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COLUMBUS, Ohio – After Friday's game against the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park, the Crew don't play again until an away match at Toronto FC on Oct. 16.
The break will be welcomed following a stretch of four games in 10 days that has so far seen Columbus lose a CONCACAF Champions League game to Municipal in Guatemala, tie San Jose at home and lose the final of US Open Cup in Seattle on Tuesday.
The two-time Supporters' Shield winners have the busiest schedule in MLS and, as was the case last season, it has taken its toll.
The Crew are 2-2-3 in the league since the first of seven "outside" games – five CCL and two Open Cup – was played Aug. 18.
For the first two-thirds of the season, the Crew were among the best teams in the league. Over the first 20 games of the season, they averaged 1.85 points per game, scoring an average of 1.4 goals in each contest and being shut out just five times. Defensively, they allowed 0.95 goals per game and shut out their opponents eight times.
Then the games started piling up. Since that 20 game stretch, the Crew's performance has fallen off. In those seven games, they have been shut out three times while scoring just seven goals, and have gained an average of 1.29 points per contest. The defense has also sprung a leak, allowing 1.43 goals per game into the net.
Columbus are 0-2-2 in the past four MLS games and sit in second place in the Eastern Conference, one point behind the New York Red Bulls.
A win over the Fire could go a long way toward preventing the type of slide late last year that ultimately cost the Crew a chance to defend its MLS Cup title.
In 2009, the Crew averaged 1.77 points per game for 22 league matches (10-3-9) before falling to 1.25 (3-4-1) after the start of the CCL campaign.
The Crew scored 1.54 goals a game and were blanked only once before the tournament began, but were shut out in half of the last eight games while averaging 0.88.
The defense did get better during the same period – 0.88 goals-per-game allowed (two shutouts) from 1.09 (four shutouts in 22 games) – but Columbus lost three of the final four regular-season games last year by 1-0 scores and never recovered. The Crew lost 1-0 in their first playoff game at Rio Tinto Stadium before being eliminated 3-2 on aggregate by eventual champion Real Salt Lake.
Head coach Robert Warzycha has used a mixture of regulars and reserves to navigate the various competitions in his two years with the club, and has had some degree of success. The Crew reached the Open Cup final for the first time since 2002 and need one point to make the CCL quarterfinals for a second straight year.
"There's nothing you can do about the schedule now," Warzycha said. "The team we put on the field is the team we think can win the game."
He'll hope the teams he fields can start doing that. In between the Toronto match and the season finale against Philadelphia on Oct. 24, the Crew travel to Trinidad to play their last CCL group-stage match against Joe Public.


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We offer secure credit card payments that you can feel safe with using. Our supplier of internet payments is DIBS and they handle Visa and Master card. Your transaction will take place in a safe envoriment outside our server and therefore is a secure way to pay for your order at Yukka.co.uk. Your information will not be given out to any third part - it is sent encrypted through DIBS directly to your bank. If we suspect fraud we will contact the customer for an ID verification to minimize the risk of someone using a card that does not belong to them. For more information check our terms and conditions.
All our packages are sent with the Swedish Post and will be delivered by your local post supplier. In some cases this means you pick it up at your local post office and in other cases your order will be sent all the way to your door. Swedish Post makes it possible for us to offer an easy, safe and fast delivery for a reasonable price. You always are informed when your order has arrived and how it will be delivered.
Our concept is to be albe to offer our customers their favourite big designers and brands together with handpicked upcoming brands that we often are alone on the market selling. This gives you a much more exciting shopping experience and makes it possible for you to find traditional brand names together with unique stuff people are going to stop you on the street and ask you about. We work hard to maintain this concept constantly delivering the newest gear for you to wear!
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subset: commoncrawl


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2004 Volkswagen Touareg V-10 TDI Review
It's A Wrap: 25,000 Miles With The Diesel Diva
OK, we know, we parked her on pavement ... but what better backdrop for our long-term Touareg's swan song? With her fast-lane manners, sleek sense of style, and proven versatility in any number of roles, our now-departed 2004 Four Wheeler of the Year was the leading lady of our long-term test fleet. Elegant as Nicole Kidman on the boulevard, yet stout as Queen Latifah on the trail, our Touareg was the one rig in our stable that was equally at home plying the Sierra backcountry in low-range, or roaming the streets of Tinseltown in search of an Oscar party.
Like many gifted performers, though, our diva had a mercurial side. The last time we left her (Feb. '06), she was having her ECU revamped to put a stop to the barrage of beeps and error codes she was regaling us with on a weekly basis ("Airbag fault!," "Driveline fault!"). Or was she having a wheel sensor replaced so she'd stop telling us we had a flat tire every other day? Or was it the new set of brake pads she needed to replace the ones she'd toasted after 10,000 miles? Or the new set of tires she really did need after 20,000?
But we digress. After a full year of testing, we're still so smitten by our diesel grande dame that we happily overlooked her occasional outbursts, like the rear seatbelts that wouldn't unlatch, or the keyless entry that only worked for one door, or the fold-down rear seats that wouldn't fold up again.
Perhaps it was the lure of her plush leather seats, or the effortless steering feel that let us carve the chicanes of Mulholland Drive with the precision of a Beverly Hills Lasik surgeon. Perhaps it's the V-10's mindboggling torque curve-at peak, virtually flat from spool-up to four grand-that made us feel powerful as a studio mogul when blasting down the Hollywood Freeway for a round of hors d'oeuvres at Spago. Or could it be the adjustable air suspension and selectable diff locks that proved their worth, time and again, on terrain ranging from rain-slick Rodeo Drive to 4-rated rock trails at Moab? Whatever it was, no matter the inconvenience, we just couldn't help being star-struck. We know, after all, that celebrity comes at a price, and it was certainly true for our diva: Two brake jobs, a new set of tires, and $2,950 in parts and labor. Breaking up is hard to do, in more ways than one.
Report: 3 of 3
Previous reports: Sept. '05, Feb. '06
Base price: $57,800
Price as tested: $63,365
Four-wheel-drive system: 4xMotion electronic full-time two-speed
Long-Term Numbers
Miles to date: 25,693
Miles since last report: 10,386
Average mpg (this period): 20.99
Best tank, period (mpg): 25.10
Worst tank, period (mpg): 15.42
30,000-mile service: Fluid and filter changes, tire rotation, et al.
Cost: $374.06
Replaced worn tires with set of Falken S/TZ04s
Cost: $626.95
Replaced front wheel sensor
Cost: $324.05
Replaced rear brake pads
Cost: $247.42
Replaced broken seatbelt guide
Cost: $2.46 (warranty fix)
Added 4 quarts diesel oil
Cost: $16
Problem areas (test period): Tires, rear brakes, tire/wheel sensors, door locks, rear seats, seatbelts, and pretesioners.
What's Hot, What's Not:
Hot: Awe-inspiring powerplant, seamless drivetrain; feather-light steering, tight turning circle; selectable diff-locks; world-class seats; impressive mileage.
Not: Roasts brake parts every 10,000 miles; ECU sensors require routine exorcisms; onboard Nav system needs a CD to operate (which of course we lost); awe-inspiring powerplant currently unavailable in U.S.
Logbook Quotes:
* "High maneuverability makes it capable in traffic or on the trail."
* "Too many alarms, and no manual to see if some can be disabled."
* "A pure pleasure to drive. Tons of passing power!"
* "20 mpg from a V-10?!? Simply amazing."


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US President Barack Obama today donned a teacher's hat to tell his two young daughters how Mahatma Gandhi's 'Satyagraha' had influenced American civil rights leader Martin Luther King to fight injustice.
While visiting the Robben Island prison in South Africa where his hero Nelson Mandela spent two thirds of his 27 years in jail, Obama told Sasha and Malia how Mahatma Gandhi started his non-violent political struggle in South Africa.
"One thing you guys might not be aware of is that the idea of political nonviolence first took root here in South Africa because Mahatma Gandhi was a lawyer here in South Africa," Obama said, according to a White House pool report.
"Here is where he did his first political (activism). When he went back to India the principles ultimately led to Indian independence, and what Gandhi did inspired Martin Luther King," said Obama, the first black president of the US said.
In a blue wind breaker and slacks, the US president along with his wife Michelle and daughters visited the cell where the anti-apartheid leader was jailed.
Obama in his speeches has often said Gandhi has inspired Americans and African Americans, including Martin Luther King.
During a school interaction in the US, Obama had said once that if it were possible, he would have loved to have dinner with Mahatma Gandhi.


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News Release 2009-9 | February 13, 2009
OCC and OTS Expand Data Collection on Mortgage Performance
Joint Release
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Office of Thrift Supervision
WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Office of Thrift Supervision are expanding the scope of the mortgage performance data gathered from national banks and thrifts to include additional information on the affordability and sustainability of loan modifications.
The additional data will show how loan modifications changed the total amount of borrowers' monthly principal and interest payments in 2008. The next edition of the agencies' joint Mortgage Metrics Report, scheduled for release next month, will review categories of loan modifications that:
- Increased borrowers' monthly principal and interest payments.
- Brought no change to payments.
- Reduced payments by 10 percent or less.
- Reduced payments by more than 10 percent.
Importantly, for loans modified in the first and second quarters of 2008, the report will show the percentage of modifications in each of the four categories that are 60 or more days past due at six months after modification. This will help gauge the effectiveness of the four categories of changes in monthly payments in making mortgages more sustainable and in keeping borrowers in their homes.
Future reports covering all of 2008 and subsequent periods will also show trends in the types of modifications undertaken by loan servicers.
"This is important information on banks' efforts to modify loans and will help inform lenders and policymakers as to what type of modifications work, with a particular focus on the effect of significant changes in monthly payments," said Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan. "We continue to actively urge national banks to implement effective loss mitigation actions, including affordable and sustainable loan modifications, to prevent avoidable foreclosures and to mitigate their losses. By bringing the same sort of standardized definitions and rigorous analysis to loan modification performance data that we have provided in our previous reports on mortgage metrics, lenders and policymakers can use this information to make loan modification programs more effective."
OTS Director John Reich described the expanded data collection effort as fulfilling a pledge.
"We have promised to continually improve this data collection-and-reporting program to ensure that the results are meaningful and useful in the ongoing effort to address the nation's foreclosure crisis," Mr. Reich said. "Today's announcement marks a meaningful milestone in that effort."
After conducting separate programs to collect and report loan-level data on mortgage performance, the OCC and the OTS launched a joint program in the summer of 2008. After gathering validated information on more than 35 million first-lien mortgages representing more than 60 percent of all mortgages in the country, the agencies issued a joint report in September 2008 that provided the first available data on the performance of loan modifications across a large portfolio of loans.
The initial joint report covered the second quarter of 2008. In December, the agencies released a second joint report covering the third quarter of 2008. Because the December report generated a high level of interest, the agencies decided to make public the work under way to expand the program by providing greater detail on the affordability and sustainability of loan modifications for the report coming in March and subsequent reports.
The number of data elements requested from mortgage servicers has grown by about 50 percent, from about 60 elements per loan in June to more than 90 elements per loan. The effort requires extensive work by mortgage servicers and regulators to review, validate, and present the data. In many cases, new data elements require changes to systems to capture and provide reliable information. The OCC and OTS data collection now calls for up to 2.38 billion individual pieces of information each month on the loans serviced by the largest national banks and thrifts. As this additional data is collected, processed, and validated, the agencies plan to continue expanding the quarterly public reports to include the new information.
The OCC-OTS Mortgage Metrics Data Dictionary (January 2009) is attached.
Media Contacts:
|Bryan Hubbard
|(202) 874-5770
|William Ruberry
|(202) 906-6677
Related Links
- OCC-OTS Mortgage Metrics Data Dictionary (January 2009) (PDF)
- Topic(s):


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On ibzi's blog today, there's a quick guide to introducing caching to your PHP application via a simple PHP file to create the cached pages.
Caching your pages can be pretty useful, especially if you have PHP-generated pages that uses a lot of MySQL queries. Once your pages are cached, your server won't waste speed and RAM on regenerating the pages, it will just load it from the cache. I'm going to show you how to get PHP to cache your pages, and you can probably do this within 5 minutes.
You'll need to be able to add (and use) an .htaccess file for Apache to use this method, but once it's set up, the simple script works like a charm. It prepends the caching functionality to each page and checks to see if a copy already exists. If it does, it displays it and if not, it will display it and create the cached file.


text:
- Details
- Finance
- Gallery
- Price£6,000+VAT
- Fuel TypeDiesel
- Body StylePANEL VAN
- Engine Size1560
- Number of Doors5
- Exterior ColourWhite
- Registered2017
- TransmissionManual
- Mileage66000 miles *
- OwnersTBC
Superb Looking Economical Peugeot Partner 3 SEAT EURO 6 MODEL WITH BRAND NEW PLY LINING, Competitive Finance Available, Nationwide Delivery Available, 1 OWNER, SERVICE HISTORY, BALANCE OF PEUGEOT MANUFACTURERS WARRANTY, 12 MONTHS MOT, 2 KEYS & Usual Partner BLUE SE L1 Spec, This Peugeot Partner EURO 6 MODEL Diesel Van Is 1 OWNER FROM NEW & Comes With SERVICE HISTORY, BALANCE OF PEUGEOT MANUFACTURERS WARRANTY, 12 MONTHS MOT, 2 KEYS & A Full Valet, All Major Credit/Debit Cards Accepted, Full HPI Check, RAC APPROVED DEALER, Warranty/Finance Available, For Further Details Contact 01204 520278, Superb Looking Economical Peugeot Partner EURO 6 MODEL, Drives A1, Come And Visit Our INDOOR/OUTDOOR SHOWROOM ANYTIME, OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK, Don't Miss Out, CHOICE OF 5 PEUGEOT PARTNERS IN STOCK, CHOICE OF OVER 50 VANS IN STOCK, Please Visit Our Website www.vanstopbolton.co.uk, Must Be The Best Example Available On The Market, Please Strictly No Offers At Factory Bulkhead, Brand New Ply Lining, N/S Loading Door, Aux Input Socket, CD Player, Cruise Control, ESP (Traction Control), Trip Computer, ABS, Electric Windows, Electric Mirrors, Power Steering, Remote Central Locking, Immobiliser, Alarm
Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the above information but errors may occur. Please check with a salesperson.
Representative APR shown in example above.
Fees are already accounted for within the payments displayed and are also included within the total amount payable.
Finance available subject to status. Indemnities may be required. Other finance offers may be available but cannot be used in conjunction with this offer. We work with a number of carefully selected credit providers who may be able to offer you finance for your purchase. We are only able to offer finance products from these providers. Postal Address: Wellington Garage, Bury Road, Bolton, Greater Manchester, BL2 6PY
The following documents are available for this vehicle:


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Alph Ghost And Haze - Love Comes Down "Stop Hating On Lebron James For Calling His Own Shots Like A True Boss Video" [Unsigned Hype]
"Alph Ghost and Haze team up to bring you the official "Love Come Down" video from their classic "Light Up" mixtape. This is the stop hating on young entrepreneurs who are changing the way the game is being played anthem!!! Download the complete mixtape at www.datpiff.com. For booking inquiries or information contact Alph and Haze's management at email@example.com."
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


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In this week's Internet marketing class I played a Tesco ad that plugged both barcode marketing and Tesco's new app, which has social shopping potential. The ad is fun, but it doesn't emphasize the social aspect.
Consider this quote from Tesco's agency:
Let's say that three of your friends had bought tickets to [a concert] and advertised the fact on Facebook. Wouldn't it be beneficial to receive an alert letting you know that they would be going to the concert and offering you the chance to buy your own ticket? This is a simple extension of current functionality but already the end user is having their possible needs preempted.
Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? You might want to read the post for some other ideas including the possibility that your friend Susan might be getting a cold. That one sort of creeps me out.
It will be interesting to see where Tesco goes with the social shopping aspect. They've experienced privacy push-back before, so they may proceed with caution. What most interested me about the video, though, was the happy consumers shopping with their smart phones in various settings.
A recent chart from eMarketer shows shoppers using their smart phones for a variety of purposes. Looking for deals is high on the list. Here's a Reuters video that talks about the marketing implications of Tesco's barcode app. So barcode marketing, which is essentially promotional, is clearly a growing marketing activity. Who are the enablers?
There are numerous agencies out there that develop mobile promotions (search 'mobile shopping agency,' for example). I was interested in DIY barcode promotions, so I kept looking. I found this really interesting case study. A mobile agency headquartered in Portland, Oregon hosted an art exhibit in their own space to test aspects of barcode promotions. They attached a barcode to each piece of art and encouraged viewers to scan them for information about the artist.
By now I had several barcode scanners on my iPhone, so I tried them all. None worked, so I made the correct assumption that I had to download the app from StickyBits in order to read them. That was only the beginning of my annoyance.
It's a free app on iTunes. No problem there. It wanted me to sign in with Facebook Connect, which I don't do. I don't know whether my friends are interested in this stuff, and I don't want to bug them. That proves I'm old, I know, but I just don't use it. So I set up an account with StickyBits, no unusual information requested, but annoying on a smart phone. Then after a couple of other now-typical screens—Can I send you push info? No. Can I use your current location? Yes, although that could be a mistake from a privacy perspective.
Having satisfied those screens my scanner was operational and I scanned one of the artworks. The amount of information was disappointingly small. Yes, I know this was a test, but they could have made it more useful to the artists. The test performed as expected, though. Relatively few of the attendees used the barcodes and the ones who did were relatively young and computer-savvy. Read the post for yourself: it's quite interesting and you can just click on the works of art featured to see the information provided (and consider the possibilities) and to see how few people scanned them.
I see another important lesson from the TenFour case study. Using a bar code format that isn't recognized by the best-known barcode readers is going to present a problem. The user can prominently post the download link, but it still will probably inhibit use. My phone is already cluttered with apps—how about yours?
My investigation took me down many other paths looking for an answer to a basic DIY question, "Can businesses/non-profits do this for themselves without an agency?" The answer is "yes," and I'll follow up on that in a forthcoming post.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Barcode Marketing I - Promotional Opportunities
In this week's Internet marketing class I played a Tesco ad that plugged both barcode marketing and Tesco's new app, which has social shopping potential. The ad is fun, but it doesn't emphasize the social aspect.
Posted by MaryLou Roberts at 9:20 AM
Labels: marketing apps, mobile, mobile apps, mobile marketing, mobile shopping, social media strategy, social shopping
5 comments:
- Unknown said...
Sometimes I think things are going to fast with lots of competitors trying to capture the market.
The truth is we need a bar code standard so that we don't have to load our iPhones up with so many apps we can't find the one we need.
Interesting post.
- April 5, 2011 at 10:35 AM
- Montele Hogan said...
Just finally read this one! I agree with John! Bar Code Standard really helps especially in our present time, wherein there is a lot of products, a really a lot of products that sometimes lead on problem for the consumers.
- April 6, 2011 at 10:34 AM
- Fernando Caviedes said...
John is right. Right now there are so many barcode readers that this is getting confusing. The opportunity is there. The company able to develop a tool that can read any kind of barcode will be leading these apps.
John said it correctly, these technology advances are going too fast. Do we have to adjust to every single one of them?
- May 3, 2011 at 11:00 PM
- Don Fries said...
I just read your blog although you already have your 2nd part of this. First of, standard barcode should be established. There are lots of software vendors or companies that you can find all over the internet. However, each one of them have their own barcode system they offer. It will be up to the consumer/user to choose from that will benefit their use. Lets just hope that somebody would step-up to introduce a barcode standard to benefit all of us soon.
- May 25, 2011 at 12:36 AM
- JR said...
Just read your blog and find it interesting. Many business nowadays are really into using barcodes apps since its so simple and quite efficient in inventory of goods. However, again with all the comments i read here, barcoding should have a standard in general for all businesses and consumers to benefit.
Good post and very informative with the two part series.
- July 12, 2011 at 11:02 PM


text:
Services offered:
- Garden Work
- House/Garage Clearout
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- Internal Maintenance
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daveveitch necesitaba un nuevo diseño de logotipo y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 65 diseños de 22 diseñadores freelance.
http://www.DayOnBay.ca . Our site will have three content areas: original features (business news/analysis), career content (interviews with professionals in the field), and news about student-run finance organizations from across Canada.
The reason it is called DayOnBay is as follows. Bay Street is the equivalent of America's Wall Street, and is essentially where many Canadian university students want to work if they are interested in finance. DayOnBay refers to a "preview" of what Bay Street is like.
Canadian university students interested in careers and finance. Seeking to get a leg-up on the competition for finance jobs. Driven, smart, and looking to get their foot in the door to the finance world.
Also, we hope to partner with professionals from financial services firms to conduct interviews/get ad revenue. Therefore, it is important that our logo looks professional in their eyes when we include in on our website and in our promotional material.
Related sites: This concept has never been done in Canada. Similar websites in the United States would be http://www.wallstreetoasis.com, and http://www.mergersandinquisitions.com .
The logo should be:
1) Professional
2) Memorable
3) Not too complicated
This is a list of ideas that could potentially (but no necessarily) incorporated into the logo: Toronto Skyline, Maple Leaf, Bay Street Sign, Office Buildings, Stock Graph/Ticker, Briefcase, Textbooks, Tie, Suit, Business Professional. If you think of something else feel free to post it, I am open to anything.
Red/Black would be good colours to incorporate into the logo. Logo should have the text DayOnBay or DayOnBay.ca in some form on it. It will eventually be placed on the top banner of our website and in our promotional materials. One example of a logo I thought was not too bad was (http://99designs.com/readymade/logos/3488).
The real key of this logo is for it to appear professionally designed.
File format: Vector (.ai/.eps) and High-Res JPEG.
Best of luck, if you have any questions feel free to send them to me at email@example.com .
Descubre cómo funciona un concurso de diseño u obtén más información sobre nuestros servicios de diseño de logo.


text:
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They Kidnapped Themselves
THE UNITED STATES is a racist institution built on white supremacy. To be involved in governing it at the highest levels is to carry out racist policies. Trump was open about it, while Clinton only had the decency to pretend this isn't so. I point this out not to exonerate Trump voters, but to prosecute Clinton voters as well: you don't deserve a cookie.
Racism and bigotry have been the charge against Trump and company on three fronts:
1. The wall and undocumented immigrants.
Say what you will about the idea of a wall, but a wall in itself isn't inherently racist or violent. Obama has deported more undocumented immigrants than any other president, (to the silence of any Democratic opposition.) Will Trump even be equal to that task? On what basis does the Democratic Party claim to be less racist towards Latinx Americans? Obama never said they were all rapists and murderers, he just separated families, detained and deported people as if they were violent criminals.
2. Muslims and refugees.
Obama just spent eight years administrating a Kill List, droning and bombing Muslim countries, contributing to the refugee crisis, (to the silence of any Democratic opposition.) Will Trump's foreign policy be any worse than Clinton's would have been? On what basis does the Democratic Party claim to be less bigoted towards Muslims? Granted: Trump has said terrible things about Muslim Americans, immigrants, and refugees, which may in fact be engendering an ugly climate of more open hostility towards Muslims domestically. Terrible as this is, it seems more a case of previously present negative sentiments boiling over, than a significant policy difference at the executive level.
3. Trump's unwillingness to distance himself from the support of white power groups.
This is just gross. Certainly cause for worry. And again, white nationalists seem to have been emboldened by Trump's victory. Nonetheless, Obama allowed the militarization of police forces, (to the silence of any Democratic opposition,) and was ineffectual against the tide of police killings. And anything Clinton might have said on this subject has to be cynically filtered through the record of her own racially charged past statements about bringing "superpredators" "to heel." So, on what basis does the Democratic Party claim to be less racist towards black Americans?
The problem with the Democratic party is that it lacks principles. Where did the anti-war Democrats, and the ones concerned about privacy, due process, presidential overreach, and government transparency go during the eight years of Obama's administration as he cemented the overreach of his predecessor? What is it you folks want your party to represent?
Look, I am a single issue non-voter. I don't have a dog in this hunt. Just trying to shed some light on why people who think like me opted out of the vote. I've said it again, and again: Democrats are not entitled to third party and abstaining votes. I'd rather stand with these people, thanks.
There are reasons the electoral reality map looks like the image at the top of this post.
[This post is dedicated to The Great Contrarian, over at The Contrarian Blog, who has never published one of yours' truly comments, even though I take pride in being contrarian myself, but who, in the great tradition of contrarianism, has recently written establishment shattering think pieces like Do you know what Privilege is?, (the inspiration for this post,) and Contrarian Quick Take: No Recount for Clinton, (which could almost be read as a response to my own previous post, except it definitely wasn't.)]
She Kidnapped HERself
THE PARADE of 'alt-media' commentators who talked themselves blue in the face about the fix being in, in harmony with the Trump campaign's rhetoric about the election being rigged in Clinton's favor, were more wrong than even the establishment media, now with egg on their face for having assumed a Clinton victory was a foregone conclusion based on an aggregate of (questionable?) opinion polls which showed something more like a dead heat than a clear Clinton advantage. Clinton indeed won the (meaningless) popular vote, so mainline media prognosticators have that to fall back on, I suppose. But for the alleged conspiracy to ring true, you'd have to believe the Democrats rigged the (again, meaningless) popular vote and forgot to consider the all important Electoral College, just as, you could imagine, the analysis of (again, questionable?) opinion polling might do.
I see this all as reaction to Democrat's one-dimensional electoral strategy: getting out the vote. Being Democrats, they roll the dice on democracy. This strategy invites dubious charges of "voter fraud," as if millions of Democrat operatives stuff ballot boxes by voting two times, using dead people and pet names. While establishment media was clearly in the bag for Clinton, the Democratic party is simply bad at rigging elections. 'Getting out the vote,' just isn't how elections are gamed. You know who is good at rigging dead-heat elections like this one? The Republicans. This election was rigged in favor of Republicans. And even if Trump didn't enjoy the wholehearted support of the Republican Party, he benefited from their electoral strategy. Without getting too deeply into it, (but, c'mon, who's better at gerrymandering?) the Republican strategy is three-pronged: 1. suppress the Democrat vote, 2. manipulate the system in every way possible, and 3. cheat.
The Gothamist published a ridiculously headlined and premised article, Did Russia Hack The Election For Trump? Here's What People Are Saying…, in which they included this (provocative?) bit of statistical analysis:
The most interesting thing Beran notes is that there's a big statistical difference between counties in Wisconsin that use paper ballots, and counties that relied only on electronic voting machines. "In paper ballot counties Obama won in 2012, the ballot county losses are 1-2%," Beran says. "However in counties Obama won in 2012 that are purely digital, [Clinton] lost by 10-15%."
It's that last point that Beran makes the crux of his argument: as you can see from this map, some counties in Wisconsin use just paper ballots, while others use a mix of paper ballots and direct-recording electronic (DRE) voting machines that have voter-verifiable paper ballots. Because there was such a big discrepancy between the paper ballot counties and the digital ones, it's possible the latter were interfered with. [Gothamist]
And the ridiculous bit:
Indeed, for hacking to take place, the Russians would have to have orchestrated a more The Americans-esque plot.
"People would be needed in the U.S.—at voting machine companies, in election offices, or, perhaps in polling places. Having Russian sleeper agents in the U.S. involved in this activity would require a much bigger investment and more long-term planning than hacking voter registration databases over the internet," Dill said. As he points out, there's no evidence that this is the case. (And Appel, the aforementioned Princeton professor who hacked into a voting machine, also told Gothamist he's "skeptical" that Russians hacked the machines.) [Gothamist]
While a The Americans-esque Russian plot does seem implausible, you know who does have people in the U.S.—at voting machine companies, in election offices, and polling places? The Republicans.
I mean:
Watch and/or read this: Greg Palast in Ohio on GOP Effort to Remove African Americans from Voter Rolls in Battleground State
Also, with respect to electronic voting machines:
But here's the rub: The Republicans can only seem to pull this off in close, dead-heat elections, plying these methods in swing-states strategically to capture Electoral votes. It would seem it doesn't work when voter turnout is high, (ie: when the Democratic Party's less imaginative 'get out the vote' brute force strategy works.) Why didn't it work this time? When they were up against Donald Trump of all people? In the words of Freddie DeBoer:
The story of this election is incredibly simple. It's not complicated at all. An election is a popularity contest. The Democrats nominated someone who is perhaps the least popular politician in the history of American Politics. Her consistent negatives and unfavorability ratings are literally unprecedented in the history of our national politics. And that's who the Democrats chose to nominate in an election with a uniquely dangerous opponent. [DeBoer]
Here's the other rub: As final tallies come in, and Clinton's lead in the (again, meaningless) popular vote widens, and people are urging her to call for recounts in battleground states, well, she can't. She's too corrupt. Trump's opposition to prosecuting her might evaporate if she were to get in the way of his transition to power. She kidnapped herself.
Democrats of a certain age, and just to be clear I was once one of you before I burned my voter registration card, will remember a little thing called the 2000 Florida recount, and also a little court case called Bush vs. Gore in which the Supreme Court settled a presidential election because Florida, due of its confusing ballots, and antiquated voting methods, couldn't seem to count the votes fine enough to accurately determine the result of a statistical dead heat.
You may remember four years after the Bush vs. Gore nonsense another presidential election marked by reports of hours long lines at the polls in poor neighborhoods, and some funny business to do with the results in Ohio, and the Democratic candidate John Kerry vowing not to concede the election until all votes were counted, but moments later, before all the votes had been counted Kerry gave up the fight when he realized he would lose whether Ohio accurately counted all of its votes or not.
You may have even read the extensive work of investigative journalist Greg Palast on the subject of elections in the US.
Even setting aside the gaming of the vote through gerrymandering, unequal allocation of voting machines, arcane voter registration requirements, the distribution of misinformation with regard to polling places and dates, voter intimidation, skewing of exit poll data, media influence… Even excluding all of this, if you remember 2000 and 2004, you have to at the very least admit WE CAN'T EVEN ACCURATELY COUNT VOTES in this country.
So to say Trump's skepticism of the process shows 'a lack of respect for democracy and everything America is built upon,' is extremely disingenuous. The system is clearly and unquestionably dysfunctional, anti-democratic, and open to manipulation, (ie: rigging.) If you truly and deeply cared about democracy, and not just getting Gore, or later Kerry, or now Clinton the victory, you might see the opportunity for a win-win here: You get a Trump loss, and through his challenge of the result you might have an opportunity to investigate the process and put an anti-democratic system on trial.
Unless of course you want your president's-of-choice legitimacy to be based on the same footing as was, say, a George W. Bush's.
Proof Governor Paul LePage is Probably a Racist
WILL MAINE governor Paul LePage step down after his most recent controverscial statements? No one's really saying. But the possibility is the talk of the town since he left a controversial possibly calculated dog-whistle to his base voice mail on state Representative Representative Drew Gattine's machine.
As far as I can tell, here's how we came to this point.
At a town hall meeting in North Berwick on August 24 LePage said:
"Let me tell you this, explain to you, I made the comment that black people are trafficking in our state, now ever since I said that comment I've been collecting every single drug dealer who has been arrested in our state … I don't ask them to come to Maine and sell their poison, but they come and I will tell you that 90-plus percent of those pictures in my book, and it's a three-ringed binder, are black and Hispanic people from Waterbury, Conn., the Bronx and Brooklyn." [LePage]
To judge the strict factual accuracy of LePage's statement, we'd need contents of the three-ring binder in order to crunch the numbers on the arrests between, "ever since I said that comment," (January 6, 2016,) and August 24th. Furthermore, we'd want to confirm the veracity and accuracy of the three-ring binder: does it in fact contain information on "every single drug dealer who has been arrested in our state" in that time period? And we'd want to spend a little time in LePage's head: is he quoting a hard number, 90%, or is he relating the impression he had after flipping through the binder of mug shots? To be fair, Americans do apparently often overestimate the proportion of blacks and hispanics in the population.
But you can't just let the Governor of the state off on a technicality. The image LePage is putting out there by talking about 'D-Money, Smoothie, and Shifty knocking up white Maine girls,' and now the unfounded '90-plus percent' figure, is that non-whites from away are the main villains responsible for the drug problem in Maine. He's even gone as far as to say, "I tell ya, everybody in Maine, we have constitutional carry … Load up and get rid of the drug dealers. Because, folks, they're killing our kids." [source] So he's playing a dangerous game here, painting a picture of what a drug dealer looks like– putting a profile out there –and then calling on vigilantes to commit murder.
So of course LePage is taking heat. He became enraged when he heard that a State Rep had called him a racist. The Representative, Drew Gattine, claims to have never called LePage a racist, but that he instead said, "that the kind of racially charged comments the governor made are not at all helpful in solving what the real problem is…" [source.] But whatever Gattine actually said, LePage's reaction led him to leave this voicemail in response:
"Prove I'm a racist," LePage challenges.
Well ok.
First, as discussed above, LePage is promoting an image of black and Hispanic drug dealers plaguing Maine and corrupting our young white women. One of the oldest, racistist tropes in the book.
Second, LePage has not provided the data to back up the image he's promoting, namely his 90-plus percent figure. What's more, the data that is available, does't bear LePage's depiction out:
Data like what purportedly are in LePage's binder are hard to come by: Spokespeople for the Maine court system and the Maine Department of Public Safety said the agencies don't keep records of the races of people charged with drug crimes.
But 301 — or 70 percent — of the 430 state prison inmates convicted of any type of drug trafficking self-report as white, according to data provided Friday by the Maine Department of Corrections. Another 98 — or 23 percent — self-report as black.
That total is disproportionate in Maine, which is 95 percent white. Figuring out why blacks are overrepresented, however, is tricky.
On one hand, police have said that out-of-state gangs are a piece of the drug trade here. But on the other, a 2015 study from the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine found racial bias in Maine's juvenile justice system.
Either way, LePage's thesis is wrong, reducing a complicated public health and crime problem to a caricature. [Bangor Daily News]
LePage is either lying intentionally to paint blacks and Hispanics as the bad guys, or he's willfully ignorant of the actual figures and potential racial biases at work in the state's criminal justice system. What type of person would be thus untruthful, or so blind?
Then again, maybe LePage has access to data that the courts, the Department of Public Safety, and police agencies don't even track. Maybe he's telling the truth. If so, maybe he should produce the data and prove he's not a racist.
There is an underlying issue here. Using the Department of Corrections Prisoner Search service, at the time of this writing, we find of 9155 total adult prisoners and probationers in the Maine Department of Corrections system, 8089 (or 88%) have a race/ethnicity of white. Though not as pronounced as the 70% white among those incarcerated for drug trafficking, the overall numbers are still out of whack when compared to census data which shows the state population to be 95% white. The Bangor Daily News article quoted above mentions a Muskie School of Public Service study that a found racial bias in Maine's juvenile system. When the dust from all of this political grandstanding settles, will the likes of LePage and Gattine allow the adult justice system go unexamined?
On Love, Hope, and Faith
IT'S SAID, in clichés, every day, that it's best to avoid conversations about religion or politics in polite company. But I'm a shy introvert, so to be honest, I steer away from most conversations. And as a cynical malcontent, in the interest of politeness, it's probably for the best. But if a guy can't open up on his long defunct blog to expound on the topic of religion for a thousand-plus words, then where can a guy?
I'm not cocksure enough to call myself atheist, nor so timid as to call myself agnostic, nor pretentious enough to reject labels altogether. I consider myself a deist (with qualifiers.) "Deist" to distance myself from the trollish 'new atheists,' and "(with qualifiers)," to say that I replace the notion of "God," with "Truth." That is, the likely unknowable true nature of the world/universe/reality. I say the creative forces of the universe (if any) have abandoned humankind to our own devices. And I'd add that if there truly is an intelligent, all-knowing, all-powerful creator watching over us, then they are an asshole. Like the possibly apocryphal graffiti, said to have been scratched on the wall of a Holocaust death camp says, "If there is a God, He will have to beg my forgiveness."
In any case, I hold to the possibly apocryphal advice, often attributed to Marcus Aurelius:
Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. I am not afraid.
This seems to be the main thrust of the church: To teach people how to live good, virtuous lives, and to get right with God, or the gods, before death. The problem I run into with religion is that the dogma reads to me like some of the more kooky conspiracy theories: with an over-reliance on circular reasoning and confirmation bias. And yes, I've listened to and read a lot of Catholic apologetics, as well as watched a lot of (literal) Flat Earther YouTube videos over the last [embarrassingly long period of time.] These are hobbies of mine, and are entertaining for the same reasons. Circular reasoning: tremendous fun but irreconcilable.
Religion for its part, at every sticking point, circles back round to faith. My malfunction is that I don't consider faith as a virtue. Appeals to faith serve as a boundary demarcating the limits of acceptable thought. It's a kind of restraint that compels me to rail against it. (Again: cynical malcontent, with a serious anti-authoritarian streak.)
Still, I strive to be open to other ideas, so let's not write it off without further examination…
I've heard it said that faith, hope, and charity are the three pillars of Christianity, so I would like to make sure I'm giving faith a fair shake here.
The virtual identification of faith with believing a set of statements is … a serious impoverishment of the word "faith." The word has several rich meanings… To see faith as "belief" not only obscures the other meanings, but also distorts the notion of faith itself. Seeing the heart of Christianity requires recovering the rich meanings of faith, a recovery that leads to a relational understanding of faith and to an understanding of Christianity as a "way"—as the way of the heart. [Marcus Borg [via: AZ Spot [via: FB [via: A Book I Have Not Read]]]]
Indeed, "belief" is an issue for me, I prefer the more open territory of "opinion." And "faith" isn't mere belief. Faith is unquestioned belief. Not having the man's book at my disposal, I'm left to ponder what the other several rich meanings are. The word "relational" seems important. I'd hazard we're talking about things like trust, loyalty, and sincerity as aspects of faith. Maybe some sense of openness? (Openness with respect to the relational faith of the individual to God and/or the church.)
Now, I wouldn't go so far as to call faith a weakness. Indeed, it seems indisputable that power can be drawn from it. It's just not for me. There's a place for things like trust, loyalty, fidelity, allegiance, etc. But why should these things be accepted on faith, to never be reexamined? There is power in changing one's mind! (Mine is a serious anti authoritarian streak.)
The first order of living a good life is … living! To keep going! Perseverance!
One need not hope in order to undertake, nor succeed in order to persevere. [William the Silent]
Again, I don't consider hope to be particularly virtuous. It's harmless, but unnecessary. The absurdist in me only 'hopes,' in perseverance, for a few laughs along the way.
Well, Charity…
This is where religion gets it right. The third pillar was charity, which to me is an expression of love. Love is the big one. Love is the linchpin of a good and virtuous life. Not just romantic love, but love in all of it's forms, especially "agape":
The fourth love, and perhaps the most radical, was agape or selfless love. This was a love that you extended to all people, whether family members or distant strangers. Agape was later translated into Latin as caritas, which is the origin of our word "charity."
C.S. Lewis referred to it as "gift love," the highest form of Christian love. But it also appears in other religious traditions, such as the idea of mettā or "universal loving kindness" in Theravāda Buddhism. [Roman Krznaric]
Romantic love and familial love are easy. Selfless love is a virtue. Kindness, respect, empathy, nurturing, equality, charity, sincerity, forgiveness! Common human decency. Treating others as fellow human beings with stories and feelings, rather than objectifying them as economic resource units, or sex toys, or disabilities, or freaks, or sinners, or illegal alien detritus, or parasites, or criminals, or ordnance.
Polyamory, when it comes to romantic relationships, tends to get a bad rap. First of all, try treating polyamorists as equal human beings. Show them some of that selfless love. Secondly, what I propose is a revolutionary kind of polyamory: Love everybody. Practice loving in all of its forms, and embrace selfless love as a virtue.
If there is a universal statement here that in my opinion reflects an ethical Truth worth championing, it's in the words of my late, great, Great Aunt Brenda: "Love one another."
Top Five Reasons "Our" "Justice" System Is An EPIC FAIL
[blows out dust] Is this thing on?
JUSTICE SYSTEM'S got me down lately. You most likely have heard of the case of Henry Lee McCollum and Leon Brown. The two African American men released from death row 31 years after they were wrongly convicted on the basis of coerced confessions.
This case, as well as the dumb "10 Books Challenge" that has been circulating on Facebook, put me in mind of Bertrand Russell's take on social power and the justice system, which we covered here at Stump Lane in looking at this all too similar case of wrongful conviction, imprisonment, and threat of death.
Rather than paste the whole Russell thing here again, let's just select the juiciest nuggets and place them alongside Democracy Now!'s coverage of the McCollum and Brown case. And I suppose we should do so as a list, since that's where web content has gone since we retired from 'long form' blogging.
- The institutions of law enforcement and justice are by their very nature corrupt:
RUSSELL: In every democracy, individuals and organizations which are intended to have only certain well defined executive functions are likely, if unchecked, to acquire a very undesirable independent power. This is especially true of the police.
PROF. STEVE DRIZIN, via Democracy Now!: [The simple presence of] the death penalty can corrupt the search for truth. Clearly, police officers coerced and threatened these suspects with the death penalty at the beginning. The prosecutor wore his death penalty convictions like notches on his belt in this case. And even the death penalty lawyers, two of the best death penalty lawyers I know of, they felt compelled to pressure Henry to confess to an expert, because they figured that they were going to—that Henry was going to get convicted after his case had been reversed, and that they needed him to confess in order to save his life. So the mere presence of the death penalty corrupted the search for truth at every single process of this case.
- Police and prosecutors are incentivized to convict the innocent:
RUSSELL: …a policeman is promoted for action leading to the conviction of a criminal … in consequence, it is to the interest of individual officers [to do whatever it takes to elicit a confession (or build their case).] … For the taming of the power of the police, one essential is that a confession shall never, in any circumstances, be accepted as evidence.
DRIZIN: …once they focused on McCollum, they brought him in and they grilled him relentlessly for hours. And they threatened him with the death penalty, and they promised him that he would go home. And they prepared a detailed written statement for him to sign. And at that point in time, as he says, "I would have pretty much signed anything in order to go home."
- The most able instruments of state power are exclusively brought to bear against the accused:
RUSSELL: The whole of the resources of the State are set in motion to seek out possible witnesses against you, and the ablest lawyers are employed by the State to create prejudice against you in the minds of the jury. You, meanwhile, must spend your private fortune collecting evidence of your innocence, with no public organization to help you. If you plead poverty, you will be allotted Counsel, but probably not so able a man as the public prosecutor.
ATTY. VERNETTA ALSTON, via Democracy Now!: …law enforcement had requested that a fingerprint … found at the crime scene next to sticks with the victim's blood on it … be compared to Roscoe Artis, whose DNA was found at the scene and who committed a very similar rape [and murder] three weeks later. … that request was made three days before Henry's trial and was never carried out. And based on what we know now, that request was never divulged to Henry's trial attorneys by the state. … [T]hese cases, in 1984, were prosecuted by Joe Freeman Britt, who was a notorious, notorious supporter of the death penalty and who secured between 40 and 50 death sentences during his tenure as district attorney. … what we've seen as a pattern in those cases is that he was incredibly reckless, to the point where all but two of his convictions, his death sentences, had been overturned. And the only two that haven't are folks who have been executed. … that should signal a huge problem with all of his cases, in terms of what he's turned over, what he hasn't, in his own rush to judgment, in his own priorities in getting a conviction rather than seeking the truth.
- The resources the state does allow for defense are insufficient:
RUSSELL: If law-abiding citizens are to be protected against unjust persecution by the police, there must be two police forces … one designed, as at present, to prove guilt, the other to prove innocence; and in addition to the public prosecutor there must be a public defender, of equal legal eminence.
ALSTON: The North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission … function[s] independent of … any prosecutorial agencies or any defense organizations. They're an independent agency that looks into claims of innocence to find, you know, evidence that hasn't been uncovered and to verify claims of innocence. They got involved in 2010, following a letter from Leon Brown in 2009 asking them to look into his case. So, from 2010 up until basically Tuesday, they've had an active investigation going on in Leon Brown's case, with the understanding that the evidence related to Leon's case is identical to that for Henry McCollum. So that's how they got involved. And they've conducted … an exhaustive investigation and have tested and retested many of the items of physical evidence that were found. They've conducted interviews. They've done a phenomenal job in this case.*
- Police and prosecutors aren't meaningfully held accountable for wrongful convictions:
RUSSELL: The defending police force should, moreover, become the prosecuting police force where one class of crimes is concerned, namely crimes committed by the prosecuting police in the execution of their "duty."
[cricket chirping]
BONUS #6: It has everything to do with race:
More and more it appears that the police are here to "hold the line" between the social and economic classes, disadvantaging the lower classes who lack a "private fortune" to mount a competent defense for themselves. In a nation where class lines have been drawn and enforced along racial lines, established largely through pervasive institutional racism, means these mechanisms of power and justice come to bear on people of color in a spectacularly brutal and unjust fashion.
* I said "insufficient," but I'll allow that 31 years late is slightly better than never, amirite?
THIS BLOG has documented a change. It was the development of some ideas clanging around in your host's head.
- It was the story of a Liberal whose liberalism became meaningless as new vistas of thought opened up.
- Whose pacifist anti-war stance hardened into an all-inclusive anti-imperialism.
- Whose pink capitalism, (a trust of laissez faire economics mixed with misgivings about every single aspect of the economy requiring petroleum, and the lack of a market metric for human dignity,) became economic disestablishmentarianism.
- Whose environmentalism became environmental defeatism.
- Whose "feminist" Nigel-ism became cultural nihilism or, mayhaps, Anarcha-Feminism.
- Whose democratic electoral reformism became alienated non-participation which in turn became a conscientious objection to democracy itself.
- And somewhere along the line your host started a midlife crisis, became obsessed with time, realized that time to do the things one wants, (to spend with one's loved ones, to be creative,) is priceless, for everyone, and came to realize that valuing peoples time unequally when you
askforce them to work, is evil.
Really, the recent Grid Not Goal series of posts pretty well sums up current political views.
So, here we are at the end. The site will remain, but Stump Lane will no longer be updated. The Tumblr site will continue, though under a brand new different URL, at Odoriferous Zephyrs. (Yes it's a fart joke.) Montag — the internet handle, not the meatspace person typing these words — is dead. Still not ready for complete non-anonymity, a new moniker is born for commenting, and potential future blogging purposes, though hopefully in a more creative vein.


text:
October 1, 2012
Contact: Lawrence Hajna (609) 984-1795
Lawrence Ragonese (609) 984-1795
Lee Moore (609) 292-4791
(12/P111) TRENTON - Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bob Martin announced today that Durand Glass Manufacturing Company, Inc., will pay the State a civil penalty of $150,000 under a joint state-federal settlement that resolves allegations the company violated air pollution control standards at its Millville manufacturing plant.
Under the settlement agreement, filed in U.S. District Court, Durand also will pay the federal government a civil penalty of $150,000.
As a result of the settlement, Durand has already installed pollution control equipment expected to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from its Millville plant by 174 tons per year, and to reduce particulate matter emitted by the facility by approximately 24 tons per year.
"We continue to work with DEP to ensure compliance with New Jersey's air quality and other pollution control standards," said Attorney General Chiesa. "This collaborative effort is crucial to protecting our environment and, in a broader sense, preserving the quality of life for all New Jersey citizens."
"I commend Durand Glass for working with the State to resolve these issues by proactively installing the emissions control equipment in advance of signing the settlement agreement," Commissioner Martin said. "By taking these steps, the company is improving air quality in the Vineland area, at the same time protecting jobs that are important to the region's economy."
A joint Complaint filed against Durand by DEP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) alleged that the Millville plant, which manufactures tableware glass, had failed to comply with both state and federal air quality standards. The Complaint was filed today in U.S. District Court along with a Consent Decree memorializing the settlement.
Division of Law Director Christopher S. Porrino explained that the Durand matter has its roots in an effort by DEP and the federal government to have Durand meet more stringent emission standards for nitrogen oxides and particulate emissions from its Furnace No. 3.
He noted that the Consent Decree filed today acknowledges Durand already has installed Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) air pollution control equipment designed to attain the Lowest Achievable Emission Rate equivalent for nitrogen oxide emissions.
The Consent Decree also acknowledges that Durand has installed pollution control equipment designed to achieve the Best Available Control Technology equivalent for particulate matter, as well as "fine particulates" or particulate matter of 10 micrometers or less (PM-10).
Under the settlement, monitoring equipment will determine the Durand plant's continued compliance with nitrogen oxides emission limits. Compliance with emission limits for particulates, including fine particulates, will be monitored via annual stack emission tests.
The Consent Decree filed today resolves all allegations of non-compliance contained in the joint state-federal Complaint against Durand. Under the Consent Decree, Durand makes no admission of violation. The Consent Decree still must be approved by the U.S. District Court.
Deputy Attorney General Scott B. Dubin, assigned to the Division of Law's Environmental Enforcement and Homeland Security Section, handled the Durand matter on behalf of the state.
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text:
Google's top brass haven't been posting on Google+ for weeks, making reports that the social network is a "ghost town" seem to gain more credibility.
Google's chief executive Larry Page, senior vice president of mobile Andy Rubin, senior vice president of advertising Susan Wojcicki haven't posted on the social network for more than a month, according to Business Insider. Other Google executives, such as senior vice president of research and systems architecture Bill Coughran and director of education Tom Mills, haven''t posted in three weeks.
Business Insider also reported on Tuesday that co-founder Sergey Brin also hadn't posted in three weeks -- until Brin updated his Google+ account only 20 minutes after the report went live. While the Insider could have something to do with the posting, it could just as likely have been the MediaShift story proclaiming "Google+ is dead."
U.S. & World
While the MediaShift story hinted that users can have social network fatigue, it also highlighted the fact that it takes time to create a social network -- and some people may not want to put forth that kind of investment. Apparently Google's own executives feel the same way, and if they can't even use or promote their own product, how do they expect to attract more users?


text:
Since she is miles and miles away I cannot offer this to her at least I can post this snack here for her to savor!
Back home during our childhood, I and my sister frequently used to visit a roadside stall name Masi's bhelpuri , which still sells the same bhelpuri to this day! Since my sister loved this very much I have attempted to recreate the magic that the stall's bhelpuri offered…
The specialty of this particular stall's recipe was that it included fruits,grated beet on top thus making it nutritious and chatpata.. On weekend's one had to wait for at least an hour to lay your hands on the lovely snack. There was no parking near by and the roads used to get crowded. The stall became so popular that motorists started avoiding the street during weekend evening hours.
The ingredients have no fixed measurement, I just eyeballed them. You could use as much or as little you want. But still to give you a fair idea, I am measuring some of them.
¼ cup Onion chopped
¼ cup Tomato chopped
½ cup Apples chopped (yes apples…this is the healthy part )
3-4 Grapes cut in halves
¼ cup Pomegranate
Beet root grated (yep!!! to garnish)
2 tbsp Ketchup
1 to 2 tsp Sweet tamarind chutney (alternatively you could use Trupti's apple butter chutney)
1 to 2 tspYoghurt
Cilantro leaves
- Take a little more then half of your bhel puri mix and add ketchup,sweet tamarind chutney,green chutney, yoghurt ,onion,tomatoes,apple,grapes,pomegranate and mix
- Add the above mix into your serving bowl and add the remaining bhel puri mix
Note: You could also add chaat masala while garnishing.


text:
By Rusty Miller | Associated Press
COLUMBUS -- All year long Ohio State's fans wondered whether Aaron Craft -- one of the nation's top defenders -- would ever make major contributions at the other end of the court.
He picked the perfect time to finally break loose.
Craft continually slashed through the lane for a career-high 21 points on Sunday -- more than he had scored in the last three games combined -- to lead the 18th-ranked Buckeyes to to a 68-60 victory over No. 4 Michigan State.
"Give Aaron Craft credit. In the second half, he tore us apart," Spartans coach Tom Izzo said. "It was Aaron Craft. He beat us every way you could beat us."
The pesty, bothersome junior defensive specialist hit 7-of-12 shots -- almost all of them on drives through a thicket of players in the paint.
The loss crippled the Spartans' hopes of catching up with top-ranked Indiana, which now leads the Big Ten race by two full games with four remaining.
Freshman Gary Harris had 14 points, Derrick Nix 12 and Adreian Payne 12 points and 15 rebounds for the Spartans (22-6, 11-4), who have dropped two in a row after winning 11-of-12.
It also boosted Ohio State's flagging postseason resume. The Buckeyes came in having won just a single game in eight starts against teams in the Associated Press Top 25 -- but were 18-0 against unranked teams.
Counting a 56-53 win over No. 2-ranked Michigan on Jan. 13, it was the first time that Ohio State has ever beaten two top-5 teams at home in the same season.
No wonder the fans sang, "We don't give a damn for the whole state of Michigan" in the final minutes.
The big win came a week after the Buckeyes looked listless in an embarrassing 71-49 loss at Wisconsin. They took the first step with a convincing 71-45 win over Minnesota before topping the Spartans.
"We beat two really, really good basketball teams," coach Thad Matta said. "Minnesota at one point this year was in the top 10 and these guys were No. 4 in the country. This was a big week for us -- home, away, wherever -- especially coming off of that game last week."
Deshaun Thomas added 12 of his 14 points in the second half for the Buckeyes (20-7, 10-5), who stand fifth in the conference. Evan Ravenel added 10 points and a crucial block in the final minute.
Michigan State led 36-27 after a Payne jumper from the left baseline early in the second half which all but quieted a crowd of 18,809.
But the Buckeyes didn't back down, scoring 18 of the next 23 points to take the lead for good.
With Lenzelle Smith Jr. and Thomas hitting 3s and Amir Williams, a Detroit native, dunking inside and then completing the three-point play, the Buckeyes scored points in transition, played tenacious defense and kept up on the boards to take the lead, 45-40.
After a Nix free throw temporarily ended the spell, Ohio State continued its onslaught.
LaQuinton Ross poured in a 3 from in front of the Buckeyes bench off an assist pass from Craft. Ravenel added a free throw before Craft once again sped through the heart of Michigan State's defense for a layup in traffic to push the lead to 51-41 with under 9 minutes left.
Craft has not provided much offense all year for an Ohio State team that has been begging for a scorer to back up Thomas. Against a Michigan State team which prides itself on its defense, and with quality defenders on the perimeter, he seemed to always be racing to the rack with no one in front of him.
"The game came down to us defending," Izzo said. "That's what we're usually pretty good at -- and we're not very good right now."
Craft, with just 17 points in the last three games, hadn't hit double digits in half of the Buckeyes' 14 conference games.
Two foul shots apiece by Nix, Payne and Harris pulled the Spartans to 61-59, but Craft sped by Keith Appling for a lunging layup with 2:22 left.
After a free throw by Appling, Ravenel, the only senior on Ohio State's roster, was fouled and he hit both shots to push the lead to 65-60 with 1:13 left.
With the Buckeyes still hanging on by five with 25 seconds left, Appling -- who was 1 for 6 from the field and had three turnovers and just one assist in 34 minutes -- drove to the basket but Ravenel came across and watted it away.
The Spartans wouldn't score again.
Izzo said later that he'd never seen Craft so aggressive. The Spartans agreed on his impact on the game.
"He played a terrific game," Harris said. "He got a lot of easy baskets at the rim. There were a lot of miscommunications by us at the defensive end."
Craft spread the praise to his teammates but said the Buckeyes had learned something from how passive they were earlier in a 56-53 loss at Michigan State.
"We saw some things we thought we could take advantage of," he said. "The first game I don't think we did a good job of challenging their bigs. It really helps when guys are knocking down shots from the outside because it opens lanes up. We made some layups today."


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Buttery Sugar Wafer Sandwich Cookies
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Buttery Sugar Wafer Sandwich Cookies – The sugary wafter cookies are buttery, delicate, and literally melt-in-your-mouth.
My mom and grandma used to make similar cookies every year before Christmas.
What took them hours and hours to make, I could inhale stacks of in just minutes.
Even though I only got the pleasure of inhaling those cookies once a year when I was growing up, I thought they'd make a nice spring-is-almost-here cookie. Perfect for Easter, Mother's Day, and bridal shower season.
The uber-delicate little buttery cookies literally melt in your mouth. And sinking my teeth into the good old-fashioned thick buttercream is heavenly.
Interestingly, there's no egg in the dough and it's made by creaming one stick of butter with a small amount of sugar and vanilla before adding flour. After adding the flour, the dough will be very sandy, pebbly, and dry. Add half-and-half or cream one tablespoon at a time, and mix. The dough will will be on the soft and sticky side and in a small-batch recipe like this, one tablespoon makes a difference. If you need to add a third tablespoon, go for it.
Transfer the dough to an airtight container and park it in the fridge for at least two hours, or up to five days, before rolling it out.
Turn the dough out onto a floured Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat or floured countertop and cover it with a piece of plasticwrap and roll it out to about one-eighth inch thick. The plasticwrap prevents dough from sticking to the rolling pin and makes for an easier, neater, and cleaner job.
Use a 2-inch cookie cutter or biscuit cutter to make rounds. You may make them smaller, in the one-inch range using a shot glass as your cutter if you don't have a one-inch cutter, but I frankly don't have the patience for anything less than two inches. God Bless my mom and grandma; they did.
Re-roll your scraps and use every last bit of dough until it's gone because this is a small batch recipe, yielding only about 26 wafers, or 13 sandwiches. Place the rounds on a Silpat-lined baking tray and I refrigerated it for an hour before baking because after all that rolling, the dough was on the soft side and I didn't want them to spread. I fit all 26 on one tray and they didn't spread much at all.
Before baking, dredge each dough round through granulated sugar. It adds an extra dimension of texture and flavor to the smooth wafers and it's a must.
After they've been sugared and are on the baking sheet, pierce each cookie with the tines of a fork three or four times, making tiny impressions that remind me of tiny button holes. This is not only decorative, but it gives the steam a place to escape so the cookies bake flat and don't puff up like little air balloons.
Bake them at 350F for about 7 to 9 minutes. I baked for 8 and I urge you not to leave the kitchen and to watch them like a hawk, literally staring inside your oven starting at about 6 minutes. They are small, full of butter, sugar, white flour, and are highly prone to burning.
They'll look glossy and shiny even when they're done. You want them to stay light and golden and don't let them turn brown because the melt-in-your-mouth quality just won't be there. Pull them even if they look underdone because they firm up as they cool on the baking sheet.
While the cookies cool, make the buttercream. Beat one stick of butter, add confectioners' sugar, vanilla, and beat until you have soft and fluffy buttercream, about 5 minutes. I find 1 stick of butter and 2 cups sugar gives me a firmer frosting, nice for a job like this when I want it to hold it's shape, but if you prefer looser frosting, 1 1/2 cups sugar will probably do the trick.
Add food coloring slowly, in the color of your choice. (Mint) extracts and food colorings are two things you can't un-do once they're in so go slowly. I used about 10 drops of red and it caught me off guard how fast it turned rosy-red-pink rather than pale-pastel-pink.
Dollop a heaping teaspoon of frosting into the center of one cookie, top with a second cookie, rotating the second cookie and smooshing it down slightly so the frosting disperses. I don't bother with a pastry bag but if you like to make work for yourself, be my guest.
The cookies are what I remember from childhood. Soft, buttery, light, delicate, and airy. They're not cakey and not dry, which are problems that can plague many sugar cookies. The cookies themselves are more buttery than sweet, and the overall sweetness comes from the buttercream.
The melt-in-your-mouth quality is additively wonderful. The wafers practically dissolve when you bite in, and then you hit the creamy, rich, and dense buttercream and it's such a great contrast. The baked in sugar crystals also add a bit of texture and make you just want another one.
It's really a good thing I didn't make a larger batch because I could go to sandwich-cookie town on these. They remind me of being 10 years old and my mom and grandma leaving me alone with a container of them and in literally a half hour, the container was gone.
It's just because pink food tastes better.
Buttery Sugar Wafer Sandwich Cookies
My mom and grandma used to make similar cookies before Christmas, but I think they're too good to only eat once a year. They're a great springtime cookie, perfect for Easter, Mother's Day, or baby or bridal showers. The sugary wafter cookies are buttery, delicate, and literally melt-in-your-mouth. The buttercream is sweet, thick, dense and is the perfect compliment to the airy and light little cookies. This is a small batch recipe that's easily doubled. I adore these cookies!
For the Cookies
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons+ half-and-half or cream (I used half-and-half)
- about 1/2 cup granulated sugar, for dredging
For the Buttercream
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (1 stick)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- food coloring of your choice (I used 10 drops of red)
- For the Cookies - To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or mixing bowl and hand mixer), add the butter and beat to soften and fluff it, about 1 minute. Add 1/4 cup granulated sugar, vanilla, and beat to cream ingredients until fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add the flour and mix to incorporate it. The dough will be very sandy, pebbly, and dry. Add two tablespoons of half-and-half or cream and mix. The dough will come together and it will be on the soft and sticky side. If your dough is sandy and dry and hasn't come together, add 1 additional tablespoon of cream, or as needed, so it combines. I used 2 tablespoons and cannot foresee needing more than 3 tablespoons of cream, but add cream very, very slowly until it combines. Wrap dough in plasticwrap and transfer it to an airtight container and refrigerate it for at least two hours, or up to five days, before rolling it out.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat or floured countertop and cover it with a piece of plasticwrap to prevent it from sticking to the rolling pin. Roll dough out to about one-eighth inch thick.
- Using a 2-inch cookie cutter or biscuit cutter, cut out the dough into rounds (or if desired, cut them smaller in the one-inch range. Use a shotglass if you don't have a one-inch cutter). Re-roll your scraps and use every last bit of dough until it's gone. I made 26 rounds to yield 13 sandwiches.
- Place rounds on a Silpat-lined, parchment-lined, or cooking sprayed baking sheet. I fit them all on one sheet. If dough has gotten soft while rolling and cutting it out, cover and refrigerate the tray for about an hour, which will help prevent spreading.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Before baking, place about 1/2 cup granulated sugar in a shallow bowl and dredge each dough round through the sugar and return sugared rounds to baking sheet. Piece each round three or four times with the tines of a fork to give steam a place to escape so the cookies bake flat and don't puff up while baking.
- Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or just until they've set, rotating trays halfway through baking. I baked for 8 minutes. They'll look glossy and shiny even when they're done. Don't let them turn brown in the least, and pull them even if they look underdone because they firm up as they cool. Don't leave the kitchen and watch them like a hawk because they're small, full of butter, white flour, sugar, and are highly prone to burning. Allow cookies to cool for about 5 minutes on baking trays before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
- For the Buttercream - While the cookies cool, make the buttercream. Beat one stick of butter to soften and fluff it, about 1 minute. Add 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (I don't bother sifting), vanilla, and beat until soft and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Play with the sugar ratio depending on how thick you like your buttercream. I find 2 cups sugar gives me a frosting that's just right for a job like this when I want a firmer frosting, but if you like looser frosting, 1 1/2 cups will probably do the trick. Add food coloring very slowly, in the color of your choice, and mix to incorporate.
- Frost one cookie generously with 1 to 2 tablespoons frosting, top with another cookie, sandwich them together, and lightly squeeze. Repeat until all cookies have been sandwiched. I don't bother with a pastry bag and use a knife and spoon. I used all but1/4 cup of the frosting and prefer to frost them liberally and thicker. Leftover frosting can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
- Depending on your comfort level because of the buttercream, cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for day(s), or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. My grandma and mom kept these cookies at room temperature for days and store them based on your comfort levels.
Nutrition Information:
Serving Size:1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 96Total Fat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 2mgSodium: 1mgCarbohydrates: 22gFiber: 0gSugar: 18gProtein: 1g
Related Recipes:
Maraschino Cherry White Chocolate Cookies
Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars with Pink Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
Apricot Butterscotch White Chocolate Peanut Butter-Filled Sandwich Cookies
Homemade Cinnamon Sugar Graham Crackers and Smores
Do you have a favorite cookie memory or recipe? Anything special going on your Easter or Passover menu?
Feel free to share your recipe links.
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Los Angeles Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts had a look of disappointment when he was asked to discuss the team's 2009 season. But his facial expression quickly changed to something reflecting a little more discomfort when it came to his own personal recollections.
It was early during the second half of last November's MLS Cup final against Real Salt Lake when Ricketts fractured his right hand in a collision with teammate Omar Gonzalez and Real Salt Lake's Robbie Findley. Ricketts played another 18 minutes before he was replaced by backup goalkeeper Josh Saunders.
Memories of that night still don't sit well with him.
"My mother always said things happen for a reason," he said. "I'm still trying to find that reason."
The hand hasn't healed completely, but he is practicing without any problems and said he will be 100 percent by the time the regular season opens in late March. He also is hopeful the club can have another successful season -- it made the playoffs for the first time in five years in 2009 -- and is confident he can sustain his high level of play, not that coaches and teammates have come to expect anything less.
Ricketts, a 6-foot-4, 200-pounder who turns 33 in July, brought much-needed stability to a position that had been inconsistent for some time.
"I thought he'd be a very good goalkeeper in this league," Galaxy head coach/general manager Bruce Arena said. "He's better than I thought."
Ricketts, who signed with the Galaxy in December of 2008 after stints with Bolton and Bradford City in England and Village United in his home country of Jamaica, started 26 games, had a 1.03 goals-against average and set a Galaxy season record with nine shutouts.
Teammates sensed early on Ricketts was someone special.
"He's just a massive presence in front of the net," said midfielder Eddie Lewis, who faced Ricketts when they were opposite sides of U.S.-Jamaica matchups. "He covers a lot of ground and it's hard to get the ball by him.
"I don't know how many games he saved for us."
Said defender Todd Dunivant: "I don't think too many people had heard of him, and it's difficult for a foreigner coming into this league, especially a goalkeeper making a big impact like he did. He really carried us in a lot of games and made the big saves when we needed them."
Even Arena, who never has been one to be easily impressed, was surprised at Ricketts' effectiveness.
"I expected him to be very good, but I'm not quite sure as he good as he panned out to be," Arena said. "He's a great shot blocker, he's obviously good in the air and he has excellent distribution.
"Now as he gets more confidence with the team and the league I think he can get even better."
The soft-spoken Ricketts said he's gotten over the disappointment of last year's MLS Cup Final and is confident the Galaxy can fare even better in 2010. He cited the lack of roster turnover -- only five players are not returning from 2009 -- and a defense that figures to be solid again. It was anchored, of course, by Ricketts, who played a major role in the Galaxy slicing their goals-against from a league-high 62 in 2008 to just 31 in 2009.
He's also happy he made the move to Los Angeles.
"I was hoping to play in the States for some time, and I was very happy when they showed interest in me," he said.
Ricketts admitted he would be even happier if the club takes the next step and wins an MLS title.
"I'm hopeful we can get back to MLS Cup," he said. "We have very good players and we play well together. We keep doing the things we did last season, I think we can get there again.
"It was very disappointing to come up short in the final. Hopefully we'll get another chance."


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Matt Gouras / AP
Republican Rep. Duane Ankney, left, of Colstrip, Mont., speaks on the House floor on April 9, in Helena, Mont. Ankney joined the chamber in voting to repeal an obsolete law that criminalizes gay sex.
Montana lawmakers have voted to get rid of a law that criminalizes gay sex and the governor is expected to sign it -- which would leave 11 states where such statutes remain on the books.
The Supreme Court ruled these laws unconstitutional a decade ago, rendering them unenforceable, but gay rights advocates say they support their removal due to the stigmatizing language.
With a 65-34 vote on Wednesday, the bill was shuttled off to Gov. Steve Bullock, who is likely to sign it, his spokeswoman, Judy Beck, told NBC News. Montana's Supreme Court struck down the law in 1997, but a block of Republican lawmakers had stymied efforts to repeal it, the Billings Gazette reported.
"It's not about encouraging a lifestyle," Rep. Bryce Bennett, D-Missoula, an openly gay Montana lawmaker, was quoted as saying Tuesday by the newspaper. "It's simply about respecting privacy between two adults. … It's just as simple as saying that all Montanans deserve dignity and respect."
The old law made "deviate sexual conduct," or sexual relations between people of the same sex, a crime. Those convicted of it faced a prison term of up to ten years and/or a maximum $50,000 fine.
The Supreme Court in 2003 ruled that a Texas state law criminalizing gay sex was unconstitutional, thereby striking down some 14 active anti-sodomy laws on the books in other states and Puerto Rico.
"As a matter of law, sodomy laws, as they apply to same-sex couples and in some states different sex couples, were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in our 2003 lawsuit Lawrence v. Texas," Susam Sommer, director of constitutional litigation at Lambda Legal, said in a statement.
Nonetheless, Montana's repeal "goes a long way in building a supportive environment for LGBT people and their families," she added, noting that the ongoing presence elsewhere of "these unconstitutional laws in state penal codes implicitly stigmatizes gay people and puts them and many others at risk of unlawful prosecutions. It is time every state cleans up its books and cleans up its act."
Eleven states still have laws on their books outlawing oral and anal sex between same-sex couples, while another nine have statutes outlawing oral and anal sex for everyone, according to Lambda Legal.
The 2003 Supreme Court case has been cited by pro-gay marriage supporters in arguments before the high court on whether gays and lesbians should be allowed to wed. The court is expected to rule in those cases in June.


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Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
RUI is not accessible? Check out Yahoo's new Currency Converter
I am proud to be able to announce the new currency converter on Yahoo finance. Why? Because it is a perfect example of how a complex rich user interface can be built in an accessible manner. As the main developer, Dirk Ginader explains: About 9 months ago my fellow co-worker, the User Experience Designer Graham Read the rest…
Posted by Chris Heilmann at 12:23 pm
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MALTA — Michael Haneke's "Amour" conquered all at the European Film Awards, which celebrated its 25th anniversary Saturday on the Mediterranean island of Malta.
"Amour," which won Cannes' Palme d'Or and is Austria's entry in the Oscar's foreign-language film category, took four EFAs: helmer, actor for Jean-Louis Trintignant, and actress for Emmanuelle Riva. The film, which centers on an elderly music teacher who cares for his wife after she suffers two strokes, is released in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics on Dec. 19.
The scripter's award went to Tobias Lindholm and Thomas Vinterberg for "The Hunt."
"Shame" took the prizes for cinematographer (Sean Bobbitt) and editor (Joe Walker), and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" took kudos for production designer (Maria Djurkovic) and composer (Alberto Iglesias).
The Achievement in World Cinema award went to Helen Mirren, who said she had been inspired to become an actress after watching Michelangelo Antonioni's "L'Avventura" as a teenager. "It was such a revelation to realize what film could be. It absolutely transformed the landscape of what was possible in film for me," she said. "From that moment on, I've always loved, sought out and wanted to be in anything that seemed to me like a European film."
The lifetime achievement award went to Italian helmer Bernardo Bertolucci, who won the jury prize at the first ever European Film Awards in 1988 for "The Last Emperor." "Long live European cinema!," he declared as he received the lifetime achievement award. Bertolucci, who was brought to the stage in a wheelchair, then joked: "Maybe this is the beginning of 'The Intouchables 2.' "
In his opening speech, Wim Wenders, the prexy of the European Film Academy, had said that as well as the economic crisis, Europe was suffering from an identity crisis, and that cinema could help with that. "Our cinema can feed the European soul," he said.
Both on stage and in taped contributions, a succession of European filmmakers, such as Ken Loach, portrayed Hollywood films as being like "junk food," in comparison with the supposedly more wholesome European variety.
Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura, who gave the best film award to Haneke, said: "The avant garde must never surrender."
Other prizes included the docu prize for Manuel von Sturler's "Winter Nomads," and the animation award for Tomas Lunak's "Alois Nebel." The prize for up-and-coming filmmaker, the Discovery Award, went to Boudewijn Koole's "Kauwboy," which is the Netherlands' Oscar entry in the foreign-language category.
Geoffrey Enthoven's "Come as You Are" took the People's Choice Award, which was voted for by the public. All the other awards were voted for by the 2,700 members of the European Film Academy.


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Marketing2 necesitaba un nuevo diseño de otro y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 44 diseños de 10 diseñadores freelance.
BlueFit Swimming
BlueFit is a facility management company and is laucnhing a premium swim school brand located in its large aquatic centres. The brand needs to be modern, clean and stylish as well as fun and asthetically pleasing! I want this brand to be the best swim school brand in the market!
Parents in the local community, members of our health clubs, patrons at our centres
I need to create a mascot for the brand. This will be a blue whale, our brand colour is cyan 100% however it is not a requirement for the whale to be this colour, i would rather its a lighter blue colour. I want this mascot to be really cute and fun looking.
Once you create the mascot i want atleast 5 different versions of him.
one Hero image and then the others need to be playful within a pool/water enironment.
When you use this whale it would be great if you could try and give him accessories in the different illustrations of him that have some colour to them- this not an essential, just an idea!
In addition to this i would like some other bright and colourful characters that are simple and modern to use along side this mascot. Fish, star fish, crabs, frogs, octopus, sea hourse seals etc...any sea creatures that you feel are appropriate. They each need to have a different colour associated with them. I want atleast 5
I don't want the illustrations to look flat, i really want them to look like they will come off the page!
My attachment is just a guide, please don't feel confined by this, i just collected some images i liked- i'm not a designer so i want you to do what you feel would look good!


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Export 4 results:Author [ Title] Type Year
Filters: Author is Steven Lanzisera [Clear All Filters]
Automated Measurement and Signaling Systems for the Transactional Network. Berkeley: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2013. LBNL-6611E..
"Fast DR: Controlling Small Loads over the Internet." ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings. Asilomar Conference Center, Pacific Grove, CA, 2014. LBNL-185726..
Field Testing of Telemetry for Demand Response Control of Small Loads. 2015. LBNL-1004415..


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Budget Direct decided to capture this magic ...
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