapped. I started hearing weird clicks during phone calls.
iW: What governed your choice of individuals featured in the film?
Noujaim: I've discovered I can't make a film about people I dislike. I wanted surprising, engaging, charismatic, complex people. I wanted to show them as human beings.
iW: One of my favorites was Sameer Khader, who threw out provocative statements. Said he'd like his children to have an American education and "exchange the Arab nightmare for the American dream" and that he'd work for Fox if they offered him a job. What piece of that was serious?
Noujaim: I think he was serious about giving his kids an American education. You know, Arabs are critical of United States foreign policy, but they also associate the U.S. with democratic principles and opportunity.
As for taking a job with Fox, Sameer told me "it would be an experience for me." Qatar is a hard place to live. It's just a few hotels and a mall, without the cultural depth of, say, Jordan. These journalists have left their families behind to come work in the middle of the desert.
iW: So much is going on in the film: news feeds coming into the control room, conflicting reportage, debates on world politics. How did you devise a structure?
Noujaim: Through trial and error. We ended up with seven hours of film, and had six characters. We then decided to order it chronologically, while moving back and forth between different points of view. Then we looked at all the characters, picked out the best scenes, and ordered them chronologically. Next we had to figure out how to weave it all together. I wanted to convey surprise, confusion, discovery -- reproduce my own process in making the film. I used editors of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I got a richer film that way.
iW: Would you say you were objective in this film?
Noujaim: Well, "objectivity is a bit of mirage," as one of my characters says.
I was biased towards the characters I was following: Mintier, Deema, Rushing, Sameer, Hassan.
iW: But didn't you bring your own political bias to the mix?
Noujaim: I don't know enough or feel qualified to make political judgments. I didn't have any strong beliefs going into this. I was just very curious about who was giving the information to the world.
iW: That sounds a bit disingenuous.
Noujaim: I was obviously upset with the death of Iraqis, just as I was with the death of Americans during the war. But I tried to be as fair as possible in my portrayal of the people in Jazeera and Central Command -- though audiences tend to identify with one character or another. I did not intend for this film to be an endorsement of either Al Jazeera or the western news media. It's true that I follow three sympathetic characters who don't fit the stereotype of wild-eyed pan-Arabist propagandists on the one side, or a robotic military press officer on the other. My loyalties are to the characters as they scramble to make sense of the war and present their points of view.
But in the interests of fairness, I edited back in some lines of Hassan at the last minute. When someone asks, "Who is going to stop the United States?" Hassan answers: "The United States is... I have absolute faith in the American constitution. The American people are going to stop the American empire."
iW: When you entered Harvard, you wanted to be a doctor. What drew you to filmmaking?
Noujaim: I took courses in the School of Visual Arts. Harvard is a great school for the arts because they have lots of money and gave us free film -- if there's anything a student filmmaker needs, it's film. For a long time I'd admired D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus. "Don't Look Back" was just about my favorite film.
iW: What did you learn from working with them?
Noujaim: Working with Chris on "Startup.com" I learned about editing. And I learned to pick inspirational characters -- for "Startup" I was following my roommate, who at the time was involved in an internet startup. I think most important, I learned that a documentary should be as close as possible to a fiction film, and capture characters under pressure who are on a journey.
iW: How have you gotten so far so young? Please don't say you've been lucky.
Noujaim: [Laughing] My parents don't think I've come so far. They say I still don't have a place to live. And I have been lucky. It's helped to be open to people and events.
Also, people don't know about my many failed attempts. I tried to make a film about the "branding" of America PR woman Charlotte Beers was hired to spruce up the United States image post 9/11. But the film was a disaster. All my tapes got confiscated by the Egyptian government or the Americans.
iW: What's up next?
Noujaim: I won't know until after I've finished with "Control Room." I'll continue making films because I love being able to drop into other people's worlds. My goal is to be constantly learning.


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Have you ever wanted the chance to attend behind-the-scenes talks on how Pixar films come to life? Do you want to re-watch classic Pixar films on the big screen? Then, get this – Disney Cruise has themed four of its cruises so that they are taken over by Pixar's films, characters, artwork, and employees. Pixar co-founder John Lasseter and other employees from the animation studio will give presentations taking guests closer than ever to their creative process. After the break, you can find the complete schedule.
Cars 2 Production Designer Harley Jessup Talks Animation World
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars, recently produced a series of videos entitled "Production Design in the 21st Century," where they spoke to production designers within the film industry. Harley Jessup, who is the production designer for the upcoming Cars 2, sat down to talk about his career leading up to joining Pixar for Monsters, Inc. and goes on to share some thoughts on how the animation industry works. Click here to view the full video. [Read more…]