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LONDON – It had been, famously, more than 75 years since a British man arrived at Wimbledon as the defending champion.
So Andy Murray took a moment — and, really, only a moment — to take in the sights and sounds Monday at Centre Court as nearly 15,000 spectators, including former NBA superstar Shaquille O'Neal up in the Royal Box, rose to greet him with a raucous standing ovation.
Murray's parents and grandparents were present. So, of course, was his much-discussed recent choice as coach, Amelie Mauresmo. The other player, 105th-ranked David Goffin of Belgium, was little more than a bystander for the proceedings, which wrapped up a little more than two hours after they began with a 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 victory for Murray.
"I was pretty nervous and stuff before the match. Then when you're walking to the court — I have a lot of memories, obviously, from last year. To come to the court and get that reception, it was very nice," said Murray, who last year became the first man from Britain since Fred Perry in 1936 to win the nation's most prestigious tennis tournament.
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That title for Perry was his third in a row at the All England Club, but he did not try for another one in 1937.
Murray heeded advice from Mauresmo, the 2006 women's champion at Wimbledon, who told him to soak in everything while walking out to play because, as he put it, "You never know if you'll get the chance to do it again."
He responded to the crowd's reaction with a quick wave and a glance around the stadium.
"Enjoyed it for the walk to the chair," Murray said. "Then when I sat down, it was time to get on with business."
He certainly took care of that, finishing with a mere 10 unforced errors and saving the only two break points he faced. He pounded serves at up to 131 mph.
The man Murray beat in last year's final, No. 1-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia, also won in easy fashion, taking the first 11 games en route to beating 56th-ranked Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-0, 6-1, 6-4.
All in all, it was a relatively quiet start to a tournament that a year ago was as tumultuous as ever, including exits by the end of the second round for past champions Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova. That trio, along with five-time champion and No. 1-seeded Serena Williams, plays opening matches Tuesday.
Williams' older sister, Venus, won Monday for her first victory at Wimbledon since 2011. But there were losses for 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur, 18th-seeded Sloane Stephens and 27th-seeded Garbine Muguruza, a 20-year-old Spaniard who surprisingly beat Serena Williams in the second round of the French Open last month.
American Stephens had reached at least the fourth round at six consecutive Grand Slam tournaments, the longest active streak for a woman, but she lost to Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-2, 7-6 (8-6).
Muguruza saved a hard-to-believe 12 match points but couldn't erase No. 13, double-faulting twice in a row to lose 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to 22-year-old American CoCo Vandeweghe, ranked 51st.


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At First USA Bank, Promotions and Job Satisfaction Are Up
Optimas 2001 - Quality of Life: The Opportunity Knocks program helps employees zero in on career dreams and achieve them.
But as Bender notes, there's considerable pressure to meet goals, and the pace - collectors must contact at least 16 accounts per hour - can be grueling. "I found myself really starting to get burned out," he says. "I got to the point where I was taking too many breaks, talking to people and complaining, creating for myself the image of someone who didn't really want to work here."
It hadn't always been like that. When Bender had taken the job several years before, he'd seen it as a way to get his foot in the door at First USA. But somewhere along the way he'd gotten off track and lost sight of how to further his ambitions.
"This is a huge bank, and I didn't really have a clue as to what else was out there for me to do, what I should learn, who I needed to get to know. I wasn't well organized, and I had trouble focusing on the job and advancing my career at the same time. And I couldn't really expect my manager to take a couple of hours and help me figure out what to do with my life."
Fortunately, First USA stepped up and offered Bender and its other employees a way to help themselves. The company's Opportunity Knocks program, now in its third year, is an innovative HR program designed to help employees zero in on their career dreams and achieve them within the organization.
What makes the program especially remarkable is the amount of resources the bank has committed to it, and the extent to which it's been integrated into the everyday workplace. First USA not only provides career-development training and follow-up guidance, but it also has outfitted special facilities at its work sites, which it allows employees to use on company time.
The program was born in the summer of 1998, when First USA conducted employee job satisfaction surveys in the wake of a merger. The results were sobering. It found that certain groups were dissatisfied with their jobs, and many seemed pessimistic about their future prospects within the organization.
"We already had a sense that career development among our non-exempt employee population was an issue," says Jeff Brown, First USA's assistant vice president for organizational effectiveness. "But the survey really threw it in our faces, and made us realize we had to do something about it."
When First USA's HR team took the grim findings to the organization's site managers, they showed enough wisdom not to dodge the issue or point fingers elsewhere. Instead, management and HR worked together to create an aggressive remedial strategy. That summer, the HR and operations management team plunged into the task of making it happen.
While the team had some specific, measurable short-term goals - improving job satisfaction, reducing attrition, and boosting internal promotions - they also wanted to promote a broader, more pervasive and persistent change in the bank's corporate culture.
"We wanted employees to own their own careers, to take charge of where they were going," Brown says. "We wanted them to choose their path, rather than wait for somebody to choose it for them. But beyond that, we wanted to get away from the idea that the only worthwhile way to grow was to move upward to a higher-ranking job.
"Promotions are one career path, but they're not the only path. A person can also make lateral moves within an organization, and develop a greater breadth of experience and perspective from working at a different job at the same level. Or a person can follow a path of job enrichment - improving their skills, or maybe reinventing the job itself, to keep it interesting."
At the same time, the team wanted to create an atmosphere in which it was evident that employees' career advancement was not only supported by the bank but also strongly aligned with the organization's own goals. First USA saved time by utilizing the services of Career Systems International, a Scranton, Pennsylvania-based HR consulting firm. CSI provided First USA with CareerPower, a seminar format built around what CSI founder Beverly Kaye calls the "Five Ps."
"The first 'P' is the person - the individual employee," Kaye explains. "The employee needs to understand the sum total of his or her skills, abilities, values, and interests, and to be able to articulate them so that a career fit is possible.
"The next 'P' is perspective - you need to check out your self-assessment with others, by going back and soliciting feedback, by examining how you interface with your colleagues and your manager and everyone else you deal with.
"The third 'P' is place. In order to be a good manager of your own career, you have to understand not only your own job and the company you're in, but the whole broader world of work, what's happening in your industry and profession. Part of that is looking for how changes in the workplace and your profession and industry require changes in your skill-set and position.
"The fourth 'P' is possibility. You need to get a fix on the different ways you can move within an organization and outside it - the benefits of moving laterally versus moving up, how to accomplish moving vertically if that's what you want to do, how you can enrich yourself. Or, if you decide that leaving is the best option, where you might go. Ideally, you want to have not just one objective, but several possibilities.
"The last 'P' is the plan. If you don't have one, all of those previous ideas aren't worth anything. You need a blueprint for how to develop those new abilities, skills, and competencies that help you move toward your goals."
First USA's team adopted the Five Ps as the core philosophy of its new culture-shift program. To get employees going in the new direction, Brown and his colleagues originally conceived a series of career management skills workshops. But when they reviewed the plan with the bank executives and managers, the latter surprised them by asking for more.
"Basically, they told us, 'We're sold on this idea, but if we're going to do this, let's really do it right.' " That feedback helped the team develop a broader vision. "We didn't want to just create another program," Brown explains. "Programs come and go. Instead, we wanted to create a process in which people could take the initiative and develop themselves, after the initial push."
As a result, First USA added two more components to the program, creating Opportunity Knocks. At each of its work sites, the bank set up Career Resource Centers, or CRCs - special rooms equipped with everything from business publications and career-management literature to computers for writing résumés. The CRCs give employees a convenient space where they can sign up to spend a few hours a week - on company time - following up on their career-development plans.
In addition, First USA hired employment development advisers, or EDAs, to continue advising and counseling employees after the initial workshops. In keeping with the program's mission of developing First USA's own workforce, the EDAs were 100 percent internal hires, with a variety of backgrounds that included HR, training, and team management.
By the winter of 1998, First USA was ready to roll out pilot programs at two of its work sites. The team marketed the program to employees through "town hall" meetings. They quickly discovered that a hard sell wasn't needed. Employees like Bender were eager for change. Before starting Opportunity Knocks, he'd had a vague ambition to become some sort of manager. The program quickly enabled him to focus on more tangible goals.
"One of the first things we did was play a card game," he recalls. "Basically, it showed you things about yourself - are you a people person, or are you more interested in working with computers, or whatever." Further coaching, exercises, and self-examination helped Bender not only to figure out other jobs that he might find satisfying, but also to identify people with whom he had to network.
Ultimately, Opportunity Knocks enabled Bender to move into a different position at the bank. "Now I'm a PFC, a production flow coordinator. I run the dialer system, make sure the computers are running properly, take care of systems issues. It's different and challenging and I like it a lot."
Another First USA employee, Christine Lolly-Harvey, says the program helped her realize that she had leadership skills to go with her skill as a collections specialist. She's now breaking in as a team relief manager. "I don't think I'd have thought to make a change on my own," she says.
The Opportunity Knocks program has produced some tangible results, Brown says. Thanks to the preparation and guidance that employees received, internal promotions at First USA increased by more than 50 percent last year.
Additionally, when First USA repeated its internal opinion surveys, the bank found that employee satisfaction with career development issues had increased more than 25 percent when compared to 1998 results. The attrition rate among people who participated in the Opportunity Knocks program was about 65 percent lower than that of non-participants. This saved First USA $2.2 million in replacement costs.
Workforce, March 2001, pp. 54-56 Subscribe Now

subset: commoncrawl


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Destiny swings a big stick in Brian Helgeland's "42." It underlines every pivotal moment of Jackie Robinson's career captured in the two hour film, often working as baggage keeping the film earthbound, at times making it unnecessarily weighty. It's also probably the major reason why a number of mainstream critics will wag a finger at this unapologetic, old-fashioned hero yarn seemingly stitched from the similarly modest DNA of 1950's "The Jackie Robinson Story." What seems like a high fidelity to history is actually an acknowledgement and deep respect, the kind most modern filmmakers and viewers would likely find alien.
The film begins with the legend of Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), the idiosyncratic owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers eager not to make history but to acknowledge that the only color significant to him is "green." Winning will bring the fans out, and the roster move that will put the Dodgers over the top is the acquisition of Negro League barnstormer Jackie Robinson, the first black player in major league history. In an audacious introduction, Robinson (newcomer Chadwick Boseman) is seen under the dim lights of a night game, promising a headstrong pitcher that he's going to steal home right in front of him. Rickey's words are lightning; Robinson's on-field athleticism is all the thunder you'd need.
This pugnaciousness serves him well when he meets Rickey and promises him complete devotion to the team. The early scenes are particularly clunky between the two, as if there's an implicit awareness that They Are Breaking The Color Barrier and Their Lives Will Never Be The Same. Boseman, a fascinating masculine presence, is strong without being insolent, brave without being obnoxious, traits that Robinson himself displayed playing the lead in "The Jackie Robinson Story." Ford comes off less confidently, seeming to gesture and flail, wearing artificial gray eyebrows that look like overfed mice, hoping his bluster would overcompensate for a failure to create a character with a lived-in personality.
Helgeland is smart enough to know this story has been told before, so "42" earns distinction through what seems like meticulous research. There's a hefty amount of screentime dedicated to Robinson's teammates promising a mutiny, a laborious petition-driven process that involves several Dodgers voting to not play alongside Robinson himself. Rickey uses coded terms when he tells a minor league manager that he's aware of his "cultural upbringing" after overhearing him slur "nigger" towards the player, a chiding that masks condescension with a fake tolerance towards ignorance.
Similarly, Alan Tudyk shows up to break the record for most uses of "nigger" per minute from any actor in film history (someone get this guy in a Tarantino movie). As blowhard Phillies manager Ben Chapman, Tudyk interrupts one game to blast Robinson with a string of n-bombs, as well as old favorites like "porch monkey" and "spade," an ugly, powerful scene that, given the slack pacing of the picture and the considerable length, would have been kept on the cutting room floor by a more gunshy major studio. As Robinson finds it in himself to not engage Chapman in a war of words (or worse), the insults continue raining down on him, an endless fuselage that goes beyond upsetting into just plain disturbing.
It's here where Helgeland shows his truest interests and instincts. Rickey correctly surmises that Robinson's strength in letting this cascade off his back plays as stoicism to the media, and sure enough, it taints Chapman's professional reputation, revealing that a portion of this social revolution spearheaded by Robinson was due to the actions of a few select reporters (an idea given short shrift here, though certainly enough to carry its own film). But later, in a photo opportunity, Chapman tones down the aggression without fully embracing Robinson, sagely noting like a member of the Boy's Club the tradition of delivering similar slander towards the Jewish Hank Greenberg and the Italian Joe DiMaggio. With this moment, as well as Major League Baseball's last minute decision to suspend manager Leo Durocher (Christopher Meloni) for adultery given pressure from the Catholic Youth Organization, "42" emphasizes that, for better or worse, the sport considered America's Pastime has a long, embedded history of appealing towards an exclusionary Good Ole Boy appeal. As Rickey notes when he paints a portrait of the flood of incoming black players, it's not as simple as people wanting to "play ball," expressing uncertainty that it ever was, suggesting early and mid-twentieth century institutions projecting an insincere image of American culture.
"42" is excessively retro, neglecting the urge to pepper scenes with comic relief or oppressing, flashy conflict. But it's the sort of approach that keeps these characters from being "rebels" with phony redemptive character arcs, like stern young black reporter Wendell Smith (Andre Holland), hired to work the Robinson beat and provide media coaching. The cumulative effect of this approach, however, places a surprising emphasis on the chemistry between Boseman and Nicole Beharie as his wife Rachel. Like Boseman, Beharie is a carryover from "The Express" (these types of films seem to cast from an awfully small pool) and the two of them have undeniable chemistry, Beharie's startlingly beautiful smile bursting through the screen like a beacon. As much history is being created on the field, it can't compare to the magic created between these two performers. [B+]


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How HTC's WiMAX Android phone stacks up against Google's own Android handset.
When Google released its Nexus One smartphone earlier this year, it was intended to serve as a showcase for "Android done right." In other words, Google was hoping to set a new bar for Android device manufacturers by releasing a phone with a 1GHz processor that was significantly more powerful than what previous Android phones had used. But at CTIA in Las Vegas this week, HTC stepped up to the challenge by unveiling its own device that not only has equivalent processing power but also is capable of running on Sprint's high-speed WiMAX network. In this article we'll break down the basics of HTC's new EVO 4G and see how it compares with Google's Nexus One.
Slideshow version: HTC EVO 4G vs. Google Nexus One
The processors
This is a pretty obvious tie, since both devices run on the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. This is hardly surprising, since both the Google phone and the EVO 4G were manufactured by HTC – in other words, once HTC got its feet wet in manufacturing Google's phone, there was no reason for it not to use the Snapdragon for its own 4G Android phone. From a practical standpoint, the Snapdragon processor gives users the ability to run multiple complex applications at the same time.
The operating systems
Again, this is a tie since both phones run on the Android 2.1 operating system. The virtues of Android 2.1, according to Google, include a voice-enabled keyboard that will let you vocally update your social networking sites and speak text into any field, as well as the ability to have a 3D photo gallery. As a Linux-based open-source operating system, Android is a rising star in the mobile OS market, as it is now used in just over 7% of U.S smartphones.
Now this is where things get really interesting. The Nexus One either is or will soon be available for use on every major U.S. wireless carrier. Indeed, having a device that can hop between carriers has long been one of Google's goals for the mobile world, as it has hoped to give users the option of keeping their favorite devices even as they change wireless carriers. So really, the strength of the Nexus One is entirely dependent on the strength of the 3G network it happens to be latched onto.
The HTC EVO 4G, on the other hand, can only be used on Sprint's network. However, it will be the first phone to access Sprint's 4G WiMAX network, which just happens to be the fastest wireless data network currently available in the United States as it typically delivers average speeds in the 2M to 4Mbps range. The downside here is that WiMAX coverage isn't yet nationwide, although Sprint WiMAX wholesaler Clearwire has vowed to launch its services in all major U.S. markets by the end of 2010, covering 120 million points of presence.
The bottom line is that if you live in or near a major city, the EVO 4G could give you the fastest mobile connection speed of any current phone by year-end.
Display screens and keypads
One of the EVO 4G's most striking features is its large 4.3-inch display screen that has a wide video graphics array (WVGA) display of 800x480 pixels. This is a slightly larger display screen than the Nexus One's 3.7-inch display, although both devices feature the same WVGA resolution of 800x480.
In terms of keyboards, both devices have a touchscreen interface without a physical slide-out keyboard. This sort of thing obviously comes down to personal taste, as many smartphone users have preferred to have access to a physical keypad and not rely on touchscreen technology. But the technology has proven popular enough that both Google and HTC have felt comfortable releasing their high-profile devices without the separate QWERTY.
Learn more about this topic
Google Nexus One vs. Motorola Droid: Breaking down the basics
Android dominates, Windows Mobile plummets, iPhone stagnant


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The Ballard Jazz Festival is a hot ticket next week, but three other shows should also tickle Northwest jazz fans.
Medeski, Martin & Wood, the grooving "indie jazz" trio that dragged the music kicking and screaming into the age of electronica, did an abrupt about face last year by going all acoustic with the album "Free Magic."
Medeski points out in interviews that playing acoustically with his band mates Chris Wood (bass) and Billy Martin (drums) takes out some of the groove, but forces both musicians and audience to listen more closely. Nothing wrong with that.
The trio performs at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland Ave., Kirkland; $40 (425-828-0422 or www.kpcenter.org).
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The Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra nods to the great Duke Ellington this week with an "early music"-style concert titled "Music of the Harlem Renaissance III: Duke Ellington's 'Reminiscing in Tempo.' " SRJO co-director Michael Brockman, who transcribed the show's 12-minute title tune from the 1935 recording, will discuss excerpts along with co-director Clarence Acox. The performance will be done with the original Ellington instrumentation, including valve trombone, guitar and two bass fiddles.
(Next year, the SRJO performs a Mound City Blue Blowers program with original tissue paper and comb — just kiddin'.)
The SRJO performs at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Nordstrom Recital Hall, Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle (206-215-4747 or www.seattlesymphony.org) and at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Kirkland Performance Center, 350 Kirkland Ave., Kirkland (425-828-0422 or www.kpcenter.org). Tickets are $15-$41 and are available directly from the venues or from the SRJO (206-523-6159 or www.srjo.org/tickets.htm).
Guitarist and composer Tom Baker has been producing outstanding work in Seattle for two decades, most notably the starkly beautiful chamber opera, "Hunger: The Journey of Tamsen Donner." On Friday, as part of the Cornish Music Series, Baker kicks off a third decade here with a concert of all-new electronic music, including collaborations with dance and film.
The show's at 8 p.m. Friday at Poncho Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts, 710 E. Roy St., Seattle; $10-$20 (800-838-3006 or www.brownpapertickets.com).
Paul de Barros: 206-464-3247 or firstname.lastname@example.com


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I just noticed that we are not receiving emails today. nothing changed, everything has been working fine until a couple hours ago.
i tried checking the admin, and I'm getting an error when i go to mail queues:
Message: system failure: exception during auth {RemoteManager: mailhost.toqen.com->email@example.com:22}
Error code: service.FAILURE
Method: ZmCsfeCommand.prototype.invoke


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December at the Manistique Farmers' Market
We held three fall/winter farmers' markets in Manistique in 2011: one each in October, November and December. Here are some photos from the December market. We will be busy working and planning for the 2012 market season over the next few months – stay tuned and come join us on opening day May 23, 2012 from 5-6pm at the Little Bear West Arena. Related External Links Keweenaw Now: Headwaters News: EPA Talks Jobs and Regulation


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A suitably named pasta salad that's loaded with flavorful ingredients. Try it with grilled veal chops or Cornish game hens.
Leave a Review
This is my go-to dinner party recipe. Everyone loves it. The only draw back is that I hardly get to eat any because everyone wants to take home any left overs. A dear friend turned me on to this recipe and suggested adding a pound of ground beef thus making it a main dish. I have made this half a dozen times already - love it!
I have been making this recipe forever. I always adjust amounts to 1 lb. of orzo - it's never gone to waste. I sometimes vary the herbs or add more, spice it up with red pepper flakes, add cherry tomatoes, scallions, or red onion...you really can't mess it up! Making to bring to a BBQ tomorrow - may try other reviewers' suggestion for white balsamic, though never been bothered by the darker orzo. Totally a go-to recipe for me! Best at room temp.
Why do you drain the sundries tomatoes and then add new olive oil?
This was pretty tasty, but not quite the stand-out recipe I expected based on the ratings. Maybe I just don't like pasta salad that much... I left out the radicchio (husband doesn't like the bitterness) and tossed in some halved cherry tomatoes, which were a nice addition in terms of sweetness and a pop of color.
I reviewed this recipe 9/25/2001, so I've been making it for 13 years now! My only problem was the balsamic turning the orzo brown. I tried other vinegars, but without the balsamic flavor, the recipe wasn't the same. Eventually, I discovered white balsamic which works perfectly for this recipe. I use Aulente Condimento which is available on Amazon for an arm and a leg. I found it a local gourmet shop for $16 for half a liter.
This is always a crowd-pleaser. I use arugula instead of radicchio, feta instead of parmesan, and add the garlic to the hot pasta.
This has become my signature dish - the one dish always requested of me when I ask "what can I bring" I leave out the radicchio, just don't like it and sometimes substitute feta for parmesan, but not always. I use white balsamic, just for color purposes. Always easy, always delicious!
This recipe as is excellent! Everyone gives it rave reviews when I make/take to BBQ. Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! No need to change recipe1
I doubled recipe for potluck. I modified recipe per comments from site. I boiled orzo in diluted chicken broth instead of water till al dente (I just used chk boillion cubes to jazz up the water). I added a bit more kalamata olives (costco sells pitted ones) and a bit more sundried tomatoes (drain super well or salad will be too oily). I added less olive oil then called for. I omited radichio. Don`t skimp on pine nuts or parmesan. Enjoy!
Easy and delicious!


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Where Should You Go for the Best Diet? Not the United States
If you wanted to find the most nutritious, most diverse diet, where should you go? According to a new ranking from advocacy group Oxfam, you should be traveling to the Netherlands.
Oxfam ranked 125 countries of the world on their citizens' access to fresh produce, nutritious proteins, and clean water. The anti-poverty nonprofit also looked at whether or not those options were affordable when compared to less healthy options.
"Basically, if you arrive from Mars and design a food system, you couldn't design a worse one than what we have today on Earth," Max Lawson of Oxfam told The Salt in an interview. "There is enough food overall in the world to feed everyone. But 900 million people still don't have enough to eat, and 1 billion people are obese. It's a crazy situation."
When compiling the rankings, Lawson and his team found that rich countries have the advantage, since a country's score depends on food availability. For example, all of the top eight countries is European except for one – France, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Luxembourg, and Australia.
The countries that rank the worst are places that are often noted for poverty and hunger – Yemen, Madagascar, Ethiopia, Angola, and Chad.


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|Oracle FAQ
|Your Portal to the Oracle Knowledge Grid
Home -> Community -> Usenet -> comp.databases.theory -> Re: database design question
The first way is the only way to go, in my opinion. If you use the second option, you are no longer storing the label's language in the table; you are storing it instead in the name of the table's column. Data goes in tables; data does not go in column names. That's a pretty fundamental principle of database design, and for good reason. A row should represent a single entity, and the column values should represent attributes of that entity. "oui" is not an attribute of "yes", however "oui" is an attribute of "yes in French", the "how it is written" attribute.
You should also never have to add columns to a table except when you come to realize that you must keep track of a new attribute not originally in the design. A new language is not a new attribute - you should only need to add a new column if you do something like expand this to a voice-interactive system and decide to store .wav files for each label so that it can be pronounced, not printed. The .wav file is the "how it sounds" attribute of "yes in French", and would deserve a new column. As you have it now, what would you do if you needed the .wav files? Double the number of columns? Add an entirely new table to store something about "Label" that you already have a table for?
I'm not trying to put you down - your question is common, and the second structure you suggest is a nice one for people to look at, but it's not a good table design. Save the second format for human-readable output, to be produced by a report-writing package, and stick with the first design. It will provide many benefits - one for example would be if there is a global constant for a client's language, say @@lang. Then you have the same query for every language:
select label from labels
where index = 'yes'
and language_id= @@lang
Otherwise you need to write all new queries for every language.
Steve Kass
Drew University
danjourno wrote:
>i am having a problem trying to figure out which way to go with adding
>multilingual support to my database.
>I am trying to store labels for multiple languages in my DB so I am creating
>a table called labels
>currently I have a table with three columns. One for an index, one for the
>actual label, and one that links to a language ID.
>all index values are in english
>index | label | language_id
>yes yes EN
>yes oui FR
>primary key(index, language_id)
>I am thinking that I should actually change this to add more collumns rather
>that rows.
>like below.
>index | label_eng | label_fr | label_ch |
>yes yes oui ????
>and then continue to add more columns as I add more languages.
>my question is..: is this second option a better option? as far as database
>design goes, taking into account that the size of these label fields may
>come to over 150 chars..?
>BTW I am currently using 3.23 but I understand that version 4 supports
>multiple charsets.
>this is one of my reasons for thinking of this change
>thanks heaps
Received on Fri Dec 27 2002 - 19:17:17 CST
Original text of this message


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May 30, 2016
Michigan State Police are trying to figure out who vandalized a Jackson County cemetery.
On Friday, the McNair Cemetery caretaker discovered ten headstones had been knocked over and several of them were broken.
The destruction at the Pulaski Township cemetery happened between July 14 and July 21.
f you have any information, call 517-780-4580.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
Viewers with disabilities can get assistance accessing this station's FCC Public Inspection File by contacting the station with the information listed below. Questions or concerns relating to the accessibility of the FCC's online public file system should be directed to the FCC at 888-225-5322, 888-835-5322 (TTY), or email@example.com.


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Obama's Sniveling About Patriots And The New Media Continues.
CBS news, in keeping with the lowest standards of television news journalism, standards as low as their ratings, pandered to Barack Hussein Obama and listened to his diatribe against American citizens, patriots who would dare to speak their minds regarding Obama's multi-trillion dollar assault on our way of life, our laws and Constitution. He continued his rant with references to conservative television (Fox News), talk | Read More »


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I'm Pro-Life and Support the Death Penalty
In the midst of the continued sorrow from last week's massacre in Charleston, another act of terror was once again back in the spotlight. On Wednesday, the formal sentencing of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the two responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013, occurred. His sentence? Death. As with most sentences of death which are handed down, vocal opposition to the procedure exists. | Read More »


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Midday Roundup: Supreme Court says affirmative action ban is not discriminatory
Affirmative ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Michigan's ban on affirmative action in college admissions today, saying voters had a right in 2006 to prohibit state universities from using race as a factor in acceptance decisions. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote an impassioned, 58-page dissent that was longer than the combined four opinions written by those who voted in the majority. Sotomayor said the court's decision trampled the rights of minorities, even though Michigan voters adopted the law in a democratic process. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sided with Sotomayor. Justice Elena Kagan did not participate in the 6-2 decision, presumably because she had worked on the case during her time at the Justice Department.
Under who? A New Jersey family is suing its local school district in a bid to have "under God"removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. The American Humanist Association filed the suit on the family's behalf. The suit claims referencing God discriminates against atheists, humanists, and anyone else who doesn't believe in the Divine. Although their children could just opt out of the pledge, the family claims doing so forces them to choose between being patriotic and being religious. Apparently the stigma of being unpatriotic is worse than the stigma of being irreligious. The phrase "under God" was not part of the original pledge, written in 1892, but was added in 1954.
Traditional marriage support. The Family Research Council released a survey today showing more than two-thirds of Republican voters still support traditional marriage, despite widespread claims that the national attitude toward same-sex marriage has become more accepting. According to the national survey, conducted by Wilson Research Strategies, 82 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe marriage should be defined as a union between one man and one woman. Seventy-five percent of those surveyed disagree that "politicians should support the redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples."
The Russian armed bandit? Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Kiev today to show support for the Ukrainian government. Biden told Russia it was time to put up or shut up—"stop talking and start acting," in diplomatic speak—and pledged an additional $50 million from the United States to help Ukraine with political and economic reforms. Russian is widely thought to be encouraging pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country, who have occupied government buildings and are threatening to overthrow regional governments. Biden urged Russia to tell the separatists they need to address their grievances politically, and not militarily. Ukraine's acting prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, was more blunt in his assessment, calling Russia an "armed bandit." "Russia should stick to its international commitments and obligations," he said. "They should not behave as gangsters in the modern century."
Courthouse shooting. A U.S. marshal shot and killed a man on trial for assault, conspiracy, robbery, and weapons offenses after he lunged at a witness testifying against him. Siale Angilau, 25, was the last of 17 gang members to be tried in a case that started in 2010. The witness, who was not injured in the shooting, was testifying about gang initiation practices. Angilau rushed at him with a pen in a "threatening manner," officials said. People present in the courtroom said the marshal fired at least six shots.


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The Treaty establishing the Energy Communty created a set of common institutions and a legal framework within which these institutions operate. It also defined the rights and obligations of the Parties to the Treaty. In the following, the legal framework established by and under the Treaty will be described.
Energy Community Legal Framework
For the sake of best possible overview, the Secretariat compiles the prevailing Energy Community legal framework under one cover. The publication consists of three parts. Whilst Part I replicates the Treaty establishing the Energy Community, Part II lists the complete Energy Community acquis communautaire in force. Part III displays key Energy Community secondary legislation.
The publication has been compiled for reference purposes only and is not authentic. The present Third Edition was published Aug 2013. The parts on electricity and gas legislation now consolidate the amendments resulting from the adoption of the Third Package and the respective Ministerial Council decision adapting it. The text of the new Renewable Energy Directive also incorporates the adaptations made by the Ministerial Council decision.
The section begins with the reproduction of the Treaty and its four Annexes. The recent High Reflection Group Report is the starting point for the discussion about the Treaty and its possible reforms. The Energy Community acquis, in return, lists the legal acts in force that the Parties to the Treaty are to implement. The section also displays decisions, procedural acts and opinions enacted so far by the diverse Energy Community institutional organs.
← back|top ↑


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The National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show will play host to the show's first-ever "Destination: Celebration" event -- a kick-off party during which the winners of the inaugural Operator Innovations Awards will be announced May 5.
Earlier this year, the National Restaurant Association called on individuals from across the industry to nominate restaurant and foodservice operators who have transformed the industry with extraordinary creativity and commitment. The award has five distinct categories: Technology Applications, Sustainability, Menu Development, Food Safety, and Health & Nutrition. Winners in each category, as well an Innovator of the Year, will be announced during Destination: Celebration.
Destination: Celebration will be held at Chicago's Harris Theater in Millennium Park, May 5 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online for $125 each, or packs of 10 tickets can be purchased for $1,000.
In addition to celebrating industry thought leaders, guests will be treated to music by solo artist Kenny Loggins.
"As the largest restaurant and foodservice industry event in the nation, the NRA Show delivers the best in both business connections and entertainment, and our new Destination: Celebration event is the perfect example," said Jack Crawford, convention chair for NRA Show 2012 and president and CEO of Ground Round Independent Owners Cooperative LLC. "The event will allow attendees to celebrate some of the most innovative restaurateurs in our industry and network with peers – and have a good time while doing both."
The National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show will be held May 5-8, at McCormick Place in Chicago.
Read more about operations management.
Topics: Associations , Business Strategy and Profitability , Food & Beverage , Operations Management , Trade Show
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Domino's wage theft suit could have big implications for chains
Simplified ingredient lists: A trend at the point of no return
Outdoor Digital Displays: The Next Iteration of Digital Signage


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Sept. 1, 2008
Today was our first practice since being cooped up in the hotel. The rooms are excellent but it's nothing like a little fresh air. We had to get up at 7:00 a.m. for breakfast, then had taping and dressing for practice.
I, myself, an not a morning person so after I ate, I caught me a hour nap before I got on the bus for practice. I didn't realize that Alabama had mountains but when we got to Samford {where we practice for our time here} I noticed these are too big to be just hills. One of the biggest differences between home and Birmingham is that the weather is a lot cooler.
It was different to practice in the morning, but I like it. After practice we went to the Samford Cafe. I like my school and maybe because we were guests and they had Emril come cook for us, but they put our cafe to shame.
After a lunch, they took us back to the hotel were they gave us a few hours to nap before we had meetings. After meetings we went back to Samford for another great meal. One thing I haven't done before was eat before I workout, but that was the only time that they could schedule us to workout. We had a few minutes before we worked out and the Omegas' on the team stepped, had a dance contest and had people sing. After a good workout we had some more meetings and finally got back to the room around 10. I played spades again -- if I don't make it in football I might go pro in spades -- before going to bed.


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Collective Bargaining Process: Federal
Author: Joseph P. Paranac, LeClairRyan
- Collective bargaining is a good-faith effort by an employer and union to engage in a give and take process to achieve a contract. See Introduction.
- When parties engage in collective bargaining, they are required to put forth their best faith effort to reach an agreement setting forth wages, hours and other terms and conditions of employment for all employees in that union. See Elements of a Collective Bargaining Agreement.
- There are three subject areas of collective bargaining: mandatory, permissive and illegal. Mandatory subjects of bargaining cover wages, hours, work rules, etc. Permissive bargaining subjects cover things the parties are permitted, but not required, to discuss. Illegal bargaining subjects are those that would violate the National Labor Relations Act or another statute. See Types of Bargaining Subjects.
- There is certain employer conduct that is automatically defined as a refusal to bargain. This includes unilaterally changing work conditions without first bargaining with the union, refusing to discuss mandatory subjects of bargaining and insisting on a nonmandatory subject of bargaining as a condition to reaching an agreement. See Violations of Good-Faith Bargaining.
- Good-faith bargaining is evaluated based on a party's total overall conduct during the negotiations, both at and away from the bargaining table. See The Good-Faith Bargaining Requirement.
- Once the duty to bargain attaches, the collective bargaining process goes through various stages. Initially, the parties will exchange relevant information to assist the other side in preparation for bargaining. Once the parties have prepared for bargaining, each party is under an obligation to meet and confer regarding mandatory subjects. If the parties are unable to reach an agreement, they have reached an impasse. See Stages of the Bargaining Process.
- An impasse is the point of negotiations where further bargaining is futile and "both parties have reached the end of their rope." Once an impasse has been declared, there is frequently a strike or lockout as a consequence. See Impasse.
- When a collective bargaining agreement expires, the terms of the contract survive except for the arbitration provision and the no-strike clause. See Expiration/Termination of a Collective Bargaining Agreement.


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Australia Law
Ask an Australia Law Question, Get an Answer ASAP!
No I do not recall reading an SOP with regards XXXXX XXXXX with staff, nor did I sign off on any such document.
Thank you for the above information which is quite helpful. Should I still be getting paid whilst I am at home whilst this is being investigated?
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.
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Top Prescriptions Index for 2011 »
"Below is a list of the most popular prescription drugs dispensed in 2011 with links to drug monographs. The list may include the medication brand name and generic name.
Note: This information pertains to U.S. prescriptions only./"...
Berinert is a plasma-derived concentrate of C1 Esterase Inhibitor (Human) indicated for the treatment of acute abdominal or facial attacks of hereditary angioedema (HAE) in adult and adolescent patients.
The safety and efficacy of Berinert for prophylactic therapy have not been established.
For Intravenous Use Only.
Administer Berinert at a dose of 20 units per kg body weight by intravenous injection. Berinert is provided as a freeze-dried powder for reconstitution with the diluent (sterile water) provided. Store the vial in the original carton in order to protect from light. Do not freeze.
Preparation and Handling
- Check the expiration date on the product vial label. Do not use beyond the expiration date.
- Use aseptic technique when preparing and administering Berinert (see Reconstitution and Administration).
- After reconstitution and prior to administration, inspect Berinert visually for particulate matter and discoloration. The reconstituted solution should be colorless, clear, and free from visible particles. Do not use if the solution is cloudy, discolored, or contains particulates.
- The Berinert vial is for single use only. Berinert contains no preservative. Any product that has been reconstituted should be used promptly. The reconstituted solution must be used within 8 hours. Discard partially used vials.
- Do not freeze the reconstituted solution.
Reconstitution and Administration
Each Berinert kit consists of one carton containing one single-use vial of Berinert, one 10 mL vial of diluent (sterile water), one Mix2Vial™ transfer set, and one alcohol swab. Use either the Mix2Vial transfer set provided with Berinert (see HOW SUPPLIED) or a commercially available double-ended needle and vented filter spike.
The procedures below are provided as general guidelines for the reconstitution and administration of Berinert.
|1. Ensure that the Berinert vial and diluent vial are at room temperature. Use aseptic technique during the reconstitution procedure.
|2. Place the Berinert vial, diluent vial and Mix2Vial transfer set on a flat surface.
|3. Remove the flip caps from the Berinert and diluent vials. Treat the vial stoppers with the alcohol swab provided and allow to dry prior to opening the Mix2Vial transfer set package.
|4. Open the Mix2Vial transfer set package by peeling away the lid (Fig. 1). Leave the Mix2Vial transfer set in the clear package.
|5. Place the diluent vial on a flat surface and hold the vial tightly. Grip the Mix2Vial transfer set together with the clear package and push the plastic spike at the blue end of the Mix2Vial transfer set firmly through the center of the stopper of the diluent vial (Fig. 2).
|6. Carefully remove the clear package from the Mix2Vial transfer set. Make sure that you pull up only the clear package, and not the Mix2Vial transfer set (Fig. 3).
|7. With the Berinert vial placed firmly on a flat surface, invert the diluent vial with the Mix2Vial transfer set attached and push the plastic spike of the transparent adapter firmly through the center of the stopper of the Berinert vial (Fig. 4). The diluent will automatically transfer into the Berinert vial.
|8. With the diluent and Berinert vial still attached to the Mix2Vial transfer set, gently swirl the Berinert vial to ensure that the Berinert is fully dissolved (Fig. 5). Do not shake the vial.
|9. With one hand, grasp the Berinert-side of the Mix2Vial transfer set and with the other hand grasp the blue diluent-side of the Mix2Vial transfer set and unscrew the set into two pieces. (Fig. 6).
|10. Draw air into an empty, sterile syringe. While the Berinert vial is upright, screw the syringe to the Mix2Vial transfer set. Inject air into the Berinert vial. While keeping the syringe plunger pressed, invert the system upside down and draw the concentrate into the syringe by pulling the plunger back slowly. (Fig. 7).
|11. Now that the concentrate has been transferred into the syringe, firmly grasp the barrel of the syringe (keeping the plunger facing down) and unscrew the syringe from the Mix2Vial transfer set (Fig. 8). Attach the syringe to a suitable intravenous (IV) administration set.
|12. If the same patient is to receive more than one vial, the contents of multiple vials may be pooled in a single administration device (eg, syringe). A new unused Mix2Vial transfer set should be used for each Berinert vial.
|13. Do not refrigerate after reconstitution. When reconstitution is carried out using aseptic technique, administration may begin within 8 hours, provided the solution has been stored at up to 25°C (77°F). Do not refrigerate or freeze the reconstituted solution.
Do not mix Berinert with other medicinal products and administer by a separate infusion line.
Use aseptic technique when administering Berinert.
Administer Berinert by slow intravenous injection at a rate of approximately 4 mL per minute.
Dosage Forms And Strengths
- Berinert is available in a single-use vial that contains 500 units of C1 esterase inhibitor as a lyophilized concentrate.
- Each vial must be reconstituted with 10 mL of diluent (sterile water) provided.
Berinert is supplied in a single-use vial. Each carton contains a 500 unit vial of Berinert for reconstitution with 10 mL of diluent containing sterile water (meets USP chemistry requirements except for pH; pH 4.5-8.5). The components used in the packaging for Berinert are latex-free.
Each product package consists of the following:
|NDC Number
|Carton (kit) containing one 500 unit vial of Berinert [NDC 63833-835-01], one 10 mL vial of diluent (sterile water) [NDC 63833-765-15], one Mix2Vial flter transfer set, and one alcohol swab.
Storage and Handling
When stored at temperatures of 2-25°C (36-77°F), Berinert is stable for the period indicated by the expiration date on the carton and vial label (up to 30 months). Keep Berinert in its original carton until ready to use. Do not freeze. Protect from light.
Manufactured by: CSL Behring GmbH, 35041 Marburg, Germany. Distributed by: CSL Behring LLC, Kankakee, IL 60901 USA.This monograph has been modified to include the generic and brand name in many instances.
Last reviewed on RxList: 9/15/2011
Berinert FDA Prescribing Information
Additional Berinert Information
Report Problems to the Food and Drug Administration
You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit the FDA MedWatch website or call 1-800-FDA-1088.
Women's Health
Find out what women really need.


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The FWA Review is an ongoing series of articles providing a snapshot of each year at FWA and occasional specials focusing on certain styles and categories. These articles will be highlighting the main focus of the FWA project… websites who use cutting edge technology, together with inspirational ideas, that lead the way for future generations.
The FWA Review will act as a history of cutting edge web design and a reminder of those future-thinking sites, companies and individuals who have paved the way so far.
This eighth article in the series takes a look back at the most creative web agency websites ever to have launched on the web.
There are some people who would say that a web agency's website should be simple and informational. In some circumstances they could be correct, especially for established and industry known agencies.
However, those who push the creative edge over the limit leave a virtual tattoo in their wake and can draw huge amounts of eyes in a Tipping Point style effect.
Some new agencies become known globally almost over night just by dropping a major WOW factor site; some of these sites are mentioned in this very article.
The following list represents the twenty most creative web agency sites ever to have been featured at FWA since 2000. The list is in chronological order, with the first in the list being the earliest featured at FWA.
David Gary Studios v1 (http://www.davidgarystudios.com/v1/)
If you're an FWA regular you may well be aware of David Gary Studios as we often trumpet the site as it was the first we ever featured.
This site actually launched last century… 1999.
A lot of people reading this won't have even been surfing the web back then and it won't be long before there will be people reading this article who were not even born then!
An all time classic site that was most definitely one of the first to push the envelope. Made with Flash 3 and used Flash for exactly what it was developed for at that time… vector animation and multimedia overload.
Lookandfeel New Media (http://www.lookandfeel.com/index.asp)
Site Of The Year from 2000, an agency whose creativity hit the front pages and won them industry acclaim with their unique and original site intro, a personality packed affair with two characters that would run through the whole site.
Not forgetting the gravity bouncy drop-down menus, the first of their kind ever to have been seen.
Outpost (http://www.wsoutpost.com/index_detect.html)
This is one of those rare sites that I can honestly say is a personal favourite of mine. When it launched in May of 2001 I was totally blown away.
The levels of interaction and the explorability really took the creative web up a notch.
The use of a custom cursor was one of, if not, the first we ever saw, even though some people struggled with the concept.
The site allows users to explore the six floor Outpost facility.
Unfortunately, some of the floors were never completed due to time and budget limitations but the essence is still there and just revisiting the site now whilst compiling this article gave me that hair-curling feeling.
WM Team (http://www.wmteam.de/intro_swf/index2.html)
I can't imagine there are many people who haven't seen this agency site from Germany.
This site demonstrated the importance of adding personality and character to web presences, not forgetting humour as well.
The site rocks out with a group of workmen, building the interface to a cool beat and then pretty much destroying it in the process.
Dream Domain (http://www.randommedia.co.uk/flash/index_flash.htm)
This website for the UK's Random Media was entitled Dream Domain, an anagram of their company name.
Users enter this highly interactive website as a Drone and explore all aspects of the company through a vector and organic world.
The actual visual and unique experience to be had here were not the only outstanding factors. The site also boasted the first instance of multiuser website interaction, as users could see other site visitors flying around in real time.
2Advanced Studios v3 (http://v3.2a-archive.com/)
I tread lightly when using the term legendary but now is the correct time to use it.
You could write a complete article on this very site.
Possibly the most impactful element of this site was the rapidly moving clouds which could be seen through the skylight of a futuristic building. The whole blue tone colour theme, whilst simple, was very powerful.
The sound effects, button rollovers, page transitions, everything all worked in total harmony and showed incredible attention to detail as well as an insightful and creative thought process.
This website took 2Advanced from being an up and coming small agency into a household name in the creative web scene and would power and supply site traffic for a number of years.
How could I mention this site without mentioning the fact that not only is it one of the most legendary creative agency websites of all time but it's also the most copied, ripped and plagiarised site as well.
Even five years on and you can still bump into sites that have copied all or some of the site or hear those 2A futuristic sounds…
Perfect Fools v1 (http://www.perfectfools.com/book/)
Sweden's Perfect Fools created one of the simplest ideas imaginable, the page turn. Their simple yet highly original website started a whole new trend of sites, still flowing out of the factories today.
A definite, "why didn't I think of that?" site that would see them win industry acclaim almost over night.
So, whenever you see a site that uses a page turn or page flip effect, you know who to thank, or blame!
Who's We Design Studios v1 (http://www.whoswestudios.com/flashsite.html)
If we are going to talk about WOW factor or instant impact or about an agency that appeared from nowhere and overnight became an established player then we have to talk about Who's We.
Unfortunately the company is now defunct but luckily and thankfully they have kept their pioneering site on line.
The 3D used in this site and the way it was handled and presented, with total attitude, is what gave it an unruly edge and an unforgettable one at that.
The menu button says: "Who we are" and a UFO appears and beams down "The Best" just about sums up the attitude that would win over lots of fans immediately.
Such a creative site and a full-on multimedia experience that can not be missed.
Neostream Interactive (http://www.neostream.com/)
In 2002 after a long and highly anticipated wait, Neostream unleashed 50,000 volts of pure adrenaline at us.
Again, huge amounts of creativity could be experienced, right from the opening splash page.
The ability to punch and slap the site's main navigation character was the first time we had experienced anything like this.
What made this site so special and the eventual FWA People's Choice Awards was the incredible transitions from one section to another. Jaw dropping for their time and still very impressive years later.
Les Chinois (http://www.leschinois.com/)
This agency site from France may not be familiar to all but its creativity and progressive nature makes it a must for this article.
In fact, the site was so progressive that I can remember struggling getting to grips with the site when it launched but soon found my way.
The innovation of this site is particularly apparent with the video integration and the way the user selects items from the menu or drags and drops items on the site's human navigator.
Blitz Digital Studios v1 (http://www.blitzds.com/v1/)
The first thing to strike you about this early version of the Blitz Agency site is the totally unique enter button. A couple of hands throw it around to each other as the user tries to click on it.
Annoying? Possibly but also very creative and one of those ideas that once seen you can't forget.
The site boasts an innovative menu that organically grows in front of your eyes.
An example of the futuristic wave of sites that launched back in the days and one of the best at that.
tokyoplastic v1 (http://www.tokyoplastic.com/tokyoplastic1.html)
I have a signed print in my office from the guys at tokyoplastic but that is not why I added their first web presence to this list.
Version 1 of tokyoplastic gave a new essence of life to the web in early 2003. There was definitely a sense of boredom and lack of originality late 2002 but that all changed when the vector geniuses behind tokyoplastic revealed themselves to the world.
It's very hard to even begin to describe tokyoplastic… it's intriguing, dark, mysterious and captivating and has an essence of the land of the rising sun.
A classic example of what happens when you build an amazing website whereby you become known globally almost over night.
Pure Pulse Studio (http://purepulse.co.kr)
Korean web design is certainly some of the most creative and the Pure Pulse Studio site is the epitome of this.
Subtle yet beautiful graphics and animations combined with elegant ambient music set this site apart from a swathe of other agency sites.
Don't be fooled though, it's not all relaxation. The Animation Station cranks things up a gear or two with some hard paced 2D motion.
WEFAIL (http://www.wefail.com/)
When two charismatic personalities collide. Jordan Stone and Martin Hughes have to be two of the most interesting minds on the web, as can be seen through the WEFAIL web presence.
The site plays out as a gritty movie to Somewhere Over The Rainbow but also allows users to explore by following the navigation.
This forward thinking agency has been responsible for a number of creative ideas that are regularly mimicked online now.
It's always exciting to see what comes out of the WEFAIL camp.
Fantasy Interactive (http://www.fantasy-interactive.com)
This was a highly anticipated launch and saw the whole web agency thought process change.
Instead of trying to get one up on their competitors, FI took a whole new direction and went for a professional website that boasted maturity and not bells and whistles.
The hot property of this site would be the large amount of streaming videos that would bring the client nearer to the company by way of familiarity with the staff, the way they work, their thought processes and the rare, and often hidden by most companies, behind the scenes footage.
The FI site has since grown even further into quite a huge site in terms of its depth.
Not only is the site visually superb but it also has a personality factor that is quite unique.
FI have developed a brand that is unique on the web and their client base is as good as it gets.
Also, if you ever get to deal with a company like FI you will soon realise that it's the passion behind the wheel that makes a company like this so sought after and so successful.
AgencyNet Interactive (http://www.agencynet.com/)
Enter 2005 and enter another of those overnight success stories. Yet again, a simple idea that had people thinking "why hadn't I thought of that?"
AgencyNet built a 3 dimensional office with the added treat of interactivity and, even better the look and feel that you were actually looking at their offices live from above, as very clever and creative video clips breathed human life into their site.
You certainly get to feel the atmosphere of the day-to-day life at this agency whilst also feeling like a VIP guest.
It's pretty much guaranteed that a visit to this site will leave you thinking that this agency must be fun to work with and above everything else, very creative and progressive.
web burza (http://web.burza.hr/en)
This site for one of Croatia's finest is a total visual treat. Great colours, slick, funny and clever animations and, once again, a site oozing personality.
Not forgetting that this site is an HTML/Flash hybrid site and one that is fully Web Standards compliant. For a standards site it's head and shoulders above the rest, which can often appear to have that CSS template look and feel.
The vibrancy of this site is quite incredible and the whole light-hearted approach gives off an upbeat and friendly vibe and that can't be a bad thing when pushing forward for clients and accounts.
Leo Burnett (http://www.leoburnett.ca/)
Hands down, the best site in 2005 and one of the best creative agency sites ever made.
The site is a full on point-click and zoom experience and finds the user delving deeper into the portfolio of this immensely creative company.
The technical achievement alone is something else, with the concept being fully realised without compromising the company's ability to show off their work in a very original environment.
It's not all about the interface though, the showcase of work is equally creative and worthy of acclaim in its own right.
Kinetic v4 (http://www.kinetic.com.sg/)
Singapore's Kinetic have been innovating for a long time and each time they launch a new version of their company site it raises the bar again.
The level of animation on this site is extraordinary and spending some extra time enjoying it all is well worth it.
There's a lot happening on every click as each scene seamlessly evolves into the next one.
Creativity at its best and a real eye opener at that.
LitFuse Design (http://litfusedesign.com/)
James Dvorak and Scott Ichikawa were two names we were familiar with but when they joined forces and launched LitFuse in 2006 they would instantly gain the respect of a huge part of the creative industry.
A site turned into an interactive world of designer action heroes, with attitude and tongue-in-cheek comedy.
Crazy or creative minds? I guess that's for you to decide.
Final thought
Personality is the underlying and common theme seen through most of the sites in this "best of" list.
Why do people enjoy sites with personality? Quite simply because they leave you, the user, with a feeling that you know the company immediately. A bond is instantly created as emotion is stirred inside you.
The web is such a dry place where it is very difficult to really connect with individuals. You could be exchanging emails with a person for years but one phone call and you feel that you know them. That's because personality is so hard to communicate without real-time human contact.
Many of the sites mentioned here are impossible to forget. Some of you might want to forget some of the sites for whatever reason you may not "like" them but you'd have to agree that originality and innovation is something that they all possess.
Some people will say that an agency should only be judged on its work and not their own website and maybe that if the agency was so successful with their clients that they wouldn't have the time to build such future thinking sites.
Well, that can apply in some cases but I'll leave you with this scenario…
You are walking down a busy high street and you see a group of beautiful women, provocatively dressed handing out free bottles of water and plenty of smiles.
You get closer and one of them approaches you square on… you can't side step her even if you want to…
She beams a smile and offers you a free bottle of water…
You want to marry her but accept the bottle and carry on walking with a grin and spring in your stride…
BTW, I forgot to mention that the guy handing out flyers in the grey suit wasn't impressed when you brushed him out of the way.
About the author, Rob Ford
Robert Ford is FWA's Principal. Born and bred in England with a background in finance, sales and project management, working for companies like Halifax PLC and American Express. He oversees the day to day running of the FWA project.


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Nuage Networks Named To CRN's Virtualization 50 List
Editors Highlight the Most Innovative Vendors in the Virtualization Space
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., June 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Nuage Networks, the Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) venture focused on software defined networking (SDN) solutions, today announced it has been named to CRN's 2014 Virtualization 50 list. The annual project highlights channel-friendly companies that have built some of the most innovative virtualization technology available today.
Selected by CRN editors, the 2014 CRN Virtualization 50 recognizes the vendors that are addressing a growing market need for the channel with technology that forms the building blocks of today's virtualization solutions. The list aims to help solution providers identify and evaluate virtualization technology vendors and programs to help grow their businesses.
"The editorial team at CRN strives to offer its readership consistently unique content to navigate through the growing number of options when it comes to innovative technologies available today, and virtualization is no exception," said Robert Faletra, CEO, The Channel Company. "As market adoption among virtualization solutions gains momentum, our annual Virtualization 50 list serves as a valuable resource in the purchasing process. We congratulate the winners and look forward to their continued success."
"We are honored to be recognized by CRN as one of the most innovative vendors in the virtualization space," said Sunil Khandekar, VP and General Manager of Nuage Networks. "We have made great progress over the last year to empower our customers to realize the full potential of cloud, where innovation isn't hampered by infrastructure, and where network resources are as effortlessly consumable as compute and storage."
The 2014 Virtualization 50 list is featured in the June issue of CRN Magazine and will be featured online at www.CRN.com.
Nu-ahj: From French, meaning 'cloud'. Nuage Networks brings a unique combination of groundbreaking technologies and unmatched networking expertise to the enterprise and telecommunications industries. The Silicon Valley-based start up has applied radically new thinking to the problem of delivering massively scalable and high programmable SDN solutions with the security and availability required by business-critical environments. Nuage Networks, backed by Alcatel-Lucent's (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) rapidly growing IP division, has the pedigree to serve the needs of the world's biggest clouds. The cloud has made promises – the mission of Nuage Networks is to help you realize them.
For more information, visit Nuage Networks on: www.nuagenetworks.net, read the latest posts on the Nuage Networks blog http://www.nuagenetworks.net/blog/ and follow the company on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nuagenetworks.
Nuage Networks Press Contact
SOURCE Nuage Networks


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OLDSMAR — Players and team representatives from the Tampa Bay Rowdies will be in Oldsmar tomorrow for a free instructional event open to the public.
The Super Soccer Clinic and Family Fun Day is hosted in partnership with The Learning Experience, a national early education day care organization. Saturday's event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at The Learning Experience in Oldsmar, 3933 Tampa Road.
According to a press release, children of all ages are invited to attend and develop their soccer skills under the guidance of profession Rowdies players.
The Learning Experience has recently implemented a Super Soccer program.
Along with soccer lessons, the Family Fun Day will include arts and crafts activities, a bounce house, music and more.
(727) 815-1071


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ACHICA > Braun, Vicks & Honeywell > Braun BP1600 Vital Scan Wrist Adult Blood Pressure Monitor
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FESTIVALS: : 11th Cinequest Makes Digital Official; Leacock and Spike Lee Tell It Like It Is
by Augusta Palmer
(indieWIRE/ 07.31.01) -- New York's 24th Asian American International Film Festival (July 19 - 28) closed Saturday after ten days of screenings, panels, workshops and after-parties around New York City. Organized by Asian Cinevision and featuring over 70 films and videos produced in the U.S., Asia and elsewhere, the festival provided a range of films for every taste and interest with features ranging from the serious fun of elegantly crafted thrillers like opening night's Korean box-office topper "Joint Security Area" to Japanese director Wada Junko's avant-pop video "Body Drop Asphalt."
Though 2002 will mark a bigger anniversary for the AAIFF itself, this year's fest celebrated the 20th anniversary of Wayne Wang's seminal indie film "Chan is Missing," the first Asian American feature to receive American theatrical distribution, with a Wang retrospective (including not only crowd-pleasing classics like "The Joy Luck Club," but also the rarely seen "Life is Cheap, But Toilet Paper is Expensive" -whose X rating helped prompt the creation of the NC-17 in 1990). There was also a one-on-one discussion between Wang and New York Times critic Elvis Mitchell, and a panel discussion on changes in independent film since "Chan"'s 1981 release.
All this celebration of Asian American cinematic achievements did not obscure the continuing difficulties and importance of making and presenting Asian and Asian American films. At the end of the AAIFF press conference, Festival Director Risa Morimoto responded to this reporter's question on how the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" juggernaut will affect the future of Asian American filmmaking in general, and the AAIFF in particular, by remarking on the differing markets for Asian and Asian-American films: "Asian American cinema may not be able to ride on the coat-tails of the 'Crouching Tiger' syndrome."
Despite this fact, the AAIFF has always been one of New York's best summer venues for Asian cinema. Among the Asian cinema discoveries at this year's festival were "Cure," Kiyoshi Kurosawa's hypnotic serial killer social critique, and "The Iron Ladies," a giddy Thai film about a cross-dressing championship volleyball team. While Ms. Morimoto didn't have time to address why the two markets are so distinct, it still seems clear that the market for Asian cinema capitalizes on an American thirst for the exotic, while Asian American films like Abraham Lim's "Roads and Bridges," a gritty drama about an Asian American and an African American who learn to work together on a road crew, or Ron Pulido's closing night film "The Flip Side" about a Filipino family stranded in the shag carpet of suburbia, present a critical look at everyday American experience from an angle that is anything but escapist.
The Sundance 2001 attendee and Singapore-born first-time feature director Meng Ong, whose carefully crafted immigration drama "Miss Wonton" was featured at the fest, seemed pleased to have found a friendlier venue, calling his Sundance experience "a rude awakening, like being thrown into a meat market. Before I went, I thought film was about art."
At AAIFF, budgets were as varied as the filmmakers; features ran the gamut from nearly a million U.S. dollars for the Chinese "X-Roads" to $400,000 for "Miss Wonton," while shorts cost any thing from $12,000 for Fatimah Tobing-Rony's affectionate portrait of a fag hag (and 2000 D.G.A. Student Short winner) "Everything In Between" to June Yup Yi's digital short, "Self-Portrait," of which the director sheepishly admitted, "I made it for under $1,000. Sorry about that, guys," he said, turning to the group of directors assembled for the press conference.
Like all indie filmmakers, Asian American filmmakers have to struggle to fund their films. Meng Ong's budget of $400,000 may seem like peanuts when compared to a Hollywood feature, but he said, "It took me seven or eight years to get the financing, which came from private investors. And I still owe Sakura (one of the film's stars and a former Singaporean pop star) for the song rights!" Several directors like Shazon Jiang of "X-Roads" relied on the generosity of friends and that old standard of indie financing -- credit cards --- to finish their films. Others, like Fatimah Tobing-Rony, managed to win grants because of film school. Across the board, economizing measures were necessary to get things done. Jiang reported that her actors took a voluntary pay cut, while the more pragmatic Chi-Jang Yin, whose experimental short "Another Clapping" explores her own relationship with her mother, said, "I'm really glad I didn't have to pay for my Mom."
Though AAIFF has grown in popularity and prominence over the past twenty-plus years, finding the funding for it is still as frustrating as financing an independent feature. Earlier this summer, according to Program Director Vivian Huang, American Airlines entered into "a good dialogue" with Festival Director Risa Morimoto about sponsoring the festival, but they later declined to become sponsors, specifically claiming that several of last year's entries were "pornographic," and identifying a bisexual character in Taiwanese director Wu Mi-Sen's "Fluffy Rhapsody" and the serial killer in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Cure" as inconsistent and with their "conservative corporate image." Though Huang emphasized that she respected American Airlines' right to define their own corporate image, it is particularly unsettling that these decisions were based on press kits rather than on actual viewing of the films. In addition, it is unlikely --- to say the least -- that any corporate sponsor would have the same response to a mainstream festival's inclusion of a Hollywood serial killer franchise like "Silence of the Lambs."
If the festival seemed shorter, it's because 2000 marked the first year without the outer borough forays into Brooklyn and Queens, which used to extend its running time to nearly a month. Program Director Vivian Huang said the decision was made based on both a lack of appropriate venues in Queens and a need to concentrate Asian Cinevision's largely volunteer manpower. This streamlining strategy seems to have increased the festival's success since last year was the most successful ever in terms of both attendance and media coverage and, though the official numbers are not yet in, this year seems to be continuing that trend. If outer borough cineastes had to take the subway, American audiences all across the U.S. will benefit: portions of the packed Manhattan program will take to the road for a ten-month national tour of cities from Honolulu to Houston.
In the twenty years since "Chan is Missing," Asian American filmmakers have struggled not only with all the financing headaches common to independent filmmakers the world over, but also with what San Francisco writer Oliver Wang, writing in the festival program, identified as "the nature of the subject."
"Any film which attempts to answer the questions of 'Who are we?' and 'What does it mean to be an Asian American' walks a dangerous path into didacticism," writes Wang. "However well-intentioned, many of the attempts that followed 'Chan is Missing' these past 20 years have either resulted in anemic, feel-good tales that celebrate multiculturalism or they reproduce the same narrow, troubled politics of cultural nationalism that have proven untenable as the community grows more diverse and disparate." Despite these pitfalls, the AAIFF has long provided a cinematic safe haven for attending directors whose outlooks and backgrounds are as diverse as the Asian American community.
[Augusta Palmer is a freelance film writer and a doctoral student in New York University's Department of Cinema Studies. She is currently writing her dissertation on urban Chinese cinemas from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the People's Republic in the 1990s.]


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Velo Cult: San Diego's loss, Portland's gain
Pedal Powered»
The Pedal Powered blog began as the experiences of transportation reporter Robert J. Hawkins bicycling to work for one month. OK, that's over. Let's make this an all-things-bicycling blog for everybody on two wheels, or one or, whatever. You've just got to pedal it. Send your bike news and muses to email@example.com.
Most recent blog posts:
Over the weekend the Velo Cult bicycle shop held a terrific sale with big discounts on bikes and accessories.
The down side: It was a clearance sale.
Sky Boyer is moving his shop and staff to Portland.
As he told Bicycle Retailer and Industry News: "We're pretty much a Portland store in the wrong city. We're very commuter-oriented, very city-oriented."
Well, you can't say Boyer didn't try to make it otherwise since opening his store on Fern Street in 2006.
Velo Cult was at the center of one kind of bicycle culture in San Diego -- an urban community of folks who were happy to pedal their bikes from some place, to some place, without having to change into racing garments.
The periodic bicycle picnic rides to Balboa Park started at the front door of Velo Cult. So did the annual tweed rides.
We should have suspected something last year when Boyer turned over the operation of sdbikecommuter.com to the San Diego Bike Union (although their online activity seems to have faded away after last September. )
Besides being a forum for cycling issues, sdbikecommuter.com is a retail discount program.Customers who pedal up to the stores and restaurants listed on the site are eligible for discounts ranging from 5 to 20 percent.
Anybody know the future of the program?
Anyhow, Portland is very excited to get Velo Cult, if you use blog enthusiasm as a gauge. Here's what bikeportland.org writes:
"This is just the latest sign that Portland's bike economy is thriving and that people continue to move their lives and businesses here based solely on our respect and culture of bicycling.
We'll bring you more about this story soon. For now... How about a nice big Portland bike lover welcome for Velo Cult!"
Yeah. Yeah.
Maybe instead of worrying about the Chargers we should have been paying attention to local small businesses. Boyer told Bicycle Retailer that he won't be the last San Diegan to head north. Some of his customers seem inclined that way too:
"I wish I could take them with me. But some are talking about moving to Portland, so maybe I'll see them again," he said.
Jay Porter of Linkery and El Take It Easy could be next.
Here's what he wrote on his own blog: "When the whole Velo Cult store — owner, staff, and stock — up and moved to Portland at the end of December, it really hit home with me and a lot of my friends. An internationally-acclaimed business dedicated to pushing our culture forward so we can enjoy our city life more, finally just threw their hands up, quit, and moved to a place where there's already a market for what they do. It's hard to believe they won't be better off for it. And that, of course, makes me suspect I should be thinking the same way about my own life."
Smart traffic lights know you are on a bicycle
Smart traffic lights that can tell the difference between a bicycle nd a motor vehicle may be coming to an intersection near you.
FastCompany website reports that some cities in California are installing the $4,000 to $5,000 lights now, including Pleasanton, Redding, and Monterey.
Apparently a 2008 state law, AB 1581, requires local agencies to replace traffic signals with smart ones that can sense bicyclists and motorcyclists.
According to FastCompany:"The Intersector uses a microwave radar gun that can calculate the speed and length of approaching objects, so it knows whether a bike or car is rolling up. The device then decides how long the light should stay green so that both cars and bikes have enough time to pass through. Cars get four seconds to roll through, while bikes get 14 seconds."