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By Joginder Tuteja, Glamsham Editorial
First schedule of 'revenge comedy' BHAJATHE RAHO has just been wrapped up in Delhi. In the process, it has also turned its lead actor Tusshar Kapoor a lot nostalgic. Reason being that it was in this very city exactly 12 years back when he had first shot for a feature film. No wonder, the moment he returned on the same location for the shoot of his latest comedy, he had fond remembrance of the days gone by.
"Tusshar had debuted with MUJHE KUCCH KEHNA HAI which was extensively shot in Delhi. His co-star in the film was Kareena Kapoor and together they had spent a lot of time on location during the film's shoot. In fact that was the time (during 2001) when malls culture had not really emerged and Delhi was one of the first cities where such structures had started mushrooming. It was one such mall where he set his foot again during the shooting of BHAJATHE RAHO," informs a source.
The film is directed by Shashant Shah whose last film was incidentally titled CHALO DILLI.
Says Tusshar, "Yes, Delhi brings back fond memories. After all, it is the land where I shot my debut film. Moreover I am shooting at few of those same locations where I had shot for MUJHE KUCH KEHNA HAI. 12 years have just passed by in a jiffy."
Also starring Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey in principle roles along with Dolly Ahluwalia, the film is produced by Krishika Lulla. Incidentally, she is also the producer of Sonam Kapoor and Dhanush starrer RANJHANAA which is again being shot in Delhi quite extensively by director Aanand. L. Rai.


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Austin, Texas -- Golfsmith announced Thursday plans to open 10 stores and relocate four existing locations in fiscal 2012, increasing its sq. ft. by 17.5% and adding a more experiential presence.
The new 2012 stores include locations in Cleveland, Washington, D.C., Chattanooga, Tenn., Nashville and Atlanta. The relocations will move stores into spaces that provide an updated and expanded golf retail experience that mirrors the company's new stores.
All scheduled store openings and relocations are slated for completion by year's end
"We are well-positioned to capitalize on our excellent brand recognition and further expand our market share by opening stores in what we view as underserved markets that have strong demand," said Golfsmith president and CEO Marty Hanaka.
The new stores will be funded by cash flow from operations, said Hanaka.
All new Golfsmith locations will feature driving ranges or simulators that allow customers to test drive the latest golf clubs. Every Golfsmith store offers free custom-fitting services. Club fitting specialists use computerized swing analysis systems to help customize new clubs specifically for that player's capabilities.

subset: commoncrawl


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Research Topics
Gita Suneja
Affiliation: University of Pennsylvania
Country: USA
Detail Information
- Acute toxicity of proton beam radiation for pediatric central nervous system malignanciesGita Suneja
Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Pediatr Blood Cancer 60:1431-6. 2013..Proton beam therapy (PBT) for pediatric CNS malignancies may reduce late toxicity, but acute toxicity is not well defined. We examined acute toxicity for children with CNS malignancies treated with PBT...
- Disparities in the treatment and outcomes of lung cancer among HIV-infected individualsGita Suneja
Department of Radiation Oncology, The Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
AIDS 27:459-68. 2013..It is unclear whether HIV-infected individuals with lung cancer receive similar cancer treatment as HIV-uninfected individuals...
- Postoperative radiation therapy for low-grade glioma: patterns of care between 1998 and 2006Gita Suneja
Department of Radiation Oncology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 3400 Civic Center Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Cancer 118:3735-42. 2012..PORT may benefit patients with high-risk features. The aim of this study was to assess temporal trends and determinants of the use of PORT...
- Prevalence of HIV Infection among U.S. Hodgkin Lymphoma CasesMeredith S Shiels
Authors Affiliations Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland Cancer Prevention Institute of California, Fremont, California and Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 23:274-81. 2014..Thus, despite the low HIV prevalence in the United States, the HIV epidemic may have contributed substantially to the general population burden of Hodgkin lymphoma...
- Assessing interpersonal and communication skills in radiation oncology residents: a pilot standardized patient programMelody Ju
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 88:1129-35. 2014..We present the design of a novel, pilot standardized patient (SP) program and the evaluation of communication skills among radiation oncology residents...
- Effect of practice integration between urologists and radiation oncologists on prostate cancer treatment patternsJustin E Bekelman
Department of Radiation Oncology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA
J Urol 190:97-101. 2013....


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Know what Caleb Scofield uses?
Top Contributors
Caleb Scofield is a bassist and singer mostly known for playing bass & contri... more
Caleb Scofield is a bassist and singer mostly known for playing bass & contributing vocals in the alternative metal band Cave In, and his own sludge metal band Zozobra. Caleb is also a part of the sludge band Old Man Gloom. He currently lives in Boston with his wife and child.[1]
He was raised and grew up in Pembroke, New Hampshire. He attended Pembroke Academy. - Wikipedia -
"I feel like when listening to the records it is easy to see who I have been ... more
"I feel like when listening to the records it is easy to see who I have been influenced by throughout the years. Bands like the Melvins, Neurosis, and Godflesh are obvious choices but some unexpected ones might be Neil Young, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Portishead, Wu Tang, Madvillain, Quasimoto, Adrian Young and Mark Lanegan. That siad, I do feel like if it wasn't for my experience playing with Cave In that I would never have been able to accomplish Zozobra. Those guys helped me develop a skill set that enabled me to be able to go out and do my own thing and feel confident about it."
Read More: Interview: Caleb Scofield of Zozobra/Cave In | http://www.invisibleoranges.com/interview-caleb-scofield-of-zozobracave-in/?trackback=tsmclip
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|Series cast summary:
|Peter Wyngarde
Jason King (26 episodes, 1971-1972)
This spin-off from the earlier "Department S" continued the adventures of hedonistic, womanizing dandy Jason King. After leaving Department S, Jason settled down to a full-time career of writing (trashy) Mark Caine novels. He philandered his way around the world, doing research for his stories and tripping over a variety of odd--often verging on surreal--cases, usually involving beautiful women. He was occasionally blackmailed into working for British Intelligence under the threat of being arrested for unpaid back taxes. Written by Marg Baskin <email@example.com>


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There are so many ways to measure J.C. Penney's failed experiment: a $1 billion loss, a $4 billion decline in revenue, a stock price that lost half its value and more than 20,000 layoffs.
Also put this metric up high: Same-store sales fell 32 percent in the all-important Christmas quarter.
That's a historic collapse, arguably the worst performance by a major retailer in this century. It's three times higher than Penney's decline after the Great Recession. And it's the best number to explain why Ron Johnson was thrown out last week and Mike Ullman was enlisted to restore the company he once led.
When a retailer loses a third of its business, and the decline wasn't triggered by a one-off event, the model is broken. Ullman's job is to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.
Ullman ran Penney for seven years before Johnson, so he knows how to rebuild and stabilize Penney and re-embrace the basics of retailing. Those are prerequisites to even thinking about growth again.
Johnson's reinvention not only lost customers, it dismantled layers of management and expertise. He expected the savings from job cuts to help fund the makeover of the stores. In hindsight, it's clear that he cut muscle, not just fat.
Penney slashed overhead by $600 million in the last year after cutting $241 million the year before. Johnson's team was planning bigger reductions, too. Much of this was from reducing the so-called complexity of Penney's promotional strategy, which used constant coupons and discounts to drive traffic and sales.
What would Jobs do?
Johnson believed that process drove up expenses and wasted marketing dollars. A year ago, at a coming-out party in New York for analysts and the industry, Johnson ridiculed Penney for running 590 promotions the previous year. They had produced an average of four visits per shopper.
"So how many times did the customer ignore us?" Johnson said. "Ninety-nine percent of the time. Now this is — Steve would have called this insanity."
He was referring to Steve Jobs, his mentor and collaborator at Apple, where Johnson helped create the phenomenally successful Apple Store. At some point, Johnson said, the Penney brand looks desperate.
All the energy and expense that went into planning, allocating and pricing for Penney's promotions didn't pay off, said chief operating officer Mike Kramer, who's reportedly on his way out. Instead, that "excessive granularity" led to more reports, more people, more analyses and still more reports and people, he said.
"We call that false precision," Kramer told the New York crowd.
Except that they underestimated the value of getting the right product in the right store at the right price at the right time. Now Ullman must restock the talent pool and restore the processes that once connected with Penney's loyal customers. Marketing, market research, design, logistics and distribution were hit hard.
Johnson was focused on winning new customers, and for good reason. Department stores had been losing market share for decades, and Penney had stalled since the recession. The challenge for Johnson was to hold on to loyalists while reaching for a new audience.
While most executives would struggle to pull that off, have any retailers failed as badly as Johnson? Since 2000, only a trio of car sellers reported same-store sales declines greater than Penney's. In 2008, after the recession crushed car sales, AutoNation, Penske Automotive and CarMax did slightly worse. But they're single industry players, while Penney's diverse products typically cushion volatility.
Penney alone
Several department stores suffered double-digit hits after the recession, including Neiman Marcus. One big difference that time: Luxury retailers fell together and rode the recovery together.
Penney must fight for its lost market share, a difficult prospect in a cut-throat industry. While Penney sank last Christmas, Macy's, Dillard's, The Gap, TJX and Kohl's reported gains.
Here's some more context on Penney's 32 percent decline: Since 2000, the worst holiday quarter performance for Macy's and Dillard's was down 7 percent and down 8 percent, respectively. Sears reported a same-store sales decline of almost 14 percent in 2004.
"Over 12 months, no retailer has destroyed more economic value than J.C. Penney," said Brian McGough, an analyst at Hedgeye Risk Management.
He didn't want the board to fire Johnson because Penney's renovations are partially completed. While people can debate whether the board moved too soon or too late, the problem was deepening. For the last four quarters, Penney's same-store sales fell 19 percent, 22 percent, 26 percent and 32 percent.
Last August, Credit Suisse studied 17 retailers that had suffered deep double-digit drops in year-over-year sales. Just four rebounded to earlier sales levels, and it took them an average of three years. The implication for Penney, Credit Suisse wrote, was that it would be difficult but not impossible to come back.
At this stage, simply slowing the decline would look like a win.


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PHOENIX (AP) -- Killian Larson scored 26 points and Jerome Garrison added a career-high 24 as Grand Canyon defeated Texas-Pan American 91-85 Thursday night in a meeting between two teams playing in their first Western Athletic Conference game.
Daniel Alexander added a career-high 18 points, Blake Davis 11 and Akachi Okugo 10 for the Antelopes (6-8), who broke a five-game losing streak. Larson also grabbed 12 rebounds to notch his 11th double-double this season.
Shaquille Boga scored a career-high 25 points and Javorn Farrell also scored 25, tying his career high, to lead the Broncs (4-11), who have lost seven straight. Shaquille Hines added 12 points.
Trailing the entire second half, the Broncs pulled within 84-83 on a Farrell's three-point play with 51 seconds to go, but Garrison hit a 3-pointer with 18 seconds left and the Antelopes made four free throws in the final seconds.


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Natalie Cole closes out Jazz Fest
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 03:30:44 GMT —
The 28th annual Syracuse Jazz Fest climaxed with a thrilling performance from multiple Grammy Award Winning singer Natalie Cole. Thousands of people packed the hill at Onondaga Community College on the third night of the festival to listen to Cole who was in command of the stage, her musical catalogue and her vocal skill.
Just before she came out on stage, there were a few raindrops but the show started and the weather held out.
Cole began the evening playing songs from the American song book including Route 66, A Tisket a Tasket and Smile. She had the crowd singing along with a duet with her late father Nat King Cole on her smash hit Unforgettable. She then got people on their feet dancing with selections from the early pop portion of her career in the mid to late 1970's.
Her band hit every note with the help of a brass section made up of Central New York's best professionals. Cole wore a white silky dress with sparkles reaching from her neck to her microphone. She delivered a striking image on stage and moved easily from one musical genre to the next including plenty of jazz rifts throughout the performance.
In talking to people attending Jazz Fest, some said they come to the event every year. Others said this was their first and they wanted to see Natalie Cole perform.
Everyone said the same things about what they like so much about Jazz Fest: It's outdoors, there are great acts, it's an inexpensive night out.
Jazz Fest fan Barry O'Brien said, "You see world class musicians for free and you're outdoors, you can bring your kids and they can play baseball, frisbee everybody's happy, there's good food."Cole's encore brought the last note's to a successful weekend of music at Onondaga Community College. Fans in attendance buzzed about the quality of the performances put together by festival founder Frank Malfitano.


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The state Department of Health Services has created an online information sheet to help people concerned with mental health issues. The flowchart addresses, "What to do when you are concerned about someone's mental health, including your own." It includes a list of crisis hotline phone numbers people can call.
The website can be found at www.azdhs.gov/bhs/pdf/WhatToDoWhenConcernedFlowchart.pdf.


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A thread popped up on our message boards about a fellow named Shawn McGrath who stated:
"(Games attempt to tell) a story so that you see the world from the perspective of the protagonist of the game ... That's ridiculous. That's what you do in linear storytelling."
"In interactive storytelling, you are that person. And you are that player. And if you're trying to tell the story through the eyes of that, you are no longer "that player" – that is an avatar you're controlling, which is a layer of disconnect which completely destroys the point of interactive games."
Here is the original chat with Mr. McGrath, if you like to read it:
He brings up a good point -- something that game designers have struggled with since games have branched into "deeper" stories.
JPRGs traditionally had that as their strong point, although whether players identified with an individual member in the party or just "tagged along" as a non-corporeal observer (I AM UATU. THE WATCHER.) is debatable.
With WRPGs in the vein of Bioware's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect, we have a different "character" in play -- the player. It's no longer implied that the player might be one of the characters (when factually, he or she wouldn't be), but boldly stated that "you" are in the game thanks to the Character Creator.
So, if "you" are in the game, do your choices matter? In a game like Battlefield 3 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, probably not. Even excellent games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl and Metro: 2033 have an illusion of choice (something Mike Thomsen would appreciate the irony of).
When playing a game, I certainly do not put myself into the character's role (I consider myself their operator). Maybe it's the decades of gaming (and running multiple D&D characters) that trained me to be a cold, calculating son of a bitch, but I have little (if any) emotional ties to a game's character (apart from their in-game perks, skills, inventory and access permissions).
So, do your choices in videogames matter? Only if you opt to buy it (and any DLC - LOL).
Choices you make seem moot since outcomes are pre-determined by the game's writers, directors, designers, et al. beforehand. Even something as confusingly complex as Alpha Protocol had a finite number of possible outcomes.
Yet, in such a confined design setting, the amount of interactivity given to a player in "open-ended" sandbox games like Minecraft hold promise.
Is there a story to Minecraft? Possibly. But it's barely hinted at. Minecraft has a setting, and perhaps a time and place, but "no plot to get in the way of the story".
Players have the option to create their own stories (the story lies in you bullshit from Ikaruga) if they so choose. They may also freely dispense with that silly notion altogether and engage with the virtual world in the game.
A game's story is often subordinate to its mechanics, gameplay, playstyle, and other interactive elements, but that does depend on a game's intent. For example, those who believe the story for Angry Birds is Pulitzer Prize winning material should be dragged out into the street and shot.
Yet, the story-oriented approach is how a "game" (more like a quasi-interactive experience) like Heavy Rain gets high marks. As a viewing experience, Heavy Rain does do things movies cannot -- allow viewers to influence events to see different outcomes (like my favorite -- setting Madion on fire); however, it is not a "game" in the traditional sense (nor do I view titles like The Longest Journey as anything but graphical text adventures).
Games - like books and movies - are a medium. We've had several decades perfecting the book, and have done great things with movies (sound, color, now a fake-as-hell 3D) with movies. With games, the industry has a ways to go, and the possibilities for pushing them to greater potential still exists.
Let's not disappoint.
Anyone curious about the headers and other elements used in this entry, they were pulled from IGN's "poilib" code for our articles. You may use them in blogs if you like, but you need to insert the HTML coding manually - bookmark this blog for the code.


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Participants gain opportunity to garner significant rewards
Leaders of the Independent Fixed Base Operators Association (IFBOA) and QBE Holdings today announced the creation of a major new insurance program to support IFBOA's membership.
The program provides workers compensation insurance at competitive rates, while also making it possible for participants to enjoy an annual return on their workers compensation insurance costs, as well as the ability to share in IFBOA's group purchasing power.
"This is a major milestone for our organization" said John Wraga, executive director of IFBOA. "This new program allows our members to have the peace of mind great worker compensation coverage provides, and the opportunity to benefit financially from the program's success. It truly is a win-win for our membership, and it's a direct result of the momentum our organization is gathering among independent aviation businesses" he added.
To maximize the stability and profitability of the program, IFBOA contracted with the member insurance companies of QBE Holdings, Inc., a global insurer with a growing presence in the business aviation community. The program is administered by AirSure Limited, one of the world's largest providers of insurance brokerage services for the business aviation market.
Michael Clark, Senior Vice President of QBE the Americas said: "We're extremely proud to be supporting IFBOA's new workers compensation program. It is exactly the type of protection and capability we strive to provide our clients, and a wonderful addition to our on-going expansion in the global business aviation arena."
The program is now underway. IFBOA members, and prospective members, should contact their insurance brokers, QBE's Michael Clark (770-298-2806) or Chuck Couch (770-235-9238), or IFBOA headquarters at 781-860-7403 for more information.
The Independent Fixed Base Operators Association is dedicated to the long term vitality and success of its members
through collaborative endeavors, knowledge sharing, and best practices standardization on a global scale.
Another quality site by


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The supplier supports Trade Assurance – A free service that protects your orders from payment to delivery.
Supplier's Trade Assurance Limit: US $50,000Learn More
Home > Company Profile
Guangzhou Xetron Auto Lighting Company Limited
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The supplier's company premises has been checked by Alibaba.com staff to ensure onsite operations exist there. A third-party verification company has confirmed the legal status of the supplier.
|Business Type:
|Guangdong, China (Mainland)
|Main Products:
|HID kit,Xenon Ballast,Xenon Bulb,LED Bulb,Auto Lighting
|Total Employees:
|101 - 200 People
|Total Annual Revenue:
|US$10 Million - US$50 Million
|Year Established:
|Top 3 Markets:
|Western Europe 40.00% Eastern Europe 20.00% North America 20.00%
Guangzhou Xetron Auto Lighting Company Limited was established in 2002. We are one of the first comp...
Guangzhou Xetron Auto Lighting Company Limited was established in 2002. We are one of the first companies professionally engaged in HID xenon lamp trading in China. After 3 years' business growth, we built up our own factory in 2005. At the same time, we set up a 10-person research and development team and focus on HID and LED auto lighting development.
Nowadays, according to buyers' demands, we have developed more than 20 auto lighting products, such as Canbus xenon ballast, angel eyes, high power LED fog light and off-road lighting.
In our more than 8,000 square meter factory building certified by ISO9001 & 14001 systems, we will have brand-new products in every 3-4 months. All of products have passed E-MARK and DOT authentication and are 100% fit for original cars.
After 10 years, Xetron Auto Lighting is still working for people's demands for the auto lighting. We are always helping them never lose in the dark roads. Adhering to the principle of "open, innovative, honesty, and win-win", we are ready to serve you for another 10 years.
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Factory Information
|Product Name
|Units Produced (Previous Year)
|Highest Ever Annual Output
|Unit Type
|HID Ballast
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Trade & Market
|Main Markets
|Total Revenue(%)
|Western Europe
|Eastern Europe
|North America
|Northern Europe
|Southern Europe
|South America
|Export Percentage:
|91% - 100%
|Export Mode:
|Using an agent
|No. of Employees in Trade Department:
|11-20 People
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Today was amazing! My sis and i went tot he park and made a giant snow man!!! It was my only request while I was here. I think it turned out awesome.
I think the snowman Is probably a little over 6 foot. Im 5'4 and to put it up there, I had to lift the snow over my head, so I feel its a pretty good estimate.


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Posted by: Josh Kendall on January 31, 2013
Jim Harbaugh "is not maybe the most well-liked guy in the media or across the league," but the San Francisco 49ers love him, team CEO Jed York told 95.7 The Game in San Francisco.
"Ultimately, I'm going to judge Jim on whether he wins or loses and if he's getting us to compete for Super Bowls and win Super Bowls. I don't think Jim is as bad as what some people think he is in the media," York said.
"He's just himself, and he has no interest in promoting himself," York added. "He has no interest in doing anything that's not about the team. ... Could he be better and could he be more generous in the media? Yeah, I'm sure he could. But that's not who he is, and I respect who he is, and I don't want to put our coach or any of our players in a position that they're not comfortable with."
York got Harbaugh to San Francisco by appealing to what he thought Harbaugh was all about, he said.
"Jim is very comfortable being himself. And I think the way we approached it, very early on, you had colleges and you had pro teams sort of setting deadlines and ultimatums. ... And then they'd come back when he didn't respond, 'Well, we'll raise the number and do this for you.' I looked at it as Jim lived in Palo Alto, or outside Palo Alto ... his wife had just given birth to their second daughter and he wanted an opportunity to compete for Super Bowls. And when we sat down with him, it wasn't, 'We'll give you everything that you want; here's all this money,' ... it was, 'This is a team effort. I don't think you want to leave and go across the country. ... We have a talented team that has underachieved. You need to choose that you want to be here as much as we need to choose you,'" York said.
The hire, obviously has worked out well as Harbaugh has the 49ers two days away from the Super Bowl.
"I think there is a good group of people in the locker room, first. What he's gotten them to do is he's gotten them to perform to their peak performance ... not just on the field, but off the field," York said. " And he's gotten them to come together as a group of people, where it really is a family and they treat each other like that. And that doesn't mean that they always get along. Sometimes there are fights. Sometimes you have a quarterback change in the middle of the season that not everybody is fired up for at the point, and now it shows why he made a quarterback change. ... You have a very unique dynamic on this team that's special."
Josh Kendall is a staff writer for CoachingSearch.com and has covered the SEC for more than 15 years for papers such as the Athens Banner-Herald, Macon Telegraph, and The State. He's the father of two boys who he's hoping don't inherit his wide receiver frame and offensive guard feet. Follow @EyeOnCoaches on twitter and send your feedback to email@example.com


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Super Bowl Commercial: American Factories? You Can't Do That! Really?
I'm a bit of a counter-culturalist when it comes to the hype about Super Bowl commercials being entertainment and being something we "have to watch" or "have to discuss at the water cooler." Bah, I don't pay attention to most of them.
I got a bit behind on the game when I paused the DVR to record the video and write this blog post about the coin toss snafu. So, given a choice between catching up by skipping parts of the game, I was skipping most of the commercials (which I did without the express written consent of the office of the commissioner of the National Football League, so I might be in trouble). One commercial did catch my eye – one by the company WeatherTech.
Here is the video of the commercial:
For those who can't see the video, there's a series of bankers, consultants, and HR types who keep saying "You can't do that."
Build factories in America? You can't do that.
Use American raw materials? You can't do that.
Hire American workers? You can't do that.
You can't do that. You shouldn't do that. You're crazy. The conventional wisdom says to chase cheap labor, building everything in the cheapest country possible and then pack up and move someplace else when wages go up.
I read the book Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy-Year Quest for Cheap Labor about ten years ago about RCA's efforts to chase cheap labor from state to state across America and eventually into Mexico (probably going eventually to China like most electronics). The more recent trend is people advocating moving from country to country… Jack Welch (that "turkey") once famously said a company should put a factory on a barge that could be towed from place to place chasing cheap labor.
The downsides of chasing cheap labor include:
- Long, slow supply chains (high inventory cost, risk of obsolescence, and slow response to the market)
- Risks over intellectual property theft
- Slow development cycles if the factory isn't near product development and engineering
- Quality might be worse
- Environment costs
- Supporting political regimes that you don't agree with
Thankfully, more and more companies are looking beyond cheap labor to "reshore" back into the U.S., including GE with their appliances (those are big and expensive to ship from Asia) – hear/read more from NPR
For years, GE outsourced manufacturing of the water heater to a company in China. In 2009, GE did the math and, considering rising wages overseas as well as climbing transportation costs, decided to bring production back to the U.S..
WeatherTech has a page with the "How'd We Do That?" story and I'm sharing the "Why'd We Do That?" video below:
The CEO David MacNeil says "the trend of exporting American jobs must be stopped" and he sees products in stores "built 7,000 miles away" and blames "short-sighted management and buyers at large national chains" for this. MacNeil says his philosophy is that "If my neighbor doesn't have a job, soon I won't have a job."
I'm glad that MacNeil and WeatherTech are bucking the trend. So are companies like VIBCO and Marlin Steel.
I don't know how much "Lean Manufacturing" is part of their approach at MacNeil… I couldn't find anything on their website or via Google. Lean is a huge part of the strategy at VIBCO and Marlin Steel, as it is at many others.
It might sound like protectionism to keep jobs here in the US… but it's just good business if you can figure out how to be competitive here.
Back to the "you can't do that" theme — what are the things people would say that about in healthcare?
- Zero hospital acquired infections? You can't do that!
- Zero waiting room time in the clinics? You can't do that!
- Get "door to balloon" times down to an average of 40 minutes? You can't do that!
- A culture where all hospital staff are respected by all and work together on improvement? You can't do that!
- React to reimbursement cuts and financial pressures by NOT laying off employees? You can't do that!
- Prevent all patient falls and pressure ulcers? You can't do that!
- Change the way leaders at all levels manage? You can't do that!
Thankfully healthcare has some leaders like Paul O'Neill and others who don't accept "You can't do that!" as answer… and there are many leaders like that at ThedaCare and in the Healthcare Value Network.
We *can* do it if we don't give up and if we change the way we lead…
Please post a comment and join the discussion. Subscribe to get notified about posts daily or weekly.


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Both companies are paying close attention to the lessons learned as they separately take a crack at the 3 Series sector. Ford with the super-luxury 'Top Ghia' Vignale trim on the Mondeo and others. And Jaguar with a new saloon in 2015 sitting on a flexible rear-drive aluminium architecture previewed by the C-X17 crossover at Frankfurt this year.
"The proportions were plainly wrong," he tells PistonHeads.
How so? "It was a front-wheel drive platform with a long front overhang and the cabin was in the wrong position," he says. "It didn't look mature or powerful or anything. It was just a car." Ouch.
Of course it also had the unhappily retro-styled front end with the quad headlamps. "There was a time when Jaguar was tremendously popular with very beautiful, classic cars, but it was plainly overplayed. It hung onto that too long," says Thomson.
"We wanted a sense of poise. The way the car sits on the wheels needs to be very authoritative [demonstrating] latent power. Big wheels right to the ends of the car, low bonnet, short overhangs, very low cabins. These are the sort of things we asked for," he tells us. And he says he got them too.
Ford meanwhile says it's much happier sprucing up the next version of the Mondeo for the top of the line Vignale trim than it was adapting the Mondeo to suit the demands of a more premium brand.
"Jaguar is the definition of a classical British car. I love it. But If you start to mix this up with a mass production brand you run the risk of losing such a brand," Ford of Europe head of quality, Gunnar Herrmann, tells us. "This is where people were getting concerned. They say, hey, this is a fake Jaguar, because every piece I touch is Ford."
Neither are saying outright the X-Type was a bad car overall (and it's temptingly close to Shed status now) but that it failed on two crucial areas: design and perception of what a Jaguar should be. The average PHer might not rank the perception part that high, but the fact remains X-Type sales stunk and both companies want to avoid that fate again.


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Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., when describing the fundamentals of the economy -- which he maintains are strong -- has, in the past, described those fundamentals as the U.S. being "the greatest exporter, the greatest importer, the greatest innovator, the greatest producer, still the greatest economic engine in the world. And, by the way, exports and free trade are a key element in economic recovery."
Taking heat today for asserting this morning in Jacksonville, Fla., that the fundamentals of the economy are strong -- when headlines from Florida to Alaska wail about Wall Street failures -- McCain offered later in the day a new definition: "The American worker and their innovation, their entrepreneurship, the small business, those are the fundamentals of America, and I think they're strong," McCain said in Orlando.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has been hitting McCain hard on the comments for months, never including McCain's many caveats and statements of understanding that people are hurting.
Tonight in Pueblo, Colo., Obama not only repeated McCain's assertion about the strong fundamentals -- "of all days!" Obama said, "He said (it) just this morning" -- he also mocked McCain's new definition.
"A few hours later, after he said this, this morning he said this, 'The fundamentals of the economy are strong,' John McCain's campaign sent him back out to clean up his remarks," Obama said to the crowd at the Colorado State Fair Grounds grandstand. "And he explained that what he really meant, what he really meant to say was that American workers are strong."
The crowd of an estimated 13,500 did not seem to believe the new explanation.
"Now, come on, Sen. McCain!" Obama said. We know you meant what you said the first time because you've said it before. You said it just a few weeks ago. And your chief economic advisor -- the man who wrote your economic plan -- said that we're in a 'mental recession;' that this is all in our heads; that we're a nation of whiners. That's what he called you, a nation of whiners!...
"Now, don't get me wrong, don't get me wrong," Obama said, "when Sen. McCain says that American workers are the backbone of our economy, and that they aren't getting a fair shake from Washington, he'll get no argument from me. My argument is, it's about time that he figured that out. Because I've been making that case for nineteen months.
"So, I congratulate Sen. McCain for saying something nice about American workers, I think it's good that Sen. McCain is celebrating the American worker today. But it would have been nice if some time over the last 26 years he stood up for them once in a while!"
- jpt


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Kosher follow-up from SF
Vis a vis what I posted on yesterday:
Check out this story from San Francisco
Kosher consumers in the South Bay uttering the old ad line "Where's the beef?" will have a new answer at the end of the month: Nowhere.
Restaurateur Israel Rind announced that as of Sept. 1 his three-month-old Sunnyvale eatery Izzy's Brooklyn Deli will forego its kosher certification and be known as "Izzy's Brooklyn Café."
"It's a shame. The community will lose," said Rind, whose Palo Alto restaurant, Izzy's Brooklyn Bagels, will still be supervised by the Vaad HaKashrus.
"I wanted to keep [the Sunnyvale restaurant] supervised, but to keep it closed on Shabbat was impossible from a business perspective."
*Also, I want to make note of a correction, pointed out to be by Prof. Ted Merwin. Katz's was never actually kosher, and the kosher and non-kosher delis grew up side by side, and not as an evolution. That said, the kosher deli is an endangered species, while the non-kosher rules the roost.


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Please confirm that you want to add Agile Foundations - getting to Done to your Wishlist.
Got projects? This course gives you the practical techniques you can use to get your work done - for software, or beyond.Outline
After this course you will be able to
Continuing Education Credits? (PDUs)
This course also aligns with the PMI-ACP® program so gives you some of the hours you need to qualify for their exam, as well as class C PDUs to maintain your existing PMI certification. This course by itself does not get you certified, but it makes you smarter in your quest to do so, or to simply enhance your skill at work.
To claim them go to PMI's CCRS PDU claim website, log in, report PDUs, select class C (Self directed learning), and enter Agile Dimensions or Udemy in the provider field. There are some limits on how many hours of each type you can use to renew your certification (for example, 15 of the 30, for example).
See ya on the forum!
Welcome!! In this video we'll define what Agile is, what flavors there are, and how it can help you get your work done.
Let's see what Agile is about by defining some terms and touching upon some different styles of project management.
Follow this step by step overview of the Agile process as we walk though our Agile3d Factory(tm).
This lesson shows you a high level view of how the detailed concepts fit together.
Let's see if we can remember some o those buzzwords
4 types of stakeholders
Standards covered
IC13-4.1 - Including Customers & Users
PM11-D2.1 - Stakeholder Needs
What is the guiding purpose of our project? What statement holds the cloud of requirements together?
Remember the word 'PIPE'? What does it stand for?
__Principals__ (hint - think $)
__End__ __Users__
How can we best describe requirements so they are clear to the customer and to our team?
User Stories are the basic building blocks of Agile projects.
Learning Card Activity:
Grade yourself:
What seperates good stories from bad? In this mode we will cover William Wake's INVEST mneumonic, and how it can apply to your requirements.
This quiz confirms you know how to write requirements in the form of a good User Story.
What comes first? After this module you will have specific tools to help you prioritize your list of work, which is key to Agile.
This module shows how to rank what gets done first, next, or not at all!
Customer Value and effort to build something may be different. Let's focus our business people on setting the priorities, and show how the engineers and team can quickly estimate so we'll be ready for planning.
Learn how Agile teams get everyone's input to produce quick and effective estimates.
How big are the things we are working on? Here is a good way to estimate our work so we can plan better.
Don't stress too much about getting it perfect the first time. After 3 to 5 iterations your estimates will become more consistent. Before that any more thinking is s waste of time. We really just don't know until we get into this technology with this team. But with experience our estimates become very accurate. It is common for them to be off by 60% for brand new team, and to converge to be within 15% after a few sprints.
This graph shows the actual hours per 'story point' varies at the beginning for this team, but then not only becomes more consistent, but more productive (fewer hours needed to finish each story point)
How much can we do? This module shows how decide how much we commit to, how many things are "stretch goals", and what has to wait for next time.
Okay, everything has been building up to this point. It's time to sketch our plan so we can later effectively take action if things are falling behind.
How much will fit in our plan? What is the concept of 'Speed buffer?'
These final details help you select and adapt the right process for you. 1? 10? 100?
We wrap up our planning module by showing how to view multiple teams, and how to avoid 4 deadly mistakes.
You've sketch out your big picture release plan. Another couple of weeks have passed, and now it's time to another iteration. Here is a checklist to get you started.
Quality is key to keeping our team running efficiently and to delighting our customers. How can we do our work efficiently and build quality into the way we work?
The daily stand-up meeting is a key driver for collaboration in the coming day.
"Big Visible Indicators" - "Information Radiators" are terms you may hear that describe the workspace of an alert Agile team..
At the end of our two week slice we demonstrate our work so we can be sure we got it right. If any changes are needed we can decide if we should include them later. Customer feedback helps us build the right thing.
We also get the team's feedback on how we can tune our process to work smoother in the next two weeks. After a few years of doing that you will have a well oiled machine!
What went wrong? Or really, how can things go better? Retrospectives help the people doing the work find improvements to streamline their work. Imagine the cumulative effect of 2 improvements every two weeks for a year! Here's how.
Let's learn by doing. Create some imagined problems for your team, and illustrate how they would show up in your graphs.
Practice sustainable pace as you repeat each sprint and release. Energized knowledge workers produce more. Overly stressed ones produce defects.
How do testers serve an Agile team to build quality in?
Some of the theory behind our agile techniques comes form a century of industrial engineers looking for ways to work more efficiently. By seeing the past, we get a feel for some of the reasons behind the Agile practices we've learned.
One of the biggest problems I've seen with teams over the years is not the planning or engineering, but hidden conflicts. By knowing folks may see the same issue though different styles we can avoid some common problems that can make work harder than it needs to be.
"AgileBill" Krebs has over 20 years of programming, performance, project management, and training in the IT industry at 5 IBM labs, Davisbase, and Allscripts. He has used agile since 2001, and taught it to over 2,000 people worldwide. He has presented at agile conferences, IBM Research, and conferences on education.
Bill's certifications and groups include the "grand slam" of four advanced certifications in Agile - SPC, PMI-ACP, CSP, and ICE-AC. I also holds 7 other certifications in related areas and is pursuing a Master's degree in Education Technology. He hosts the Distributed Agile Study Group and is a member of ALN, the Scrum and Agile Alliances, ACM, PMI, and more. Besides speaking at conferences, Bill serves as an enterprise Agile Coach in the healthcare industry.


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If you did not participate in the past, whether as a fan or an exhibitor, you missed a lot – don't be left out in 2012. 2011 was another terrific year for the show. Attendance was over 3,000 attendees and exhibitors, along with dozens of printers, distributors, retailers, and other industry professionals. There were over 450 people registered as exhibitors and we sold over 170 exhibitor tables. SPX has a unique format of only selling exhibitor space to independent publishers and not to retailers. This provides a very intimate and friendly atmosphere for our creators and fans to mingle. At the same time, there's a wide array of programming for all to enjoy.
Where: Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center
5701 Marinelli Road. North Bethesda, MD 20852
When: Open to the public Saturday and Sunday,
September 15 and 16, 2012.
Hours: Saturday, September 15: 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Sunday, September 16: noon – 6:00 pm
Admission: One day memberships: $10.00
Weekend memberships: $15.00
Collected at the door the day of the show


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An ideal gift or treat for yourself, Aromatherapy Associates' Ultimate Bath Collection Christmas Set combines ten luxurious bath and shower oils. Presented in festive packaging, each formula has been expertly blended to enhance the state of physical, mental and emotional well-being.
The Set Contains (10 x 9ml):
Revive Evening
Experience the tension-relieving and reviving powers of geranium, ylang-ylang, sandalwood and patchouli. Invigorating and revitalising, the oil is an essential to prepare for the evening ahead.
Support Breathe
Ideal for dreaded colds and unblocking sinuses, the bath and shower oil contains refreshing eucalyptus, pine, tea tree and peppermint to help ease breathing and clear your head.
Inner Strength
Find your inner strength with the award-winning bath and shower oil. Enriched with a unique combination of clary sage, cardamom and frankincense to inspire courage, positivity and enable you to overcome challenging times.
Deep Relax
For a truly relaxing experience, the bath and shower oil is enriched with calming chamomile, vetivert and sandalwood to create a cloud of pure tranquillity and allow a peaceful night's sleep.
De-Stress Mind
Clear the mind and organise thoughts with the powers of frankincense, petitgrain, wild chamomile and rosemary. Simply add the therapeutic oil to your bath water or massage into skin before showering to leave you focused all day long.
Revive Morning
Infused with a blend of pink grapefruit, rosemary and juniper berry essential oils to invigorate and awaken the skin and senses, the bath and shower oil will give you a refreshing start to the day.
De-Stress Muscle
Energise and revive muscles with the warming and fatigue-fighting blend of rosemary, black pepper, lavender and ginger. Ideal for use after physical activity or a long, tiring day.
Light Relax
Ease a tired body and mind. The restful powers of lavender, ylang-ylang and petitgrain will help you to relax and unwind after a busy day.
Support Lavender & Peppermint
Enhance the state of physical, mental and emotional well-being with the luxurious blend of lavender and peppermint. Comforting and uplifting, the bath and shower oil will keep you feeling your very best.
Support Equilibrium
Uplift the body and senses with the comforting Equilibrium oil. For a comforting experience, geranium, rose and frankincense melt away tensions of everyday life and promote a positive mind.


text: Holgorsen: Mental lapses hard to predict By Dave Hickman November 2, 2011 Story Share MORGANTOWN - Yogi Berra was famous for saying that baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half physical.Dana Holgorsen isn't quite as mathematically challenged, perhaps, but over the course of the last few weeks he has proven that his philosophy is pretty much the same.All else being equal, wanting to succeed more than the other guy is just as significant as having the physical tools to succeed. In games against Syracuse and Rutgers, the West Virginia coach has seen both sides.West Virginia got pushed around at the Carrier Dome and didn't take it seriously. The result was an embarrassing 49-23 loss.Then a week later in wretched weather at Rutgers, the Mountaineers were again bullied for a half, yet turned things completely around and won 41-31.The difference, Holgorsen said, was all mental."When your back is to the wall, you tend to respond with a bit more energy,'' Holgorsen said. "I thought we were excited to play going into Syracuse and our preparation was fine, but the biggest thing was when we got smacked, we didn't respond. Then last week [at Rutgers], there were a lot of opportunities to shut it down: It was too cold, they're winning by 10, this is not working out how we wanted it to, etc."We responded better within the game. I anticipate our preparation this week will be fine. It's about continuing to mature as a team and play well together and pick each other up and having more energy and excitement than the other team. When things get bad, you have to have the ability to step up and do something about it.''This week presents another challenge when No. 24 West Virginia (6-2, 2-1 Big East) faces Louisville (4-4, 2-1) at noon Saturday at Mountaineer Field. It is yet another game in which the Mountaineers are solid favorites (14 points) against an unranked team. There seems little question that the general consensus is that West Virginia is the better team. Louisville's offense is among the worst in the country (No. 103 out of 120 FBS schools) and while the Cardinals do play exceptional defense, WVU has at times proven that doesn't matter. The Mountaineers rang up 533 yards against No. 1 LSU, 643 in a win over Bowling Green and even 428 in a blizzard at Rutgers.Yet there are always questions about how motivated West Virginia is and how hard the Mountaineers will play.Holgorsen wishes he could predict that."There is no magic formula, there just isn't. If you had a magic formula, then there would be even more parity in college football due to the fact that everyone would be following the same formula,'' he said. "Look across the country. We went up to Syracuse and didn't play very well and they played great. You turn it around and Syracuse goes to Louisville and they didn't play very well and got beat [27-10 a week after pounding WVU]."Look at the Big 12 with Texas Tech going to [Oklahoma] and beating them soundly, then turn it around and OU beats Kansas State soundly. And Iowa State goes to Texas Tech and beats the pants off of them. It happens all across the country every week, throughout the whole season. I don't know a magic formula to prevent that from happening.''Obviously momentum doesn't play a big role. Look at the games Holgorsen cited. Syracuse had all the momentum in the world going to Louisville, as did Texas Tech in playing Iowa State. Oklahoma had none going into its game against Kansas State. So while West Virginia might seem to have some momentum after a near-perfect second-half turnaround at Rutgers, that's not necessarily a factor."To be honest, I think every week is independent,'' Holgorsen said. "If anyone should have some momentum right now, we should based on coming back home, based on overcoming the adversity that we overcame last week. We have everything out there in front of us. We're 6-2 and have a chance to finish strong. Does that give us an advantage? I doubt it. You have to line up and play every week."One of the things that we've learned over the last two weeks is that you'd better play with effort all four quarters. Regardless of what the score is, you better be playing for four quarters. That can't ever change, especially when there's as much parity as there is. In this league, it doesn't matter who it is, they can get you. You better be ready to go out there every week.''Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Story Share Story Share Trending Now 1 Deer in 8 WV counties found dead from EHD 2 Body found in Kanawha River, near South Charleston 3 Plans for all-ages venue rise in old bakery building 4 City of Milton tries to revive Morris Memorial property 5 Mitch Vingle: WVU's Lyons watching bombshell merger news Valley would host playoff game at Laidley Previous Story So much for the high road Next Story


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It's a wonder it ever got made. Restless isn't a bad movie — far, far from it — but check out this synopsis: A death-obsessed young man meets a vivacious but (did we mention?) terminally ill teenager; together they embark on a series of wacky adventures before her time runs out. It sounds like a bad remake: Harold and Maude, Part Twee.
The reference is fair comment, but it ignores the fact that Gus Van Sant is the director. Oscar-nominated for his last film, 2008's Milk, this is also the man behind My Own Private Idaho, To Die For and Good Will Hunting. Heck, he made Psycho. (OK, Alfred Hitchcock had already made it 38 years earlier, and Van Sant's shot-for-shot copy confused and annoyed most viewers, but still …)
Restless introduces us to Enoch, played by 21-year-old Henry Hopper, son of the late Dennis Hopper and more than capable in his first major film role. Enoch's hobby is attending strangers' funerals — potentially creepy, but he's eventually exculpated.
In his spare time he plays Battleship with Hiroshi (Ryo Kase), who is either the ghost of a Second World War kamikaze pilot or Enoch's imaginary friend. Either way, it explains his unerring accuracy at the game.
During one memorial service, Enoch locks eyes with Annabel (Mia Wasikowska), who prefers to be called Annie — problematic, since she also looks like she's dressed in Diane Keaton's hand-me-downs from Annie Hall. And her pixie-ish hairdo? Annie is a cancer patient whose latest round of tests has not gone well.
"I flunked," she tells her new friend bluntly. He spends a few moments taking in the news before replying: "I could help you get ready." It's a heartbreaking moment, and not the last; a later scene featuring — of all things — a memorial buffet table almost reduced this hardened critic to tears.
Enoch and Annie are clearly kindred spirits. To outsiders — i.e., the other people in the film — the relationship looks suspicious. Even Enoch admits that a high-school dropout who crashes funerals, doesn't drive and hangs with a ghost sounds bad "when you put it all together like that." But wiser souls — Van Sant; first-time writer Jason Lew; you, dear viewer — can tell they're birds of a feather. And in case it's not clear, she shares with him her passion for ornithology.
Characters who moon over the Latin names of gulls is just one instance of Van Sant skating perilously close of the precipice of preciousness. But he consistently recovers, aided and accompanied by the quiet, contemplative songs of Michigan-born singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens, played so low as to have us leaning forward to try to pick up the lyrics. (Harold and Maude had its own soundtrack Stevens, Cat.)
The film's one big misstep is the obligatory — and can someone tell me why it has to be obligatory? — date montage, with Enoch and Annie frolicsomely playing dress-up and riding bicycles and whatnot. The date montage is a six-lane bypass on the beautiful back country roads of romance.
It is entirely possible to resist Restless's charms, and rage against the dying of the light. (If that sounds like you, best to also avoid 50/50, this week's other cancer comedy.) I was content to go gently into its good night; my only fight to hold back tears.
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Twitter: chrisknightfilm


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(Who am I, you ask?)
My name is Cathy and I am a wife, daughter, friend, and stay-at-home mom to 4 awesome little girls. My home is my dwelling place, and I strive each day to make it more warm, welcoming, and wonderful than the day before. I love to CREATE. I love using the materials I have to make something new. I love finding new uses for old things. I love welcoming people into my home and making them feel comfortable. I believe simple is beautiful. I blog because it keeps me going – it keeps me creative and helps me see the possibilities that surround me. My home and all that happens within it makes me happy…and I am happy to have the chance to share it with you!
(Glad you asked 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to get to know a little bit about me… I hope you stick around for a while!
Feel free to contact me with questions or comments at [email protected]. I look forward to hearing from you!


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Eye Spy Alphabet Slime Recipe
Alphabet Slime Recipe (affiliate links provided)
- 2 cups of clear school glue
- 2 cups of very warm water
- 1 teaspoon of borax
- 1 & 1/3cups of very warm water
- Alphabet letters
- Bowls for mixing
In a bowl mix 2 cups of clear school glue with two cups of very warm water and stir well
Then add the alphabet letters
We used these alphabet letters, and they worked great! We have used them for lots of other activities too, and we will definitely be able to re-use them whenever this slime goes out of circulation in our home.
In a separate bowl mix one teaspoon of borax with 1 and 1/3 cups of very warm water and stir well
Once the borax is dissolved, combine the two bowls together and begin to mix with your hands. The slime will immediately begin to form.
At first the slime will appear very sticky, but as you mix and handle it it will become very smooth on the outer surface. If it is still a bit sticky add a very small amount of borax to a teaspoon of hot water and add it to the slime.
That's it! Now you have super fun alphabet slime to play with!
Have kids hunt for letters while they play! Our slime has 5 of each alphabet letter. One fun way to play is to have kids play color letter eye spy and find letters of a certain color. You can also have them see how many of a certain letter they are able to find. Can they find all 5?
Alphabet Eye Spy Slime- make learning FUN!
A Few Tips: Borax can be found in the laundry aisle of most stores or online here. When the slime is not being played with store it in an air tight container; it will last for several months.
Click the photos below for more fun Slime Recipes


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MONMOUTH archaeologists have discovered what is believed to be one of the most important prehistoric finds.
What was at first thought to be a longhouse is now believed to be an ancient boatyard.
Archaeologists have been working at the Parc Glyndwr building site, between Rockfield Road and Watery Lane, Monmouth, for about two years.
They first uncovered the remains of a huge post-glacial lake which survived in the bowl of Monmouth almost into Roman times and was overlooked by human settlements for thousands of years.
In his new book, The Lost Lake, Steve Clarke, chairman and founding member of Monmouth Archaeological Society, tells the story of the lake –which measured 4km across and six metres deep and ran around the higher ground of Monmouth to Croft-y-Bwla – and of the boatyard.
"It is the most important pre-historic discovery we have ever made. As far as we, know no-one in Western Europe has ever recovered a prehistoric boatyard," said Mr Clarke.
People lived by the lake from at least 6000 BC, through to 100 BC. The lake broke through the bowl and drained in the 1st century BC: it left a lagoon which silted up and filled with peat.
When three channels cut across a Bronze Age burnt mound (dated 1680BC) were unearthed on the edge of the lake, they were at first thought to be remains of a structure such as a longhouse, until further excavation showed they were a hundred feet long, perfectly parallel and level and contained evidence of wood working.
Mr Clarke said: "The features were recognised as the 'matrix' for the construction and launching of a double canoe with an outrigger, as depicted in Bronze Age rock carvings."
The Lost Lake is published by Monmouth Archaeological Society. £15 from Monmouth Museum, or Clarke Printing, Town Wall, Monmouth.


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The great housing bubble has burst, and it is clear that mortgage fraud played a key role in a collapse that now threatens the entire economy. Florida is a magnet for con artists, and the easy money too many banks were throwing around for big mortgages on homes with inflated price tags made them easy marks. Banks lost millions because nobody made the appropriate background checks, and it appears some real estate agents were complicit.
St. Petersburg Times senior correspondent Susan Taylor Martin uncovered a cottage industry of deceptive mortgage practices in our region. In November, Martin reported on the actions of Lori Polin, an agent for Re/Max International, who worked with attorney Allen Boyarsky to sell a number of homes at artificially high prices.
Now Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has brought a lawsuit against Boyarsky and two other "ringleaders" for violations of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices act. The lawsuit claims that they engaged in a mortgage fraud scheme, which also included Polin and two other real estate agents, that cheated lenders of more than $37-million and led to the foreclosure of some 50 homes in Central Florida.
The alleged scam operated through collusion between real estate agents, mortgage brokers and others who set up straw buyers to purchase homes at prices far above the home's initial list price. A mortgage for 100 percent of the purchase price would be taken out, and the extra cash between the mortgage amount and the money used to pay the home seller was pocketed. Then the home would be left to go into foreclosure. The apparent con left behind a path of devastated neighborhoods.
McCollum didn't name the real estate agents as defendants in the suit. Oddly enough, the agents are exempt from lawsuits under the deceptive practices act. Instead, real estate agents are policed by the Florida Real Estate Commission. But the deceptive practices act has teeth that the commission doesn't. McCollum has called on the Legislature to revisit the exemption, and it certainly would be worth examining.
Why should real estate agents be protected from lawsuits under the deceptive practices act when such improper behavior can ruin lives and undermine the stability of entire neighborhoods?


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- Latest
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- Blogs
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… easy as well. By the time you sent the email, the content was set. We had one travel vendor that had a template that had several hundred rules in the campaign. Virtually every single subscriber had a 100% personalized email. Their open rate and conversion rates skyrocketed. When you send an HTML email, the text is sent but the images are only…


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On a clear night in spring 1998 I found myself sitting on a beach in Florida, staring at the stars and counting my blessings. About a week earlier, I had finished my dissertation and had flown from the Netherlands to the United States to start my postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). I only had time to meet my new colleagues before leaving for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to attend a conference.
Returning from Florida I quickly settled into my daily routine. Life at MIT turned out to be very exciting but also quite demanding. I took advantage of the outstanding infrastructure and went to almost every talk that interested me. MIT really is the pinnacle of the wealthy and communicative scientific culture that I described in Part One of this article. I enjoyed every minute of it, and my scientific and intellectual horizons widened rapidly. At the same time the technological and entrepreneurial spirit at MIT made a lasting impression on me. I realized that scientific knowledge is not something we only generate to store in papers and books; it can also form the basis for useful inventions and successful companies.
In spite of all this, after only a few months I began to feel less blessed than I had on that Florida beach. I had clearly misjudged the position of a postdoc in the group in which I was working. I assumed that I was there to continue my work as an independent researcher and collaborate with my adviser on projects of mutual interest. My adviser, however, considered me an employee and made it clear I was hired to work on his ideas. This was understandable from his perspective because he paid me out of his grant, but I felt patronized given the level of independence I had experienced during my Ph.D. As a result, my adviser was growing irritated with my perceived lack of progress on his projects. He was like a conductor forcing me to play one of his own compositions while I am not a musician but a composer myself.
To find a way out of this unsatisfying situation I contacted the MIT Career Office. From my very own career development counselor I got a number of pointers to get me started (including Science's Next Wave!). On her advice, I also enrolled in a self-assessment course and learned to articulate some important things about myself: I highly value independence, so being told what to do makes me extremely unhappy. I most enjoy the creative part of research where I think of a new view on a problem so that the solution becomes simple. Also, I am very sensitive to my direct social environment and do not function well if I feel uncomfortable.
It was pretty clear that my present job was not scoring very high on those points. After a while, the relationship with my adviser became so tense that I decided to resign, but my despair did not last very long--I was offered a position in a lab that I had visited many times as a predoc. One of my Ph.D. advisers was still at The Ohio State University (OSU) and had managed to persuade one of the other professors to hire me. This group at OSU turned out to be a great fit, and I really enjoyed doing research again.
My new adviser did not give me total freedom, but we made a reasonable deal: I would spend half of my time on our joint projects and the other half on my own research and collaborations with others. Those 2 years at OSU were quite productive and resulted in a number of conference presentations and four journal papers. Not a bad score at all! But the quest for independence was still on. Because a postdoc is only a temporary position, I never stopped thinking about my future career. I was constantly trying to make up my mind: Should I pursue an academic career or try my luck elsewhere?
Further Reading: Next Wave's Postdoc Network